Tabby's Treasures

Holiday card goodness!!!

Mon, 26 Nov 2007 21:01:34 GMT

Please leave a comment with your mailing address if you'd like a Holiday Greeting in the mail from us this year. Comments are screened, of course.

Here's ours, or leave a link in a comment to your request post, because I may have missed it with my lack of LJ time lately.

The Worthington Family
538 Pence Rd
Webster, Texas 77598
USA

Alternately, if you got a card last year and nothing has changed, just leave a comment saying "same as last year" so I know you would still like a card.

Also, keep in mind that I may send you one anyway, even if you don't comment.

New Breastfeeding Advocacy Community

Wed, 15 Jun 2005 05:08:39 GMT

Recent events have inspired me to do something I’ve considered doing for a long time. I know there are other “nice nursing” communities out there, but I see the same things happening in all of them - women still get belittled instead of bolstered, and we should be supporting each other, and helping each other through encouragement and positive attitudes. I am hopeful that this group can succeed where others have not.

Anyway, please take a look and come join, if you feel like it’s a place where you could give or recieve help. My husband came up with the inspired name of boob_allies, but this isn’t an “anti-nazi” community, by any means, but just as the title “Nazi” has a negative connotation almost universally, I think that the term “Ally” will be a positive one, and maybe encourage people to treat each other with respect.

Birth Story

Sun, 20 Mar 2005 15:43:41 GMT

Sophie Lauren Worthington
3/14/05 10:31 pm 7lbs 13oz 18.5" 9/9

On Sunday afternoon, I took a shower to get ready to go to Ryan's dad's house, and while in the shower, I had the worst back spasm and contraction combination I had ever had. I would easily rate it as a 9 or 10 on the pain scale. I almost passed out while leaning over the side of the tub, and after it passed, I cried for a few minutes. Up till this point, my labor had been progressing much as my labor with Korben did: Moderate contractions that would be steady for up to 90 minutes and taper off, and slow dilation and effacement, but progressing along. I was at 3 cm at my doctor's office the week before. I got dressed and headed to Linda's with Korben to visit with the family.

Linda's kids' dad was getting married in a week, with Linda running the wedding, so her cousins were in town, and we had a really nice visit. All through the night, about three or four times an hour, I would have a back spasm that was bearable, and a strong contraction. After a few hours, I stood up, and everyone noticed that the baby had dropped. At nearly 10, I headed home with Korben and went to bed.

I did not sleep well. When I woke on Monday morning, something was different. I was having strong, regular contractions, and they were getting stronger. I went to the bathroom and passed a lot of mucous. I woke Ryan up and told him I thought this might be the day so he should call work. I called my OB and asked to have my appointment moved up from1:50 pm because I thought I might be in labor. They asked me to come in ASAP, at 10:50. I'd been timing my contractions from 9:42, and had had 8 of them in 45 minutes. We piled into the car and ran by Wendy's to get food, since I knew that they wouldn't let me eat if the doctor sent me to the hospital. We finally got into the doctor's at about 11:20, and were seen about 30 minutes later. She checked me, and found me to be almost 5 cm and progressing, so she sent us to the hospital. She said that if my contractions were not regular enough, they would probably augment my labor with pitocin if that was ok with me, and I said it was. We left to go to St. John's, and I called Linda.

We got checked in, and Linda picked Korben up. I was so nervous and excited that the contractions petered out and were uneven and irregular again. They came to draw my blood, which was more painful than almost any other draw I've ever had, and I filled out a bunch of paperwork. My nurse put me on an IV of fluids, which was not bad, despite being at a really awkward angle. After a few hours, they hooked me up to the pitocin, and after a while, I started feeling really anxious. The pain was getting stronger, but I still felt like it was OK, but I started panicking. I started crying and told Ryan that I was scared. I was suddenly terrified of the epidural, more than I was of delivering. But I wanted to have it, because things were starting to get really intense. I asked the nurse to call the anasthesiologist, and Dr. Long came in shortly after. He was very kind and made jokes with me, and I managed to not have a panic attack while he did the epidural. The hardest part about that was that the nurse kept pushing my head down, and the pillow I was hugging would get smashed in my face and I would start having some claustrophobia issues. It was over quickly, though, and although it was a little uncomfortable during the procedure, Dr. Long assured me that I held still better than most patients do. As soon as the epidural started working, my panic and anxiety disappeared, so apparently it was the pain of the contractions that was making me so upset.

