It was a rough three weeks getting used to our new roles, especially for me and my crazy after birth hormones. I am feeling good now (hormonally speaking), the postpartum bleeding has just about stopped and my stitches (from what I can see) are practically healed up.

As you can see from the photo, I am getting good at holding Everly in one hand while doing the internet thing with the other. I am still struggling with the self care while caring for a newborn thing though…

You see I’ve lost about 40lbs in 25 days which brings me very close to having my pre-pregnancy body back. I am attributing that to genetics and the fact that I am breastfeeding. I wont be comfortable loosing much more weight though.

Also, I am having a very hard time finding time and freeing both my hands so I can prepare food to eat. That probably has something to do with my quick weight loss too. We are working on that, it’s just hard to walk away from Everly while she’s fussing.

Yep, she’s still fussing here and there. She’s a great sleeper and a very good baby when she’s not uncomfortable. The problem is she’s still got an immature digestive system (like all newborns) and she doesn’t like pooping or passing gas for whatever reasion.

She’ll fuss and struggle and wont sleep when her tummy hurts, she startles in apparent pain whenever she starts to doze off. I’ve tried eliminating common allergens from my diet (which leaves me starving), we’ve tried digestive enzymes, gas drops, exercises, tummy time, burping and massage. Nothing helps her poop and pass gas without the fussing and struggling. She’s fussing a ton today actually.

The nighttime nursing and exhaustion aren’t even bothering me all that much, it is the fussing that is the worst. Other than the fussing things are going really well.

She’s smiling more and playing mimicking games with us these days. Her red hair is getting pretty long in some areas and she’s getting so big! Almost 11lbs it seems according to our bathroom scale.

In just a few weeks we’ll be heading back to The Farm for Everly’s 6 week checkup and we’ll have an exact weight for her then. I am pretty excited to go back. Pamela, our midwife, is so calming and supportive so we can’t wait to visit with her. We’ll probably stay there a day or two if N can get the time off work. The quiet time together will be a nice bonus too.

In other news we got Gabby, our newest kitty, fixed today (finally) and am so darn glad! Now Boner just needs to be fixed and we’ll have all the pets spayed or neutered. It’s good too, we don’t need anymore madness going on around here. Everly’s fussing is enough.

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When I was on knees and elbows pushing out Everly and tearing wide open while N and 4 other women watched all my sense of privacy, bashfulness and desire to be ladylike went out the window.

After delivery many unexpected farts were heard coming from me. They were shocking to me because I couldn’t feel them coming and I certainly couldn’t hold them back after a rectal sphincter tear. By the way Krystal, I didn’t poop during delivery (LOL). It took several days following labor for the poop to come.

Following labor I was inundated with questions about and inspections of my vagina, anus, boobs. Had I pooped yet, did it hurt? When was the last time I peed, did it sting? Are the crotchsicles working, how is the swelling etc.

Then there are the baby bodily functions to discuss too. What color is baby’s poop, is she peeing to? Is the poop seedy or runny? Is she having gas and does she burp often? Has she been spitting up?

Basically I am not shy about bodily functions anymore! I’ve shared that my ass hurts on several occasions and have made N’s family uncomfortable I am sure. Just the other day after pooping I noticed only blood on the toilet paper when I wiped so I called to N to inspect the stitches with me. I was sure I ripped one somehow but he assured me it was still in place despite the separating and bleeding.

Back on Tuesday I called N to come in and help me clip off the tail to my stitches that was jabbing the inside of my vagina. It was all this extra from the stitches just hanging out down there. Naturally I didn’t want to clip it off myself because it’s a bit delicate down there and I didn’t have a good view of what I was doing.

He’s a trooper and has no problem checking the damage and helping me down there. He hates thinking about and seeing the awful damage down there though. It really looks much worse than it is and honestly I would rather tear open naturally than have a labor induction or a c-section.

Anyway, back to bodily functions… When Everly poops man it is loud! Breastfed babies have much softer stools. Almost like diarrhea with some stringy chunks and seeds. It is normal for them, I am not sure if the explosive fart sounds are normal though. If you need a visual check out this video.

