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pinkdebster
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Name: Deb
Birthday: 11/15/1982
Gender: Female
Interests: I love babies! I love nursing and everything that goes with taking care of babies :)
Message: message me
Member Since:
4/10/2005
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| It's so cold out. I'm not a fan.
Once, I called out of work because I didnt want to go back out in the cold. No joke! It was before we got married, and it must have been a day that I didnt have to teach that night (did you know I was (am?) certified in TESOL?). I know I went to class that morning, and it was so butt freezing cold that when I got back to my house I called work to see if they really needed me. I knew how it worked, Xenia closes schools for everything, and I figured it was cold enough that other people didnt want to go out. So I called to see if the daycare had enough kids to actually need me or if they would survive without me. Yeah. I didnt go to work one day because I was cold. Everyone making fun of me the next day was so worth it.
Anyways, when Jesse left for work this morning it was 49 degrees. It didnt take long for the temp to drop wuite a bit and the sun went away and it rained and snowed and the sun came out and it rained and then it didnt and then it snowed a bunch more. I have no idea what's going out there now. It's been crazy windy all day, our patio stuff is in the yard. Jesse did not pick it up when he got home, and I wasnt about to do it! I was seriously considering going to Bible study tonight- I miss it. But since it was just so insanely windy and getting colder, we decided to stay home.
Tomorrow it's a high of 20. I was not mentally prepared for winter this year. ugh. part of the not going tonight was becuase we have to go out tomorrow and Friday. Tomorrow afternoon is Alex's first dentist appointment! He is so excited about it, it's unnatural. But super cute at the same time. I have to remember to take the camera :) I am sooooo not looking forward to all the bundling up we will have to do. And also it's during nap time. I dont know what I was thinking! I so need my nap every day now! We got Jungle Book from Netflix today. We watched it tonight, but I think they will still watch it again pretty well tomorrow. If they dont take a nap, maybe when we get home, I can just park them on the couch with that, and then curl up in the recliner with Tristan and hopefully get a few minutes.
Speaking of sleep and Tristan. He's only had one real awake time today. it makes me nervous that he wont let me sleep tonight. I'm hoping it's just a growth spurt though. he eats a ton! I'm not complaining, I love me some chubby babies! He's working on a pretty decent double chin these days and his cheeks are definitely a little rounder. His belly is bigger, too. but his arms and legs still look pretty skinny to me. Oh! And we only have one newborn diaper left, and then we're moving on up to size one! and actually that last diaper is upstairs so he'll go to bed in a bigger one.
I havent uploaded any more pictures, though I have taken some. I'll make sure I do it sometime after the dentist tomorrow. Last night I took one of him in the little bath tub- it was his first time! He HATES bathtime. Sponge bath. Real bath. Absolute torture to this kid. But since his cord finally fell off Monday night (day 18! craziness), I was glad to be able to give him a real bath. Hopefully he'll learn to love it as quickly as the others did.
Okay- I need to wake him up to wash his face and put him in clean jammies. And then I think we'll head upstairs in case he decides to go back to sleep again.
Oh- since people always ask how babies sleep at night. He usually sleeps for exactly 3 hours in his bed and then spends the rest of the night with us. Mostly because he needs to be propped up for a while since he eats so much then. Or I let him sleep on his belly straight on my chest. He doesnt puke like that and sleeps pretty soundly against my heart.
Well- good night for now. I'll try to get pictures up soon, even if I dont get to update again for a little bit.
oh- and my battery is way to close to dying so I dont have time to spell check. And I dont really care. goodnight!
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|  We got to the hospital around 9am and got checked in. By the time we got up to the room and got "dressed" and went through the million and a half questions, it was about 10 by the time things got started. I have Group B strep, so I had to have antibiotics going for 2 hours before they could start Pitocin.
Oh- and I was at 3cm. which is what I was at the doctor's on Wednesday.
So at noon the real induction started. It did not take long to kick in! My contractions were definitely stronger and more consistent. They couldn't do a lot until after I could get my second dose of antibiotics, so I just breathed and watched tv and walked back and forth to the bathroom a few times. Stood against the bed a rocked a bit, etc. Not terribly exciting but it was good.
After a while, my doctor came in and asked if I wanted her to break my water now, or did I want an epidural first. With zero input from my husband, I decided to go with the water popping and then if I needed it and still had time I'd get the epidural later. When she checked me, I was only at 4. But within seconds of breaking my water, I was at 5. sweet.
There was a ton of fluid, too! They kept saying how there was so much and I felt like it just kept coming forever, too. so weird, btw.
