Jammies Blessing

I might add to this later, but I wanted to get something up just in case as I think we're going to try to get to bed early tonight so we're conscious for the dr. in the morning. PTL the new clinic is only about 10 minutes away! No more 45 min. commute to the dr's appointments. (Well, at least until my 6 week appointment.)
So after I got Kyra out of her bluejeans last night and into her jammies she looked like my sweet baby again instead of looking like such a big little girl! They were the cute jammies she wore home from the hospital with the purple flowers and they're a Newborn size and are just so sweet and babyish! They're not going to fit for very much longer as they're perfect in the length right now. This would have been very depressing if not for the fact that we just happened to get a big box of clothes from her Auntie Heather and family in Wisconsin and lo and behold, there in the box were the same jammies in a 0-3 month!!! It's amazing how God takes the time to protect our hearts even in little ways.
We had a little better night last night. No inconsolable screaming but it did take some time to get settled down all the way. I figure we finally got into good, solid sleep around midnight or so. It was one the night before and two on Monday night so we're making progress! Hopefully by the time Phil has to go back to work (next Tuesday :( ) we'll be sleeping during more normal hours. She sleeps really well AFTER we get her down, only waking once or twice during an 8 hour stretch and settling right back down after a snack. She's still having problems with waking herself up and not being able to settle back down if she's alone in the playpen. We're thinking about maybe getting a travel bed that we could keep closer to our bed until she's matured a little and to make the transition easier. I've decided that it's funny how everyone has such strong opinions over whether they're going to co-sleep or not before their baby comes. I've realized very quickly between our situation and that of a friend of mine who WANTED to co-sleep but their babe doesn't sleep well in their bed that whatever you decide, baby's going to do what they want! Forcing the issue just leads to no sleep and a cranky, fussy little one. She is napping in her playpen more and more during the day but is pretty restless and squeaky and usually doesn't stay down for more than an hour and a half or so. I know she'd do two and a half or three if we were snuggling her but maybe it will help her to be more tired at night! Well, time to go TRY to get some housework done before she wakes up!

Big Girl in Blue Jeans

So we had a rough night last night. Kyra decided to stretch out her 11:00p.m. feeding to over an hour and then apparently had eaten so much that she got a belly ache. She fussed off and on for over an hour and a half and then finally started to calm down after a change. She wasn't about to sleep in her playpen even then though. I would be in pretty sorry shape this morning if it wasn't for Phil. He held her while she was fussing when I was so tired that I was just about ready to pass out and then calmed her down the rest of the way and let her sleep on his chest for 4 hours or so after she was changed and a little more mellow. She had a fairly good day today. She took one of her naps in her pack'n'play and one in her bouncer chair. HOORAY!!! That meant mommy had free hands to run the dishwasher and do (most) of a load of laundry. I'm gonna try to finish folding it now that she's in bed before I crash. She was also pretty alert a lot today so hopefully she'll be good and tired tonight. She wore an outfit that her Grandma R. got her today that had little blue jeans and even though they're still too big she just looked like such a little girl in them instead of looking like a baby!! *sigh* There are definitely some drawbacks to having a baby with lots of hair and no newborn marks on their skin... they seem to grow up even faster!!

Over the River and Through the Woods

After having our 1st tub bath with Mama this morning (Kyra doesn't like tub baths any better than sponge baths btw) we headed out to Grandma B.'s for the first time. Kyra's Great Grandma Pat and her Great Aunt Jackie (the one on Phil's side obviously) got to meet her for the first time and they both thought she was VERY sweet. Grandma Pat came upstairs to visit with her. She wanted to know if Kyra's really that beautiful or if we're all just prejudice. We of course think she really is that pretty! Kyra was very good at Grandma's and only fussed when she was hungry. We tried out our "Hooter Hider" nursing cover for the first time and it works GREAT!! So easy to use as I can see Kyra and have both hands free still. Grandma's dogs were funny when they saw the baby. Phoenix was VERY jealous and didn't even like Tucson, the other dog, looking at her. He grabbed a toy and hit the other dog in the face with it to try to distract him. Tucson wanted to smell her and look at her up close SO bad. It took some convincing though to get him to realize that we can't look with our feet.
He was still interested a few hours later when Grandpa B. got home and all through dinner Tucson couldn't decide what was more exciting, the ribs or the squeaky baby girl.
We headed home shortly after dinner because it started SNOWING; there were great big stuck together flakes like it was probably warmer air up a ways. There was no snow at our house, just rain.

Lazy Monday

Today, we went for our first walk outside!!! It was a nice day after a whole bunch of really cold ones and the birds were singing like they thought it was spring. It was so nice that we took off the snowsuit halfway through the walk and just snuggled and put on Kyra's hat on the way home to keep warm. We finally found a way for Kyra to ride comfortably in her Ergo carrier as she doesn't like laying in it cradle hold. Instead, we tuck her in with her legs folded up froggy legs style and just helped her support her head a little. (If we tuck the infant support in behind her or roll up a blanket, it gives her enough head support that we can be hands free. HOORAY FOR HAVING TWO FREE HANDS!) Our walk wasn't anywhere VERY exciting, just next door to Wal-Mart so Phil could get his W-2 and check on some benefit stuff. (I think I'm one of the few people who likes doing taxes... that could be because we've never had to pay in yet though, we always get money back!) After he was done with his paperwork stuff, we stopped at Subway for an Icee and Kyra stayed snuggled right up in her carrier snoozing the whole time. The rest of the day we mostly just hung out around the house and relaxed. We're all still adjusting to this whole thing! :D

Busy Busy Day!

