Tuesday, March 19, 2013

First couple weeks home

(Mira sucking her thumb, melts my heart)

Mira is two weeks old as of yesterday. It makes me sad to think how fast time flies. So far things have been going well at home, but I feel like I have had a slow recovery with my c-section and even had my doc write me a second prescription for more Percocet (after a visit to the ER for 102 degree temp). Now that the second prescription has run out, I'm settling for Ibuprofen. Adam has been great with taking care of everything around the house, waiting on me hand and foot, and getting up in the night with Mira. I couldn't have done it without him. He went back to work today and it kinda sucks, not just because I miss him helping out but it feels more empty with just Mira and I when he's gone all day.

So far Mira's been out and about 3 times. The first two times were her scheduled doctor appointments (which she received an A+ in all areas!) and the third time was us running errands to the bank and grocery store. We came to the conclusion she likes all the movement in her carseat since I ran on the treadmill almost my entire pregnancy, it's what she's used to.

As far as nighttime sleeping goes, she's getting better. We got some practice in the hospital since we didn't have her taken to the nursery at all. Some nights she'll struggle for a good hour or two and other nights she'll sleep for 5 hours straight. I'm sure she'll get it figured out soon.

We love all the little noises she makes, though. She makes a lot of noises in her sleep and sometimes Adam and I will wake up to them and just laugh.

These things above are the most used and most life saving for us so far. The Halo sleepsack is easy to get on and off and makes those nighttime diaper changes that much easier, while Mira gets to stay cozy. The Munchkin wipe warmer makes diaper changes peaceful. When we changed Mira in the hospital with the cold wipes she would fuss and cry, but having warm wipes makes a huge difference. The boppy pillow is what I use for nursing, or an arm rest for anyone who holds her, or sometimes we put Mira inside, but she's still a little small for it. The California calming baby lotion is what we use for Mira at night. It is lavender scented so it helps make Mira sleepy. The soothie pacifier. This is the only pacifier she likes right now. Not much else to say about that besides the fact she fusses a lot less since she is so orally fixated.


Sneak peak of Mira's newborn photo session. Can't wait to see the rest! 
Tuesday, March 12, 2013

The 6 stages of pregnancy

Stage 1: Deer in a headlight
You've recently found out you're pregnant. You're a mixture of anxious, excited, and scared. Not only do the next 9 months flash in front of your eyes, but the rest of your entire life. You start to feel overwhelmed at the fact that you are going to be a mother and will be giving up so many many things for this litte tadpole looking thing in your uterus. You start to think everyone somehow just knows you're pregnant by looking at you. You're fatigued, have a short fuse, and barely have an appetite. If you get pulled over by a cop, you might just rip the ticket in half right in front of the him (oops).

Stage 2: It's Becoming More Real
You have had your first and possibly second ultrasound. You are really happy and excited for all things to come. You are starting to gain weight in your belly, and you catch people looking at it. You just want to blurt out to everyone that you're pregnant so they don't think it's a beer belly. The fatigue is starting to go away and you're a little less moody. You start to tell a little more friends and family. There still may be times where you actually forget you are pregnant, but overall you're getting the hang of it and starting to look into all the do's and don't's of pregnancy.

Stage 3: You love being pregnant
You are starting to tell everyone. You not only feel great but you look great, people are complimenting you left and right. You're starting to see all those "pregnancy perks" people were talking about. You have the energy to workout, the motivation to work on the nursery and baby crafts, and you're in a good mood all the time. You wish you could stay at this stage the entire time.

Stage 4: Large and in charge
Belly is getting large. You feel large and you look large. Ev-er-y-thing is starting to annoy you. The moodiness is worse than stage 1. You're starting to feel more fatigued and your patience level drops. Those "pregnancy perks" are being overcome by heartburn, being short of breath, and getting too big for even some of your maternity clothes. This is the stage where you find yourself crying over the dumbest. things. possible. Things you are too embarrassed to even mention (I have a laundry list that is more than laughable).

Stage 5: Home Stretch
You're in what they call the "home stretch". Those sweet compliments on how cute you look are now being replaced with "you've gotta be getting close" or "you look ready to pop". All that talk about going to the gym throughout your entire pregnancy: you can forget it. Those workouts are now being replaced with more couch time and more Dorito time. It's just a waiting game now.

