Monday, June 20, 2005
Motherhood
So how's life being a mom? Well, honestly, a rollercoaster. I mean, Rhianna is great most of the time... when she's sleeping anyway ;-) No, seriously. She's very sweet and seems to be pretty happy most of the time. Nonetheless, the transition to motherhood is no joke. Her crying totally stresses me out and I don't know yet what the cries mean -- hopefully that will come quickly. It's very strange though because I've gone from a full-time working woman, to a full time mom. Suddenly my job is to take care of this baby all by myself-- and seriously, I'm just not that good at it yet. I'm sure I will get better and it's not like I"m horrible or anything, it's just strange that what is all supposed to come so naturally seems less natural than, say, designing a brochure :) at this point.
4 Generations
This picture shows FOUR generations of Ashcrafts!! In the center is David's grandpa (his mom's dad) holding Rhianna. He is flanked by Dave's oldest sister's kids, Kendall and Garrett. The back row shows Dave (center), his sister Becky (left), and his mom (right).
Momma and Baby
Ok ok, I know it's been forever since I posted here. Things have been a little on the hectic side and I've been trying to get every last minute of sleep that I can. Baby Rhianna has been waking about every 2-3 hours for feedings and it's been pretty tiring.
Anyhow, here's her birth story:
I started having contractions on her due date, June 2nd. They weren't bad and were about every 10 minutes or so. They continued on through the night and when I got up on Friday morning (June 3rd), I knew going to work was not a reasonable idea. So I stayed home and worked from here. I started to time the contractions at about 8am and they were averaging about 5 minutes but weren't real regular. (one would be 10 minutes, the next 3, the next 5, etc.) Well, having no idea what to expect, I called my doctor to find out if "this was it." I went in around 11:30 to the doctors office. I was the same dialation as the day before but was not 100% effaced. So she sent me home and said she thought she'd be seeing me later that night.
I went to lunch with Dave and then went home. Dave was going to come home around 4 unless I told him otherwise. I talked to him around 3:30 and he said he had a few things to wrap up and then he'd come home. At 4, my contractions started coming strong at about 3 minutes apart and were about 2 minutes each, YIKES!! Where's Dave? Who knows!! He didn't realize I was actually IN labor so he didn't end up making it home until 5:30 at which time I was READY to go to the hospital.
When I got to the hospital around 6pm, I was still 4cm and 100% effaced. We walked around for a while and by 9pm I decided that I didn't have the energy to do the whole thing natural so we decided to get an epidural (I was SO scared about that). They checked me then and I was at 8 cm. That's when my water broke. So I made it to "transition" all on my own. I got the epidural and was totally wiped out. At midnight, I was fully dialated (10cm) but still totally exhausted so I waited to push. They turned off the epidural though once I was fully dialated. I started pushing at about 12:55 and she was born at 1:24am, June 4th. About 10 minutes later, the afterbirth came out -- didn't really feel that. Dave got to cut the cord and said it wasn't as weird as he'd expected. We got to keep her in the room with us for a couple of hours before I took a shower and they took Rhianna (then nameless baby) to get her first bath and eye drops and stuff.
So there you have it :) I survived.
Anyhow, here's her birth story:
I started having contractions on her due date, June 2nd. They weren't bad and were about every 10 minutes or so. They continued on through the night and when I got up on Friday morning (June 3rd), I knew going to work was not a reasonable idea. So I stayed home and worked from here. I started to time the contractions at about 8am and they were averaging about 5 minutes but weren't real regular. (one would be 10 minutes, the next 3, the next 5, etc.) Well, having no idea what to expect, I called my doctor to find out if "this was it." I went in around 11:30 to the doctors office. I was the same dialation as the day before but was not 100% effaced. So she sent me home and said she thought she'd be seeing me later that night.
I went to lunch with Dave and then went home. Dave was going to come home around 4 unless I told him otherwise. I talked to him around 3:30 and he said he had a few things to wrap up and then he'd come home. At 4, my contractions started coming strong at about 3 minutes apart and were about 2 minutes each, YIKES!! Where's Dave? Who knows!! He didn't realize I was actually IN labor so he didn't end up making it home until 5:30 at which time I was READY to go to the hospital.
When I got to the hospital around 6pm, I was still 4cm and 100% effaced. We walked around for a while and by 9pm I decided that I didn't have the energy to do the whole thing natural so we decided to get an epidural (I was SO scared about that). They checked me then and I was at 8 cm. That's when my water broke. So I made it to "transition" all on my own. I got the epidural and was totally wiped out. At midnight, I was fully dialated (10cm) but still totally exhausted so I waited to push. They turned off the epidural though once I was fully dialated. I started pushing at about 12:55 and she was born at 1:24am, June 4th. About 10 minutes later, the afterbirth came out -- didn't really feel that. Dave got to cut the cord and said it wasn't as weird as he'd expected. We got to keep her in the room with us for a couple of hours before I took a shower and they took Rhianna (then nameless baby) to get her first bath and eye drops and stuff.
So there you have it :) I survived.
Monday, June 06, 2005
the-look
Ok, so I know I'm biased, but tell me this isn't the most hilarious picture of an almost-one-day-old!! She definitely looks like Dave in this one :)
Sunday, June 05, 2005
Rhianna Frances
Rhianna Frances Ashcraft arrived at 1:24am on Saturday morning, June 4. She was 7 lbs. 1oz. and 20 inches long.
More details (and pictures) to come. She's wonderful. We are all a bit tired and learning about each other, but everyone is healthy and healing.
More details (and pictures) to come. She's wonderful. We are all a bit tired and learning about each other, but everyone is healthy and healing.
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