Not long after this, Dr. Files came by to check me out, and she broke my water. Things were progressing along wonderfully. At 7, my nurse left and a new nurse came named Judy. She was wonderful. She was a little god-happy, but it was ok, because she wasn't trying to push me to believe what she did. We sat and talked while Ryan sat and read, and that really helped me a lot. I was very bored before she came on shift, and having her there made the time pass a lot faster. Now that I'd had my epidural, I wasn't hurting anymore, but I started feeling a lot of pressure at about 9 pm. I told the nurse about my experience with Korben, so she told me to let her know when I started feeling like I needed to poop, and we'd call the doctor. I said, "Well, I feel a little of that now, but it's not real strong, so let's wait a bit." We chatted some more, and during each contraction, the pressure got stronger. I told her that I thought I'd probably deliver the baby between 10 and 10:30. She looked a little skeptical, but she said, "Given the way your previous labor went, I'm going to go ahead and call the doctor. If it's not time yet, she can wait here for a bit." So at 10, she called the doctor. Dr. Files came in at about 10:15 and checked me, and found me to be just shy of complete, with the baby at -1 station. She got ready, called in the pediatric nurse, and said, ok, let's try giving it a push. Ryan got up and held my left leg way higher and further apart than I'd ever had it during Korben's delivery, and Judy was on the other side doing the same. I pushed, and she moved way down and they could see her. I pushed and she crowned. I pushed gently and her head came out. Her cord was wrapped around her neck, so Dr. Files took care of that and suctioned her mouth and nose. I pushed one last time, and she was out. The pushing stage only lasted for 4 and a half minutes. Judy was astonished that I had actually delivered at 10:31, just like I said I would.

It was very surreal because I had no pain during the delivery. My epidural actually worked the whole delivery, so it was very different from Korben's birth. There were also less people in the room, and I was the only delivery on the floor that night, so it didn't feel as frenetic and zoo-like as it had at Memorial Hermann SE.

Sophie cried, and they placed her on my stomach. I was in shock. I sobbed a couple of times, and they took her to clean her up. She scored 9 and 9 on her apgars, which is great, considering that she was premature - I delivered her at 37 weeks, 3 days, according to my LMP and due date. I'd guessed before her birth that she was going to be about 7 ½ pounds, and she was 7 pounds and 12.8 ounces, but a very short 18 ½ inches. Everything about her is petite - she has tiny hands and feet, and looks much smaller than her weight would lead you to believe. She has a mess of dark hair, and looks more like my side of the family than Ryan's. I was kind of living in a state of shock throughout the hospital stay. I wanted to go home, because I couldn't get comfortable in the bed there, but my doctor asked me to stay at least one more night, giving the excuse that since I'm nursing her, I might need help from the OB nurses on staff.

I had a visit from the phlebotomy staff on Tuesday morning. The guy who drew my blood was not very good at it, and it hurt a lot. I was very glad to see him go. I was less than happy when he came back and told me that he'd somehow managed to lose the vial of blood, and had to do another draw. I said ok, and he proceeded to stick me right in the same place he'd stuck me before, and do another draw, which hurt like a bitch. A few minutes later, another phlebotomist came in and said they'd have to re-do the draw AGAIN because the draw he'd done was clotted. I was nursing at the time, so she said she would come back later. Another woman came as I was preparing for my bath, and she stuck me so bad, three times, and couldn't get anything. I started sobbing because it was just too much for me, and I told her "Can't you at least use a smaller needle or something" and cried for 10 minutes. She finally had to do the draw out of my hand using a pediatric needle. It didn't hurt nearly as bad, but it was still painful. It makes me wonder if they recruit their phlebotomists from the Sweeney Todd school of medicine or what. It was by far the worst part of my whole birth experience this time.

