Hurricane Levon

(Levon at home - August 31st, 2011)

So, just as I am getting into the swing of a blog post or two a day, something fantastic happened to our family! Here is a quick run down of the story (I will post the birth story once I get a chance to sit down and write all about it)! I woke up on at 2:30 a.m. on the 28th with a backache and noticed that I was bleeding a little bit. By 3:30 a.m. I was in active labor. Our baby boy was born on August 28th, 2011 at 3:30pm. He was 7lbs 8oz, 20 inches long! I had a short and easy labor that lasted around 11 hours. I pushed for 2. Levon Patrick Alan was born on our bed, in our bedroom, in our home with my awesome, super supportive husband - under the supervision of my two fantastic midwives and my sister.

(Our home birth - August 28th, 2011)

(Levon at the hospital with Momma - August 28th, 2011)

I was able to have about 5 minutes of uninterrupted skin to skin contact with him before the birth became an emergency situation...

Shortly after (about 3 minutes) I gave birth to him, my midwives noticed some excess bleeding. They diagnosed a postpartum hemorrhage and called 911. An ambulance and EMT's arrived shortly thereafter and I was transported to Midcoast Medical for emergency surgery. The cause of my hemorrhage was an inability to deliver my placenta, which was still attached to my uterus. I was put under general anesthesia and had my placenta manually extracted.

(Breastfeeding - August 28th, 2011)

(Levon and Daddy at the hospital - August 28th, 2011)

The whole process took about an hour and a half and I was able to be with my husband and our baby. Thankfully, Levon was able to be in the hospital with us without being admitted. We had to stay at the hospital for monitoring for a day. I was given saline, and an iron drip. I was discharged with no further complications... except for being anemic. I have to take an iron supplement daily and monitor my heart rate and temperature... my heart has been beating steadily between 105-120BPM. So far we have been home for almost 3 days and everything is going perfectly!

(Levon at home - August 31st, 2011)

(Daddy and Levon at home - August 29th, 2011)

(Levon at home - August 31st, 2011)

When I have the drive and energy I will write in detail our birth story.

" You ain't artsier than me..."

It's been a longer afternoon than normal, spicing up my blog. When I sit on the couch with my laptop in tow, I feel as if the day drags on. I got quite a bit accomplished on my blog, and I'm hoping that the more time and effort I put into it, the more I will write, and it will gain more importance in my life. It already seems that way. I haven't done everything I wanted to get completed, but it's a work in progress. I have the images I want for the about pages and that's fine with me for now. Slow and steady, slow and steady wins the race.

Patrick should be leaving work shortly, here, in about ten minutes. His drive takes about 35 minutes with no traffic.. but it's a Friday and we're still in peak tourist season, so, we'll see what time he gets home. I need to get myself into gear and feed my dogs and cats and pack everything up to go over to Haley's for the evening. My Mother is going to be over there also to visit, as my brother's daughter Aubrey is spending the night. Before we head over there for dinner, though, we have to make the 15 minute drive to Cathy's to bring her laundry to her and Patrick is going to help her bring in a night stand. The dogs will enjoy the scenic ride over, that's for sure! They have just been relaxing this afternoon, some excitement will do them good.

As a quick side note, before I close out and head off for the day, when Cathy arrived here she brought us Dublin Dr. Pepper! It is sooo delicious, and you can't get it in the North East. I don't even know if you can get it outside of Texas? Either way, she brought us a case and although I have been staying true to my strictly low sugar, high protein diet for my pregnancy (we had a gestational diabetes scare, I was eating too much Coldstone for a couple months) I have been indulging in one every now and again. 35g of pure cane sugar can't be that bad, can it? Even if it is, it tastes SO good. I'll just walk it off...

Blog post title quoted from The Grouch - Artsy

Say yes, to french press!

This morning was a slow starter, which is always nice for us. We rolled out of bed around 8:15 and got ready for the day with a cup from the Keurig and some jam & butter whole grain toast. Our prenatal started at 9:00 and ended not long after that. They seem to get shorter the closer and closer we get, which I like! It means we have an uncomplicated pregnancy and that's alright by me. And my midwives, I'd assume, as well! Shortly after they left, Patrick and I decided we would have some fresh ground coffee out of the french press. We have some extra time on prenatal mornings as he doesn't have to leave for work until 11am... so we busted it out and boy, was it delicious, and always worth the wait!

I love the extra long mornings with my best friend... I wish they could be longer. A long morning means a short work day...  he'll be home before I know it! And I get him the entire weekend... for which I am so thankful! We only have a few more weekends with just the two of us, the dogs, and the cats before we welcome our new addition. We'll have to go out and do something while we still have the time, and the energy...

Slurry Jury

I just got finished "nesting" for the evening. Patrick enjoyed it, I would imagine, because he was able to watch some man television (Solitary Confinement, a National Geographic Documentary) and create and upload a new track to his bandcamp. He also enjoyed it because now he's got a dish free sink and a sparkling clean bathroom! I also offered to do a load of laundry for my mother in law who just relocated to Maine from Texas just yesterday... so that's in the dryer currently, fluffing up and smelling yummy.

I'm all yucky and I can't wait to take a shower but for now my wonderful husband is rubbing my feet, like he does every night. I'll hop in and clean up (in my sparkling clean shower!!) when he's finished and relax for the rest of the evening. Probably fold that laundry and get it ready to go so we can drop it off to her tomorrow.

I have my 38 week prenatal appointment in the morning, so, no sleeping in for me. 2 more weeks until my due date, I wonder if we'll "go early..." Let's hope so? Either way.. early or late, as long as he's healthy that's all that matters! We're all prepared for our home birth/water birth and the arrival of our peanut, so any day is fine with me! I can't wait to go from just the 2 of us to 3!

Goodnight blogosphere.

38 weeks and counting down...

We are 38 weeks officially today and the count down has already started until when baby Levon will make his grand entrance earth side. I am going to try and capture our lives here in this blog so one day, my little man can read about our adventures together.

Here I am at 37 weeks 5 days pregnant with him...

Our sweet boy at 33 weeks 4 days! July 25th, 2011.