Pictures

I have a bunch of pictures to show you. You can click on the picture to see a larger version. Sorry for any of you who may still have dial-up connections.

I love these two pictures of Kylie and Karen




Me and Kylie in the backyard


Kylie loves her swing.

I had a slight panic moment when the swing ran out of batteries this morning. Fortunately, I was able to pull some D batteries out of some flashlights and get it going again (hope there's not a power outage tonight). The "experts" say that she shouldn't be in the swing for more than 30 minutes twice a day and that I should take her out before she falls asleep. Well, I'm missing the mark on both counts. No matter how gently I try to take her out of the swing, she always wakes up (and is quite angry about it!)

When Kylie cries these days, she sheds tears. Before, in her early weeks, she would slowly work her way into a cry with whimpers and grunts. Nowadays, she lets loose with her full-throated cry right off the bat. She certainly has found her voice! Here she is in a bit of a snit:


But the majority of the time she is a happy, easy-going, smiley baby.

Smiles

A few little smiles for the camera!

Where did the week go?

What happened to the time when I could blog every day? Where did the week go?

The past few days have just been a blur. How can it be such a challenge to simply fold the clothes from the dryer every day when Kylie sleeps so much?

Anyway, in our spare time, Karen and I have scrapbooked a couple of pages. I'll take some pictures and post them later. The scrapbooking stuff takes up our entire dining room table. At meals, I try to clear off a little area but we end up eating hunched over this tiny, scrapbook free space on the table.

And our favorite, baby-free pasttime is to go to the various scrapbook/craft stores and wander the aisles. Where we used to run errands together, now we take turns. And usually our turns find us for a brief stop for scrapbooking stuff. Dang! The amount of stuff you can buy for scrapbooking is almost as never-ending as the stuff you can buy for a baby!

We bought a little storage shelf unit to put in the office to hold all our craft supplies. To make room, I moved one of our cat towers out of the office. (We actually have two of those carpet-covered cat towers in our small office. I also have two little cat beds on my desk. Can you tell we love our cats?)

Anyway, I moved the tower out into the hall with the intention of taking it to Goodwill. For the cats, it's like "New Toy! New Toy!" and they have been playing all over it all day.

Geesh...this is a rambling post. But I felt the need to post something....anything!!!

Kylie now weighs 10 pounds, 3 oz. She has found her fist (as you can see in the below photo). Whenever her hand comes near her mouth, she's sucking on it. Her head is getting really strong. She's holding it up and turning it left and right really well now. Yesterday, I saw the hint of a "turtle" when she had belly time on her playmat.



Baby Girl has some serious core strength to lift those legs like that. We do something similar for our abs at Jazzercise and I don't do it nearly as well as Kylie!

Guess that's all for now. Have a wonderful weekend everyone!

What's Up?

I snapped this picture yesterday. To me, it looks like Kylie is saying (with an urban, rapper accent), "What's Up?"

Speaking of urban, do you know about the urban dictionary? I read it every day--don't ask me why--I'm weird that way.

Anyway, Kylie's acne is starting to clear up. I predict it will be completely gone by the end of the week. And we can't wait! Both for her sake and ours because we've missed taking tons of photographs of her every day.

Our little girl is holding her head and turning it from side to side really well now. And she loves to scoot off her baby positioner when she's in her crib.

Here's something interesting: When Kylie lays on my chest, she instinctively inches her way down to the nursing position. Even if she is completely full, she won't simply lay or sleep on my chest. And once she's in nursing position, she won't settle unless she's nursing.

But she loves to sleep on Karen's chest. Normally this seems fair. I get to nurse Kylie and Karen gets sleepy-time, heart to heart time with her. But today I had to have a bit of a pout about it.

Is this true for any other breastfeeding Moms out there?

Whenever I want to hold Kylie close, I'll put her in her sling. That way we can cuddle and I can have her close to my heart. We didn't really plan to practice Attachment Parenting but our little girl is so content in her sling. So she's held by one of us almost all the time.

Well...I've got to go now....Kylie needs to be fed. Cheers!

