Baby's First Week-home sweet home

We brought Lillian home saturday, the day before christmas eve. We arrived home early afternoon and as luck would have it on our first day out with our daughter we got rear ended on the way home. It was only while at a stop light and the guy just rolled into us so no harm done. It made for two very careful and paranoid parents for the rest of the trip home though, luckily we were already in town. The dogs were ecstatic to see us after being cooped up alone all week, thankfully my mom took care of them for us.

On our way . . . home sweet home

It seemed that our house had exploded as we had so much more stuff to bring home than we had left with--including a new baby! We couldn't believe we just got to bring her home from the hospital and keep her, it seemed to good to be true, the only thing that could be better was if she was sent with an instruction manual. Jared looked at me and said, "Well, now what do we do?" and I didnt have a good answer. She had let us sleep very well the previous night in the hospital so we made the classic new parent mistake and tried to do too much upon returning home which left us tired when the first night rolled around and guess who wasnt tired--at all??? So needless to say, the first night was rough as she was up at least every hour.

Christmas eve we woke feeling very tired after laying in bed off and on between feedings and changings until 11am. Then we decided to try and get ready to go to Grandma Donna's for christmas eve dinner and visiting. Again we made the classic first parent mistake of thinking we could get ready in anything close to the amount of time it would have previously taken us-ha! Long story short the car ended up 'warming up' in the driveway for over an hour. Who knew that she would mess their clothes, not fit into 3 other outfits, and decide to eat all at the last minute? We really enjoyed the opportunity to show off our little one to Grandma Donna, Grandpa Coop, Great Grandma Jan, Uncle's Steve and Jim, as well as Nadia, Bailey, and Ian.

Baby's 1st Christmas

Christmas day went much better as for her 2nd night home Lillian treated us to a perfect christmas present, some sleep. We woke feeling better than we had since her birth. We spent christmas relaxing and trying to make some semblence of order within the house while feeling so grateful to be sharing our first christmas with our little daughter. Grandma Tanya brought over christmas dinner and Aunt's Anita and Amanda also came bearing gifts of fitting clothes for baby Lillian as she was so tiny at birth that nothing was fitting her. There was no need to leave the house christmas day and we enjoyed our 'down day'.

The day after christmas Lillian was scheduled for her first pediatrician appointment at 6 days old. They took her birth information, and Jared undressed her so the doctor could do a through check. Our concerns were that the cord stump was falling off and goopy as we had bumped it when trying to use the cloth diapers and even though we had switched back to the disposables to try and prevent more bumping the damage had been done. They put some silver nitrate on the cord to dry it up, evidentally it is not an uncommon occurence. Both the doctor and we were very surprised to learn that she weighed in at 6lbs 11oz! What a piggie, they don't expect babies to even reach their birth weight for 2 weeks and our little one had exceeded hers by 3oz in the first 6 days! It was a good sign and we were thrilled. We left the doctors feeling like she had earned her first A+!

Jared and I had decided to drive up to visit Uncle Dave and Aunt Lisa that day so after a last minute feeding we were off to saginaw. Luckily for us Lillian seems to love car rides and the second you start driving she is out like a light! She slept the whole ride without a peep and we had to wake her to eat when we got there. The chance to visit was nice though unfortunately Lisa had to work that day and had a flat tire on the way home and didn't arrive until 7:30pm that night, I developed a horrid migraine and went to bed early, and both Dave & Lisa had to work the next day. Jared was able to give Blake a game he had been wanting and Taylor really enjoyed being able to see the baby though we were afraid she was sick so she was only allowed her to look. She kept wanting to share all her toys with Lillian and saying how beautiful she was. We also enjoyed seeing Troy and Tarryn who serves as the perfect picture of what we will see in the coming year as she is one year and 2 days older than Lillian.

