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Introducing Ragnar Baldur

 

As I have told you in prior posts I was expecting a baby. That baby was born December 7th of last year. His name is Ragnar Baldur and he is the easiest baby I have ever had. He is both easy on the eyes and sleeps really well. He goes for 5-7 hour spurts at night. I am so lucky and thankful for his sleeping so well.

 

Since I have other kids I’m not getting much more than 6 hours at night but most nights it is continuous sleep which I have never had before with a little one like this.

He was less than a week old when I started to need to cart him to school Christmas events. He almost never fusses at being dragged all over creation as long as he is dry and not hungry then he usually just sleeps through it.

This mamma is just so in love with this little human. His brothers are so happily surprised that he doesn’t interrupt their lives too much and they are great helpers.

Pour Ragnar got really bad baby pimples. But they have since cleared up.

I’m sure you are thinking Ragnar Baldur is an interesting name to pick but if you watch the show Vikings (and if you don’t you really should because they are a really good depiction of what the viking culture was really like) then you might have noticed that the main character’s name is Ragnar. It means a warrior sent from the gods.

 

His middle name Baldur is a Nordic god name. The god of poetry and beauty. So now we have our oldest Odinn, the god of gods, our next oldest Magni, the god of strength, our 3rd child Alexander Thor the god of thunder, and now Baldur.

 

Ragnar was 10lbs 3oz at birth. Many of you might be thinking that that is big. It is not small. But Alexander Thor was 11lbs 14oz. I worked so hard this time not to have a giant baby by watching what I ate and going to the gym daily until I got sick and started coughing and didn’t stop. So the 3rd trimester I was not as active but I made sure I didn’t put on more than 29lbs and lost 21 of them giving birth.

 

When I need to get housework done and he is awake usually putting him in his bouncy chair with a toy will keep him busy for long enough to clean up the kitchen and start a load of laundry.

Waking up in the morning to this face never gets old. No matter how tired I am I smile and am thankful for all the love and beauty he brings to this family.

Most of the time when we have appointments for my son’s orthodontist or a Dr’s appointment this is the norm. He sleeps in his car seat and I knit or read something. During swim lessons he just hangs out in his ergo baby.

There have only been a hand full of days since this child was born where he just needed to be held and all else had to wait and during those days I hold him with gratitude for he will only be little once and since this is rare I have an excuse to just sit and snuggle him. My surprise baby that was far from planned.

 

Most of the time he is a happy laundry helper but in that pic you can see it is not ALL the time.

 

 

He found his thumb a couple of days ago. Magni and Alex also did that for a little while at this age but never got into it. But who knows, I might have my one and only thumb sucker.

Love his little baby voice. And that is it. Sorry about flooding you with images and videos. As you can tell I am head over heals about this guy. My surprise 4th. The baby I cried for 2 weeks over when I found out that he was on his way and I thought that I couldn’t handle any more children. But here he is and he is perfect.

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He is Here! – Birth Story.

On September 25th at 4:43pm my son was born. He was 11lbs 14oz and 23inch long. The largest baby my OB had ever delivered. It was a long and hard labor and I had to make a hard decision at a difficult time that went against all of my wishes because of difficulties. OK here is my story.

I was BIG. It’s early and I’ve been in labor all night.

On the 24th I started having period like cramps at around 1pm I knew this could be it since I was 3 days past my due date so I went and took a nap. My mom was here to watch the children so I was lucky. When I woke up at 3 I started having contractions that were irregular but I went a head and texted my husband and told him that he would probably want to wrap things up at work and leave on time since this might be it. He came home straight away and went straight to bed knowing that it could be a really LONG night. My contractions started to lighten up and were almost completely stop by midnight so I decided to go to bed. As soon as a laid down they picked up again. I labored through the night and by 5 am could not lay in bed any longer. I woke my husband up at 5:30 and told him to take his shower and get ready to go to the hospital. At 6am I woke up my mom and we made coffee to take with them to the hospital. I couldn’t eat but I had a glass of juice to keep my energy up. When we got to the hospital I was already at 8cm and it was only 7am. We were all happy and hoping that I would be done at 10am. 3 hours go by where I labor standing up. This labor was much different than all my other labors. I was much more alert and had much more energy than I had with my other 2. My contractions were tough but not as though as I thought they should be. In between contractions I was still joking around and laughing. My husband and my mom taking turns rubbing my lower back during contractions which really helped and felt nice. 2 hours after that I am still at 8cm and my OB is talking about rupturing my membrane to get the baby’s head to help with the dilation. I had so much water that he was still floating around in there loose. I have always been against rupturing the membrane in a normal progressing delivery but I had now been stuck at 8cm for 5 hours and getting nowhere. I agreed.

