picture from here
photo. Here is our 1st pumpkin carving as a family...well maybe Eli didn't actually carve but he was there.
Monday, October 31, 2011
Happy Halloween
I know I haven't finished the birth story yet (still working on finishing it) but I thought I would break for some festive photos of us carving pumpkins and Eli's
Here are our finished pumpkins...
Of course we can't leave Maddy out, she got a fun Halloween scarf to join in the fun (as well as 2 dog bones)...
Hope to have more photos from tonight of Eli's first Halloween but until then here is his morning pic...
Friday, October 21, 2011
Birth Story, part 2
So there we were at UCSD Hospital on the 4th floor in the "Birthing Center"...
side note: my original birth plan was to go ALL natural in the Birthing Center at UCSD hospital in Hillcrest. Jeremiah and I had go to a presentation and loved the entire idea of being in an environment where all natural was welcomed and the philosophy of using drugs and medical interventions was not pushed on you like in the labor and delivery unit. They use tubs and showers and massage to ensure a natural experience. I had meant to do a whole post on my birth plan before Eli was born but never got around to it. Basically I envisioned a calm and peaceful environment with no interventions and an easy delivery....ha ha ha.
Ok so I was admitted to the hospital, given a room and my mom called Jeremiah to tell him to "come on down" we were gonna have a baby. Long story short, I got lots of excited visitors that day, my dad, my in-laws, my sister in law, brother in law and my best friend came down to see how it was going and I am sure in hopes of seeing a baby. Pretty much it was a no go, I continued to have some pretty strong contractions but nothing regular and by that point I was getting really tired. Around 10 o'clock we sent everyone home and said that they should all get some rest and maybe there would be more luck the next day. Oh and when my water was broken we were told that I had 24 hours to get close to delivery or I would have to be transfered to the labor and delivery unit because after 24 hours the baby is at risk of infection and then they would have to speed my labor up with drugs aka pitocin.
Around 11 o'clock the nurse came in and told me that they wanted me to take benadryl so that I could get some sleep, I said I didnt want it but they gave it to me anyway and off to bed we went. Well, didnt sleep much but what did happen was that my contractions completely STOPPED!!!! Now I was getting anxious because if they didnt start back up before the morning, I was going to be transferred and my vision of this all natural experience was going to go down the drain completely. Day 3 of no sleep.
Morning came but the contractions did not and I was told that I only had a few hours to get things going so they gave me castor oil, nasty, an enima, even nastier, but it all failed. The mid-wife came in and informed me that it was time to head down. Insert Sad Face here
I was sad to move down to the labor and delivery but at the same time I was kind of excited because I was thinking that at least I would be 1 step closer to, maybe even hours from, holding little Eli. Off we went and in went the pitocin. Needless to say the contractions got much worse and I lasted on the pitocin without pain medication from about 1:30 till about 9 at night. It was long and it was hard but in a way it seems like it flew by. I begged on more than one occasion to Jeremiah to have them give me an epidural but being the excellent coach and husband that he is, he told me very calmly "sally that isn't in your birth plan". Another side note: I had given Jeremiah very specific instructions that at no point was he to give into my pleas, that I would be very upset if he let me get an epidural and he did a good job at sticking to that plan.
The contractions that came with the pitocin were hard and long but I knew from the way my body was feeling, that they were going NO WHERE! Finally after being completely exhausted from 3 days of constant on and off contractions with no sleep, I broke down crying and Jeremiahs arms and said PLEASE PLEASE can we get the epidural and he said, "if that's what you want". The funny thing is, I never needed his permission, if I wanted an epidural I could have had one, all I had to do was tell the nurse. In my mind I apparently needed permission but it wasn't from him that I needed it, it was from me. I had plan and idea in my head that I couldn't let go of and it wasn't until i could convince Jeremiah to say yes that I let myself say yes...does that make sense. Its like every time he told me no, I new that I could keep going, that my body had a little more strength to stick it out. It wasn't till I was crying from pain and mostly exhaustion that I knew it was enough and it was time to rest. Mean while, I have to mention that Jeremiah was amazing...3 straight days of contractions and with each one, he was there to rub and put intense pressure by pushing on my back to help ease the pain. He told me the day after the baby was born that he was physically sore from pushing on my back.
to be continued...