-Wendy

Growing

Kylie weighs ten pounds as of today. Here's a picture of her resting on Momma Karen's lap.

A few firsts

Today was a day of firsts!

For the first time, I used the diaper-changing thingie in a restaurant's bathroom and then I nursed Kylie in the mother's room of Babies R Us (first time nursing outside of the home).

Then we bought Kylie her first floppy sun hat.....actually we bought three hats!

Our little one still has LOTS of acne on her face so we'll post hat pictures later. For now, here's a picture of Kylie sucking in her bottom lip in surprise at all the cool things her moms did today.

-Wendy

Holiday?

I had forgotten that this was a holiday weekend until I saw a neighbor loading coolers and folding chairs into his car. I swear the days are running together over here at The House of Baby.

Here's a good one for you.....
Last night at around 4:30am, I laid Kylie in her crib after feeding her and I started to pump. About 2 minutes into the pumping, Kylie belted out a hellacious cry due to a vicious gas bubble. I yank the pump off and take the few steps to her crib trying to simultaneously pull my bra up.

But the breasts are still pumping. Milk is flying out of me, all over me, into the crib and onto the carpet. I'm cussing like a sailor in front of my newborn.

Yep. Good times.

-Wendy

Proud

It's amazing what a little sleep and making a list will do!

Last night I made a list of some of the things I want/need to do. I realized that some of the anger I was feeling was due to feeling out of control and list-making helps put it all into perspective for me. So...feeling better now.

We took Kylie out and I ended up changing two diapers and one outfit during the excursion. I was proud of myself for managing that small task without a flicker of nerves. It's a small success but I'm going to celebrate it!

By the way, Kylie has a case of baby acne (at least it looks more like acne than a rash) all over her face. Our friend, Heather, recommended putting mits on Kylie's hands to help the acne because she tends to rub her face and hair alot. We're going to give that a try.

Does anyone else have any recommendations for dealing with baby acne?

Here's a photo of our girl. If you look closely you can see one of her dimples!



-Wendy

Night shift person

I only start feeling like a normal person around 2pm each day.

I think this is because I stay up late to get Kylie to sleep (she goes to sleep around midnight) and because I get up to do the 2-3am feed (which takes 1 1/2 hours). Karen bottle-feeds Kylie around 6am and I stay asleep. I'll roll out of bed again around 9am.

But many times, I feel grouchy and petulant until after lunch. Just like some kind of angry, third-shift person or as I told Karen today, "I'm a right foul git!"

Today, I was itching for a fight. Karen sensed the vibe and very smartly stayed clear until the clouds parted. Is this a Scorpio thing or a post-partum thing?

The smallest things will get the anger cooking. Like the cats playing too loud or the velcro on Kylie's bib making too much noise and waking the baby when I take it off. Or the persistent four beeps of the mircrowave (I heard you the first time!!!)

And I long for a punching bag and some gloves to pound out the anger. Instead, I go for a drive and play my music really loudly. A trip to the bookstore and some deep breathing also helps.

Jazzercise will also help burn off some excess emotion; I really need to get back to that exercise class.

-------------
I do have some happy news to share.

We got a nice, big lounger chair for the nursery to go with the glider that's already in the room. Many times, Karen ended up sitting on the floor while I'm nursing Kylie in the glider. So we decided to get another chair in the baby's nursery. We picked one that will someday move to the family room. And it's extra-long to fit Karen's 6ft frame. There's a picture of it at the bottom of this post.

And we got a freezer for our garage for the extra freezer space. Now we have room for pizza boxes! Hurray!

-Wendy

Family Visit

Karen's mom and sister just left for the airport to go back home to Tennessee. They've been staying with us since last Thursday. It's been wonderful having them here to help take care of the baby. Karen's mom would get up every morning to do the 6:00am bottle feed allowing K & I to get some extra sleep. They watched Kylie one evening so that Karen and I could have dinner out by ourselves.

