Newborn Photos

We had Abby's newborn photos taken on Monday and I absolutely LOVE how they turned out!  I waited until December to decide that I really wanted to have the pictures done, and by that time I was unable to find a photographer in the Lansing area who had availability and would also give us the digital rights to the pictures.  Thankfully, an old friend that I used to wait tables with years ago had just had her son's newborn pictures done by a photographer in Grand Rapids, and she was available!  She was pretty reasonably priced, and is sending us a cd with all of the high resolution images.  The session went pretty well, although Abby wouldn't nurse for more than a few minutes at a time.  Because she nursed so frequently, she also managed to poop and pee on almost every blanket the photographer positioned her on!  It all worked out though and after three hours we had some great shots.  I can't wait to get prints and hang up pictures of our beauty!  Here are a few of the pics:

Technology Fail

Yesterday I spent about an hour writing out a long post all about how I'm feeling at nearly two weeks postpartum, how things are going with sleep and breastfeeding, and how I'm enjoying motherhood so far.  I clicked save twice while writing it, but for some reason when I hit publish the entire post disappeared!! Technology FAIL!  I was so mad.  So, instead of rewriting that long and in-depth post, I'll now be doing a quick recap...

The first few days of motherhood were really, really hard.  I was head over heels in love with our little girl, but I was also recovering from major surgery and refusing pain meds because I didn't want to feel loopy, and breastfeeding was a real struggle.  By the afternoon on day two I accepted some Tylenol 3, we saw a lactation consultant, and I discovered hydrogel breast pads.  Things were looking up!  Dave was more of a help than I could have ever dreamed, not just in taking care of Abby, but also with helping me breastfeed.  A week after Abby was born, she finally got the hang of the cradle position (instead of the football hold, which is what they taught me in the hospital) and my nipples stopped resembling partially browned hamburger meat (too much?) and started looking (and FEELING!) normal again.  Since then breastfeeding, for the most part, has been a real joy!  I love just looking down at her while she's eating and memorizing all of her delicate features.  It amazes me every day that we made something so beautiful and perfect!

Knock on wood, but so far she has been an AMAZING sleeper!  At bed time we nurse, change her, swaddle her in a miracle blanket, and lay her down awake in a rock n' play in our room with white noise on.  She soothes herself to sleep and sleeps like a champ!  We have to wake her from a deep sleep every three hours to breastfeed for now, although hopefully at her weight check-up tomorrow we'll get the ok to let her sleep for at least one longer stretch at night.  We save the miracle blanket and rock n' play for nighttime sleep only, and so far this is working out incredibly well.  Dave and I have been averaging around 7 hours of sleep a night, and although we don't feel completely rested because the sleep isn't continuous, we feel pretty good!  Once she gets a little older I would like to add a bath and bedtime story to the nightly routine as well.  I'm sure that her sleep habits are bound to change as she grows, but for now we are very pleased with how well she is doing at night!  She's also napping quite a bit during the day in her swing, bouncy seat, or our arms.  She seems to be a very content baby and only cries when she is really hungry or getting her clothes or diaper changed.  We feel pretty lucky!

I also wanted to talk about my postpartum weight loss so far.  The day of my induction I weighed three pounds less than my pre-pregnancy weight.  Because of how much fluid I received via IV in the hospital, I weighed the exact same amount the day we came home from the hospital!  Now, at 11 days postpartum, I have lost 13 pounds since leaving the hospital, and am down 16 pounds from my pre-pregnancy weight.  I am pretty happy with this so far!  Hopefully breastfeeding, healthy (for the most part) food choices, and exercise once I am allowed to again will help me lose even more weight.  The crazy thing is that because of the way my weight redistributed during pregnancy and because of my incision, my regular jeans still don't quite fit yet. Hopefully they will soon!  Until then I am just living in my maternity leggings and yoga pants!

Overall, Abby has been such an easy baby so far and Dave and I are really loving being parents.  I'm sort of dreading him going back to work in a few days, but I also know that it will be good to get used to the new normal around here.  He has gotten up with me for every single night time feeding since she was born, and I am really, really going to miss the company!  I'll do a post on how Abby is changing and growing soon!

Abigail's Birth Story

I wanted to share Abby's birth story, as a reminder for me to look back on, but also for other moms and moms-to-be because I love reading other women's birth stories.

