Long Cycle Ladies Journeying Through Pregnancy Together Toward Our Rainbows!

[ksquared726]

Oh my goodness, crazycatlady!! That's amazing! I guess your body knows what to do now. Congrats!

I'm soooooo ready for our little girl to arrive. It feels like she's trying to punch and kick her way out these past 3 nights. It's been pretty uncomfortable. But then she settles down and I go to sleep, and then a new day has arrived and still not in labor. Oy. I did start losing my mucus plug today though, so that's good! No blood in it yet but have been having little globs of mostly ewcm throughout the day. And I've had on and off contractions, like stronger Braxton hicks, since Wednesday. This is like the slowest build up ever!

 

[mommyxofxone]

wow crazy cat!!!!!! congrats? lol! that's amazing!!!! a surprise nugget!!! how lovely!

and i bet ksquared, i had bh for the longest time that were timeable. even was in the hosp once at 36 weeks with false labor. ugh!

 

[crazycatlady5]

Thanks ladies! I know - I was in shock! Don't get me wrong - I'm thrilled! Just was not the timing I would've chosen, but as we all know from our experiences when we all met, you sure don't get to choose the timing! And while the timing is not ideal, this is much better than my frustration with long cycles the first time around!

I won't be able to get mat leave though, and honestly I don't even know if I should go back to work. I love our year long mat leave in Canada, but it means I will not have built up enough hours for mat leave next time. And I'm adding an unpaid month after my leave since my mat leave ends at a bad time of the school year, so I'm not scheduled to return to work until January, and we have a two week spring break in March. And then, if baby number two is due early May I will have to have a c section in April. I won't be able to try for a vbac since they are so close together. So I would only be returning to work for basically 3 months....

Ksquared - I remember that all too well! I had false labour as well. Hope your little miss is here soon!

 

[mommyxofxone]

oh my goodness yeah i don't think you should go back ! it would just be silly!

 

[aidensxmomma]

Hi ladies! :wave: I've missed you all! Things have been ago hectic that I've been terrible about keeping up with everything.

Crazycat - huge congrats! I got pregnant with my second when my first was 7 months old. Its total chaos sometimes but I really like their age gap. I probably wouldn't go back to work either. I agree that it would be silly.

Ksquared - That's no fun that your little girl hasnt decided to come yet. Hopefully she will make her big debut soon.

Mommyxofxone - your little guy is so cute!

AFM - My little boy was born at 38+2 weeks on August 23 at 4:44pm. He weighed 6lbs, 12 oz and was 19.5 inches long. OH and I are so absolutely in love with him. His name is Everett Michael.

His labor story is a bit chaotic. For starters, I was in early labor for around 6 days. I went into the hospital after 4 days of on/off contractions but they sent me home. I was dialating but very, very slowly. Then on Tuesday, I had a doctor appointment at 930a where my doctor told me that I was 3cm and we scheduled my induction for the following Sunday (it was already decided that I would be induced at 39 weeks). 2 hours later, at 1130am, my water broke. So OH was really panicky and I had my mom and grandma down visiting, so we had to get them to leave and take my big kids. My labor was fast but scary because Everetts heartrate would drop during every contraction. Luckily, everything turned out great and we're all happy and healthy. I was really shocked that I even went into labor, though. My 3 older kids were all inductions and I was told that the chances of me going into labor naturally were pretty low. This little guy gave us quite the surprise.

Today my big kids will get to meet their baby brother for the first time and I'm super excited about that.

 

[crazycatlady5]

Congrats aidensmomma! That's so exciting!

Ksquared I'm wondering if you are having your little one now that you haven't posted in a couple days - really hoping so!

Well, the dr confirmed it! I'm pregnant! Due May 5, but I'm sure I'll have the baby in April, as I will need a c section with them so close together. We told my parents today, I had Lo dressed in a number 1 big brother T shirt. He'll wear it again when we go for dinner at my in laws. I feel like I won't be as patient waiting to tell people this time. It's just so hard.

