Christmas...again, and again, and again!

Where to start. This holiday has come over and over again it seems. The weekend before Christmas, Nana and Papaw came up to visit and see Avery for the first time. That brought lots of presents. Then we went to my Aunt and Uncle's, since that is where Nana and Papaw stayed. Bring out even more presents.

Christmas Eve my family does a gift exchange, but they decided to do it at 8PM since people were working. We were not staying out that late, so we dropped our gifts off at my dad's so he could take them. Chelsea stopped out though, on her way to family over here in Wooster. That's a few more presents, since we exchange gifts, seeing as I watch Kendra and all.

Christmas Day...obviously presents. The girls got bikes from us, so Moon Sand, art stuff, car stuff, and a TV microscope that they are probably a bit small for still. We packed up and went to dad's, since mom was showing up. So we get PJ's and ponies and play-doh and then gift exchange gifts. We eat the family lunch and head home for the day.

Boxing Day we spend on Luke's side since it fell on a Saturday, everyone could show up and Christmas was less hectic for everyone. Even more presents. Arts and crafts stuff, baby dolls, clothes, and much more. Luke's mom found left handed scissors and can opener, since Luke told her I complain about the right handed stuff in this house. I tried that can opener the other day, and it feels quite odd to use it after using a right handed one for my whole life.

The Sunday after we stuck at home and tried to clean up the piles of cardboard and gift paper (recycling them of course), but Keith and Angel stopped by with Kaden, so we could gift exchange. Yup...one more round of presents. They announced that they are expecting again...should be early this fall sometime!

I think if we wouldn't have just had a baby, the gifts may have been a little less, because Avery got a compilation of Christmas and just being born gifts.

I have pictures galore to go through before I can tell Luke which ones need resized and put up for the blog, so bear with me. Just wanted to update and hope everyone had a good holiday. We certainly did.

Minor setbacks...

Luke and I have decided to lay down the law and keep me on my butt for a few days. I woke up today feeling like I had been hit by a truck! Dull cramps, increased bleeding, kind of dizzy, and just feeling blah. I guess the lack of sleep is catching up with me, and I have been pushing myself with my normal housewife duties.

On a good note though, Luke finished editing his senior sessions. Now we need to focus on doing some more newborn photos of Avery, and getting announcements ordered. I think we decided to skip Christmas cards and send out wallet photos with the announcements.

We started supplementing Avery with formula at night, hoping that it sticks with her longer so she will sleep a little longer. We have a few sample cans that we received in the mail that we have available to us, and I am pumping at night, so we have a nice little stockpile of breastmilk to fall back on after the cans run out. It's nice to have someone else feed her occasionally. We supplemented with Lexi since I went back to work after 6 weeks, but Lilly was exclusively breastfed and would refuse a bottle of any kind, so I never had a break with her.

I've been sitting on my butt most of the evening, and my sweet hubby is making peanut butter cookies with hershey kisses right now :)

Nana and Papaw are coming up tomorrow, so the big girls will have a bunch of fun tomorrow evening and on Saturday. I've felt bad since they haven't had nearly as much attention since Avery came home, but they seem to be doing just fine.

We Are Surviving...

I guess it's probably a few things all put together... Lexi and Lilly are older and need entertainment, it's been at least a year and a half since we have had to be up numerous times at night, and probably the fact that we are a couple years older, and a couple years more out of shape, but adjusting from a family of four to a family of five seems like a bit more of a struggle than going from 3 to 4.

I think Avery is mixing up her days and nights. The literature that the hospital sends home suggests feeding every 2 hours during the day, that way you are interrupting sleep all throughout the day, so I tried that out today. I will wake her up one more time here in a few minutes to nurse her and get her changed and swaddled for bed, and hopefully she isn't wide awake half of the night. It wouldn't be too big a deal, but Luke has a lot on his plate right now with the photography business, on top of his day job, so he has been staying up later to do editing, and by the time he comes to bed, Avery is up and needs bounced around for another hour, so he is running on little sleep.

Nursing is going OK, although it seems that she has a problem latching on the left. I get a nice pain every time, so I tried doing the football hold instead of the cradle hold, and it works out a lot better. She must not like lying on her right side to eat. The football hold is a bit more difficult to master in chairs, so I end up in bed or sideways on the couch now, but at least I don't hurt so much. I remember everyone saying to give breastfeeding 6 weeks, and with Lexi, it was exactly 6 weeks before everything fell into place. With Lilly it didn't matter, since I had only stopped breastfeeding for about 2 months before she was born.

