one week old

One week went by way too fast. Ryan returns to work on Monday, I am dreading it. He took 2 weeks off with Gabrielle but his office manager is out recovering from open heart surgery so one week will have to do this time. He is going to *try* to take one day off a week for a while though, we'll see if that actually happens. Julian is a content baby so far, hopefully he will stay that way! 

This pic was the only one that showed Julian's eyes. He came out so quickly and with such force that he broke blood vessels all in his left eye, face and neck. The ones on his skin looked like a rash, just red spots everywhere, they never did show up in pictures but were very visible to the eye. His eye looks better then it did but is still quite red on the sides. 

I didn't get any new stretch marks with him, just elongated ones that I already had. This is the first pregnancy where I got a linea nigra, and the first one where I'm still wearing maternity pants after baby was born. All my bigger clothes are still about 10+ lbs away from fitting so unless I want to buy new pants then I'll wear my maternity ones until I can squeeze into something else. 

I have been experiencing back pain since my labor with Julian, it feels like something is stuck. One trip to the chiro this week made it slightly better, but I'll probably need to go back a few more times to get complete relief. My labor with him was much more intense then with the girls, it was shorter, but that wasn't it. He was posterior, which I had no idea until after the fact obviously. In hindsight, I should of guessed, posterior babies like to hang out in one position, usually on the left or right side. Ever since he was big enough for me to palpate, he had been on my right side.

 I really don't recommend back labor by the way, highly painful compared to regular labor. In my other labors, once the contraction stopped, then the pain was gone, not the case this time. At times I couldn't tell if a contraction had stopped or not, the pain remained for some time. When I'd have contractions 2-3 minutes apart, I was still feeling the first one when the next one would come. It was only when they were 6 or so minutes apart that I could relax for a minute between them. I managed ok, was just more vocal when I never had been with other labors. I had to rock on my hands and knees, rubbing my face against the pool, but each contraction left me utterly drained. At the very end right before Julian was born, I had to have Ryan apply counter pressure to my back, it only helped ever so slightly, but any relief was very welcome. 

I was happy with my fishy pool. I much preferred it to the AquaDoula I used with Gabrielle. I did wish several times that it was wider but I blame my foot for that. My injury from a couple months ago still isn't completely healed and pushing or whacking it against the side of the tub wasn't always pleasant. Apparently I have a thing for foot injuries because Gabrielle stomped on my other foot the other day with a pair of heavy shoes and now that one is bruised and once again I am limping. Sigh. Anyway, the sides were sturdy enough to lean against, hang over, the bottom was cushy that being on my hands and knees wasn't uncomfortable. I will certainly use that pool again if other children come our way.