Wednesday, February 20, 2008

I WANT YOUR BABY STORIES!

Well, enough of you have commented that you would be into a BABY STORY GIG! I thought it would be fun b/c we ALL end up talking about birthing our children at some point when a bunch of women get together. You may have known the woman across the table from you for 42 seconds but she mentions her OB/GYN and you jump right into your rant on epesiotomies!
So, here is what we are going to do!
1. This week, I will post MY baby stories here for you to enjoy.
2. Post your birth/adoption stories on YOUR blog (with a link to our contest) and leave your link in the comments section of this post so we can all visit your blog and enjoy your story.
3. If you don't have a blog, feel free to leave your birth/adoption story in the comments section here.
4. Each night I will choose one of your stories to "showcase" for the next day. Check back to see if you have been "showcased".
5. Invite your blog readers to join us, too. Make sure they leave links to their stories HERE so we can have a HUGE GIGANTIC AMAZINGLY COOL contest!
6. I am close to nailing down to prize and will notify you when I am SURE it is a DONE DEAL!
OK ladies (and gentlemen if you want to participate...) let's hear about your babies!!!
Contest will run from Wednesday 2/20 - Tuesday 2/26.
We will vote on the "SHOWCASED MOMS" on Wednesday 2/27.
I will announce the WINNER on my Thursday (2/28) "Gabbin' Mama" Video Blog!

26 comments:

tracey.becker1@gmail.com said...

Cool, hon. Here's my link to Corinne's birth story from a year ago...

http://tracey-justanothermommyblog.blogspot.com/2007/03/bump.html

tracey.becker1@gmail.com said...

Cool, hon. Here's my link to Corinne's birth story from a year ago...

http://tracey-justanothermommyblog.blogspot.com/2007/03/bump.html

Anonymous said...

http://multiplemomt.blogspot.com/

This is the birth story of my quadruplets 6 1/2 years ago.

AlaneM said...

Oh this is so very cool. What mom can pass up telling the best stories of her life!
I'm on it...

Theresa said...

I'll get right on it. I love baby stories! Theresa

Grandmother Goddess of the Garden said...

Hmmmmmmmmm,,,gotta use the brain cells on this one...it was a long long time ago! Do grandchildren'a births count?

nomi said...

Fantastic idea! But I'm not going to participate! Both of my birth stories are enough to make any pregnant mom want to leave the country and try to escape labor, I wouldn't want to be responsible for that! LOL! I can't wait to read all the stories!

Unknown said...

Count me in! I just posted it over on my page! http://scienceesl.blogspot.com

Anonymous said...

Oh darn, I have the story all set to go on the computer in Dutch (it was published in a Dutch parenting magazine), but that is not going to win me a prize... So here is the birth story in ENGLISH of the my 4th (and last) child:

The other 3 kids are out for the day with my parents; it is May 12, 2005 and I am 10 days overdue with our 4th. I have bribed the midwife (we have a lot of them over here in Holland and strongly believe in homebirths!) to refer me to the hospital for an inducement since I am fit no more and sick and tired of being pregnant. Two days before, the baby was checked and said to be in excellent condition, HEAD DOWN (remember that detail!). When in my birthing suite, the contractions come nicely. One setback: the nurse has the hardest time to locate the baby's heartbeat. How can that be? After a while, the doctor suspects that the umbelical cord (is that how you spell it?) might be in the way for a natural birth (it could rupture or be caught off by the baby's head) so he tells me to get ready (mentally and physically) for a c-section. He checks me one more time and then speaks the historical words "wait a minute, I feel a FOOT!!". It seems that this baby managed to do a summersault the last day in utero... he was now butt-down... (and that is why the nurse couldn't locate the heartbeat, she was searching in the wrong place!!). OK, a breech baby, let's get to the OR... or so you would think the doctor suggested. But no, this nice man went on to say "But ma'm, it is your 4th, why not go ahead and try to have him the natural way??" Aha, here I am, with huge contractions, having to make a sane decision. The baby decides for me though, because at that moment, my water breaks. Go ahead, said the doctor, it is not a big baby (remember that one too.. a little reassuring was the thought that this man had worked in Africa and deliverd breech-babies on the side of the road... so I kept telling myself, if he could get them out there, I should be ok as well..). And then, I 'feel something'. What's happening? My husband tells me "his foot is born!" to which the doctor replies: "mmm, big foot... it is not such a small baby after all". All I can think is OH JOY!!. Within 10 minutes I am dialated 10 centimetres and have to start pushing... now I now why babies come head first: it is easy to push a HEAD out, a butt, on the contrary, is NOT (soft and little...). The doctor in the end needs to turn the baby (aha, screwdriver!!) and after 7 more pushes, our son, DAAN (Dutch short for Daniel) is born... A whooping 9 pounds 9 oz!!!!
It takes me 5 minute to recuperate.. and then it hits me: I delivered an almost 10 lbs breech baby, no epidural, nothing...
How cool is that??

