Birthday Update: Two Months!

Happy birthday to our little princess! I can’t believe you have been here for 2 months already – time has gone so fast and yet I almost can’t remember a time when you weren’t here with us.  It seems you have always been a part of us.  We can’t wait to see what adventures await you!

Birth Deets: 21.5in, 8lbs 12oz 
Prior Month Deets: 9lbs 15oz, 22 inches
Height: 23.5 inches
Weight: 11lbs 13oz
Nicknames: Maddie, Miss M, Hungry Mungry Kiddo, Wobble Head Doll
Exciting Events: This month has been much more laidback than last month!  We are still working on unpacking the house after the move and finding the items we need can be a bit of a challenge. The nursery essentials are all set up but we have some decorating items to do in there yet!  Miss M will be in our room for a while yet so there is no rush on those finishing touches!  Other than that Maddie enjoys visiting with her grandparents and watching the tractors pass back and forth on our road! 
What She Does: Sleeps through the night!! Wow this is a big one for mommy and daddy!  Miss M has been consistently sleeping 7-8hrs at night (which is a HUGE deal) for a couple weeks now. She has good head control and likes to look all around but does still wobble a bit.  She tries to sit on her own but because of the wobble she tends to lurch forward or to the side pretty quickly. She also enjoys standing up while mommy or daddy hold her under her arms – she actually prefers this more often than not! She likes tummy time (most of the time) and has fun on her play mat.  Miss M is a bit of a chatterbox – especially when she first wakes up!  She gets her “morning person” personality from her daddy so her morning chats are a bit exhausting for mommy!  Most of all she smiles and smiles and smiles at us which melts our hearts every time.  But then you see her smiling, laughing and talking to the living room ceiling fan or the bedroom “nipple light”… guess she is just making it clear we aren’t as special as we think!

Birthday Update: One Month!

Wow… how time has flown since Miss M made her debut in this world!  I can’t believe she’s already a month old.  My little peanut has definitely put on weight (official Peds weigh in on Monday!) and is sleeping and eating her way through most days.  She is our joy and… our frustration in those times when she just cries for no reason we can discern at 2am. Mostly she just fills the days with joy and love and a feeling of complete wonder at the awesome miraculous creation that she is!

Birth Deets: 21.5in, 8lbs 12oz (7lbs 14oz when leaving hospital, 8lb 2oz at Peds 3 days later)
Height: 22 inches
Weight: 9lbs 15 oz
Nicknames: Maddie, Princess Peepants, Grunty McGrunterson, Miss Me, Hungry Mungry Kiddo
Exciting Events: Aside from the very exciting event of her birthday, Maddie had many visitors from Michigan! The very first weekend she was home, Grammy & Grampy K made an impromptu trip to see their granddaughter.  About a week later, Great Aunt Pat & Great Uncle Jim arrived with cousins Jessa, Eli & Erin.  One day later, Grammy and Grampy K showed up with Aunt Katie and cousin Collin! While they were visiting, Maddie had a Skype date with Great Grandpa Slagter and a few other Great Uncles back in Michigan. She also made the move with mommy & daddy into their very first house!  It made for a very exciting and exhausting month!
What She Does: cries, sleeps, eats, pees/poops… that’s pretty much the run of things these days. Tummy time includes her being able to move her head from side to side and push herself up (head/chest) with her arms. She smiles mostly just randomly but I think I’ve caught her smiling back at me or daddy a time or two. And recently she’s taken to standing up when you hold her, supporting her whole body weight on those tiny little feet!  She has a pretty set internal schedule and let’s us get to bed sometime around 10/11pm gets up around 1:30/2am and then sleeps until around 5/6am – those 3-4hr stretches of sleep can work wonders for mommy & daddy!

Mommy update: I’m healing well and have lost most of the pregnancy weight – thank you breastfeeding! My pregnancy carpal tunnel is mostly gone with just slight numbness in 2-3 fingers on each hand instead of complete numbness in 4!  My wedding and engagement rings fit once again – yay!  It’s a good thing too because the fake bling started turning my finger green immediately after I gave birth! (totally weird!)  We moved to the new house 3 weeks after Maddie was born which was totally crazy (note to self: never repeat that) and we are still living mostly out of boxes because there is barely enough time in the day for me to eat let alone clean and unpack.  (Needless to say picture updates of the new house will be delayed for a bit!)

