Friday, April 30, 2010

Home again Home again

ok so I know I said I'd post pictures but it will have to wait again. Just a quick update on us.

Charlotte is doing really well, I've learned to Cathe her pretty good. If she's relaxed it's way easier. Thank goodness she likes her pacifier to help soothe her when I change her diaper. We have to Cathe her every 3-4 hours. She's on ditropan now and probably for the rest of her life. I need to do some research on that to see if there is anything that has less harsh side affects. I hope they don't effect her but if they do I'll for sure need to look into something different.

Kathryn keeps getting Charlotte confused with her cousin Caleb who is also a baby. and I've been called Grandma a few times since being home too. I love having her home. She sure lightens up my mood and likes to have fun all the time!

I'm doing good. I wish I produced more milk for Charlotte but I guess It's just one of those body things that I have to deal with. I put on a pair of jeans that I could wear pre-pregnancy and they fit fine! So relieved I didn't gain as much as I did with Kathryn which was weird because of all the yummy food we ate all the time.

Back to making food on our own and such is different too. Oh yeah doing dishes again by hand is not fun at all.

Anyway that's what we've been up to for awhile. Pictures coming soon I promise.

Thursday, April 22, 2010

Day 4 of life!

All these posts of Charlotte have come from Matthew so I thought I'd write a few of my thoughts of the last few days. Sorry no pictures Matthew couldn't find the camera cord in the room when I sent him home for some things. It will have to wait. I get discharged tomorrow so hopefully tomorrow you will get a few more. (all of them are about the same as I don't have her in clothes yet and she's just bundled all the time)



Monday Morning-



Sunday night was a little restless. I got up to use the bathroom about every 3 hours and every time I could tell my tummy was really tight. It didn't hurt but was just tight. So we got up around 6:45, showered and noticed I had lost my mucous plug. I ate some oatmeal and a piece of toast with PB on it then we were off to my appointments. I could tell on the way that every bump on the way was way more prominent. but still I thought nothing of it.

We saw a different doctor then Dr Wu, he's on vacation visiting family in China and Japan, She asked how I was doing and felt my tummy and as she did she's like have you been contracting like this often? I say yes and then she gets me ready to check my dilation and how soft my cervix is. She says I was dilated to like 1.5 and that she'd like me to skip my NST appt and just go to L & D for monitoring to see if my contractions were regular. I thought it was a little over kill but well they know better right. I also had an ultrasound at 11 that I wanted to get to cause it was my last complete one that would get all her measurements and things. I wanted one last inutero picture of her face too. But well we got to L&D and got me hooked up and low ad behold I was contracting about every 3 minutes, not to bad but bad enough for my uterus that they said we'd be having a baby today. They also checked my cervix and I had already progressed to a 3 in a matter of an hour. So we got admitted and got ready to have a baby!


C-Section
So I still haven't decided which I prefer, Vaginal or C-Section. I guess it doesn't really make a difference as I can't ever try for a V-Back but still I can't seem to come to a good conclusion. I think the worst part of a c-section procedure is being all lucid and there to get the spinal done. I hated that for my first surgery and I didn't like the second one either. But man it worked fast and my leg did a huge jerk and made me scream and then there was no feeling at all. This guy who put in the spinal did a great job. I love first time tries that work!

Well after that worked they laid me down and started washing my tummy which I couldn't feel at all in just a matter of minutes. Then they put up the screen and they started doing what they do. I didn't feel a thing until they started pulling and tugging on things inside me. It was really the weirdest non-feeling I've ever experienced. It was like they were rearranging my insides. It took a lot longer then I thought too.

Matthew was there to take pictures of her being taken out and he actually watched a lot more of it then I thought he would. Didn't look sick at all. Just kept making jokes about things that were going on. We'll post those pictures later but some are gross so I don't know... They had us take a picture of my uterus where they did the incision for the first surgery that is quite gross. But by 12:43pm little Charlotte had arrived and was whisked through a little door way to be cleaned up and all that jazz. I was then put back together which took a really long time. They moved me to my room shortly after and I was able to move my thigh muscles but that was it. They wouldn't let me go and see Charlotte until I could move my legs and function that way. It was 5 hours later that I got to go see her. Matthew got to go see her way before me and take pictures. He said he didn't even hold her so I could be the first.

