Baby Leah's Birth Story

The good news is, I'm still a blogger!

The greater news is, I'm now a blogger mom!!!!

Wow, what an amazing week and a half I've had.  I'm going to use this blog to tell you the story of Baby Leah Marie.  I've told this story to all of the visitors that we've had and the ending is such a happy one that I could tell it over and over and over again.  


By the way, here I am just a few days before Leah's birthday . . . 

Ok, here we go!

Friday, May 20th I began to feel just a little "different."  I called Marc in the afternoon while he was at work to let him know that I just wasn't feeling right and that I thought my body might be gearing up for baby within the next couple of days.  I was really thinking that Sunday the 22nd might be "the day."  I spent the day running errands and went out to lunch with my mom, nothing too crazy.  I was cramping throughout the day but nothing unbearable by any means.  By 4:00PM I realized that I was able to keep track of that cramping feeling as it was coming pretty consistently.  Then I did what most pregnant women do when they think labor is coming its way, I walked.  I wanted the cramps to turn to contractions and to get this show on the road.

As I was walking, my sister-in-law called me and wanted to do something fun that night.  She had been tied up in the house with my nephews for a while and just wanted to get out that night.  We decided that my mom and I and my brother and his family would go out to Irvine Spectrum to walk around and eat dinner and just get out of the house.  As I drove my mom out to Irvine (just a 20-25 minute drive) I felt the cramps turn to contractions and come on a little stronger.  We made it to The Spectrum and just walked around, watched my nephews on the carousel ride and window shopped a bit.  Then we went to Red Robin for dinner and that's when things got just a little stronger again.  After dinner we took the boys to Golden Spoon for some yogurt and that's when I decided to call Marc.  

I wanted to let Marc know that this seemed like it was for real and that he may need to leave work that night and come home so we can have a baby!  He spoke with his captain and they decided that it would be best if he came home right away rather than waiting until the middle of the night and that is just what Marc did.  He left work and we left the Spectrum and met back at home around 11PM.  

If you are truly counting the hours of labor at this point you could have said that I was in labor 7 hours technically.

Marc went to bed and I stayed up and labored throughout the night.  I bounced on my yoga ball, I walked around the house a bit, I tried different positions on the couch and by about 3:45AM I decided it was time to tell Marc that we needed to go to the hospital.  His response of course was, "ok you just tell me when."  I thought to myself, "isn't that what I'm telling you?"  So I went back downstairs for another 15 - 20 minutes and then decided that was enough, time to go.  We finally got to the hospital and settled in there about 5:00AM.  They checked me and I was already at 5-6 centimeters at that point.  This was such a relief because I kept telling Marc that I didn't want them to send me home! 

I had previously tested for Group B Strep which meant that they had to give me antibiotics before baby came out and it had to be in 4 hour increments.  The nurse told me to stay put and try not to progress too much because they had to give me one bag of antibiotics and then wait 4 hours before giving me a second bag.

Now, 15 hours into labor (technically), the nurse checked me again . . . yikes . . . 9 cm already!


They had to give me the second bag of antibiotics early before baby Leah made her way out.  They started the second bag and now fully dilated, my water finally broke!  Then came pushing time!  I pushed for 2 looooooong hours before Leah was born.  The pushing, although it felt better because I couldn't feel my contractions, still was very tiring.  By the second hour I was completely exhausted.


 I don't think I mentioned it yet, but I decided that I wanted to do this whole child birth thing completely natural.  So yeah, by the second hour of pushing I was tired to say the least.


They gave me oxygen and also wanted me to push while on my side because baby's blood pressure and heart rate were going wacky.  The nurse oh so casually mentioned that the cord must be around the baby's neck.  She also oh so casually mentioned that the baby had pooped meconium while still inside also.  This meant that the NICU staff had to come in our room and prepare to work on Leah right away.

After 18 hours of a natural labor (which really only felt like 5 hours while I was in the hospital) and two of those hours pushing, our baby girl Leah Marie was born at 10:41am.  Weighing in at a whopping 6 pounds 9 ounces and 20 inches long with a cone head like you've never seen!

The whole labor and delivery was an experience unlike anything else in this world.  Call me crazy, but I actually enjoyed that 18 hours of labor far more than I did the 9 months of pregnancy.  The contractions hurt, but they weren't going to kill me.  The pushing was exhausting, but I knew I'd get a baby in the end so it was well worth it.  Not only that, I had the best coaches in the room with me, my mom and my husband.  They would tell me when my contractions were coming, when they peaked and when they were going down.  That was extremely helpful.  I had back labor so Marc would push on my lower back, or massage it during my contractions as well.  The delivery room was very quiet, very low key, and very much a stress free situation.  I couldn't have asked for a better experience.


Now I'll give you what you have all been waiting for . . . pictures! :)


Please excuse Leah's lady parts here . . . but this is a picture of a very happy and proud daddy, I have to post it!

Our very first family picture, about 10 minutes after birth.