PS Daan is almost 3 now and the cutest thing that ever happened to our family. He cracks up his sisters and brother every day and has a head full of curls...

Anonymous said...

Question: I try to blog most days. Not EVERY day, though! Are you willing to scroll down past the more recent entries to find the birth story?

Julie said...

Okay, I have posted my first story...
http://juliekirbyblog.blogspot.com/2008/02/yeah-for-contests.html

I have 3 more to go...

SubWife said...

Well, here's mine.

http://subjugatedwife.blogspot.com/2008/02/it-was-two-year-ago-todaywell-almost.html

Julie said...

Since the babies are sick, I have time to type more...

Here's Bug's birth story:
http://juliekirbyblog.blogspot.com/2008/02/my-next-entry.html

Theresa said...

The story from Dutch momma of 4 was so amazing! How do you top that? Are we posting all the births and then choosing? Hey I only have 2! I'll work on mine today. Theresa

Destini said...

I finished my mini-novel for your reading pleasure of the day my first son was born!

http://glimpseofdestini.blogspot.com

Unknown said...

OK Natalie's birth story is up!

I will work on Kelsey's probably later tonight.

Anonymous said...

I just posted mine! They are up at http://asifyoucare.wordpress.com/2008/02/22/my-birth-stories/

Thanks and I love reading all the stories!!

- Lisa

chaos (aka ferret) said...

Here's my birth story (in 3 parts)
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3: The Wild Ride

Kalynne Pudner said...

What I lack in punctuality, I make up for in quantity. All nine birth stories here:
http://phdwithninekids.blogspot.com/2008/02/stand-aside-ladies-someone-called-for.html
(Don't know how to link inside a comment box; sorry!)

Anonymous said...

I posted about my third baby.
Thanks for the invite.

Julie said...

Okay, my third installment of birth stories has been posted.

Have no fear, I have ONE more!!

As Cape Cod Turns said...

OK, baby story number 2 is done! Thanks for 'making' me write them down!

Mandy said...

Here's my stories!! Thanks for the fun contest!

http://mandys-life.blogspot.com/2008/02/birth-stories.html

Julie said...

I posted my final story. I can't wait till we get to the voting stage!! There's some good stories out there.

Anonymous said...

Here is the story of my second daughter's birth:
----------------------------------

My 1st daughter was around 6 months old when a friend of mine called to tell me she was pregnant (our first are 2 weeks apart). I was breastfeeding 100% of the time (pumping while at work), but knew that you could get pregnant while nursing – I also had already gotten my cycle back – but we were being careful. There was no way we were pregnant again! Well, I wasn’t sure when I should start but had a feeling – so we were in Target and I picked up a pregnancy test just to alleviate any worries. My husband was taking a shower, so I “took” the test. We were not pregnant – no way!! HAHA – joke’s on us! It was positive, as were the following two tests that I took. I called my friend, 2 weeks to the day from when she called me, and told her I was pregnant!

Being 6 months pregnant at my 1st child's 1st birthday was just BIZARRE but it was what it was and there was nothing I could do about it. I bucked up and tried to be at peace with this thing I SO did NOT plan. (Ok, I stole this paragraph from Michelle – but it is so nicely worded and so APPROPRIATE and how I was feeling).

We choose not to find out if we are having a boy or girl – didn’t’ know with the first and didn’t with this one either! My husband, however, predicted that this would be a girl, I would go past my due date, and “she” would be born in the middle of the night! WHOA!!!

A girl I worked with and I were due the same day. I was so hoping this baby would arrive early and mostly expected this – as our first one was 4 days early! Hey – 4 days is 4 days! My co-worker had her baby 2 weeks before our due date – precious little girl – boy was I jealous she was already off work on maternity leave, but more so that she wasn’t pregnant anymore!!