I totally forgot we have pictures that I could be sharing.
this was on Thursday afternoon while we were still in the birthing center on the 4th floor of UCSD hospital.
this was me on Friday in the Labor and Delivery unit in between contractions.
side note: my original birth plan was to go ALL natural in the Birthing Center at UCSD hospital in Hillcrest. Jeremiah and I had go to a presentation and loved the entire idea of being in an environment where all natural was welcomed and the philosophy of using drugs and medical interventions was not pushed on you like in the labor and delivery unit. They use tubs and showers and massage to ensure a natural experience. I had meant to do a whole post on my birth plan before Eli was born but never got around to it. Basically I envisioned a calm and peaceful environment with no interventions and an easy delivery....ha ha ha.
Ok so I was admitted to the hospital, given a room and my mom called Jeremiah to tell him to "come on down" we were gonna have a baby. Long story short, I got lots of excited visitors that day, my dad, my in-laws, my sister in law, brother in law and my best friend came down to see how it was going and I am sure in hopes of seeing a baby. Pretty much it was a no go, I continued to have some pretty strong contractions but nothing regular and by that point I was getting really tired. Around 10 o'clock we sent everyone home and said that they should all get some rest and maybe there would be more luck the next day. Oh and when my water was broken we were told that I had 24 hours to get close to delivery or I would have to be transfered to the labor and delivery unit because after 24 hours the baby is at risk of infection and then they would have to speed my labor up with drugs aka pitocin.
Around 11 o'clock the nurse came in and told me that they wanted me to take benadryl so that I could get some sleep, I said I didnt want it but they gave it to me anyway and off to bed we went. Well, didnt sleep much but what did happen was that my contractions completely STOPPED!!!! Now I was getting anxious because if they didnt start back up before the morning, I was going to be transferred and my vision of this all natural experience was going to go down the drain completely. Day 3 of no sleep.
Morning came but the contractions did not and I was told that I only had a few hours to get things going so they gave me castor oil, nasty, an enima, even nastier, but it all failed. The mid-wife came in and informed me that it was time to head down. Insert Sad Face here
I was sad to move down to the labor and delivery but at the same time I was kind of excited because I was thinking that at least I would be 1 step closer to, maybe even hours from, holding little Eli. Off we went and in went the pitocin. Needless to say the contractions got much worse and I lasted on the pitocin without pain medication from about 1:30 till about 9 at night. It was long and it was hard but in a way it seems like it flew by. I begged on more than one occasion to Jeremiah to have them give me an epidural but being the excellent coach and husband that he is, he told me very calmly "sally that isn't in your birth plan". Another side note: I had given Jeremiah very specific instructions that at no point was he to give into my pleas, that I would be very upset if he let me get an epidural and he did a good job at sticking to that plan.
The contractions that came with the pitocin were hard and long but I knew from the way my body was feeling, that they were going NO WHERE! Finally after being completely exhausted from 3 days of constant on and off contractions with no sleep, I broke down crying and Jeremiahs arms and said PLEASE PLEASE can we get the epidural and he said, "if that's what you want". The funny thing is, I never needed his permission, if I wanted an epidural I could have had one, all I had to do was tell the nurse. In my mind I apparently needed permission but it wasn't from him that I needed it, it was from me. I had plan and idea in my head that I couldn't let go of and it wasn't until i could convince Jeremiah to say yes that I let myself say yes...does that make sense. Its like every time he told me no, I new that I could keep going, that my body had a little more strength to stick it out. It wasn't till I was crying from pain and mostly exhaustion that I knew it was enough and it was time to rest. Mean while, I have to mention that Jeremiah was amazing...3 straight days of contractions and with each one, he was there to rub and put intense pressure by pushing on my back to help ease the pain. He told me the day after the baby was born that he was physically sore from pushing on my back.
to be continued...
I totally forgot we have pictures that I could be sharing.
Tuesday, October 18, 2011
Birth Story, part 1
Warning: LONG
So the adventure of getting little Eli to arrive was more than your average birth, he was a stubborn one and much like his mama he wanted to do things on his own terms but much like his daddy he apparently decided that he would stay in longer because why ruin a good thing.
