Way More Than You Ever Wanted To Know...

About Eliana's Labor and Delivery: Read at your own will, folks, it's for me and Eliana and posterity! (And birth junkies, I know a few of those! 8)

Eliana's Birth Story:
Eliana Grace Lewis was due on Monday, May 11th. I worked until Monday the 4th, thinking to wrap up everything at work and have the rest of the week to hang out with Adessa and rest and really be ready for Eliana. And there was no indication that things would go otherwise, no braxton-hicks, no flickers of contractions, no "dropping" of my belly, nothing. Until... I kissed Calvin goodnight on Monday after watching a movie at about 10:45pm. He slept soundly all night, but at 11pm I felt the first contraction, and calmly decided to just wait and see (not drive to the hospital as I was inclined to do.) I did, for the record, call the hospital, since I was Group B Strep positive, I wanted to make sure I got there in time for anti-biotics and everyone kept telling me that this birth was likely to go fast. The contractions got to about eight minutes apart by 2am, when I called. The nurse suggested that I wait until contractions were at the most five minutes apart, preferrably two or three minutes apart before coming in. I got some rest. I had more contractions but was able to sleep, just woke up with a few bigger ones about once an hour from 2-6am.

At six, Calvin got up to go running and I told him to go and take his time, but also take his phone, as there was a slight chance these weren't braxton hicks, maybe it was "Baby Day". It did seem an awful lot like false labor, though. The contractions greatly subsided when I moved around, they were inconsistent in length and time apart, they weren't growing in length or intensity or frequency, etc. But then... my water broke at about nine. We called the hospital again, and packed everything up, dropped Adessa with Calvin's parents, and went in to be checked. If my waters had indeed broken, I'd need to be watched and given anti-biotics even though they felt it unlikely I'd have the baby before the evening.

We got to the hospital (my water had definitely broken, I looked like I wet my pants) and settled into a room by 10:30, and I was having mild, unregular contractions that I could talk through. After checking us in, the nurse called the midwife who decided to have them go ahead and figure out how dialated I was and we'd proceed from there. I was... drum roll... seven centimeters. The nurse ran out to start the IV antibiotics, the midwife was on her way, and my mom and sister were called to come quick. Which they did.

Everything then went quickly! I labored mildly for a while, then the contractions got stronger and closer together, then I wanted to just be quiet and focus, then I wanted to push, then I pushed, then Eliana came out and I was holding her and it was soooo amazing. She was born at 12:57pm, Tuesday, May 5th (yes, yes, cinco de mayo) 7 pounds, 8.6 ounces (so they all said 9oz, but we know better!) and 19.5 inches. She looked to me like the Emperor in the Star Wars movies, as she was white with vernex, kind of gray for a minute, and had swirls of sticky dark hair on her head. She cried, and slipped around on my belly and we held her and rubbed her and looked at her and cried and were so happy and priviledged and joyous. She nursed for a good hour, and then was held by everyone else and photographed and taken care of by the nurses. (It was then she got shampoo number one from a nurse, but needed another from me on Wednesday to get all the vernex out.)

Hypnobirthing details: I can see, after this amazing birth experience, that perhaps pain-free birth is possible. I worked hard to start out the very first contractions with relaxing and opening and breathing and letting my body work, and think that this (plus the experience of birthing Adessa) really helped me not experience painful contractions until the very end of labor. Which did throw all of us off, actually, since no one thought I was as far along as I was. Being seven centimeters and ready to go was a lovely surprise, but I was hopeful that that kind of progress had been happening and I was dealing well with it because I was relaxed and not fighting my body.

Throughout the more intense contractions in the last hours, Calvin read me our practiced hypnobirthing script and I was able to use his words and voice and presence like we'd practiced to relax. He was amazing, so attentive and loving, like Adessa's birth. Even with the intense contractions, I used all my hypno images and wondered if I'd call my "intense sensations" pain. I could see calling it pressure that required all my attention, as the book says. Still not something I'd like to repeat often. 8) I'm told I pushed for 20 minutes, it didn't seem that long, and the desire to push was realllly strong, pushing felt great. She popped right out!

Flack 'er Wings!

One of the funny phrases from Adessa and her new, chatty self, is: "Flack 'er wings!" It's an enthusiastic statement/command, followed by her putting down whatever she's holding and with thumbs in armpits, vigorously flapping her little wings, trying to get anyone nearby to "flack 'er wings", too. The funny part about it is the random times she chimes out with it, often in the middle of other conversation, and the fact that we have no idea where she learned it. While Calvin and I do many amusing and diverting things with her, we have never flapped our wings with her or encouraged her to do so. However, flacking 'er wings is now a very popular passtime at our house, and any of our family could easily be persuaded to demonstrate flacking for you next time you see us. 8)

April 28th.

I'm at a loss for a better title for this post. Sorry. I'm 38 weeks pregnant and every twinge of my belly makes me wonder, "Is this it?" There haven't even been many twinges, just Eliana Grace- yes, we think that's her name! moving around and around like a breakdancer, spinning on her head, which is down! Yay! She's getting ready! And it's getting harder to walk. So... stay tuned! 8)

Trot old Joe! Whilst "helping" me sweep, Adessa started riding her broom like a pony, so we made her horsie the hood ornament and viola! hours of galloping fun.

Adessa's language has exploded! She's stringing sentences together, telling stories, using proper verb tenses, and avoiding dangling participles. (Just kidding about the last one.) Some of my favorite phrases she comes out with are:
"Play car, minute?" -she loves to climb around the seats and strap the seat belts and "play" in the car when we get home from anywhere.
"Hold you, minute?" -when she wants to be held.
"Adessa do it!" -when she wants to entirely mess up my schedule and make me crazy and do things her self.
She adds things like "how about..." or "little bit?" or "right now" to her requests for things, which makes it pretty funny. I'll try to capture more of her funnies, they are cute!

