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Baby girl Charley Rose Merk 6 lbs 14 oz, 19.5 inches long. Born May 16th 2013 at 12:56am
Welp - it's official.... our precious baby girl Charley is HERE! We weren't supposed to meet her until June 1st, but she decided to bless us with her presence on May 16th at 12:56 am.
For those of you who know me and were keeping up with how my pregnancy was going, I was just about DONE at 37 weeks. I donno about you - but with my 2nd pregnancy, towards the end, things seemed WAY different. With Jackson I didn't have the aches and pains you read about.... but with Charley my lower back started aching, my knees hurt, and I just could not get comfortable. I literally was moaning and groaning the last 2 weeks. That being said - I was DESPERATE to encourage the little girl to come out early. I tried a number of things, including but not limited to:
- Prego Pizza (can be found at Skipolini's Pizza in Walnut Creek) - we ordered the same kind at Jake's in Willow Glenn with a few friends the Saturday before she came.
- WALKING - we are talking 10 miles per day people. I have a little obsession with this device called Fitbit, and towards the end I was aiming for upwards of 20,000 steps a day. Crazy. I know.
- Mineral Oil - will not go into details about that one. Gross.
- Eggplant Parmesan
- Evening Primrose oil and Black Cohosh tablets from Whole foods.
- Jumping Jacks - have a video to prove this one! haha
- VIDEO
- Sweeping of the membranes (performed 3 times by my doctor, spaced out 48 hours apart. The last one she did was Wednesday morning at 11:00am)
- Acupuncture - I went and visited Mr. Frank He in Sunnyvale. I told him that I was almost 38 weeks pregnant and was looking for some "relief" and to be able to relax so the baby would come soon.... he told me he would start with just some general needles spread over my body in the places that were bothering me, and that if I really wanted to coax Charley out, to come back on Friday, and we could do the real deal to try and help get things moving. He finished me off with a nice foot massage - and I was on my way. (This was Wednesday May 15th).
- Mani/pedi - my last stop on my way from the acupuncture place - when I started feeling contractions.
So - the big question is: what came first - the chicken or the egg? Was it the acupuncture with foot massage that set me off into labor at 37 weeks 4 days, the membrane sweep Wednesday morning, or was little Charley girl just ready to meet us? I will never know - but I am sure that next time I am pregnant and desperate, I will not be hesitating to run down to Frank He's office for some acupuncture. Just sayin'!
