"Playing" in the snow

In the last week, we have had record breaking high temperatures, a flood, and now a sudden snow storm.. 

Well outing #3 became quite eventful.. Ava and I ran to the grocery store to get ingredients to make an app for the get together tonight.  It had been flurrying on and off, but mainly rain, so we decided it would be ok to drive in.  While we were at the store, Ben calls to tell us that the party’s been cancelled due to weather.  We gather a few essentials (ice cream), and head home.  I had gone to an easier access grocery store than typical to avoid steep roads.  Unfortunately, since there has been so much rain, the city couldn’t salt the roads.  In the short amount of time we were in the store, a ton of snow fell.  We took the least steep roads we could, but on the second road from our house, it was too steep.  The Prius couldn’t go forward anymore.  I tried several times to no avail.  We backed up to the curb and put it in park.  It was less than a mile from our house, but being 2 weeks post-partum with my dear sweet Ava, it was a VERY difficult walk home (in the snow, up a hill).  We made it.  I had her very bundled, so she was fine, but it is not an outing I will soon forget.  Now I just wish I had grabbed the ice cream as we walked..

Not a picture from our excursion, but the hat is appropriate.

Ava's First Outings

January 7^th-17^th

Wow, I can’t believe we’ve had Ava home for 10 days!  It is her two week birthday today!  And while I know I should be sleeping right now (because she is sure to wake me in an hour or so to eat), I want to write out anything I remember from the past few days.  We were very fortunate that Ben got to stay home with us for her first 8 days at home.  Between the two of us, nighttime feedings/diaper changes weren’t too difficult most days.  She went through a small growth spurt where she “cluster-fed” for hours on end (on her 2^nd and 3^rd days home), but since then, she has been eating on a fairly regular schedule of about every 2-3 hours (although, as I type this, it has been 4 hours since her last meal..).  On the days where she cluster fed, she would then sleep for longer stretches of time.  At first, I was delighted to get the extra sleep, but then I got worried that I should be waking her to eat.  Luckily, she went to a more normal schedule herself because she did not like when I tried to wake her to eat.  She didn’t fuss, she just didn’t wake up or if she did, she fell back to sleep very quickly with minimal intake. 

   On January 8^th we had her first ‘outing’- we went to the pediatrician for a standard newborn check.  We waited forever (1.75 hours) to see the doctor, but she was perfect the whole time.  We brought a bottle, and anytime she woke up, she ate a bit and went back to sleep.  The doctor said she looked great.  Her jaundice levels were very low (they were never high), she had already started gaining weight back (the lowest she ever was, was 6 lbs 12.5 oz), and she looked great!  I am concerned about her getting a cold because I have one, but doctor said to just run the humidifier and use saline drops if needed.  Hopefully the saline won’t be necessary (we’ve already been using the humidifier).

   Ava’s second (and much more fun) outing was to her Dongarra grandparent’s house for Sunday night dinner (a tradition we have been doing for quite sometime now).  Again, she did great!  Everyone was so enthralled by how sweet she is.  We just sat around looking at her.  On a side note- It is amazing how much better Ben drives now that Ava’s in the car!

   Other than those two ‘outings’, we have just played at home the last 10 days.  We planned to take her to a friend’s small get together tonight, but it was cancelled due to weather.  Having Ava in our life has been incredible, and we are so excited to see the person she becomes!

After her first bath - Jan. 7th

Ava goes home!

    Sunday (the 6^th) we were set to check out.  We would have been able to go home on Saturday, but due to my fever during delivery/possible infection from Ava’s meconium in the amniotic fluid, they wanted to keep me an extra night.  Luckily, everything was fine on Sunday, and we packed up and took her home!  We were a bit nervous about Ava meeting our dogs Moose and Hulu since they were used to being the ‘babies,’ and we didn’t know how they would react to someone getting all of their attention.  We brought in her blanket and individually greeted them before ever bringing Ava in.  Once they met her, Moose was extremely interested off the bat.  He didn’t seem to mind all the attention she got.  Hulu on the other hand was very sulky.  She knew her days of being #1 were over.  She was not as interested in Ava- she would go off and ‘pout’. (It is now 1.5 weeks later, and she is coming around to her). 

   Sunday evening was a blur now.  We finally got to use all of the baby things we had set up.  Ava was very pleasant, and she spent most of her time sleeping or eating.

First few days

January 4^th - 5^th, 2013

   The next few days all ran together as we were in the hospital.  Even though it was only a day ago we went home, I can’t remember the exact days. 

    On the 4^th, we were asked if we would sign for the regular Hep B shot to be given to Ava while in the hospital.  We were uncomfortable with it since she had already had such a traumatic entrance, so we said we wanted to wait and talk to our pediatrician.  Our pedi came by later in the day and assured us that within the first 48 hours is the best time to give that shot.  Since we are not doctors, we agreed.  (Looking back, I think this decision affected the rest of that day for poor Ava.)  After her shot, we spent time in the room just adoring her and getting to know her better.  She had a few moments when she would get upset (and she was very opinionated about which breast she wanted), but over all, she was not too fussy. 