Stage 6: Your Baby is Here
After much anticipation, your baby has arrived. It's very surreal. In fact, you might even forget that you're not pregnant at some point. Finally you can replace all the maternity clothes in your closet with your old favorites. Now it's just a matter of getting your "old" body back....
Saturday, March 9, 2013

Welcome to the world, Mira Sage!



Mira's Birth Story:

On Sunday, the morning of March 3rd, Adam left for work at about quarter to nine. I got up shortly after and did all my normal morning things like eat breakfast and putz around. I went to go brush my teeth and as I was standing over the sink I started to pee a little bit. Luckily, I was next to the toilet so I just quickly sat down and finished going on there. I, of course, wondered if this was my water breaking, but since the pee in the toilet was yellow I thought not. For the next hour I had significant leakage going on. It wasn't the trickle down the leg like they told us about at birthing classes and it certainly wasn't a burst of water like you see in the movies. It was just subtle leakage. I texted Adam about it and told him not to get too excited but I was gonna wait it out and see if it continued. He told me just to call the hospital right away and stop second guessing. After soaking 3 pairs of underwear and having Adam tell me two or three times, I finally called the hospital and they told me to just come in. Adam left work and came home. It was now about 10:30. We threw a few things in the already packed hospital bag, grabbed the carseat, diaper bag, a towel and headed for the hospital. I honestly thought they were going to send me home, so I didn't know why we were bothering packing everything up.

We got to the hospital, checked in, filled out paperwork, and were given a room. They did a cotton swab test on my cervix to see if the liquid was indeed a ruptured membrane. Minutes later the nurse came back and said yes, it tested positive. My water broke and I was going to be delivering baby within the next 24 hours. We got excited. The room I was checked into for my bag of water testing was also the room I would be delivering baby girl in. It was now about 11:30. They paged my doctor and hooked me up to a fetal monitor and contraction monitor. The fetal monitor took the heartrate of the baby and the contraction monitor just monitored whenever I had contractions, which is good because up to that point I had not felt a single one, but according to the machine I was having some. When one first showed up the nurse gave me a look and said they must not be very bad because I talked right through it as if nothing happened. When my doc came in, she checked to see how far I was dilated, which was about 3 1/2 (only half a cm more than my last doc appt). So she said if I don't start having significant progress by 2:45 she wants to start pitocin (boooo).

So a couple hours went by and we just sat around and waited, texted family and friends the update, and watched the monitor to see when I had contractions. I was having them but still not at all feeling them. Doc came back to check me and I was now at 4 cm. So we waited some more. I read on my nook, Adam played games on his phone, and Caitlin came in to visit. It would definitely be boring if we didn't bring stuff to do. More time went by and next thing we knew it was 2:45. Doc was running late, but eventually came in and checked me and I was now at about 4 1/2 cm. She said we were now gonna start the pitocin. Ugh. I knew that once they administered pitocin, I would probably get an epidural, because pitocin induced contractions are a lot more intense than naturally induced contractions. I can't say I would've made it without an epidural should I have dilated enough on my own, but I could have tried. So it took them a while, but at about 4:00 they administered IV fluids and shortly after, administered the pitocin. They start at a low dosage so it's not so intense, but I was already having consistent contractions every 3-4 minutes, but still did not really feel them. I felt a tightening but nothing painful. They kept increasing the dosage about every half hour. The next time my doc came in to check me I was at 5 cm. She was really digging in up into my cervix and it was obnoxiously uncomfortable and painful. Apparently she was trying to stretch my cervix, no wonder. Well, after that I definitely started to feel the contractions. I honestly can't remember what they felt like, but I just know I squeezed Adam's hand every tine I had one. They weren't bad enough to where I was groaning or crying yet, but they still were painful and I was using my own little breathing technique. At this point all I wanted was my head stroked. I was getting irritated of Adam trying to talk to me even though he was just trying to help. I don't know how much time went by, I think it was a little over an hour, I wanted to order the epidural because I was told it could take up to an hour (sometimes even 3 if the anesthesiologist is in surgery) for the anesthesiologist to get it to me. The nurse was on board, almost as if she was just waiting around for me to ask for it and the doc said I can have it anytime so she went and ordered it. It was probably another half hour before the anesthesiologist got to my room, so I'm glad I ordered it when I did. He administered it and within about 10 minutes I was no longer feeling the contractions, not even a little bit. In fact, my right leg was completely dead.