Things definitely got a lot harder after that. The next time the nurse checked me, I wasn't as far as she liked so I got up and stood and rocked against the bed "for about 15 minutes or as long as I could handle it" I don't know how long it really was. But Jesse was hungry, so he went with his dad to go get some food. I told him if he was going to do it, do it now but be ready to run back if we called them. His mom stayed with me while they were gone. I got to the point where I just couldn't handle being up anymore- I needed to lay down. So she called them, they were almost back anyways. His parents went back out to wait and I got checked, I was at 7 and crying. So I decided that I was going to need some help. The anesthesiologist was pretty close, so he came in about a minute- maybe less. Thank the Lord. (I think it was about 6:00pm) I felt like it took forever, it was probably only a few minutes. it mostly only worked on my left side. So weird. but with literally half the pain, after it kicked in some more, I wasn't crying through all of the contractions, but the right side was still hurting pretty badly. Since I was on my side to help it go to the right, I didn't have to move for them to adjust it.
Once the right side was feeling better, the nurse checked me again before I rolled to my back again. And she says "I don't want to move her, if she moves too much, the baby is just going to slide right out." Yay!!!
Tristan's heart rate got really low, scary low, so she gave me an oxygen mask and rubbed his head (yeah- from the inside- ew) and it seemed to help bring it back up enough.
And I guess, even with trying to focus on breathing, etc, I was tensing up too much with each contraction, so having the epidural helped me relax enough to speed things up quite a bit.
So she called in some help, the doctor actually got there before the backup nurses. And once they were ready, they helped me onto my back and start pushing as soon as I was ready. I think it was about 6:45 by this point.
The epidural was still blocking most of the pain, but I could definitely feel the pressure. I don't think I even felt that with Alex, so I didn't feel like pushing was doing anything with him. Anyways, one of the 'backup' nurses was one of those annoying rude cheerleaders. ("keep pushing keep pushing. you cant stop 'cause the baby needs to come out blah blah blah)... I was tempted to tell her to can it, but decided it wasn't worth the extra energy. With every push, I kind of felt like I was going to pass out, so I could hold each one as long as you're "supposed to" so he kept trying to go back in a little bit. the annoying cheerleader nurse was the only one that seemed too concerned about it, my doctor is more of a positive reinforcement kind of person.
I wanted to feel his head before he was all the way out, so they let me try a few times. I was not feeling was I was expecting to, they said it was his head, but I just don't know. It was too weird.
He was out by 7:07! Not too bad! I was already crying anyways, but without having to push anymore, the tears just poured out. The cord was wrapped around his neck twice... which is most likely why his heart dropped so low and he kept going back in a little bit. But he was still 9/9 on the Apgar.
They put him straight on my belly (as soon as he was unwrapped) and I got to feel the cord for a second. I don't remember it at all with Alex... maybe Jesse does. He was definitely a cheese baby. I think there is a picture of that already up.
After a little while they put him under the lights to warm him up a little bit, and he was totally calm. He was awake and alert, but didn't cry, just hung out I guess. He didn't even cry when they washed his hair! He did when they brought him back under the lights and were rubbing it to dry it, but most of his bath he was quiet for. Not anymore- he HATES bath time now! poor kid
They let me try to nurse him pretty quickly, though he didn't really want to. It took him a while to figure out how to eat, just barely enough to not have to get pricked to check his blood sugar and need extra help.
He slept really well the first night, too well actually, I probably would have gotten more sleep had he eaten better. But he figured it out during the day, and has been chowing down ever since. 
He had some jaundice issues, just barely not enough to need to be under the lights. He had to get tested at 24 hours (which I think they do with every baby) and then since his levels were higher than they liked, he had to get some more blood done the next morning. Poor guy. But he was with me when they did the first one, and he did great- the morning one was done in the nursery.
The only time he really cried was when he was wet after he got 'his pencil sharpened' (they ALL call it that- so funny!) But that was feeling better by about Monday or so last week, too, so we're all good there too.
Okay- so he was 7lb2oz when he was born. He was 6lb 13oz when we brought him home. Which is not as much as most babies lose, they said. By the time he was 6 days old he was back up to 7lb 1oz! Yay! And then today- at 13 days, he's 7lbs 10.5oz. They are supposed to gain about an ounce a day for a while.. we did 9.5 in a week! This kid is going to be all nice and chubby in no time! I love me some fat babies 
I had to pump for a few days, not for him, but because I was making so much, but he's pretty much caught up to me now. And we already have a pretty decent stash in the freezer. We are still going with the never-having-bottles plan. So far so good!
He's not a huge fan of sleeping in his own bed, though. Last night, he slept for 3 straight hours in it! And then he slept the rest of the night with us. His favorite place is right on my chest, of course. Which is not terrible, except I can't really move. So the plan there is to try to start him out in his own bed every night, and then work on going back there after he eats eventually. Oh! he's only been getting up to eat once at night! But he doesn't really like to go to bed until at least 1 (we had a few 2 and 3am bedtimes, too), so I don't know how impressive that really is. Thankfully the other midgets have been letting me take a nap in the afternoons, too.
He's gotten to meet both sets of grandparents, Aunt Dani, Aunt Jen, Uncle Phil and Aunt Mel. And a bunch of friends as a few have stopped by, and people have brought us meals.