 

[ksquared726]

Hi ladies!! She's here! Introducing our baby girl Allison (Allie for short), born on Monday, August 29, at 8:57am weighing 6 lbs 7.5 oz and 19.5 inches long. She's perfect! ❤️

I started having real contractions on Sunday around 5am (4 days overdue) after 4 days of more frequent and tighter Braxton Hicks. They weren't super consistent, but about 10-12 minutes apart. By about 4pm they started getting pretty strong and maybe 8 minutes apart. By about 6:30, I couldn't focus on watching movies and decided to relax in the bath. The contractions were coming at about 6 minutes apart by then and really hurt. After the bath they started coming at 5 minutes consistently and then 4 minutes and I was in so much intense pain, and we FINALLY left to go to the hospital. Hubby didn't want is going too soon and then get sent home, which they kept warning us about in our birth class. We got checked in and I could barely answer questions I was in so much pain. I was 4cm and lost my bloody mucus plug on the exam table. All I wanted was an epidural. The anesthesiologist finally came and then he was poking at my back for SO LONG. Apparently it took him 3 tries to get it, and he ended up putting it too low so it wasn't effective. It took maybe an hour before the pain was significantly reduced and I kept having to have booster doses because the little button they gave me did nothing. So of course I couldn't get any sleep because the epidural wasn't taking away all the pain. At 1am I was about 5cm, but then by 5am I flew to 10cm! There were a lot of other births, so I had to wait awhile. But then they broke my water because it hadn't on its own, and let the contractions push the baby down the birth canal. Thankfully they finally got me completely numb. At about 8:45am they had me start pushing, and she was out at 8:57! Only a few contractions worth of pushing! I had 2 small natural tears because she came so fast, but otherwise all went well to push her out. And she doesn't even have a cone head!

We've had a lot of difficulty breastfeeding because she has a tongue tie and a little tiny mouth, so I have to pump and feed her with this nipple guard here we've fed through a little flexible tube attached to a syringe. It's a two-person operation but she's getting fed and we're figuring it out.

Here's our baby girl! Everything she does is so freakin' cute we can't even stand it!

 

[ksquared726]

Crazycatlady - Congratulations again!! Yeah that timing is really difficult. That's amazing thought that you still have so much time off that's covered already. I wouldn't go back if you're not sure you'll even build up enough hours. Exciting you told your parents already!

Aidensxmomma - Congratulstions on baby Everett! Wow that sounds crazy fast! I'm a little jealous though because mine was about 27 hours, and about 12 of those hours I was in a lot of pain. Glad you're all doing well though and you made it! I bet your other kids are so in love with their little brother .

 

[mommyxofxone]

hurrah loving all these babies!!!!! congrats loves!!!!!

 

[crazycatlady5]

Aww congrats ksquared! I was hoping she was here! What an adorable little miss! Love the name too. Breastfeeding is always so hard in the beginning. Sounds like you are handling it well though!

 

[aidensxmomma]

Crazycat - Congrats again! How has everyone reacted to the news so far?

Ksquared - Congrats on the birth of your little girl! Allie is beautiful! That's horrible that your epidural was messed up and took forever to work right. I'm glad the pushing phase was quick for you though.

I've been having issues with breastfeeding as well. Everett also has a tongue tie. So since he was about 4 days old I've been pumping and bottlefeeding. On one hand, I'm happy he can at least still be exclusively breastfed. On the other hand, i really hate pumping. I really hope Everett is able to switch back to nursing without much issue after we get his tongue tie fixed. His surgery for it is scheduled for Tuesday and I'm super nervous about it.

AFM - The big kids are absolutely in love with their brother. Its incredible to watch them together I'm still feeling pretty good and I hope it stays that way. I has been a little difficult balancing the needs to the big kids with Everett's needs, but i think with some practice it will all fall into place. OH has been incredibly helpful, so that's made things a lot easier.

We are considering getting married next year, which it's really exciting. We've been engaged since March 2015 and we were going to get married this past February. However, due to the pregnancy and finances, we decided to postpone it. Now we're looking into having our wedding next October Also, we've talked a little about TTC again, as crazy as that sounds. We don't have any immediate or definite plans but its something we're already thinking about.

 

[crazycatlady5]

How are all you mamas and your little newborns doing? Hope the surgery went we'll aidensmomma!

Also, aidensmomma, if you have any tips on how to survive pregnancy while caring for another child please share! My goodness it is not easy. Harris still does not sleep through the night and has been difficult to put down for naps this week, usually he's pretty good with naps, but of course he chose this week to be difficult when the exhaustion and nausea hit!

