Month: October 2009

….someone needs to invent a good glue-less, non-residue leaving behind bandage.  All this glue gunk from the surgery bandages is getting ridiculous.

… the book “On Becoming Baby Wise” needs an entire chapter with disclaimers including “this ain’t gonna work if your baby enjoys sleeping for 6 hours at a time during the day and being awake for more than 4 hours at a time….what 3 hour cycle?” Oh and did I miss the part where it explains how to get your baby to take a full feeding instead of snaking? Anyone?

…changing a diaper will never result in the use of one more diaper.  It will always end with at least 2 (if not more) diapers in the trash. And half a dozen wipes.  Thus 7 to 8 soiled diapers a day = possibly 14 to 16 diapers used. 

…Katelyn doesn’t like bath time.  She proved this by pooping on her towel last night.

…Katelyn no longer likes to be swaddled. At two weeks?! Are you kidding me? She just likes to have her hands up by or over her face. I should have known after all the ultra sounds showed her in this position.

This is one of my new favorite shows.  I just have to share my favorite clip.

Is that what you were thinking, too?  That’s what my sis Cari-Ann said Katelyn looks like in some of her pictures.  I guess I shouldn’t be surprised when it comes to a 6 pound 3 ounce disproportion bug that we love oh so much.

Being the nicknaming family that we are I thought I’d share a few of our favorites.

This one we call our Baby Burrito.

The picture doesn’t give it all the justice it deserves but I think you get the idea.

Among others she’s Devin’s Baby Girl and my Snuggle Bug.

But most of all she’s our favorite

 

 

Katelyn Eliska Collier

 

Born October 10, 2009 at 4:22 AM

6 lbs, 3 oz

18.5 inches

 

And some more adorable pictures of her in the take-home outfit that Devin bought for her. These were taken after we got home from the hospital on Tuesday the 13th.  

And this is her snuggling (sort of) with the Pooh that Gramps bought for her.

It wasn’t long after I had the epidural that my entire body started to shake.  I was a little cold in the labor room but when they brought me into the OR I was definitely freezing.  I have yet figure out why they keep OR rooms so cold. I was only somewhat surprised at how much shaking I was doing as a result of the anesthesia.  I had had that type of reaction before when I had my wisdom teeth removed but only afterworlds.

They transferred me to the operating table and started to get things situated.  I was hoping that I would be able to hold my baby after delivery when they were cleaning me up but there was no way with all the shaking I was doing.  They have you spread your arms out on these boards to the side of you and then they put these straps across your hands.  They don’t strap you down but the straps were helpful for me so I could somewhat stabilize myself from all the shaking. Then they put an oxygen mask on me and I saw the famous blue sheet go up in front of me. All of the sudden reality set in of what was going to happen and I started to panic.

Devin tried he best to comfort me and assure me that everything would be ok.  One of the main reasons why I was freaking out was because I didn’t expect to feel as much as I did.  It didn’t hurt but it was definitely weird because it felt like they were trying to pull my belly button out. I remember that I kept telling Devin that I didn’t want to feel anything. Eventually, Devin and the anesthesiologist decided that they needed to give me a sedative to calm me down. Generally they don’t like to do that because it makes it so you don’t remember much.  But honestly, I have a hard time recalling anything that happened that night, before or after the sedative.

Even though I was given a sedative there are still several things that I remember very vividly.  One was the anesthesiologist asking me if I had ever had a panic attack before.  That was the first point that I realized I was having one then.

The best moment was when they showed her to me right after they took her out. Several times my doctor told me to look straight up.  Then they lowered the sheet and showed her to me.  I remember seeing the umbilical cord but most of all I remember seeing her face and her eyes being wide open. After that I remember trying to look at her as they cleaned her up on the warming bed, Devin bringing her over and the anesthesiologist taking our picture. After that I don’t remember anything until I was in the recovery room and Devin and I started to discuss what we were going to name her.

Friday we were originally supposed to go back to the hospital to another non-stress test. I’m not really sure why the doctor wanted to do that if everything was “fine” and with all the confusion I decided to  canceled that appointment and made an appointment for my weekly checkup for Monday. 

Since the non-stress test was canceled at the last minute Devin decided to go golfing with some classmates for his golfing class.  When he got home we rushed off to a Divine Comedy show that we had tickets for and since we probably won’t be going to another one for a long time we thought it’d be a good date night activity.  After the show we decided to try out the new Italian restaurant (Little Italy something) in downtown Provo. To be honest, not impressed.  We sat for 10 minutes looking over the menu trying to decide if we even wanted to eat there. Shortly after that we left because we weren’t impress with the loud music, higher than expected prices, and the fact that we still hadn’t been greeted by a server or even offered drinks after 10 minutes. We might go back on a discount day but we’ll see.

