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I’ve been trying to write a blog entry about my little angel baby all day but I can’t seem to ever sit down and get one written. By time I check my Flickr, Facebook, Twitter and Google Reader it is time to feed her again. We’ll get a routine down eventually, I know it.

Zoey is doing well. She was up a lot last night so I think her nights and days are messed up already. She is starting to wake up every 2-3 hours on her own and ready to eat so we didn’t set the timer at all last night or today. We also stopped writing down how much / when she was eating because I think she is now eating on demand and we aren’t having to wake her up as much to eat. It’s a lot easier not worrying about time like that but boy when she wakes up hungry she wants to eat right then. At least before we had time to make the bottle and have it ready before she could start screaming her little head off. But I am really thankful that she is eating so much better now. She is eating a good 1 3/4 to 2 oz per feeding now. Grow baby grow!

She has also been battling some pretty icky diaper rash. We were using the Method brand diaper cream but that has proven to be a big waste. I think her diaper rash only got WORSE while we were using it so I am not using it anymore. We’re back to using Desitin and I think Gene is going to pick up some Butt Paste next time he is at the store. It seems like it might be getting slightly better but it just looks so painful. She screams her head of when we wipe over that area with a wipe. So we’ve had her in cloth diapers today, regardless of how big they are on her. I’m using a wipe solution of water, baby wash and tea tree oil and we’re using super soft flannel wipes to wipe her bottom. She doesn’t cry or anything when I wipe her with those. I probably wont keep her in the cloth diapers for a while because they just swallow her but we’ll keep using the flannel wipes for the time being because they are good for her sore bottom.

I did really bad with keeping up with pumping today. There is always tomorrow right? Ugh. I just know I should have been better. Today has been a real “off” day. Didn’t pump regularly, never even got out of my pajamas. Gene changed into clothes so he could run a DVD back to the library and pick up our Chinese food for dinner and he is back in his jammies already. We’ve been total slobs today! I am gonna get a shower in a little while because tomorrow morning we’re going to try to make it up to his work, if the weather permits.

The weather here has been a real downer lately. It has been storming and raining and cloudy just about every day this week and it doesn’t look like it’s going to get much better anytime soon. Actually, we’re getting a cold front this weekend and it’s going to be in the 50s and 60s for the highs. In MAY! Ugh. I am so ready for this crap to be over. I need some sunshine in my life (besides my little princess baby, of course)!

Candy :: Apr.30.2009 :: Baby, Weather, Zoey, Zoey's Firsts :: Comments Off

This morning we took Zoey to her well baby check up and she weighed in at a whopping 5lb 9oz! That is 4oz above her birth weight and 5oz above what she was on Friday when we took her in for a weight check. Not only is she gaining weight, she is also growing in length. She is now 19 1/2 inches long, which means she has grown a whole inch. I’m so proud of my little munchkin and I’m so happy that she is growing so well.

We had to take her back to the hospital after the doctor’s visit so they could re-do some blood tests that they had originally done when she was born. I guess the OK State Dept. of Health’s machines broke so a lot of people were having to re-do these. It sucked having to watch her have her heel pricked again. It breaks our hearts when they do that because it is sooo painful to infants.

We’ve also noticed some goop coming out of her eyes and they are matted shut when she wakes up so she was diagnosed with clogged tear ducts. So now we have to boil water with baking soda and drop it into her eyes (once it’s cooled, of course) 3 times a day and massage her tear ducts. This little girl isn’t gonna let us off easy, lol.

I’ve been a bad mommy as far as pumping goes today. Been a REAL slacker. We were gone almost all morning with the doctor’s appointments and this afternoon I’ve just been tired. Today is a gloomy day and I think between Gene and I both, we’ve had a mild case of The Grumps.

I had my incision checked yesterday at my OBGYN’s office and it looks like a tiny segment of it might be infected. I’m going to start taking antibiotics and go back in a week to have it checked. The rest of the incision looks great and has healed nicely. At least it doesn’t hurt anymore and it is becoming a lot easier to get up and down now. I still can’t sleep laying on my side for too long or it causes some discomfort but hopefully in the next week or two, all will be back to normal.

