A little Ali-Craiglet!!

alicraiglet @ 2008-06-12T13:03:00

2008-06-12T17:04:46Z

Remember 8,000 years ago I had a baby shower?

2008-06-06T18:27:45Z

I finally have pictures from it!! I'm not sharing them all, there's well over 100 of them. Sorry. Unfortunately they're ALL of me. lol. I wish I had pictures of other people from my shower. I guess I was lucky to get these finally. I need to get my hair done again. It looked so shiney and not ugly...

Well, that was traumatic.

2008-06-06T15:12:14Z

Danny got his first set of immunizations today. I have NEVER heard such shrill screams come out of my son before. I cried.

havent posted in here in a while! (most of this is x-posted)

2008-06-05T11:19:59Z

I went through Danny's clothes and took out all the things that don't fit Danny anymore. I'm goig to sell them on ebay, except for a couple things I can't bear to part with (such as the outfit he wore home from the hospital and his uber cute doggie jammies). Baby clothes seem to sell really well on ebay so we'll give it a shot.

Heather's visit (from Nurturing Families) went well yesterday, we talked about baby's hearing developement. We did an activity where we went through magazines and cut out pictures of things that make noise (a dog, a telephone, a car, etc) and taped them to little pieces of construction paper and made a book out of it. I'm supposed to hold up the pictures in front of Danny and tell him what the picture is, and then make the noise it makes. He gets a KICK out of it, he thinks it's hilarious haha. Especially "car". I hold it up and say "CAR!!! VRRROOOMM VRRROOOMM!!! BEEP BEEP!" and he gets this HUGE smile on his face and kicks his feet. If he could laugh already, he'd be cracking up.

She also confirmed for me that he is teething. I thought it was too early for that, but I should know by now my baby does everything early (except be born). So I asked her to bring me teething information next week. I'm sure I could look up all the info that she brings me online, but she seems to have such better things. And she brought me a 3 ring binder to put it all in.

I'm so glad I decided to do this, it is really helping me out. I don't feel so damned depressed anymore because now I understand my baby better. And seeing how advanced he is tells me I'm not doing anything wrong.

alicraiglet @ 2008-04-16T22:47:00

2008-04-17T02:55:17Z

I don't think I'll ever figure out what this baby has against sleeping. He's just lying there in his basinette wide awake. He starts to fall asleep and then starts crying and wakes himself up. I don't know why he needs to fight the sleep, sleep is awesome, I love sleep.

Mommy Lynne took him today so I could sleep. I only slept for a couple hours, and even that is a big deal since I'm never able to take naps unless I'm sick. She said they kept him awake all day so he'd sleep tonight. Apparently Danny has other ideas.

I missed him so much when he was gone. I slept with one of his blankies lol.

Overall he's a great baby, I have no trouble with him. It's just this sleep rebellion thing that's gotta go because I'm friggin tired. Like tired to the point of crying, and I know me crying isn't helping him relax any.

alicraiglet @ 2008-04-15T15:34:00

2008-04-15T19:35:26Z

How am I supposed to "sleep when the baby sleeps" if he DOESN'T SLEEP??

Just thought I'd ask. Since, you know, everyone seems to keep giving me that piece of advice.

The professional hospital photo!

2008-04-08T22:14:37Z

http://our365.com/NewbornPortraits/BabyDetail.aspx?BirthId=8af9d000-6613-4ea4-9c4c-ed9ac0c20d69

alicraiglet @ 2008-04-06T09:50:00

2008-04-06T13:58:32Z

I know you're all waiting for pictures, sorry! I have one! I'm still in the hospital and I haven't REALLY slept since early friday morning except for an hour or so here and there so I'm not feeling too hot, which is why I have been a bad updater!

post from mommy!

2008-04-05T21:29:00Z

I had to have 2 epidurals because the first one only numbed my right side of my body. The second one ended up numbing my left leg, not my belly. Figures right? lol. Hurt like hell but I delivered him vaginally, I pushed for 45 minutes, which made me happy because the nurse was telling me another woman pushed for 3 hours, and I know it can take longer than that. It was rough, late labor and the delivery process was making me throw up a lot. The doctor said I was an EXCELLENT pusher. I just wanted him out lol. I didn't care that it hurt. When he came out I just kept going "Oh my God my baby!! My baby!! Oh my god!" i was laughing and crying at the same time. He was covered in cheese and all I could say is "He's so cute!!"

He has my eyes, chin, eyebrows, and toes and long fingers. He has craigs cheeks, nose and the rest of his feet.

I now know the true meaning of love at first sight.

I was so proud of Craig, he did so well helping me and he even watched the whole birth while holding my leg. I love him so much.

