Baby L is here!!

I’m so excited to announce that Baby L is here! Just shy of 2 weeks ago, she finally arrived and Baby V, Ross and I are all just over the moon about her!

Before I sign off for my maternity leave, I’m checking in with updates about the third trimester, Baby L’s birth and what my maternity leave will look like.

The Third Trimester

This pregnancy was so much more difficult for me than my first. I had really severe morning sickness during the first trimester, and unlike my first pregnancy, I never really felt “great” again. I’m very thankful that both Baby L and I were healthy during the whole 9+ months, but -OH MAN- I felt pretty crumby the whole time.

During the third trimester we had so much going on (read about all the craziness in the Maternity Leave section) that it was really hard for me to take time to take care of myself. I stopped working out, going to yoga, taking baths at night, and doing all the things that helped me feel great during my first pregnancy. I had bad insomnia during the last few months, so any spare time I found was spent trying to take a nap.

I don’t want to paint too dire of a picture because it really wasn’t that bad, but between the constant lower back pain, achy hips and exhaustion, by month 8 I felt more than ready to meet my baby!

The Birth

By the time I reached week 34, I was convinced that the baby was going to come early. Baby V was born 5 days past her due date, but I felt like Baby L was carrying so low, and everyday I had a different weird symptom that I imagined was a clue that the baby was coming any minute. It turns out that she was no where near done cooking, and she actually ended up coming a day past her due date.

On my due date, I finally knew that labor was imminent when I started getting sick (it’s a very not-cute part of pregnancy that sometimes the body clears itself out before the baby comes). I’ll save the details because it wasn’t pretty, but let’s just say that after a very rough night, those symptoms tapered off and light contractions started the next day around 7am.

Since I hadn’t slept much the night before, I tried to nap and rest as much as possible while the contractions where still very light. Ross brought Baby V to a friend’s house in the morning, then in the afternoon I laid on the couch watching a movie with her. By 1pm, the contractions were coming 10-15 minutes apart but they weren’t painful yet. Baby V could definitely sense that something was going on, but luckily she never had to see in me in any pain.

Around 3pm, Baby V dozed off on the couch, and my body must have said, she’s asleep! let’s do this! because suddenly the contractions started coming at 7 minutes apart and lasting 1 minute. I could tell that things were moving quickly and half an hour later they were 4-5 minutes apart and starting to hurt to the point where I needed to stop talking and focus on my breathing when they started. I knew it was time to leave for the hospital!

From there, things moved so, so quickly. We arrived at the hospital at 4pm where they checked me in and hooked me up to a monitor to check the contractions and see if I was dilated. The contractions were now coming 3 minutes apart (although not exactly painful yet) and I was only dilated 3 cm. I suddenly felt disappointed that I wasn’t dilated farther, and I worried that we had a really long night ahead of us. I was so wrong!

Suddenly the contractions started getting stronger and stronger. When my midwife arrived 30 minutes later at 5 pm, the contractions had gotten so strong that I thought about asking for an epidural but I decided to try the jacuzzi tub first in the hope that I could do it medication-free. The nurse started filling the tub with water, and by the time it was ready for me to get in, I was 7 cm dilated and could barely walk the 4 feet to the tub with the help of Ross and 3 nurses.

The warm water gave me instant relief, and I was able to breathe through a handful of contractions before the pain became excruciating. I think I was only in the tub for 10 minutes before I started feeling the urge to push, so the nurses helped me get out and dry off then get back into the bed (at this hopital you’re able to labor in the tub but not deliver the baby there).

The pain was suddenly so bad that I turned to Ross and screamed that I couldn’t do it anymore and I wanted an epidural!! In my head, somehow I thought we still had hours of pain to go and I couldn’t imagine being able to breathe through it for that long. In reality, my midwife said we could try to call for an epidural but there’s no way it’s getting here before the baby comes- she could already see the head! I was SO relieved to hear her say that and knowing that we were at the end gave me a boost of energy to keep breathing and start pushing.

It felt like hours, but I must have only pushed for 15 minutes before Baby L was born. At one point I felt like I was pushing so much and nothing was happening, and my midwife told me to reach down…and I felt her head! Her head was completely out and I had no idea- it took one more push and she was fully out! It was 7pm, just 3 hours after we arrived at the hospital!

Baby L was laid on my chest and I was totally in shock that I was already holding my baby! My labor with Baby V was 16+ hours, so Ross and I couldn’t believe how quickly and (relatively) easy it turned out to be the second time around. We felt so lucky!

Maternity Leave

When Baby V was born, I definitely slowed down on work but I didn’t take a real maternity leave. She was such an easy baby, that once she was a few weeks old, I would just pop her in the stroller and she would sleep while I worked from a coffee shop, or she was happy to relax in the carrier while I worked in the kitchen. I still had a good chunk of my first cookbook to write, so taking a real maternity leave wasn’t exactly an option. Plus, she was such a great coworker that I didn’t need a sitter until she was 6 months old!

This time around, I feel very differently about taking time off. 2018 was an amazing, huge and downright exhausting year for our family. I signed on to write a second cookbook, found out I was pregnant with Baby L (with the cookbook manuscript due 3 weeks before the baby!), we bought our first house, moved while I was in the throws of terrible morning sickness, spent the entire summer traveling (we made all the plans before we knew about the book, baby and house- oops!), Baby V dealt with the major life adjustment of moving + starting preschool, and yes- I somehow managed to turn my cookbook manuscript in on time!

Then Baby L was born! Whew!

So as you can see, this mama is TIRED! I’ve decided to take a real maternity leave to spend time with both my girls and to recharge my own batteries. That means I won’t be posting any new recipes here on the blog until March (but keep up with me on Instagram where eventually I’ll get back into the swing of sharing photos because it’s fun!).

Thanks so much for your support this past year! For now, I’m signing off to spend time with these two cuties!