I have 2 long scars now. I thought they were going to cut in the same place but no, they went about and inch and a half lower then the first one. So no low rise bikinis for me... ha ha

I started pumping about 4 hours later and have done so every 3-4 hours. I thought yipee I'm getting some good amount of colostrum the first few pumps and then it stopped for the next day. and just last night has it started up again and I'm getting about an ounce. That is another thing I like better about a c-section is that your in the hospital long enough that your milk has a chance to come in before you go home and get so frustrated that you don't have anything to feed your baby. Everyone has been so helpful and kind and willing to help me out. I'm still getting more from one side then the other but I'm confident that Charlotte will be a good eater. I pumped through the night and let the nurses feed her the first night.

It's all about being consistent right. I go up every 3 hours to change her diaper and try to feed her. I love the skin to skin time I get with her. If it is only an hour here an hour there or even less. I've only tried cathing her once and I was not successful. I must not know my own anatomy cause Matthew did it like his very first try. We'll try again today and tomorrow until I can get it. It's probably something we'll do for her anyway. Her Urology appointment is either Tuesday or next Friday and we'll know there if it's absolutely necessary of if it's just something we decide to do or not.

So far all the nurses and docs and everyone has been so good to me. All the people we run into from the evaluation and the first procedure remember us and ask how things are and all say something to the effect of I can't believe how good her back looks or she's doing awesome just like her mom!! Ha ha I'm just that good!!

Thursday, Earth day
We were supposed to have this precious girl today at 10 but as you read earlier my body had other plans. So I've just been pumping all day just waiting to here when Charlotte is back and ready for me to hold and comfort her. It's been 2.5 hours so it should be anytime now. I will get discharged tomorrow and then Charlotte to follow on Monday or Tuesday. We'll have to stick around the Family house for that week if we can't get that Urology appointment set up for Tuesday instead of Friday. But she'll be all ours and I can hold her all I want.
For Earth day I'd like all to know that UCSF is like the most Eco Friendly hospital. Well San Fran is the same but there are garbage, compost, recycle bins everywhere and they've even started new programs for locally grown things so they don't have to transport across country in big rigs for their food and such. Save our Earth, we live here and our kids will have to deal with our garbage later if we don't.

So there are some rambling thoughts so far. I'll probably come back to this and have to add in some other thoughts and feelings and such.
Sorry again no new pictures we'll get them up soon. And to those who actually read the whole thing thanks to you too. Birth stories are actually nice to read. well I like them.

Tuesday, April 20, 2010

The Comparisons Begin...


Welcome to the world baby Charlotte



Born: 4/19/2010, 12:45pm PST
Place: UCSF San Francisco
Weight: 6 lbs 13 oz
Hieght: 20 in
Curly brown-ish hair about 1 inch long. This was the cause of Heather's massive amount of heartburn. I can only imagine how long it would have been if she went to week 40, vs week 36 & 4 days.
The horizontal line you see in the middle of the photo is the scar from her pre-natal surgery. It seems to be healing very nicely. The doctors are all impressed and feel that she will be able to leave San Francisco early to return to her sister. This scar is about 3 inches long.
Heather & Charlottes first photo together. Heather had the miserable time of not being able to see the baby in person for about 5 hours after surgery. But she was very determined to get there :)


In other news, Charlotte is moving very very well, and has been able to urinate on her own and to have a BM on her own. It may not sound exciting, but it really is :)

Sunday, April 18, 2010

Kathryns Easter Dress

I got this really cute little shirt and skirt outfit for Kathryn for Easter, but since she was in Snowflake for Easter it was to cold for her to wear up there. So now she's back at my parents in Gilbert it's warm enough to wear it.

She's so adorable. Yellow is certainly a good color on my sweet little girl. Oh I miss her so much! 2 more weeks and maybe a few days! I can't wait to get home to my precious Kathryn. She's grown up so much since we've left!
She certainly is my big girl!

Wednesday, April 14, 2010

Words in my blog

So I've seen this on other people's blogs a few times and I thought it was really neat. So I decided to try it. I used a website called Wordle to make this picture.