Daniel Paul (we changed his middle name) is a beautiful healthy baby. He's so good too. He hasn't cried much at all, excpet for when he had a poopy diaper and when he was hungry. It took him a good 10 minutes to figure out the whole breast feeding thing but he's got it down.

TMI AHEAD!!
I had a little issue with excessive bleeding afterwords. I was here, in post partum talking to my dad on the phone,and I just felt a GUSH, and it just wasn't stopping so I hung up with him and called the nurse. Craig was taking a shower, so he had no idea what was going on, but when he came out he was just in time to hear the nurse pick up her radio and say "I need a blue cart in 633 STAT, patient has excessive bleeding". I freaked lol I cried. I had a lot of clotting, they gave me pain meds and some suppositories and just went in and pulled out a whole lot of clots. Looked like a murder scene.

The long process (I really didn't sleep at all last night and was here since 7:30 am) paired with the pain killers through the IV have me SO tired. I've been sleeping on and off, but they keep coming in to poke at me and make sure I'm not bleeding to death.

Well, I think I covered everything... I'm kinda hungry now, but they keep giving me shitty food. They gave me the exact same crap broccoli and... this meat patry thing that I'm not really sure what it was for lunch AND dinner, so Craig's going to run to Friendly's for me and get me some fries. That's all I really want is fries, I'm still kinda woozy from the pain meds.

We'll have more pictures, I promise, it's just really hard to get them to load on this computer.

Thanksfor the comments guys,i love you all!!!

here's the boy!!!!

2008-04-05T17:08:23Z

born at 9am. 8lbs -- 21 inches. i'll have more later, but i know some of you are antsy. I want to thank each and every one of you for supporting alison and i through such a wonderful thing. i watched every minute of his birth and it is unexplainable.
both mom and baby are sleeping.

i feel like a differant man nw, than i did yesterday.

he's here!!!!!

2008-04-05T13:36:38Z

pictures later. everything is fine. he's wonderful. mommy and daddy are doing great!!!

7:23am

2008-04-05T11:29:10Z

8 centimeters.

2nd epidural.

next post should be baby picture!!!!

--craig

5:21 am

2008-04-05T09:27:32Z

epidural @ 4:30

cut scar tissue @5:15

water broke and dialated 2 centimeters. everything goes well. he'll be here a little after lunch.

<3
--craig

craig again

2008-04-05T01:49:24Z

9:38pm. they checked her cervix. nothing. shes upset, trying to sleep now. i'll be up for awhile. she has scarring on her cervix. i forget the name of the procedure she had done, and i dont want to wake her. thats the main culprit. they tried to stick a balloon thing in it to try and break it open but the cervix isnt open enough.

they will check again between 2-3am.

aim=circusofhorror

hi, it's Craig

2008-04-04T16:34:20Z

it's 12:26. we've been here since 7:30. ALison hasnt dialated yet so they gave her medicine to soften up her cervix and dialate her. then they will induce labor. the medicine they said will take 12 hours to work.

my brother loaned me his laptop so we wont be bored, and the hospital has wireless internet, so i'll be on and off with updates.

circusofhorror@aol.com or i will check comments later.

alison is doing well. shes just bored.

ho hum.

2008-04-01T17:41:06Z

Stiiilll pregnant.

Craig and I were talking. Here's what we decided is going to happen. I'm going to go in to be induced. They're gonna do what they have to do, and then check my cervix and it's still not going to be dilated at all. I'm sure the baby's too big anyways, he's not going to fit out. They're going to need to do a c-section.

I'll bet we're right. At this point, I don't even CARE how he comes out. I don't care if I need to go out to a field wtih a pair of scissors and a plunger, he's coming OUT.

I'm kind of bummed that my parents aren't coming down for his birth. They said they'd come after I was home, but yanno, I kinda wanted my mother at the hospital... A girl needs her mom at times like these. It wasn't that big a deal at first, because I figured my aunt judy could take her place, she's like a second mommy. But then I find out she's STILL in Tuscon. I hope she comes back soon.