For the majority of their four-day visit, we just stayed home and played "Pass the baby please...It's my time to hold her!" But we did manage to go to Portland's Rose Garden where we took these photos (the roses weren't in bloom yet but the rhododendrons were beautiful!) We also went shopping and out to eat twice.

Now for some Kylie updates....
As of Saturday, she weighs 9lbs 1oz.
She now wears size 1 diapers instead of the newborn size.
She has started holding her head up more and more.
She also has started holding her hair or our shirts while she eats.
And the smiles! How we delight in the smiles! We haven't captured a smile on camera yet but you know we'll post when we do.

You can see more pictures here.


-Wendy

First real smile

OK...I'm going to be a complete and total sucker when it comes to my daughter. This is evidenced by the fact that this morning Wendy called out to me to "come see, come see" as Kylie had smiled at her! I didn't hold out much hope that I'd get a smile too (smiling is such a new task to be able to do when mama wants it!) but came running to see if she'd do it again. And, sure enough, I leaned over the crib and cooed at her a bit and wa-la! A smile! I melted....a complete and total melt down to my toes, give her anything she wants, feel my heart nearly explode, melt!

She graced us with several more smiles before she decided it was time to nurse vs. perform for her mommies so I placed her in Wendy's arms and just stood there and beamed at the two of them. Wendy got tickled at me for being so "lit up" about the whole thing. :)

It was a great way to start the day! Here's a few photos of our sweet girl. At least two of which Kylie will be embarrassed about one of these days...hee hee.







- Karen

Mother's Day

What's the best thing you can get a new mom on Mother's Day? SLEEP!

Karen took care of the baby so that I could get a wonderful, afternoon nap. She also gave me a "new Mom" card and a delightful book. I have NO idea of when she made the time to do this! I didn't get her anything--poor K.

It's a bit odd to be a two-mom household on Mother's Day. When I was growing up, my Dad would do nice things for my Mom on Mother's Day and vice versa on Father's Day. Karen and I do nice things for each other every day. So how do we make Mother's Day special? Ideas anyone?

We managed an outing with Kylie yesterday. We went to the scrapbook store--it was a two-hour trip. I wore Kylie in her sling while shopping. I was very nervous that she would scream her head off and that other shoppers would yell "Bad Mother!" and throw stuff at me or give me disapproving glances. But Kylie was an angel and didn't make a peep. I know one day she will just lose it, in public, and I know I'll handle it. But I'm so grateful this wasn't the case yesterday.

Here's a few photos for you:
I call this one- "How do you like my hair?"




A few more photos here.

-Wendy

Tagged for 7 Things

We've been tagged by Stacey...oh my!

So, first...the rules:
Each player starts with 7 random facts/habits about themselves. People who are tagged need to blog about their seven things and post the rules as well. At the end of your post, choose 7 people to tag and list their names. Don’t forget to leave them a comment telling them that they have been tagged and to read your blog!

Even though Stacey counted us a two tags (very efficient I must say!), we're going to post our 7 things together (some are for Wendy, some are for me).

Fact/habit #1 (Karen):
I do clock math. Clock math is done mainly in the middle of the night and occurs when I've gotten up for a bathroom break or been awakened from a dream or when I just can't seem to sleep. Clock math works by taking all the digits of the current time and adding them up (for example: 3:26am is 3 + 2 + 6 = 11). Now, the math continues until you get a single digit number. Using our 3:26 example again, if I add up the digits and get 11, then I have to add the digits one more time, 1 + 1 = 2. So, two is my final answer. My brain then plays games with the numbers and makes deals about when I can go back to sleep. My rules are: if the time results in an answer of 1, I go back to sleep immediately...otherwise, I can't go to sleep until I see a time that does result in a 1. If I happen to close my eyes and miss the time I need, then I tell myself I can't go to sleep until the next time the digits work out to 1. Why do I do this? Heck if I know. I'm a numbers/math nerd so maybe that's part of it, but let's face it...it's just weird. Very weird.

Fact/habit #2 (Wendy):
Wendy was a beekeeper. She had the cool white suit with the funky helmet and everything. She had 3 hives of bees and even once saved the bees from a nearby tree where they had swarmed. Don't get her started on how bees dance....

