On Sunday, the 24th we celebrated Avery's one month birthday. Round about that time she also showed us that she knows how to roll over from her stomach to her back when set down for tummy time and she isn't into it. On Wednesday, the 27th I got a real smile out of the girl first thing in the morning when I leaned in to pick her up. On Friday, the 29th we drove to Altoona and she got to meet most all of her great Aunts (on both sides of my family) and two great Uncles!
On the sleep front, I got a new mattress. I'm glad I didn't do so while still pregnant as I would have never been able to roll out of the bed as I am struggling to get out now. We've been doing pretty good overnight and getting a little more sleep. Avery is willing to sleep for longer stretches, which is torture for me since I love my sleep - but I know I need to wake her to feed in order to get some weight on her and to maintain my supply.
I'm a Mom. After years of desire and uncertainty if the day would ever come here I am. Follow along on the adventure..
Showing posts with label announcing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label announcing. Show all posts
Friday, September 29, 2017
Thursday, August 24, 2017
The big show
Spoiler alert: I am back dating this post to the date and time all of
this started to happen. You can probably guess how it ended.
So the doctor had arrived by the time we got to pushing. I remember that they wanted me to try to push before I was fully dilated. At that point, they suggested some pitocin to finish my cervix out that last half centimeter or whatever. I had a hep lock in as my intention was to go no drugs (you'll note I have NOT mentioned pain medication to this point. I'm going to bring it up again because I'm hella proud) - so it was pretty easy to get that on. After the pitocin did it's job it was show time.
I'm told I pushed for about an hour and a half. Fact is, I don't understand how ANYONE with pain medication or feeling blocking medication could ever possibly push a child out. You have to be so aware of what you feel working, and even when you can feel it working it is very hard to get right back into that same feeling with the next round. It also helped to have the doctor placing fingers to give me an area to focus on. At some point they put oxygen on me and it gave me a moment of clarity in the midst of the mental avoidance of the pain where it hit me and I remember asking if they were worried about the baby.
That last little bit did indeed hurt like crazy. But then she was here, in this world. They placed her on me for a rather short period of time as she was grunting rather than crying and they wanted me to get a moment but they also wanted to take care of her. It seems like while she didn't poo before my water broke, she did somewhere between when it did and when she arrived so they had some concern there, although that wasn't necessarily the breathing thing.
It wasn't long at all before my placenta was out... I'll do the follow up comments here as it seems relevant: they later assessed the placenta and saw no cause for my bleeding in the week leading up (as in it was not deteriorating or starting to separate from my uterus, so it wasn't causing her to not get enough oxygen and create any other issues there).
After a little while with Daddy watching over her on the sidelines they took her away to the level 2 nursery. Return reports said that blood worked showed some of the white blood cells were elevated, so they started an IV, at which means she needed to stay in the level 2 nursery until that was removed. It also means she was receiving fluids, so she wouldn't be getting early early milk - a big disappointment to me. She remained there with both the IV and oxygen for the first twenty four hours. As the blood levels started to normalize we started bringing her pumped colostrum they were able to slowly bring the level of IV fluids down.
Once we were to a safe level she was returned to our room at 2am - 23 hours after her birth. They then were testing blood sugars, which seemed to be too low and lower each time a test was taken after each meal. So we had another slight worry on our minds. If it had gone any lower she would have needed to head back to the level 2 nursery. Fortunately, a secondary type of test showed things were okay and suddenly the in room test was starting to give better readings (thank the Lord).
All of this did still mean that she was not going to get released with me the next day (Saturday). Fortunately, the hospital gets it - and they allowed us to stay another night after I was discharged to room in with her. We also got lucky and the L&D department didn't get over run so we got to stay in the larger room the whole time. It was nice to have meals coming from the cafeteria and attentive care and guidance from the whole staff (nurses, peds, lactation consultant, and even the clean up and meal delivery folks) - truly, I appreciate what they did for us.
Other things that surprised me:
- You spend hours with a conscious exhale going on to breathe away the pain. Then you get to pushing and their expectations of you to hold your breath for 10 seconds x 3 feels like an absolute eternity.
- This shouldn't really surprise me, but - Good golly, having an oxygen mask, doing all of that breathing with your mouth open, and allowing a few screams (oh yes I did) out sure dries out your throat. I ended up asking them for losenges.
- Again, no pain drugs. I did it! This is the one thing I wanted so much as I do feel that one intervention leads to another. I had my doubts (and voiced them) even before we left the house with the doula.
- After the head came it felt like a limb, another limb, another limb, another limb... also came. Did I just give birth to an octopus?
To make the formal announcement:
Avery Violet joined us on Thursday, August 24 at 3:05am. She was 7 lbs, 15 1/2 oz, and 19". My good girl listened and waited to not be a Leo!
So the doctor had arrived by the time we got to pushing. I remember that they wanted me to try to push before I was fully dilated. At that point, they suggested some pitocin to finish my cervix out that last half centimeter or whatever. I had a hep lock in as my intention was to go no drugs (you'll note I have NOT mentioned pain medication to this point. I'm going to bring it up again because I'm hella proud) - so it was pretty easy to get that on. After the pitocin did it's job it was show time.
I'm told I pushed for about an hour and a half. Fact is, I don't understand how ANYONE with pain medication or feeling blocking medication could ever possibly push a child out. You have to be so aware of what you feel working, and even when you can feel it working it is very hard to get right back into that same feeling with the next round. It also helped to have the doctor placing fingers to give me an area to focus on. At some point they put oxygen on me and it gave me a moment of clarity in the midst of the mental avoidance of the pain where it hit me and I remember asking if they were worried about the baby.