The sharts (shit & farts) sure are amusing us though. I mean you can hear her pooping from the next room, she has the “poop grunt” down pat and the farts/ squirts are insanely explosive! I mean she doesn’t even really cry as loud as she sharts. We positively reinforce her pooping and she smiles afterward so I guess it is all good.

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Her Apgar scores were 9 at 1 min & 10 at 5 min, which is great. She was feeding like a champ right after birth too, they placed her on my chest right after she was out and she found the nipple no problem. I was even feeding her as they wheeled me through the hospital doors at 3am for my repair work. I suffered a 4th degree tear that is very unusual for Farm births and homebirths in general.

A surgeon came in and stitched me up good. I specifically asked how many stitches I was receiving, the surgeon laughed and said he’d lost count and that it’s probably better that way. Basically we got there at 3am and didn’t leave till about 6am. I got lots of stitches. N, Pamela and Everly napped while they worked on me.

We also had Everly’s cord blood tested (to get her blood type) and I received my RhoGam shot while we were there since it turns out Everly is not RH negative like me. I was also prescribed some antibiotics for the tear. Basically I tore all the way through (if you know what I mean) so they were worried about anal bacteria and vaginal bacteria combining and infecting my stitches among other things.

I was not given any pain meds though, just taking Tylenol when I am hurting. I am supposed to be staying in bed with baby for 10 days, per Pamela and the surgeons orders. I am also taking arnica 30x for muscle soreness and trauma healing. I don’t feel incapable of carrying on though so staying in bed is hard.

Basically my pushing phase was super slow to start and then went super fast at the end. We tried all sorts of different positions to get her past my bones. I was laying back in bed, then went to the birthing chair, labored in the shower with N, tried squatting, pulling on a door handle, on hands and knees, kneeling face down on the bed and finally tried pushing while collapsed on my knees and elbows with my butt in the air.

Once I got in to my last position things began to go very quickly. From crowning to head out only took 3 min and she practically shot out of me. Nobody expected her to come as quickly as she did. They didn’t even have time to apply counter pressure to the perineum or to show me her head crowning. I am pretty sure I tore because she came out so fast.

Normally in a home birth situation they have you pushing as hard as you can until you begin to crown, once crowing begins they have you pant through the contractions and go real slow so you can avoid tearing. Unfortunately this didn’t happen in my case and I am certain it had to do with the fact that I made so much fast progress in the end.

Anyway I started pushing and was fully dilated at 10:44pm, she crowned at 1:12am and her head was out by 1:15am. One min later her body was out and I was holding her. It all happen super fast and the pushing part was my least favorite part because I felt like I wasn’t making good progress and that I was doing it all wrong. It turns out it was the positions that were working against me and making things seem like they weren’t progressing.

The contractions were much easier for me to deal with as I had found a way to “get in the zone” and relax through them. I listened to my tranquility music and Tibetan singing bowl music on my iPod during this phase, it lasted about 8 hours. N said everyone was amazed that I hardly made a peep until the last half hour of birth when the molding and crowning was taking place.

All in all I am very pleased with my birth experience and would totally do it the same way again. Pamela was great and N was a champ too. He never really left my side. From the moment he arrived back at The Farm until I was back home and stitched up. He even looked down there and got to see her coming out which we had previously discussed and he wasn’t sure he wanted to do.

Oh, and Pamela even wrote a song about Everly that she played for us on her guitar before we headed home. The song was beautiful and made me cry. We planted the placenta on her land under an evergreen tree, it’s the Everly Evergreen tree now. It seemed fitting since we birthed Everly in Pamela’s cabin on The Farm and it will forever be an important place for us.

Everly’s birth was an amazing experience and it truly was a right of passage for us. We are on cloud 9 now and wouldn’t have done it any other way!

Oh, if you want to read N’s version of Everly’s birth story (Pt. 1) & N’s version of Everly’s birth story (Pt. 2) are now up over at his blog! I am still working on my long version of the birth story. Posted my short summary version already, it can be read here.

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