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The time is going by so fast 😢

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More from our second week

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Second week and her first trip out of the house at 11 days old

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More from our first week. Her umbilical stump fell off at 6 days and she had her first bath at 7 days 🥰

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Some from our first week

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Penny’s first 24 hours ❤️

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Aspen’s here! She’s actually 19 days old today, born on July 5 at 2:03 am at 41 weeks and 6 days. She was a whopping 10 lbs 2 oz at birth, 20 inches long, and her head and chest circumferences were 14 and 14 1/2 inches. She was born en caul which they say means she’s lucky and good luck for the rest of us. My labor was pretty low key, on July 4 my midwives helped me out with some mild induction methods and I went for a couple walks. I had two membrane strips, two doses of midwives brew, and one stretch with the second strip. First in the morning I went and had the first tonic and the first membrane strip. I was at a 2 for cervical dilation and Penny’s head was applying pressure to my cervix so I’m pretty sure she was engaged and I probably was going to go into labor within the next couple days anyway. I wanted to have my home birth though and not deliver at the hospital so I’m happy I did what I did. After my appointment I went home and had some good contractions for a handful of hours but they ended up dying out. I talked to Sophie the midwife I was working with that day and my favorite at the clinic and we decided to wait for me to come in for a second dose of the tonics so I could see if I could rest and walk and see if they came back. So my mom and I went to the store to grab some last minute food stuff and to walk, but nothing started back up again. I laid down for a while and then called Sophie to tell her. She asked if I wanted to come in a little later or if I wanted to wait til tomorrow, but I spent the day contracting and wanted to get the show on the road. I figured I’d have the same experience and just wanted to get a bit farther overnight, but boy was I wrong! My sister and I walked for a little bit before that appointment at 8:30 and when we were there they asked if I wanted to do another strip and a stretch this time. I was like hell yeah let’s do it, I had thought I would have to wait to have that done again until the next day. So at that point I was 3 1/2 cm dilated and the student midwife Senora stretched me to a 5. After that appointment Sophie was going off call and Bri was going on, but Senora was on all night. So my sister and I went home and must have got there by 9:15pm and I was having some good contractions again. I laid down for a half hour, but I was having regular contractions every 10 minutes until 11 and they started getting more and more painful. Around midnight I had my sister tell the midwives to get coming over because it was ramping up and they started coming faster and more painful. They showed up around 1 and within 30 minutes I was in transition. Through transition I swayed side to side while kneeling and did hip shakes and when there was more pressure I moved into a lunge through two contractions one of which Soraya listened to Aspen’s heart rate and was able to catch the shift of her body turning with the doppler which I could also feel. After the shift I then went back up kneeling and I think just had a couple more contractions before the ejection reflex started up. I think it was just two pushes for her head, two for her shoulders, and then one for the rest of her. My god was that painful. Waiting to get her shoulders out and waiting again after her shoulders was insane. My body was screaming at me to get her out but with a few words from the midwives telling me to wait for the next surge I was able to pause. She came out pretty dang blue which is probably because she was getting squeezed and probably was lacking some oxygen there for the minute between her head coming out and the rest of her. I think that’s why my body was telling me to get her out, but that was why it so important to trust your birth team. I had complete trust in my midwives to take care of us so I was able to turn off that instinct and listen to what they suggested. I had a postpartum hemorrhage which I needed two shots of pitocin for and had an actively managed delivery of my placenta, but it went well. Overall though this birth was intense and fast, it was lovely.

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I’m 41+1 weeks 😮‍💨 yesterday we went to the aquarium after my appointment to walk around

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40+3 ❤️ Baby spent quite a while practice breathing so I wanted to film it.

