First Week Flying Solo(ish)

This past week was the first week Avery and I were left home alone while Jacob was back at work.  I've been blessed to have my mom here the past few weeks to help out after my surgeries, however, it was time to "cut the chord" and fly solo(ish).

Our day would typically start around 5:30am with a cute little button nosed girl who wanted to eat.  After that feeding Avery would typically go back to sleep for another hour and a half.  She's like clockwork in that she wants to eat every 3 hours.  Naps were hit or miss...some days she was really good at them, others she wasn't....which made for a horrible evening secondary to her being overtired and not knowing how to do anything but cry.

Wednesday was rough.  Apparently I ate something that didn't agree with Avery and she spent the entire day battling gas and explosive diapers.  By the time Jacob came home, she was still in the throws of an upset stomach and I was exhausted to the point of falling asleep whenever I got sat down and still for more than 5 minutes.  Super dad took over and I went to bed by 7 and he took care of Avery for the night.

Avery and I went on many "adventures" this past week.  I had multiple follow up appointments at the first of the week and she had her reflux follow up on Friday.  Monday was my c-section follow up.  So, like a champ, I loaded her up in the mom-mobile (read: Tahoe) and we made our way to downtown to visit Dr. Yium.  Avery was such a good girl and held it together until the very end of the appointment when she had reached her limit and it was time to eat.  No more putting it off.  Thankfully it was a slow day in the office and they let us stay in the exam room a little longer so that I could feed her.  Tuesday was my surgeon follow up appointment from gallbladder surgery.  Same song, second verse.  Avery held it together so well until the very end.  Being on a 3 hour feeding schedule proves to be challenging when you're "on the road".  After that appointment we walked over to the hospital and she got to meet all of my co-workers on the rehab team.  I know that the ICU nurses would have loved to see her, but we aren't venturing to that floor anytime soon.  Friday Avery had a reflux follow-up appointment with her pediatrician.  She weighed in at a whopping 9lbs, 6oz.  Jacob and I are so thankful she's growing!  The doctor increased her reflux medication secondary to her increase in weight.  So far so good....we've noticed a difference in her spitting up.  It's normal baby spit up, not vomit.  :)

1 month!

Stats: This month Avery is 21.5 inches long and right around 8lbs.  We had to visit the doctor last week because of reflux and she weighed in at 8lb, 4oz.  I was immediately skeptical because she was weighed with all of her clothes on and I highly doubt she gained over a pound in 2 weeks.

Milestones:  Avery is doing very well with her head/neck control.  She can pick her head up and turn it from side to side while on her tummy.  Avery is also staying more awake during the day compared to when she was first born.

Behavior: Avery loves to watch momma and dada!  She also has the cutest little smiles and coos at random times.  We can't wait to see her little personality grow more and more.

Sleep:  We've been in a steady 3-4 hour pattern since we got home from the hospital.  She's like clockwork.  Jacob and I are really looking forward to the nights where Avery can go 5 hours.  :)  It'll happen....right?!?

Clothes:  Still newborn for most everything.  I washed some of her 3 month clothes this afternoon in preparation for her expected growth.  Avery is so long that most of the newborn onesies fit in the torso but look like high-cut briefs in the legs.

Likes:  Rocking with momma, dada, Gigi, and Granddaddy; playing with her giraffe (thanks Aunt Staci!); watching faces; swinging in her swing; tummy time; her car seat; car rides; and bath-time (occasionally).

Having a really good time in the car

Dislikes: Tummy time (occasionally), headbands (we're working on it...), and socks.


Favorite Moments:  Taking Avery to church for the first time last Sunday night.  She was such a trooper and slept through the entire children's choir program...and it was loud.  There's also something to be said for those late night feedings  where it's just she and I and we get some quality time together.  We've also enjoyed our visit from Dede this past week!  It was such a good surprise for him to drive all the way from Irving to see Avery!

Rocking with DeDe

Most Challenging:  Reflux, reflux, reflux.  Trying to figure out what triggers it more has been enough to send me to the nut house.  We think we've figured it out, then she goes and blows a theory out of the water.  The most recent challenge that I'm hoping to have tackled is where she sleeps during the night.  She can't be flat because of the reflux but her rock-n-play sleeper isn't inclined enough.  So, we've resorted to propping the rock-n-play up higher and that has seemed to work.  Our doctor says that most kiddos outgrow their reflux by 3 months.  We are excited for 3 months to roll around to get this more under control.

 A late night encounter with reflux...

Looking Forward To:  More snuggling time during the day while dada is at work, more fun visitors, shopping trips, sleeping more through the night, our first Mother's Day!

