sleeping

well...she is 3 weeks on thurs. sleep has been up and down...we get about 2-4 hours at a time and about 4-6 hours total a night...usully she wakes and julian changes her and hands her off. i feed her for about 40 minutes and then try to put her down...sometimes it happens right away but has taken up to 4 hours to get her down again...then we get 2 hours more of sleep and it starts all over....today i got her down for a nap and got to nap, though...she just wants to be held all the time which makes it hard to sleep too...but it is sweet to cuddle with her, though.

it is about that time to go to bed now...

doc appt.

Leah's first doc appt. went really well. her doc is really nice and young. She said Leah is doing great. She's pretty small...like 30th percentile for weight and 18 for height but she said that doesn't mean much now...and as long as it is between the 5th ad 95th percentiles, all is well.

2 weeks and 1 day old

A friend from work said that the first 2 weeks are the hardest to adjust to and she was right. It's definitely feeling better now. Julian's mom and maryann helped out a lot during that time and it was helpful and now it feels good to be on our own too. Julian's rocking her to sleep (she has the hiccups right now..she used to get them all the time when I was pregnant too)... We shampooed her hair for the first time tonight and she seemed to really like the warm bath water. This was good news because she was pretty fussy all day today, so it was nice to NOT have her cry at something new. I think she is just hungry a lot and so we spend most of our time feeding and then resting.

her cord fell off today and now we can see her little belly button. It is a shallow innie right now but there is still a tiny scab...we shall see.

ok, gotta go.

first outing

well, we had our first little family outing. Julians mom and Maryann and Julian and Leah and myself....we all went to CPK. I lasted about 3 hours until my milk leaked all over. TMI I know....but I will figure that out. I hear that nursing women need to wear shirts with prints (not solids) because it shows less. I had no idea this would happen either....but it's so weird...like when my baby cries then some response happens within me and my body says "Oh, time to feed the baby". This better get better before I go back to work. I would hate to be standing up in front of my class and then some kid raises her hand, "Um, Mrs. G?" and points and my shirt is soaked.

I think that Oprah is going to be part of my day each day for the next few months.

Leah had a really good night last night. We have this swaddle blanket thing that she screams bloody murder when i put her in it, but then once she calms down, she's better....

Ok well, I am going to continue watching Oprah now and rest.

pics

pics

nights

are tough with a newborn!  We didn't get a singel second of sleep last night. she just had the roughest time....maybe it was because i didn't burp her enough....she hates being put in her crib that is next to us bc she is so used to being held and rocked from the whole time in the womb and then in the days....plus she used to be active at night and sleep in the day so she has the reverse pattern as us.....

so it's about 9pm and I am going to sleep bc in about 2 hours she'll need to be fed but at least i can jump start getting rest. Julian's mom is sleeping over and so in the morning we can hand her over which is a huge help.  the breast feeding is a killer right now though.  julian has been really great through everything. he gets up with us when I have to feed her and helps change her diapers and all that.  We will eventually have to figure out a schedule so we aren't both so sleep deprived all the time. 

cross your fingers tonight goes better than last night. the upside is that she's just so cute that you want to be with her all the time, but it is so hard to have her crying and upset like that and not yet know how to fix it....

welcome home, baby

So we are home and it as been an adventure. We are so happy having Leah.

Really quickly I will sum up the events....we went to the hospital and at 9pm wed they gave me pitocin and shoved a cathetar with a balloon up my cervix to dilate me....it hurt. They started everything early because i was contracting on my own a lot. Sarah and Julian were there and we all waited for things to get going....the contactions got stronger in the middle of the night...they gave me a morphine shot and stuck it straight in my butt muscle. I screamed and julian laughed. seriously haha. Then at 6 am, the alarms started going off because Leah's heart rate was dropping a lot. They rushed in and moved me around so that it heled her breathe more. Super scary. Then a few hours later it happened again. I got my epidural at 3 cm and that took away the pain. The heart rate drpped again and then the doctor told me that we were going to mointor a little longer and then he'd come in and we'd decide how to proceed. We didn't have enough time for that to thappen because her heart rate dropped a ton and everyone rushed in and they decided to do an emergency c section. Her heart rate went back a little bit which helped. They rushed me into the room and then about 15 nurses, doc, and other people took they places. Julian was the last person in. They tested out "can you feel this, can you feel this, etc" until they had a good level and then they went for it. I felt the pressure of them cutting and taking stuff out of me, etc. It didn'thurt but I was terrified and just kept praying that she'd be okay. After only a few minutes they had her out and Julian and I both cried really hard (i am sure he's happy I shared that) and julian went and watched her get weighed and her apgar scores (an 8 then a 9 which is good). I didn't get to hold her until after they stitched and stapled me and took me to recovery. As hectic as it was, it was the best moment of my life (along with my wedding with julian) and worth everything.

The recovery has had its ups and downs but we're getting there. We are home. The first night was really hard and breastfeeding is seriously very difficult. My milk just came in in the middle of last night (I woke up with a huge heat wave and felt nauseous briefly and realized what happened. This will help her gain weight because she has lost a little too much weight. She is jaundiced so we have had to make a trip to the doc and have to go back tomorrow....we are crossing her fingers that she is better by then.

Can't complain....we're just really happy to have our baby girl healthy and home.

and we are off

Sarah is here.  We are going to eat a light dinner (at in and out haha) and then goign to the hospital.  We prob won't update the blog when we are gone because there isn't wifi. We may post facebook updates though.  Baby will be here in less than 48 hours (let's aim for 24)

dilation chart for fun. I am somewhere after a cheerio (hopefully to the banana but prob not yet.

almost time

We call in about 4 hours to see if they will take me tonight. My contractions have stayed and are still uncomfortable but not unbearable.  I hope that I am dilating so that I don't have to have as much time before my epidural.  Anyway, Sarah is on her way over at 3 or 4.  Then we will call about 5...hopefully get a light meal and then head over to the hospital at 7.  Then we don't leave without Leah.  Crazy.

hmm

contractions are getting stronger and I am uncomfortable.  I really hope it happens tonight so i don't have to be induced but I have a feeling that putting my hopes in writing will jinx it.  We shall see.

update on doc appt.

So I get there and they say that my appt had been moved to tomorrow. That would be almost okay if i wasn't being induced tomorrow AND if they had actually called to tell me this. I pretty much told them that julian took off work and I was really contracting and wanted to be seen....so they got me in haha.  Don't mess with a huge 9 month pregnant woman.  They apologized a lot bc they messed up by not even calling me to confirm that it was okay to move my appt.

So they did not strip the membranes bc u have to be dilated a good amount i think....last week I was completely closed and not thinned out at all....Today I had started to dilate and was a 1 and have thinned out half way already  to 50%! I was excited...she said my cervix is very soft and the baby's head is very low and that I am in a good spot to have a good induction tomorrow.....before i was set up to fail...they have a point system to tell if you your chances of needing a c section due to a failed induction (meaning that your body can't be forced to dilate and get the baby out vaginally).

Still contracting and they are stronger than yesterday.  

Julian is happy that he will be able to make the fantasy draft tonight at 8...I still am hoping to go into full blown labor before then. :)

tomorrow

well....leah decided to stay in her cozy home another day. her eviction process will start tomorrow if she doesnt come before that.

membrane stripping at 3:30. i will write after that experience.