My whole family caught covid so I’m so happy baby girl is waiting. Today is my last day of quarantine, but my sister’s just started yesterday when she finally tested positive after testing negative this entire week. Her fever hasn’t been bad though so hopefully she feels alright soon. Maddie has until Monday and it only bothered her for about a day, she hardly slowed down and had a fever for a day and night. Hopefully labor holds off until the 29th so my sister can be my support person. Otherwise I’m just left with Jordan which might go alright but I also am pretty annoyed with him lately so I might just kick him out.

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❤️❤️39 weeks❤️❤️

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37 weeks and 4 days today ❤️ this pregnancy has flown by. I’ve got the all-clear for my home birth and all my supplies are gathered, just need to pick up the birth tub probably at my next appointment or I could call and see if it’s available tomorrow. Baby’s things are all ready and set up too. I just need to buy a pack of premie diapers and another package of pads, and make some padscicles. I’m drinking one or two cups of raspberry leaf tea and was going to start taking a goat’s rue supplement but I think I need to stick to a single herb supplement until birth at least and the one that I bought a week or two ago has several herbs. I’ve been dealing with a serious eczema outbreak this past month and it is driving me insane at this point. I don’t know what to do for it anymore either. I take a daily antihistamine, slather on coconut oil, and coat myself in calamine lotion multiple times during the day and at night, and I use hydrocortisone cream a couple times a day. Nothing is working and the rest just keeps getting worse and popping up in new places every day. Oh and of course it’s getting more and more painful just existing because baby keeps punching me and my womb is like stretched to the max.

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New hair 💜

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Holy fluff, that’s a lot of cloth 😍

Picked up 20 one size pocket diapers which puts me at 24 and ready to cloth diaper full time! Look at all those cute prints!

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Just some comparison pictures of baby at our 3D/4D ultrasound and tiny Maddie. I think they’re going to look really alike! Both definitely got my lips, their chins look really alike to me too. I think their noses might be different though. It was so fun getting that ultrasound, I wish I had done it with Maddie too! Well worth $100 to have these pictures of my sweet baby’s face before I’ve even met her.

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I’m 34 weeks and 1 day today! Baby girl has a name finally, but I’m waiting until she’s here to make an announcement picture 😊 we had our baby shower which was small but nice. Baby’s been head down since 20 something weeks and likes to keep her back on the left side. My appointments have all been good and we’re healthy and average. So yay we’re on track for a home birth. I’m definitely not prepared for that yet because of all the things going on. I broke up with my boyfriend almost a month ago and Maddie and I are back living with my mom. It’s been a bit of a roller coaster, but absolutely the right choice for everybody involved. I was not feeling comfortable being with him much less living with him. Not like he was evil or anything, I just wasn’t happy or feeling cared for in the slightest. My boundaries were being crossed too often and I was angry all the time. It was something that I told him was a deal breaker from the beginning, I’m not going to raise a family with someone who can’t put forth effort to handle their problems or hurts people in their path with carelessness. The alcohol abuse was the main thing, but also just the terrible emptiness I felt from him. And I don’t think I cared for him enough either, we stopped building our bond like just about the time we got pregnant and neither one of us tried very hard to continue it even after discussing it a few times. Coparenting is going to be interesting to say the least. I’m scrambling to get ready for this baby while still working full time. I’m about to put my two weeks in so I’ll be done working around the end of May. I need to sign up for Medicaid though because my health insurance with end the last day of the month I worked last, and I’m not going to make it to June. Baby needs health insurance anyway and I’ll sign her up under mine since I don’t think I’m putting her dad on her birth certificate. I need to transfer my savings for my maternity leave to my sister because I don’t think I’m going to qualify if I have as much as I do right now. By the time I go back to work I’ll probably have less than 1k left, but that isn’t something they take into consideration of course. I can’t believe I only have about 6 weeks left before she joins us and I get to start all over again with a little baby. I hope the birth goes well and baby is healthy and a good size.

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“Meet the Reaper” AKA Top 10 photos taken before disaster

Spoiler alert: Grim did not win the game.

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21 weeks and it’s a girl!!!