Friday, January 18th, I went to my regularly scheduled OB appointment.  I had my NST like normal and for the first time ever Abby actually passed!!  That was super exciting, so then I went to just have a quick amniotic fluid check.  The tech didn't say much during the check (which she usually does at least let me know if the fluid level is looking good, etc) and I went to meet with my doctor.  Dr. Horton walked into the exam room and asked how I was doing.  I told her that I was doing great, just feeling ready to meet our daughter but that it seemed like she wasn't quite ready to meet us yet!  That's when the doctor turned to me and said, "Well, she's more ready than you think."  She explained to me that Abby's fluid level was low.  Anything under a 5 is considered low and my level at that time was 5.9.  If we waited much longer or let her go to her due date that level could just continue to decrease and could potentially put Abby in danger.  So, she recommended induction that day.  I went home and called Dave, and he came home to keep me company for the rest of the day.  Our scheduled induction time wasn't until 8pm that evening, so we had a while to wait!  We got some dinner, finished up loose odds and ends, and then headed to the hospital.  I was nervous but very excited thinking that we would probably have a baby the next day!

We got to the hospital and got settled and checked in.  By 10pm they started me on a 12 hour dose of a cervical ripening agent called Cervidil.  Within just a couple of hours I was having strong and frequent contractions.  Because of the way Abby was positioned and the way I was laying in bed, my contractions were not registering on the monitor and the nurse didn't believe that I was contracting!!  It was such a frustrating and painful night.  I had to stay in bed hooked up to monitors all while being in excruciating pain.  When the nurses changed shifts around 7:30am the new nurse immediately saw that I was ready for some kind of pain relief RIGHT AWAY.  We had been in the OB special care unit, and the nurse called over to labor and delivery and had me transferred there.  By 10am Saturday morning I had my epidural in place and was finally able to see straight.  The epidural was a god send for me!!  The bad news was that 12 hours of labor and almost continuous contractions did absolutely nothing, and I was still between 1-2 centimeters dilated and only about 50% effaced.  The doctor on-call that weekend for my OB practice was named Dr. Thomas, and she was very young and friendly.  We discussed options and she wanted to try a few rounds of a different cervical ripener called cytotec before breaking my water and starting pitocin.  They started me on the first round of cytotec, and my contractions eased up almost immediately.  I started contracting far less frequently, and even though I couldn't feel them because of the epidural, I could tell by the monitor that they weren't going to be very effective in helping me to dilate further.  During that round of cytotec, Abby's heart rate started flat lining.  She wasn't reacting to contractions at all and the nurses were getting very concerned.  I had to wear an oxygen mask that stayed on for the rest of my labor.  After the first round of cytotec I was 2cm dilated and 80% effaced.  Not much progress, but Dr. Thomas believed that if I could just get to 100% effaced then I may start to dilate further.  We tried another round of the cytotec and there was no real measurable change.  At this point it was 24 hours into the induction.  Dr. Thomas decided to break my water and start pitocin on the lowest possible dose to see how Abby would handle things.  Six hours later I was still not contracting regularly, and with every contraction that I did have Abby's heart rate fell to levels that the doctor was no longer comfortable with.  The worst news of all is that even after all of that, I was still at 2cm and 80% effaced, meaning there had been absolutely NO change in my cervix after 30 hours of labor.  We were officially out of options.  Abby needed to come out right then, so we signed the waivers, Dave got suited up, and we went off to surgery.

I remember being wheeled into surgery, and that's where things start to get a little fuzzy.  Someone told me they had to shave me, and Dave came into the room finally but he had to put his hand on my face and tell me that it was him because I was completely out of it by that point.  I remember thinking that my mouth had never felt more dry in my entire life, and all I wanted was some water!  The doctors and nurses were all chatting away behind the blue sheet they hung up to separate me from where they were delivering my baby.  At one point blood splattered up onto the sheet and that's when I realized that they had already started cutting into me!  I nearly had a panic attack, but I was so loopy from the drugs that I couldn't make sense of things.  Finally I heard someone tell Dave to look up and see our baby, and then I heard her cry!!  Someone asked, "Is it a girl?" (it might have been Dave??) and I remember saying, "She'd better be!" and hearing the doctors all laugh.  They confirmed she was indeed a girl and I told Dave to go to her and take pictures!  Time whizzed by after that and before I knew it they were unstrapping my arms and handing Abby to me.  My arms were so numb that I was scared to hold her!  They told me that I had to hold her in my arms while they wheeled me to recovery.  We got to recovery and I made Dave take her back because I was so scared that I was going to drop her!  Originally I had wanted to nurse immediately, but I was still so out of it from all the medicine in my system that I ended up waiting until nearly 4 hours after her birth to nurse.  Dave was so incredibly wonderful with her, although we were both still a little apprehensive because we'd never taken care of a newborn on our own before, plus I still had my catheter in and was bedridden for the first 24 hours of Abby's life.  I finally fed Abby with the help of our nurse, and it was a trying process attempting to find a position that would work in the hospital bed without pressing on my incision.  A little while later Dave went with Abby to the nursery for her first bath while I rested and made some phone calls.  We had visits from both sets of grandparents later that day and everyone fell in love with our precious little girl! :)  That first night was a bit difficult because I was still struggling with nursing Abby.  Our nurse thought she might be a little tongue tied, which was confirmed by her pediatrician the next day.  Thankfully once she had her frenulum clipped on Monday we slowly but surely got the hang of things.  She was born early Sunday morning and my milk came in on Tuesday afternoon.  She was much, much happier once she was able to have some food!  We went home on Wednesday and things have honestly been going better than I could have ever expected!  Soon I'll be doing a post about breast feeding and my first thoughts on being a mom.  Here are some pictures from the hospital:

