7 Weeks at a Glimpse

Oh my it’s been a while. What can I say? I’ve been distracted with my little one. ^_^ A lot has happened since she was born just over 7 weeks ago. Here’s the past 7 weeks at a glimpse:

• Six days after Kayley was born we moved from one side of the lake to the other. We were blessed to have family and friends do a lot of the work for us.

• Kayley has been able to meet her three grandparents. My mom stayed with us for two weeks and put a lot of our apartment together. A couple weeks ago Andrew’s parents were able to visit us for a week and helped get our home more in order too.

2 weeks old with her Maimie

5 weeks old with her Grandparents

• Kayley’s first day at church was when she was two weeks old. She loves the music!

• Kayley loves to O, and also loves to make a sound that sounds like “owl.” At three weeks old she started Oing back and forth with us. At 6.5 weeks she just started to discover how to mimic intonation.

• Kayley loves bath time! She only cries when you take her out of the water.

• Kayley hates being restrained (i.e. put in her car seat, stroller, swing, and bouncer), but she loves them all once they start moving.  

• Kayley frequently practices holding up her head by herself and is quite good at it now.

• Kayley loves to be in a sitting position so she can look at the world around her. She will let you know if you are not holding her upright enough so she can look around.

• Kayley loves to look at her bear mobile. She frequently babbles at it and smiles when it is in motion, and gets frustrated when it stops moving if she isn’t done observing it.

• We have a great bedtime routine that she falls asleep to. Her last night feeding (she is breastfed) starts at 9pm. While she eats Andrew reads to her from one of her bible story books, then he reads our devotional book, followed by reading a chapter from the Bible. When she’s done we lay her in bed, turn on her bears and go brush our teeth. We’re ready for bed when the bears stop their music, and I then sing her a lullaby I made up from a song my mom sang me. She tends to fall asleep quite well.

• Kayley typically sleeps for 5 hours straight at night, and then for another 3 usually.

• We had our first family trip to the zoo when she was four weeks old.

• We took a day trip to Snoqualmie Falls as a family to go to Andrew’s alumni gathering for The Masters College when Kayley was 6 weeks old.

I swear the falls are behind us. It was just really misty

• I had my 6 week check-up. It went well, but Doc S thinks I’ll need at least a month more to heal up from having to have stitches and all.

• Kayley has been given a head bath more than a couple times by my sister’s dog Charlie. He adores her.

• Kayley loves to work out her legs by kicking and putting weight on them as you hold her under her arms in a standing position.

• Hoshi the cat has realized Kayley is staying as part of the family and likes to lie near her when we allow her to. Hoshi also comes and gets us if she thinks we’ve let Kayley cry too much.

Both Kayley and Hoshi taking a nap on Andrew

• We take family evening walks when it's not raining. Once we walked to Safeway and back (3 miles)

• Just a few days ago I was without my babe for the first time for 20 minutes while Andrew took her on a walk. I didn't know what to do with myself.

• Kayley is a very tactile baby and will let you know when she has been alone long enough.

• Kayley is starting to recognize my voice and Andrews. She’ll calm down and look around for us if we’ve been out of the room and she was upset.

• Kayley smiles back at you! ^_^

And so many more things! I love my little family!

One Month Plus a Day

Kayley turned a month old yesterday! She went from this…

7lbs 11oz and 19.5 inches

 To this...

10lbs and just over 21 inches

Happy one month Kayley! We’re happy to have you in our lives! It’s been a joy to watch you grow and develop so far, and we can’t wait to watch you learn more and grow more as the days go on. We love you our sweet little girl.

Birth Story: Tadpole Enters the World

Contractions are a feeling women can compare to cramps during their menstrual cycle, but of course they get more intense than your average cramp. However, as women know, you can have this feeling in your front and in your back, and the same goes for contractions. Not all women experience this back pain during their period or during labor, and it tends to be more painful and uncomfortable if you do experiences it. I tend to have back cramps when I’m on my period, so this meant there was more of a chance of me having back labor. Let me tell you, it’s not fun.

And on top of that, Kayley was pushing against my sciatic nerve. Your sciatic nerve runs from your lower back (under your uterus) to your legs. It’s the largest nerve in the human body and controls the sensory and motor functions in your lower back, butt, and legs. So basically when Kayley was leaning against my sciatic nerve on the left my lower back, left butt cheek, and left leg all the way down to my left foot would have intense severe pain on and off. We tried to relieve the pain by having me lay on my right side, but sadly that didn’t work too much, and then the anesthesia from my Epidural mostly went to my right side instead of being even between my left and right. I was not a happy camper with this new pain.

