Bella Baby

Tesla Ephim Una-Bogode 36 hours old

first day out of NICU

On the Day You Were Born

Tesla Ephim Una~Bogode
born on 16 July 2013
3:53 am
in Chicago, IL (US)
Cancer Rising
sensitive person and very attached to familiar surroundings
when encountering new people, friendly but slow to open.
once this little decides to trust someone, he will trust him or her completely.
nurturing self confidence will help to establish a generous nature.
sensitivity can makes it difficult for this little to take criticism or harsh words from anyone, especially loved ones. When he feels sore, he may withdraw into himself and avoid others.

Sun in Cancer
an emotional person who is sensitive to the subtle ways that people communicate with each other. emotional support from loved ones goes a long way, especially from mama.
a secret, quiet place that this little can be alone with his thoughts is essential.
home and family are of the utmost importance.
Sun in the Second House
love of security, being surrounded by comfortable and familiar things.
be aware of excess of the material
share little owlet it will increase your emotional abundance.

Moon in Libra
a lover of beauty, preferring not to focus on unpleasantries.
affectionate, warm and friendly, but you may overlook other people's faults.
peace-loving, charming
Moon in the Fifth House
expressing through feelings, which are very strong and vigorous.
lover of good times.
strong dislikes and likes, honest about emotions.

Venus in Leo
people lover and people love him.
loyal to friends.
strong sense of fairness and justice
love is strongly mixed with pride.
learning to compromise with others desires.
here again we see the importance of sharing.
Venus in the Third House
strong interest in the arts, theater or literature.
probably very close to relatives, for their love is very important

Tesla you are going to be such a good guy. I am so honored to know you.

Thank you to my dear friend Celeste for the birth chart. I'm glad my son was born on your little girls birthday.

Plan: natural child birth vs reality

so my ideal was a completely unmediated water birth. i had visualized it so many times. 

what actually happened contained so many of my fears and included so many things that i wanted to avoid to my child and myself. however everything turned out right as it should and overall i am thankful for everything. this hospital, my birth team, the surgical team, and my support network... thank you. i can not express my gratitude enough.

below is a quick version of what happened that I wrote to a friend about the labor. i will post a more detailed version of the birth story. my amazing doula Be Joy will be writing it up soon!

 

So we named him tesla. Water broke at about 2 am but I just thought I had peed. Woke back up at 3 and felt like I needed to pee again and stood up and immediately thought I peed in the floor. Finally made it to the bathroom and had bloody show so I woke up Michael who was like well I'm pretty sure  sure your in labor. He stayed calm and started setting everything up around the house just how we had planed. My doula had brought a birth tub for me to labor in so we filled it and I got in the tub and labored in here for a while. I was in text communication with Be Joy the entire time.  It took me about three hours to admit I was in labor and it was not a false alarm. Michael called our midwives and on the phone I was told to get out of the tub and do some walking to really get the labor going. This made me have contractions 3min apart and rather strong quite quickly so we left for the hospital. Got there about 10 am and when they checked me I was about 7 cm dilated and my cervix was paper thin. So I got admitted and labored in the hospital with Michael, my doula, my mom, midwife, and a nurse. Being in a birth tub seemed to slow my contractions down so my midwife did not allow me to stay in there much. I walked around, labored in the shower and mainly on a birth ball. Also the babies heart rate was having scary dips in it and the contractions were getting extremely painful. However every time they checked me they said I was only 6 1/2 or 7 but my cervex was starting to get inflamed and get all thick. Apparently I was trying to push and it was inflaming my cervix. So at abouy 6 pm they said due to the babies heart rate we needed to do something to help me progress and recommended I get pitocin. Not what I wanted to hear! I really had a strong mindset against pitocin based on everything I had read. The patocin was going to make the contractions much stronger and there was no way I would be able to keep myself from pushing and inflaming my cervix more. I was running a fever at that point too. So they gave me an epidural. Not what I wanted to have happening but I needed to make the labor progress due to his heart rate being very irregular and having very big dips when I was in contractions. So after the pitocin there was no change for a while and they kept upping it until finally at about midnight I was at 10 cm. Tesals heart rate was very high at this point and I still had a slight temp. So they said I needed to start pushing right away. After 2 hours and 45 min of pushing (with Michael and Be joy holding my very numb legs up and my mom helping me curl up into a ball with the contractions)  with ever contraction the baby made very little progress in moving. They said what looked like was happening is his head was getting more cone shaped in the birth canal and getting stretched out but otherwise kinda stuck not moving. My midwife could not get a good seance of his positioning so she called the doctor in. They were talking about the need to use forceps or a vacuum. After the md checked me he said that the baby was not in a position where we could do that. So my options were to try to push and get him to a point where they could use forceps or a c section. We were both totally against the idea of forceps and I really had no energy left at all after attempt to push for almost three hours. So I was terrified but they prepped me for the c section. Right before my surgery they had two crash calls in a row on the floor which was really making me freak out. They surgery went really well and really quick and Tesla was born at 3:53 Tuesday morning. The put him on my chest right away and breast feed like a pro while they closed me up. Michael was with me in the surgery and he held my hand cried with joy the whole time. They also found a cyst on my right ovary. They said that the could save my right ovary but the needed to remove the cyst. This makes Michael and I feel like the c section was really the right choice. The surgeon did an amazing job and I seem to be healing well. Crazy in love with my son. He's the most amazing thing I have ever seen in my whole life. He's only been here a little over 24 hours and already I can't imagine the world without him. Oh so he was 9 pound 6 oz! He's super big and strong. So we got to have him to ourselves for a little while and then the decided they needed to take him to the Nicu. Michael and I both cried when they had to come get us and told us we needed to give them an hour before we could go see him. So his sugar is a little low and they are trying to get it under control. They said this is common with big babies and also with long labors and he was both those things. So I have been trying to get over to breast feed every three hours so as you can imagine I have not really slept in the past few days. Michael was just amazing through the whole of the labor. Really like just completely amazing. He is perfect with Tesla like a compleat natural and he keeps crying with joy. This has all been so beautiful.

