Life in the Sun ~ Part 1

TRAVELING WITH A NEWBORN

               We left cold cloudy Seattle for a too hot Charleston. I have only gone out once during the day to “enjoy” the weather and I lasted 20 minutes! Olivia isn’t allowed outside if the sun is shining, unless we are going from one air conditioned place to another. If you’ve never traveled with a newborn, it sure is an interesting experience…

               First off, breast feeding on an airplane- awkward and uncomfortable. Airplanes are not made for big people (like myself) and then trying to maneuver a baby (who is still working on the whole breastfeeding thing) while keeping a sheet over you so no creepy guys see your boob is not an easy feat. Aside from nursing you have to deal with diaper changing.

               Surprisingly there is a changing table in the bathroom but again, big people and planes don’t mix. We decided since Olivia is so small we would just change her in our laps. It worked out pretty well! We put Chris’s tray down with a blanket on it. I changed her while Chris held her. When she wasn’t eating or being changed she was sleeping.

               Olivia has really been a trooper. Meeting so many new people and being moved from hot to cold or cold to hot. Traveling with her really hasn’t been “hard”; she is a pretty easy baby. What is hard is that I am stuck to her/she is stuck to me. If I was bottle feeding I could just hand her off to someone and head out for the day. Since I’m not no matter what I choose to do I need to make sure I am back in about 2 hours. Should be plenty of time but when it takes 30 minutes to get down town it doesn’t leave you much time to enjoy it. Doesn’t give me much time to enjoy the beach or pool. With only a few people to watch her inside I only had a few opportunities to even take advantage of leaving her.

               Long story short, I don’t mind traveling with a newborn I just wish that we had traveled somewhere a little cooler so I could have had her outside. Nothing like flying cross country and spending 90% of the time in a rental house with a whole lot of nothing to do.

New baby blog…

It has been forever since I’ve written a blog. Partly because I am lazy and partly because I didn’t have much to say. I wanted to write about the stupidity of drama on Facebook but that involved too much thought. I also wanted to write about preparing Rubicon for Olivia. Didn’t get to any of it. The past few weeks, month even I’ve been in totally hibernation. Really only left the house for school or food. I figure you all would want to hear the oh so exciting story of my labor and first week as a mom- much more exciting than reading about a spaztic pit bull.

At the end of my rope with not being able to move, having to pee every 5 minutes, not being able to get up out of a chair without help, but most of all sick of itching and sick of hives; Chris and I decided to try a few things to get me into labor. We finally decided to try castor oil. My fabulous friend told me how much to take and how many eggs to mix it with. Chris and I spent a few days talking about when the best time would be to do it just in case it really worked. After my first day of feeling the “nesting” instinct but not being physically able to do anything about it, I decided it was time to try the castor oil.

I was told I would get the runs about an hour after eating my castor oil eggs and then labor should start 5-8 hours later. I ate about 2/3’s of the eggs at about 6:30pm, by 9pm I was having contractions. A quick shower, a phone call to triage, my water breaking and by 1015pm we were on our way to the hospital. By the time we got to the hospital I was already 7cm! The nurse couldn’t tell if Olivia was head down so I had another nurse check, she couldn’t tell so the Dr brought the ultra sound machine. Sure enough she was head down.

Once that was confirmed they wheeled me to my delivery room. It was after 11pm and I was 9cm. Still no epidural and I was screaming in pain. No one told me how bad back labor is! Finally it was time for my epidural. It took a nurse and Chris to hold me still and another nurse in my face telling me to breath in order to actually get the epidural. I labored drug free and pushed with the help of drugs.

The epidural took about 10-15minutes to kick in and the checked me again…Time to push! About 10 minutes later little Olivia was born. 12:35am May 23, 2011. 7lbs 5oz and 20inches! Almost exactly 6hrs after eating my yummy castor oil eggs- 3 ½ hours of labor.

I’m super exhausted. I want to post more details especially since it’s been 3.5weeks but it’s time to finish packing for vacation. Tomorrow Olivia takes her first plane trip to meet her Great Grandparents!!!