It all started in the early hours of Tuesday September 21st...I woke up early in the morning around 3 AM to use the restroom and lost my mucus plug, I got really excited (well overly excited for such a rather gross occurrence) because I thought "finally! Something is happening!". So of course I had to wake Jeremiah up and tell him the good news, to which he grumbled something like "okay" and fell back asleep. Throughout that night/early morning I had a few of my 1st contractions but nothing significant but I do remember being so very excited to finally be having contractions. I know I must sound crazy but being that this was my 1st baby, contractions for me were exciting because it meant I was finally getting closer to meeting my little one. As Tuesday went on I had very irregular contractions until the evening but they were still to far apart so Jeremiah and I went to Wal-Mart to walk around from 11Pm till about mid-night because that was the only place we could think of that was open. We walked and walked and walked till I practically memorized everything on our path but still they were to far apart so we went home. That lasted until around 2 AM on Wednesday morning when I finally was having contractions 4-5 minutes apart on a regular basis for about 1 hour. Again, I got all excited and called the hospital and they told me to wait another hour or so until they got to be about 3-4 minutes apart and then come in. Well I waited another hour, all the while tracking them on my handy contraction recorder on my phone, and when the got to about 3-4 minutes apart I said "come on Miah, it's time!!!". To be honest I think I have been waiting my whole life to say that :). He jumped out of bed, literally, and we grabbed our stuff and headed out. Well when we got to the hospital we had to wait about 45 minutes for them to check us in because the maternity ward was packed. Meanwhile I was having very regular and stronger contractions in the waiting room until finally we were called in to be examined...
What happened next, NOTHING! As soon as I got a bed and was being examined by the nurses, my contractions STOPPED!!! Cold turkey, completely stopped! The mid-wife came in and checked my cervix and said that I was barely dialated to a 2 (I had been barely a 1 4 days before at my last check-up, so I realized this was slow moving). I was very disappointed and the nurses and a mid-wife came in to tell me that I could either stay and walk the halls till they started back up again or I could go home because it was just false labor. We decided it was best to go home and hoped we would be back later, so home we went. Day 1 of no sleep. Well, Wednesday passed with more contractions but again, nothing regular but still pretty painful. I spent the majority of the day lounging around trying anything to get them to start back up on a regular basis. Wednesday night came and all of a sudden they started back up again but stalled out at 6 minutes apart, but I was up all night having contractions and getting very tired. I decided that in the morning I would go in and have my membranes stripped and be checked again. That was Day 2 of no sleep.
So Thursday morning rolled around and I called in to UCSD hospital once again to tell them that I was now tired from having contractions for almost 2 days straight and no sleep so could I come in and get my membranes stripped to help speed up the process. They said, sure come in around 11 AM. My mom came to pick me up and off we went to UCSD again (Jeremiah needed to go to work and catch up on somethings and thought that I would be right back). In order to stall for time, my mom and I went to have breakfast and again I was having regular contractions at 6 minutes apart. Finally 10:30 rolled around so we headed off to the hospital. We arrived to the birthing center on the 4th floor at UCSD hospital and again my contractions slowed down, apparently my body was not liking the hospital. While waiting for things to get started, my mom asked why it was that they no longer broke water intentionally and the mid-wife gave my mom a big speech about how it increases the risk of infection and its not good for the baby and they no longer condone the procedure. So then we got started, 1st she checked me, I was now at a 3!. Whoo hoo, I was progressing! Then she started to strip my membranes, well as she was doing that, I felt a huge gush of warm water and then she said "oh crap! I just broke your water, well guess you are going to be admitted now". It was rather comical because she had just given that speech to my mom about how it was a "bad" thing.
To be continued...
So the adventure of getting little Eli to arrive was more than your average birth, he was a stubborn one and much like his mama he wanted to do things on his own terms but much like his daddy he apparently decided that he would stay in longer because why ruin a good thing.
It all started in the early hours of Tuesday September 21st...I woke up early in the morning around 3 AM to use the restroom and lost my mucus plug, I got really excited (well overly excited for such a rather gross occurrence) because I thought "finally! Something is happening!". So of course I had to wake Jeremiah up and tell him the good news, to which he grumbled something like "okay" and fell back asleep. Throughout that night/early morning I had a few of my 1st contractions but nothing significant but I do remember being so very excited to finally be having contractions. I know I must sound crazy but being that this was my 1st baby, contractions for me were exciting because it meant I was finally getting closer to meeting my little one. As Tuesday went on I had very irregular contractions until the evening but they were still to far apart so Jeremiah and I went to Wal-Mart to walk around from 11Pm till about mid-night because that was the only place we could think of that was open. We walked and walked and walked till I practically memorized everything on our path but still they were to far apart so we went home. That lasted until around 2 AM on Wednesday morning when I finally was having contractions 4-5 minutes apart on a regular basis for about 1 hour. Again, I got all excited and called the hospital and they told me to wait another hour or so until they got to be about 3-4 minutes apart and then come in. Well I waited another hour, all the while tracking them on my handy contraction recorder on my phone, and when the got to about 3-4 minutes apart I said "come on Miah, it's time!!!". To be honest I think I have been waiting my whole life to say that :). He jumped out of bed, literally, and we grabbed our stuff and headed out. Well when we got to the hospital we had to wait about 45 minutes for them to check us in because the maternity ward was packed. Meanwhile I was having very regular and stronger contractions in the waiting room until finally we were called in to be examined...
