Piper Ann: The Birth Story

WOAH! What a birth.... what a whirlwind. Even though I anticipated everything that happened happening, I was still in shock afterwards that I was right. It was really fast and intense, which makes for a pretty short birth story. I think to lengthen it a bit I'll add some backstory to it. So let's start with a little bit of my birth history. With Jane my water broke first at 3am and her labor was 14 hours long. With Atlas I woke up in labor at 7am and he was born 5 1/2 hours later, water didn't break until I was pushing. With Xan I woke up at 4am in labor and she was born 2 1/2 hours later, water didn't break until I was pushing with my midwife only arriving 20 min before she was born. To be honest, she probably could have been born 30 min to an hour sooner if I had my birth team present. So with Flynn I was sure he would be super fast and no one would make it in time. To my surprise, my water broke first at 5:30am and contractions didn't even start right away. He was born 9 hours later but only 2 hours after contractions became consistent and strong enough to really notice. My midwife even had to employ some of her natural labor inducing methods to get things going. So yes, the opposite of what I thought. Everyone was able to get there with time to spare and my friend was even able to photograph everything. :) Flynn was only 6lbs 6oz while all of my other babies were over 8lbs, all the way to 9lbs 2oz. My midwife, Sallie, said it took a bit to get labor started probably because Flynn was so light compared to my other babies. All that to say, I was expecting a fast labor yet again this time because I had no reason to assume Piper would be light like Flynn. 

Last bump pic

I was even more sure it would be fast because I kept getting faked out that labor was starting as early as 38 weeks. What I thought was just normal Braxton Hicks got stronger and could even become somewhat consistent for over an hour. Some being painful as well. My sister-in-law, Anna, let me know about Prodromal Labor, look it up, it's basically early labor that can last anywhere from days to weeks that starts up and stops often. I'm pretty positive that I had this with Alexandria, who's birth was very fast and I was having it again with Piper. It makes it really hard to know when labor is truly starting. The Sunday night before she was born I had at least an hour of almost real feeling contractions. that lasted for over a minute and came every 7ish minutes or so. You can see what I charted in the screenshot below. At around 12am I fell asleep and woke up around 2:30am to nothing. They started back around 3am and those felt real strong but I only had a couple and they stopped so I didn't chart those two. Monday night was strange. Atlas cut his head enough to need stitches so I spent half the night at the ER with him and my mom. I think if that wouldn't have happened I may have had her that night if my body was relaxed and I wasn't getting home at 11pm still in a daze from my son having blood all over him. (he's totally fine, just three stitches and he never complained about it hurting at all after that.)

Anyway! Moving on, we went to Park Day on Tuesday. I knew it might be a lot for 41 weeks pregnant but I also thought maybe it might get things going. My mom met us there to help out. It was a great park day, I'm so glad we got to go. Went home and gave the kids all baths and got a shower in myself, feeling the regular contractions I've been feeling for weeks throughout the day, nothing unusual. While we were at the park Sallie had texted me and told me about our next steps since neither of us wanted me to go much longer. I was going to call Inside Story the next morning to get an appointment that week to check fluids and make sure it was all good still. (I didn't end up needing to call) She also told me to increase the birth prep I was taking that afternoon and rub some castor oil on my belly before we tried applying it to the cervix later on that week. Lastly, she told me to try to relax, we were in the home stretch. I completely trust Sallie. I did exactly what she said. That night we got Chick-Fil-A for dinner to keep it chill and after I put the kids to bed, I sat down with a brownie (that I don't usually let myself have while pregnant) and turned on the movie What to Expect When You're Expecting to laugh and enjoy and rubbed castor oil on my belly. All very relaxing. 