my son Tesla is the most amazing being i have ever laid eyes on. i can not even begin to describe to you how much love i have for him. I'm so glad he's here.  

Baby Book Case

while michael was out of town i worked on last min baby prep. on my list was some shelves to put all of the babies books on. i went to a few stores, looked at shelving but ultimately wasn't finding the right shelves that would go in our baby nursery area.

fast forward. michael magically gets back from being out of town two weeks early. one evening while riding his bike home he notices a lot of stuff has been left in the ally by sova. it had looked like an artist studio had gone out and they had left all their things in the ally. clay, paint, paintings, easels, a bike, computer parts, and wood. we always need wood.

the next day micheal came back from his morning run and stated that he was going to build his son a book shelf. the fallowing took approximately an hour.

 

 

 

 

 

i am blown away by his thoughtfulness, quick thinking, and attention to detail. the book shelf is perfect and more right then anything i could have found in a store.

that same day we also hung the curtain up by the babies crib. also hung up a present from a dear friend from her travels in napal.  good energys. it's all coming together and this child is going to be sheltered with so much love and support from amazing friends and family.

the fallowing day michael made me a gift. he came home from pumping station one with lazer cut owls for me. i will need to find a good place to hang them by the crib.

35 weeks

it was important for me to go into the last stretch of the pregnancy feeling fierce and empowered. at times i have felt so physically and emotionally beat up that i have kinda lost my self. however i do not regret a single minute of it and all i can think about is meeting my son.

asking andrew to do the henna on my belly was amazing and perfect. he crafted everything in a way that made me feel more connected to my child as well as connected to the friends that have been supportive of me though this journey. among the tree of life, lotuses, oms, and the owl i felt less isolated and alone. i was part of something greater. andrew had such precession and focus that he didn't even notice my son fallowing his every move as he created a master piece.

thank you to marc for always making me glow.
thank you to C.B. for always being able to read my mind and understanding the essence of what i'm trying to say. thank you for  allowing me to feel empowered in the way you choose to capture me.
thank you to my body. please keep enduring. the journey is far from over.

Sometimes I need a reminder that my body is beautiful right now. Not when I get back in shape after the baby comes.

My body is doing something amazing, beautiful, powerful, and sacred and I will be proud of the marks it leaves.

My body is not ruined. I am a goddamn trigger who earned her stripes.

Rest in Peace My Dear Friend

I do not have words for this right now. I will need to talk about this later.


http://bobbycann.pen.io/

 

 

Happy Kale Loves the Rain

cat

Jump

thanks c.b
thanks marc
thanks marina