Home Birth!

Our Sebastian Peter Edward Gopfrich was born at 9:17pm on a dark and stormy St. Patrick's Day.  He entered this world after a bolt of lighting and a loud thunderclap!

My water broke 24 hours before that, and luckily I spent most of the night sleeping through early labor. It wasn't until around 10am that the pain really geared up.

 

 

Can you believe this is a photo of my little cherub right after he was born? He has a wonderful personality!

The active labor only lasted a few hours and those were spent in the warm tub set up in the living room. The tub was a blessing!  My brother just asked if our tub was green on purpose (St. Patty's Day!), haha!  The active labor was less painful (but more vocal) than the early labor. We felt so lucky we were able to have him born into the water in our own home with the help of our midwife Dr. Gleisner and her assistant Sara. I'd always envisioned gving birth at home in a tub and it was such a satisfying experience (despite the pain). Later that night we all bundled off to our bedroom and slept pretty much through the next day.

Since then I've been completely and utterly exhuasted!!  Walking and sitting hurt--a lot.  Peer is doing a good job of helping to take care of everyone.  We are currently working on nursing (around the clock) and sleeping and getting to know each other. We are so grateful for all of the support and love shown to us by our family and friends.  I'm frustrated I haven't been able to respond to everyone but hopefully in time I will be able to.
I'll write more and post more photographs of our amazing little boy soon, once I've regained a little more consciousness!

 

 

 

Today we gave Sebastian his first bath--he loved it (and mommy did, too!). 

 

Happy 37 Weeks!!

Wow we are at 37 weeks today!  Baby had a huge growth spurt over the past week and my midwife estimates he gained about 1 pound in the past week alone.  The estimate is that he is about 7 pounds at this point, but I hold out hope he is still a wee bit smaller and is just long and skinny! 
As a result I've felt extremely ill the past week--very nauseated, exhausted, and heartburn prone.  It reminded me how horrible my first and most of second trimesters were!  I'm starting to feel better, so perhaps he has calmed down a little bit! 

It's very difficult to bend over......

I can't button anything! 

We are all ready to go to the baby shower my office is throwing for me!
At this point, I feel like I'm a combo of The Venus of Willendorf and Tik Tok, the rotund waddling machine from Return to Oz!


I'll try and update soon about the nursery and set up for the home water birth! 

Baby Shower!

I can't thank everyone enough for coming to show love and support for our little boy!  I'll always remember this very special day in January!  I included a link below with a lot of photos as well as scans of the scrapbook pages people made.  


https://picasaweb.google.com/102206959859853950819/SmithGopfrichBabyShower?authuser=0&feat=directlink

Mr. Hippo Thank You Cards

Mr. Blue Hippo accepted the honor of modeling for an exclusive line of thank you notes, featuring some wonderful gifts our baby is looking forward to using!  In case you wanted to see the other card photos or how your gift was used in other photos (which you didn't see!) take a look!  If you haven't received one, you should be very soon!

https://picasaweb.google.com/102206959859853950819/MrHippoModelsBabyGifts?authuser=0&feat=directlink

Week 33

I'm getting huge in the home stretch! I have so much to catch up on and do before our baby arrives. I have been wonderfully overwhelmed by the outpouring of love and generosity of my friends! Thank you. My shower was a memory I will always cherish. If you haven't heard from me yet you should be very soon. I also recently had my 35th birthday! January was very busy, and I'm still trying to catch up to December. Pretty soon, though, I won't have time for anything other than the arrival of my little one!

On the pregnancy front I've been having a better time with the last trimester than the first two. Sure I suffer from the typical complaints of sore and stretched ligaments (I can't really walk far, or lift anything!), sleep disturbances, and heartburn--but overall I'm enjoying this phase much more. I have more energy and really enjoy communicating with my little one. I know he's still in the belly, but we already have a connection and I well up with tears thinking about how much I can't wait to meet and love him!

I'll post pictures of the shower and other news soon!!

How to tell if you are really, really pregnant...

This is just a little something I found humorous.....

One night not too long ago I decided to tuck in early after having just had a large chicken and rice dinner.  I was changing into my nightgown and as I was pulling up my shirt I noticed a few pieces of rice fall out.  I pulled some more and found some additional pieces stuck to my belly.  For some reason, probably because my stomach is stretched quite large, I could not feel the rice at all.

To my dismay and amusement, once the shirt was completely removed, I found an entire shelf of rice piled up at the top of my belly!!  I really could not feel it at all, and must have just tumbled down into my v-neck shirt while I was pigging out on my food (I do get quite hungry!).  There was really a sizable pile of rice just sitting there, comfortably tucked in between my breasts and on the top of the belly which now almost reaches my sternum. 

You know you're really, really pregnant when this happens not once....but almost every time you eat rice!!

Week 31 and 35th Birthday Brunch

Happy Week 31!  I've been feeling pretty good lately and gone swimming a few times!  We had a very low key small brunch to celebrate my 35th.  Time flies!
A lady nearby said she didn't even notice I was pregnant until I stood up and turned sideways.  Ah, the slimming power of the color black!