The doc came in to check me again and I was now at 6 cm. Well I was hoping I was more like 7 or 8 but 6 will do. After that epidural I was no longer feeling any of the contractions and now it was just waiting around for me to dilate some more. This whole time I was about 80-90% effaced. Doc came in to check me every hour and I was still at 6 cm every time. I was stuck at 6 cm for 3 hours before she brought in a surgeon and said the best advice at this point is to do a c-section. I couldn't believe it. I honestly didn't think I was going to have a c-section knowing how well everything was going up to this point. Everytime I had my prenatal appointments the baby was head down and in optimal position for birth, etc. Their best guess was that baby wasn't coming down into my cervix quite right, possibly at an angle. Doc said we could wait it out longer, but chances are I'm not going to dilate any more and then they will have to end up doing a c-section anyway. So I said yes, lets do it. Luckily, this wasn't an emergency c-section and we were able to take our time doing everything so it wasn't as scary. Granted, I was still scared. We were also lucky that they had administered an epidural so 1. I didn't have to be put under and could see baby and hear her cries right away and 2. Adam could be in the room since I wasn't being put under (they don't allow spouses in the room if you've been put asleep). Once the surgery was happening, though, I had wished I had been put under. I could feel every movement and pressure so I pretty much knew exactly what was going on. It wasn't painful but still really freaky to feel everything. The surgery itself took 5 minutes. Adam had the camera ready and was able to get pictures of her right when she came out. It was SO surreal to see her and hear her cries, all I could think was OMG this little girl was in me for 9 months. She was so adorable and I loved seeing and hearing Adam's reaction. He got to cut the cord and be next to the doctors as they wrapped her up and got the fluid out of her eyes, nose, and mouth. They then put her next to my face. 

Mira Sage now existed in the real world. After they put her next to me, Adam went with her back to the birthing floor to get weighed and vitals taken. I had to get stitched up and it seemed like an eternity. I was shaking profusely the whole time. It really helped that all the staff was extremely nice and had a good sense of humor, they at least kept me distracted. Once I was all done getting stitched, I had to go to the recovery room and sit and wait even longer. I felt like the lady working on me was putzing around way too much and I was getting frustrated. I kept subtly saying I'm fine and can go upstairs now. I just wanted to see my baby. I was still shaking profusely, though, so she probably was concerned.

Finally I was able to go back into my room and hold Mira. I loved seeing how happy Adam was and he kept saying how beautiful she was. It was a very happy morning. The nurse came in to help me breastfeed and Mira was a pro. The nurses were all surprised at how good of a latcher she was and came to the conclusion she's very orally fixated. Yep, she's a thumb sucker.

The last couple days have been great. Mira is wonderful in all ways possible, except for the fact that she's a night owl. From about midnight to 4 am she wakes us up about every 30-60 minutes, wide eyed and bushy tailed. Definitely going to change THAT soon. Things are more difficult because of my c-section, though. I wasn't able to get up with her the first few nights because it took me so long to get up and even longer to actually walk somewhere, so Adam was doing quite a bit of work. He's truly a great dad.

If you have read to this far, congratulations. This was one long blog. I kind of got carried away.


Friday, March 1, 2013

41 Weeks

Did not think I would get this far along. I'm actually not as frustrated as people think, though. I told my doc as long as the baby's not 10 pounds I'm fine. Supposedly baby is a little bit under 8 pounds. If she's not here by Monday doc is setting an induction date. 

Cravings: Everything. Not anything specific or weird, I just have a big appetite and think about food a lot. 

Movement: She's still moving a ton. 

Labor Signs: Not sure but I just get mild cramping (like menstrual cramps) but it's not necessarily painful. I don't know if those are contractions and my body is just really nice to me or what. Since I was dilated to a 3 on Tuesday I'm guessing some of those were/are contractions. 

Overall, I still feel the same as I have the past month or two. I'm not as uncomfortable as you would think a 41 week prego would be. I've just been getting mild headaches about every afternoon while I'm at work. Maybe it has nothing to do with pregnancy and it's all work stress, who knows. I also hear "you're still here!?" about 15 times a day from people around campus. While I patiently wait for her to arrive I'm just going to enjoy the quietness of our home and get all the massages from Adam I can get ;)

41 Week Belly:


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