We awoke on the morning of the one week mark feeling very rested as for the 2nd night in a row Lillian let us sleep and we slept on a real bed as opposed to our guest room futon we had been using so I could avoid the stairs. For our one week anniversary as a family we drove home from Saginaw and again Lillian loved the car ride. When we arrived home we had to shower and get ready to leave again to go to my one week check up appointment. I have been doing well and stopped taking the pain medication given to me and switched to ibuprofen. All checked out fine and so we end our one week mark as a happy healthy family looking forward to many more times to come, though at this point I think we need to take it one day at a time!

Baby's First Week-hospital days

I don't want to forget a thing about the first few days but with lack of sleep and all things considered I had better get it all down before it starts to fade so this is that attempt. More details than most anyone wants to know but this is really for me to have and keep so you may have to pick through alot of the details for the overall info.

Well after a less than ideal birth experience for all involved everything else went smoothly. I was fairly ill the first 2 hours or so after the c-section but with some help from Jared and my mom I recovered well. Lillian's apgars were 8 and 9 meaning she was a healthy baby that just had to 'pinken' up a bit after birth, Jared said she looked like a grape when she came out. Jared did surprisingly well also, after being afraid he would be 'grossed out' by the birth and not thinking he would ever be able to be present for a c-section he was fine with the c-section and watched them pull her out. He later said the bad part was that he was very scared for me and understandable so.



Within the first hour after her birth Lillian and I were able to successfully breastfeed with a bit of help from Dad who held her up as I still didn't have appropriate use of my arms. Breastfeeding continued to go well throughout our stay and the lactation consultants were very impressed as they said it is normally never that smooth--who knows maybe Lillian was paying attention during the breastfeeding class we attended :-)

They expect a newborn to lose up to 10% of their weight within the first week and then return to their birth weight by about the 2 week mark. At birth, wednesday morning, she weighed 6lbs7.8oz, thursday night she weighed 6lbs1.4oz which the pediatrician said was a lower weight loss than average which is great. Friday night her weight held constant at 6lbs1.4oz so they said perhaps she had hit her low mark since my milk had already started coming in. All in all it was a very good sign as they expect for them to continue loosing weight while in the hospital. Overall she did very well and hit every mark they wanted early. She had rid her system of the meconium with frequent bowel movements with first 48 hours and had moved on to the beginnings of the yellow breastfed bowel movement before leaving the hospital. The only 'problem' she had was that because of the way she was positioned in utero with her neck kinked to her shoulder for so long she had a bit of a flat spot behind her ear on her head and you could see where it was pushed into her little shoulder, this left her wanting to lay this way all the time--the pediatrician called it a 'packaging error' which I thought was very cute. We were shown some stretches to do to help her get used to turning her head the other way which she did not appreciate one bit! At first we had to breastfeed in certain positions on the left vs right side because she would not turn her head at all but with the stretching this resolved within a couple days.





Jared and I were thoroughly impressed with our hospital stay, everyone there was thorough and overly helpful plus they made you feel like your child and birth were special which is amazing considering they work with new families every day. We were admitted tuesday night, had her wednesday morning and were discharged saturday early afternoon, we had the option of staying until sunday (christmas eve) but we were eager to get home and settled--how little we knew.











Lillian 3 days old

Labor of Love-finale

Tuesday December 19th - Progress!

In a nutshell while on the NST before they placed the 1st dose of cytotec at 9am on tuesday I felt a slight 'leak' (8:30am) but since I had to go to the b-room I didn't think too much of it (those of you who have been pregnant will understand), they placed the 1st dose and then I went back for 1 hour NST during which time I felt multiple 'leaks' I told midwife who had placed it and she said since I would be back for doc to place next dose in 3 hours they would check me then. After walking around etc I didnt have any more leaks but sitting down to lunch before dose #2 I did so I was very hopeful it was my waters but it was still tiny amounts so I was afraid my bladder had abandoned me .