Big Belly, Big Belly


I guess I should get some belly pictures for you all to enjoy. I feel enormous! I'll have one more picture the day before surgery to get the full effect of the last 3 weeks of pregnancy! I should get a tape measure to see how big around I actually am, scary I know, but I don't have one so I'll get some of the yarn I have and just get one piece to take home and see how much smaller my belly gets after 2 weeks. Here's to hoping it gets a lot smaller!!!


Here is 35 weeks


and here is 36 weeks
and here is Matthew work station
Looks pretty comfy huh. And I thought this chair was for me...

Tuesday, April 13, 2010

Ups and downs and more downs

I am so ready to have this baby. Anyone that follows my status reports knows we're having some issues with our testings the last two times. I am also so uncomfortable all the time it's just TIME to be done and get HOME!

Last Thursday at our BPP, Testing, Charlotte wasn't doing her movements like she should. Her heart rate was fine, she was doing her breathing movements but she was just not moving so after an hour at testing they said because I was such a special case they wanted me to go up to Labor and Delivery for further testing. So up to the hospital we go for another hour and a half to be hooked to a monitor. She started moving around when we got up there but still. She should have made some movement in the hour we were at the testing place first.

Then Monday for our all day appointments we had just started the ultrasound and the power went out. It was out for about an hour. We finish the ultrasound and run to get something to eat before the OB appointment. We get to the OB appointment with just 5 minutes to spare and he's running late too. They send me to testing first and this time she's barely done her movements ad good heart rate but she's now not doing any of her breathing movements. We've had perfect scores for the last month till the last two times we get 8 out of 10. They score it out of 10 some how.

So at the OB appointment Dr Wu is worried we might be missing something about the baby because we're just so excited that I'm actually going to make it to 37 weeks and not early. So I have to be extra conscience of her movements and if she doesn't move in a two hour period I have to call up ad get in to have them test and look at her.

So far I've noticed her move every hour I'm awake and some even when I'm trying to sleep. So far so good. But we'll see. The Doc said that by now they should or could be getting into a sleep pattern where they wouldn't move as much but shouldn't last more then like 30-45 minutes.


As for me, I miss Kathryn more then anything. 'It hurts me' as Kathryn would say in her sweet voice to not get to hold her or take care of her. 'it hurts me' to just talk on skype and see her get grumpy at us for not being there. Hopefully we only have 3 weeks left. and 4 days of that will be in a hospital and then 2 weeks of that will be going back and forth from the hospital to feed our little Charlotte. I hope it goes by fast.

I'm getting really sick of giving myself insulin. I used to not mind it but every poke seems to hurt worse and worse. I've got little bruises all over my belly from these little pokes. I can't sleep at night I came to bed at like 10:30 last night and didn't fall asleep till after 1. then Matthew woke up at 2. he'd been asleep since 8. Thankfully he didn't keep me awake. Just enough to wake me up to go to the bathroom. I got up at 8, went to breakfast by 9 and back here about 10:30 and then at 11 we both took naps till 2:00. I usually don't nap but man was I tired. I'm in for another night of no sleeping though.

We'll I guess my post was labeled Up's and Downs and I think I've only talked about downs so let me see, what positive thing can I talk about now. We do only have 3 weeks left! Only 1 more week of insulin!! We are the start winners for getting this far!! The weather should be good for a week. No rain in sight till Monday and Tuesday next week. 24 was awesome last night and GLEE starts again tonight!!! Matthew got his hair cut today so he's not a shaggy dog any more. I didn't gain any weight from last appt to this weeks appt. So if I loose the max of 15 pounds after baby I'll be back to where I was when I started the HCG diet last year. Not to bad. Not like Kathryn anyway!

So some good is here and well we all have our days.

Monday, April 5, 2010

Baby's Birthday will be April 22

We had a great day of doctor visits today. All is still well in babyville. They scheduled our C-section today. Which they said they haven't scheduled anyone. No one has gotten that far or looked as good as me. HOORAY for me!

Anyway, I go in the night of the 21st for some blood work and stuff in case I happen to need a transfusion and then bright and early the 22nd I check in at 8am and have this little miracle at 10am.

So it's coming to a close. only 2 more doctor visits. I can't believe it. I was joking with Matthew today that it sounds really bad that we've been here since January and probably won't get to leave till May. We've been gone for almost a half a year when you say it that way. No one needs to know that we actually arrived the 25th of January and will leave about the 10th of May. Still that is a really long time to be away from home and my sweet Kathryn.