Miranda is 10 days old now, so we just had our first check-up - as we were released from the hospital 1 week ago. Of course the big question is always weight gain in these first few days. I'm happy to report that our little girl is doing great!! She was born 6 lbs 10 oz, was down to 6 lbs 1 oz when we left the hospital last Thursday. Today she was already 7 lbs 2 ozs!! Can you believe that? She gained an entire pound in just this past week. I guess the breast feeding is working just fine. So that's our happy news for the day. Everything else looked great at the check-up too.
I'm going to start a new slideshow to track Andy's growth. My cousin used a special teddy bear to compare her son's growth every month. I loved these pictures, so I'm stealing her idea. We bought a very tall giraffe, named Jeffery, to take periodic pictures with. We'll start with every week (seeing as she can apparently grow a pound in one) and do every month after that. So - that's the stroy behind the Jeffery growth picture above.
Thursday, October 9, 2008
Friday, October 3, 2008
First few family days
We brought Miranda home on Thursday morning! Since then we've been resting, eating, cuddling, crying, changing diapers, and watching tv. We've had our first bath (just sponge bath at this stage), our first walk outside, and our first overnight in the house. All things have gone really well. She's really a calm and happy baby so far! She mostly cries when she's messy or hungry, but is pretty easily comforted. I even clipped her nails today and pinched a bit of skin which bled a little. She yipped when it happened, gave me a very disappointed look, then got over it. Calm baby, right?!
I'm recovering pretty well. I actually feel really great, not sore or tired or anything for a while. But then I get up and move around too much, or too fast, or get up and sit down at a funny angle and I soon remember my incision pain and lack of ab muscles. Mom and Brandon have been awesome to take care of everything around the house from cooking to dishes to laundry to changing and comforting Andy and waiting on me hand and foot. So, I'm really grateful for both of them. Most of the day I'm enjoying my baby and feeling pretty good.
Our first night was a fun adventure. I think we were both geared up for a lot of work and frustration and no sleep - so it went way better than it could have. We were up for three different feeding sessions. Brandon helped get her up and changed and positioned for feeding. I would feed (obviously), which has been going a lot better than it was at the hospital, then we'd take turns on who rocked and sang and comforted her back to sleep. Once was a really quick one, the other two were 40-70 minutes each. She likes to be up after eating. She's peaceful, just looking around and hanging out, but awake for sure. Overall we got some sleep, and successfully fed and loved our little one. So, good night. She's actually been awake more today than yesterday - so I'm wondering if she'll sleep well tonight.
We go back to the hospital tomorrow morning to check her jaundice levels.
We had a couple visitors today, which is nice. If you want to come by and meet Andy, don't hesitate to call or stop by. There are a few sets of pictures on picasa. Click on the link on the right. We;ll add new albums as we take more pictures. Her face is already changing a bit from when she was born. How strange.
I'm recovering pretty well. I actually feel really great, not sore or tired or anything for a while. But then I get up and move around too much, or too fast, or get up and sit down at a funny angle and I soon remember my incision pain and lack of ab muscles. Mom and Brandon have been awesome to take care of everything around the house from cooking to dishes to laundry to changing and comforting Andy and waiting on me hand and foot. So, I'm really grateful for both of them. Most of the day I'm enjoying my baby and feeling pretty good.
Our first night was a fun adventure. I think we were both geared up for a lot of work and frustration and no sleep - so it went way better than it could have. We were up for three different feeding sessions. Brandon helped get her up and changed and positioned for feeding. I would feed (obviously), which has been going a lot better than it was at the hospital, then we'd take turns on who rocked and sang and comforted her back to sleep. Once was a really quick one, the other two were 40-70 minutes each. She likes to be up after eating. She's peaceful, just looking around and hanging out, but awake for sure. Overall we got some sleep, and successfully fed and loved our little one. So, good night. She's actually been awake more today than yesterday - so I'm wondering if she'll sleep well tonight.
We go back to the hospital tomorrow morning to check her jaundice levels.
We had a couple visitors today, which is nice. If you want to come by and meet Andy, don't hesitate to call or stop by. There are a few sets of pictures on picasa. Click on the link on the right. We;ll add new albums as we take more pictures. Her face is already changing a bit from when she was born. How strange.
Wednesday, October 1, 2008
And then she came...
My little angel is sleeping soundly in grandma's arms, so I thought I'd take a moment to write out our birth story.
