What I'm discovering as a new mom

My number one discovery as a new mom, and I believe my sister warned me to a certain extent about how baby clothes are made, is that baby clothing makers who use back snaps, snaps up the wazoo and shoulder snaps are evil, evil!!!

Especially for someone like me, who is still suffering from the effects of pregnancy: numb fingers. I don't know how many times I've scratched Mateo trying to snap up his clothes. My sis gave us (Mateo) a ton of clothes, and one of them was a sleeper that zips from the foot, up the leg and to the top of his chest. I love this article of clothing. It saves Mateo from being tortured by numb fingers (me) and it makes diaper changing super quick.

Today Mateo is wearing the cutest long-sleeve onesie with lions all over it. I remember buying it and thinking, "Oh, this is sooo cute!!!" When I was changing him into it, I realized it has three snaps on the back, at the top of the neck. I have a newborn. Newborns are not famous for their neck muscle stability. And you really can't put a newborn on his tummy so you can get to the snaps. So who thought this was a great idea? I did get the back snapped with no injuries to Mateo, but still. And from now on, when I buy clothes, I'm going to be way more picky on how the clothes stay on the baby versus how cute they are.

Say hello to Mateo

Mr. Mateo arrived at 2:30pm on Saturday, February 10, 2007 via c-section (unplanned). I started labor the day before at 4:20pm, arrived at the hospital about 11pm and went thru hours of hellish pain until I was finally given an epidural early in the am. After a few hours of pushing on and off, we all decided that a c-section was needed because of my heart rate and Mateo's heart rate were dangerously high, he was turned the wrong way in the birth canal (hence the hellish back labor pains I experienced), I was extremely tired and worn out from going thru a long labor and wasn't really feeling contractions that well (my uterus was also tired), and it seemed Mateo's head was stuck in my pelvis and any sort of progression would take an hour or two more before he'd pop out. Mateo suffered a bruised upper eyelid because he was stuck, but otherwise was in perfect health at a nice, plump 8 lbs.

Not only was the c-section unplanned, but I also left the hospital with an unplanned stent in my ureter because of a complication during the c-section. I was in the OR for over 5 hours, causing much unnecessary worry for my husband and family. My husband got to be with Mateo in the nursery while they were working on me, but eventually had to leave to move our stuff to another room. I only saw Mateo for about 1 minute, if that, after he was born. We met again around 10pm on Saturday evening.

Now I have double the doctor appointments I would of had normally, a stent removal planned for next week, and Kaiser peeps constantly keeping tabs on me (which is actually nice). I'm still not sure how the stent will be removed, if it's being removed at all, so that'll be nice and fun. I had x-rays done yesterday to determine if there really is any damage since they weren't quite sure during the operation.

Was it all worth it? Did you look at Mateo's face? So yes, it all was and is and will be.

Wednesday, Feb. 7th

I'm 1 centimeter dilated, I set off the blood pressure machine, I had more blood drawn, and I'm just waiting for labor to kick in. If, for some reason, it doesn't happen before the 14th, I will be induced on the 15th. I'm HOPING it'll happen before then because I'm tired, huge and in pain. And I really would like to meet my son.

Parents

You know you're a parent (well, okay, I'm trying to be one, but someone isn't cooperating with me) when your amazon fiction suggestions are full of baby/kid books.

And you know you're a parent when your husband brings home this:




















And you say, "Oh, Toddworld!"

Your husband, who has been at work and not watching TV all day, answers, "I don't know what that is?"

You respond, "Oh, you will...."

Kitty love

I woke up today to find one of my kitties (probably Zoe) brought me her favorite cat toy -- weasel. He was laying in bed right next to me. The kitty who brought said weasel was MIA.

Tuesday, Feb. 6th

I keep having crazy dreams, or at least, remembering them (I wake up all night long, so I think that's why I'm remembering them). The other night I had a dream I lost Mateo. Physically lost Mateo. He was in the car seat, I got him out of the car, walked to where ever I was going, looked down, and he was gone. I went back and forth from where I was to the car and never found him. That one made me cry. Last night I had a dream that on Friday I had an ultrasound and saw him and his heart beating (which is true), but come Monday, I looked like I had lost 40 lbs (I wish) and could no longer feel him inside of me. I asked my mom if she's ever heard of a baby disintegrating within a few days, and she told me it does happen. I decided to wait until my doc appt. to see if he was still in there.

So what does this all mean? Maybe my body is gearing up to go into labor? Please? I know I'm not worried about him - he's doing just fine in there and tells me all day long. I don't get how he still has room to move around, but he does. Maybe he's the strongest baby ever. My husband would love that.

Monday, Feb. 5th

Update: Nothing is happening. Nothing is happening. Nothing is happening!!! When will I go into labor?

I've passed the "I need rest" stage and have wandered into the "I'm getting really bored" stage of my leave, as I figured would happen. I rested up from the weeks and weeks of having to get up early and work, whether in SF or at home, and now I'm feeling a bit stir crazy. I can't really do anything around the house because if I do, then I'll really get pooped out and my back and pelvis hurt. I keep thinking of being active again. And how I will never ever take it for granted once this is all done (um, yeah...).