Oh well.

alicraiglet @ 2008-03-28T14:06:00

2008-03-28T18:07:04Z

View Poll: Guess the baby's arrival date!

alicraiglet @ 2008-03-27T18:15:00

2008-03-27T22:22:36Z

Went to my appointment, I'm still not dilated. At all. They're inducing me April 4th at 7 am, which is next Friday. I know I should be excited but I feel like it's too far away. I am willing to bet he'll be too big for me to deliver and they're going to make me get a c-section. At this point I don't even care how he comes out, I just want my baby.

alicraiglet @ 2008-03-27T12:46:00

2008-03-27T16:56:29Z

dude i am in so much pain right now. ugh. But I'm not having contractions (at least not *real* ones) so they won't let me go to the hospital. And I know, I know, "it's only going to get worse!". I know, you don't need to tell me. But shit. I'd rather be in pain and know I'm in labor because at least then the baby will be on the way. He just keeps moving around like mad, kicking and it feels like he's smashing his head against my cervix. That's what's hurting me, is his head pressing down so hard. And I feel like there's like electricity shooting through the tendons or whatever in my groin area and it's hard to stand when it happens. I'm glad I have an appointment today. Not that they're going to tell me anything constructive...

And this is PROBABLY tmi, but thats why I have this seperate journal for baby stuff, but I think I lost part of my mucous plug yesterday. Not that that means anything. I looked it up a bunch of places online and they all say that losing your mucous plug can mean you're either about to go into labor, or labor is days or even weeks away. ...yeahhhh that helps lol. They should have just said "it doesn't mean much at all, disreguard it."

tapping fingers

2008-03-26T11:43:39Z

Fetal development in pregnancy week 40:fetus in ninth month

This is it. If you haven’t already gone into delivery, we’ve officially arrived at that time where all you’re doing is trying to patiently play the oh-so-maddening waiting game. Your long-awaited miracle is undoubtedly just as impatient as you to get things moving along. You can generally expect a head-first delivery unless your healthcare provider is unable to coax them out of breech position, in which case their feet come first. After nine months of waiting and even after your wonder-baby is finally out, your doctor or midwife will probably make you wait another five minutes while they give your child an Apgar score (see below); suction any fluids or mucous that may be blocking their newly exposed airways; and clean the remaining vernix and blood from their little body. After all the waiting, you’ll finally get to hold your exhausted little love-bug. Just a heads up: it’s fairly common for newborns to have a bit of chapping or even red rashes on their skin. Gerber babies don’t just pop out sparkly clean and smooth from the womb.

It’ll come whether you’re ready or not, so grab your bag, call the doc, get a hold of the grandfolks-to-be and get ready to execute your much-rehearsed plan of action. PLEASE DO NOT put the pedal to the metal. Labor typically last 13 hours (8 hours for mothers who have delivered once already), and getting to the birth center 10 minutes earlier isn’t likely to make a big difference. Try to keep a level head and drive safely: there’s a lot at stake.

And how's mom doing? Phase I (Early Labor): If this is your first birth, you’ll finally understand just how fake Braxton-Hick contractions really are. Real labor contractions are going to be notably more intense, more painful, and come in waves of 3-4 every ten minutes--each one lasting up to 60 seconds. That said, at the beginning of early labor you’re best bet is to ride the contractions out in the comfort of your home. Realistically speaking, the contractions won’t be so frequent or painful that you won’t be able to putter around the house, watch a movie, or even take a warm bath to relax for the upcoming birth. Early labor can last up to eight hours for a first birth. As we’ve mentioned before, the amniotic sac may naturally break at this point. If this happens, go ahead and get your stuff together and head to the birth center even if your contractions haven’t started. If your water doesn’t break on its own, you can head to the birth center when your contractions are occurring every five minutes for over an hour (at this point they can last up to 90 seconds apiece Wooee!). For you anxious impatient types, try to avoid the stopwatch tedium of recording every contraction and do something more entertaining like watch SNL reruns on Comedy Central. Between Chris Farley and David Spade, you might want to check your rate periodically to see if it’s increased overall, and then get your stuff and head to the birth center to try and catch the next round of SNL reruns.

Phase II (Active Labor): When the cervix is dilated to 10 cm, your baby is usually descended somewhat into your pelvis and may be accompanied by feelings of rectal pressure similar to the feeling you have before a bowel movement. At this point it’s not unusual to feel nauseous (even to the point of vomiting), although many women don’t. On the other hand, there are plenty of cases where the mother is fully dilated but the baby won’t descend until much later in the labor-process. Although the typical course of action is bearing down (when the baby has descended) and pushing through the contractions to move your child through the birth canal, your uterus is also slowly pushing your baby downwards, so take it slowly and don’t strain too much. If it is your first birth, your baby will probably descend more slowly. It is still quite common to coach the mother to push and bear down as much as possible during this time, but there is no reason to believe that this is necessarily a better approach than waiting until you feel the spontaneous urge to bear down, which will happen eventually. Still, keep in mind: if you opt for an epidural, the loss of pelvic sensation will prohibit this option and instead require that you receive explicit coaching during the pushing process.

