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Thass Alotta Pink!

 

A Perfect Day for Pumpkin Acupuncture

Great Big Gobs of Greasy, Grimy Pumpkin Guts...

Five Weeks Ago Today...

...we got to meet little Arwen Karis Zumwalt.  But the story of her birth actually begins the Wednesday before she was born (August 18th).  Koa had gone to a Portland Beavers baseball game with some friends and Zak, Caspian and I had some errands to run.  The first was to get a liner for our birth tub.  It had been out of stock with the company that I bought the rest of my birth kit from and I had been waiting to hear when they would get them in.  The liners had been on the dock all week but for some reason had not been released.  So, we waited and wondered what we would do if it was not delivered in time.  Interestingly, when it finally did arrive I had the first in a string of very strong contractions as I walked down the steps from picking it up!  I had been having Braxton Hicks contractions pretty much since the day I found out I was pregnant, but this one was definitely different.

We continued with our errands that day; out to Sellwood to drop off a cooler for the lady who was picking up our chickens for us.  Then we went over to the Hawthorne district for dinner at a new-to-us restaurant using a coupon from our Chinook Book.  The whole time I was having contractions and thinking, "We are going to have a baby this evening."  Of course, because I thought this I was also thinking of all the things I wished I had gotten done before a new babe showed up in the house.  There was a box of apricots I never turned into jam, there were little tasks here and there that would be more easily done now than later.  There was the Azure drop tomorrow that would be at our house and I hadn't done all the little things I usually do to get ready for that.  The list was getting longer and I wondered if I would have time to do any of it or if the contractions would soon be strong enough that I would need to just concentrate on that.  We finished dinner and headed home late in the evening.  We got there just as Koa was arriving home from the game so we prepared him and Caspian for bed.  As we tucked them in we told them that there would probably be a baby by morning and felt certain that was true. 

Zak finished inflating the birth tub (now with liner) and I tidied up some things around the house.  Then he filled the tub with 100 degree water and I knocked off something else on my mental "to do" list (I can't remember what it was now!).  Both of us bustled around getting everything just so, even lighting candles and starting some soothing music in order to set the mood for a peaceful birth.  By midnight we had accomplished all of our tasks and I was ready to sit down and relax so the contractions could take over and do their thing.  But, alas, they did not.  That is when they started getting farther and farther apart and not nearly as strong.  So, Zak and I eventually went to bed and they stayed just strong enough to wake me every once in a while all night long, but not enough to bring a baby into the world.  

This went on for a few days!  We emptied the birth tub (and discovered that the liner we had was defective and had leaked into the tub, so we had to make another trip to pick up another liner!) but did not completely deflate it because we were sure the contractions would start up again at any moment.  That didn't happen until Sunday night.  It made for some rough days in the mean time just because, as Tom Petty would tell you, the waiting is the hardest part.

Finally, on Sunday night (August 22nd) the contractions started to pick up again and at about 10 PM I told Zak I better get to bed and get some rest in case the baby came that night.  I was having pretty regular contractions, though not very strong, but since I didn't time them I don't have any idea how close they were or how long they were lasting.  Around 2 AM I couldn't really sleep in between them any more so I woke up and timed a couple.  They were lasting about 1+ minutes and were right at 4 minutes apart. So, I woke Zak up and called Dr. Jen.  She (knowing how quick my last labor was) said she'd be right over.  She has two students interning with her right now, so they all showed up by about 2:30 and immediately went to work setting up.  A common misconception about home births is that they're dangerous or sans any medical equipment.  This is very far from the truth!  Jen and her cronies arrived with 3 huge rolling duffel bags and very quickly took over the dining room table, sofa table, bathroom, and guest bedroom with all their gear.  There was not a single piece of equipment that they have at their birthing center that was not set up somewhere in our house that night!  They came very well equipped.

