Revel on the local news

WJZ.com came to the hospital to record some of the new Christmas babies. Alyssa and Revel were featured.

Read more and watch the video on WJZ.com

Introducing Revel Carlberg West

Revel Carlberg West was born at 7:07am on Christmas Day. He weights in at a respectable 8 lbs 7 ozs and 21 inches long. Both baby and Mommy are doing fine.  According to my count, he has 10 fingers and 10 toes, but we're having that looked into by a specialist. :)

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Big Belly Tuesday – Week 41

Week 41? Week 41? I thought that babies were "done" after only 40 weeks. Well it turns out that the first rule about pregnancy is that there are no rules. Today, Alyssa is now officially 1 week overdue or as we like to think of it, "balancing out the average".

We went to our midwife appointment today and are happy to report that the baby got a clean bill of health. So now we continue to wait again, still.

To keep the crying at bay

Here are my daily mantras these days:

1) Patience is not only a virtue but a cornerstone of parenthood. This is just practice for what we are going to have to do anyway after they come out.

2) I am blessed with a healthy, happy pregnancy. Many women can not say that. I am fortunate to be in the situation of waiting for my healthy baby.

3) I am just taking my rightful NORMAL place on the NORMAL bell curve for the average gestational period. Some of us need to be on the other side of 40 weeks to have made it the average.

4) Babies born on time or later do really well and labor tends to go well.

5) This is the way my body needs to do its job. Trust the process and it will treat you well.

more cooking...

More cooking for both me and the baby. He is still teaching his parents that patience is an important part of having a kid. I'm also seeing it as doing my part for the statistical average of 40 weeks gestation - there need to be a few of us on the other side to make it an average.

The days and nights and days kind of merge and slip into each other lately. We try to keep so busy during the day that all of the sudden it is time to go to bed again. Yesterday we went to the market for another chicken so I could make another batch of soup. Then last night I made more gingerbread cookie dough. It sat in the fridge overnight and then this morning I made them. We decorated quite a few this afternoon. I finished up the 'pick the meat off the chicken' part of the soup today, as well.

I spent a couple of hours napping and hypnobaby-ing, as I didn't get a great night's sleep. I didn't really have any contractions to speak of last night. On and off, sure, but nothing consistent or uncomfortable. I think I was awake willing them to happen. I wasn't very hungry today so I have had little meals.

There was more cookie decorating before dinner. Then I started to be sad that he might not be here for Christmas. I know there is a lot of time til then, but I was so excited for all the family and the baby to be here. As time goes on the chances seem less likely. I have to let go of it and realize what will be will be and it will be great.

Donavon suggested a bath, which was a great idea. We just sat in the bathroom talking and it relaxed me to just float.

Donavon is now foregoing his own dinner to continue cookie decorating. It is a very zen thing for him. He makes a beautiful cookie.

busy night, still no baby to show for it...

Most of you should know well enough that I like to take my time with things. It took 6 years to graduate college. I'm still working on this MD thing. I like to go slowly and deliberately. I like to be prepared, practice, make sure I get it right. And sometimes, on occasion, I can have a tendency to put things off until the last possible moment. Why should my uterus be any different? There was certainly more progress last night and I'm happy to report that things seem to be moving along well, but no, there is no baby today.

I started more contractions at 12:42. They were regular every five minutes. Totally painless, just hard and kind of neat to watch. They lasted about 30-45 sec. At around 2am we decided to get some sleep. At 5am I woke up with more contractions that were different. As in, they actually registered as somewhat uncomfortable, maybe a 2 or 3 out of 10 on the pain scale. They were still only 5 minutes apart and lasted only 45 sec, maybe a minute. But the good part is that they definitely felt different. I lay in bed just practicing breathing and relaxing. That probably lasted less than an hour. Confusing the situation was that I was starving so there were hunger pangs mixed in with the crampiness. So Donavon got up with me around 6 and made me eggs and toast and juice. SO tasty. By then, there were still contractions but they were back to being totally painless. After our breakfast, we decided to go get some more sleep and stayed in bed until 10:45! I woke up a few times with more of the totally painless contractions. I'm glad we got the extra sleep as I can tell we are approaching the big day...whether it is today or not I'm not concerned. I just know we are making progress.

I'm planning to stay busy and active today, much like yesterday. We will do more slightly unnecessary errands to get out of the house and keep me walking and distracted. We've already taken the dog for a walk in the miserable rainy/sleety weather. But there are presents to wrap and things to do before the family gets here, beginning Sunday night. So, I'm just going to keep going :)

no squirrel news is good news!

No squirrel incidents today.

In other news, we kept very busy. I slept great again last night, so I was up pretty early, around 7 feeling pretty good. This morning I wrapped more presents then walked the dog. Then I spent a couple of hours on birth stuff. We headed to Target to return some things and do more shopping - both for Christmas and for baby. We had dinner at Chipotle while we were out. When we got back we promptly headed out to the market to get supplies to make cookies, which is how we spent the evening. We have an additional batch of Tollhouse cookies on hand for the holidays now. We also decorated the house some more, with lights and some cool holiday flowers.



I have been walking and doing pelvic rocks and squats today and I feel that the baby is low, as low as he has been if not lower. It seems like when I lie down to nap, he moves back up a little and I just want him to stay down. So it is past 11 and I don't want to go to bed! I am just ready to have him. I want one of those velcro suits and walls so I can just sleep plastered upright :) He seems like he has gotten himself into a position that is good - just a gut feeling I have. And I am hopeful that he has been waiting to get himself arranged and that NOW he is ready. However, I'm going to assume that not getting sleep tonight is probably not the brightest idea :) I'm just so ready to do this and I feel like it could really happen soon.