Oh I've missed writing!

I went back to read that first post, and laughed that in my dream Zander was a girl. I hope that was the only part of the dream that was prophetic... so far I haven't locked Vera in a car. Other accomplishments include not dropping her, and not having to fight off a middle of the night intruder trying to steal her. And yes, all of these are legitimate concerns. (Though Chris assures me that no middle of the night intruder wants to steal Vera.)

Vera is two months old now, and oh how life has changed. I love every minute of it! I am so saddened by the fact that I never recorded more of these first two months. There just aren't enough pictures, there aren't enough journal entries, there is no way to grab hold of time and make it sit still. I keep trying to dig my heels in and hold on to these precious moments for a bit longer, but they pass by just as quickly as they please. "Wasting time" on a Sunday afternoon seems so foolish now. Why waste such a precious commodity.

Anyway, in an effort to record more of her life, I have been thinking about starting this blog back up. I realize that now, two months out, I'm beginning to forget pieces of my birth story. That precious day that I swore I'd never forget. So, here's my recollections two months later:

The Birth

I spent two weekends celebrating what I called "Induction Weekend," where I spent 48 hours trying every trick known to man to get Baby Vera out, I was definitely getting frustrated. Poor Beaux was privy to Induction Death Marches around the neighborhood where he barely got a chance to sniff, much less relieve himself. And my sweet husband was feeling... used. Anyway, all the pressure point poking, hardcore cleaning, membrane stripping, brisk walking, and herb taking seemed to have little effect on Miss V. She was cozy, and had no intention of leaving.

On Tuesday the 25th of January I started gardening, thinking that if people were going to be coming by, I might as well have some pretty flowers in the atrium and in the pots by the front door. So I ran to Lowes and set to work. I dragged a huge pot from the back porch to the front, and honestly, I think that was what did it. The pot was way too heavy and I remember feeling like crap afterward, knowing that I had overexerted myself and lifted an object that was far heavier than my midwife would recommend. Everything hurt.

Wednesday

That night I had a dream that labor had started. I remember a voice saying, "Your water broke!" and I instantly awoke. Groggy and out of sorts, I ran to the bathroom thinking "this is it! My water broke." I then got the huge burst of energy that everyone talks about. I ran up our stairs (which I had previously avoided because it was just too much work) and paced the floor of our loft praying for our baby. This would be an awesome story, except that my water hadn't actually broken, I was just a naive first time mom. But I did sense that something was starting.

Around 6 am I finally woke up Chris and told him that my water broke (it hadn't) and that today was going to be the day. I started getting slight labor pains, (though I had no idea how slight until I was in the throws of the real thing) and so I did my hair and make up (labor is no excuse for looking haggard) and we set off to the Allen Birthing Center. All the way we used an iPhone app to time the contractions- sure enough they were 5 minutes apart, a minute long and I'd had them for 2 hours.

The precious ladies at the birthing center very graciously told me, that these "contractions" uh... well they were nothing compared to active labor. Also, I was only dilated to 1 cm. "But I'm having minute long contractions, five minutes apart!" I insisted. They recommended that I head back home and continue laboring there. "How will I know when to come back?"

"Oh, you'll know."

Okay, Miss Vera is awake from her nap. What a great place to stop. I'll write more later...