my month old mila

Mila is 4 weeks now! Can you believe it?? It seems like she has been here forever, yet I can vaguely remember sleep and that is definitely from before the Mila-age.
We had her 4 week checkup today and she is now at her target weight and length on her chart. She is slightly longer than most girls, so she had a little weight to get her caught up. So today she weighed in at 10.25 pounds and is 56 centimeters long.


"So, whats new with Mila?" you ask.

Bad things first:
-About 12 days ago she started being really screamy, so we called the doctor and they recommended giving her colic medicine. Its really helping. Today was day 4 and she has only had one slight scream fit. Its a pain because you have to give her ten drops before each feeding and its kept cold. That pain, however, is worth it to stop HER pain!
-She is still sleeping in the bed with us, but I'm trying to transition her slowly to her crib in her room.
-I'm exhausted.
-I'm still not producing enough milk, so she is basically on formula and breastfeeds just because she likes it. I like to sing 'Dust in the Wind' while she does...lol.
That's it with the bad.

Now the good:
-Mila has started to smile for real. Its wonderful. Rare, but wonderful.
-She can watch objects and follow them with her eyes. Nice to see her show interest in something other than a breast.
-She has started cooing and ahhing. Wonderful.
-She still likes to save all her poop up and go once a day, and its still for daddy! Yay for me.
-Today she had a 40 minute nap in her crib all alone and wasn't asleep when I put her in it! Progress!
-Mila has developed a love for "dancing" and I for making up really stupid songs about bitchin' Camero's and the like.
-My little one gets cuter pretty much by the minute.

Unfortunately this is the only non screamy picture I have gotten for her 4 week birthday. I guess the red eye says it all!

Three Weeks Already!!

Well, Mila had her 3 week check up this morning and is growing and doing just great!!

I havent been able to write much because she really keeps me busy!! Its been a little difficult at times, but I think things are getting on track now. Ill just share a few things about her first few weeks now.

-The first 10 days we had a hard time getting her to grow, actually. I am not making enough milk to feed her, so she was losing weight quickly. In the end we resorted to supplementing her with formula, which I never imagined I would need. Her pediatric nurse said it was definitely necessary and it has really helped. She lost about a pound quickly, but has now gained one and a half pounds back! She is getting herself on track.

-Her cord came off after only 5 days. And thank God because it really stunk! It wasnt infected, but you would have thought it was. I called it her stink stump and was glad to see it go!

-She loves to have baths, but we only do it 2 times a week. Not like shes getting dirty.

-She hardly ever cries, mostly when its time for her bottle because she gets frustrated.

-I have had a horrible cold, the kind where you completely lose your voice, and she got it but after only 48 hours she was fine again!

-She only poops once a day and it has to be daddy. she has never pooped for me... not that I mind.

-She has started to smile and giggle when its breast time in the morning. It is possibly the cutest thing on this Earth, and maybe other planets.

-She hates tummy time but has a really strong neck. Its a mystery to us.

-She loves to be held, thats already looking like a problem. More for me than her, because I LOVE to hold her!

-She is a TV addict. If its on and she knows it, she wants to be facing it and goes into almost a trance.

-She gets really excited when you kiss her open mouth. Mostly thats a daddy thing too. She puked in my mouth last time I tried.

-She frequently squeels and sounds like a horse. Then she will growl like a dragon. Its adorable.

Ok thats all I can think of now, but in a word, shes adorable!

The face and name of Mila

Ok this is a quickie, just to tell the story and show her off.
The name. Its been asked by many, and we have waited to tell the story of where her name came from. As most of you know I was very close to my paternal grandmother. Before she passed away, Marcus also became very close to her. Frankly, if you knew her, you were likely to adore her. Her name was Irma Lee Milam before she was married. She took the nickname Peggy when she was in highschool because she and several friends hated their names.