Hump Day… Birthday!

Who would have thought that at the same time our Hump Day Bump Day: Week 38 post went live on the blog that we would be in the hospital anxiously anticipating the arrival of our Miss M!?  I’m sure some of you are curious as to the details of her arrival so we thought we would celebrate her 1 week birthday by telling you how she arrived… and maybe have a little bit of cake too!

So grab a piece of cake, a glass of milk or cup of coffee and settle in for the story…

Early in the morning on Wednesday July 17th, {by early I mean around 4am} I woke up for one of my umpteenth nightly bathroom trips. I was doing my business when I felt something… different… happen down there. I went back to the bedroom to wake up the hubs and tell him I thought that my water had just broken.  He asked me something similar to “did you have a big sploosh all over the floor?!” To which I said no and he assumed I was just overreacting.  I went back to bed but got up about a half hour later and felt another small gush.  After about an hour of debating with the hubs and internet researching if it could be that my waters had broken, we decided we should head to the hospital and find out for sure.  So we got dressed and threw the last minute items in the hospital bags just in case and off we went!

We arrived at the hospital, and were directed to the birthing center where I was hooked up to monitors.  I had a contraction here and there but nothing too regular or serious.  I only had a couple that made me pause and start the deep breathing.  The nurse checked me and said she didn’t think my water had broken based on the little amniotic fluid swab test. The doctor came in and did the same test and got the same result but he also checked to see what my dilation was. He said I was at a 3-4 dilation {yay progress!} and then I had another gushing sensation. He said, “looks like you aren’t going home after all!” and then said we would be starting Pitocin because my contractions hadn’t picked up and it had been almost 3hrs since I had felt the initial break.

I was not happy.  Well… happy {and excited!} to know we would finally be meeting our sweet baby sometime soon, but not happy to be starting out with Pitocin.  Since I knew it wasn’t common for waters to break before labor started, this was a scenario I hadn’t even thought through! Also, I had heard contractions that come with Pitocin are especially horrible.  But… I knew there were risks if we kept waiting for labor to start on its own and so we proceeded and moved to our birthing room… with a view!

Once the Pitocin was started, things got going pretty quickly.  At first I was able to breathe through the contractions and rest between them, but they soon went from bearable to coming at me hard every couple of minutes and lasting what seemed like forever. This was around 11am and I hadn’t been checked for dilation progress since about 7am so we thought we still had hours of labor ahead of us and I told my husband I needed the epidural.

Shortly after, I was contracting through the epidural insertion process and begging the nurse to turn off the Pitocin. {she said no btw}  As soon as it took effect I was feeling much better and the nurse came in to check my progress again.  Her eyes got really big and she said “I think she’s complete! Hang on let me check again… ok, now Christina push a little I want to see if I can feel the head… oh.. STOP pushing and don’t do that again! This never happens that fast with a first baby!”  Apparently what none of us suspected was that when I was in the midst of the contractions that wouldn’t stop, I was actually in the transition stage of labor.  If I had known, would I have stuck to our original plan and not gotten the epidural? I can’t honestly say, but it might have been easier to hold off a little longer knowing we were almost there.

Then the nurse told us that the doctor was in a c-section and we had to wait until they were done or close to it to start pushing. Now if I hadn’t had an epidural at this point I think I would have been one furious laboring pregnant lady, but since I had it and was no longer feeling the contractions at all I said ok!  We waited around for about an hour and a half before the nurse came in and said we were going to start pushing.  I pushed for about an hour and our Little Miss was welcomed into the world at 2:03pm. 

From waters breaking to her birth we had about 10 hours and just 7 hours from the start of actual Pit induced contractions. What a whirlwind of a day!  In the end we got to meet this sweet little face… and I wouldn’t change a minute of the experience for the world.