At this time (3:40pm), Andrew was trying to take a nap in the waiting room so he could have energy for the big event yet to come. My sister was trying to help and massage the parts of my body that were having the pain from my sciatic nerve. I think my mom was going back and forth between helping and taking a walk in the hall. I don’t really remember…

At about 4:00pm I noticed a new sensation, so we called the nurse in to have me checked. My nephew, Derek, called at 4:02 to see how it was going and if his cousin had arrived yet. We say he was the lucky charm, and that Kayley was just waiting for her cousin to call before she decided to start really entering the world. The nurse was checking me at this time and informed us I had dilated to 10cm! It was time to start pushing! My mom went to get Andrew who was just finally almost asleep (poor guy didn’t get shut eye =(), and Andrew became my main coach again. ^_^

Just after 4:10pm I started pushing, and Doc. S arrived in his scrubs at 4:18. It was interesting to have the Epidural and push. Since I had the Epidural I wasn’t able to feel the contractions much, but I could feel the sensation of my uterus tightening, and Kayley’s head dropping. Whenever I though a contraction was starting I announced that I thought it was and then the nurse would check the read out from the monitors to check and see if I was right. I was ever time! Then I would wait for the nurse to tell me the contraction was at its peak and then push three times for each contraction.

Since the Epidural was helping me to relax at one point in between contractions I said “Gosh I feel like I could fall asleep like this right now.” It was nice to have a little bit of rest time in between contractions even though that time didn’t last long at all. One time when I was pushing there was a gush of amniotic fluid that came out and got all over Doc S. It was pretty funny and we all started laughing. I told Doc S that I just thought he needed another shower, which made everyone else laugh some more. But this made it so Doc S had to go change his scrubs really fast, so the nurse took over more. And remember, during all this time I was still dealing with my sciatic nerve and back labor. Andrew massages my back whenever I demanded “Back! Back! Back!” and my sister massaged my left leg while my mom waited with the camera for her granddaughter to arrive.

Kayely’s head started crowning at about 4:50 and people were telling me they could see peach fuzz. I just had to push a few more times with some effective pushes, and wa-la! Kayley Gianna arrived into the world at 5:03pm! She entered the world with one hand next to her face, causing her to give me a nice punch on the way out that bruised me really bad and tore me so I needed stitches. It ended up being a medium tear that they did a “running” stitch on. I ended up losing about 800ml of blood and became really light headed and my blood pressure became low (which I already have low-ish blood pressure). It took a while for them to stop the bleeding, which the nurse and Doc S said they tend to see more in redheads than other women, and they have no idea why. Redheads just like to bleed I guess. 

Kayley also had her umbilical cord wrapped around her neck loosely. Thank God she had a long umbilical cord so it wasn’t tight around her neck! Doc S caught her, waited for her umbilical cord to stop pulsing with blood, and then Andrew had the awesome pleasure of cutting her umbilical cord!

Kayely got 7 out of 10 for her first APGAR test. The APGAR test looks at the baby’s heart rate, respiration, muscle tone, reflex response, and color. Since she had her umbilical cord around her neck she was a little blue. Plus she didn’t show off her lung capacity all the way at first. They had to give her a bit of oxygen, which helped her color change pretty quickly and then she showed off that God gave her some good lungs. Her score was a 9 when they checked her again. 

I had my sweet baby girl handed to me right away after her cord was cut. I can’t even explain what it was like to see and hold her for the first time. I didn’t want to let her go. I just wanted to continue to gaze at her and study ever inch of her that God created. I thought, and still think, she’s the most precious little thing in the whole world. To me, to hold Kayley, was so real and yet surreal all at the same time. Andrew and I are so happy to have our little girl, and it was so wonderful to finally meet her in person even though it was a long process and a lot of work for me. Kayley is totally worth everything we went through! We are so thankful for this little bundle of joy that God knit together in my womb and blessed us with.

So proud to be parents!

Andrew holding Kayley for the first time

My sister Heidi, my mom, Andrew, Kayley and me.

Little Kayley Gianna

Birth Story; Almost There!