Fact/habit #3 (Karen):
I'm an obsessive compulsive dishwasher reloader. Everything has to be placed "just so" in there or I move it all around. This annoys Wendy...although she usually just rolls her eyes at me and sighs.

Fact/habit #4 (Wendy):
She likes to dance to the songs at the end of movies while the credits are playing. This is a habit she got into with her dad when she was a little girl. I love this one and we share a dance after all the movies we watch at home (and even sometimes at the theater!).

Fact/habit #5 (Karen):
I still hold 2 Freshman records from my days as a UT Lady V*l. I'm 3rd all-time on the list for most field goals made by a freshman in a single game (12) and 5th all-time on the list for most points scored in a single game by a freshman (27).

Fact/habit #6 (Wendy):
Wendy's laugh is a raucous, earth-shaking, gut rumbling roar. For such a sweet little thing, her laugh sounds like it would come out of a 300 lb linebacker. It's priceless!

Fact/habit #7 (Karen and Wendy):
We both love and watch movies (all kinds of movies) so much that there is virtually no life moment that we can't whip out a movie quote to fit the moment. And usually, we can identify each other's quotes and just laugh and laugh. Other people, however, usually just think we're strange.

And, we're supposed to now tag seven folks but I'm not sure there are 7 people left who haven't already been tagged on this one! But, here's a few (if you've already been tagged, please excuse the repeat): Kerry Lynn, Lynanne, Traci and Heather.

Finally, I can't end a post without flashing at least one photo of our beautiful little girl!



- Karen

Pacifiers

Why are there pacifiers EVERYWHERE in my house but never in the room when I need them? It's like living in a pacifier Twilight Zone.

Kylie had a great night--thank heavens! We all got some much needed sleep.

Here's a few pictures for you.

-Wendy

Milk race

It feels like Kylie's milk needs and my supply are running neck and neck in a race. Right now, I'm just barely keeping up. Each day for a week, I've been pumping with the intention to create some reserve milk and each day, we've needed to feed it to Kylie. It's like I'm barely keeping her satisfied and I'm really feeling the strain. So I've started taking fenugreek and blessed thistle to boost my supply and am pumping more throughout the day.

The last 24 hours have been challenging. Kylie had some lower wind/gas problems throughout the night. **If you have some hints about how to relieve a baby's lower gas problems, please share them with us.**

And just when I felt my most frazzled and ragged from the cries of my hungry and gassy baby, my dear sweet friend Heather brought us a wonderful dinner and dessert. Thanks babe! You are a life-saver!

-Wendy

Clothes

Kylie doesn't groove on the getting dressed/undressed scene. She tends to give me this look that asks, "What the heck are you DOING to me?!" while shouting out her confusion. So I tend to keep her in one outfit all day.

But dang! Baby clothes are soooo cute. I just snicker every time I see her little body all dressed up.

Today, Kylie is sporting her karate gi look. As for the pink socks....well...one does want a hint of color!


PS - I'm really feeling my stitches these past few days. Somebody please tell me that this will pass soon.

-Wendy

Surprises

So far the first twenty days postpartum have been pretty much what I expected. But I have had a few surprises.

Nightsweats
It's incredible! I wake up totally soaked. I go through two cotton night shirts each night. The sweating doesn't wake me up but I feel so gross when I do get up. I get cold really quickly and all I want is a hot shower but there is no time for that when the baby is hungry!

Oxytocin
This lovely, breastfeeding hormone has me really chilled out. I've been surprised that I don't really want to do much in between feedings. In fact, staring at the wall or at my belly button has become my new pastime. I'll have the thought, "Gee...I should really do this or this or this" and then I'll just sigh and go back to staring at the wall. My lackadaisical days have surprised me.

What about you? What surprised you the most about the first 20 postpartum days?

-Wendy

PS - Can't have a post without a picture of my beautiful daughter. You can see more pictures here

Going Out

This was the scene at our house today.