I had my regular OB appointment on a Monday and all was fine. They said they could strip my membranes to speed things along – HMM..NO THANK YOU! Baby will come when ready.

The Big Day
I had been having contractions on and off that day – a bit more than usual – even so much that I was charting them at my desk (yes I was still working). This I think freaked out my boss and co-workers a bit (they were all male)…Made them nervous I think (they knew of the quick labor and delivery of our first daughter). Kind of funny for me!

My due date came and went!

I worked a full day until around 5 pm. We went to grab some dinner and then went to Home Depot as our bassinet needed to be repaired (nothing like waiting until 2 days after your due date to fix the baby’s bed)! We were in Home Depot and husband was trying to make a decision of what materials he would need to fix the bassinet and was taking his sweet time. All of sudden, I looked at him and said “we have to go NOW”! He said why? I said “NOW”!! I thought I had peed on myself – I wasn’t having contractions at this point and felt fine. He proceeded to make his decision and head to the checkout, while I headed to the truck!

We went home, put Bella to bed, and carried on as normal. There were no signs that it was my water that had broken and again I felt fine and besides the little “surge” I had in Home Depot – nothing else. I was sleeping on the couch by this point for comfort reasons and husband was in our bed. At least one of us should get some sleep, right? So we all went to sleep.

Around 12:47, I woke up with contractions and I’m not talking mild contractions!!! I proceeded to get my book and try to take a bath (I have natural, unmedicated childbirths)! That didn’t work and I was more uncomfortable in our bathtub. So I got out – still didn’t want to wake up husband – again someone should get some sleep! But it just kept going and they seemed to be getting closer together and more frequent. I finally woke him up and told him to rub my back – I have back labor. He did as told but it wasn’t helping and I had the urge to pee every time I had a contraction. I actually ended up hugging the porcelain God – sitting backwards and hunching over – wow – what relief!

We decided that we should probably start heading to the hospital. We had two friends on call – one lived about 5 minutes away and the other, maybe 10 minutes. Husband called friend #1, no answer, voicemail. Husband called friend #2, no answer, voicemail. He is in the process of leaving friend #2 a message when I say “hang up the phone, my water broke, this baby is coming”! WE ARE STILL AT HOME!! So, he hangs up the phone with friend #2’s voicemail, calls 911, gets a towel (wouldn’t want to stain the carpet!), lays it in front of our bed and helps me to the floor. I push maybe 2 or 3 times and SHE arrives AT HOME at 3:57 AM!! WHOA – Husband was right – past due date, girl, and middle of the night! Maybe I should start listening to him….He is talking to the 911 operator and Bella (1st daughter) starts crying and that bothers me – I tell him to give me the phone and go get Bella!!! I talk to the 911 operator and tell him we are fine, baby is breathing and nursing, we had wiped her down a bit and she was wrapped in a blanket on Mommy!

Finally about 10 minutes after her birth, the fire department/rescue squad arrive – sirens and all!!! How exciting! We finally get off the phone with 911 and the firefighters proceed to our bedroom where they cut the cord (haha – they ask Daddy is he wants to and he declines – all they had was a straight edge to cut it with – like Daddy hasn’t been involved enough?). They check out the baby and all is fine – they load us up on a stretcher and we proceed to the hospital.

Brannon starts called family (all our family was out of town) and when he says “It’s a girl” and they respond with “you were supposed to call us when you left for the hospital” he replies “ok, well I’ll call you when we leave”!!!

On the way to the hospital – Brooklyn Elizabeth turns a bit blue and they have to put the oxygen mask around her (not on her completely) and they turn the sirens on and speed up the pace – this was a little scary but the EMTs assured me she was fine – and she was.

We get to the hospital and it is quite crazy – EMT is trying to get all my insurance information; hospital is insisting I get registered; they’ve taken my baby to check her over and I want her back! My husband stayed behind with Bella to get her to a friend’s house to watch her.

After a brief one night stay in the hospital – we were released and she is now 16 months old!

That’s our story of Brooklyn’s birth!!!

Sally Hazel said...

I read about the contest on my friends blog. Hope it's not too late to join (I've read the rules but my recall isn't that great:))

http://reincarnatedsally.blogspot.com/2008/02/how-i-became-mom.html