Anyway, so we went to Joe Vera’s instead and left 100% satisfied. After that we went home and did some catching up on our TV watching. We watched The Office, Survivor, and Community.

At some point during our TV watching I realized that I was having a lot of contractions.  Like usual, they were not at all painful but I could tell I was having a lot.  Over a 20 minutes period I counted them and I had 5. So Devin pulled up our handy dandy contraction tracker, http://contractionmaster.com. (Love that site, BTW).

After about an hour of keeping track we realized that they were coming every 2-7 minutes lasting for 45 seconds to almost a minute and  half. I wasn’t really sure what to do because the doctors said to come to the hospital when they were 3-5 minutes apart, a minute or longer, lasting for more than an hour.  The kicker was that they were not intense which was another criteria.  If she was in the correct position I would have just waited it out until things were obvious but I didn’t want to get too far along in labor that it made this planned c-section an emergency. So I called the hospital.  They told me to wait to see if they got intense and to go to bed and sleep if I could.

Around 12:30 we headed for bed.  As soon as I laid down the contractions started to hurt. Devin fell asleep right away while I laid awake and counted how many contractions I was having.  By 2am I decided I was in labor and we’d better head to the hospital. Luckily we had packed our bag for our hospital visit earlier that week because they recommended doing that in the event that an emergency c-section had to be done as a result of the version.  So we gathered a few more essential things and headed out the door.

In the 15 minutes it took us to get to the hospital I had 5 more contractions. We walked in and immediately they got me set up in a room. I got changed into a gown and they started prepping me for surgery.  Just incase she had done a miraculous flip, they did a quick ultra sound and she was still head up. They checked my cervix and I was 4cm dilated. I was surprised I was that far along especially without her head in the right position to help things along. Right before they started doing the epidural they checked me again and I was at a 5.  By this time I was in pain but still breathing. I totally could have gone longer if I was able to do something beside lay in bed but since an epidural was inevitable, they started getting the drugs flowing.

A lot of people wonder if getting the epdural is painful. Let me tell you–it was nothing compared to the IV.  I know…weird. I swear they aren’t how they used to be. Now it’s like this plastic tube which I’m sure is thicker than the old needles used to be. The nurse didn’t warn me about putting in the IV and since I was surprised at how much it hurt, I flinched and tensed up my arm which of course made my vein roll so she couldn’t get it in right. So she had to poke another hole.  But she gave me a warning so I knew it was coming and was able to relax my hand while she was doing it.  So epidural = not bad. IV = definitly didn’t tickle.

Shortly after they had the epidural working and I started to feel the effects, Devin’s dad Dave arrived to assist Devin in giving me a blessing.  I am so grateful that he was willing to come at such the inopportune time of 3AM.  I had planned to get a blessing the following Sunday when we were planning to go to his parent’s house for dinner but that obviously didn’t work out. Not long after that, they instructed Devin to start getting dressed in his HAZMAT-like suit and they took me away to the OR.

And that’s when all the fun started. . .

Nope, I’m not skipping a thing so I hope you’re in for the long haul.

We had our baby girl….obviously. But here is the entire story.

At my 38 week appointment (Monday the 5th) I was anxious to see if I had made any more progress as far as dilation. It was a busy day at the doctors office and Devin and I waited an hour and a half before we got to see the doctor. The doctor came in proceeded to examine me when I heard the last thing that I wanted to hear–she’s breech.

Oh snap. Are you kidding me? They took us to another room where they confirmed it by ultra sound. She was head up most definitely. The crappy part was I knew she hadn’t changed positions recently so the last several doctors had been wrong about her position all this time. Ultimately, I was very glad that this doctor caught it before labor set in.

Naturally, I was quite upset about it. I had been preparing for a regular delivery and prepping myself for even a natural birth if things lined up right. Obviously, that wasn’t going to happen this time around. But we went home with the intention to try a version (where they manually turn the baby).  The initial ultra sound by the doctor looked promising for it–I wasn’t too late in the pregnancy, there was enough fluid, the placenta position looked good and so did the cord.

On Wednesday (the 7th) we had our appointment at the hospital to try the version. After a bunch of poor communication between the doctors office, the doctor, and the hospital I finally cleared up with the hospital that I was not going in for a c-section but a version. (I’ll spare you that ridiculous story.) For the first part of the appointment, they did an ultra sound to determine the position, anatomy, size, fluid levels, etc.  The tech said things look pretty good except the umbilical cord was draped around the back of her neck but they couldn’t really see where it went from there.  The doctor who performs the versions came in to talk things over with us.  In the end, he recommended not to do the version because of the cord position, it being my first pregnancy (which makes for limited space) and being in my 38th week (making space limited as well).