Well, we kind of hate them too. But we wanted to honor her still. So we decided early on that if we had a boy his name would be Milam. Long I as is pronounced in her maiden name. When we found out it was a girl we were in a bit of a pickle. After deliberating for a while we decided to cut the m on the end and shorten the I to call her Mila. And we loved it immediately!! I hope that my grandmother knows what an honor it was to have her in my life. And what an honor it is to name our daughter after her.


Now for some pictures!!!

You can see how puffy I still am... sigh

The Birth of Mila

Ok. I finally had my sweet little girl!! I was just feeling like it was hopeless Saturday, the 6th, when I decided to make myself forget by making tons of plans for Sunday.

Well, that seems to have been the trick for me. At about 3am my water broke. I called the delivery ward and they said to try to get some sleep since I wasnt having regular contractions and the water was clear. About 10 minutes later, I see some green in the water, call back, and they need me in to make sure baby is ok. Im still not thinking "its happenning".

As we get ready to go, I start having horrible menstrual type pains, but figure it cant be real contractions so dont get too hopped up. Over the next 20 minutes, driving to the hospital, these "not real" contractions become very painful and regular. Is this it??

It is it!!

We get to the hospital at about 4:15, get checked and am back down from a 4 to a 3. So disappointing. I try to walk through the pains but it is becoming very difficult. We finally get a room about 5:30. I am re-checked and am at a 5. We wait a while for the bath I requested and the midwife comes back and I realize a bath aint gonna happen!

At that time I am re-checked and am at a 7, but while being checked I have a contraction and go to an 8. This is about 7 am. I go to pee just in case, and while in there have pushing urges. Scary! I tell the midwife that I need to push and she says Im not ready. I tell her to please check me again. She does and I am SO ready. I cant control the pushing.

I start feeling wild. Picture the Exorcist. Levitations and heads spinning. I wanted an epidural but there was just no way. So I start the real pushing and after I think 6 contractions she has her head half out. I gotta tell you, ladies, this is the most horrendous thing you will ever feel! The midwife is holding me open so I can keep pushing. I finally get to the next contraction and push her all the way out. It was so hideously painful...

But oh my goodness. To look down and see my beautiful, well ok slimy, baby girl. Its the most amazing thing I have ever seen. Or felt. Or smelled, but thats another tale.

On October 7th at 8:01 am, I saw my baby girl for the first time. She is in perfect health. Weighed in at 8.5 lbs and is 20.5 inches long. She has wavy dark hair like her daddy. She has a beautiful scream, that we hear often as my milk isnt in yet, and loves to be snuggled super close.

The miracle that is Mila Belle Petersson has finally shown herself, and it is truly amazing!

So happy to no longer feel forever pregnant!!
Thanks for reading my super long birth story.

Latent Labor

Ok, so many of you are now waiting to hear news because I was heading for the hospital Thursday afternoon. As you can guess, I'm home now. Things are stalled, but went like this:

Thursday morning I woke up with a very "different" feeling. One of uncertainty and almost urgency. Not an urgency to do anything in particular, just a feeling of being rushed and restless. But not a feeling of "this is it". SO I do a few things around the house and settle on the sofa to watch some TV with my faithful companion, Neko. At about noon I notice that I have been having contractions. I haven't had many at all since my fore-water broke a few weeks ago. This is interesting. I get hopeful and eat a sort of big lunch. By the end of that I realize that they are coming stronger, longer, and pretty regularly. I'm not one to time things, but I was guessing about 8 minutes apart. I called Marcus to ask him to call the labor ward and tell them we are coming in that night after he gets off work. I then, being as vane as I am, took a shower so my hair would at least be clean. LOL. I called my mom to let her know what was going on and give her some numbers in case we couldn't call everyone. By the end of that phone call I decided to time a few contractions and they were 5 minutes apart. I was getting so excited! I called Marcus and told him he should probably come on home and get me. He did.