12 hours before labor started

I finished my movie with no remarkable contractions. I decided to turn on a silly teen dramedy for a bit before I headed to bed. It was right before Midnight that I felt my first contraction that made me think, "Huh, that could be real." BUT! This happens to me all the time! Especially around 11pm-Midnight. They always seem to fall off or I fall asleep through them. I decided to track them for the next half hour. They were about every 10-12 min. It was almost 12:45am by then. So I told Sam I was going to bed but it might be tonight... He came to bed right after me and I was still looking at my phone to track them. We both decided to try to sleep but we ended up talking for the next hour or so and I kept tracking. They continued to be about 10 min apart and getting a little stronger. At 1:28am I texted my mom and Sallie saying the contractions were 10 min apart for about a minute and somewhat hard to talk through and I had been tracking them over an hour. I just wanted to give them a heads up and told them I would call if they got stronger. They both responded with a thumbs up. I tried to sleep and I think I may have dosed between one or two of them but they kept waking me up each time. I felt Piper kick me in the bladder and I had to get up to go to the bathroom. Then the contractions were about 8 min apart but sometimes a not as strong one would only be 3 min after. After I got back in bed I felt a contraction that I knew had to be real. It was 2:45am and I called my mom saying I was pretty sure this was going to be it! She told me she'd gather her things and be on her way. (she lives only 5-7 min from me.) I called Sallie right after and her phone went straight to voicemail. AH! I thought, but I texted her and she called me right back. Said she would be on her way as fast as she could. I told Sam I was going to move to the couch since I would need my mom to get the bed ready when she got there. He followed me to the living room to wait for my mom and Sallie to arrive.

OH my goodness.. y'all... How fast the contractions intensified from there was unreal. I felt a very strong one I had to groan through as soon as I sat down on the couch. Then every contraction from there was very painful and just before my mom arrived at about 3:05am there was a contraction that I felt pressure to push. I thought, Oh no... they're not going to make it. Lots of thoughts started streaming through my head. "Should I have Sam draw the bath so I can give birth there since nothing is ready??" But I could barely finish the thought before another contraction would bear down on me and it's all I could think about just to get through it. I tried to pray but every time I started to pray another contraction came on. (I think I would relax as soon as I would start praying and then the oxytocin that brought on would bring another contraction.) When my mom walked in the door she heard me groaning and she told me later she thought, "Oh my! She almost ready to push!" She asked immediately if Sallie was on her way and we told her, we thought so, but hadn't double checked. My mom said later she realized then that Sallie might not get there in time. She said she started to freak out but calmed herself and thought, "Ok, we can do this." I asked her to get the bed ready first. 

Last Ultrasound

The next 10-15 min I continued to feel an urge to push and resisting it made the contractions more painful. But I didn't want to give birth without Sallie. So I continued to resist. Sam was trying to call Sallie to see how far away she was, but we couldn't reach her. I knew it must mean she was driving. My mom came back and said the bed was ready and asked if I wanted to move to it. I told her I wanted to but I was afraid if I got up I would have Piper right away and maybe not even make it to the bed. I didn't really want to have her on the floor. For two of my births I was able to stay on that couch, not move until Sallie arrived before I had the baby. It had worked before, so I was going to do it again. Right before 3:30am I had a contraction that was super intense and the pressure was immense. I remember saying "Damn" and "Oh God" (I wasn't even able to get the word "help" out) I was so scared to give birth without my midwife. In between that contraction and the next I was able to say shortly, "I can't stop, I have to push! I'm sorry!" (I knew my mom was scared too) The next one was the strongest contraction I've ever felt. I started screaming! My body started pushing all on it's own and my water broke. My mom sprung into action. (I should mention that the only birth experience my mom has is being present at the birth's of my other children) She pulled my pajama bottoms off and then I started to push on purpose because I couldn't handle the pain anymore. My mom said "I see the head! Keep going! You can do it!" I kept going, then stopped for just a moment to breathe for just a few seconds then pushed again and at 3:33am Piper came right out into my mom's arms! My mom put her right on my chest and we heard a tiny cry, but then she was quiet. My mom suctioned her nose and mouth and she cried a little again. I asked my mom to grab a towel so we could rub her back. (all my birth supplies were in the bedroom) We started rubbing her back with the towel and finally lots of loud cries! She was all pink already too. Sam finally got Sallie on the phone and said, "You better get here lady, baby is already here!" Sallie said she heard the cries and knew everything was fine, she was 5 min down the road. I was crying, just overwhelmed by what just happened. I think I said, "Sorry" again, My mom said, "No, it's ok!! You did it! It's over, She's here, she's fine!!" I felt some fluid come out and asked for my mom just to make sure it wasn't too much blood. It wasn't, just some fluid. I was fine too. I said, "well, I guess we'll get a new couch!" ;) 