She's Here!!

Abigail Elizabeth Main has arrived!!  She was born 1/20/2013 at 4:30am, weighing 6 pounds 13 ounces and measuring 19.5 inches long.  At her first "well baby" visit she had already gained back to above her birth weight and is now 6 pounds 15 ounces, but due to her sitting in the birth canal for so long and being born with such a cone head she shrunk to 18.25 inches!  Here are some pictures of our little princess:

Next up...Abby's birth story...

39 Weeks!

Well, I've officially made it to 39 weeks.  I really thought we would have our baby girl by now!  Especially because for so much of my pregnancy my doctor kept telling me that they wouldn't let me go all the way to my due date, and had mentioned possible induction at 39 weeks.  Never the less, I know I should be incredibly grateful for a very healthy pregnancy and a baby that's snug as a bug and safely growing inside of me.  I'm so anxious to meet her though!  It's already been four weeks since I've been off work, which I really can't believe.  The time has simultaneously flown by and dragged on.  This week I officially finished every big project on my to-do list, so today after my doctor appointments I'm thinking about going to see a movie by myself.  I just need to be out of the house and distracted, otherwise I just go around the house cleaning things that are already clean to begin with! :)  Here is my 39 week pic:

This week Abby is about the size of a personal watermelon!  I believe it :)

I didn't even realize it, but I was wearing the same shirt in my 29 week picture as well.  Here is a side by side comparison of the ten week difference:

What's funny is that I don't even think I look that much different!  Part of that probably has something to do with how I am standing differently in the two photos though.  I certainly feel much bigger these days!

39 Week Survey:

How far along: 39 weeks

Total weight gain/loss:  No gain or loss this week.  Still at a net loss of three pounds from my pre-pregnancy weight.

Maternity clothes: Most definitely.  I honestly think it will be strange to go back to wearing normal clothes.  Especially normal jeans, yuck.  I love my maternity clothes!

Stretch marks: Not a whole lot of new ones this week, but they're definitely there!

Sleep: I've been up quite a bit in the middle of the night this week.  I don't know if it's just anxiety, or the fact that I have been napping more during the day and that disrupts my night time sleep.

Best moment this week: I got together with a college friend a couple times this week.  It was a nice distraction and a reason for me to get out of the house!

Movement: She's been pretty active, although I have to admit that her movements are getting to be almost painful!  It must be very close quarters in there.

Food cravings: Just sugar as usual.

Gender: Still a girl!

Labor Signs: None.

Belly Button in or out: It's almost flat, but still a tiny bit of an innie.

What I miss: I miss not lugging around this huge belly!

What I am looking forward to: Having the baby of course!

Milestones: Nothing that I can think of, other than making it to 39 weeks!!

I got a coupon code the other day for a free 20 page hard cover Shutterfly book, so I made a pregnancy journal for Abby to have someday.  I can't wait to see how it turned out.  I managed to squeeze every single weekly photo into the book too, which meant that I actually cheated a little and took my 39 week photo a few days early in order to get it into the book before the coupon expired.  I left the very last page completely blank so that I can put my 40 week pic (or last picture before we go to the hospital) as well as one of her right after birth in the book as well.  I think it will be a really nice keepsake.  Hopefully if we're able to get pregnant again I can at least remember to take weekly photos so that I can make a book for our next baby too!   Sometimes those things seem to fall by the wayside with second children.  I have my weekly OB appointments this morning, which I'm not really looking forward to.  It's nice to know that Abby is doing well, and I love seeing her when I go for my ultrasound, but the non-stress test is so worrisome.  Perhaps I'll start a new book tonight so that I have something to distract me during the test tomorrow.  It's worth a shot, right!?  I'm hesitant to bring up induction because part of me really, really wants to be able to go into labor on my own.  The other part of me REALLY wants this baby out though...so it may come up.  We'll see and if there's anything new to report I'll write up a post about it later.  Now...what can I eat that I haven't already tried before this test to get lil miss moving?!  Off to search the kitchen...