I realize that I'm only comfortable in v-necked shirts. Round neck shirts make me feel like I'm choking. I blame the bigger boobs. I only have two v-necked shirts and I've been wearing them back and forth for the past 16 days.

Karen and I talk about it and we decide to take Kylie on her first real outing that doesn't include a hospital or doctor's visit. We're going to buy some shirts! Woo-hoo!! We change Kylie, feed her, burp her, take a bunch of pictures and then load her in the carseat.

We start to leave and I realize I don't have any burp cloths in her diaper bag.
We start to leave again and I realize that I need a snack bar and some water for the trip.
We start to leave again (actually make it to the garage this time) and I forget to grab the diaper bag.
We're sitting in the car and we realize that we didn't load the stroller in to the trunk.
We're in the car, on the road, when I remember that I have a gift to return at one of the stores we're going to. We circle the block and pull BACK in to the garage and grab the gift.

Whew!! How crazy is that?! But then again, it's just our first outing. Hopefully we will get better at this!

For now, I'll just leave you with some new pictures. (PS- I did put a sweater and blanket around the baby for her outing. I don't want our family to think that I'm freezing the baby)

-Wendy

Days fly by

I think I finally understand why my parents always said time seemed to move so quickly when I thought it was eternally slow when I was a child. Watching your child grow and change day-by-day and focusing your energy, love and attention on them is kinda like time lapse photography. The changes appear as if by magic in what seems like moments although the reality is hours, days or weeks.

Kylie is just two weeks (plus 1 day) old and it seems as if the time has flown by. Even with a few long nights thrown in, I look back and wonder at how quickly it has all come and gone. In my opinion (however biased it may be), she grows more beautiful each day as her little cheeks fill out and her arms and legs unfold. I can sit and stare at her for hours (and do) and never grow tired of it.

Was this how my mom felt? Did she hold me and stare at me while I slept? Did she gently touch my fingers and toes and feel so full of wonder and joy that she could barely breathe? Wow. Who knew? I think it really is true that becoming a mother makes you really know the love your mother felt/feels for you. It's quite a "circle of life" kinda thing and I think it's marvelous.

We're doing pretty well. Wendy and Kylie are doing much better with the breastfeeding and seem to have developed a good routine together. It's so neat to watch them. Kylie continues to gain weight and is having many more periods of alert time during the day (and night!).


Life is good. Life is very, very good.

- Karen

Busy weekend

We had a busy yet wonderful weekend.

Friends RSG and Sacha, Alayna and Mateo came to visit, bringing gifts and food and laughter. Thanks so much!

Kylie is back to her birth weight of 7lbs 12 oz.


She LOVES to eat at night. Starting at around 8:00pm she'll do three to four 45-minute feedings with around 15 minutes in between. During these cluster feedings, I sit and sweat profusely and ask the nearest person to bring me a glass of water every half hour.

At around midnight she'll settle down and will let us sleep 4-5 hours before waking us for the next feeding (God Love Her!) Karen has done most of the 3-4am feedings.


Each day Kylie improves with nursing. Today I had to put a bib around her because she was dribbling milk onto her outfit. I absolutely love to see her blissed-out, milk-covered, smiling face.


So far, she tolerates her baths really well.

I like to just rinse her with a warm washcloth. We only give baths with soap every 2-3 days. So far, her skin is doing really well--no dry patches.

My mom-aka Granna- brought her this beautiful dress.


She also brought me sweaters and shoes and such that both she and I wore as babies. I love having some of these heirlooms to pass on to Kylie. Here's one of the sweaters that both Mom and I wore modeled by Kylie.


I"ll be sorry to see my Mom leave tomorrow night. But Karen's mom and sister will be here in a few weeks.

Hope your weekend was as good as ours.

-Wendy

All is well

My Mom is here from her home in TN to take care of us.


Kylie had her first ride in her Bugaboo stroller yesterday.


And Kylie has gained 2 ounces (bringing her to 7lbs 11oz-- just one ounce short of her birth weight)


All is well!

