Turner Elise Gonzalez was born today at 1:22 am and being her mother's daughter she did not follow her mothers plan for her entry to the world.
I had planned, in writing, to have a long labor that slowly progressed and I would give birth to our daughter in a warm tub of water at the Allen Birthing Center.
Instead as Mike and I were lying in bed tonight talking about if Mike was ready to be a daddy and wondering what our daughter would look like, I had a contraction. A nice big contraction. Who hoo. The red raspberry leaf tea I had been drinking and other natural induction methods I had done that day may be starting to work because 10 minutes later I had another long contraction. Then when I had another one that lasted for a couple of minutes five minutes later, I told Michael to get the bath tub ready and I called my mom. Then the next contraction came 3 minutes later and lasted over a minute and then after that they were seemed right on top of each other with out a discernible break between making them nearly impossible to time. I told Mike to call the birth center we needed to get moving.
Mike tried to start to get things together, but I wouldn't let him go far because I needed him to hold me and put pressure on my lower back for every contraction, so we decided to wait for my mom to arrive so she could tend to me and then Mike could get everything in the car. By this time I had made it to our bathroom and found great comfort lying sprawled out on the bath mat with my face on the cool tile floor. A few minutes after my mom arrived and Mike had dug the car seat out of the box and threw it and our bags into the car I had a very strong urge to push and there was no way I was going to leave my cool tile let alone ride in a car for 30 minutes. Especially since on one of my attempts to stand up while having a contraction, I could feel Turner's head already crowned. Mike called Becky, our Nurse Certified Midwife to tell her there was no way we could make it to her. She decided to come to our house and her assistant who lived in Little Elm would be there even sooner.
I wanted to push so badly. It is really true that it feels better to push when you are having a pushing contraction, but since there was none of my experienced attendants were here mom would not let me push. I had to blow through them like I was blowing out all of my daughter's birthday candles from a mile away. The only good part to this stage of my short labor was that I was able to at least get a break between contractions and become somewhat more aware of my surroundings, like the fact that in my sprawled out state some of my hair was in my dogs water bowl and I probably should be laying on something a little more sanitary than my 5' brown shag bathmat. With out moving my body I remedied my hair and had mom and Mike lay towels under me. Oh but the urge to push was growing greater and greater and harder to fight! Someone better show up real quick!
Debbie the birth assistant showed up first and was not aware we had not planned a home birth and was surprised to find we did not have our birth supplies. I heard her asking Mike for some string and scissors and heard Mike pulling shoe laces out of his boots. I did not have time to let my mind focus too much on what they were doing nor did I want to know as none of it sounded sanitary. Becky finally arrived and after getting her bearings in my house and her supplies in order I was given the OK to push! Oh what a relief and a pain as Turner's head was out in two very quick pushes and her body came out with I guess gravity or momentum and then the next thing I knew I was holding our daughter kneeling in our bathroom floor looking at my husband's amazed and shell shocked face. She had arrived!
My first contraction was at 10:59pm and Turner was born at 1:22am. A very fast 2 1/2 hour labor.
A very healthy and angelic Miss Turner Elise Gonzalez weighed in at 7lbs 14 oz and is 21 inches long. I am doing well also, as evident by my desire to blog with in a few hours of birth. I'm sore in the places I should be sore, but have no tears.
I must say it is so amazing to be in my own bed with my husband and daughter sleeping soundly next to me.
Next time we will not even waste time writing out a birth plan because God's plans are always so much better than our own.
Thursday, March 26, 2009
Thursday, January 8, 2009
Vibrating Mascara
I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and received at least one special gift from a special person.
I had to say in this dismal economy I felt extremely blessed this Christmas. Instead of gifts of abundance everyone in my family put a little extra thought into their gifts to make their one present a little more special and memorable. My husband was no exception to this and, I must brag, every Christmas he surprises me even more with the special touches he puts into what he gives me. However, like any man, he does ask for direction. I try to make things easier for him by giving him a specific list that includes model numbers and store locations or websites otherwise my "thoughtful gift" would come from The Colony Wal Mart every year.
This year I asked for my mascara to be replenished. I've recently developed a taste for Lancome Mascara. The lash definition is amazing and the biggest selling feature is, while it will not smudge through the most severe tear fests, and being 7 months pregnant I should know as I cry often, it washes off with little to no effort with soap and water. If you've ever fought with greasy eye make up remover to get rid of your waterproof mascara, you know how awesome this feature is! Well I was about out and at $25-$30 per tube, did I mention this was a two step mascara, I could not justify buying it for myself, so I asked for it as a Christmas Present. Knowing my passion for this product, my precious and very manly husband ventured bravely to the Lancome Counter at the mall on Christmas Eve with the names of my requests in order to please his wife.