So we went back to labor and delivery where they hooked me up for a non-stress test and everyone there thought I was going to get prepped for a c-section right then and there.  Again, I’m not sure where the communication thing fell through but I told the nurses that I hadn’t planned on that.  So they had one of my doctors call me to talk things over to see what our options were.  We had several different routes to go but we decided that we wouldn’t do the version because of the risk of an emergency c-section which we just didn’t feel prepared for at that time. So we decided not to do anything at that time but would think things over.

Later I called  my doctors office to schedule the surgery and I got yet another incompetent medical worker. She wouldn’t give me any options for when to have the surgery but just told me that I was scheduled for Tuesday the 13th.  I didn’t want to do it that day for several reasons but she was being difficult and basically told me I didn’t have a choice, which of course wasn’t what my doctor told me. Later she called back and said that she rescheduled it for Friday the 9th.  This was confusing because she told me that I wasn’t allowed to schedule it before my 39 week date.  Which then that was confusing because they were ready to do the surgery 4 days before 39 weeks. So again, a bunch of contradicting info which she was incapable of explaining to me.

That was on Wednesday.  That night Devin and I were talking about it and I started to get worried that it was scheduled too early.  They don’t generally let you do an elective c-section before 39 weeks because of the lung development. Then I realized that we only had Thursday to get ready and I was soooo not ready. So, I started crying for the billionth time that week and we decided that I would call to make an appointment to talk with a doctor so I could get more information and really find out my options. That way I could find out what the real scoop was instead of getting it 2nd and 3rd hand from clueless office workers.

[I told you this was long….and this is only the pre labor and delivery part.]

SO….On Thursday I called the doctor and I told him my concerns about doing the surgery on Friday and why it was difficult for us to do it on Tuesday (mostly because of Devin missing nearly a week of class).  He explained that they were willing to do it earlier because they didn’t want me to worry about the cord position and everything else looked good. He asked what I wanted to do and I said that I would like to schedule the surgery for Friday the 16th unless they thought that would be too late and it would be safer to do it earlier.  He said he was fine with that and there really wasn’t any reason to do it earlier.

Again, I waited all day Thursday for the stupid scheduling girl to call like the doctor said she would.  When I called she didn’t know any info except that it would be that Friday….no time…..nothing. Supposedly I was just to wait for the hospital to call and give me the info but last time I was told that the hospital was waiting for the doctors office to call them.  So whatever. I decided to just wait a few days to see if I heard anything.

And that brings us to Friday. . . more to come.

Now that we’ve caught up on some sleep, I thought I’d post a few more pictures and a video of our little girl.

Our beautiful baby girl was born this morning at 4:22 AM (10-10-09). She weights 6 lbs 3 ounces. Mommy and baby are doing great. The name has yet to be determined.

Are you kidding me? Have you seen this show on TLC?

Devin and I were wasting time the other day and were sucked in by a few episodes of this ridiculous phenomenon.  I mean really now. It’s one thing to not know for a few weeks, even a few months but to carry to full term and still not know? Sheesh, I wish my pregnancy was like that.

OK, so to be honest even in these past few weeks I’ve actually gone a few minutes where I have forgotten I was pregnant.  But that was only when I was wearing a really big t-shirt or sweatshirt so my mound was not so obvious. I think I’ve been pretty lucky to manage things enough with exercise and watching my diet to seldom feel the literal weight of pregnancy on my body. All I can say is do those lunges and squats.

Anyway, back to my point. So this show is so ridiculous. They have all these women talk about their surprise labor by rating the pain scale between 1 and 10. Of course they have to be dramatic by going outside of that scale. One said it was a 30 another said it was a 15. One talked about labor feeling like cramps but “like 500 times worse.” I guess that depends on what you have experienced before because I know there are plenty of women who don’t even know what bad cramps are.

So this brings me to my next subject that my mind has been arguing over for months–to epidural or not to epidural. This has been my number one question when talking to recent new mothers–did you or didn’t you? I’ve been surprised about the number of “natural” labor and deliveries. I have yet to come across a woman who went natural but regrets it but several who have taken the needle and regretted it for a number of reasons. 

Ideally, I’d like to go without medication. But, that all depends on the situation. Is labor fast, slow? Does it make me nauseous or super tired? Do I go into it with little to no energy or do I get this rush that would be useful during a marathon?

Shoot, I don’t know.