Upon returning to the doc the check showed it was my waters! Hooray we didn't have to go home again the cervix was still at 80% but was anterior now and 3cm dilated. Since L&D was overflowing we had to hang out at docs office another 3 hours until they could clear a room for us, we did 2nd dose and then went for a walk as I was still having no contractions.

We were admitted at 4:30 pm and by 5 ish they had started pitocin since I was still having no contractions (9+hours with waters broken ) they gave super low pitocin which started strong contractions (going from none to too strong NOT recommended ) so they turned it down to super low which was still giving stronger than needed contractions according to them (I had internal monitors place for both babies heart rate and contraction strength—these are HIGHLY uncomfortable). We went that way until midnight at which time I had a cervix check and was 4.5cm--how disappointing! Since being admitted my BP was borderline too high which forced me to lay on my side and I also had the internal monitors placed so I was unable to do all the labor coping stuff we had learned in class like change positions etc. So, I decided to be 'realistic' and get the epidural, about 1/2 hour later when they tried to do epidural I was in transition and was 7cm (didn't know this until afterwards or maybe would have not gotten epi after all, 7cm sounded much better than 4.5!).

Unfortunately my epidural fears were justified as I reacted badly and BP and HR dropped drastically so they had me lay on my back to try and get it up which then sent baby into a drastic heart rate (HR) decell which she did pull out of after they had me get back on my side, my BP and HR recovered as well. The epidural was too strong for me as I was completely numb and couldn’t feel a thing and couldn’t move the left 1/2 my body from laying on that side the medicine settled there more strongly.

We continued labor that way, which did allow me to rest, until about 2:30am when nurse told me that I was having very strong bi-phasic contractions (this is 2 contractions on top of one another with no break in between) which usually meant baby was in a sunny side up position (much harder to give birth this way). She said perhaps laying on my belly could help the baby to shift so she got a beanbag and with a lot of help from Jared and the nurse they finally managed to get me over onto my belly which was surprisingly quiet comfortable after not having laid that way for months. The nurse left and all was good—for about 60 seconds, after which I had Jared RUN out to get the nurse because I started vomiting and getting very light headed, I started to fade out and I couldn’t keep great track of what was going on but when I did look up there was six nurses in room working on me and turning me back over. Still not sure why it happened but I got sick and baby went into massive decell while I was on my belly (Jared later told me her heart rate went from the 180's and dropped into the 50's - how scary). We both recovered again but then doctor came running in – in her slippers with sleep marks on her face, so evidentially we had given them a pretty good scare. Doctor said if we had another ‘episode’ we would have to have emergency c-section but she was recommending we have one right then anyway because for whatever reason baby was not able to cope well with the stresses of the labor and she didn’t think she cold tolerate pushing but wouldn’t know why until they got in there and saw what was wrong. She said it could have been cord wrapped around neck or any other number of issues, I told her I wanted whatever would keep my girl safe (though inside I was scared to death because the last time I had surgery I had massive complications and could have myself died which is also the reason I was petrified of the epidural).

The doctor checked me and I was 9cm, making progress, and almost ready to push so we had to hurry. What a surprise and drastic change of events. They brought Jared in scrubs and he requested some coffee as we went from resting to chaos and expecting a baby VERY soon! While waiting I was already feeling pressure building, luckily epi was so strong I could resist pushing instincts.

When they wheeled me in to prep me for surgery my fear really got to me, Jared couldn’t come in during prep which didn’t help. I started shaking and had to work hard not to hyperventilate even with drugs as I was so scared. When they tested my feeling I kept being able to feel them scratching me etc so they ended up giving me the maximum epidural and then narcotics in my IV. Unfortunately, they did such a good job making sure I wouldn’t feel pain I actually couldn’t move my arms or see straight and was only ½ awake for the birth. Jared said I kept telling them DO NOT put me to sleep I want to see my girl! I had to ask Jared what color hair etc as I was unable to focus my eyes.