If you know my husband you will know what an incredible sacrifice this trip is for him. First of all, he hates malls any time of year and to go on the most frantic shopping day of the year and to fight a parking lot full other panicked husbands buying their wives gifts makes for pure insanity. My thought is, while it serves him right to wait til Christmas Eve to venture out, at least is was in empathetic company. Also, and the biggest sacrifice is this trip really put a dent into his machismo. When I asked him to buy mascara I may as well have asked him to go buy tampons or some other feminine hygiene product. However, my husband swallowed his pride and set out to please the woman carrying his child. If you ask him, though, he did it out of fear of the consequences of not pleasing the hormonal, hungry and crazy monster that could easily kill him just by sitting on him if not happy. I still prefer to see it my way, though.
OK, back to my husband at the Lancome counter at the mall on Christmas Eve. The Make Up counter was fairly quiet considering most normal ladies don't ask for mascara for Christmas, so my inquisitive husband starts to talk to the lady behind the counter to find out why I need two tubes of mascara. In the conversation he proceeds to learn everything there is to know about all the mascara that Lancome carries and why each one is so great. I wish I had a tape recording of that conversation as my husband tries to wrap his head around the ways women augment their eyelashes. A big light bulb must have went off in his head when he was able to equate the base coat to paint primer as my husband knows all things related to tools and construction. With all his new found knowledge you can just imagine how his eyes lit up when the sales girl brought out the battery powered vibrating wand that applies the mascara even better than regular manually operated mascara. High Tech Mascara! Now if a guy is forced to buy mascara shouldn't it be as cool of a gadget as possible! He plopped down his credit card for the now $40 dollar mascara tube, the $25 primer and the $35 regular tube I originally asked for just to cover his basis. He accomplished his mission with gusto! I could just hear a Tim The Tool Man Taylor grunt of approval as Michael proudly recanted this story upon my opening of his gift and then to make things even funnier he had to tell me how to put it on!
I thought it was the greatest gift he could have gotten me! Researching and buying me the best mascara was amazing. He really put effort into something he didn't have to. My pregnant emotions took over, I cried, and then I had to call all my family members and brag how great he was for buying me vibrating mascara!
Now for the ironic twist. A few days later, we went to see Marley and Me with my family in Lubbock. This movie is such a tear fest. Not a single one of our group had a dry eye, but my mascara still looked great! Towards the end of the movie I reached in my makeup bag to get some lip gloss to minimize the blotchy, puffy, I've been crying for the last hour look.
Little did I know that my prized vibrating mascara fell to the dark ground to be lost forever.
The next day when I realized it was gone the water works started all over again. You would have thought I lost my Great Grandmothers Heirloom Wedding Ring. Michael drove me to the movie theater to search lost and found. You should have seen the look the manager give me as I waddled my 7 month pregnant self up to him and asked if anyone has found my vibrating mascara. I guess he doesn't find too many vibrating mascara tubes, and why would he because most women who know how awesome this stuff is keep it under lock in key in the safety of their bathrooms not carelessly carrying it around with them in their purses. I was a mess. In fact it has been 10 days since and I am just now able to bring my self to tell this story with out crying.
It was just too good to be true. My wonderful husband wanted to return the regular tube he bought me and exchange it for the vibrating kind again, but my practical self said no. If you know me just slightly well you will know that I'm Practical with a capital P. If I cannot afford to loose something I should not use it, and being the type to always put my mascara on while flying down the interstate and not in the security of my bathroom the chance of another loss was too real. I asked him to return all the mascara he so lovingly bought me and I went back to my Loreal "It'll Do" mascara found at glorious Wal Mart. I still grieve every time I wash my face and have to struggle to remove my mascara, but the money we "saved" has gone to a Wii Fit and has given me more to write about. One day I will be able to buy expensive "Mall" makeup again. Although I highly doubt that Michael will ever buy it for me.
Come back soon and read about what it is like being pregnant on the Wii Fit!
I had to say in this dismal economy I felt extremely blessed this Christmas. Instead of gifts of abundance everyone in my family put a little extra thought into their gifts to make their one present a little more special and memorable. My husband was no exception to this and, I must brag, every Christmas he surprises me even more with the special touches he puts into what he gives me. However, like any man, he does ask for direction. I try to make things easier for him by giving him a specific list that includes model numbers and store locations or websites otherwise my "thoughtful gift" would come from The Colony Wal Mart every year.
