Thursday, May 27, 2010

Life at Home

Connor has been doing really well at home.  He has his days and nights a little mixed up, but it's not too bad, because Bryan and I are pretty nocturnal anyway.  He is so precious and amazing, and has such a serious little face.

We saw the pediatrician yesterday, and Connor is doing very well.  He's gaining weight and is almost back to his birth weight, and he's generally healthy.  Even though we're pretty sleep deprived, I'm so happy he's with us, and I could sit and watch him sleep all day (which I do quite a bit, actually).  Here's the view I have right now:

Monday, May 24, 2010

Connor is Here!! Our challenging first meeting:

Here's the story of Connor's birth; if you want you can skip the details and head straight to the pictures at the end of the post :)

On Wednesday, May 19th at 39 weeks and 4 days pregnant, I had an ultrasound and a doctor's appointment because I was measuring way big.  At the ultrasound, they estimated Connor to be 8 lbs 9 oz, in addition to having high levels of amniotic fluid.  My doctor knew that I wanted to avoid a C Section, so he sent me to the hospital to get induced because the bigger the baby, the more likely I was to have a C Section.  I was nervous about getting an induction, but SO excited to meet my baby!!

I knew that once I checked in to the hospital I'd only get ice chips to eat, so Bryan and I went for one last dinner as just two of us at California Pizza Kitchen.  Then, on the way to the hospital, I had Bryan stop at Golden spoon, and I got a small frozen yogurt :)

We got to the hospital at 6 pm, and pretty much immediately started Pitocin to start contractions.  We had a slow start, and it took a while for them to pick up.  When I went in to the hospital I was already 2 cm and 80% effaced; at around 5 am on Thursday the 20th, I was almost at 3 cm, so the nurse broke my water, which put me at a solid 3 and 100% effaced, and started to help the contractions along.  Once the contractions started getting painful, my back was also cramping, so I asked for the epidural sooner than I may have otherwise because back labor was not fun.  Then, the wonderful man with the epidural came, and I felt great.  Even though I was in labor for 23 hours, I slept through most of it.  After my water broke, I progressed much quicker.

At around 4 pm on the 20th, I was completely dilated and started to push.  I wasn't in pain (thanks, epidural), but it was very tiring work.  I pushed for 50 minutes, and Connor William was born at 4:59 pm.  He had a very big head, and even though my doctor gave me 2 episiotomies, I still tore, and had to get stitches from front to back.  On top of that, the doctor had to use the vacuum to help Connor out because I just wasn't making as much progress as I needed with the pushing.  He ended up being only 7 lbs 12 oz and 20 inches long, but his head circumference was 14 inches!!

As soon as he was out, Bryan cut the cord and they put him on my chest.  He was so amazing and beautiful, I couldn't believe it!  The doctors were concerned with his cry; instead of the loud, deep cries that babies need to clear all the fluid out of their lungs, Connor had softer, faster, shallow cries.  He ended up going to the NICU for a while and they took some chest x-rays and monitored him to make sure that the fluid wasn't a problem, and to raise his oxygen levels.  Turns out that he's great!!

Meanwhile, I wasn't doing so great.  My uterus wasn't clamping down like it was supposed to, and I was bleeding heavily.  While labor and delivering was a piece of cake thanks to the epidural, immediately after was a different story altogether.  While the epidural was still in place, I could feel a lot.  They had to "massage" my uterus to try and get it to stop bleeding, which basically means that a nurse was kneading my gut, and it hurt SO bad that I started vomiting.  I hadn't had any food for 24 hours, so it was all bile.    They put a shot of something (I'm not sure) in each thigh to try and help with the bleeding, and my doctor was simultaneously trying to stitch me up and control the bleeding from my uterus at the same time.