The c-section went well with no complications. We ended up finding out that she was turned so her head was shoved into her shoulder and the side of her head was trying to come out instead of the bottom and my placenta was starting to get calcifications (also called ‘old’ placenta common in diabetics) which made it hard for her to cope with labor stresses.

Even the epidural didn't stop me from crying my eyes out as I was so elated, finally I got to meet her after we waited for her for so long. She was born Wednesday December 20th at 3:34am. She weighed 6lbs 7.8oz and was 20.5 inches long. She had a more than full head of dark brown hair and dark brown/blue mixed eyes.

Labor of Love

Well there is alot of controversy over when everyone thinks I will go into labor. My doctors best guess was that I woudlnt make it to see the end of November, Jared originally thought Dec 6 but once I started with the contractions and medicine he re-aligned his bet to say Nov 22nd, my sister in law Lisa thinks it will be a week after we stop the terbutaline which will be Sunday December 3rd, and a ton of others thought I would go as soon as I stopped taking the terbutaline. I myself have tried to be prepared to have our little bundle the moment we stopped taking the terbutaline but figured it woudl be a while.

Thursday November 30th - Nov Baby?
This was the first day I wondered if labor was beginning. I had alot of much stronger contractions that would originate high but work low and end in a very strong lower belly cramp. I also did not feel like eating anything due to some nauseau and was in the bathroom alot so I began to wonder. The contractions stayed on at a pace of about every 15 minutes for perhaps 4 hours or a bit more but then petered out so it was a no go. Perhaps it was a first sign of 'false labor'? So thus ends our chances of having a November baby!

Friday December 1st - Lightening?
Well I had heard that up to two weeks before a 1st baby they will 'drop' so to speak and you will be carrrying much lower. I dont think my profile looks all that different and I can still feel her feet in my ribs but overall her feet and butt which she sticks out opposite sides of my belly as far as possible normally are a bit lower. What really makes me think I dropped though is that I am back to being in the bathroom almost continuously, there was one other point where she was laying VERY low and back down about 3-4 weeks ago and this had the exact same effect - then she figured out her head down position and alleviated some of the lower pressure. Makes me wonder if her head is dropping and she is still able to reach my ribs because she is a bit more elongated/stretched out as oppose to completely jack-knifed and pushing out my sides as before. Still have contractions but no change in them or their frequency. Since I had taken it pretty easy and been tired all day I had taken a nap and then had Jared take me grocery shopping to stock up, by the time we were done I was having VERY strong contractions and alot of cramping, after side lying for about an hour I began to feel better.

Saturday December 2nd-
Well last night while sleeping and then this morning I had some more cramping very low down. Wasnt sure what this was all about but some ladies who know better than myself claim this is the result of your cervix opening, we shall see. I did suddenly have an obsessive compulsion to clean my house -- and the energy to do it for hours just as the proverbial 'nesting instict' says you will but then in the afternoon I had to take a nap so maybe it was just a bit of OCD kicking in? I scrubbed walls and trim, the bathroom floor on hands and knees, cleaned all the appliances and gadgets in my kitchen, got all the babies diapers organized and last minute room items in shape, and re-organized multiple cupboards! Still having contractions but no real change in their timing or frequency though for a few days they do tend to get a bit stronger if I dont submit to them and rest a bit.

Sunday December 3rd-Will today be the day?
Well I am beginning to think that I am going to make it quiet a bit further in this little waiting game. I am definately beginning to get uncomfortable and am having a very hard time sleeping, last night I gave up trying to sleep in our bed about 3am and moved to the futon, I have been tossing and turning and keeping Jared awake for over a week and just can never get comfortable. I stacked alot of couch pillows on an incline on the futon and was able to sleep on a 45 degree angle on my back for a while which seemed to help a bit. We went on our last 'date' for a while, I am sure they will never be the same again. We went to brunch at Fieldstone Grill and ran errands and went shopping afterward, nothing too glamarous but very nice since we hadn't been out in a while. After all the walking around the contractions are a bit increased but nothing worth noting. Still cleaning and organizing like a crazy woman and overall just driving Jared nutso!