Cutting the cord

Right around then the kids walked out of their room, Jane, Atlas and Xan. (we let Flynn keep sleeping) They were sooooo excited to see Piper! Those smiles and looks of awe were the sweetest. They came up to her to say hi and touch her hand. Finally, Sallie arrived, I say finally, but it was really only about 5 min. She immediately checked us both out and said, "Way to go!!" We were talking about cutting the cord, but Sallie said it was still pulsing, so we could wait a few more minutes. My dad was on his way because we had said he and Jane would do it together. While we waited for him we talked about how Sallie and I were both being so careful to not go to far from our houses and staying aware because of how fast my labors go, but she still missed it!! She does not miss many. She mentioned how cool it was that grandma got to catch her. About then my dad arrived and he and Jane cut the cord together. Such a sweet moment. Sam put the kids back to bed since it was still around 4am then and I handed Piper off to my mom so I could deliver the placenta which came out perfectly with no issues at all. My dad also got to hold her during this time. I could hear Piper crying and I knew she was hungry already, but I wanted to get to my bed first. I had a feeling Piper was going to nurse a while once she got started and I didn't want to be on a wet couch covered in birth fluids myself as well. So I moved to the bed and got some new clothes on. Sallie took my blood pressure again, which was fine. I said I was ready to nurse Piper but Sam had put her to sleep rocking her in the recliner and they were both content. So we waited just a little while longer they got some sweet bonding time. 

She woke up just a little later and I got to nurse Piper for the first time. She latched right away and proceeded to nurse for like an hour. I don't even know how long really. We let her take her time. We were all in my bedroom chatting about the birth and how incredible it was. Technically, Piper was born 3 1/2 hours after I started timing contractions but only about an hour after they became closer than 10 min apart and hard to talk through. Sallie was glad that her arriving a few minutes after the birth allowed my mom to have the special experience of catching Piper. She always wanted my mom to catch but was pretty sure if she was there already my mom wouldn't have felt the need to catch. It's pretty fun because Piper's middle name that we had already chosen is part of my mom's name. Marianne. It's also my middle name, Ann. 

After we let Piper get nice and full, we weighed and measured her around 5:30am. Sallie made sure I had made it to the restroom fine and told us all the signs to watch out for and let her know about in case there were any issues and headed out to let us rest. My dad also headed home then. My mom, still high on adrenalin, went to clean up the couch before the kids got up and try to save it. (She was successful!!) All was quiet, Sam, Piper and I all resting in bed as the sun came up. Pretty perfect if I do say so myself. Sure, it was kinda crazy, kinda scary and very intense, but I remember every powerful minute of it. My body gave birth all on it's own. Woah, I still barely believe it just writing it out. I'm so grateful I had the support of my mom and Sam through it all and Sallie right afterwards. 

In closing, our 5th child and 3rd born daughter. Piper Ann Daniels was born safely at home on Wednesday, 8/17/2022 at 3:33am weighing 8lbs 14oz and measuring 22 Inches. We are all so in love and grateful to God for the blessing that Piper is to our family. God is good!!

2 Timothy 1:7

 For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.

Isaiah 41:10

Fear not, for I am with you;

Be not dismayed, for I am your God.

I will strengthen you,

Yes, I will help you,

I will uphold you with My righteous right hand.

