Quick update

Amy is almost a month old now! Holy cow! It's hard to believe. She's grown so much already. The first few weeks of her life have gone well. She had a bit of jaundice and dropped enough weight at first to worry the pediatrician, but she's made up for it and now weighs 7 1/2 pounds. She is such a sweet girl! Granted, we definitely have our little battles with Ms. Crankypants, but by and large she is a very happy, mellow baby. She already sleeps 5-6 hours solid during the night, which I certainly appreciate. She enjoys tummy time and tries so hard to scoot herself around, but she hasn't quite gotten the hang of bracing her feet against the floor. She seems much happier when Brett helps to brace her feet against his hands, and she'll push off like a champ!

I'm also doing well. My recovery has been remarkably easy, for the most part. I did have a uterine infection and so was on antibiotics for a while, but that's over and done with now. It's taking quite a bit of adjusting to get used to taking care of a newborn 24/7! She just loves being held and will cry frequently if I put her down. We're trying to come to a compromise so that mom and baby can be happy (and I can actually get stuff done!). I'm tired a lot, but that's to be expected. One would think that being mostly nocturnal and having spent most of my life sleep deprived, that I would be used to this, but alas....it was not meant to be. Fortunately I get to nap on a regular basis.

I am starting to notice that I'm not feeling...quite myself. I know it's normal to get the "baby blues," and I have to say....I've got them. I can't really pinpoint it, but I'm just....not quite happy. I love Amy, and I love being with her and holding her and cuddling her, but I just don't feel normal. I've been really bummed all day today, and I can't put my finger on a reason why. I just try to keep in mind that it's normal, that it'll pass, and remind myself not to take it out on my poor husband. Hopefully this won't last long. I don't like being unhappy.

Wow! I am officially a mom!

I had an appointment on Monday, Aug. 2nd at the Perinatal Center at my hospital to do some routine testing since Nugget was technically overdue. They did a non-stress test, but she wasn't moving around a lot, so they took me into another room for a biophysical profile, which uses the ultrasound machine. She was moving a little bit more, but the nurse noticed that her heartbeat was irregular. They also measured my amniotic fluid level, and it was fairly low. So they moved me into another room where they did a bigger ultrasound to recheck the fluid levels and take a closer look at Amy's heart. This whole process took about two hours.

Finally the doctor in the Perinatal Center came in and explained to me what they'd seen, and that he was going to call my OB, Dr. Whalen, to recommend that I be induced that night as he didn't feel comfortable sending me home with such a low level of fluids. Dr. Whalen agreed with him, so I was taken straight up to labor & delivery. This was quite unexpected! I knew I'd be having the baby soon, but I didn't think it was going to be then! I made several phone calls while I was waiting for transport to take me upstairs, so Brett left work to grab the bag and our parents knew what was going on.

I have to admit, it was kind of scary. Granted, I was going to be induced Wednesday night, but I'd prepared myself for that, not Monday! I don't like that kind of surprise! I also felt bad because I hadn't gotten the laundry done that morning. Silly, maybe, when I was about to have a baby, but I'd intended to do all the laundry and make some cookies that day, and it just didn't happen.

Once I got upstairs, they hooked me up to two monitors--one to monitor my contractions (or rather, lack thereof), and one to monitor Nugget's heartbeat. They started an IV and ran some fluids, and I just kind of hung out for a while. Brett got there shortly thereafter (with a contraband milkshake and a parfait for me, bless him!). A little bit later they came in to administer Cervadil, which is a gel that is intended to help the cervix soften and dilate, which helps to bring on contractions. They leave it in for 12 hours.

Yeah....that didn't work. I was kind of bitter, I really had not wanted Pitocin. I had hoped to labor without an epidural, and I pretty much knew that if I got Pitocin, my contractions would be bad enough that I would need one. I'm proud to say that I managed to labor for eight hours on Pitocin without any drugs, but finally they were intense enough that I asked for some pain meds. I took a shot of Stadol first....wow. I will NEVER take that drug again. I felt so high! The nurse had warned me I would feel loopy, but I hadn't expected it to be that bad! The funny part was that I was with it just enough to realize how out of it I was! We'd called Scott, my brother-in-law, to come up and help Brett give me a blessing. When he got to the hospital, I remember telling him I wanted him to tell my mom about a dream I'd had on the drug. I'd dreamt about purple cows hopping around in a pasture, and cows always remind me of my mom because she likes cows.

Once the Stadol wore off (thankfully), I decided to get the epidural. I actually ended up getting two of them because the first one wasn't numbing my right side no matter how long I laid on that side! It just wasn't happening! Still, I got a lot of relief, so I was able to relax. Thank goodness. Mom came up to the hospital around 8:30pm. I was still only dilated to a 6, and I had been progressing very slowly. Dr. Whalen told us that if I hadn't progressed in the next hour, we would have to have a C-section. (He'd broken my water earlier that day.) Well, I guess Nugget just needed to be threatened a little bit! Around 9:00 I started feeling some pressure, and by 9:30 I told the nurse I was feeling a LOT of pressure. 20 minutes later, I started feeling the urge to push. She had me do a little test push to see if she needed to help me labor before calling the doctor, and...nope. I was good. Dr. Whalen arrived five minutes later. After only seven minutes of pushing, Amy Rebekah arrived at 10:02 pm.

The three of us just after Amy was born:

Amy weighed in at 6 lbs 11 oz and 20 inches long, with a full head of hair!

Brett, the proud new dad:

Our adorable little nugget of a girl:

The happy new family at home (yes, we're big Penguins fans, and yes, Amy is wrapped in a Terrible Towel):