NICU- Day 1

So after my rough night I talked with Audrey's doctors and my own.  Together we made the decision that since I was fine and she was going to be in the NICU for several days at minimum, I could be discharged!  I was so happy- I hated having Emily at home without me (and she did marginally well with that, from what Paul said), and I knew I would be able to sleep better at home.  So, I went to lunch with Paul and realized during lunch that just 20 hours before, I had had my sweet girl!  The hours were just running together.

We went home and took a quick nap before picking Emmy up from school.  We brought her home, gave her a bath, and took her back to the hospital to meet Audrey (she had come to see me on Thursday night but hadn't gotten to see Audrey as they had already taken her to the NICU). 

We went back to the hospital and introduced the sisters to each other.  Emily did SO well and was so sweet with her- just held her hand and talked so sweetly.  Audrey looked so so tiny and had a velcro band holding the CPAP machine on her head.  She had some wires and monitors and things but looked much more peaceful than when I had seen her earlier in the night (before the surfactant), when her respirations were about 140/ minute.  We spent about an hour with her and then I came back later and spent about 3 hours with her.  Emmy was upset when we left and wanted to stay with Audrey.

The CPAP machine is potentially making her breathe faster than usual and they have been able to decrease the amount of oxygen that she is receiving through it.  If she can be moved to room air (21% oxygen) soon they may be able to take her off the CPAP and put her on only a nasal cannula!  The respiratory therapist, Bryan, says that CPAP makes them very irritable and that she will likely slow down a lot once she is able to move to the cannula.  I am so hopeful that that might be as soon as tomorrow!
 

NICU Admission

Audrey was having some breathing issues after she visited the Newborn Nursery so she was admitted to the NICU for observation.  Around 11pm a doctor came to tell me that they would be intubating her and administering surfactant, which would help her lungs develop further.  Then after they finished they would remove the intubation tube and put her on a CPAP machine to help keep her lungs open.

I couldn't sleep at all- my room was outside the nurses' station and it was very loud.  Ambulances kept driving into the parking lot with their sirens on (really? they need a siren in the parking lot?!), plus I was upset that Audrey wasn't with me.  It was a really restless night.  I asked for a sleeping pill around 1am, it arrived at 2am and I slept until they came to check my vitals at 4am.  I couldn't fall back to sleep so around 5am I got up and went to see her in the NICU.

Welcome to the World, Baby Audrey!

Hello friends!  We are so excited to welcome sweet Audrey Grace!  Here's her birth story:

Thursday, September 2, 2010:

    We all woke up and headed to work and daycare like any other day.  After my exam on Wednesday night I continued to be uncomfortable- cramping and contracting, but I didn't think much of it, really. (My exam on Wednesday revealed a 4cm dilated/ 75% effaced cervix). Once I got to school around 7:30 I started getting some contractions that were not really painful at all, but very fast and very close together- about 4-5 minutes apart.  I called Paul and asked what he thought I should do and we agreed that I needed to call my doctor's office and see if they wanted to see me. 
 
     I called the OB office and they told me to come in ASAP- they had a spot and could see me at 8:45.  At this point I had been at school for about 40 minutes and had had 8 contractions.  I packed my things up and headed out as fast as I could and drove quickly to the office, where Paul met me.

     By 8:50 we were at the office I was seen pretty quickly.  I did note that my weight was exactly the same as the day I delivered Emily- 151lbs.  Maybe this is the point at which I can't take it any more? :)  My doctor was not in the office, which disappointed me (more on that in a moment).  I was examined by another doc in the practice who said I hadn't changed really since the night before but he noted some bleeding and that Audrey had moved much lower in my pelvis and made the comment that he bet I "wouldn't be pregnant tomorrow".  Paul and I exchanged very, very SHOCKED glances and headed down the street to the hospital.

    I arrived at Triage at about 9:30 and was checked again, and this time was 5cm and about 80% effaced.  I was still getting a lot of contractions about every 5-6 minutes but they were manageable...I kept telling Paul I was sure we were going back home!  The nurse returned in another hour (around 11) and checked me again...this time I was 6cm and 90% effaced.  We knew then that today would be Audrey's birthday!!

We're having a baby today!