We came into the hospital about 9:00 p.m. on Sunday. We were scheduled to induce labor, hoping to have her on Mon afternoon or evening. I was actually already having pretty regular contractions when they got me hooked up to the monitors, so we just watched and timed them for a while. Around 1 am I took a half pill to speed things up a bit, since the contractions weren't really productive yet. That brought me up to about 5 minutes apart, and a pretty good level of contracting. I wasn't really in pain yet, just a big uncomfortable. B and I both slept on and off throughout the night. The nurse debated on whether or not to give me the second dose of the inducing stuff, to keep things progressing. I was doing fine, but wasn't getting any stronger or closer together - or more dialated in the process. So, about 7 am she gave me the rest of the pill.
That's when things started going poorly. I was totally overstimulated and had some contractions that didn't stop - not giving the baby a moment to rest. This stressed her out and her pulse rate dropped dangerously and often. Within moments there were 5 nurses buzzing around me and doing who knows what. It was scary. Brandon had been sleeping, but was up on his feet quickly. They gave me something by IV that stopped the contractions, but it was an muscle relaxant and it caused me to shake and spaz all throughout my body. That felt awful! Baby was still stressed, so a Dr came and broke my water and put in an internal monitor. It wasn't long before they were trying to decide if we should continue laboring like this or not. I was definitely feeling the contractions now, and they hurt. I got the epideral, which wasn't bad and helped relax me a lot. But, through monitoring and whatnot the baby was still dropping out on heart rate, and had pooped internally, and just was unhappy. So, to the c-section I was whisked.
Everything happened really quickly from then. They put Brandon in scrubs, disconnected all my machines, rolled me through the hall and into the elevator, and in minutes had me in the operating room. I stayed awake throughout the process, and Brandon held my hand and watched the whole thing over the curtain. (Gross, B) Not much to say about the c-section - it was quick and awkward, a little scary, but the nurses and drs were really reassuring. Within about 20 minutes of being in the room they lifted a wiggly little body over the curtain for 2 seconds. This was apparently my baby! I was pretty out of it, but Brandon watched the Dr clean her up from across the room. Dr, baby, and Brandon left for the nursery and I was left lying there to be stitched back up. This was really the only bad part of the process, because I was alone up there for about an hour, and then another 1/2 hour in post op recovery. They wouldn't let Brandon or my parents come see me, nor had I even met the baby yet. So, we all waiting, not so patiently through this time. Brandon was in the nursery with his yet unnammed daughter, and my parents were peering through the window, anxiously waiting a chance to meet her and see how I was doing.
Eventually, I came down, they brought her out of the nursery, we all got to hug and cry and smile together in our long-term recovery room. We named her Miranda Ann, as you already know, but we've been calling her Andy. I'm doing really well with recovery, I feel great actually - considering the circumstances. Miranda is very heathly and passing every test they give her. She's content and happy as a baby so far. Sleeping a lot, of course. Not a stellar nurser yet, but we'll keep working on it.
Brandon says this is way too long now, and I have to get back to my sweetie. Thanks for reading, thanks for caring!
We came into the hospital about 9:00 p.m. on Sunday. We were scheduled to induce labor, hoping to have her on Mon afternoon or evening. I was actually already having pretty regular contractions when they got me hooked up to the monitors, so we just watched and timed them for a while. Around 1 am I took a half pill to speed things up a bit, since the contractions weren't really productive yet. That brought me up to about 5 minutes apart, and a pretty good level of contracting. I wasn't really in pain yet, just a big uncomfortable. B and I both slept on and off throughout the night. The nurse debated on whether or not to give me the second dose of the inducing stuff, to keep things progressing. I was doing fine, but wasn't getting any stronger or closer together - or more dialated in the process. So, about 7 am she gave me the rest of the pill.
That's when things started going poorly. I was totally overstimulated and had some contractions that didn't stop - not giving the baby a moment to rest. This stressed her out and her pulse rate dropped dangerously and often. Within moments there were 5 nurses buzzing around me and doing who knows what. It was scary. Brandon had been sleeping, but was up on his feet quickly. They gave me something by IV that stopped the contractions, but it was an muscle relaxant and it caused me to shake and spaz all throughout my body. That felt awful! Baby was still stressed, so a Dr came and broke my water and put in an internal monitor. It wasn't long before they were trying to decide if we should continue laboring like this or not. I was definitely feeling the contractions now, and they hurt. I got the epideral, which wasn't bad and helped relax me a lot. But, through monitoring and whatnot the baby was still dropping out on heart rate, and had pooped internally, and just was unhappy. So, to the c-section I was whisked.