Birth Story

After noticing that I haven't updated in...well....quite a long time, I figured I'm due to share the event of 4 weeks ago.  It's hard to believe it's already been 4 weeks!

I was on call that weekend and had been at the hospital on Saturday for a few hours that morning with no issue.  Jacob had suggested the night before that I book a prenatal massage to help relieve some of the amazing discomfort I had started experiencing.  I booked the massage for Saturday late afternoon and was really looking forward to it.   After coming home from my short shift at the hospital around 3pm, I started having contraction like feelings that wouldn't go away.  I tried timing them but they never lasted longer than a few seconds only a few times an hour.  According to the ever reliable Google, Braxton Hicks contractions can mimic real contractions late in pregnancy but will go away if you relax (read: get a massage).  I went to the massage and really enjoyed it----granted it didn't make the contraction like pain go away but rather made it worse.  I got home and Jacob suggested I call the after hours line at the doctors office and let them know what was going on.  Our doctor told us at our appointment the previous Wednesday after we found out that Avery continued to be breech that if I started experiencing contraction like pain that I needed to call immediately because of my "breech presentation".  So, like a good patient, I called.  The on call nurse asked some questions and then told me that the doctor would be calling me very shortly.  She wasn't lying- the doctor called back within 2 minutes.  After talking with her, she suggested that we come in and get checked as it sounded like I was, in fact, going into labor.  Jacob and I didn't necessarily believe this as we just threw some items into a bag and called it packed as our hospital bag.  We also just put the car seat in the car as an afterthought- just in case.

We got to the hospital and were admitted directly to the labor and delivery floor.  After getting hooked up to the monitor, our nurse told us that I was showing an "agitated uterus".  My immediate thought was "duh...could have told you that..."  The doctor's plan was to give a bag or so of fluid to make the semi contractions stop and send us on our way.  As the fluid starting flowing my pain started to increase.  Not only did the fluid not stop the contractions, it sent me into full blown regular contractions every 2 1/2 to 3 minutes.  The only problem was that I wasn't dilating along with the contractions.  Apparently the definition of labor is contractions AND dilation.  Not one or the other.

I tried my derndest to breathe through the contractions but the back labor proved to be more than I could handle and I got the drugs.  Let me tell you- that first one made the ceiling look like it was waving at me.  It was a crazy feeling.  At this point, we've been in the hospital for 6 hours and had made no progress other than the introduction of pain meds.  The doctor suggested I get up and try to walk around thinking that would stop the contractions or start dilation to justify a c-section--the dilemma being that no one was comfortable sending me home with uncontrollable pain and no one was comfortable giving the go for a c-section on a patient who was only dilated to 1 cm and had been for 8 hours.  So off we go, IV pole and all with the intention of walking miles around the L&D floor.  We made it a lap and a half before I had to stop because of the pain.  I literally thought about crawling back to the room because I thought my back and abdominal muscles wouldn't support my upper body enough to walk.  I ponied up some strength, mostly out of desire to not have a "code down" called on my behalf, and made it back to the room.  As the nurse was hooking me back up to the monitors she suggested I lay on my left side to try and relieve some of the pain and pressure while we waited on the doctor to come back and check me and make the next game plan.  The nurse made note that it looked like Avery's heart rate started to drop as I was contracting indicating she was in distress.  This sent off all kinds of bells, whistles, and alarms which got the doctor in our room really fast.  I remember her saying, "Well, Avery decided it for us.  C-section- now."  The next few minutes are a blur of nurses, other doctors, techs, and fear.

Jacob had already called my parents around 6am to let them know what was going on.  They decided around 8 or so that they would go ahead and head south- just in case.  Jacob started making numerous calls, texts, etc letting everyone know that Avery would be here today- 3 weeks early.

I don't remember a lot about the procedure itself but I do remember a few things:
- The spinal block was absolutely the most over-hyped as painful thing ever.  Given I had just gone through 16 hours total of back labor, the spinal was a walk in the park.
-Jacob wore what I can only describe as a painters uniform onesie.  :)
-The bag of fluids from my innards broke and liquid went all over the floor.  After everyone laughed, they said "well that's never happened before".  I said, "Leave it to me to be memorable"
-When they got to Avery, I heard everyone say, "Whoa- that's tight".  Avery's cord was wrapped around her neck - twice - and pretty tight.
-I panicked when she didn't cry right away.  They didn't even raise her over the shield so I could see her because she was a dark shade of purple from the cord around her neck and the NICU nurses rushed her to the warming table to work on getting her breathing.
-Official time of birth- 11:03am.  30 minutes exactly after I was wheeled into the operating room.
-I asked the doctor if she wanted take a few extra pounds out while she was in there.  :)