After a rough contraction still catching my breath

With my other 2 my membrane always ruptured when I started pushing and then the head worked like a cork and I never felt the water until the baby was born. This time it felt very weird like I was peeing uncontrollably. A very odd feeling. She only made a small hole in the membrane so as to let labor come on stronger slowly. My contractions became harder and longer. Some lasting 5 min. but no progress. OB came back and made another hole and after that labor hit hard. I started having contractions back to back maybe getting 30sec between 5-7min contractions. The pain was beyond anything that I had ever felt before and my blood pressure had gotten really high. I couldn’t relax. 2 hours of this and I was begging God to save me. My mother at that point asks me if it wasn’t time for me to get something for the pain. As many of you know I am against epidurals unless there is a medical need. I had not progressed from the 8cm and the contractions were not letting up and my blood pressure was high. I caved. I felt like I failed. I started shaking uncontrollably I was in so much pain. But by the time I came to terms with getting and Epi the anesthesiologist couldn’t get there fast enough.  When she got there she asked my husband and mother to leave which neither of them were comfortable with doing. I remember my husband and mother looking at me while they were leaving, unsure and uneasy.
 Just getting the needle in place was an ordeal. I had 3 contractions and with each one I flooded the floor with amniotic fluid. The nurse had to jump out of the way. At first I thought I was peeing myself and at the time I really didn’t care. The nurse was asking me to bend forward which I hadn’t been able to do for months because my belly was soooooo big. With each contraction I could bend further forward because each time more water would flood out with much relief to me and each time the nurse would ask for another towel to clean up the floor and then after the epidural was in place they had to change my whole bed because I flooded it all. They had never seen so much fluid come from one person. Finally the epidural kicked in and I couldn’t stop shaking. The odd thing was having feelings of pressure but not pain. I laid there shivering and in and out of sleep since I had been up at that point for over 24 hours and been in unbearable pain for over 2 hours. I felt when I had a contraction but even though it was uncomfortable it was so much better than what I had been feeling. I had done my research on Epidurals and knew that since I had gotten to 8cm there was a little chance that it would interfere with me having the baby naturally. My OB came in and explained to me and my family that since the baby was so big that there was still a likelihood that I might have to have a c section. I told her that I wanted to try everything to have this baby naturally. I was still at 8cm at that point but we waited an hour and when the OB came back I was 10cm and ready to push. I found it weird that someone was telling me it was time to push. With my first two there was no question if it was pushing time because my body  would just do it. The nurse started having me push to see if the baby would fit under my pubic bone. Pushing was hard since I couldn’t feel much of anything that I was doing. But with the help of the nurse and my mother and husband I was able to push him under my pubic bone. At that point the nurse called in my OB and an army of nurses. Here I am exposed to the world and since my belly was so large no landscaping had been done in that area for months but I didn’t care.
Giving birth this time was an odd feeling. I felt the pressure but nothing else. My son came out and he was placed on my belly and he was blue, covered in vernix (the white fatty stuff), his head was coned and he had rolls on his upper arms and legs. He was angry!
 The nurse kept touching his head to try to help him to latch on to nurse and each time he yelled. I kept telling her to stop touching his head since it was clearly painful to him but she kept trying. He was a BIG baby. The nurses started guessing on the weight and writing the guesses down. Nobody guessed high enough. Nobody thought 11lbs 14oz. or 5400gr. I didn’t think that he would be that big. I only had second degree tears and less damage than I had with my second that was 9lbs 3oz. For the rest of my stay at the hospital my room became like a side show at a carnival and the nurses took turns coming in to see him and amazed at his size and being born vaginally.

