Delphine Pearl

Delphine Pearl was born at 10:16 pm on Wednesday, November 13th, the day after her due date.  She was 8 lbs 8 oz and 20.5 inches long.  She looks a lot like her big sister but she has super light hair, it may even be red like Daddy's beard.

Long birth story to come, but in short I was only in active labor for 5.5-6 hours, arrived at the birth center a little over an hour before she was born, and pushed for 13 minutes!  She came fast and furious and it was intense but everything I wanted it to be!  I loved my experience at the birth center and it was great going home the next morning and figuring everything out in our own space instead of a hospital room.

Delphine has spoiled us with amazing sleep from the beginning.  She started sleeping 3 hour stretches in the crib from the second night we were home!  Within a week she was consistently giving us two long chunks of sleep every night and at two weeks she shocked us with over 8 hours in a row.  I didn't even know a two week old could sleep that long.  I woke up well before her and hovered over her crib, poking her, making sure she was alive.  She tends to clusterfeed in the evening and I always wake up with crazy full uncomfortable milk boobs, but I am surprisingly well rested and it's awesome!

Everyone keeps asking me how we picked her name and I honestly can't even remember where exactly I found it.  I did spend a lot of time on Nameberry.com so it probably popped up as a suggested name similar to something I liked.  We were looking for something unique, that didn't end in an A sound, and the European flair was a bonus.  We debated if it was too weird, but in the end decided it was beautiful and we had to go for it!  From Nameberry: Delphine is a sleek, chic French name with two nature associations—the dolphin and the delphinium, a bluebell-like flower, a well as to the ancient city of Delphi, which the Greeks believed to be the womb of the earth.

Vienna is doing well.  She was pretty uninterested at first but she has warmed up to her sister, who she has nicknamed Phine (even though she can say her full name haha).  She doesn't seem bothered by her crying or even sharing our attention and will bring her the little Minnie our awesome daycare woman got Delphine to comfort her.  She'll also kiss her goodnight on the top of her head and it makes my heart melt.

I cannot believe it has already been almost a month.  Time with a newborn is so weird, it feels like she's been here forever but also like I just gave birth.  The transition from 1 to 2 kids has been much easier than 0 to 1.  Sure there are times when I just can't believe I have to change another diaper or the baby starts crying right when we're sitting down to dinner.  But overall things are so wonderful as a family of four.

We are blessed.

Baby #2: Week 39

Another week, another Tuesday morning gym session.  The strength was overhead squats, which I thought I kept light but I did make it up to 80# and my quads were definitely sore afterwards.

The WOD was more OH squats (I used 55#), rowing (I did the bike), and pull ups (I did ring rows).  The workout was challenging, but I felt good afterwards.  I rewarded myself by getting a big breakfast from Chick-fil-A after doing my civic duty and dropping V off.

Hit play twice.

I had my 39 week appointment on Wednesday and it was really great.  Once again, everything was normal with my BP, baby's heartbeat, and they guessed 7.5 lbs so right on track.  I had a wonderful discussion with the student and the midwife about how I was looking forward to birth and how good it feels to fully trust my provider.  The midwife told me she wished she could be at my birth.  I left feeling really positive and excited.

I made it back to the gym on Friday thinking it would probably be my last time before birth.  The workout was a lot of wall balls and rowing (aka bike for me) but I didn't want to cook my quads again since they were still a tiny bit sore from Tuesday, so I mixed in some L sit dumbbell presses and ring rows.  The workout was 20 minutes long and I did 7 rounds of 4 cals on the bike, 6 wall balls, 8 ring rows, and 10 presses, plus made it through round 8 of the bike + 4 wall balls.  Everything felt great!

No footage, just a selfie.

I worked from home all week and it was just so nice to be able to be in my PJs and to be able to get into whatever position I could find some comfort in.  I am so glad my work is family friendly.

The weekend was nice.  On Friday I got a serious nesting urge to scrub our master shower, so I was legit on my hands and knees scrubbing the crap out of the grout (pro tip, never get white grout on the floor of a shower, seriously don't do it).  The rest of the weekend was mostly about hibernating and relaxing, but on Saturday Shayna and Kimber came over with Chipotle, laundry folding hands, and lots of laughs.  On Sunday I got dressed in real clothes for the first time all week to meet Leah for lunch at Buffalo Wild Wings for the Giants game.  I tried to spice the baby out with some mango habanero sauce.  We also got some really nice mani pedis afterwards.  It was super relaxing, but I'd be lying if I wasn't also hoping that the foot massage wasn't going to hit some acupressure points and get things going.