Leah's first bath . . . she wasn't a big fan.

Daddy's girl for sure.

Mama loves her little girl.

Leah's first outing to the doctor's office.

Haha, this happened last night . . . I guess Leah ate too much . . . 

And then this happened . . . so all is good in the world.

She loves to sleep on chests, this is her typical position before real bedtime.

She also loves to have her arms up when she sleeps, or maybe she just dreams of being a football referee one day, who knows?  Touchdown!

As a proud mommy, I could continue to post pictures of her all day long.  It goes without saying that Leah is perfect and beautiful and the greatest addition to our life.  Nothing in this world can compare to the love that we have for our new daughter.  Of course, as uncomfortable as the 9 months were leading up to the big day . . . we all know that I'll do it all over again just like so many of you.

Thanks for reading our baby girls birth story as I change from a full-time preggo to a full-time mom!  

Let the fun begin!

Happy Memorial Day!

XOXO

A Wedding, 2 Birthdays, Mother's Day, and No Baby Yet!

Wow.


What a lot of stuff going on in the Fiamengo/Watson household!


I must disclose now, I do not have any pictures from last weekend!  I know, how sad right?  I'm so sorry to all of you visual learners out there!  I do have a great video that you can watch though :) 


So lets start with the wedding because that was the first of the events from last weekend.  My brother-in-law, also Marc's twin, got hitched on Saturday!  Talk about a beautiful wedding and a stunning bride!  Oh and my brother-in-law (Bryan) was stunning in his tux and bow tie also :)


The wedding festivities began on Thursday with the rehearsal and rehearsal dinner.  Thursday was also Cinco De Mayo so it was only appropriate that the rehearsal dinner had a Mexican theme.  Not to mention food catered from El Farolito, only the best Mexican food in all of Placentia!  Yum!  On Friday, the girls went to this great nail place and got manicures and pedicures, it was really nice!  Let me preface by saying, I have nothing against Asians in any way . . . that being said, this nail place was awesome because they had signs posted that said something like this, "if you hear us speaking Vietnamese with our colleagues, your service is free."  You have no idea how appreciative the customers are to see that, it makes us really uncomfortable when you speak a language other than English in front of us and makes us feel like you are talking about us all the time!  Not only that, this place also gave complimentary champagne, water, juice or soda as well as a plate with some cookies and chocolate!  Awesome!  And it was only $29 dollars for a mani and pedi!  What a deal!  We went out to lunch afterwards also which was really nice, it was a beautiful day for us to sit on the patio and grub.  The boys did an all day golf extravaganza and of course had a fun time as well.


One of the best parts leading up to the wedding was the fact that I was a bridesmaid.  Being a bridesmaid allowed me to get closer to my new sister-in-law, Katie.  I feel like she and I have this new connection that we otherwise wouldn't have had if I wasn't in the wedding and didn't have the opportunity to spend as much time with her.


The wedding itself was perfect.  Every single part of the wedding from ceremony to reception went off perfectly.  It was such a beautiful wedding.  I'm a little biased, but one of my favorite parts of the wedding was listening to Marc's best man speech!  He did such a GREAT job!  I was so nervous for him as he was speaking because I already knew was he was going to say and do, but he did amazing!  He explained what a twin was by dictionary terms and then what a twin meant to him, it was so good.  I must say, my husband is an awfully good speaker and very good looking as well so I think everything he does is great, you be the judge though:

So . . . what do you think?  Pretty good right?  I was very proud of him!


Anyway, the wedding was just great.  Then, the next day was Mother's Day.  Like I said in my last post, we celebrated Mother's Day, my dad's birthday, and my brother's birthday all on Sunday.  It was a really nice day.  We started out the day over at Katie's parents house and watched Katie and Bryan open their gifts.  Marc's mom and grandma were both there so we could celebrate Mother's Day with them as well.


Then we made our way back to my parents house where Shane, Molly and the boys were.  My mom made a bunch of food and we celebrated the birthday's and Mothers day for the rest of the day.  We even had a delicious ice cream cake from 31 Flavors!  Yummo!  Oh, and my Aunt, Uncle and Cousins were at the Angels game (they won by the way) so they stopped by for a little while also.  It was a nice little family day.  Marc and I decided to clean up my mom's house at the end of the day since it looked like a tornado blew through there!  Being that it was Mother's Day and all we thought we could do that much for her, she did work the whole day!


Oh yeah, and that's right, no baby yet!  Granted, my due date isn't until May 24th so technically there shouldn't be a baby yet, but I just feel like there should have been one here by now.  It doesn't help that my doctor told me that Baby Fiamengo would come early!  I wish she would have never said that!  Plus by coming early did she mean 3 weeks early?  4 days early?  A couple hours early?  Who knows?  That is the worst part about the end of pregnancy, you just never know when you are going to go into labor or if your water is going to break!  "They" say that only 15% of pregnant ladies water actually breaks while at home and the rest of the women have to have their water broken in the hospital.  Still, you just never know, its a guessing game every day.