4 Years of Xan

Gah! That precious smiling face is 4!! And has been for awhile now, 4 months to be exact. Trying to keep up with my blog when I fall asleep almost every night after the kids are in bed has been tough! I'm doing my best to finish this post before Piper is born. We'll see if I make it since her due date has already passed! She wants to be late just like her big sister Xan. Hopefully that means being a happy and content newborn as well! Anyway, moving forward. I think 4 is one of my favorite ages because it usually means we've put the huge fits and potty training behind us. I also see a lot of their personality start to shine and start to really figure out what makes them tick. I see glimpses before this age but it really starts to come out at 4. They also start the strong childhood memories and can have some truly meaningful conversations. Of course there's still the meltdown or the moody day here and there but who doesn't have those?! Basically it's a great age and I'm looking forward to getting to enjoy it with Xan.

This girl LOVES to talk and always has. I still can't seem to teach her that there are times to stop talking. We're always working on it. Alexandria will want to be at the table while I'm doing school with Jane and Atlas and she'll start trying to talk to everyone, I'll remind her that it's time to be quiet during school she says ok. Then a minute later I hear her again, I try to gently remind her again it's time to be quiet or she can go play somewhere else, but she responds with "No mom, I was talking to myself." True, she was! But I explained being quiet means no talking at all, not just no talking to someone else. Haha! She does listen in with school though! We do our vocabulary at breakfast and one of our words was Ideal. When we were putting our shoes on later that day she said, "Mom! My shoes are ideal because they fit me just right!!" She's always using words that surprise me in the right way. She's always trying to understand more! She's such a joy to talk to.

I wrote last year that I missed my girl that loved everyone and was having trouble accepting that she was giving people stink eyes when they tried to talk to her. Thankfully I was right!! It was just a phase. She is everyone's friend yet again! When we go to the park sometimes she will stay where all the mom's are and pick one and talk their ear off! Usually about dinosaurs, dragons or sea creatures. She does enjoy playing with kids her age too though and will get her feelings hurt if it seems like someone doesn't want to play with her. She has a few friends at park day that are her favorite and they are all little boys that are around 4 as well. It makes sense because all of her interests are usually what little boys are into as well. Every so often she will run off with another little girl to play. I just love that she wants to love everyone again!

Xan will still spontaneously nap on any given day! She stopped sleeping until almost 9am and gets up around 8am most days. So I never know if it's going to be a day that she needs a little extra sleep. I will put a show on for the kids to watch while I make dinner and I will come back to find her completely asleep even if she was sitting straight up. She can also fall deeply asleep just from a 5 minute car ride home from Marmee and Pappaw's house. It's like she has a napping super power! Any where, any time! Really she's always been like that though. It must be in the genes! My parents have a bunch of pictures of me sleeping everywhere. It's sweet but can be difficult since it's usually after 5pm that she falls asleep and then it makes it hard for her to go to sleep at night. I have to wake her up often and bribe her with an ice pop to stay awake until bedtime. It works most days!

Xan seems to really enjoy being smack dab in the middle of a bunch of siblings. It makes sense, she loves always having someone to talk to! Once Piper is born she will be my only true middle kid. And although she loves all her siblings very much she is also very sensitive and protective of her own things. So one moment she could happily playing with one of them and then the next she is crying and telling me how mean they are and how she will never play with them again. Of course I know she doesn't mean it, we talk it out and say our apologies and then she's off happily playing again. Jane and Xan seem to have the most up and down relationship. They can both get pretty emotional so it makes sense. But they do love each other! Jane just wishes Xan liked more girly things and Xan wants Jane to play Dragons with her. Often they will both compromise a little and find a way to play that they both enjoy. It's fun that they like matching each other though! Atlas and Xan are buds. I predicted it would happen in my last blog and it did! They finally realized how much they liked that was the same and started playing together really well. It's fun to see them play video games together like my brother and I did. There is still a good amount of fighting that happens but more and more I see them working it out to keep playing well together. Xan and Flynn play the least together still, but they definitely share their love for dinosaurs the most! So if they do play together it's usually with dinosaurs. Flynn is just a little destructive and fast paced for Xan. He is 2! I think once he calms down some they'll get along a little better. I'm very interested to see how Xan reacts to a little baby sister. Piper is seeming very Xan like, we'll see if it continues!