My mom told me that at one point she looked at the monitor and my blood pressure went WAY down, while my pulse went way up.  My doctor ended up using 40 packages of gauze to soak up blood, and the delivery room looked like a war zone when they were done.  My mom and sister stayed in the room with me, and Bryan went to the NICU with Connor.  I wasn't worried about Connor because I thought they were just doing the usual tests and measurements on him, and when I saw him he was crying and seemed to be doing well.  Apparently what was happening to me was pretty scary, but I was just focused on the pain and wondering why the nurse was being so mean to my stomach.  I had to have a few rounds of IV antibiotics to make sure I avoided infection since I had such a big tear.

I'm recovering really well, but it's tough.  I'm taking Percocet for pain, Motrin for swelling, stool softeners to help keep my stitches intact, and prenatals so me and Connor continue to get what we need while I breastfeed.  I can't stand for too long or get up too quickly without getting dizzy or nauseous, and walking around, getting up and down, and even changing positions on the couch or bed is pretty painful.    I have to have someone else hold Connor while I get up or down because I'm not stable yet and need both hands to support myself.

Breastfeeding is going well; my milk came in quick, and Connor only needs short feeding sessions before he's full because I have so much.  We're still getting used to each other and trying to figure everything out.  Bryan has been amazing and such a huge help, and my mom is here helping too.  Sorry to everyone that we've been MIA, but we really haven't been calling anyone because we're trying to adjust, and since Connor's birth was a little on the scary side, I haven't wanted to tell the story over and over.

Now for the fun part: pictures!!!

First picture; 7 lbs, 12 oz and 20 inches long.  Born at 4:59 pm on Thursday, May 20th


Going home!!


What are you lookin' at?

Monday, May 17, 2010

So today I'm 39 weeks and 2 days pregnant.  That means only 5 days to go!  Well, 5 days until my due date.  Hopefully Connor comes before that, but he might just hang out for a while.  If he got here tomorrow, that would be super awesome! 

So, I'm measuring big for how far along I am (my giant baby fears may be coming true), and I'm going to have an ultrasound on Wednesday to see how Connor is growing and to check the levels of his amniotic fluid.  I'm nervous about the ultrasound; they are notorious for being off (when my sister had one the DAY my nephew was born, it was off by almost 2 lbs!), and I'm worried that if it shows Connor being too large my doctor may want to go the c section route.  I think I could handle a pretty big baby (I mean, it's not like I'm a small girl, lol).  I don't mind having a big baby, I just want him small enough to push out!!  

Sometimes I feel like I'm SO ready and it could happen at any time, and other times I feel like he's just gonna hang out in there forever and there's no way I'll go into labor on my own.  If he's not ready and my body doesn't want to cooperate I will cook him for as long as he needs (granted, I won't be happy about it), but since he's already large, I'm worried he's going to get too big for me.  I'm really nervous and don't want to get a c section.  

Anyway, here's a picture of my belly from today!

Saturday, May 15, 2010

Bryan is sick :(

So for the past few days, Bryan has been feeling pretty crappy.  He was achey, feverish, and had a sore throat.  He finally decided to see a doctor when he could barely turn his neck because it ached so bad.  Turns out, he has Strep Throat!  Of course, it would be difficult for him to have found a less convenient time to get sick since the baby could come at any time, but he's started antibiotics and hopefully he'll be better, or at least past the contagious stage by the time I go into labor.

In addition to the Strep, he also has a pretty bad sinus infection and the flu; he's on antibiotics for the Strep and the sinuses, on an antiviral for the flu, on Sudafed to help with sinuses further, and Ibuprofen for the fever.  It took a lot for me to get him to stay home from work today (he likes his job way too much), but I convinced him that if he got the rest of his squad sick, they'd be pretty upset with him, so he agreed to take one day off to allow the antibiotics to kick in.

I hope he feels better soon!!

Tuesday, May 4, 2010

Moving!!

So Bryan and I got the keys to our new apartment today, and we'll be moving over the next 3 days (since it's his weekend).  There is a LOT to do, and I'm pretty useless as far as packing/moving goes; we may have more disorganization, but better that than me go into labor in the middle of a move!  Wish us luck, and hopefully we'll be at least semi-settled in before Connor gets here :)

And... HAPPY 4TH BIRTHDAY MIKAH!!!