Theo William was born on Friday morning, January 22nd, and I'm almost certain that this fact alone is responsible for the change in weather in Southern California, from four successive storms, to a weekend of beautiful bright sun. His birth was a prescheduled c-section due to a pesky fibroid blocking the cervix. Everything went well, and our experience at the hospital was great--breast and bonding friendly, allowing co-sleeping with our little nugget every night, etc.
More importantly: Theo. He was 9 lbs 1 oz, and a 21 incher, has a full head of black hair. The bottom half of his face is Dutch like his mama, and the top is Sumatran like his papa. He is thoroughly loved, and I want to get back to him now, sleeping sweetly on his sheepskin.
But first, some pictures--these are facebook, but if you can't see them, I'll work on another format:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?id...553&aid=376265
Updated info here: This was a planned c-section, so my birth story is likely more prescribed than others here, but that doesn't mean it shouldn't be told!
Considering all the negative hospital birth experiences out there, I thought I should sing the praises of mine: every last thing that I wanted was respected and granted:
nursing skin-to-skin on the recovery room table
waiting as long as possible to cut the cord
co-sleeping in the hospital bed
absolutely no formula propaganda or bottle issues
released placenta for cultural reasons
What I think made the difference was that this was a "baby friendly hospital," which is a WHO/Unicef designation that means that they decline all Nestle/formula funding and train all staff to become knowledgeable about breast feeding, etc. If you or anyone else needs a hospital birth, find one of these! At one point, my little one was losing more weight than was advisable (it's hard to keep up with a 9-plus pound baby on colostrum, and he was getting very dry and dehydrated), so when the pediatrician recommended supplementing, I started to cry, hard. But the nurse told me to supplement every other feeding, using an at-breast feeding device, which I gleefully threw away when my milk came in later that night. All it all, it was such a great experience, which enabled me to concentrate on the golden minutes of this time:
seeing our glorious boy lifted out of my body, and poop all over the staff
feeling his little suckling mouth and looking at his hard-working jaw
snuggling on top of pillows over pillows while feeling my body recover
hearing my husband singing a sweet Sumatran song to Theo and losing it
seeing my grandmother's chin and my husband's mother's eyes, both beloved souls long departed, in our child's face
coming home to my sister, my post-partum doula and dearest friend, and
her nettles infusions and arnica homeopathy and broccoli cheese soup and sucky scrabble games and unmitigated nephew adoration
having an excuse to buy a buttercream chocolate cake, for "visitors"
I feel so lucky, riding high on this tide of hormone-assisted sweet love!
More importantly: Theo. He was 9 lbs 1 oz, and a 21 incher, has a full head of black hair. The bottom half of his face is Dutch like his mama, and the top is Sumatran like his papa. He is thoroughly loved, and I want to get back to him now, sleeping sweetly on his sheepskin.
But first, some pictures--these are facebook, but if you can't see them, I'll work on another format:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?id...553&aid=376265
Updated info here: This was a planned c-section, so my birth story is likely more prescribed than others here, but that doesn't mean it shouldn't be told!
Considering all the negative hospital birth experiences out there, I thought I should sing the praises of mine: every last thing that I wanted was respected and granted:
nursing skin-to-skin on the recovery room table
waiting as long as possible to cut the cord
co-sleeping in the hospital bed
absolutely no formula propaganda or bottle issues
released placenta for cultural reasons
What I think made the difference was that this was a "baby friendly hospital," which is a WHO/Unicef designation that means that they decline all Nestle/formula funding and train all staff to become knowledgeable about breast feeding, etc. If you or anyone else needs a hospital birth, find one of these! At one point, my little one was losing more weight than was advisable (it's hard to keep up with a 9-plus pound baby on colostrum, and he was getting very dry and dehydrated), so when the pediatrician recommended supplementing, I started to cry, hard. But the nurse told me to supplement every other feeding, using an at-breast feeding device, which I gleefully threw away when my milk came in later that night. All it all, it was such a great experience, which enabled me to concentrate on the golden minutes of this time:
seeing our glorious boy lifted out of my body, and poop all over the staff
feeling his little suckling mouth and looking at his hard-working jaw
snuggling on top of pillows over pillows while feeling my body recover
hearing my husband singing a sweet Sumatran song to Theo and losing it
seeing my grandmother's chin and my husband's mother's eyes, both beloved souls long departed, in our child's face
coming home to my sister, my post-partum doula and dearest friend, and
her nettles infusions and arnica homeopathy and broccoli cheese soup and sucky scrabble games and unmitigated nephew adoration
having an excuse to buy a buttercream chocolate cake, for "visitors"
I feel so lucky, riding high on this tide of hormone-assisted sweet love!
Theo Enjoy your babymoon & I hope you recover well from the birth.