38 Weeks!

Well, I made it to 38 weeks and still no Abby!  She is happily baking away at this point.  Here's my 38 week picture...please excuse its blurriness and overall poor quality.  It's a gloomy day here and was really hard to get a decent picture because of the low light!

Dave says that I look like I have dropped.  I sure feel like it!  I forgot to ask the doctor about that today, oops!

Depending on which site I use, Abby is either the length of a bunch of leeks today, or the size of a pumpkin.  We'll go with pumpkin!

38 Week Survey

How far along: 38 weeks

Total weight gain/loss:  Gained back those two pounds again!  Net loss of three pounds total.

Maternity clothes: All!  Although sometimes at home I am just squeezing into old tshirts with leggings.  

Stretch marks: Nothing too new this week, but I definitely have quite a few!

Sleep: Sleep has been ok this week!  Other than Wednesday night because I was having contractions, cramping, and back pain.  

Best moment this week: Got to hold a friend's 5 week old baby for a long time!  She was such a sweetheart and just made me that much more excited for Abby to get here.

Movement: Yes, although I can really tell she's short on space.

Food cravings: Nothing really specific this week.

Gender: Still a girl!

Labor Signs: None.

Belly Button in or out: It's just barely in at this point.

What I miss: Wine :)

What I am looking forward to: Our baby being here!!!

Milestones: These fall in the TMI category, but I started leaking colostrum this week and was pretty pleased about that!  It doesn't really mean anything in the grand scope of how breastfeeding will go, but at least my body is doing what it's supposed to!  I'm also 1 cm dilated and about 50% effaced.  Nothing much, but at least it's a little bit of progress.

I started having some mild and infrequent contractions on Wednesday. At first I wasn't sure that was actually what I was experiencing because I've never had a contraction before. But as the day went on and I had more and more of them, I realized they probably were real contractions. They weren't super painful though, and they weren't time-able either. Mostly they would come between 10 and 20 minutes apart and last between 30-45 seconds. I finally decided to just go to bed and see what happened, and I woke up in the middle of the night with some bad back pain. By late Thursday morning everything had tapered off though. This morning I had another doctor appointment, and as soon as I got hooked up to the monitors I started having contractions again. They were all over the place again in terms of length and frequency though. Abby once again failed the non-stress test, so I went to have a biophysical profile. She had the hiccups during the ultrasound, but was otherwise just relaxing and doing her practice breathing. She scored an 8/8 again, so that was good. Dr. Horton offered to check my cervix to see if I was making any progress because I was having so many contractions. She was surprised to find that my cervix was anterior, which she said is good. I guess it usually starts out posterior and then moves anterior as labor and delivery approaches. She said she might see me for next week's appointment, but that it could be sooner, so that was exciting! My blood pressure was a little higher than it's been in the past: 122/74. She was still perfectly fine with it though and said there's no need to schedule an induction at this time. So it's basically just a waiting game! Abby will come when she is good and ready. I guess she didn't get the memo that her mom and dad are most definitely ready and excited to meet her!

Final Nursery Pics

Not too much has changed in the nursery, but I thought I would share some pictures of the nursery finally all ready for baby!  The very last thing we need to do is set up the baby monitor (it's one of those monitors that also goes under the mattress to make sure baby is breathing).  We probably won't even do that until after she's here since she'll most likely be sleeping in the rock n' play in our room for a little while.  Here are the pictures!

This is a view of the room right when you walk in (the crib is full of our hospital bags right now!):

 Here's the view from the glider chair:

The nursing corner:

The changing table: 

 The dresser alcove (her bouncy seat won't be staying there, that's just its temporary home):

Overall, I absolutely love how it turned out.  I especially love to just sit in the glider chair and relax.  Our cat, Kirby, likes to sleep in the glider too and will often join me in the chair for some snuggles :)  We can't wait until Abby gets here!!