Happy one week birthday Miss Madeline!

Hump Day Bump Day: Week 38

How far along? 38 Weeks, 3 Days
Outfit? regular cardi and maxi dress (gotta love maxis!)
Stretch marks/Belly Button? Belly button is getting very close to popping these days but I’m hoping it doesn’t! Stretch marks are still there unfortunately.
Sleep:  Sleeping ok but the hubs says I’ve started snoring like no one he’s ever met so he’s not sleeping well these days.
Best moment this week:  Friday was great because Grandpa was released from the hospital again.  Monday was even better because we heard the heartbeat again (a strong 160bpm) and the carpet installation began at the house! YAY!
Miss Anything?  The feeling in my fingers.. yup its still gone.
Movement: Mostly kicking in my ribs and out my right side. Although starting to feel more pressure right in the middle of my ribcage like she’s pushing it out.
Food cravings: Fruit is still the clear winner here – especially with the hot weather this week!
Anything annoying?: Hand numbness and swelling in my feet. (hubs says they look like Fred Flintstone feet when they are really bad)
Labor Signs? Still 2cm dilated but now 70% effaced, no real contractions but I did lose my mucus plug Tuesday morning. For some that may be tmi.. so I apologize but at least I didn’t post a picture! Yes if you check Google images you will find several… I don’t recommend it.
Mood? Excited, nervous and anxious to meet my daughter.  
Looking forward to:  Labor or the next doctor’s appointment on Monday… whichever comes first!
Worries & Fears:  Feeling a little more prepared this week.  Probably the only worries or fears would be related to us having an unplanned cesarean section.
Weekly Thoughts/Questions: Membranes were swept at our visit this week and the doctor predicted labor to be in the next couple days.. so far it’s Tuesday night and nada other than the loss of the mucus plug this morning.  He mentioned if I don’t go into labor by the next appointment we will be talking a medical induction.  I’m really hoping to avoid that because I’ve heard its horrible and that it can lead to a series of other unwanted/unplanned medical interventions (epidural because of strong contractions, c-section).  But if that’s the route we need to go, we are staying open to it.  The most important thing is for Miss M to be born healthy.

Hump Day Bump Day: Week 37

Health Stats: blood pressure: 120/72, baby heartbeat 152, weight gain ~27lbs

How far along? 37 Weeks, 3 Days
Outfit? maternity shirt and shorts, regular tank
Stretch marks/Belly Button? I think the innie got a bit shallower this week and the stretch marks a tad longer… belly area is ready to evict it’s tenant I think!
Sleep:  Still feeling like I’m not getting great sleep and when I doze off on the couch, the hubs tends to shout me awake because he thinks it’s funny.  Just wait until the crying baby is keeping him up.. paybacks!
Best moment this week:  My doctor’s appointment on Monday because I heard the heartbeat.
Miss Anything?  The feeling in my fingers.
Movement: Mostly kicking in my ribs and out my right side. She favors the right side of my belly.
Food cravings: It’s hot so fruit (watermelon and grapes) and salad seem to be the winners.
Anything annoying?: Hand numbness and the heat
Labor Signs? A few more contractions this weekend but otherwise not too much action.
Mood? Mostly excited these days and a little scared of what is yet to come.
Looking forward to:  The doctor’s appointment next week Monday because they will check on dilation/effacement status again!  Hoping to have made some progress as we get closer to the due date.
Worries & Fears:  Hmmm the pain of labor, if we forgot to stock something for little Miss that I haven’t thought of yet, and that my hands will be permanently numb after delivery. 
Weekly Thoughts/Questions: We attended a relaxation and breathing for delivery class on Tuesday which focused on natural childbirth techniques. It pretty much reinforced info I’ve gathered from fellow moms, the internet, and some books I’ve read and had good info for the hubs as well. It was definitely worth the time and money spent and I’m feeling like we can go in pretty prepared to go natural unless complications arise.  Going to try to stay in this positive state of “millions of other women have done it and I can too” state for the next 18days…or however many it ends up being until Miss M arrives!