We got to the hospital about 4. When you go in here, they always first set you up on a CTG (non stress test) monitor to make sure you're both OK. Baby's heart rate was a little high, but probably because mine was too. And the contractions. Well, they were 3 minutes apart. Very regular. But not super duper painful. Some women's aren't. I was getting more excited when I saw they were so close and regular. And this was for over an hour. The midwife on duty came in and was so so nice! She was funny and really comforting. She felt the baby's position and she was head down but face up. Not exactly what we hoped for, but something that should work itself out. She then decided to check me and see how far I was coming in progress. I was 50% effaced and at just under 4 centimeters dilated. That's good, right?? Yeah it is. She says I'm not in active labor at the moment but well on my way.

We all decide its a good idea for Marcus and me to go have some dinner and walk around a little and come back. We went to the ultimate walking place: IKEA. They have good food and so much space to walk in. I felt ridiculous at times walking all bendy-overy and stopping at weird items to breathe through a contraction. But its all worth it, right? Maybe.

We get back to the hospital about 8 and do another CTG. Baby is sleeping and the heart rate is a little better, contractions still coming on, and causing a lot of pain in my back. (I later read that the position of the baby causes back pain, so now I'm not surprised, just irritated.) At the hospital they have these really deep, long bath tubs that nearly have you foaming at the mouth when you're in pain. So when asked if I wanted to try one I was less than hesitant! It was SO relaxing. I still felt the pains, but so much less. I highly recommend this to anyone in labor.

After the bath, I get checked again. NO PROGRESS. None! I was so disappointed. The new shift was starting so I had a different midwife this time and she really thought that I would go into labor over night, so we stayed. And she put needles in my head to "relax" me. I guess for some they work. She then gave me a shot of Brikanyl (asthma medicine) to relax the uterus so I could sleep for a few hours and a sleeping and pain pill. I am not big on taking pills and stuff anyways, but I really don't like it while pregnant. However, it was that or get no rest and possibly go into labor exhausted, which I have heard makes things much worse.

So we sleep. Wake up and after about an hour the contractions are starting to come back, but not as strong. I had high hopes that in the 6 hours I slept maybe I had dilated more. Get checked, and nothing. So we go home to rest and relax and hope to be back soon. That was about 8am.

At about 2 we come back to Kalmar to do some errands and just stop in to get checked and get some pain killers for my back. At this time, I am at a full 4 and having bloody show. But still not in active labor. While there I had another CTG. The baby's heart was good, and my contractions were coming but very irregular. However, while I normally have registered between 25 and 40 I had one that was 90 seconds long and went over 100!!! Holy cow that was freaky. It wasn't so much the pain, though it did hurt, but the feeling of "What is going on? Why is this lasting so long and so strong? ". I actually started to cry because it hurt my back so badly, and probably because it scared me a little. Just then, of course, the midwife from hell walks in and lecture me about being strong. She is all pissy because I cried. Its not like I was lying there sobbing. I just got teary. Plus, its quite emotional being in labor for over 24 hours already. I was pretty upset with that. And very glad she sent me home because, frankly, I don't want her near my labor. I need someone who has a little compassion at least.

Ok, so I'm home again. I have now been in latent labor for 49 hours. I have had some sleep, but its all been weird and uncomfortable. And I am having super weird dreams. I'm feeling really low at times and I cant seem to shake the feelings of sadness I have for little Mila being trapped in there, all squished up and wanting to come out.


It feels like things have pretty much stalled. I'm still having bloody show, but not as many contractions. I'm basically just sore and irritable now. Yay. We are both hoping that things will pick up tonight or tomorrow morning. Its 1pm now, so I guess we have a while to see what will happen!

Thanks for all of the messages of support. I really appreciate them. And the tips. I have tried most but it wont hurt to try again. And thanks for reading this long story of no progress or consequence. I just needed to share a little, I guess.

What to do on a due date?

Well, its October first and this is my due date. The due date I said was wrong. It was off by one week exactly according to all of my calculations, and all calculations prior to the 18 week ultrasound. But its still my due date. And nothing has happened so far. Its 7 am. I made myself very busy yesterday to try to get things moving.