    I was admitted to Labor and Delivery by 11:15 and quickly requested my epidural.  The contractions were still manageable but coming faster- every 2-3 minutes, and I wasn't getting much of a break in between.  In addition, the hospital is a busy place and I was concerned if I didn't ask soon enough I would end up needing to push and it wouldn't have been given yet.  The anesthesiologist arrived pretty quickly and administered it and I immediately was glad- the contractions got to be about 1-2 minutes apart but I wasn't feeling anything!  It was so nice to know my body could do its thing without killing me in the process. :)

    I sent Paul back to the house around 1pm to get our cameras and bags- everything was packed for the most part but I hadn't anticipated having a baby that day so none of it was with us.  He was absolutely TERRIFIED to leave me but I insisted on having all our cameras there to document Audrey's big debut.  He drove like a madman and made it out to the house and back to the hospital in record time. 

    It's a good thing he got back when he did- it hadn't been 15 minutes after he got back that I suddenly got a lot of pressure and told him I thought Audrey was coming....NOW.  The room quickly filled up with nurses, my doctor (what are the odds that MY doctor would be on call that day?? I was thrilled!), and the NICU staff since Audrey was only 35 weeks and 5 days gestation.  I got the go- ahead to start pushing shortly after 2pm.

    One thing I did differently for Audrey's birth that I didn't do for Emily's was to use the mirror.  She is truly our last baby and I really wanted to see her being born...I regretted it a lot after Emily was born.  We got into position and I gave about 10 pushes or so and she was here!  It was incredible- the most amazing thing I have ever seen.  She was SO tiny but the NICU team looked her over and then left the room.  I was able to keep her with me for about 2 hours before she went to the nursery and I went to my room to wait.  I was so excited and overwhelmed- she is beautiful!

    Official birth stats:  Audrey Grace
                                 5lbs 10oz
                             19.5 inches long

Isn't she lovely?! :)

Birth Plan...

In talking with some girlfriends recently it came up that I didn't have a birth plan in place for when Audrey arrives.  So, being the little worker bee that I am, I took a few moments to jot down some things that are important to me when giving birth.  It is a little personal, but I thought it might be helpful to anyone who is giving birth soon and could provide some insight into how you want YOUR baby's birth to go down.  So, without further adieu....I present:

Audrey's Birth Plan

1.  Meet me in parking lot with epidural. Administer epidural before real contractions start to bother me.

 

2.  Allow me to eat ice cream during labor (you know, for the baby).

 

3.  After only a few hours of labor (pain-free...remember my friend Mr Epidural?), push again for 11 minutes (or maybe only 10..I can go faster now that it's number 2!)

 

4.  Hand me beautiful baby girl who will come out like a TV baby with no nasty cottage cheese all over her.  Doctor and nurses shall proclaim it was the smoothest delivery they ever attended and shall remark how gorgeous said child is and how perfectly shapen is her head.

 

5.  Baby will immediately latch on and breastfeed like a champion right from the start.

 

6.  Deliver my almost 3 year old to the room to greet baby, where she will become completely enamored and not act out or be jealous in any way. This shall continue, in peaceful tranquility, through to their adult years.

7.  Provide me with pre-pregnancy clothing to wear home, since I will have lost all weight gained and will also have a toned abdomen.

 

8.  Leave 2 days later (on a Monday so Emily has the entire week at school to be "normal" and not be stuck at home watching me take care of new child).  New baby will continue breastfeeding successfully and will lose no weight. Emily will show no signs of regression or remorse at having a sibling; in fact, evenings shall be spent as a family of 4, all of us gazing adoringly at one another and remarking how wonderfully easy it was to add a second child. 

 

 

The end. 

34 Week belly...

Here's my 34 week belly in ALL it's glory!

PS- Audrey has a ROOM now!! Paul and I have worked SO hard this weekend on her nursery...just a couple final finishing touches and I'll post pictures.  It's precious!!

Emily is 34 Months Old!

My sweet girl is 34 months old today...how time flies!  She is super fun right now and really is taking off in a lot of areas.  Here's your monthly update!

- She is really, really excited about Audrey.   She asks me every day when Audrey is going to be "borned out" (her terminology for childbirth, haha!) She is probably really looking forward to Audrey's birth because I've not been allowed to pick her up and hold her- I have to bend down to her. 

- When I'm bending down to hold her, she says, "You haffa hold me down here until Baby Audrey gets borned out!"  It is precious!

- She is still loving to cook with me, only now it's getting to where she has to also decide WHAT we are cooking as well.  The other day she insisted on making a cake with me.  It was late (after school) and I wanted her to go to bed so I finished the baking and frosting myself.  I secretly saved some of the cake mix and made her a couple of cupcakes.  The next morning she came downstairs and immediately yelled, "THE CAKE IS READY!!" because she saw it waiting on the counter to go to school with me for my teammates.  I quickly pulled out the cupcakes and showed them to her so she wouldn't be sad the cake was going with me to work...and it worked!! She was so excited to come home on Friday night and eat her cupcake. 

