Philippians 1:6 & Lamaze

I don't really use Lamaze per se as a labor/delivery tool but I do have the "hee-hee-hoo" breathing patterns pretty firmly embedded in my psyche since first learning them almost 16 (!) years ago. It doesn't take too much contraction activity for me to lapse into some form of that relaxation/breathing technique.

I usually start having contractions fairly early in my pregnancies and sometimes I'll wake up from a sound sleep with a "heeeee-hooooo." This pregnancy, for the first time, my brain has been following up that "hee-hoo" with "began a good work in you.... ." So my Bible verse for this pregnancy is:

"For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus." Philippians 1:6

Or as the Steve Green's song says, "He who began a good work in you will be faithful to complete it in you." I've been singing that song a lot too!

Announcing.....

My pregnancy ticker at the top of the page is wrong. I do NOT have 5 days to go. Because my new little boy is 4 days old now!! :-) Yep, that's right. I finally had that sweet little boy and I feel SO much better. I knew I would. Okay, the details. Levi Quinn was born Wednesday morning, July 30th, at 6:25 a.m. It's hard to say how long the labor was because I had been in mild/moderate labor for DAYS!!! But I arrived at the hospital at 3:50 a.m. and he was born at 6:25. That's 2 hours and 35 minutes later. Sounds good, eh? Levi weighed 9 pounds 13 ounces and was 21 1/4 inches long with a 14 1/2 inch head. There was a lot of baby all bunched up inside of me and we both seem happy with his change of address! :-) Labor was uneventful except for the remarkable fact that I HAD A BABY!! :-) It was unmedicated as I wished, I labored in the tub until the last possible moment, I didn't tear so there were no stitches (yea!!), my doc let me deliver the placenta unassisted, she waited until the cord stopped pulsing in order to cut it, the doc didn't break my water (even though she asked if she could during those last few moments). BTW, her reason for wanting to break the water wasn't good enough so I said no. She wanted to break it because she didn't want it to break all of a sudden, in a gush, all over her! I said "isn't that why you get paid the big bucks!?!?" Soon my water broke all over her. She said, "That's what I mean." Funny! I pushed for 11 minutes and then I had my sweet 'little' baby! Well, that's all I have time to write for now. We're pretty busy and nursing is a little rough right now because Levi is tongue-tied but hopefully that will be remedied tomorrow at the doctor's office. Here's a link to a slideshow of Levi's hospital pics. I put it together really quickly so they aren't all the best pictures, I just dumped them all into the slide show without being choosy. Enjoy!! BTW, I worried in my last post what message I was conveying to (especially) my 12 y.o. daughter... Today she said, "I sure hope Levi isn't going to be the youngest child around here..." Hoo boy!

Newborn Eye Ointment

Anne, in the comments on my Pregnancy Update, you asked what the eye antibiotics were. I decided to post the information here rather than in the comments because of length.

Eye ointment - If you had a sexually transmitted disease while pregnant, this can be passed to your baby and cause blindness. Rather than test for an STD before applying the ointment, they simply apply it to all infants. Silver nitrate used to be used, and it stung the baby’s eyes, sometimes causing eye problems later in life. Now it is more common to use Erythromycin, which does not sting. However, many mothers object to their babies receiving a treatment that is unnecessary, especially if they are in a monogamous relationship and know they don't have an STD, or if they have been previously tested. This can be dispensed with if you sign a waver (sic). Click Here to read the medical research studies which explain why choosing to forgoe the ointment is a reasonable decision for parents to make because the treatment does not significantly reduce infection, and many infants who receive the treatment contraction the infection anyway.

Information copied from: http://www.unhinderedliving.com/newborn.html
(This reference is not meant to imply an endorsement of the website mentioned)

Since this is totally not an issue for me, I see no reason whatsoever to subject my child to the antibiotic. I'm not a proponant of prophylactic antibiotic use anyway so it's a pretty natural response for me to decline it.