Weight

Birth: 9lbs 2oz

1 Year: 23lbs 9oz

2 Years: 29lbs

3 Years: 32lbs

4 Years: 37lbs

Xan is still staying higher on the percentiles for weight but each year she seems to be coming down closer to midrange. I love that she's kept her full cheeks! I've called her chunky in a positive way for so long she is proud of it! She definitely feels special to still be my chunky baby. She is looking less and less baby like though. I'm holding on to that last bit of baby face!!

Height

Birth: 22 1/4 Inches

1 Year: 30 1/4 Inches

2 Years: 33 3/4 Inches

3  Years: 36 1/4 Inches

4 Years: 40 Inches, 3' 4"

Xan has come all the way from being in the 90th percentile in height to being about in the 40th percentile. She also seems pretty average for other kids her age and how her clothes fit her. The doctor says it puts her projected height at about 5'4". I'd be a little surprised if she didn't end up a good bit taller than me not just an inch. But I guess we'll see!

Firsts

It's time for firsts and favorites! I always enjoy looking through the last year of pictures and focusing on just the one child to see how they grew, changed and experienced life throughout the year. I believe around this age I see a little less change in their face but a lot more development in character and personality. Please enjoy my creative take on Xan's "firsts" from the past year.

Slip and sliding! - April 2021

Dissecting owl pellets - April 2021

Fair Ride! - April 2021

Duck face selfie - May 2021

Dental x-rays & Cavity - June 2021

Blueberry picking - June 2021

Treat from the Ice Cream truck - July 2021

Haircut - August 2021

Preschool - August 2021

Crab Hunting! - September 2021

Picture with an Octopus - October 2021

Climbing a tree - November 2021

Fluffy slime! - December 2021

Yearbook Picture - January 2022

Trip to the Arcade - February 2022
Bowling (Not pictured)

Recognizable drawing of a person - March 2022

Gymnastics Class - March 2022

Being 4!! - April 2022

Favorites

Alexandria continues to enjoy playing outside and the trampoline and swings are definitely her top two choices. She can swing herself but still not super well yet. I think she doesn't have much incentive to learn because she'd rather me be there to swing her so she can talk to me. ;) She does enjoy the captain wheel swing because all she has to do is push it back and forth to swing herself and she will do that so she can swing next to Atlas if I'm not outside. She got brave enough to go down the slide for the slip and slide! But she would still rather just play in the puddles and sprinkler mostly. She's still my cautious girl and usually chooses the slower paced play options. She became an excellent swimmer over last summer!! She could even dive down to the bottom of Marmee and Pappaw's pool to grab a small frog toy when she was still a young 3! So wonderful to have her love the water and be such a great swimmer now. Dancing is still a big favorite too, she's got quiet the array of expressive moves! She makes me smile!

Alexandria became a little more picky about food over the last year. I often leave her food on the table for her to come back and eat. There are not too many entrees I can think of that she gets excited about. But she loves to snack and loves sweets! (I keep her food on the table so she has to eat it before she gets snacks or sweets though) Also Xan was able to help me with her blog for the first time and tell me her favorites, so here are some of her favorite foods! Chicken nuggets, mac and cheese, cake, popsicles, all fruity candy, snow cones, grapes, salami, cheese, Cilantros, McDonalds, Whataburger, ice cream, fruit snacks, ravioli, crackers, jelly rolls/biscuits, waffles, pancakes, gum, apples, watermelon, strawberries, cinnamon rolls, blueberry muffins, Cheetos, Fruit loops, juice, frozen/regular yogurt. She does not like chocolate or carbonated drinks!