The only issues I had with nursing were when they told me I needed to wake her up to feed her. Sophie does not like to be woken. It would take me 45 minutes to wake her up enough to nurse, and even then, she would just fall asleep at the breast. Once we got home and were able to nurse on demand, things got easier in that arena.

On Tuesday after school and nap, Ryan brought Korben to meet his sister. He came right into the room, saying, "Hi mom!" and grinning like a fool. When he saw Sophie, he stopped dead and wanted to know, "Who's that baby, mom?" I said, "It's your baby sister, Korben." He asked, "What's that baby's name?" I told him that it was Baby Sophie, which he repeated. He then tried to climb into the bed and wanted to hold her. He has not been physically jealous of her, but he has been acting out in other ways. He seems to be OK with the baby, and is especially fascinated by the whole nursing thing. He wanted to know where the baby's bottles where, and I don't think he really understood that there was milk in my boobs for the baby until he saw me pumping for the first time, and then there was direct evidence of the milk.

Ryan has been much easier with this baby than he was with Korben. I'm not sure how much of it has to do with already having been through it once, and this time having a girl, but I'm glad he's more at ease. He actually seems to be enjoying being a dad this time, where before he was just scared and uncomfortable and unhappy about it. I'd say that this has been a much less stressful and easier transition than bringing Korben home was, and now our little family is complete!

For those interested, Korben's birth story is up on September 19, 2002. Sophie was born on his 6-month birthday. :)

HideJournal

Tue, 17 Jun 2003 15:30:04 GMT

This is the greatest tool ever. Posted originally in lj_nifty, someone has written a tool that will go back and change the permissions of all your public entries to friends only for you. Here is a link to the post. I hope this helps other people like me who wanted their journals to be friends-only. You need java installed to run it, which you can get from www.java.com.

*EDIT*
The original LJ-nifty post is no longer available, but here's a link to the hidejournal website instead:
http://james.is.never.wrong.nu/code/hidejournal/ There is also a hidejournal with more information.

Korben's Birth Story

Thu, 19 Sep 2002 15:45:24 GMT

Korben's Birth Story

I started the early labor stage at about 7:00 pm on Tuesday night, September 10th. I was having contractions, but they were irregular and of varying intensity. My appetite was screwy, and I was thirstier than usual, and definetly bitchy. We all went to bed, and in the morning when I woke up, the contractions were fairly regular and about 5 minutes apart, so we called my doctor and went to Labor & Delivery at 9:30 am. They checked my cervix, which was dilated to almost 3, and hooked me up to the monitor, and of course my contractions stopped. I didn't have one for 15 minutes after they hooked me up! The nurse had me get up and do laps around L&D with Ryan, which make the contractions much more regular and intense, but as soon as I laid down again, they would slow. The nurse checked me again after all the walking and found I'd dilated almost to 4. She called my doctor, who said that I had a choice. I could stay at the hospital and see how it progressed with more walking, or I could go home and wait for the labor to progress there. Since I was starving and they wouldn't let me eat in the hospital, we went home. Mom and I went shopping at all the dollar stores in the area, and I lost my mucous plug and had a little bit of a bloody show, but the contractions stayed irregular. We rested on Thursday, and went in to my weekly appointment on Friday thinking that my doctor was going to augment my labor that evening. She checked me and said I was firmly at 4, and asked us to come in at 6am on Saturday. Ryan was disappointed because he wanted to have a Friday the 13th baby. ;)