We are surviving though, and that is the important thing! Our goal is to get through the end of the month, and then starting in the new year, we will re-do the budget and home improvement plans, and see if we can get ahead next year!

TGIF

We've lasted the week! Although today has only begun... Avery went to the pediatrician on Wednesday, and checked out just fine, weighing in at 8lbs 10oz, so she gained 2 oz from her discharge weight. She has figured out the latching on thing, but we've still been supplementing with a little formula and pumped breastmilk. I don't want a baby that won't take a bottle when I need a break, and we ran into that with Lilly, so I don't want to repeat that again. She's been doing fairly well at night, she has a 5-6 hour stretch, and then 3 hour stretches after the big one.

We tried out some quick newborn shots yesterday, so we can get birth announcements done. We may try to do Christmas pictures this weekend, so we can get everything ordered all at once.

It is my goal to sit on my butt most of the day today, because I have been much too active the past 2 days with household stuff, and it is physically showing, so I need to take it easy.

Luke has tons of work to do, not only for AMPS (the company he works for), but also editing our newborn and future Christmas pictures, plus 2 senior sessions, plus fixing a friend's computer, plus numerous other things. I really don't want to depend on him too much, because he is already getting little sleep from staying up late to edit, and then he helps with the baby at night.

It's proving to be tough right now with two toddlers and a newborn, but I think once Luke's workload lessens and the holidays are over with, along with some healing time for me, that things will work out a lot better.

Welcome Home

We were discharged from the hospital about 4PM yesterday (Monday), and made our way home. The girls were super excited to meet "The New Baby", and we caught their reactions on video, which Luke will have to upload a bit later. Lexi read her stories and shared Mo with her, and they both would "pet" her very gently and wanted to give her toys to play with. We just hung out for a bit before getting the big girls in the tub, and then they helped give Avery a bath. We had Avery in her little papasan chair in their bedroom during storytime, and as Luke picked up the chair to bring her out so we could shut their light off, Lilly lost it, screaming "No, my baby!" Apparently, she thought Avery was going to sleep in that chair on her floor all night, so we had to explain to her yet again that Avery sleeps in our room for now. They did just fine though.

Avery, on the other hand, doesn't seem to want to do things my way. She still isn't latching hardly at all, no matter what we try, so she has been eating formula, and any milk that I have been able to pump. She has also been doing some cluster feedings, so right now I am just working on a game plan to keep my milk stimulated, while still keeping Avery content.

Avery's discharge weight was 8lbs 8 ozs, and we go to see the pediatrician on Wednesday afternoon. I am good to go and have my checkup on the 21st of January.

Thank you to everyone for you congrats and well wishes!

So Much for a Play by Play...

Darn wireless internet, we couldn't figure out how to get it to work until now. Now for the birth story...

We arrived right on time at 8PM, and got put on an IV drip and the monitors, just to see what baby was up to. At 9PM pitocin was started on the lowest dose, and Dr. Laing came in to break my water. I was measuring at 3cm and about 70%. We got hooked up to the wireless gadgets so we could walk around, and made it a total of 3-4 laps before I needed to be in the room. Emotionally I was not ready whatsoever to go on with the induction. I decided I should do a nubain shot at 11PM, and I was check and at a 5 and about 80% effaced. I sat in bed because I felt loopy in between contractions, but it didn't do very much for the pain. By this time, I was seriously contemplating an epidural, and had asked the nurse tons of questions about it. I could have up to 4 nubain shots before they would suggest an epidural for pain, and would you believe it takes that guy a half hour to get here after you call for one? That's crazy! I decided I should try one more nubain shot, because a needle to the back terrifies me, so at midnight I had my second shot, and I was at a 7-8 and 90%. About 10 minutes til 1AM I started feeling like I needed to push with each contraction. I was an 8-9 and fully effaced, and the crash carts were set up and the bed was moved around. I had been shaking uncontrollably for awhile, and by the time the doctor sat on the bed, I was pushing out a baby while the other nurse was calling for an assistant nurse. I had 2 big sets of pushes and out came Avery at 1:11AM. She weighed a whopping 8lbs 15 1/2 ounces, and is 21 inches long. She had a little bit of a purple face, from bruising, and I needed 2 stitches (which I received without a pain medication shot) and so far we are doing well.

I had a little more bleeding than they would like, and so far she is not nursing at all, but eating well from the little bottles of similac they have here. Right now we are just hanging out, waiting for visitors and taking naps. Here are a few pics that Luke also has up on facebook...

For Your Enjoyment...

The title of the last post made me think of Europe, so Luke and I set out on a search and came across this.