Our Mama's group friends Les and Shanon adopted their sweet boy, Danny, and we celebrated with them the other weekend. Gorgeous day, happy occasion!

Danny and Adessa playing in the water.


Gwennie and Adessa playing in the water.


Naked Adessa riding home after playing in the water. She seems okay with it.


Danny and Adessa trying out the double stroller, as I "practiced" having two. I learned a lot. Like...don't have two. Just kidding. It'll be great!!! 8)

Pascha!

Adessa's Easter Dress. Only it was Holy Saturday Divine Liturgy.



Easter basket the next morning, she loves candy-candy-candy.


On her way back from the church picnic egg hunt, swinging her loot!

Catch Up

Happy Easter to Most, by the way! I'm catching up because I woke up early and Adessa is snoozing and... 'nuff said- Here's what's been going on. (And in case you're wondering, Orthodox Easter, "Pascha", is next weekend. We wait for after the Jewish Passover. Stay tuned for that one.)


Posing by our blooming wysteria.


Puddle stomping in the woods with BFF Gwennie. Such joy! Such a mess!


Kristine's Adoption was Friday! We all got to witness her official adoption into our family: I have a brand new baby sister, who's about to graduate 8). My mom made cute buttons that said, "It's a girl!"


Adessa was prepared to be a star witness.


Hunting Eggs at Easter Egg Hunt #2 on Saturday, Coastlands Church. Her sugar-load (and mine) was adversly affected by the fact that after she put about four eggs into her basket she stumbled upon an opened one. She was quick to dispatch it's candy contents, but not before all of the other eggs were scooped up by toddlers. She was none the wiser!


Very cool Easter community outreach by the church. People worked like mad to help us park, push the stroller for me, help us find what we needed, and have so much well organized fun. Impressive and awesome.


The Petting Zoo. I told Adessa to sit down, that then the people working the zoo would put the animals on her lap. She plopped down on the sopping wet grass, of course. After getting her situated on the little buckets that were seats, she then though she couldn't move off. Luckily, many animals happened by, so she could lean out and try to touch them, and the zoo-people were so helpful, she got to hold a chicken, bunny, and made an attempt at a baby goat.

Come....just ... a... little... bit...closer, ...please ...bunny!


Ahhhhhhhh...sweet bunny.


Sweet chicken, too!


** If you look closely, you can see that Adessa is on to her third cast on her left arm. Her waterproof wonder-cast cut into her thumb, a fact I only discovered after causing her much pain while wiping her hand off. She hadn't complained about the cut, the infection, or the swelling and I noticed it only when it had gotten pretty bad. I felt terrible. I also felt like I should be giving her daily physicals in case there was anything else wrong that I wasn't picking up on by her behavior. Yikes! So now she has a nice litte well fitting splint, and her thumb wound is healing nicely. Yay!

Fun with the Riverside Cousins

Calvin's sister and her family came up for their spring break, and Adessa had some serious cousin time. Fun! A highlight was visiting the Boardwalk and having her very own ride partner in youngest cousin, Melissa, who made sure that she stayed IN the boat this year. (we had a little near-incident last year with the Matessa's, where she leaned out over the back of the boat to try to touch the water, I jumped the fence, the dopey teenager finally stopped the ride, etc.)
She figured out that waving was fun and will someday make a marvelous float queen, she waved and waved and waved. When it was evident there were going to be no more rides for Ms. Adessa, she was most miffed. And it was nap time, so we whisked her away, one of THOSE kids that you see throwing fits at the amusement park.

Enjoying an ice cream cone with Daddy. (She wore her hat and sunglasses the whole time!) (And I ate most of her ice cream cone, don't worry...about her, at least.)


Her first ride, not too sure as she got strapped in...


But then she loved it.


And the wave!

Easter Egg Hunt #1

In what might prove to be the first of many Easter Egg hunts this season, we went Saturday to a very sweet local Rec center egg hunt. Our mama's group came, and my mama came with "the boys" (Elijah and Jaden) and we hunted and picniced and had a great time. It was a lovely community feeling (I saw several people I went to high school with and their kids) and a lovely day.

For Adessa, however, the day was less about hunting eggs than, err... stalking bunnies. One bunny in particular. There was a fund-raising bunny who would sit as close to your kid as they would allow him and take a picture for a small donation. Adessa loved this bunny. She wanted to be right next to him pretty much the whole time. I spent less time with the mommy group and more time getting to know Jeff, the very kind, very patient and tolerant, very hot inside his suit, soon-to-be-dad, husband-of-someone-I-went-to-school-with, giant Easter bunny. Adessa doesn't know about Easter bunnies, but she knows about bunnies, and she just wanted to be near him. We did hunt for eggs, but I got lots of questions when we were out of sight: "Where bunny go?" She held his hand, sat on his lap, danced with him, hugged him many times, played peek-a-boo, and mostly just followed him around, happy to be in the presence of the bunny. Basking in the bunny-glow. 8) It was noticeable to all, people kept coming up to me and saying, "Wow, your daughter really likes that bunny, huh?" Yeah. We finally paid the $5 for a formal picture, which will be sent later, and we definitely got our money's worth. Pretty fun!

Mom and Elijah and Jayden, and Kim and Gwen and Adessa, spotting the bunny for the first time.


Hunting for eggs in the kiddo area.


Bunny Bliss.


Bunny Love!