 

[mommyxofxone]

cat how far along are you?

i can't imagine taking care of a little that small and being pregnant! i thought it was hard with a four year old. :/

sorry i've been gone, was having issues with bnb.

 

[TexMel]

Hello ladies! I am so sorry it has been a very, very long time since I have checked in with you! Congrats to all of you on your little ones! What an exciting time!

Crazycat - what a great surprise! I thought there was a chance I was pregnant again, also, but it wasn't true for me.

My little guy is now a little over 10 months! It is so crazy how fast this whole thing has gone. He just got his first tooth a couple of weeks ago, and now has 4!!! He eats everything he can, still breastfeeding at night, but supplementing with formula during the day. He takes more and more steps every day, and I assume will be fully walking within the month. I just cannot believe I get to call this sweet baby mine. He is a happy baby and I could not ask for more than that.

Officially back to not trying, not preventing. Will probably go back to officially "trying" in December or January, after I get back from my girls' trip to Napa at the beginning of December.

I hope you are all well. Again, sorry I have been so MIA.

 

[mommyxofxone]

So hard for me to get on lately as the hard drive went in my co.puter this weekend

Congrats on the ten months tex!!!!

 

[crazycatlady5]

I'm 8 weeks 5 days already! Eek!

Texmel - dec/Jan is when we were planning to start ttc too; however, not in the cards I guess! I also had a trip planned in December and was thinking exact same thing. Dh and I were going to Disneyland (just us, no baby haha). We've had to cancel as it would be no fun when pregnant. We'll go somewhere local for a weekend or something instead.

I'm still breastfeeding exclusively, haven't had to supplement since we have such long mat leave in Canada and I pump enough for the odd time I'm away from little man. So I've been happy with that, but now the dilemma of do I wean before baby two is here or not??

Ksquared how is Allie doing?

 

[ksquared726]

Hi ladies! Oops I wasn't getting notifications in my email so I didn't see your posts. Crazy how big our babies are getting and that you guys are planning the next baby! Wow crazycatlady, you must be starting the 2nd tri already!!

Aidensxmomma - How did the tongue tie procedure go? We actually had it done at the end of September for both tongue and lip ties. It was so rough that first week having to stretch the two areas so it wouldn't heal too tight. But Allie has great use of her tongue now and can nurse easily.

Allie is doing pretty well. I feel like she is a more challenging baby than some, because we're always dealing with some issue and all I want is for her to be happy and healthy! So I discovered that she is sensitive to dairy and was having awful gas issues and would cry a lot. Once I cut that out she was so much happier for about a week. Then she started going through phases of refusing to eat, either just crying or being distracted. Then she started vomiting more often and lately it's been almost every day where she'll empty the entire contents of her stomach. She likely has reflux and cries when the acid is coming up and doesn't want to eat. And to top it off she's not gaining weight like she should and at last check she was only in the 8th percentile. So I'm supposed to be feeding her a lot more (hard when she cries and refuses) but I've been nervous because I don't want to stuff her little tummy only to have her throw it all up. Thankfully she still poops and pees enough and appears healthy, it's just the weight gain issue and trying to prevent her from vomiting. We have antacid medicine to try but I've read bad things about it - because it's not that she has too much stomach acid but that her digestion just needs to develop more. So yeah, I'm a big worrier. Maybe this is normal though.

Otherwise Allie is sleeping well now - waking 1-2 times in the night before morning. She can feed well when her reflux isn't acting up, and she is the cutest little baby talker! She is very alert and smiley too when her belly feels good. I love her to pieces and she's so cute I can't stand it!

 

[mommyxofxone]

Ksquared omg that sounds so stressful!!! How are you managing Hun?

 

[ksquared726]

Ksquared omg that sounds so stressful!!! How are you managing Hun?

We're doing better! She was up 7 ounces at her last appointment, so 7 ounces In 10 days. And they gave me probiotic drops and that seems to be helping. And the vomiting is ever few days lately and we have fewer spit ups too. But she still is more of a snacker - I can't get through a quick meal out without her fussing! Gotta work on getting her to feed from a bottle too.

 

[mommyxofxone]

My daughter refused to take a bottle. Never worked! So I haven't tried with my son.