37 Weeks - "Full Term!"

Today marks 37 full weeks of pregnancy complete!  37 weeks is also considered to be "full term", meaning that if Abigail were to be born now, she would hopefully not have any issues :)  Of course, since I am showing pretty much ZERO signs of labor (TMI alert: other than losing some of my plug), I think she's got some baking time left.  Here is my 37 week picture:

This week Abby is about the size of a winter melon:

I really have no idea what that is but it looks pretty big!  I had another growth ultrasound yesterday and Abby is estimated to weigh around 6 pounds 3 ounces right now, putting her around the 48th percentile.  Of course, growth ultrasounds are not always accurate, so it truly is just an estimate based on a number of different measurements.  My doctor said that Abby is measuring right on for her head size and stomach size, but the length of her arm and leg bones are a few weeks behind.  In other words, baby girl is short!  Wow, shocking ;)  Not really, of course.  Considering that I'm really short and Dave is of average height, we're obviously not expecting our children to be very tall!  I'd love for her to be at least 5'3" as an adult though, just so that she doesn't have quite as much trouble finding pants that fit as I do.  A mom can dream!  

I had another non-stress test yesterday and it didn't go well again.  Abby just seems to either hate being monitored, or be on a very regular nap schedule.  At any rate, this week they decided not to bother keeping me hooked up for as long as they have in the past.  After about 30 minutes the nurse declared, "You have a difficult child!" (gee, thanks??) and sent me straight to an ultrasound.  Thankfully, once again Abby got an 8/8 on her biophysical profile.  The whole process is so nerve wracking!  I don't know what to do to make the NST's go better either.  I've tried eating all different foods at different times throughout the morning, I've had coffee, juice, etc.  She just really likes to sleep around 8:30am.  Hopefully it's just a sign of a good napper to come :)  Anyway, I'll be glad when she's here and I don't have to worry about all those tests anymore.  Of course, then I will have a whole new set of worries!  

37 Week Survey

How far along: 37 weeks
Total weight gain/loss: I lost a few pounds again this week.  It just seems to go up and down by the same two pounds over and over again.  Net loss of 5 pounds at this point.
Maternity clothes: All!
Stretch marks: Yes, lots.
Sleep: Sleep hasn't been too bad this week!  There is one spot on my left side where she digs her feet into my ribs, and that can be really uncomfortable when I'm in certain positions.  Once I can get comfy though I've been able to fall asleep fine.  I've also been watching tv up in bed around 8:30pm most nights and start dozing around that time, so I am definitely getting a lot of rest.
Best moment this week: It was great to get another growth ultrasound.
Movement: Yep, but she's really running out of room so it's mostly just stretching and readjusting her bum!

Food cravings: Nothing really specific this week.
Gender: Still a girl!
Labor Signs: None.
Belly Button in or out: Still in.  I think it's going to stay that way!
What I miss: New Year's Eve was tough for me!  I missed being out partying with our friends :(  I felt really down that day.  I know it's all for a good cause though!
What I am looking forward to: Of course I can't wait to meet our baby girl, but I'm really excited to get my hair cut this morning!  Nothing drastic, just time for a major trim.
Milestones: Reached full term!  I also packed hospital bags for me and the baby (with as much as I can excluding toiletries, etc) and installed the car seat.  I'm going to look at breast pumps today too.  We are READY!
This entire pregnancy, my doctor has said that she'll never let me go past my due date and will induce beforehand because of my preexisting hypertension.  Yesterday, however, was a different story!  My blood pressure has been really great (for me, anyway) and yesterday was no exception at 110/66.  I asked the doctor at what point we'll start talking about induction, and she said that because my blood pressure has been so great they would let me go a week past my due date (as long as my bp continues to stay low)!  Honestly, this was not what I wanted to hear!  I haven't been too horribly uncomfortable, but I don't think I can imagine being pregnant (and waiting for baby) for another MONTH!  Late yesterday afternoon, though, I got an email from my OB's office saying that my test for group B strep came back positive.  I'll be discussing this with my doctor next week because that may change things a little.  Group B strep is a bacteria that approximately 10-30% of all pregnant women carry.  It's generally harmless in healthy adults, but can be passed to infants at birth and can cause very serious illness and infection.  Women who test positive for GBS should be treated with IV antibiotics at least four hours prior to giving birth in order to give baby the greatest protection against the bacteria.  I'm trying as hard as I can to stay away from Google and its scary statistics and information and just focus on the fact that lots and lots of pregnant women are GBS + and have perfectly healthy babies.  Anyway, I will get more info from my doctor next week on how this will change my delivery and possible induction.  Until then, we're just letting baby fatten up and waiting for her arrival!