Candy :: Apr.28.2009 :: Baby, Postpartum, Zoey :: 1 Comment »

I got to watch part of The Price Is Right this morning. I haven’t been able to do that in forever! And we turned the TV to the Game Show Network and some old 80s lookin’ episodes of Wheel of Fortune were on and I learned something new that I never never: my husband is AWESOME at this game! Now I’m wondering why he has been hiding this talent from me all of these years!

Zoey is snoozin’. I’m gonna catch some lunch before it’s time to wake her up to eat. Luckily we had no tornadoes last night and we survived.

Candy :: Apr.27.2009 :: Baby, Zoey :: Comments Off

We’ve got a pretty “busy” night ahead of us as far as the weather goes. It looks like some pretty bad storms are heading this way. I’m really just crossing my fingers that they tucker out before they reach us. I’ve always loved a good summer or spring evening thunderstorm, however Tornadoes just freak me out! Now that we have a little munchkin under our roof, it is making me on edge even worse.

We’ve already got a plan of action that if there is a tornado we’ll put her in her car seat and put it in the bath tub and then take a ton of pillows in there with us. I’m really hoping it doesn’t come to that. I have a feeling we are going to be up all night tonight and not just because we have a 2 week old baby, but because they are saying these storms wont be gone until after 3 AM.

Please just keep us in your thoughts or prayers or whatever it is that you do. I am going to be staring at the news on TV for the next 6 or so hours.

Candy :: Apr.26.2009 :: Baby, Weather, Zoey :: 2 Comments »

So after our good weight check appointment yesterday, Zoey decided she didn’t want to eat well. Actually, I think maybe she had a bit of an upset tummy. At her evening feed, she projectile vomited an entire bottle! Poor little girl. Over the night we fed her smaller amounts and she hasn’t gotten sick since then. I felt so bad for her that it brought me to tears. I know my postpartum hormones aren’t helping with that but I’m noticing I am a lot easier moved to tears than before. At our first doctor’s appointment last Monday, everyone was doting about how adorable she was and even that alone was making me all teary eyed.

Last night was a little bit rough for me. I was really, really exhausted and was having a hard time being up and taking care of Zoey. Luckily I got Gene up both times she was up to help me out. I noticed that when I got up the second time, I wasn’t feeling well at all. My head was pounding and I felt kind of dizzy. Maybe that had something to do with it?

Doing well here today. Just got a shower and feeling GREAT after that. Gene is taking such wonderful care of both of us and I am going to be so sad when he has to go back to work. I’m trying not to think about it and hope that time slows down a little bit.

I tried to sleep in our bed for my afternoon nap today and it was wonderful to sleep on my side again! However, when I got up, it was still really uncomfortable so it looks like we’re going to stay camped out in our living room for the time being. Whenever I get up from the bed, it feels like a really sore “ball” (I’m guessing this is my uterus) is floating around inside of me and it hurts when it moves around. I think once that heals up some more, it will be a lot easier.

Well, time to figure out what we’re doing for dinner. This morning I had toast with orange juice and it was amazingly! And then for lunch we had leftover pizza from last week.

Candy :: Apr.25.2009 :: Hormones, Motherhood, Zoey :: Comments Off

We took Zoey to the doctor this morning for a quick weight check and she has gained 4oz, bringing her to 5lb 4oz, just an ounce under her birth weight. Woohoo!! I’ve never been so excited in my life :) I’m so proud of my little princess. I guess all of these 2 hour feedings are really starting to pay off. It gives me more motivation to stick with it now that I know it is working.

Last night we gave her another sponge bath and boy did she smell delicious. We are using that Method brand baby wash and it just smells so yummy. We went to Babies R Us yesterday morning to use up some gift certificates that were going to expire. I got the changing table pad, some parts for my breast pump and a few miscellaneous items. We got her a little preemie clothing set that comes with a sleeper, a onesie, a shirt, pants and a bib. It all fits her soo well, which makes me so happy!