So while Zak got the tub inflated and filled (with the new liner), lit the candles, and took one last prego picture and turned on the music, the interns scattered their gear all over the house.  Jen and I sat and visited for a few minutes on the couch and then she checked my cervix (I was around 8 cm dilated) and I got in the tub.  I labored the rest of the time in the tub while Zak and Jen discussed their most and least favorite NPR programs poolside (Michael Feldman's "What Do You Know?" will forever be associated with Arwen's birth [as their least favorite]!).  Eventually I went through a pretty intense transition in which I threw up ("Zak, can you get me some ginger?  Um, I think I'm gonna need a bowl...like right now!").  After that there seemed like a really long time before the pushing stage.  It probably wasn't as long as it felt, but it seemed like forever.  We joked that the baby was staying in inside me until we came up with a better name because at that point, had Arwen been a boy, he was going to be named Watson Sneijder (pronounced with a silent "j") Zumwalt.

Once I did start pushing it was only 7 minutes until little Arwen emerged at 4:31 AM!  My water didn't break until right before her head emerged.  Then Zak reached down into the tub and delivered Arwen and lifted her up out of the water onto my belly.  Once we had all caught our breath I checked to see if she was a boy or girl and breathed a sigh of relief that I didn't have to concede to Watson Sneijder.  We waited until the cord stopped pulsing and then Zak cut the cord at which point the placenta released.  Jen asked if I wanted to deliver the placenta out of the tub or in it.  I said I wanted to get out of the tub so we could use the water from the tub to water our garden without freaking out the neighbors!  So, Jen and the interns helped me get out of the water and get Arwen wrapped up and warm.  I delivered the placenta in the bedroom downstairs and then nursed Arwen.  She latched on immediately and ate like a champ right from the start.  She was very alert all day and was already holding her head up off my chest that first day, as well. 

I did tear a tiny bit, so Jen asked if I wanted to be stitched or to not worry about it.  I decided to let her put in just a couple of stitches.  This was by far the worst part of the whole morning!  Jen asked if her student could do the stitching in order to get practice.  In hindsight, I do not recommend this!!!  Actually, it probably wouldn't have been so bad except that I didn't numb for some reason.  So they had to inject the anesthesia 4 times and the anesthesia they have to use is acid based and is AWFUL!!  I never did actually numb, so they finally had to do the stitches without me being numb and the student wasn't very fast.  I consider it my sacrifice for the sake of continuing midwifery education...or something like that.

The boys slept upstairs throughout the entire ordeal.  Caspian woke up around 6:00 that morning (while I was still being stitched) so Zak met him at the stairs with Arwen.  Koa still had not woken up by the time the doctors left around 8:30, so they came and went without Koa even knowing.  The boys were both so excited to meet Arwen.  Caspian got a little less excited over the next couple of days and asked us to put her back (to bed, we think...), but they are both pretty enamored with her even now and she seems to feel the same about them so far.

You can see some pictures of our evening in the Arwen Karis Zumwalt photo album.

Introducing Arwen Karis Zumwalt

 
 

Born at home, August 23, 2010 @ 4:31 AM

8 lbs 3 oz, 20.25 in long

 

Getting ready to leave the house for the first time!

 

Koa and Caspian first meeting BZ3!

Pictures of BZ3 can also be seen in the new Arwen Karis Zumwalt Photo Album!

It's A Girl!

 

BZ3 Act II. Will we go all the way this time?

 

Sorry to Leave You Hangin'

I thought I would be better about keeping up to date with our lives this summer, but the summer got the best of me apparently!  We did have a fun time in Colorado and Caspian had a chance to recover from the illness that made the trip so difficult, so our drive back was much more peaceful.  I won't lie and and say that it was entirely peaceful, but it was much better than the drive there! 

While we visited my parents in Bayfield we got to go fishing and ride horses, ATV's, and tractors, as well as visit all the farm animals and a few members of my extended family.  Caspian called every animal he saw a dog, but apparently learned how to count while we were there.  There were two horses pastured outside my parents' house and he would become very perplexed when he could only find one and especially perplexed when he couldn't find either of them.  He would rush around from window to window saying, "Where go?"  "Dog."  "Where go?" and then he would go back to normal things like calling the elk head on the living room wall a dog and saying, "Soft!"  I kept joking that he must know how to count to two at least because he knew there should be two horses.  I thought I was just being silly, but a few days later when I tried to hand him a snack of some sort he held out his other hand and said, "Two?" 