Sunday we woke up and I realized while changing Kyra for the first time that her umbilical cord had fallen off sometime during the night! It was a lot sooner than we'd expected so I'm guessing that all the time she spent under the warming light and the bilirubin light dried it out faster than usual. We got ready and took Kyra to church for the 1st time. I was pretty pleased that we managed to make it out the door only about 12 minutes later than we'd been planning! (Good thing we had planned to leave early!) She wore the pretty white dress that was the 1st thing we picked out for her together after we found out she was a girl. She was VERY good and let Mama and Dad stay for all of service with only one big squeak during a quiet moment. She really liked the music part but didn't like it when I tried to clap while holding her. Dad carried her all over and showed her off and after service when he was getting her tucked back into her carseat with the cover on and the cover flap closed, one of our friend's son's asked if that was so we didn't have to listen to her scream! :)

After church we grabbed some lunch and headed for her dr.'s appointment. I went in with her for lab work again (another heel prick for the poor girl) and the lab tech thought she was just so sweet. The man sitting next to Phil in the waiting room could tell that it was HIS baby in there getting labs done by the way he reacted when she cried. They weighed her again and she was up an ounce from friday, a very good sign, PTL!!! The nurse thought her color looked better and also said that it was possible that she was actually a little earlier than we thought, that the dates had been off and that may be why she was jaundiced as she didn't have any of the other risk factors and from looking at her skin tone/etc. We got a call a little while after we left that her bilirubin levels had indeed gone down a little so it looks like we're headed in the right direction to be all clear but they may do another check yet at her 2 week well baby visit on friday.

We rode along with Phil up to the cemetery after her appt. was over as it was the 5th anniversary of the day his dad died. She and I hung out in the car and she was VERY good until Dad came to get back in and then she started to fuss. I think she was trying to pretend she'd been fussing the whole time.

After resting at home for a little while and changing from our church clothes into comfy jammies we went back to church for the "business party" that we'd made plans to go to before she'd arrived. She was very good at that too, sleeping through two hours of dessert and talking. It may have helped that the lights were pretty dimmed. She got lots of attention as she was in with us and all the adults being too young for the nursery.

The last stop of the evening was to Wal-Mart to get some new diapers that fit as she's already outgrown one brand of the newborn diapers but isn't ready for the next size up yet. Phil got to show her off to more of his co-workers and they were all appropriately impressed with how adorable she is. After that we all came home very tired. Kyra was very good all night and I slept really well but poor Phil got a migraine and had sort of a miserable night trying to avoid light and noise.

1 Week Old!

It's so hard to believe she's already a week old! It seems like she just got here. We spent Saturday resting and relaxing at home. Phil put together the bouncer and she tried it out but isn't all that impressed yet. Dad's chest is still a nicer place to nap. We did have another sponge bath Saturday night so that we'd be ready for church in the morning. Apparently Kyra took the dr's advice about eating frequently to heart as she was up at least every 2 hours hungry.

I'm having problems adding the video of the pictures from her 1st week to this post, so I'll just add a link to the video on youtube. :) (For my mom who can't copy and paste... just go to youtube.com and put darlingdivine in their search box again if you can't get the address below to work.) :D

http://youtube.com/watch?v=-6wK-abAqzY

First Days Home

Wednesday, Kyra & I mostly just hung out on the couch. All the pets got to meet her. Denali, our cat, was insulted that he wouldn't be allowed to lay on her anymore now that she was out of Mama's tummy but not so insulted that he wasn't willing to lay on my lap while she snuggled on my chest. Echo was too tired to do much more than smell her, but Radar, the little dog that we were actually a little concerned about, fell immediately madly in love and fell all over himself to smell her and kiss her toes while wagging his tail so hard his whole back end was swaying. We DID go over to Wal-Mart that evening for her 1st trip out of the house after being home so that we could get some milk and Dad could show her off to his co-workers. They were all sufficiently impressed and Phil smiled from ear-to-ear all the way around the store.

On Thursday we just hung out around home, resting up and adjusting to being a family of 3 instead of 2. Phil and I spent lots of time wondering over how STRONG she seems already. She can hold her head up for several seconds now and lower it back down instead of dropping it, even longer if she's on her tummy! We had our 1st bath at home (she had one in the nursery the night she was born that we missed out on) so that we'd be clean for our dr's appointment on Friday. She was NOT impressed!!