- She is starting to copy what we say.  I don't love this!  It drives me a little bit crazy, but what can you do?  She sounds really funny doing it, she even gets the same tone and body language with it, so it's so hard not to laugh at her.

-We had this conversation the other day:

Me: "Is Miss Christina still wiping your bottom at school?" (She had had a rash and I asked the teacher to help her).

Emily: "No."

Me: "Who is wiping your bottom?" 

...Emily: "Daniel" (a little boy in her class!!!!!!)

Me: "WHAT?"

Emily, insert guilty look: "Miss Christina".

HAHAHAHAHAHA.....you should have seen my face!

- This morning we were setting up Audrey's crib and Emily kept coming in and taking the screws and saying she had to "crack" Audrey's crib.  Not really sure what crack means but she was very intent on doing it!

- She has the cutest pronunciations for a few words--

    - neighborhood = nayver hoog

    - flash cards/ flashlight = splash cards/ splashlight

    - upstairs/downstairs = updairs/downdairs

- She is capable of making it up and down the stairs alone now.  If you've ever been to our house you know we have 13 hardwood stairs with a baby gate at the top and the bottom.  So how is she going up and down by herself?  Well, she simply opens the baby gates now! It's a fantastic trick....NOT!  I hate to see her on the steps but it's almost impossible to stop her- she is SO proud of herself.  She will come down with us and then suddenly "remember" something from upstairs that she simply MUST go get.  Then she's doing everything she can to get back up the stairs to go get it.  She'll say, "Oh NO- I forgot my silk!  I haffa go back updairs and get him or he will be very sad!" And then before you know it, she's opened the downstairs gate and is halfway up the steps again.  Crazy kiddo!

- This month whenever someone visited us, she wanted to leave our house and "go on a trip" with the visitors.  It was so cute but a little sad too since A) she couldn't go with them and B) why does she want to leave us so badly?  (I mean, besides the fact that she has a sister coming, ha ha!)

- She is in love with the whiteboard that Grandma Frances bough for her, and constantly asks to do the board and the pens (we keep the dry erase markers put up away from her other coloring stuff).  She has gotten pretty great at tracing her own name!  I am pretty impressed.

-Emmy hit her head on her bed one night, sat straight up, looked at me, and said, "Awwww dammit!". Fantastic.....

- We are beginning to have issues with telling the truth.  She has figured out if she says she has to go potty I will basically drop everything and take her.  Most of the time she can pee on demand, so I can never really be upset, because she does go..... but it is super annoying to get up from dinner twice in 5 minutes or to have to go back upstairs every night so she can poo poo, even though I make her try to poo poo every night BEFORE bed.   She'll say she doesn't have to go but then just moments later, suddenly she does need to.  This afternoon she was in her bed, "trying" (I use the word very loosely!) to nap, and she started yelling out, "MOMMY!  I HAFFA POOP!  I AM NOT TELLING YOU THE TRUTH!!"  How does someone even begin to respond to that?!?!

- We also had this conversation recently: 

Me: "Emmy, what color hair do you think Audrey has?" 

Emmy: "Purple." 

Me: "What color eyes?" 

E: "Rainbow.". 

Apparently Audrey is not my daughter, but Lisa Frank's. :) Love it!!

That's all I can think of for right now.  She's getting cuter, smarter, and sweeter with every day.  Thanks for checking in on our sweet girl! 

34 Weeks Pregnant!

Just wanted to say I am celebrating the number 34 this weekend- I am 34 weeks pregnant and today is Emily's 34 month birthday!  I am SO thankful my contractions haven't been horrible since the return to work- still having 20-30 BH ctx every day, but when you count in that I'm awake like ~15 hours or so that's not too bad. I had one Thursday that I thought, for SURE, was the onset of labor....it was RIDICULOUS.  It started while I was in the kitchen and I thought I needed to pee so I went in the bathroom...Paul had to come help me up off the toilet and into the living room to lie down b/c I was practically paralyzed from it!  It just kept gripping tighter and tighter and tighter...I was all white-knuckled and holding my breath...crazy!  But when I laid down it went away and it's not been like that again. 

Monday I go to the doc to discuss the next steps.  Hard to believe in 7 days, she doesn't have to mandatorily go to NICU, and in 21 days she is considered full term!  And I'm still working, which is best of all so I'm not wasting time at home without her here.  Belly pics coming this weekend! :)