After sleeping alot on Saturday, and getting up at 3:30am, I decided I was getting myself to go into labor if it killed me. I went for a long, fast paced walk with Marcus at about 7 yesterday, and during it I had the first "big feeling" contractions I have had in WEEKS! I was so excited. After that we had breakfast and I decided to keep myself up and active I would go to work with Marcus, it was mostly because it was a yucky job and I didn't want him to be bored and lonely. Its kind of funny. On the island they were having this pumpkin festival (indoors!!) and the owner of the car place decided it would be a great opportunity to set up a small lot in the mall parking lot. Thursday to Sunday there were ZERO sales. It rained every day. It was cold every day. And no one who is out looking for pumpkins in a mall is really out looking for nice cars. So, they had a little mobile home thing (with no bathroom) and we just sat around in that for 3 hours... laughing at what a stupid idea the whole thing was anyway! I did get out and walk a bit and try to keep active. (One would think I ran a marathon from how achy I feel now!)

After that we went to see his grandparents in Kalmar because we had an hour to kill before going to our for reals destination. We went to a magic show!! It was so fun! OK, not really. It was fun for about ten minutes. Then I started having shooting pains and thought it could be early labor and we got out of there at intermission. I was having several contractions, but they weren't super painful, so I guess they were braxton-hicks, but still. It gave us hope. We stopped at the grocery store on our way out of Kalmar and I was so close to just going to the hospital to see what they though. Good thing I didn't. Baby is still securely in there.

We came home and I was so tired I could hardly move. Plus all the activity of the day made me feel like an achy 90 year old! Add the cold I have to that and you get one not happy gigantic woman! So at about 8:30 I went to bed. I had a hard time falling asleep because of the contractions.. yay! Not yay. They're almost gone now. But at least I did get some sleep and I have some hope that maybe early labor is starting.

Its weird to think that one year ago today Marcus and I flew into Copenhagen and made our way back to Kalmar to start our lives here. We were really hoping that she would come today, just because of the significance of the date. We have done so much in one year, having our baby in that same timeline would have been awesome. I guess the day isn't over yet, so we will see.

Well, that's all I really have for now. Nothing too interesting. Mostly a statement that baby is not here yet and she doesn't seem to be too unhappy about it. And let me just add, because I feel I must, that I never ever imagined I would get this far. I'm excited she made it full term but GEEEEZ, cant we not overdo it for once? Overdue it, I mean.

The Home Stretch...Mark.

Well, we finally made it to week 40!! Its so hard to believe that I am due in a few short days, and STILL pregnant. I have to say that we were not expecting this at all. All of our doctors and midwives have been concerned that I would actually give birth before it was safe, even. Well, look at me now! Mila is fully formed and ready to join the outside world, and I'm the size of a baby whale.
This past week has been hard, but not nearly as hard as the rest of the pregnancy. I actually think its been the easiest part aside from the first 5 weeks. The weeks your body hasn't had time to acknowledge the shock its going to go into. I have been sleeping on average of 3 hours per day, and my pelvic bones feel like someone has gnawed them in half. My back aches a little when I move. Oh, and the peeing. Every ten minutes. Its fun!
It doesn't sound as if I should feel as good as I do, but really I would take these little pains any day over the hyperemesis and horrendous contractions my body had no business having. I look at the sleeping issue as the worst of the bunch and I actually think it will help me when Mila gets here. I'm already getting used to very little sleep, so it wont be so bad when she has me on an every 4 hours schedule. I may actually get MORE sleep when she comes. Imagine that!! All the other stuff I know will go away within weeks of delivery, so I'm not worried at all.
Its amazing how your body naturally gets prepared for the huge life change you are about to undergo. Its also amazing that a baby can live upside down suspended in water for months on end. Maybe she is a bat.

No pictures this week. After hearing how freakishly gigantic I look, I don't think I can handle it. And I haven't really changed any from last week, so you get the idea.

Monday is my due date. Lets hope I have something to tell by then!!