This year I asked for my mascara to be replenished. I've recently developed a taste for Lancome Mascara. The lash definition is amazing and the biggest selling feature is, while it will not smudge through the most severe tear fests, and being 7 months pregnant I should know as I cry often, it washes off with little to no effort with soap and water. If you've ever fought with greasy eye make up remover to get rid of your waterproof mascara, you know how awesome this feature is! Well I was about out and at $25-$30 per tube, did I mention this was a two step mascara, I could not justify buying it for myself, so I asked for it as a Christmas Present. Knowing my passion for this product, my precious and very manly husband ventured bravely to the Lancome Counter at the mall on Christmas Eve with the names of my requests in order to please his wife.
If you know my husband you will know what an incredible sacrifice this trip is for him. First of all, he hates malls any time of year and to go on the most frantic shopping day of the year and to fight a parking lot full other panicked husbands buying their wives gifts makes for pure insanity. My thought is, while it serves him right to wait til Christmas Eve to venture out, at least is was in empathetic company. Also, and the biggest sacrifice is this trip really put a dent into his machismo. When I asked him to buy mascara I may as well have asked him to go buy tampons or some other feminine hygiene product. However, my husband swallowed his pride and set out to please the woman carrying his child. If you ask him, though, he did it out of fear of the consequences of not pleasing the hormonal, hungry and crazy monster that could easily kill him just by sitting on him if not happy. I still prefer to see it my way, though.
OK, back to my husband at the Lancome counter at the mall on Christmas Eve. The Make Up counter was fairly quiet considering most normal ladies don't ask for mascara for Christmas, so my inquisitive husband starts to talk to the lady behind the counter to find out why I need two tubes of mascara. In the conversation he proceeds to learn everything there is to know about all the mascara that Lancome carries and why each one is so great. I wish I had a tape recording of that conversation as my husband tries to wrap his head around the ways women augment their eyelashes. A big light bulb must have went off in his head when he was able to equate the base coat to paint primer as my husband knows all things related to tools and construction. With all his new found knowledge you can just imagine how his eyes lit up when the sales girl brought out the battery powered vibrating wand that applies the mascara even better than regular manually operated mascara. High Tech Mascara! Now if a guy is forced to buy mascara shouldn't it be as cool of a gadget as possible! He plopped down his credit card for the now $40 dollar mascara tube, the $25 primer and the $35 regular tube I originally asked for just to cover his basis. He accomplished his mission with gusto! I could just hear a Tim The Tool Man Taylor grunt of approval as Michael proudly recanted this story upon my opening of his gift and then to make things even funnier he had to tell me how to put it on!
I thought it was the greatest gift he could have gotten me! Researching and buying me the best mascara was amazing. He really put effort into something he didn't have to. My pregnant emotions took over, I cried, and then I had to call all my family members and brag how great he was for buying me vibrating mascara!
Now for the ironic twist. A few days later, we went to see Marley and Me with my family in Lubbock. This movie is such a tear fest. Not a single one of our group had a dry eye, but my mascara still looked great! Towards the end of the movie I reached in my makeup bag to get some lip gloss to minimize the blotchy, puffy, I've been crying for the last hour look.
Little did I know that my prized vibrating mascara fell to the dark ground to be lost forever.
The next day when I realized it was gone the water works started all over again. You would have thought I lost my Great Grandmothers Heirloom Wedding Ring. Michael drove me to the movie theater to search lost and found. You should have seen the look the manager give me as I waddled my 7 month pregnant self up to him and asked if anyone has found my vibrating mascara. I guess he doesn't find too many vibrating mascara tubes, and why would he because most women who know how awesome this stuff is keep it under lock in key in the safety of their bathrooms not carelessly carrying it around with them in their purses. I was a mess. In fact it has been 10 days since and I am just now able to bring my self to tell this story with out crying.
It was just too good to be true. My wonderful husband wanted to return the regular tube he bought me and exchange it for the vibrating kind again, but my practical self said no. If you know me just slightly well you will know that I'm Practical with a capital P. If I cannot afford to loose something I should not use it, and being the type to always put my mascara on while flying down the interstate and not in the security of my bathroom the chance of another loss was too real. I asked him to return all the mascara he so lovingly bought me and I went back to my Loreal "It'll Do" mascara found at glorious Wal Mart. I still grieve every time I wash my face and have to struggle to remove my mascara, but the money we "saved" has gone to a Wii Fit and has given me more to write about. One day I will be able to buy expensive "Mall" makeup again. Although I highly doubt that Michael will ever buy it for me.
Come back soon and read about what it is like being pregnant on the Wii Fit!
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