Phase III (Expelling the placenta): Within a half hour (but usually only a few minutes) after delivery, the placenta (also known as “afterbirth”) will also find its way out of your body. Expelling the entire afterbirth is important because any remaining pieces can cause bleeding and infection later on (early breastfeeding actually promotes complete afterbirth ejection).

At this point, the audience jumps to its feet in a resounding standing ovation. BRAVO!!! Encore? You know what? We’re going to let this baby and momma sleep a bit. It’s been a long journey and really, it’s only just the beginning of another even more incredible journey which we all call “life.” Maybe another year from now when all the pregnancy memories are faded and eclipsed by all the adorable happy baby moments, mom will shrug her shoulders and say it’s time for another, maybe….

alicraiglet @ 2008-03-25T07:15:00

2008-03-25T11:15:35Z

Still pregnant.

alicraiglet @ 2008-03-20T20:14:00

2008-03-21T00:22:02Z

I give up. I'm not having this baby ever. He's just not coming out. I'm not dilated at all. I had a different doctor today, Dr. Jancowski, not Dr. Snyder. I told the doctor that Dr. Snyder had told me they were going to set up a date to induce me but no one got back to me, and she looked at me all confused and said "Why would she do that??" So I explained to her how the baby is big (sersiously, look at my fucking charts, that's what they're there for) and I am (still) not showing any signs of going into labor any time soon and she told me they don't schedule dates to induce until you're 40 weeks (I'm 39 weeks). Which is fine, I would have been FINE with that if Dr. Snyder had told me that in the first place, instead of, oh I don't know, TELLING ME THEY'D SET UP A DATE AND CALL ME WITHIN THE NEXT COUPLE OF DAYS.

So I left the office all upset, ready to cry because he's obviously not coming out. I'm just going to spend the rest of my life pregnant and uncomfortable. I'll never sleep again because it's impossible to find a comfortable position and by the time I do fall asleep due to exhaustion I have to get up and pee anyways. I don't give a crap if he's not technically late yet. He's huge and I'm not big enough to accomodate him. I'm tired of being itchy and having feet jammed under my ribs.

And I'm NOT freaking crabby.

Week 39

2008-03-20T11:57:44Z

Well is it time yet? How 'bout now?? ...NOW?!

Is it weird that every time I have a contraction I sit there yelling "OH PLEASEEE BE PAINFUL!!"? I don't even care if my water breaks at work anymore (and yes I know it's not really that common for women to have their water break). I'm not afraid of labor anymore. A couple months ago it was keeping me up at night, I was terrified thinking about it. But now I just want to go and have this baby.

I just realized I still don't have a breast pump. And no one got me one of those baby grooming kits with the booger sucker and the little hair brush and stuff and for some reason I feel like I NEED one of those. I don't know why, does anyone actually use all the stuff in those kits? I've never done this before. Maybe I'm just paranoid. But I need the boob pump.

I still haven't heard from my doctor about the induction date. I have an appointment at 4:50 today though so I'm going to ask about it then.

I would also like to point out that they're wrong about my baby not being able to move much anymore in the following info. My baby must be strong as hell because you should SEE my belly go. Yesterday I could FEEL his foot from the outside. I had Craig push his hand on my belly just below my ribs to see if he could feel it too, and he could. It was cute. But I'd rather see the real thing.

Fetal Development: Most of the lanugo is gone as the baby prepares for its final womb days. The lungs are maturing and surfactant production is increasing.
The baby can't move too much anymore as its womb space has become very crowded.

The average size baby is over seven pounds at this point.

Maternal Changes:
Are you feeling huge and clumsy? As the baby settles into your pelvis (lightening), your center of gravity shifts which may make you feel off-balance. The good news is, the uterus isn't pressing on your diaphragm so it's easier to breathe. The bad news is, your uterus is pushing on your bladder so you may be running to the bathroom every two minutes.
Your uterus is 6 1/2 to 8 inches above your navel!

Ideas for Dad: Congratulate yourself Dad! You're almost a father (or father again), and you've survived (almost) the pregnancy. You're probably a nervous wreck or in denial that anything is about to happen, but that's okay. In a few days (weeks), you won't remember what you had for breakfast (or even IF you had breakfast) let alone the anxiety you're having right now. Enjoy these last moments with mom as a couple or as a family of 3 (or 4, whatever your situation is) and pat yourself on the back for being a great dad. After all, if you weren't a great dad, you wouldn't be reading this guide!

Inspirational Thoughts: Childbirth is more admirable than conquest, more amazing than self-defense, and as courageous as either one. ~Gloria Steinem

alicraiglet @ 2008-03-17T07:50:00

2008-03-17T11:58:36Z

K I'm all done incubating the baby now, he can come out annnyyy time.