-Wendy

Breastfeeding

It's been my intention to write a nice, long post about my experiences with breastfeeding. But, of course, there is not enough time nor mental capacity to write it. I can't imagine that this post will be worth reading but I really wanted to jot a few notes down.

On Tuesday, Kylie was off her wallaby bilirubin belt and was a bit lethargic. We had to wake her to feed her and she kept falling asleep at the breast, even with all our attempts to wake her. We have to make sure she's getting enough nourishment to combat the jaundice. So for the majority of her feedings, she got breast milk by bottle. For her one week birthday, she got breast milk all day (for the first six days we supplemented with formula).

On Wednesday, she made up for lost time by staying on the breast for most of the day. Her feedings were an hour long and came in clusters. I still managed to get in some pump time and had three bottles waiting for her last night. Bottles are a godsend at night. If we bottle-feed her breast milk, a feeding takes around 30 minutes. If we breast feed, it takes a good hour and a half to two hours. So bottles rule at night so that 1) Karen can do a night feeding and 2)so that we can all get some more sleep.

When Kylie breast feeds, she tends to latch on, have a few good sucks, then pops off the breast to "talk" about it. Sometimes the "talking" is grunting and sometimes it's an all-out scream. Then she latches on again and we repeat the process. I have no idea why she does this. But here are my guesses:
1) she's still learning and is vocal about learning
2) she voicing her frustration at not having her mouth instantly filled like she does when she bottle feeds
3) she hates the breast shield I'm using (but she can't latch on without it)
4) she just screams because she can!

Did your babies do this? I'm not concerned enough to call the lactation consultant but am interested to hear from my blogger friends about it.

-Wendy

One Week

Kylie's bilirubin test is down to 11.5 so she is off the wallaby. Hurray! Here's Kylie striking a Halleluja pose.


She has to go back to the hospital for one more blood draw tomorrow to assure that she isn't going to rebound. But then we should be doctor-free until her two-week appointment next Monday.

I was able to put some clothes on the sweet girl and bring her out of the nursery. I'm so excited to have her untethered that I'm just walking around the house holding her. Hmmm... do we want to go to the office, or the bedroom, or the tv room?

I don't know if you remember this post but last night as I saw my shadow in profile, I had my heart jump up into my throat. "My baby is here", I thought. She's not in my body anymore!"

And the tears came spilling out. I rushed to the nursery. I just had to hold Kylie and look at her and kiss her and assure myself that she is safe living outside of me. The whole shaky, hormonal, crying episode only lasted two minutes but it was an incredible rush of emotions.

Today I'm filled with such joy, relief and gratitude. I swear there is a special place in heaven for those people who bring food to your house when you are first home with your newborn. Our good friends, Jeff & Heather, have brought us three delicious dinners with outstanding deserts and have made grocery store runs for us. Our friend Catherine brought us some additional groceries. And our friends Jozette and Michele have brought us dinner for tonight.

If you are one of our blogger friends who are waiting for yourr baby to be born, I really recommend that you let people help you and bring you food once your child arrives. It's a real godsend.

Here's a few more pictures for you. And if you click here you can see a few more

Midnight watch

It's midnight and I'm on Kylie watch. :)

Wendy and I have been splitting up the nights into shifts so that we each get a stretch of 3-4 hours to rest while the other takes care of Kylie. We've been feeding her every 1.5-2 hours to help her jaundice and it appears to be working! Woo hoo! On Friday, she weighed in at 6 lbs. 15 oz. at our pediatrician visit and today she weighed in at a whopping 7 lbs. 8 oz! That's quite a change in 3 days and we're very pleased. We have to take her in to get a blood draw tomorrow so they can test her levels again but we're hoping that's the last time. She's looking more pink and heading in the right direction for her weight to get back to her birth weight within just the next few days ... right on target.

It's only been a week since Kylie joined us, but I'm already wondering what in the world we ever did before she came. Our days and nights are filled with taking care of her needs and things like email and blog surfing and TV watching seem like distant memories at the moment. And...I wouldn't have it any other way.