That last little bit did indeed hurt like crazy. But then she was here, in this world. They placed her on me for a rather short period of time as she was grunting rather than crying and they wanted me to get a moment but they also wanted to take care of her. It seems like while she didn't poo before my water broke, she did somewhere between when it did and when she arrived so they had some concern there, although that wasn't necessarily the breathing thing.
It wasn't long at all before my placenta was out... I'll do the follow up comments here as it seems relevant: they later assessed the placenta and saw no cause for my bleeding in the week leading up (as in it was not deteriorating or starting to separate from my uterus, so it wasn't causing her to not get enough oxygen and create any other issues there).
After a little while with Daddy watching over her on the sidelines they took her away to the level 2 nursery. Return reports said that blood worked showed some of the white blood cells were elevated, so they started an IV, at which means she needed to stay in the level 2 nursery until that was removed. It also means she was receiving fluids, so she wouldn't be getting early early milk - a big disappointment to me. She remained there with both the IV and oxygen for the first twenty four hours. As the blood levels started to normalize we started bringing her pumped colostrum they were able to slowly bring the level of IV fluids down.
Once we were to a safe level she was returned to our room at 2am - 23 hours after her birth. They then were testing blood sugars, which seemed to be too low and lower each time a test was taken after each meal. So we had another slight worry on our minds. If it had gone any lower she would have needed to head back to the level 2 nursery. Fortunately, a secondary type of test showed things were okay and suddenly the in room test was starting to give better readings (thank the Lord).
All of this did still mean that she was not going to get released with me the next day (Saturday). Fortunately, the hospital gets it - and they allowed us to stay another night after I was discharged to room in with her. We also got lucky and the L&D department didn't get over run so we got to stay in the larger room the whole time. It was nice to have meals coming from the cafeteria and attentive care and guidance from the whole staff (nurses, peds, lactation consultant, and even the clean up and meal delivery folks) - truly, I appreciate what they did for us.
Other things that surprised me:
- You spend hours with a conscious exhale going on to breathe away the pain. Then you get to pushing and their expectations of you to hold your breath for 10 seconds x 3 feels like an absolute eternity.
- This shouldn't really surprise me, but - Good golly, having an oxygen mask, doing all of that breathing with your mouth open, and allowing a few screams (oh yes I did) out sure dries out your throat. I ended up asking them for losenges.
- Again, no pain drugs. I did it! This is the one thing I wanted so much as I do feel that one intervention leads to another. I had my doubts (and voiced them) even before we left the house with the doula.
- After the head came it felt like a limb, another limb, another limb, another limb... also came. Did I just give birth to an octopus?
To make the formal announcement:
Avery Violet joined us on Thursday, August 24 at 3:05am. She was 7 lbs, 15 1/2 oz, and 19". My good girl listened and waited to not be a Leo!
Monday, May 15, 2017
The baby's name is...
NONE OF YOUR BUSINESS. I have no issue with people asking if we've picked a name yet, don't get me wrong... but I was about at the end of my rope with people randomly sending me names. Now I just got a message with bullet points on don'ts for names. Not a link to an article, but a personal list of directives. I'm half pissed and half insulted with a candy coating of crying about it. Don't people, just don't.
Friday, April 21, 2017
Kickboxer in the making?
There was no doubt in my mind on Wednesday night - I had just settled into bed at my friend's place (I had to travel back to Jtown for work for a few days) and jab jab...... jab jab. This was definitely not gas and was way more than a little flutter. I'm calling it. If it wasn't her before this was definitely it! I've not gotten anything else since like this, but I've ready enough to know that's ok/normal. Like I said, back in Jtown, and starting to get to the point where it doesn't just look like I'm fat, so a few others in the training with me were made well aware if they were not already.
I've returned from Jtown with a whole mess of stuff gifted from friends and family. I've been trying to keep the Amazon registry updated with things that are given/purchased for us. Wow she has a bunch of stuff already.
TMI warning: I have started to get another typical pregnancy "symptom"... but fortunately I had a therapeutic poo when I got home this evening. Ugh. Feeling a bit backed up is miserable!
I've returned from Jtown with a whole mess of stuff gifted from friends and family. I've been trying to keep the Amazon registry updated with things that are given/purchased for us. Wow she has a bunch of stuff already.
TMI warning: I have started to get another typical pregnancy "symptom"... but fortunately I had a therapeutic poo when I got home this evening. Ugh. Feeling a bit backed up is miserable!
Monday, February 27, 2017
Tap tap tap - I have an announcement to make
This past weekend has been about telling a few folks that needed to hear it 'first' rather than on a public announcement. It's hard to believe that the first trimester is over and it's safe to do this. I also feel like I need to find a neat way to release it to the masses. The reactions really run the gambit from a person hopping around and squealing to silent shock and awe. The people you expect to be pretty excited are not and those you think won't have much to say often surprise you with their reaction.
I still haven't really gained weight if we ignore the fact that I put some on during the cruise where everything happened. I guess that makes me review the facts a little too - and wish there was more frequent check ins on heartbeats.
My chest and back remain incredibly dry and itchy. The rash I had has gone away, thank goodness. Of course, the rash and dry/itchy back is just as likely from the sun/sunscreen while away so the only puzzling issue is the dry chest because it did not get sunburned.
I still haven't really gained weight if we ignore the fact that I put some on during the cruise where everything happened. I guess that makes me review the facts a little too - and wish there was more frequent check ins on heartbeats.
My chest and back remain incredibly dry and itchy. The rash I had has gone away, thank goodness. Of course, the rash and dry/itchy back is just as likely from the sun/sunscreen while away so the only puzzling issue is the dry chest because it did not get sunburned.
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