I'm finally over being pregnant!   Last time I had basically accepted the fact that I would be a week late and was super surprised when my labor slowly started at 39w+5d... But this time I can't get that timing out of my head.  I know every pregnancy is different and I know that baby will come when she is ready but dang it I am uncomfortable and every little cramping feeling has me thinking please God let this be it.  And then nothing!

I guess I can't really complain, I'm still only waking up once to pee.  My ankles aren't swollen.  I was experiencing some painful carpel tunnel symptoms last time and that's not a thing.  I know she will come when she's ready.  But I am just SO ready to not be pregnant anymore!!!!

This post from Motherly really sums it up:

We wait for this special, life-changing moment to happen.

But with waiting can come frustration, impatience and worry.

At this stage of pregnancy, the waiting seems like f-o-r-e-v-e-r.

It feels like the lower back pain will never go away. Like the discomfort of getting in and out of bed because of our large bellies and sore pelvic bones will always be part of our lives.

Like we will never fit into our clothes again because the baby will just set up shop inside of us for all of eternity and we'll just have to forgo clothes and only wear sports bras and sweatpants for life.

But we’ve got this, mamas.

Baby #2: Week 38

Started the week off with a bunch of jerks!  Push jerks, that is.  The olympic lifting was 3 push jerks, every 2 minutes x 5.  I did 65#, 70#, 75#, and then 80# twice.  It felt relatively easy.

Hi Heather :)

The WOD was a 12 minute AMRAP of 15 push jerks (I did 55#), 30 air squats (I decided on 20), and 60 dubs (which I replaced with 7 cals on the bike).  I got through 3 rounds + the jerks, squats, and 5 cals.  Working out still feels good, so I'll probably shoot to go till the end like last time.  My last workout was at 39 weeks + 1 day, we'll see!

On Tuesday night we blew up the kitchen and made 3 loaded lasagnas!  We made one to eat for dinner on Wednesday and two for the freezer.  They were super easy to make since we used jarred sauce, no boil noodles, etc., but the kitchen was a total mess at the end.  Dave was amazing because I was super exhausted and he cleaned up everything!

On Wednesday I had my 38 week appointment at Lifecycle.  While I was driving there, I had the thought that I hadn't really felt the baby much that day, so I figured I'd mention it to the midwife.  She listened to the heartbeat and felt some movement, but just to be sure she hooked me up with some monitoring for a non stress test.  I sat in a recliner for 30 minutes while we listened to the baby's heartbeat.  Of course as soon as we started she began moving a ton and passed with flying colors before we were even 10 minutes into the test.  I'm usually so laid back about baby and what she's doing in there, but it felt good to have the reassurance because decreased fetal movement can definitely be a bad sign.

I finally got my flu shot while I was there!  My BP was perfect.  The midwife thinks the baby is a little over 7 lbs.  I'm 5 lbs under my weight from this time last time and I officially weigh more than Dave lol!

Halloween was Thursday so we rushed off after work to take Vienna for her first trick or treating experience at Leah's sister's neighborhood.  She was a little overwhelmed when we first got there, but once she got into the groove she loved it.  I don't know how far we walked, but we were out for about an hour and a half and it was definitely more walking than I had done in a while.

I felt pretty crappy for the rest of the night and decided I would skip the gym Friday morning, which ended up being a good plan since a crazy storm rolled through and knocked our power out around 11:30 pm.  In the morning Dave couldn't get our generator to start, so we got ready in the dark and packed up all our food to take to my in-laws.  I was NOT losing any of the freezer meals, including those delicious lasagnas!  Thankfully our power came back on around noon.

My weekend was low key, which was good because I am finally pretty dang uncomfortable.  Rachel stayed with us Friday and Saturday night and was an excellent house guest, tidying up and playing with Vienna.

Don't take my picture Mom!  Oh wait, I'm happy now because I have snacks.

And her stay forced me to FINALLY pack my birth center bag since the contents were all over the spare bed.  Huzzah!  I also put together this snack basket as a thank you for the nurses and midwives at the birth center.

I'm officially working from home now, thank goodness.  I'm spending a lot of time on my birth ball, sitting on the floor, learning over my ottoman, just trying to find some comfortable position and I'm really enjoying being in my PJs.  I'm trying really hard to be patient, I haven't really had any signs that birth is coming.  It's such a weird feeling to know I could give birth tomorrow or it could be two weeks from now.  I'm ready to not be pregnant, but I'm also somehow still sleeping really well so I'm trying to enjoy that.  Baby will come when she's ready!