I'm growing rather impatient. He's moving around like MAD now, to the point where it hurts. I think I saw the outline of his arm on my belly. The whole headbutting my cervix thing is getting old fast. He just needs to come out.

I thought I was in labor this past weekend. I was having real painful contractions, around 5 minutes apart. I could feel immense pressure on my cervix. I called the doctor and she asked me if I was dilated at my last prenatal visit, and I told her no. She asked if I had lost my mucous plug yet. I told her no. So she told me to keep timing the contrations a little longer, and of course they STOPPED. Ugh.

They still haven't called me with the date they want to induce me. 10 bucks says they're waiting till my next appointment to tell me. I HATE THAT. If you SAY you're going to CALL me with vital information, CALL ME WITH IT. I can't wait till THURSDAY to find these things out. I'm impatient.

People better not piss me off at work today. I think I might kill someone.

9 more days till my due date!!! Lets hope he comes on his own before then. As you could probably tell, I can't wait.

Week 38

2008-03-13T13:56:19Z

The ticker says I have hemmeroids. I don't! lol. I guess I just got lucky.

Babygaga is making me angry with some of the things they say in the week-by-week thing. "Oh sit down, relax, take a catnap put your feet up". Yeah, even if I could get comfortable enough to take a nap or even sit down with my feet up for that matter, who the hell's going to clean my house for me? It's not fair for me to leave it for Craig, he does enough already, especially lately since I've been slacking on a lot of things. This baby is uncooperative already. He just needs to come out. He keeps moving like he's trying to make more room for himself. There's plenty of room out HERE! ALLLL the space you could ever want!

My next prenatal is next week on Thursday at 4:50. That's perfect because Craig will be out of work by that time so he can go too. He's gone to most of them. I just don't see a reason for him to take time off from work for the "boring" ones where they just check the heartbeat and send me on my way and I'm literally in the room for like 5 minutes.

Anyways,

Fetal development in pregnancy week 38:fetus in ninth month
As you know, you've arrived at the final leg of your pregnancy journey, and if you're still carrying your little love around, they've just about reached their birth weight (somewhere between 6 to 8 pounds is average depending on whether they're a boy or girl). There really isn't a lot to report on baby this week, so lets do a quick recount of where we're at: all internal organ systems are pretty much ready for the outside world, they've got their meconium stockpile building up (their first black baby poo), lots of healthy baby fat, a rapidly developing brain (that'll keep growing with them for years to come), and they've more or less reached official baby status-- all they need to do is "head out" and say hello to the rest of the world and especially their ready-to-pop momma.

And how's mom doing?
Hang in there momma, it's only a matter of time before the obnoxious and painful fake contractions you felt in your back, lower belly, and pelvic region will be replaced by real contractions... which are even more obnoxious and painful. You'll know when the real ones kick in because they're more intensely painful (woo!) and they spread over the entire uterus, through the lower back and into your pelvis.

If you're having trouble sleeping (which about 100% of women in this phase of pregnancy are), try to take little catnaps during the day, get one of those neato full-body pregnancy pillows, or at least lots of pillows that you can shove between your legs and under your belly to support your awkward shape more comfortably. Also, if you're feeling weird electrical tingles in your legs and inside your vagina, this would be none other than your not-so-little baby hitting various nerves as they settle into the pelvic area. If you're feeling sharp shooting pains instead of tingles, this would be your extra-evil-but-adorable baby pressing on your oh-so-very sensitive sciatic nerve. All we can recommend is some wincing, sitting down, and putting your feet up.

Ideas for Dad:
You catch a glimpse of Mom's profile and see that big belly . . . and you feel instantly guilty. She's tired, cranky, sick of pregnancy, can't sleep because she has to get up every 30 minutes to go to the bathroom, has chronic heartburn and indigestion, and her mood is reflective of these late-pregnancy discomforts. You feel responsible, and you know what? You ARE responsible!
But let's think about that for a minute. Mom can't conceive without Dad, and Dad can't without Mom. That makes pregnancy a team effort. It's true that you don't have to go through the physical discomforts of pregnancy, but you do have your share of worries and a myriad of conflicting thoughts ~ and you have to watch someone you love change before your very eyes.

What's a Dad to do? You know already and that's why you're reading this guide. Just be there for Mom. It's a big job, and you're the best one to do it! You can't bear the brunt of pregnancy physically, but you can help Mom lighten the load considerably. And what do you do when Mom screams at you that "this" is all YOUR fault? Calmly remind her that you couldn't have done it without her part . . . and then run for cover!