Monday December 4th - Cruise Control
Well just like a kid waiting for christmas, the more you think about/anticipate and hope for something the longer it seems to take so I am going to try and stop wondering each day if "today is the day?" --who believes that?? Went in for my NST today and all was looking very well with baby. Mom is a bit tired having only been able to sleep for a few fitful hours, I woke up to some lower abdominal cramping that has lasted on an off for the morning but nothing major.

Tuesday December 5th - Cows
Well nothing too exciting today, I have had some mild cramping and back pain all day but nothing too strong, just enough to be uncomfortable. The insomnia is really kicking in. I was on my feet a bit today and my feet and calves look like cows now, my feet swelled out around my loose house slippers!

Wednesday December 6th - Prophecy Proves False
Well Jared originally guessed that she would be born December 6th but it doesn't look like his psychic connection was up to par as no additional developments today, we will see what the doctors have to say tomorrow.

Thursday December 7th - Maybe Baby?
Well last night I was having cramping and contractions on and off and I had an early doctor appointment this morning and was contracting pretty regularly on my NST. Doctor said to monitor and call if contractions continue at regular interval for 2-3 hours so we shall see. Of course there have been days when I have been at regular intervals for 4+ hours but they always go away so we shall see.

Friday December 8th - Practice run
I woke friday feeling 'off' and really tired. I took it easy most the day though I did go to the pool at the gym and walk and stretch in the water a bit to try and feel better. I developed a headache later in the day that felt unlike most my headaches, I was also swelling a bit. I took my BP at meijer and it was 143/91 then 127/90 so I called to see if this was ok and they had me report to L&D triage. I really didn't think I needed to go but we did as we were told and after a few hours of monitoring and basically just waiting for my bloodwork to get back they said all was fine and I was free to go and to watch for any additional headaches or blurred vision and if I thought BP was rising to lay on my side which reduces it.

Saturday December 9th - No developments
We went to my holiday party tonight, it was fun, everyone was surprised to see us. Once the music started for the night the baby got to doing a jig in my belly so we only stayed about an hour after that as she may have been having fun but it was doing a number on me!

Sunday December 10th - Batter Up?
I had an appointment today at L&D triage which my doc had requested on thursday, she was the one working today and wanted to see me and said she hoped I could go into labor today as she coudl then be the one to deliver the baby. Well I suspected and was right that she wanted me there today to give me a 'helping hand' so to speak if there were no developments. NST was still looking good with no regular pattern to my contractions and my BP was good so she did an exam and said I was 70-80%effaced, -2 station, and 1-2cm dilated so she manually stripped my membranes and scratched the babies head to see what response she would get. The baby started moving, kicking, and heart racing which she said was a perfect response to the scalp scratch. She had us go do some walking and now we are home waiting to see if her 'help' did the trick.

Tuesday December 12th - Waiting Game
Well although there have been some signs that labor may be 'iminent' it is still holding off and this girl seems to be on her own time table as to when she makes her debut into the world. If nothing happens by thursday we have an ultrasound, NST, and OB appointment. In actuality, the past few days I have had less contractions than normal, my only hope is that when they restart they are real!

Wednesday December 13th- Waiting Game Continued
A few more spontaneous contractions today but still no pattern to them it is nice out today so perhaps we can go for a walk and see what that does.

Thursday December 14th-Plan of Action
All looked good with the baby today. Doctor's plan is to bring us in on monday for an induction using cytotec if we have not went into labor by then. It is a prostaglandin pill that will be administered in 3 hour intervals with monitoring of the baby and my contractions between doses so hopefully we should have a baby on monday.

Monday December 18th-Stall
Well we went in today and got our first dose of cytotec to no avail as there was no change in the cervix and I didn't get any contractions. For the second dose they did a double dose and still no contractions which is very disapointing. We will go back tomorrow for 2 more doses and see what progress can be made.