Gene and I are still hanging in there. We have our moments of extreme sleepiness. Not surprisingly, most of those moments happen in the middle of the night. Sometimes it is really hard to wake up every 2 hours. I wont lie, I’ve slept an hour over the timer a couple of times just because my body would much rather have 3 hours of sleep, instead of 2. We’re doing well though and I can tell that Zoey’s tummy is growing because she is now eating an average of 1 1/2 oz per feeding as compared to the 1/2 to 1 oz she was eating before.

I’m still cheering on my breast milk! I am still working with Zoey to latch on and she did last night but she fell asleep as soon as she got the nipple in her mouth. She is just too sleepy when she gets close to mama’s skin. We are feeding formula every other feed and usually after 2 pumping sessions I can get 1 1/2 oz of breastmilk and feed taht to her every other feed. It makes me beyond happy to give her my breast milk because I know that is the absolute best for her. But again, I am just glad to give her ANY food to help her gain weight at this point.

Oh and an update on me, I am doing great! My c-section seems to be healing nicely. I’m gonna go to the doctor on Monday to have them check my incision. It doesn’t hurt as bad as it did at first and seems to be doing well. She took the staples out the Friday we left the hospital and taped it up so it wouldn’t tear open and I think the only thing causing discomfort at this point is the tape. When it pulls on my skin it hurts pretty badly. I think Gene and I may be moving back into our bedroom next week.. Crossing my fingers on that! And the other good news is that I’ve lost about 22lbs since I gave birth to Zoey.

Candy :: Apr.24.2009 :: Baby, Daily, Zoey :: 2 Comments »

I’ll start with Monday, April 13th. It was my birthday and just a regular ol’ Monday to me. Went to work, ate a great birthday lunch that consisted of a crepe sandwich and a berry smoothie. After work, Gene and I rushed off to Coldstone to claim our free birthday ice cream and then headed to the hospital for our last breastfeeding class that started at 7 PM. We got out of class sometime after 9:30 and got home around 10 PM. I got ready for bed quickly (without showering even) because I was so exhausted and knew I had to be at work in the morning. I think I got into between sometime between 10:45 and 11 PM. Gene stayed up and was watching a movie/tv show in the living room.

Sometime around 12 AM I woke up to turn from my left side to my right side to get more comfortable and I felt a very cold, wet feeling down yonder. I touched my hand to the back of my pants and they were SOAKED. I laid there wondering what exactly was happening and feeling so ashamed for having peed myself during my sleep. I got up to head to the bathroom and grabbed some new undies on my way. With every single step I took, I would feel tiny gushes of fluid coming out and so I eventually just kind of hopped to the bathroom as quickly as I could. I got there and changed my underwear and couldn’t even tell if it was urine or not. But at this point I wasn’t even questioning it, I just knew I had peed myself but couldn’t figure out why I was having such a hard time controlling my bladder.

I walked out of the bathroom and before I could even get out of the room, I was soaked again. I tried to sneak past Gene in the living room to get some new bed sheets out of the linen closet but he caught me. I told him I thought I had peed myself and was changing the bed sheets. He followed me into the bedroom and I realized that I wasn’t having that “urge to pee” feeling and that fluid was just coming out. Gene suggested that may be my water broke and that is when it hit me. That just MIGHT be it! It never even crossed my mind. Luckily I have an amazing husband who did not even hesitate whenever I held the wet bed sheets up to him and said “Smell this. Is it urine?”

I called L & D at the hospital and they told me to put a maxi pad on and walk around for an hour and if it is soaked, to come in and if not it is probably just urine. Well, I soaked through a couple pads in a matter of minutes so Gene and I began frantically packing our hospital bag. He was going to bring the camera and the video camera and our pillows and stuff but I told him not to because I was pretty sure they were just going to send us back home and I hated to have to load all of that in to the car and then come back home just to unload it all and be at work by 8 that morning. Huge mistake here. I later regretted this!

