A recap of everything I missed updating on:
Labor & Delivery. I had my membranes stripped on November 19th, and scheduled for a 6am induction for the 21st. On the 20th, I rushed around my house trying to get all the cleaning and prep done for me being gone, and for my mom to be in charge of the boys for 2-3 days. I also tried to fit in the rest of the week's lessons for Kristopher with his classes. Around 2:30pm, I started with the little contractions again that I had been experiencing off and on for at least a month. I thought nothing of it, and kept going. Around 3:30, I noticed that it was clearly sticking around to a regular 5-7 min time frame, but not enough that stopped me in my tracks. I called my mom and we planned that she would check in prior to going home from work. I got Daniel from school, and kept going with my working around the house. Around 4:30 I told mom to go home. Still contractions, but they were not getting stronger and I didn't believe that they would stick around. All the other times I had for 2-3 hours and about the time I would think we should go, they would stop completely. My mom lives about 45 mins away, but I still felt it was safe to send her home. By 5:30 I started to regret my decision. My husband was working a bit later to try to do the same as me, preparing for a few days of not being there. I waited till he came home at 6 and he said to call my mom. At this point, the contractions would stop me momentarily. I called my mom and said we were going in, rather than waiting it out till the middle of the night. I finished a few more things, and decided to get a shower while waiting on her to come back over. My shower made the contractions feel worse, and I started to panic. We're still talking about every 5 minutes, but definitely were getting stronger. We were able to leave the house for the hospital around 7, got to hospital by 8, and hooked up to IV's and admitted by 8:30. At that point, the contractions were strong, but i could talk through it just fine. They decided after watching on the monitor for another half hour, that they were adding pitocin and going ahead with the "induction" early. No point in sending us home to come back in at 6am. Pitocin was increased every hour. When I was admitted, I was only dilated at 2cm. By midnight I was 3. By 1am almost 4. I asked for an epidural. Pitocin made things so horrible and my husband was completely out during our "rest time" when nurses were not in the room. I was contracting hard every 2-3 mins thanks to that, and no support. Not that it is his fault...He went into work at 3am the morning before, and never got to rest. Anyway, got the epidural and the baby didn't like the mix of that and the pitocin. We had a game of flipping different directions and positions to keep her happy. Finally they just said they would turn the pitocin off. I continued on my own with contractions, and at one point they went to check and my water broke during that. I was 5cms. From the water breaking though, things went faster. I was able to take some mini naps after the epidural, and I remember waking up around 6am with an odd feeling and not painful contractions, but I could clearly feel it again. I told the nurse, and they got the doctor in. By that point, it was 6:30. The doctor checked and said 100% complete, +2 station and I was feeling everything because the head was right there. Asked if I felt the urge to push. I said I still couldn't feel much of anything at that point, other than contractions. They decided since I didn't feel the urge yet, and the baby was doing well, that they could have me wait because the shift change was happening at 7am. Right around 7am though, I started feeling my body kind of pushing during a contraction. The new staff got the room set up and set me up in the stirrups and all that fun stuff. I pushed through 3 contractions and Keira was born at 7:38am. I didn't feel any of it thanks to the awesome epidural. They took her over to the warming/cleaning area right away, and worked on some stitch repair on me while cleaning her up. I tore on the sides, and the stitching up process seemed to take forever. When they finally got me all done, they brought her over and I held her, and we attempted nursing for the first time. By 9am they were ready to get us to our room. I was still completely numb though on my right side. I couldn't stand or even move my leg on my own. I was also shaking pretty bad (this was throughout the entire labor though). They helped me go pee, but I didn't get to get a shower or any clean up other than with the peri bottle and a wash cloth. We got settled into a room and from there my satisfaction with the hospital went majorly down hill. To keep it from getting pages longer, my biggest complaint was breastfeeding support. We were struggling with latching. Her cheeks were so chubby and her bottom lip sucked in. She was unable to latch properly and no one seemed to have any good advice. I asked for the lactation consultant multiple times, and was told they would put in the request. By 10pm that first night, she was so upset and hungry. Latching was a total fail at that point, and I asked my nurse for help. She had no clue what to do and I think one of our "neighbors" complained over the baby screaming so long. Around midnight I finally said if she's going to have to starve, to please just take her to the nursery and let her have a bottle. I was crying. She was crying. We couldn't do it on our own. The nurse came back with more experienced nurse, and after a long fight, they got her latched on with the help of a shield, and it took both nurses pushing her against me to keep her on to feed. After the feeding, they took her to the nursery so I could rest a little, and every 2 hours they came back in and did the same thing, shove the baby on, fight her as she fought to latch, and eventually she gave in and did it. Only with a shield though. We made it through the night that way. By morning, she was latching to the shield without the nurses forcing it. I think she was just as sick of being pushed around as I was. I asked for lactation again, because I wanted to get the support before going home. They finally got her to come in around lunch. Of course, the baby had just nursed for a while, so we had to wait for her to come back. Finally had the help and the lactation consultant was very great to work with. The regular nurse staff sucked, and by late afternoon, I asked if we could just be released. I was stressed and really not getting any good help. I figured I could do better at home. Pediatrician checked the baby and said she was fine to be released with me, so we got to come home that evening.