That is 5400gr for you non Americans
My labor and delivery nurse was so great!
My mother one of the best labor coaches Ever!

Baby was a little slow to nurse but I expected that with having had an Epi. as soon as it started wearing off of me he started nursing like a champ and hasn’t stopped since. I didn’t get to sleep that night though. He was uncomfortable and hungry and I ended up awake until the next day. The next day our pediatrician Dr. Hart came to see us. I was so happy to see her because I was a bit worried about the swelling that looked like fat around his neck and under his ears.  If you look at the photo of my mother holding the baby you can see the swelling under his ears. Dr. Hart did OMT therapy and the swelling went away! I was so thankful. It didn’t look right to me and I had been praying that he did not have some sort of  disorder all night long.

The big brothers checking out the new addition.

 It’s a month later now and what a ride. Being a mother of 3 and healing from delivery. My mother and father have been great help and so was my mother in law and father in law a few days after birth. I was surrounded by people that cared for us and felt very blessed. Everybody is not that lucky.

This week I took baby boy to his one month check up and he is now 15lbs 14oz and 24inch long! He is in the 100th percentile. I grow giants and have given little boy the new nickname of Mr. Chubs. He is so chubby! I guess the breast milk works.

Thank you all for all that you do!

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Expecting Again and Angry at Discover Health.

Yes, we are expecting our second child and it was a complete surprise. Apparently I prayed a little too hard last semester about passing all of my final tests and I ended up passing a pregnancy test as well.
Being pregnant again has made me think back to my last pregnancy and birth. The only part of my pregnancy that I remember being bad was the first trimester and now I am really feeling it this time around as well. But this time, with not getting as much rest because of a very active toddler, I am suffering more morning sickness all day long and I´m more tired.
I´ve also been looking back at my birth. I had an all natural birth and it was amazing. I´m not saying that it was painless but it was so empowering and it wasn´t a pain that was not tolerable. I´ve been watching Discover Health birth stories and I have just gotten so mad at what the media is saying is normal when it comes to delivery. Pitosen is not something that should be used in a healthy delivery. The only reason Dr.´s want to use it is so they don´t have to stay at the hospital that long. Braking your water is not a good idea. It can rush things along but that water is there to help with the birth. You are risking a C-section if you have your water broken and your baby is not descending in the time that the Dr.´s want then they will give you a C-section. I´m also angry at the fact that almost all of the birthing stories are epidural stories. I´m sorry but the US is just very guilty at making women think that they can not handle birth. That birth is an illness that has to be taken care of by a surgeon. Where have all the midwives gone? Home births are so few and far between and these women are made think by Dr.’s that it is a dangerous practice. I have to say that when I delivered in Iceland that I did not have a home birth but I did deliver on the all natural ward at the hospital called the nest and there I had access and the choice to deliver in water but because of how long I had been in labor and how tall I am I could not get comfortable in the tub. So I delivered in a queen size bed. I did get a little help with the pain of contractions but it was just laughing gas and I had been on it too long by the time it was time to deliver so that was all me. The Midwife that delivered my baby was just there to catch and clean out the airway and then she just handed my my baby. They didn’t take my baby away from me at all for 2 hours and then they only took him over to a table in the same room to measure, weight and give him his vitamin K shot. Then he was handed back to me. For this reason I am going back to Iceland to have this child as well. I want the same experience again. I want the natural no stress delivery where the midwives are there for me and my baby and not doing things just to cover their ass for their their insurance companies.
In a natural delivery women do not need to be told to push. When I delivered I could not have stopped pushing even if I had been asked to. It was so intense that my son came out all at once in one push.
Oh, and one more thing for you mothers that are going to have more children or you women going to have your first child. Cutting the perineum is not better than ripping when you deliver. Cutting will cut though muscle while ripping will rip around and heal faster. That was my biggest fear when having my first son was the pain that would come with ripping. Then when he came I had to ask if I had ripped. I didn’t even know so to you women that have the same fear, fear not.

If you want to know more and be more informed about birth read the book, a thinking woman’s guide to a better birth.