Friday morning we got dressed and loaded up in the car to go in and have Kyra's bilirubin checked again at our Mother/Baby appointment. Dad waited in the waiting room while I took her in to have her poor little foot poked so he didn't have to watch. Her weight had leveled off and the nurse felt like she was nursing well (she got over 3 ounces in the 20 min. that she fed at the appt.!) However, her bilirubin levels had gone back up so we had to schedule a follow-up appointment for Sunday. After her appointment we went to babies r us and got a bouncer chair to try out. It's neat because it turns into a toddler rocker once she's too old for a bouncer.

Kyra's Birth Story (some TMI details ahead)

photos




I woke up at 2:45a.m. Saturday with what felt like strong back pains and abdominal cramps 2-6 minutes apart and thinking maybe my water had broken. (Turned out it had, but we didn't know that until after we'd been triaged at the hospital since I've never done this before!) I wasn't sure if I was in Labor or not, which I assumed meant I wasn't since people had been telling me all along that when it was really labor I'd know! Called the advice nurse and then spent a couple hours drinking gatorade, showering and changing positions to see if the pains went away. When they didn't we went in to be checked at 6:45a.m. and they decided my water had broken so they admitted me without doing a cervix check, planning on waiting until we'd progressed further to avoid introducing any more possibility of infection since I'd only been contracting for about 4 and a half hours at that point. Our friend Amy (Kyra's honorary auntie) showed up while we were in triage still and was a really great support all through labor to both me and DH. After we moved to the labor and delivery room, I rested for a couple hours as much as possible and eventually spent some time in the shower with the hot water on my back (WONDERFUL feeling) as most of the pain was still in my back/tailbone. Around eleven or so I was in enough pain and getting tired enough that I was thinking I wanted some i.v. pain relief so that I could possibly rest a little between contractions as I felt like I was close to being able to do that so the midwife came in to check us and saying that if I felt like resting I probably hadn't progressed very much, but PTL we were at 8 cm and in transition!!! I felt a lot better and more able to tolerate the contractions after that knowing that we weren't still in early labor and things weren't about to get a bunch worse. After another hour I was at 9 cm but it seemed like Kyra's head was still at a bad angle and not lined up with my pelvis right. Ended up getting back in the shower on hands/knees with the hot water on my back and eventually just relaxing in the tub full of water when it got too tiring to be trying to stay upright through the contractions. 2 hours later we were still at 9 cm with no progress and she wasn't turning so the midwife suggested getting an epidural as it would possibly help my body to relax enough for her to finish turning. We had a great epidural although having it put in wasn't any fun. I had almost no loss of sensation/pressure and I could still feel/move my legs well but the pain level dropped enough for me to relax. It did slow down contractions however so they started us on pitocin. After another hour or so something suddenly felt different and there was strong pain at my tailbone instead of just pressure so the midwife checked again. All that was left was a lip of cervix that the midwife thought we could push through and it seemed like Kyra had turned her head just enough. We waited until half after 5 or so when I had a stronger urge to push to give her a chance to turn the rest of the way and then started pushing with feet up on a squat bar on the bed which was very helpful. I was on oxygen for much of the pushing and they turned off the pit as Kyra's heartrate kept jumping up. Finally we were crowning (got to watch in the mirror, so neat and definitely nice to be able to see the progress we were making!) but the dr. decided she needed to come a little faster and that her head was still not sitting quite right so we had an episiotomy (made me yelp as I wasn't expecting it to hurt that much and that scared Phil). That was the CREEPIEST sensation ever as it actually FELT like scissors... Apparently the midwife and nurse started to discuss possibly needing to do a c-section then, but I thankfully didn't hear them, just Phil. She was out about 2 or 3 minutes later after a couple more long pushes. Turns out the problem was that instead of presenting the crown/back of her head, she was presenting the top/flat part and then she had both fists tucked up by her face like she was trying to push her way out!!! Her oxygen levels were low as she had fluid in her lungs and so she had to go to the nursery so Auntie Amy went with her. I did get to touch her first while she was on my stomach for about 30 seconds. It took longer than they liked to stop my bleeding and I did end up with low hematocrit at my blood test the next day but didn't end up having to have a transfusion. They put in the stitches for the episiotomy/tear after they numbed the area up. When she said she was going to do the stitches I asked if she could numb it first and she said yes, and that sometimes the epidural isn't enough to take away all the pain during the actual delivery. She looked a little startled when I pointed out that I'd NEVER been numb at all in that area, even during the episiotomy... Phil and Amy were both AMAZING throughout the whole labor and delivery. There's no way I could have done it without them. I think without the support I would have ended up with an epidural a lot sooner and probably a c-section if I hadn't been able to relax enough for her to turn or stay motivated enough to push her out as quickly as she needed to come. Kyra spent about 4 hours in the nursery for observation but was off the oxygen by 8pm. Phil was able to go down and see her there and eventually Grandma & Grandpa B. did too. I was moved upstairs around 9 but got to stop and see her in the nursery for a few minutes first. We were so relieved at 11:30 when she got to come up too! I'm so glad she's "out" now!! Honestly, Labor and Delivery wasn't at all as bad as I expected!! Phil was wonderful and I'm so glad we were able to not have a c-section.