Oh man, Xan has quite the relationship with toys! She will be obsessed with a toy one day and love it like she will never love another toy and then not play with again for weeks and move on to another toy. Somehow she's very easy and very hard to buy for at the same time. Because she will love just about everything she opens, but whether or not she actually plays with it after she opens it is always so hard to know. She constantly asks me to put toys on her Christmas/Birthday list! If she comes back and asks me about a specific toy more than once then I usually will. Here are some favorite toys that have stood the test of time. Bunny is still her #1 bedtime companion, and any dino, dragon, shark, alligator or lizard is always a hit. Specific toys that have stayed near the top are her 2 different Indominus Rexes, giganotosaurus, T-rex stuffy, Winger, Charizard stuffy, Charizard/Shark dress up, Bowser stuffy and Goo jit zu shark.

Just like toys what Xan likes to watch is always changing and just like toys her favorite shows involve dinosaurs, dragons, alligators, sharks, snakes or lizards. Really anything about reptilian things or sea creatures. Some of her favorite shows/movies she keeps coming back to are Zig and Sharko, Oggy and the cockroaches, Tiny Creatures, Storybots, Toy dinosaurs/dragons, Rumble, Sing 2, Bluey, How to Train Your Dragon, Land Before Time, Oscar's Oasis, Twirlywoos, Spies in Disguise and The Mitchells vs the Machines. Just this year Xan has really been able to start playing video games and she loves it! Super Smash bros. is her favorite, she also likes to play Kirby and Pokemon. She and Atlas like to play together even though it ends in a fight half the time at this point. I bet she'll like to play even more as she gets more skilled at it.

I love that Xan loves books!! She adores them. She doesn't have many favorites though she cycles through all the books we have. She loves anything new and everything with interesting creatures. She always has a hoard of books in her bed to look at on her own. A few favorites I can think of are Dragonology, Big book of dinosaurs, I'm a hungry dinosaur, Nibbles, Dragon Post and You Choose.

As soon as Xan learned to swim across the pool it became her favorite activity! I can barely get that fish out of the pool these days. Playing pretend on the Trampoline is probably second and swinging third. (She never wants me to stop pushing her)  Otherwise she said playing video games with me is her favorite, she also noted hide and seek and dance parties! Truly, if you get right down to it, her favorite thing to do is be with someone. If someone is interacting and talking to her she's happy. <3 She really enjoyed helping me add her favorites to the blog.

The first place Xan thought of as her favorite is the BEACH! It may have been influenced by the picture I added above but she does really love the beach! She absolutely adores going to Marmee & Pappaw's house, in fact she asks pretty much every day to go. She also thought of the Zoo even though we haven't been back in a year. We got to go to the Houston Interactive Aquarium for the first time this year and she may have been thinking of that when she said the Zoo. She definitely loves both because it involves animals! We finally got to go to the inflatable play place that replaced pump it up, Zero Gravity. After we went the first time it's where she requested to go as her special place to go for her birthday. So I think it was a hit! She also enjoys the park (when it's not too hot or cold) the Splash Pad, the Library, the MoCo Fair and Alpha Omega Open gym.

This girl makes me smile sooooo much. She has such a sweet heart and is the most physically affectionate of all my kiddos. She's always spontaneously telling me she loves me and giving me kisses. She always has to make sure I know I'm her favorite. But! She is also the one who will tell me she hates me when she's mad about what I'm doing or making her do. She just feels very deeply and is always verbal about how she feels at that moment. I'm trying to help her look past that moment of strong feelings and not say something she doesn't mean or do something hurtful. But I understand, I was the same way, it's so hard not to act on those strong feelings! I'm hoping, since I know what's going through her head a little better than most, I can help her figure it all out faster than I did. :) Still most other people don't see her tough moments like her family does and she brings joy wherever she goes!! It's just the best to be her mom! <3

Happy 4th Birthday Baby girl! We love you so much!

Proverbs 15:13,23

A merry heart makes a cheerful countenance,

But by sorrow of the heart the spirit is broken.

A man has joy by the answer of his mouth,

And a word spoken in due season, how good it is!