Europe Video

Please take a few minutes and enjoy the hair, pink lipstick, jacket change, on stage slow motion, cheesy guitar solo, and flames. And make note of the date on the top of the building...1986. I was 2 :) Gotta love the 80's!

It's the Final Countdown! T-9 and ticking...

Well, tonight is the night. I didn't sleep worth a darn last night. Fell asleep about midnight, was up at 4:30, and didn't fall back asleep until about 8:30, just in time to wake up at 9:15 this morning. I had some contractions for a little while about 10 minutes apart, but obviously it was nothing.

I have the bed sheets in the wash along with other miscellaneous laundry. All of the floors have been swept except the kitchen. The dining room is ready to be set up into a studio for this double senior session that goes from 2PM-6PM (although the first part will be outside).

On my to-do list...

1) Make bed
2) Clean out car
3) Finish off kitchen trash and dishes after lunch
4) Finish packing hospital gear
5) Try to relax

My mother-in-law (Trish) is coming about 1:30 or so to help with the girls during the photo shoot, and she will stay tonight with them. My dad will be over sometime tomorrow and he will stay Sunday night with them since he is off work Monday.

The hospital doesn't have WiFi in the rooms, but they do in the reception area, so I will periodically type something out for Luke to post here on the blog, to keep everyone up-to-date with the situation.

The plan is to be at the hospital at 8PM tonight, and we will see how we start from there.

An Afternoon at the Hospital

No baby yet. I had contractions for 3 hours that were 5-7 minutes apart last night, that even lasted through a bath, but they weren't strong enough to keep me from falling asleep, although each time I got up to use the bathroom, I could feel them.

We had our ultrasound at 2PM for the AFI (fluid check) and it was like 13.6, which is great the tech said. Baby is head down (which we knew) and we saw a hand, which was blocking the goods shot, so even this late in the game, baby is still modest and won't give a clear shot. With the family statistics though, and the 4 techs thinking girl at the 20 week ultrasound, I can't imagine anything else in there but another little girl.

We went down to labor and delivery for the NST (Non-Stress Test), so I got to lay in bed for 30 minutes while they monitored the baby's heart rate and any contractions, and I got to push a little button whenever I felt the baby move. They had the stats they needed within the first 10 minutes, but had to keep us on for a half hour to make sure. After that half hour, apparently the baby had a heart deceleration, so they called Dr. Laing, and I got to stay on the machine and drink some water. All in all, I was hooked up for an hour and a half. Everything is fine though, and I even had some contractions show up on the monitor. Being in that bed for that long though, I have no idea how I am supposed to stay hooked up to all that equipment while going through pitocin contractions. I am going to need to move around, or this induction just isn't going to happen.

On another note, as we walked through the door, they had a sign posted that said no one under 18 will be allowed to visit patients, which means the girls won't be able to visit. Luckily Chris was off work early today, so we left the girls with him. This makes me very upset, because this whole H1N1 is getting blown way out of proportion, and now it's affecting a very important moment in my family's lives. I told Luke we are going to pressure everyone around us to get us discharged as early as possible. I don't want to stay the 48 hours I did with the girls...hopefully we can get out at 24. I don't want to rely on family for so long when in this economy, people shouldn't take off work unless absolutely necessary.

I'm hoping something happens this evening or tonight, or even tomorrow morning, even though it would ruin Luke's photo shoot. I just want to keep away from a pitocin induction if at all possible, but this baby is not helping this situation!

Finally!!! Some Baby Progress to Report...

Had my doctor's appointment late this afternoon (3:30). I went from nothing last week, to 3cm and 40% effaced, although the cervix still feels a bit thick she said. She went ahead and stripped the membranes which brought us to 4cm when it was all said and done. When I was 2cm and 50% with Lilly, we had the membranes stripped, and I went into labor 9 hours later, so hopefully this does something tonight or tomorrow, because I really don't want induced.

In the event that nothing has happened, we go to the hospital tomorrow at 2PM for a Non-Stress Test and an ultrasound to check fluid levels since I will be 41 weeks, and officially a week overdue. Luke has a senior shoot scheduled on Saturday, and our induction is scheduled for Saturday evening at 8PM, so at the latest, we will have a baby by Sunday!!

Since I am dilated and effaced, we will not have to start off with any gel, just pitocin (which I really don't want), and then we can break the water a little while after that. I hope it doesn't come to that, because I don't want to be stuck in bed hooked up to a bunch of monitors, especially when I won't have an epidural (I refuse to take a needle to my back), so I guess I need to think of some pain management techniques if I end up stuck in bed not being able to move.

Hopefully the next time I post I will be in labor or holding a baby!