Friday night it was very hard to sleep because I was so excited, but I managed to get a few hours' worth. Saturday morning we all got up and headed to the hospital. We checked in at 6 am and they hooked me up to the monitors again. I was having only about 1 contraction per hour at this point. My nurse was named Bernadette, and we talked a lot. She is from Canada and is studying to get her certified nurse midwife license at the moment. She was fantastic as a nurse, and I'd like her at my next delivery, but more about that later. At 8 am they started me on an IV drip of pitocin, and soon I was having regular contractions. They were bearable, but definetly more intense than the early labor stuff was. At about 10:30, my doctor came in and they broke my water. That was a very interesting sensation. It didn't hurt at all, but it was like wetting my pants only without any control over it whatever. From that point on, every time I had a contraction, I also had a goosh of fluid. The contractions got much stronger after this, and at about 11:15, they were so painful that I was struggling not to cry every time one hit. Right about this time Ryan's dad and Linda arrived. Linda was so excited she couldn't sit still, and Ryan's dad was being his usual smart ass self. I asked for my epidural, so they made everyone leave the room. I can't remember the anasthesiologist's name, but he was pretty funny, and a big geek. The epidural was wonderful, and did not hurt at all. It was uncomfortable with the pressure as he injected it a little bit, but it didn't hurt. However, I understand now why they wait until your labor is painful to give it to you, because it would have really bothered me earlier, but it was so small in comparison to the pain and discomfort of my contractions that it was totally bearable.

After they broke my water, they wouldn't let me get up to walk or use the bathroom because they were worried about having a prolapsed cord, so when I had to pee, Bernie inserted a catheter. It didn't hurt, but it felt pretty strange. My mom and my husband got to watch me pee through a tube. That was about the most embarassing thing I've ever experienced, but I lived. Ryan was fascinated by everything they were doing to my nether regions. as I was progressing through labor, each time Bernie checked me, she would stretch my vagina and perineum, and I felt confident that as long as she kept working with me, I wouldn't need an episiotomy. The epidural made my labor manageable for me again, making the contractions feel more like they had at 9 am: bearable and intense, but not distressing. All through the labor, I was able to continue moving my legs, but my belly and parts of my thighs were completely numb. Bernie was impressed by how much mobility I retained with the full epidural.

Throughout all of this, both my mom and Ryan were being very supportive and rubbing my belly during contractions, and Ryan was there to hold my hand whenever I needed it. At about 2:30, Bernie had to go assist another patient, and a nurse named Debbie came in to assist me with transition. She told me that we needed to move the baby down a little bit before we could call the doctor, since I was now complete. She told me to push against the handlebars and hold my breath while pushing like I had to poop. I was to push through each count to ten, grab a quick breath, and repeat 2 more times through each contraction. At this point, my epidural had run out, but all I felt was a lot of bowel pressure, and didn't feel pain as such. I did exactly as she said, but I could tell something wasn't working right. SHe got irritated with me and told me I was doing it all wrong, and that if I didn't follow her instructions we'd be there all night. I told her that she needed to count just a little bit faster because my vision was going black at the edges by the time she got to ten each time, and that if I passed out I wasn't going to be of any use to anyone. During each contraction my mom would get in my face and tell me what to do, just as she's supposed to, and I would yell at her and tell her to shut up, just as I'm supposed to do ;). Each time I would tell her to shut up or be quiet or stop telling me what to do, the nurse would get all irritated and shake her head at me like I was an ungrateful bitch. She would order me around and was not being supportive at all, and I started bawling because she wouldn't listen to me, she was just yelling at me, and I knew something wasn't working right, but I didn't know what it was.