As I sit here in the nursery listening to my daughter's breathing and watching her sleep, I feel such a sense of peace and joy that I can hardly put it into words. I feel a love unlike any I've ever known before for both Kylie and Wendy. It's so strong it is a physical feeling in my chest and in my gut. It's as if there is a tether between the 3 of us that ties us all heart-to-heart and soul-to-soul. I've always felt it with Wendy but what I feel now seems even richer and deeper now that Kylie has been added. I am grateful beyond description for this wonderful, blessed child. I look at Wendy and my heart almost bursts with pride and gratitude for how fantastic of a job she did at caring and nurturing and growing Kylie these past months. And, as I watch her hold Kylie and nurse her and speak to her and be able to care for her as the child in her arms vs. the child in her belly, it almost brings me to tears. It's just so beautiful...truly, gloriously, miraculously beautiful.

While Wendy's body continues to recover from the birth and her hormones seem to ebb and flow throughout the day, I find that my "mommy hormones" must be kicking in too. I seem to be very emotional and sensitized...and I didn't even birth Kylie! I can only imagine how it must be for Wendy. I think there is something truly biological involved here. My body may not have undergone the ordeal of pregnancy, labor and delivery, but my heart did...and there seems to be plenty of hormones (or whatever it is) being pumped through me just the same.

I love my daughter...even more than I ever imagined I would. And, no matter what the nay-sayers of the world may say or think, Kylie is my daughter. Yes, I must adopt her so that it is "legal"...and that's already underway...but she is truly my daughter and wouldn't be more so if I'd been the birth mother. I love saying "my daughter"....love it.

I'm just rambling here, but hey...it's the midnight watch and when your precious child is sleeping and your heart feels so full it might burst, I guess stream of consciousness blogging is a good fit. Ah...I hear Kylie's breathing beginning to change, so it looks like it's about time to feed my girl. Sigh...I love it....

- Karen

Sunbathing

We took advantage of some bright sun today. I snapped this sweet photo of Karen as she watched over Kylie in her sun tent.

Yesterday was the third day that we've treated Kylie for her jaundice. Her treatment has consisted of feeding her every two hours and keeping a wallaby phototherapy strip wrapped around her naked belly. Her bilirubin test was down two points on Saturday so we didn't have to go to the hospital for another blood draw on Sunday. We see our pediatrician for a follow-up appointment today. It would be wonderful if she thought Kylie was healthy enough to stop the Wallaby treatment but I'm not holding my breath.

I would love to start dressing little Kylie instead of keeping her naked all the time and wrapping blankets around her. She loves to be swaddled and that has been a challenge with the wallaby strip. It would also be nice to be able to move around the house more freely instead of being confined to the room where the wallaby machine is plugged in. But of course we will do whatever we need to do to improve her jaundice.

Kylie was so happy lying in the sun. Karen and I had a lovely time passing the camera back and forth taking pictures of our lovely little girl. You can find more pictures
here.



-Wendy

Birth Story

Here it is. Kylie's birth story!

Monday 4/16
5:45am Lost mucous plug.

9:00ish Karen and I decided to go for a walk. We started walking and I felt a small gush. I bent over laughing and telling Karen, “I can’t stop peeing on myself”. I would take a few steps and have another gush and another big laugh. We walked about a mile and a half.

12:30 I’m still having uncontrollable gushes but I'm not sure if it's amniotic fluid or if the baby has shifted and is pressing on my bladder. Karen asks me to call the doctor’s office. The nurse on call tells me to head to the hospital for an exam. Karen packs our hospital bags.

2:15pm Arrive at hospital. A nurse confirms that I am losing amniotic fluid. She says we will be staying at the hospital.

3:20 Dr. Murray, the on-call doctor, conducts a speculum exam. My cervix is still long and not very thin.

4:50 Cervadil is inserted to ripen my cervix. Have to stay flat on the bed hooked to a fetal monitor for an hour.

6:00-10:00pm Taken off monitor. Walked around the maternity ward and bounced around on the birthing ball. Have a few mild contractions.