Thanks to my dear husband, whom I love very much, I cannot even leave the house to go somewhere (like I would anyway, but knowing that possibility has been permanently taken away from me is a bit disheartening) because he decided to be "in a hurry" yesterday morning when he was moving my car from our covered car spot to the uncovered spot. There was no need for him to be in a hurry in the first place, and now my car is sporting a dangling front light and a wrecked bumper. I haven't looked at the damage yet and will only if I go out to the back parking lot any time soon. Add that to the list of things we need to do once Mateo arrives. So I'm home bound 100% and it's not even my fault. So now I'm waiting for some posting about the carport being damaged and who did it and whoever did will have to pay for the damage....

And this is the 4th time he's done something to a car of mine. He hates my cars. Good thing I love him.

But besides all that, I got my toenails cut because my husband decided they were "gnarly." Never mind he could have cut them weeks ago, but that's okay. I've pretty much given up on looking human until after Mateo arrives. Pregnancy doesn't do wonders for me.

So that's the Mondy, Feb. 5th update. My next doc appt. is on Wednesday, so hopefully my doctor will decide Mateo is too big and schedule a c-section or something. If not, I'll just hibernate for the many weeks Mateo decides to stay put. It's what I do best at this point. Did you know that babies at this stage in pregnancy grow 1 oz a day? Oh yes. So at this rate, if he stays in there, I will be having a 10 lb baby.

Big baby

Mateo is estimated at 8lbs 6oz. Could be more or less. But regardless, I'm ready for him to leave my body.

Dreams come true?

I had my doc appt. today (thanks mom for lugging your stay puff marshmallow daughter to Kaiser and back, but I still think it was mean of you to tell me to stop huffing and puffing). Turns out Mateo is now larger than I'd ever want him to be before going into labor, and who knows when that'll happen at this point, and so I'm scheduled for an ultrasound tomorrow to get a better idea of how large my moosey Mateo is. While it's not a 3-d or 4-d ultrasound, and I highly doubt all of a sudden I or anyone else will be able to hear him crying let alone talking, I am having an ultrasound, just like in my dream.

I'm just hoping that he's not as big as my doctor thinks, and if he truly is, then I can just have a c-section because I don't like the idea of trying to give birth to a very large baby. I'm also hoping Mateo doesn't suddenly turn into a girl.

And my final hope is that I can get a good idea of what he looks like now that he's a baby-baby and not just a little guy. But he's so squished inside of me, I doubt it.

38 weeks

Today I'm at 38 weeks in my pregnancy and with no end in sight (Mateo -- don't you want to come out and say hello? There are people who want to meet you...). I'm going to my weekly Dr. appt. today, and for some reason I had a dream right before waking up about today's visit. Two things happened:

1. I saw a different doctor initially, one who was more concerned about the numbness in my fingers/hands than my own doctor. His solution was to slice one of my fingers open and spray cold water on my nerves. He told me this would feel the same as the numb feeling, so it shouldn't bother me. So I let him do it, and instead of it fixing any problems, I just had a sliced up finger, dripping in blood.

2. Later on I went back to finish my appt., and I had one of them 3-D or 4-D ultrasounds performed because the nurse wanted to see what Mateo looked like. Well, well, I thought. I had no idea Kaiser did this. So I said okay, let's do that. I want to see what Mateo looks like as well. So I was taken into this room where a bunch of people were waiting for their appts, and had the ultrasound done. Mateo had fat, chubby cheeks, was looking around and being wiggly. Then he started crying and we all, for some reason, could hear his cries. Then he said, "I don't want to go to sleep!!!!"

That's when I got scared. Chubby = cute. Crying and screaming = not so cute.

Then I woke up and told my husband I saw Mateo and he didn't, but I left out the crying / screaming part.

The news flipped me off (and you too)

Some crafty PR people decided it was a great idea to promote Aqua Teen Hunger Force via battery operated "lite brite" devices on major highways and roads in Boston. I saw this on the news this morning (today is my first day of leave, I should be asleep, but what am I doing? I'm awake and on the computer), and I thought it was very interesting that during the whole news story, while the news lady was chatting away about how this PR scheme snarled traffic and people thought bombs were going to be dropped on Boston, I was being flipped off. By this guy:

















He's one of the characters on the cartoon, and I'm not sure if he's usually drawn in such fashion, but from my quick search, his hand usually doesn't look like that. Regardless of whether the flip-off was intentional or not, I find it amusing that the news station either never realized what this looked like, or they did, but assumed no one else would. If you try to find this picture with news stories online, you'll be hard-pressed.

Oh, and we've officially lost it in the country (I thank Bush for that) because these light boxes were assumed to be bombs planted all over Boston. Does this mean we should report those silly stickers posted all over SF? Graffiti? Weirdoes talking to themselves?

I just wouldn't think of a bomb if I saw it. I would probably just laugh and then pass it and not be blown up. Like all the other cars ahead of me and behind me.

P.S.: As I was just going to click on "publish," the same story came on again, and I was repeatedly flipped-off, again. Apparently these boxes were planted in SF as well. With no incident. I've been to Boston, but I never realized how scared they are there.