A (natural) birth story: part 1

In the months of preparation before Mercy's arrival, I found it helpful to read other people's birth stories. I was hoping to have a natural childbirth with no interventions whatsoever, and by reading others' experience trying to labor naturally in a hospital setting, I felt more empowered and educated. 

I wrote one soon after she was born to help me remember some of the details, and here it is for those who may be interested:

I was expecting to deliver earlier than my due date, not because I felt some sort of intuition in my body, but because multiple people said they thought I would. When Mercy’s due date came and went, I started to get depressed. It's hard to describe why I was depressed. Part of the depression was due to the fact that I had scheduled my last day of work to be a week before she was due, so I was home alone with nothing to do. It was also sort of depressing waiting around for my new life to begin. I expected her on May 29^th, and consequently, expected my life to radically change.  Every day after that date I was just in a state of limbo. I didn’t have any stuff to prepare for the baby; I had already done it. I had no fun plans with which to occupy myself because I figured I would be taking care of a baby. Each day became increasingly worse. I didn’t want to go out and see people because I didn’t want to them to inquire about why Mercy hadn’t yet arrived. I avoided the phone as much as possible because I didn’t want to be reminded that she wasn’t here. 

Monday night, a week or so after my “due date,” Tim and I were planning to get together with some friends to play tennis (I would just watch), but at the last minute, I decided to skip it and stay home because I couldn’t bear the thought of being around a bunch of people, even though they were close friends, because I was feeling so down. When Tim got home, I was crying and just very lamentable. Another contributor to my bad mood was the fact that we didn’t have any food in the house; I hadn’t grocery shopped because I didn’t want to plan meals that I wouldn’t be able to cook because of the baby’s arrival. So I was not only miserable because of my depression, but because of my hunger. I was planning to just wait until breakfast to eat again since we did have some breakfast foods, but I finally had Tim get me a pepperoni sub at 11:30pm. I planned to eat half of it, but I ended up scarfing it all down within a couple minutes because I was famished.  It was a good thing that I ate this because I would be needing the energy very soon…

to be continued

5 months

This post was written a few weeks ago, but I never got around to posting it...


Mercy is five months already. She's pretty spunky these days. She's not a very laid-back baby at all, but that's ok. Tim likes to say she plays hard, she cries hard, she laughs hard and she poops hard (but unfortunately she doesn't sleep hard). There is not much in between. She keeps our lives busy and interesting.

At five months, Mercy:

is always starving. She nurses every 2-3 hours (except at night).


has started solids. I was hoping to wait until she was six months, but we couldn't last. Every time someone was eating, she would stare and try to grab it. And since she couldn't have any, she would get very frustrated and cry. She just seemed so hungry, so we decided to start a bit earlier.  She had her first bite of oatmeal around her five month birthday and she was a natural. So far she's had oatmeal, applesauce, sweet potato and banana. She doesn't like banana so far, but we'll probably try again later on.

is slightly better at sleeping than last month. She used to get up every forty minutes right after she went to bed at least three times before realizing it was nighttime. I would just put a paci in and she would go right back to sleep. But recently, she's been sleeping soundly for about 6 hours or so before waking up. I usually nurse her only once throughout the night. She might wake up twice or so, but she just needs some settling to get back to sleep without eating.


's napping could be better. She used to take about three forty minute naps. Now sometimes we're down to a few 15-20 minute naps. Needless to say, my house is usually a disaster because I can't get anything done with only short naps like that. I know she's still tired, but I can't seem to get her back to sleep. This past week, she took a 1.5 hour nap and a 1 hour nap, so I know it's possible. She just might need a little help staying asleep, so I'm going to work hard next week to see if we can get somewhere.

weighs almost 17 pounds.

is almost proficient at sitting up

loves being outside. She talks a lot when outside and her face lights up when she feels the cold air and sees the trees.

can be convinced to fake cough if you cough, if she is in the right mood.

loves to eat her feet.


likes stroking something soft when she's falling asleep. She sleeps with a small sheep lovey from Aunt Diane.

Mercy at 4 months

My friend has a nice blog, in which she gives an update of her baby each month.  It's a wonderful way to keep track of development and such, especially because I don't use a baby book (maybe I should).  Although I'm starting four months late, it's better than nothing. Thanks, E, for letting me steal your idea.

At 4 months, Mercy:

weighs 15 and a half pounds (90th percentile) and is 25 inches long (70th percentile). She's smaller than I was at 4 months (19 pounds!), but 15.5 lbs is still pretty hefty.

wears 9 month clothes. She somewhat fits into 6 months still, but her cloth diapers are bulky, so we go with 9 months to accommodate them.

has adorable chunky thighs. I suppose it will be the only time in her life where rolls on her thighs are cute.

hasn't rolled over yet, but she gets close.

hates tummy time still. She can lift her head up well and has great head control, but she can only tolerate being on her stomach for about 4 minutes, at which point she'll start crying and bury her head into the ground in absolute defeat. The pediatrician said she needs to do more tummy time so that she'll start lifting her chest off the ground with her hands.

goes by many nicknames, including Mr. Bop, Fat Baby, Mr. Cutie, Fuzzboy

has been sticking her tongue out when she smiles all the time.



likes to sleep in flannel sheets because they're cozy.

sleeps and naps unswaddled. We made the transition right before she turned 4 months. I thought it was going to be difficult, but it went off without a hitch.

sleeps from about 8pm to 8am (sometimes 9) and gets up 2 or 3 times to eat. I feel like I have a newborn on my hands because from about 3 weeks until her 4 month birthday, she would sleep 12 hours and only wake up once. I hope these frequent wakings are just a phase because I'm tired!

nurses every 2-3 hours. At the end of her meal, she stops, turns her head and talks for a couple seconds, then goes back to eating for a couple seconds, and repeats this cycle for as long as I find it cute (which is a long time).

started using a pacifier. She never liked them, but one day, I was desperate trying to get her to take a nap because she was overtired and screaming, and she figured out how to suck on it, which calms her completely.

naps usually about three times a day for about 40 minutes each time. Up until a couple weeks ago, she would rarely nap without screaming for 15 minutes first. But ever since she has taken to her paci, putting her down for naps has been more pleasant.

is living at her Grandy and Gramps' house while we are waiting to close on our new house in Rhode Island.

is using cloth diapers. We use all in one diapers, with the occasional prefold thrown into the mix. They make her butt look extra big.

grabs for everything and puts it in her mouth.

Here are a few more pictures from recent times:

possible blog resurrection?

I haven't written in this blog for nearly a year. After I found out I was pregnant, I was sick and tired all the time and didn't feel like writing. Now that Mercy has arrived, I might try my hand at semi-regularly writing in this space again. I will pretty much be writing for an audience of two--Tim and me--in an attempt to keep a record of life so that we can look back in the future at Mercy and how she has grown.