Everything happened really quickly from then. They put Brandon in scrubs, disconnected all my machines, rolled me through the hall and into the elevator, and in minutes had me in the operating room. I stayed awake throughout the process, and Brandon held my hand and watched the whole thing over the curtain. (Gross, B) Not much to say about the c-section - it was quick and awkward, a little scary, but the nurses and drs were really reassuring. Within about 20 minutes of being in the room they lifted a wiggly little body over the curtain for 2 seconds. This was apparently my baby! I was pretty out of it, but Brandon watched the Dr clean her up from across the room. Dr, baby, and Brandon left for the nursery and I was left lying there to be stitched back up. This was really the only bad part of the process, because I was alone up there for about an hour, and then another 1/2 hour in post op recovery. They wouldn't let Brandon or my parents come see me, nor had I even met the baby yet. So, we all waiting, not so patiently through this time. Brandon was in the nursery with his yet unnammed daughter, and my parents were peering through the window, anxiously waiting a chance to meet her and see how I was doing.
Eventually, I came down, they brought her out of the nursery, we all got to hug and cry and smile together in our long-term recovery room. We named her Miranda Ann, as you already know, but we've been calling her Andy. I'm doing really well with recovery, I feel great actually - considering the circumstances. Miranda is very heathly and passing every test they give her. She's content and happy as a baby so far. Sleeping a lot, of course. Not a stellar nurser yet, but we'll keep working on it.
Brandon says this is way too long now, and I have to get back to my sweetie. Thanks for reading, thanks for caring!
Tuesday, September 30, 2008
Miranda Ann is Here!
Miranda Ann was born on Monday, September 29, 2008 at 9:18 a.m. You can view pictures of HERE.
Friday, September 26, 2008
God takes care of even the impatient
We just got back from our Dr's visit. We've been going quite frequently in these last weeks of pregnancy. This was by far my favorite visit though! Having just written about impatience this morning, I'm happy to tell you, we have a plan. Everything is happier with a plan! Our Dr. said the baby is looking good, I'm feeling good, my plecenta is apparently ready to be done with it's job and fully 'mature', which puts things in a bit of a time frame crunch, and he's leaving town in a few days. So, add it all up and it spells: inducing on Monday! There's always the chance that I'll go into labor on my own between now and late Sunday night, but if not, we'll take a pill to start the process. This makes me very happy, because the waiting and guessing is just stressful. Plus, I think it'll be really sweet if we do go until then and this girl comes on the 29th! My b-day is a 29, so is 2 of my cousins, and my mom and aunt are 9ths. We are fans of having girls on these dates, apparently! I can't believe I was just complaining about having to wait, now I'm a little freaked out that my baby girl will be here within 3 days - God always throws me funny curve balls like that!
I'm not patient
My husband knows how un-patient I can be when waiting for something big and good. Just ask him sometime about the weeks and months before our engagement. I was awfully unpatient waiting for that beautiful ring to appear from his pocket. These days, I'm waiting for a beautiful baby to appear in our lives. I don't think I've gotten any better at waiting in the past 5 years of marriage.
I haven't even reached my due date yet and I'm slightly upset that this baby hasn't arrived. I'm having a constant internal conversation with her about why today would be a great day to be born. Pretty sure she neither hears me, nor cares about my opinion on the matter. It's unnerving to plan your day and week with such a big quesiton mark of when all the plans will change. I think I've already mentally checked out of work and house chores and any plans, just assuming that at some point soon we'll drop everything and have a whole new plan involving hospitals and pink blankies. It's hard to think about, or want to do, anything else then meet this baby. Oh, the waiting. I couldn't even sleep last night while hoping every little teasing uterine contraction would develop into something more than the false labor my belly is so fond of these days.
I did have a really good time yesterday evening watching 'The Office' premiere with some friends. I didn't want to go into labor before that event, because I knew it would be fun. But now - I've little to look forward to other than baby time, and the anticipation has sure set in quickly since last night! I know, I'm pitiful, but thanks for listening to me whine (in type). Watch for news on the (hopefully soon-arriving) little one!
