Happy Valentine's Day!

Daniel and I were wondering if we would get to celebrate Valentine's Day this year since we now have a newborn. Well, my mom, grandmother, and brother came into town this weekend and babysat for us so that we could go out to dinner. It was so nice! Thanks, family, for giving us that opportunity! Here is a V-Day picture of our little family.

What is a waterbirth?

Some of you know that I decided to deliver our baby through waterbirth. "What is a waterbirth?" you may ask. Well it is exactly what it sounds like--giving birth in water in a tub or small pool. At the beginning of my pregnancy Daniel and I were researching which hospital we wanted to deliver in. I went to the website for North Fulton Regional Hospital and found out that they had the option of waterbirths there. So I started doing more research about this method of delivery and came to the conclusion that I wanted to do this. I had always wanted to have a natural childbirth but I was pretty scared about it. Well, a waterbirth is all about the mom and helping her give birth in the most gentle and relaxing way possible (without drugs). It's also completely safe for the baby. This idea calmed my fears and gave me the courage to have a natural birth. If you google the hospital I named above, they have information about waterbirth on their website and a video about it. The midwife in the video was actually one of the midwives I saw throughout my pregnancy. Only midwives perform waterbirths, by the way. I loved my midwives! I went to an Ob-gyn's office that had two midwives and a doctor. I only saw the midwives, and they were amazing! At the end of my pregnancy, another midwife was brought in because the other two were on leave (go figure!). I saw the third midwife only once before I delivered and she was the one who delivered me. Even though I had only met her once, I really liked her and had confidence that she would be a huge support during labor and delivery. Well, she was. She told me exactly what to do and directed Daniel in what he was supposed to do and everything went so smoothly. She told me how to position my body to make myself comfortable and how to get the baby out in the best possible way. She knew exactly what to do! She was so comforting and reassuring and knowledgeable.

Now I will admit that my labor was very fast. I started having contractions at about 1:00 am and Noah was born at 6:43 am. I got to the hospital at about 3:30 or 4:00 and was in the pool for about an hour or so. Once I got in the pool, things went pretty fast. One of the benefits of a waterbirth is that labor tends to be shorter. The warm water was very relaxing and reduced the pain of the contractions. Once I started pushing, Noah was out within about 20 or 30 minutes. I only pushed about 10 times. I hardly felt any pain when Noah was coming out. Some people talk about a "ring of fire" when the baby's head comes out. Well, I only felt a little burning, which barely hurt at all. Noah "came out" without any problems. No one had to pull on his head or use forceps or a vacuum, which really scare me by the way. He was able to come out on his own without any assistance (except at the end when the midwife had to catch him of course). A waterbirth also reduces the chances of tearing, and I only had to have 2 stitches for my tearing.

An additional benefit of waterbirth is that the husband is very involved in the whole birthing process. Daniel held me up from behind while I was in the pool and helped position my body to make me comfortable. He also got to see the whole birthing process firsthand and he got to cut the umbilical cord, which he thought was very cool.

So, was it worth it? Would I do a waterbirth again? Absolutely! Noah was so alert and ready to meet us when he was born. Having a baby without any medication was also very empowering and liberating as a woman. I had always wondered if I had it in me to do a natural childbirth, and now I know that I do. Did it hurt? Was it very painful? Of course it was! But it was also very doable. Childbirth had always been one of my biggest fears, and waterbirth helped me conquer that fear. I highly recommend this form of childbirth to any woman out there who may be thinking of having a natural childbirth. If I can do it, anyone can!

If anyone has any questions or wants to know more about waterbirth, please feel free to ask me!

Noah--Day 5

Here are some new pictures of little Noah. He just gets cuter everyday!

Our New Arrival

Baby Scherer finally decided to join us! He (yes, it's a boy) was born on February 2 at 6:43 am. His name is Noah James and he is beautiful! He weighed 8 pounds and was 20 inches long. Rose had a waterbirth, which was very successful. She'll write more about that later. Mom and baby are doing great and the family is now at home. We are so grateful to have this little bundle of joy in our family!

Waiting, waiting, waiting

We are still waiting for Baby Scherer to arrive. My due date was 2 days ago, which I know is not that long, but I'm ready to see this baby! We went to Scalini's last night, which is a restaurant here in Atlanta that is famous for it's eggplant parmesian dish that is supposed to induce labor. So we went there last night and I ate the whole eggplant dish. So far it hasn't done anything, but we'll see. The waitress at the restaurant told us that if you have the baby within 48 hours of eating the eggplant parmesian they will give you a little pink or blue shirt for the baby and a 25$ gift certificate to eat there again. You also get to put your baby's picture on their wall. So if Baby Scherer will hurry it up, we could get a free meal! That would be awesome, but I'm trying my best to be patient and let the baby come when he/she is ready. Hopefully it will be soon!

New Pregnancy Pics

After being chastised for not updating my blog and receiving requests for updates (Jenny), I promise to never wait this long again between postings. As I'm sure all of you know, my belly is getting bigger and bigger! I'm about ready to get this baby out! I don't sleep much anymore and I have this excruciating pain at the top of my belly when the baby decides to push out as hard as he/she can. That part is not fun at all! Other than that I'm doing pretty well. So here are some updated pictures of my basketball belly.

This is me at 36 weeks:

This is 37 weeks:

This is 38 weeks:

I'm pretty large, huh! My midwife told me this week that she thinks I'm having a 71/2 or 8 pound baby. I almost died when she said that! I only weighed 5 pounds something when I was born and Daniel was about 7 pounds so I was banking that our baby would be small. I guess we'll find out soon enough!

Thanksgiving in Miami

Daniel and I decided to take a trip down to Miami to visit his Nana for Thanksgiving. Plus, we thought it would be a great little vacation before the baby comes. We had a great time! The weather was perfect; it was in the high 70's the whole time we were there. We swam in the pool in Nana's retirement community, went to the beach, did some shopping, and visited with family. We saw Nana and her two sisters, Ruth and Lou, as well as Daniel's Aunt Sandy and Uncle Henry. It was a wonderful vacation!


This is Daniel in front of the peacocks that live in Nana's retirement community.

Here we are at South Beach.

Us and Nana

More belly pics

This is me at 24 and 25 weeks. I think I look bigger
at 24 weeks than I do now. How is that possible?

I promise I'm not a drug user!

About a week and a half ago I had my glucose screening test to find out if I am at risk for gestational diabetes. Well, I got a call from the doctor's office that my glucose was high so I had to go back for a three hour glucose test. So last week I had to go back to the doctor's office and stay there for 3 hours. They drew my blood when I got there, then had me drink that sugar filled drink. After that they drew my blood 3 more times for 3 hours! That's a total of 4 times, 2 in each arm. So about a week later this is what I look like with the lovely bruises on my arms from being "poked" so many times. I try to hide my arms when I go out so people won't think I'm a drug user. By the way, I haven't heard back from the doctor's office so I think I'm in the clear for gestational diabetes. Whew!

Crib and Baby Bedding

So this is our crib and baby bedding. I found the bedding on the internet and fell in love with it. It's kind of hard to see it from the picture but it's a light mint green color and is so cute! We got our crib at a garage sale for $50. We love a bargain!