When I got to the hospital they put me in a birthing room, which I was thoroughly surprised at this. She did a swab test to check to see if it was amniotic fluid or not. When she went to check me she said I was 2cm dilated and my cervix was still hard. She went to call the on call doctor and came back to tell me that the on call doctor told her I could have an epidural whenever I wanted one (I wasn’t even contracting at this point) and that she would come start my pitocin drip after she checked on another patient. While she was gone I realized that what she had just said was nuts! First of all, why would they let anyone who is just 2CM dilated and not even contracting have an epidural so soon? Second of all, they don’t know what position my baby is in and they are ready to start a pit drip immediately?? Ugh.

So the nurse came back and I told her the baby had been transverse lie the entire pregnancy and I didn’t want to start a pit drip and end up with really painful contractions only to result in a c-section. They ordered an ultrasound. By this point it was probably nearing 6 AM so Gene ran home to grab our cameras and baby book and all of that fun stuff. They did an ultrasound while he was gone and surprise, she was now in a frank breech position. Silly booger moved, but not in the direction we wanted! The nurse called my OBGYN at 6:30 to let her know and by 7 AM they came in and told me my c-section would be at 9 AM. I called my job to tell them and then I called my mom to tell her.

All during this time, I was having pretty powerful contractions. I think they started around 4 AM and got progressively worse and by 8 AM I had just about had it. I knew I was having a c-section and felt like all of this laboring was an absolute waste of energy. I had only an HOUR of sleep that night and the contractions on top of that just weren’t working. Most of my contractions were in my really low abdomen and back and they had me stuck to the bed. Because my water broke and she was laying breech, they were afraid of having a cord prolapse so they made me stay on the bed. I was even having to bed-pan it. Ugh! Talk about pain. I would have been able to get through the contractions if I was able to get up and move around and get into different positions.

Gene showed up at 8 AM and when he walked into the room with our stuff, I told him the c-section was at 9. I could literally see the panic on his face. Worrying about not having the camera ready or being prepared for ANY of this. Not to mention, he looked utterly exhausted. Afterall, he had ZERO sleep the night before so I know he was just run down. He got into his scrubs and by 8:45 they were wheeling me down to the OR. I got into the OR and moved over onto the TINY and COLD table. The anesthesiologist came in and started prepping me for the spinal block. He got the spinal in and within’ minutes my legs were going numb. They finished prepping me and then let Gene come in and sit behind the curtain. I just told him I couldn’t believe any of this was happening and that we were going to meet Zoey in just a few minutes.

Once they had her out he went over to watch her be weighed and taken care of. When I finally heard her first cry, the tears started flowing and I couldn’t even believe any of this was happening. I felt like someone had squeezed my lungs and my heart really tight. I got a little shortness of breath for a second and I swear my heart grew 100 times. She was born at 9:20 AM and I believe the surgery started a little after 9.

Gene went with the nurses and Zoey to the nursery. They stapled me up and I was instantly wheeled back into my room. My mom called my cell phone around 10 AM and I talked to her. She was surprised that I was the one calling her. I was by myself in my room until about 11:30 when Gene finally came in to check on me. He then went back to the nursery and I think around 12 they brought Zoey in. It was SO amazing to get to hold her for the first time and get a really good look at her. The love I felt in that moment is indescribable.

The rest is history, I guess. We kept Zoey in our room at all times during our hospital stay. I checked in at 2:30 AM on Tuesday and we checked out around 6 or 7 PM on Friday. She was only going to the nursery when they needed to do weight checks, otherwise she stayed with us. We had a good time in the hospital. The time seemed to have flew right by us.

I was a little bummed to have a c-section.. Especially considering how much time Gene had invested into researching natural child birth for me. But there isn’t much to do about a breech baby, especially at the last minute when my water had broken. But apparently Zoey had a mind of her own and decided she wanted to be here 4 weeks early, regardless of how prepared or unprepared Mommy and Daddy were. But there are no words for how in love we both are with her. I don’t even mind the feeding every 2-3 hours. I don’t mind waking up to her little cries or the timer. I know I am going to get to hold her sweet precious little body and see her beautiful face again and that is what keeps me going.

Candy :: Apr.23.2009 :: Baby, Zoey :: 1 Comment »