After the Pitocin got into my system and my contractions became more intense and harder to handle, I decided it was time to go in the jacuzzi tub to help my body relax. I was very happy to be in the nice warm water, plus it was something I wanted to make sure I took advantage of while I was at the hospital. It really helped my body relax, which helped me deal with the contractions, but also helped the contractions to be more intense, but also helpful. Unfortunately my jacuzzi time wasn’t as long as I hoped it would be. 

My contractions were getting close to unbearable (unfortunately when you have Pitocin, this can be a side effect. The intensity of contractions changes so dramatically that your body has a hard time adjusting to it). It was getting pretty hard for me to stay focused and breathe through each contractions, and I was getting pretty loud. It was getting to the point that I was seriously thinking about getting an Epidural even though I really didn’t want to have too much medical interference to my labor and delivery. At this point I was also told that the anesthesiologist on call would only be available for the next 40 minutes or so because he had a planned appointment to go to that would make it so he wouldn’t be available for about 2 hours.

This made it so I had a tough decision to make. I really didn’t want to have an Epidural unless completely necessary and I was near that point, but not totally to it yet. Yet I only had a small window of time to make the decision of if I wanted it or not. Basically if I said no at this point, it would probably mean I’d have no chance of decided to have it later because delivery was nearing and an Epidural takes a while to get into your system and have an effect. So I decided to go ahead and have an Epidural.

The anesthesiologist (Doc B) came in at about 11:40am. My sister stayed with me for the procedure while my mom and Andrew left the room (they both don’t like needles). Doc B had me lean forward so he could put the Epidural into the lower part of my back (click here to read a nice description of what an Epidural is and how it is done), and asked me to stay as still as I could. The nurse described what it might feel like for me by saying I would feel like I was drunk or really tipsy. My response to this is that I had never been drunk or tipsy before so I have no idea what that feels like. The nurse then said she couldn’t think of any other analogy, which made us all laugh a little. When Doc B was done he told me that I was one of the stillest patients he’d ever had and that meant that he was able to do a really good tap for the Epidural. My thought was “you’re sticking a needle basically into my spine, why would I want or allow myself to move even a millimeter?”

It was really weird to have the Epidural. I know at some point I said to my sister “why would anyone choose to feel this way all the time?” (referring to people who have drink issues). Now I sort of know how you feel when you’re drunk and I personally would never choose to drink to feel that way. I just don’t get it. It just makes me more convinced to stay on my path of not drinking at all.

Anyway! The Epidural also had the desired effect of allowing me to relax through my contractions so my contractions could do what they were supposed to be doing; helping my cervix dilate. I was also starting to feel nauseated too, so I had some Zofran, an anti-nausea medicine, to ease my feeling of throwing up. I knew part of the reason why I felt that way was because of how hungry I was. I hadn’t eaten since dinner the day before, not counting a small snack box of Cheerios. I was starving, but they don’t let you eat when you’re near delivery, or when you have an Epidural. I also wasn’t allowed to drink water. I could only have ice chips. When you have an Epidural you have to stay in bed since it’s a type of anesthetic and makes it so you can’t feel the bottom half of your body all the way. Because Doc B was able to do a really good tap on me, I was able to move my legs more than a lot of women who get Epidurals, but I was nowhere near being able to walk, let alone stand. So I was stuck in bed, hungry and nauseated.

BUT! I was also dilating more! At 1:00pm I was measured at being dilated to a “stretchy” 4 (remember dilating goes from 0 to 10. I was previously a 2 since my last doctor appointment). They increased my Pitocin intake to help me dilate more. At about 1:50pm more of my water came out in a gush. At this point, with the Epidural in place so I could relax more, I tried to take a little nap while having Emperor’s New Groove playing in the background. I was going in and out of sleep, but the sleep I was getting was more of that “I know I’m dreaming and not really asleep all the way” type of sleep.

At 3:00pm they increased the Pitocin again, but only for a little while before they turned it back down to what it was. At about 3:30pm the effects of the Epidural were wearing off a bit (it’s not a continuous flow of anesthesia, but doses of it when you tap a button. I was still on the first dose of it from when it was given to me), so I double clicked the Epidural button to get it into my system again since contractions were still being really intense. Around this point in time my cervix was checked again and I was at an 8!!

And that’s it for now. The last part of the birth story will come later.