I pushed through about 6 contractions, trying to get the baby moved down so the doctor could be called. I sobbed through two contractions without pushing because I was so upset that I just couldn't deal with it. Bernie finished her delivery and came in to help. She knew something was wrong right away, and came to my side and held my knee (my hands were busy on the handlebars) and helped my mom hold my head forward. As soon as the next contraction started, she knew what was wrong: Debbie had told me to PUSH against the handlebars, when I should have been PULLING on them instead! I pulled on the handlebars and almost pushed the baby out into Debbie's lap on the first try! She told me to hold it and called the doctor. It took her 5 contractions to get there, but I held it with bernie's encouragement. Debbie gave me a local, and then sat and rubbed the baby's head, since he was crowning, but she didn't use any warm compresses or massage my perineum at all during this time. When the doctor came in, I pushed twice during one contraction, and on the second push, GUSH, out came baby all at once in one big heave. I couldn't believe that I'd only had to push through one contraction to get him out. It just seemed way too easy. It didn't hurt until afterwards, either. As soon as he was out, I felt this warm gush of liquid and I thought "How strange, I didn't think there would be a gush of fluid like that... Oh wait a minute..." - Korben peed all over me and the doctor first thing! Once he was delivered, all I could do was say "Oh my god, oh my god. Oh my god. oh my GOD!" I was in a state of utter disbelief. They laid him on my belly and I was just stunned. I couldn't believe he was really mine. It took me a second to reach out and hold on to him because I was so shocked. He was absolutely COVERED in that cheezy stuff, and he didn't cry at all. He was turning a little blue, so they took him to the warmer and my doctor started working on me. She delivered the placenta, which felt like a big slimy booger when it came out, but made me feel immediately and immesurably better as soon as it was delivered. They gave me a shot of stadol at some point in here, to relax me for the post-birth clean up, so the next hour or so is a little hazy.

I asked her if I'd torn and she said yes, and she cleaned up the site and started stitching. I lost count of how many stitches she gave me, but it was a lot, and it stung when she stitched me up. I started getting worried when she was stitching right around my anus, but someone said something about the sphincter being intact, which made me feel relieved, but then the doctor and Debbie were discussing the tear and trying to decide if it was a 2nd degree or 3rd degree. They decided it was a deep 2nd degree tear.

As soon as they had cleaned him up and made him squeak a few times, they gave Korben to me, and I just couldn't believe he was finally here! Because they had so many deliveries all at the same time, and not all of them were as easy as mine, we got to keep him in the room with us for more than 2 hours, which was nice. Ryan's Dad and Linda came in from the hallway where they'd been waiting, and they really enjoyed being there at the hospital for the birth. The nurse brough me food and I tried to eat it, but it was this scary mystery meat salisbury steak thing and after one bite I felt nauseous, so I just ate the roll and drank the liquids. When they finally came and took him away with Ryan, we were moved over to the maternity ward, and Ryan brought us McDonalds. I swear, cheeseburgers have never tasted so good. In the nursery, Ryan got to trim the cord and do all kinds of other neat dad stuff. Somewhere in here, Trish and her mom and Brendan came by to see Korben, and Trish was moved to tears, which almost set me and my mom off, but I managed not to cry somehow (it hurts to cry with this damn tear) and Marci took Brendan for a walk in the halls while Trish went to the nursery with Ryan.

When they brought Korben to me in the maternity ward, he was ready to nurse. He came out making rooting motions and trying to suck on his hands. He latched on like a pro and nursed for about 20 minutes on each breast on the first try. He was still hungry after that, so I let my mom feed him a supplemental formula bottle. After that he went to sleep, and at about 10 pm the nursery called and I asked them to take him down to the nursery so we could sleep.

We didn't have any visitors on Sunday, but took it easy and rested with the baby. Ryan came to bring us dinner eventually, and he held the baby for a few minutes. He's a little intimidated and afraid he'll hurt the little guy just because he's so big and Korben's so small, but it's really adorable to see my big burly husband cuddling our tiny son. Korben is a very sweet baby and hardly cries at all unless he's STARVING. He has a very very hearty appetite, and a very pleasant disposition. I couldn't have asked for a better baby, and I'm so happy to finally be able to hold him in my arms and kiss him.

Bernie was very upset that I tore, and she felt that if she had stayed with me, that would not have happened. She was so caring and wonderful. I found out during my hospital stay that my OB is getting out of Obstetrics and just going to be a straight Gyno. I was actually relieved when I heard that because all during my labor I thought that I would much rather see Bernie for my next baby, and by the time we want to have one, she should be certified and practicing. I got her name and info, and I'm going to keep that in mind for next time.