Friday night/Saturday morning that changed.  Over the course of the day, she became very upset every time she woke up, and if we could not calm her down within the first minute or so, she became inconsolable.  Earlier in the day, she would be consolable with lots of effort (bouncing, walking around, shushing, feeding, formula feeding, swaying, singing, swaddled, clothes off/on, etc.).  As the day went on, nothing would stop her from screaming- to the point that she would give herself hiccups.  We had several nurses and professionals come give us opinions/advice, but nothing really worked.  The nursery and pedi suggested that she was hungry and needed formula.  The lactation consultant said she did not think that was the problem (she had watched her eat and worked with us several times on Friday and Saturday).  She stayed with us trying all sorts of different things to help soothe Ava.  Eventually, she tried turning on the hair dryer, and Ava slowly was able to calm down.  We never would have thought of that, so we were very grateful to her (especially when we thought this was just going to be Ava’s personality).  We planned to get a noise machine to help at home. 

   That evening we used the hair dryer on 4 or 5 occasions.  We decided we needed to get some sleep, so Ava spent a few hours at a time in the nursery.  We permitted they give her formula once to knock her out, but I didn’t want that to be a usual thing, so they brought her back to feed.  Over the course of the night, (what I am assuming was the effect of the shot wearing off), she had fewer and fewer fits. 

            We are very, very glad that now Ava is *usually* quite content, and we haven’t had anymore inconsolable crying sessions.  I really, REALLY hope those stay away.  Seeing just a few hours of an irate baby makes me have a whole new respect for moms who have to deal with extremely fussy/inconsolable babies regularly.  Wow, it was tough.

She's Here!

Well, the eggplant didn't work- but pitocin did! :-)  Little did I know, I think I was in labor when we went in at 7:30am for our induction.  I didn't realize that "back labor" is literally ALL in your back.  That morning (and on and off before), I had been having terrible pain in my back, but I just attributed it to being 9 months pregnant and about to pop (I'd had Braxton Hicks for weeks, so my stomach tightening didn't phase me).  When we went in, I was already starting to dilate and efface, but still had a ways to go.  We started pitocin around 8:30ish, and that's when I realized the 'pain' I had been feeling in my back was actually contractions.  Right after my IV started, I had a huge contraction that did not follow the typical 'wave' pattern.  It just stayed high and wouldn't come down for what felt like an eternity.  I soon decided it was time to start the epidural.  (I never intended to go natural, I just wanted to see what contractions felt like).  

   We went through the day pretty smooth (I had an upper respiratory infection, so I was inhaling the ice chips my diet consisted of and after a while, I was allowed to have a Popsicle too!).  My epidural would run low occasionally, and I would ask them to increase it every once in a while, but nothing major though out the day.  I dilated very quickly and was at 9cm by 3:00pm.  Unfortunately, that's about the time things stopped going so smoothly.  My epidural began to 'run low' again.  When I let them know, apparently I was out of 'juice', so they called in the anesthesiologist to give me a 'delivery dose'.  Well, that didn't go so well.  I began to have a reaction to the dose and was shaking uncontrollably.  From what I've read, it's not uncommon (and it actually happened earlier in the day too, but I just thought it was nerves getting the best of me).  

   As it turns out, shaking uncontrollably, being unable to breathe from a cold, and having terrible heartburn from being huge are all bad things going into delivery.. 

   While Ava born at 5:47pm, we didn’t get to meet her until almost midnight.  Right after she was born, she had to be taken to the nursery and checked over.  We had a very difficult delivery which resulted in  her being “vacuumed” out after almost an hour.  She also had the umbilical cord around her neck and that was cut before she was even completely delivered.  When delivery was finally over, she wasn’t breathing, and she was grayish.  Needless to say, we were more than a little worried.  (In utero, she had her first bowel movement, so she had swallowed dirty amniotic fluid). 

  The hospital we were at had special ‘low risk’ rooms that allowed the baby to stay with mom and dad for all of their post-delivery care.  We were in one of those rooms, so we could see them start with Ava, and we could see that they didn’t make much progress.  (Meanwhile, I was still being tended to by the OB and had spiked a 102.3 fever at the end of delivery).  They rushed Ava to the nursery, and she was kept there for approximately 5 hours.  They kept saying she could come out soon, but things kept happening to push that time back (temperature had to regulate).  All the while, Grandpa and Nanny, Grandmomma Sue and Grandpapa Jack, Uncle Chris, Aunt Katie, Uncle Ryan, Uncle Nick, and Aunt Whitney were all in the waiting room watching.  Aunt Charlotte and Lori were also there for a while. 

   When Ava was finally taken back to our room, we were elated to meet her.  She seemed so tiny (she was 7lbs and 19.5in)!  We wanted to breastfeed, and she was probably starving since it had been hours since she was born, so we set to that right away.  We had taken breastfeeding classes, read books, and watched videos, but when it came time, we had to use the internet to look up what to do.  Luckily, her instincts kicked in and she got to work with minimal help from us.  That night, she was a very peaceful baby.  I don’t think I slept a bit because I couldn’t stop looking at her.