What happened next, NOTHING! As soon as I got a bed and was being examined by the nurses, my contractions STOPPED!!! Cold turkey, completely stopped! The mid-wife came in and checked my cervix and said that I was barely dialated to a 2 (I had been barely a 1 4 days before at my last check-up, so I realized this was slow moving). I was very disappointed and the nurses and a mid-wife came in to tell me that I could either stay and walk the halls till they started back up again or I could go home because it was just false labor. We decided it was best to go home and hoped we would be back later, so home we went. Day 1 of no sleep. Well, Wednesday passed with more contractions but again, nothing regular but still pretty painful. I spent the majority of the day lounging around trying anything to get them to start back up on a regular basis. Wednesday night came and all of a sudden they started back up again but stalled out at 6 minutes apart, but I was up all night having contractions and getting very tired. I decided that in the morning I would go in and have my membranes stripped and be checked again. That was Day 2 of no sleep.
So Thursday morning rolled around and I called in to UCSD hospital once again to tell them that I was now tired from having contractions for almost 2 days straight and no sleep so could I come in and get my membranes stripped to help speed up the process. They said, sure come in around 11 AM. My mom came to pick me up and off we went to UCSD again (Jeremiah needed to go to work and catch up on somethings and thought that I would be right back). In order to stall for time, my mom and I went to have breakfast and again I was having regular contractions at 6 minutes apart. Finally 10:30 rolled around so we headed off to the hospital. We arrived to the birthing center on the 4th floor at UCSD hospital and again my contractions slowed down, apparently my body was not liking the hospital. While waiting for things to get started, my mom asked why it was that they no longer broke water intentionally and the mid-wife gave my mom a big speech about how it increases the risk of infection and its not good for the baby and they no longer condone the procedure. So then we got started, 1st she checked me, I was now at a 3!. Whoo hoo, I was progressing! Then she started to strip my membranes, well as she was doing that, I felt a huge gush of warm water and then she said "oh crap! I just broke your water, well guess you are going to be admitted now". It was rather comical because she had just given that speech to my mom about how it was a "bad" thing.
To be continued...
Monday, October 17, 2011
Catch up
So before I share all the wonderful details of our beautiful baby Boy, I thought I would catch up on what happened before our little man was born.
1. My wonderful hubby Jeremiah turned 31. We celebrated by spending time with family and having a nice dinner at my parents house with his family and favorite foods. I dont have any pictures from the day but here is a picture of my 31 year old hubby jumping while I test out the features on our new Canon Rebel DSLR...
3. I turned the BIG 3-0!!! Well technically my twin sister and I did but she was out of the country (in Germany and Spain) for the big event and I was 40 weeks and 2 days pregnant and very uncomfortable. Again, we didn't do anything big, just dinner and cupcakes at my parents house.
Here is picture of how big and pregnant I was that day.
And that is all that happened from August 31st till the start of Eli's arrival. Just 27ish hours after this picture was taken all the "fun" events started that led to Eli's big birthday. Hope to share soon!
:)
1. My wonderful hubby Jeremiah turned 31. We celebrated by spending time with family and having a nice dinner at my parents house with his family and favorite foods. I dont have any pictures from the day but here is a picture of my 31 year old hubby jumping while I test out the features on our new Canon Rebel DSLR...
Please ignore the "power tower" in our bedroom that has become a clothes hanger for Jeremiah, he promises that it will be gone soon but of course is still sitting there.
2. We/I got a new Canon Rebel DSLR T2i as my 30th/our baby present. We are having so much fun playing with all the settings and learning how to use it together. We have taken some really great shots with it so far and are really very happy with it. Here is a picture of Maddy that we took with our macro lens.
Here is picture of how big and pregnant I was that day.
:)
Thursday, October 13, 2011
He's Here!
Eli Buster Gonzalez is here!!!
Date: September 24, 2011
Weight: 8lbs 11 oz
Length: 21 inches
Time: 9:03AM
We are settling in and I know that I have been gone from blogging for a month and a half and I have so much to share but I am still catching up on weddings and getting used to our daily routine.
We had quite the birth experience and I promise to share it all very soon but until then I thought I would at least share this cute picture of my little baby boy...all at once he became the answer to all my dreams, the center of my universe and the most precious thing I have ever seen.