I haven't even reached my due date yet and I'm slightly upset that this baby hasn't arrived. I'm having a constant internal conversation with her about why today would be a great day to be born. Pretty sure she neither hears me, nor cares about my opinion on the matter. It's unnerving to plan your day and week with such a big quesiton mark of when all the plans will change. I think I've already mentally checked out of work and house chores and any plans, just assuming that at some point soon we'll drop everything and have a whole new plan involving hospitals and pink blankies. It's hard to think about, or want to do, anything else then meet this baby. Oh, the waiting. I couldn't even sleep last night while hoping every little teasing uterine contraction would develop into something more than the false labor my belly is so fond of these days.
I did have a really good time yesterday evening watching 'The Office' premiere with some friends. I didn't want to go into labor before that event, because I knew it would be fun. But now - I've little to look forward to other than baby time, and the anticipation has sure set in quickly since last night! I know, I'm pitiful, but thanks for listening to me whine (in type). Watch for news on the (hopefully soon-arriving) little one!
Friday, September 19, 2008
Best Baby Shower ever!
Sorry I didn't write sooner, my baby shower was 6 days ago, but it's really taken that long just to unpack the bags and put the nursery together!
We had such a marvelous weekend home in Bismarck! The baby shower was just perfect. All the decorations were beautiful - everything was either purple or safari animal themed (like our nursery)! Lisa made a great cake, and Kristie made these adorable decorations out of rolled up diapers and baby socks.
We played the 'guess the turd' game with melted candy bars in diapers - gross and fun. I didn't do very well, I think I only had 5 or 6 out of the 10. One of my friends came over from the Grand Forks area, and it was great to catch up with her. One of Mom's friends (whom I'm quite fond of as well) came with her little girl from MN. I think all the other guests were Bismarck natives. It was fun to see everyone at once!
In the midst of all the incredible gifts we got, Brandon actually won for best gift. He surprised me by flying in my best friend Jodi from Oregon for the entire weekend. Everyone knew about it but me, I was entirely oblivious! She came walking into the backyard with the guys on Thursday night. B said he was going to hang out with the boys (which is totally normal and non-suspicious), and actually went to the airport to pick up Jodi! I was so surprised, and delighted. So, all weekend was made extra special to hang out with her, and my mom, and friends at the house.
In the list of amazing gifts though - we have a lot of homemade things. Apparently my entire family and circle of friends are very crafty and talented! In our nursery is currently: the pictures my Dad drew (you can see below), two crocheted blankets from Lisa in Bismarck, one gorgeous quilt with baby safari animals from Aunt Lisa, a great shelf for above the changing table that my Grandpa built, a homemade ceramic piggy bank from Irene, and 4 totally cute paintings of baby animals that Aunt Beth painted! All that on top of really nice baby gifts and all the hundreds of things we had registered for at Target. This is one crazy lucky kid - and I get to be the crazy lucky mommy!!
Click HERE to see all the pictures!
We had such a marvelous weekend home in Bismarck! The baby shower was just perfect. All the decorations were beautiful - everything was either purple or safari animal themed (like our nursery)! Lisa made a great cake, and Kristie made these adorable decorations out of rolled up diapers and baby socks.
We played the 'guess the turd' game with melted candy bars in diapers - gross and fun. I didn't do very well, I think I only had 5 or 6 out of the 10. One of my friends came over from the Grand Forks area, and it was great to catch up with her. One of Mom's friends (whom I'm quite fond of as well) came with her little girl from MN. I think all the other guests were Bismarck natives. It was fun to see everyone at once!
In the midst of all the incredible gifts we got, Brandon actually won for best gift. He surprised me by flying in my best friend Jodi from Oregon for the entire weekend. Everyone knew about it but me, I was entirely oblivious! She came walking into the backyard with the guys on Thursday night. B said he was going to hang out with the boys (which is totally normal and non-suspicious), and actually went to the airport to pick up Jodi! I was so surprised, and delighted. So, all weekend was made extra special to hang out with her, and my mom, and friends at the house.
In the list of amazing gifts though - we have a lot of homemade things. Apparently my entire family and circle of friends are very crafty and talented! In our nursery is currently: the pictures my Dad drew (you can see below), two crocheted blankets from Lisa in Bismarck, one gorgeous quilt with baby safari animals from Aunt Lisa, a great shelf for above the changing table that my Grandpa built, a homemade ceramic piggy bank from Irene, and 4 totally cute paintings of baby animals that Aunt Beth painted! All that on top of really nice baby gifts and all the hundreds of things we had registered for at Target. This is one crazy lucky kid - and I get to be the crazy lucky mommy!!
Click HERE to see all the pictures!
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