In the meantime, there are several reasons why I would like to have this baby, well, right now actually!  First of all, Bryan and Katie live in Boston.  They are in Las Vegas for their honeymoon so if I have the baby now, they can come back home to meet their niece or nephew before flying back home to Boston.  Secondly, tomorrow is my Aunt Glady's 90th birthday and really, how awesome would that be?????  Lastly, my grandparents who live in Mexico are going to be in the States this weekend so they could also meet the baby before having to go back home.  They really hate being in the States so they usually only come up if they really have to for doctors visits and things like that.  If they don't meet baby this weekend then we will be bringing baby to them in October! :)


Anyway, I ramble.


Just so you know, I'll be here just walking a lot, bouncing on an exercise ball, drinking raspberry leaf tea, eating pineapple and doing all of those things that supposedly induce labor naturally (all lies by the way, nothing works, baby comes when it wants too and when God says so!).  It just makes me feel better ok, don't judge me :)  I know, I'm NOT in control that's for sure!


Thank you all for reading about my life!  Hopefully I'll be writing a birth story to you in the very near future!


Much love to you all!


Jen :)

Mom, Mother, Mama, Mommy, Madre, Peggy

Mom, mom, mom . . .


This coming weekend is all about mom's!  Hooray for mom's I say!  Or at least hooray for MY mom!

Most of us think that our own moms are the best in the world.  To be honest though, MY mom really IS the best mom in the whole world!  If you ever met her you would agree too!  Seriously though :)


I don't know much about this mom thing yet, but I'm certainly getting close and am ready to experience it, I know that much!  Speaking of which, I'm at 37 weeks pregnant today leaving me with only 21 days to go . . . unless I go early or late that is . . . I mean, unless Baby Fia decides to go early or late.  It's already all about Baby Fia and he/she isn't even here yet!  If it were up to me this little bugger would have been here by now!  I guess I'll just keep pretending like I have some sort of control over this and walk, eat spicy food, bounce on a yoga ball and do all those so called natural induction methods that are out there.


Anyway, I took a little bird walk, sorry.  My mom is still the best :)

So this weekend is Mother's Day, what are you doing for your mom on Mother's Day?  My poor mom has to share this day every year, she never gets it all to herself.  She would never complain about that, but really that just stinks for her.  You see, my dad's birthday is May 8th (Mother's Day) and my brother's birthday is May 9th.  Just as we did last year, we will celebrate all three special occasions on the one day, Mother's Day.  As you know, Sunday is also Family Day for us Watson/Fiamengo's so really this coming Sunday won't be any different.  My poor mom will still cook for all of us, the only difference is, she will cook my brother's favorite meal.  She's a good mom.

Not only is this weekend Mother's Day, my dad's birthday and my brother's birthday . . . it's also my brother-in-law's wedding day on Saturday!  Yay!  What a busy weekend!  Oh and did I mention that this week starts the first week of my maternity leave?  We have a busy week and weekend ahead so I'll do the bulk of my nesting next week I suppose.

(The Bride and Groom)

Marc is the Best Man in his brother's wedding and I am a bridesmaid so we have some big roles to play this weekend.  Well, Marc has a big role to play, I'll just be big :)  I'm really excited for Marc's speech, its going to be a good one!  I have to help him with some of the pieces this week in order to make it perfect!


Back to Mother's Day again.


My mom has taught me that being a mom is the number one most selfless thing you can do on the planet.  She would do anything in the world for my brother or me.  She is my best friend, hence the reason for me living 2 doors down from her!  That is the best thing ever!  Even if she wasn't my mom, you would here others say that she is, kind-hearted, hard-working, completely selfless in every way, God-loving, BEAUTIFUL, nurturing, amazing and pretty much like Mary Poppins "Practically Perfect in Every Way!"  I'm just lucky because I get to call her mom.

(This picture is particularly funny because my mom doesn't drink, she could hardly pose for this picture even!)

It's my hope that I will take some of her traits and characteristics with me as I venture into motherhood very shortly.  I know that there are some sons and daughters out there that don't get to say such great things about their moms and that makes me sad for them.  Hopefully those people can break the cycles that have been created for generations, I'm guessing, and become more like Peggy :)

If you are a mom, I wish you the happiest of Mother's Days!  If you are going to be a mom soon I say good luck to us and Happy (almost) Mother's Day to us!  If this is your first Mother's Day I say Congratulations to you, enjoy being spoiled!  If you do not have a close relationship with your mom I say embrace those around you that act like they are your mom (even if you hate it sometimes).  If your mom is no longer with us I hope that you remember all of the great things that your mom taught you growing up and that you thank God for taking care of her now and spoiling her for once!


Have a Happy Mother's Day to all of you wonderfully fabulous ladies out there!


Happy Mama's Day to YOU, Nana Times Three, I love you so much!

Have a great week and weekend my friends, give your moms a hug this weekend!


Jen :)