Since the kids were not allowed in the hospital at all, they didn't get to meet him until they got back from MI, when he was 8 days old. They so love him! And having the Gman for a while was definitely good prep for them. They are still a little clingy from being away, but don't really seem to be jealous at all. Amazing! Danica loves to hold him! And she is loving being a big sister now, too. Alex is a good helper and I can trust him to keep an eye on him while I go to the bathroom or whatever and not let Danica try to love him too much.
So that's the story with Mr Tristan for now. I think anyways. I'm tired, so there could be something important missing, I wouldn't even know. haha. And it took me over a week to do this.
I will say that recovery has been much better than I expected this time. And I am much happier being able to bed and curl up in a ball to sleep sometimes and my bones are slowly going back to where they belong, so everyday it hurts less to walk, etc.
Thank you so much for all your prayers! We are so happy to be a family of 5 now!
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| I am supposed to be sleeping... oops. But since I know some of you will care, and are not facebook friends with me, I wanted to let you know.... We should be arriving at the hospital at about 8:45 in the morning so I can get started around 9am. Yay! Unless we have a miracle in the next 8 hours. Which would also be awesome. So I'll go to bed for the last time as a mama of 2... by this time tomorrow, I should be snuggling our new little man! Feel free to pray for us! Thanks!! | | |
| So I have contractions pretty much always. A good majority of them are hard enough that I actually have to make sure I keep breathing and, even though I don't feel like I need to push, if I did, he'd come out.
This has been going on for a few weeks. Usually they become more frequent in the evenings, especially when I finally sit down to relax. My body doesn't know what to do, I guess, so it just tries to get him out.
Anyways, yesterday they started at 5:30ish. Or at least that's when I started paying attention. About every 3-5 minutes when I was doing things, and about every 7 when I was sitting (which is backwards to how it usually is). The longest break I had between them was less than 10 minutes.
So at 9 Jesse decided that we could give it another hour and then if they stop or slow enough, we'd head in. So we called for Becca and his parents to be on standby.
We called Becca at 10, and told her we were getting things together to leave in half an hour. So she came over around 10:30 and we left. contractions still going strong.
I got checked in and as they were taking us upstairs, the lady says "there aren't any empty beds, you'll have to stay in the waiting area for a while." Oh. goody.
In the hour and a half we were there, we sat across from a girl who did not seem to be having any discomfort at all. Once I got up to pee, and once to refill my water. Both of those times I talked to girls in wheelchairs whose waters had broken. Thankfully, they got to go back before I did.
Tristan's heart sounded great. Always good! I had some pretty hard contractions while on the monitor too. The nurse checked me..... one. ONE! AHHHHH are you kidding me? AHHHHH
So she checked with the doc (on call- not really mine, but the same one that delivered Bug) and he said to have me walk for an hour and see how I progress.
So that's what we did. From 2 til 3am we walked. Slowly and painfully we walked. Laps around a quiet square that had 2 funny and very encouraging nurses at a nurses' station. Poor Jesse. he stayed positive... got a little weird sometimes... but he at least didn't get annoyed.
(We did see the not-in-pain girl go home.)
So we went back to triage and it was empty! In an hour it went from overflowed, to empty. We tracked down a nurse and she checked me again. Almost 2. Not really 2. She wanted it to be 2, but couldn't force anything and if she tried, it would have hurt me pretty badly. So I guess more like 1 1/2.
Ugh.
She talked to the doctor, told him that we are planning on getting induced on Thursday*, etc. But since he's not my normal OB, and they didn't know they plan for induction, my water wasn't popped, and I wasn't really progressing, AND there weren't enough beds (stupid construction), they sent me home.
So at 3:30ish, we gathered up our few things and left. Still contracting about every 3 minutes or so.
I'm glad I took a little nap yesterday, but even when I do that, I usually am in bed around midnight. And not functioning for hours after that.
Anyways.
I go back to the doctor tomorrow morning.
*She's told me a few times that I can get induced at 39 weeks if I want. Which is today. But her guaranteed full day at the hospital is Thursdays, so that's when we would schedule it.
I do badly wanted to know what it's like to go into labor naturally. But I cant keep doing this for much longer! My body is exhausted. Hard contractions, less than 10 minutes apart for hours at a time almost every day for weeks.. it's exhausting. I know all you mamas are thinking that it's just part of being 9 months pregnant. But I've been having contractions since 16 weeks and they have just been getting progressively stronger for the last 23 weeks. Tristan does not love being squeezed so hard all the time. He cant sleep. And they bother him, so whenever he can, he stretches and pushes and isn't nice about it either. So when I go on these long stretches are crazy contractions, he's fighting back the entire time. I don't get a break for even a second. My whole torso is sore.
Unless my water actually breaks in the next 36 hours, I'm not keeping track of these crazy things anymore. I don't want to get all excited again and then go for no reason again.
So. if all goes well, and my doc is still on board, Tristan's birthday will be November 19th.
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