Jaundice:
We had to have a weight check at 3 days old. During this time, we were sent for bloodwork, and discovered that the levels were pretty high. We were at the point of should have been admitted, but since the pediatrician is so pro breastfeeding, she gave me some tips to help while waiting on the milk to fully come in. She said my choices were to go in for 24hr of light treatments, and during that time she'd end up on a bottle, or basically nurse as often as the baby will tolerate, and after each 20 min session, give some formula by syringe (to avoid confusion) to help eliminate. Basically the reason she spiked so bad was because the first 12-18 hours, we had no support with the breastfeeding and she was not able to clear out that poop as quickly as she should have. So we were still battling and trying to get it out at 3 days old, when they prefer to see it changing to normal breastfed poops. We tried the formula adding, and she projectile vomited. So at that point, I took the paci away and just let her attached for basically the whole night. She started pooping great and my milk really came in the next morning. Continued with bloodwork though until the numbers finally dropped nicely when she was 8 days old.
At her first doctor visit, she had dropped from 7lb 14oz at birth, to 6lb 14ozs. At her 2 week check up, she had grown an entire inch (up to 21.5) and her weight was up to 8lb 4oz. They were very pleased.
Between 2-3 weeks, I finally got fed up with using the shield. She could latch without it, but didn't want to work as hard and would fight me. The shield didn't hurt, but it was messy and I wanted to have the easy part of breastfeeding without anything to wash after. So one day I took it away and after a few rough tries, she finally realized she was going to have to do it without. We had to go see the lactation consultant again at 3 weeks, because of a shallow latch that was starting to rip me apart. She gave me some great tips on positioning and how to work with her during latch to make it more comfortable. After a day or 2 of treating the cracked nipple issue, breastfeeding has been a breeze. She will be 7 weeks old on Thursday and she's still doing amazing with nursing. And she's gaining weight, and has lots of little baby rolls that are absolutely adorable. I'm so grateful for the lactation support because if it wasn't for them (and a few awesome friends that gave me tips when I was struggling) I would have given up in the first few days. I am sure we have saved hundreds already on the formula expense. And my baby is so much healthier than Kristopher was. My biggest regret to this day is the fact I never gave it a try with him. He was never a complicated baby, but she is so much more comfortable and relaxed after feedings. She very rarely spits up, or burps. No real gas issues either. And definitely no issues on the poop subject.
So, we're approaching 7 weeks now. I would estimate the weight to be around 10-11lbs. She's clearly growing in length as well. Her 3 month sleepers are getting hard to zip and she fills them out completely. 6 month seem to be a bit too big and bulky everywhere except the legs. She has really long legs.
She sleeps awesome. Around 7pm she gets really fussy. I've learned to stretch our time at night by giving her a bath around 7. She loves baths so much, that it's a nightly routine. No matter what else we have going on, she gets that bath. She will hang out that way for about 20-30 mins and then I make her get out because it feels too chilly to me. It's definitely not by her choice. She's like a fish and is so so happy to be in the water. After bath she gets her lotion and then nurses. From there, she sleeps till anywhere from 2:30-4:30am. Wakes, nurses, and back to sleep till 7-9:30. She is awesome at night. And if she wakes closer to 7, she goes back to sleep till between 9:30-10 before being up for the day. She has recently started to take a good nap after lunch, about 2 hours. I guess all the nighttime sleep makes her full of energy during the day, but it's ok by me.
A few pictures then I think I'm finally done with this giant post. It's been a several day work in progress and if I keep waiting, she will be older yet!
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