10:15pm I’m asked to shower to hydrate my veins. An internal exam shows no labor progress.

11:05-1:55am Pictocin drip is started. Start to have contractions on a regular basis. I’m hooked to a wireless monitor so that I can move around the room. Drip is increased twice and contractions become regular and very uncomfortable.

Tuesday, April 17th
2:00-4:15am This was the hardest part. I was having hard, powerful, make-you-cry-out contractions every two minutes. The contractions would last for 90 seconds, giving me only around 30 seconds of rest. Many times it felt like I would have four to six minute contractions before getting a break. Karen does a great coaching job encouraging me and loving on me through every contraction. But the hard and fast nature of these contractions for two hours has worn me down. Even while experiencing the worst pain of my life, I still manage to be funny. Karen tells me I had a string of curse words for several minutes that would have made a sailor blush. And at one point I asked her to take off her dang “Life is Good” tshirt insisting that life is really painful and that it just sucks.

4:15am I’m checked and I’m only 1 ½ cm dilated and 25% effaced. I’m told that the pictocin drip would have to be increased to speed things along. This is a hard blow because I can’t imagine labor getting any harder. I ask for an epidural.

5:05am Epidural is in. It takes the doctor two attempts and thirty minutes to get it in. I experience over ten contractions while in the hunched-over position praying that the epidural is going to work. Pictocin drip is increased.

5:35 I smile at Karen for the first time since 11pm the previous night. I tell her “this is the way to labor” and tell her I have absolutely no regrets in getting the epidural.

6:35 Nurse examines me and tells me that I’m 2cm dilated and 50% effaced. Pictocin is again increased.

7:00ish We meet Gayla, the wonder nurse. She has the most lovely disposition. Very calm and soothing and not at all chatty. Karen and I heave a sigh of relief and gratitude that this wonderful nurse will be delivering me.

8:10 My doctor comes in, examines me and tells me I’m 3cm dilated and 90% effaced. Pictocin is increased several times.

10:30 Start to have lots of bloody show. I’m 4-5cm dilated and 100% effaced.

11:00-1:00 Epidural feels like it’s worn off so at 11:00, I get it increased. Labor is in a very regular pattern. The baby’s heartrate has been fantastic throughout this entire labor process. At some point, it’s determined that the baby is facing up rather than facing down. Nurse Gayla puts me on my right side, almost on my belly, with my legs in a certain position to get the baby to move. Then we repeat this position on the left side. Because of this unique positioning and the fact that the baby is moving, Gayla stays at my side for two hours constantly moving the fetal monitor to assure that the baby is okay. When checked again, the baby is now facing down. My father arrives at the hospital from his flight from TN.

1:00 Once again, it feels as if the epidural has worn off. I’m really feeling those contractions again. But the good news is that I’m told that I’m ready to push.

1:00-3:28 Pushing for Kylie. Around 3:00 I ask for the epidural to be increased one last time. Thank God I did that because her head crowned for over 30 minutes. For a half hour I can see her lovely brown hair in the mirror at the bottom of the bed. Karen places a pillow behind my head and for every push during these two and a half hours, she gets her arm under the pillow to lift and support my head and neck. At the same time, she’s helping me to pull back on my legs. After each push, she wipes my face and neck with a cool washcloth and tells me what a great job I’m doing.
The labor room environment is perfect for me. Only one person is talking at a time (one of my greatest fears was that lots of people would be yelling at me during the pushing) and their voices are low yet very supportive and encouraging. There are lots of excited smiles and sweet, loving comments.

3:28 Kylie is born. Karen cuts the cord. My dad takes lots of pictures. The sight and feel of my daughter, here at last, is beyond description and beyond words.

I’m sure I’ll think of other things to add to this birth story as soon as I post it. As I read over it, it strikes me as a “just-the-facts” kind of story, but right now I can’t begin to touch on all of the emotional and spiritual aspects of the birth.

Thank you to everyone for all of your comments, your well wishes and your prayers. They mean more to me that you know.

-Wendy