We left my parents' house and drove over Red Mountain Pass and stopped in Ouray, CO at Box Canyon Falls to see some nature and relive part of my childhood.  Box Canyon looked much different as an adult than it did as a kid.  We hiked around a little there and then hit the road to head for Grand Junction again where we would be staying with Zak's grandparents, Hunt and Myrna.  We got in to their house at around 8:30 that evening and you would have thought it was the middle of the day.  The boys were ready to play and Hunt and Myrna were ready to join right in.  They have saved all the toys from their children over the years, have kept them in pristine condition and love to share these with our boys now.  It is always so much fun to see what they have saved and I'm sure Koa and Caspian enjoy them just as much as Fred, Rose, Von and Jon did.  What a treat it was to get to spend a couple of days with these lovely people!

Even though we were only there for a couple of days, we got to visit the horses and Koa got to ride one of granddad Hunt's horses for a few minutes.  We also were able to visit their church family and we got to have dinner with Rose and Mike.  The weather was nice and the boys loved playing in the back yard so I got to sit and watch them play and relax a bit while Hunt and Myrna entertained.  I even escaped one afternoon while the boys were napping and found a coffee shop with WiFi and Skyped with Zak for a bit.

As I mentioned before the trip back was less traumatic for everyone.  Caspian was no more fond of the car seat, but was exceedingly more comfortable without the diaper rash.  I did finally break down and buy my very first package of disposable diapers (we had been given some to use before [like when Koa was first born], but I had never actually purchased any for us, so this was a big step for me!) and it was an adventure all its own trying to figure out just which brand and what size and style and...holy moly there are a lot of choices!  After I finally did this I had to stop and ask myself why I waited until after Caspian had such bad diarrhea to make this move....sometimes I'm not so bright.  I admit it was much easier, but I did learn the hard way that those things DO NOT belong in a pool....ewww!  So that's why they have swim diapers, eh?

Speaking of the pool.  Remember the ridiculous Caspian-trying-to-drown-himself episode?  Well, I was so afraid he was going to be terrified of the water after that, but no.  He would actually go to the ladder, climb down so he could sit on the top rung and then try to jump in.  I was, of course, always there to catch him, but he would try to bat my hands out of the way so he could do it by himself.  I've started calling him Kamikaze Caspian.

Across Idaho (or somewhere in there) I figured out a good way to teach Caspian to spit out his gum instead of swallowing it and also keep him mildly entertained while sitting down.  I buy healthy gum (surprise!) and it only tastes good for like 30 seconds (maybe a slight exaggeration) and Caspian LOVES gum (which he calls "dumba dumba dumba"), but he always swallows it.  I buy said gum in bulk so it is much cheaper and I had A LOT with us.  During one particularly boring stretch of road I started giving each of the boys a piece of gum and then just a few minutes later encouraging them to swap it out for a new piece.  I don't know how many miles we did this, but I ended up with quite the mound of gum tree or whatever it is made of sitting next to me on the console.  But Caspian rarely swallows his gum now and we survived Idaho!

Another thing that kept Caspian entertained was driving on the rumble strips.  At some point along the way there was an intermittent rumble strip on the outside lane that sounded like a barking dog when I drove along it and Caspian was convinced by the sound and got very excited!  So after that, any time I drove on bumps of any sort he would get very excited and start shouting, "Dog!  Dog!" 

Also as we were driving through Idaho Koa had one of my favorite lines of the whole trip.  As we were passing a feed lot he looked out the window and said, "That's how Wendy's treats their cows."  He hasn't asked to eat at Wendy's since then, either.  I guess The Omnivore's Dilemma won't be required reading for him this year.

We left Colorado on a Monday and got home by Wednesday which was our goal.  We needed to be back for our co-op drop from Azure Standard on Thursday and we did.  And I promptly paid someone else to clean out our car!