Doctor's Appointments, being at home, etc

Molly is officially 3 weeks tomorrow! My darling baby girl is almost a month old. When. Did. That. Happen. 


Anyway. 


What happened this week. Molly had her first doctor's appointment! It went really well. She gained a pound (now weighs 8lbs, 11oz!) and grew a quarter inch! (21 1/4" now!) Doc said everything looks great, she's great. Glad we're doing well, keep doing what we're doing, and we'll be back in June for her 2month checkup. That one wont' be as fun because of the vaccines, but necessary.


Other than that, this week has been a quiet ish week. Molly and I stayed in. She was a bit fussy off and on this week, cause of a growth spurt (I believe). I've been sleeping as I can, and getting used to waking up to nurse and all that. We are figuring out our routine, or attempting to. Hopefully she'll get into a better/steadier one soon. Or simply sleeps longer at night. Then again, I should probably get to bed when she's sleeping so I'm catching up on it. Figuring it all out! 


I still can't believe she's ours and here. It's still quite surreal but also getting used to it. I like being a mom!


Hubby's birthday is Monday! So today we wandered down to Laguna to take Molly on her first beach trip (She slept for most of it). Tomorrow we're doing breakfast at his aunt/uncle's restaurant. First time of that side of the family meeting Molly! Then going out to dinner a couple times this week, using Hubby's birthday coupons!


Got my disability award letter in the mail! Getting 65% of my weekly paycheck. That is a huge relief.  We weren't sure how much I would get, but we couldn't find out until I went on leave and sent in all the paperwork. Felt a bit like a Russian Roulette game, and it all worked out. Very happy about this. 


Wednesday, I got to catch up/talk with my Mum. It was incredibly lovely. I am so happy we got to chat. Love you lots, Mum! 


Now time to sleep before Molly wakes up to eat. 

Due-Date

Apparently I'm supposed to have a baby today.


Apparently, my body decided two weeks ago was a much better option.

Happy Due-Date and Two Weeks, Little Frog!!

Some First Thoughts

It's been one week and four days since Molly was born. I am still very shocked that she's actually here. But at the same time, falling into a routine with her (as much as you can have one with a newborn, of course), and otherwise can't really imagine my life without her. It's hard to believe that two weeks ago, I was sitting at home on bedrest, worried about my doctor's appointment on that Friday, wondering if she was going to be coming or not.

The first week home feels a bit of a blur because we had people over, and Hubby was home for the entire week. So it felt more like a vacation than anything else. With a new family member. Hubby went back to work Monday, and my Twin came to stay until Wednesday.

So officially, today is my first day really home alone with Molly. And it's been a rather lazy relaxing one. We slept in till 10:30, she fell asleep long enough in her bouncer to let me get the dishes done and make myself something to eat. Then we've been relaxing on the couch, watching movies and her napping/eating.

I'm loving the time off work, and also being a mom. I really didn't expect to be this overwhelmed with love for someone. It's a new experience to have that feeling the second she was born and just to feel it growing over the little time it's been, let alone how much it will grow over the years.

Molly makes teh cutest faces and yawns. Wiggles adorably. Everything. She is so perfect. I can hardly believe it.

And speaking of, she's waking up, so time for me to go.

Not quite the Easter I was expecting Or Molly's Arrival

I am currently sitting at home, staring at Molly laying in Aaron's arms, and trying to make sense of this past weekend. 


So, as we left off, I went in on Friday morning for my appointment. The nurse came in, smiling, and checked my pressure. It was 158/100, then 151/110, then 160/112. She went out to tell the doctor. He came in, checked my cervix (ouch), and I was dilated at all. He told me though that we were going to the hospital and having this baby this weekend, because it wasn't safe to keep her in there with my high blood pressure. I called Hubby, he came racing from work, and away we went to L&D to officially get admitted this time!

(Last pregnant picture!) 


Because I wasn't dilated, they put me on cervidel (sp?) to try to get my cervix to start ripening (ouch). It really meant lying in bed for 12 hours, watching TV, eating, chatting with nurses and Hubby, waiting to see if it worked or not. Also, I wasn't really allowed to get up and move around too much because they wanted to keep my pressure low. As the day went on, I kept feeling contractions getting stronger and more painful. At 11pm, the nurse came to remove it and check. Still wasn't. So she went to call my doctor to see what he wanted. Had yet another one done! The nurse also gave me some painmeds because I wasn't able to sleep from the cramping. 


This painmed made me super loopy and high. Also dizzy. Apparently I told Hubby that this was why I shouldn't be given viagra. Lol. I meant Vicodin. Hubby laughed a lot. 


Those drugs knocked me out till about....7AM or so on Saturday. At 1pm, the nurse came to check and I was barely 1cm dilated. She called my doctor, and he came in to check himself. He managed to get his finger in and break my water bag to get things going. That really hurt. And then the real fun began! Here comes pitocen. He wanted to speed things up, so my dosage got upped every 20 minutes to try to get my contractions 1-2 minutes apart, lasting a minute. The problem being that my contractions were super irregular so they kept having to fiddle with the dosages and such. Eight hours later, I was literally convulsing hanging onto Hubby's arm through the contractions. They were spiking up into the 75% range, and lasting 60-70 seconds each, every 2 minutes. I basically was having one giant contraction and then several little ones, with no real break in between. The nurse came in, looked at me in the middle of one, came over and said "Do you want your epidural?" I nodded. So at 9:30 I got my epidural which enabled me to pass Stu till about 4AM where I woke up in more pain, but different. I had reached 4cm and the pressure of Molly's head bearing down kept me awake. I tried to doze but didn't really happen. 


When the nurses checked me, I had gone from 4cm up to 7cm. And we all hoped when they came back, I'd be up to 10cm. 8AM, they checked on me, I was 10cm, and able to start pushing. The nurses told me it might be a while cause I was a firsttime mom and such. I was like "No way in hell I'm letting this take more than 3 hours. This baby is getting born now." EDIT: An hour and a half later, out came Molly! 

We got situated into the recovery room. Family and friends came to visit. Monday and Tuesday were long days, because we just desperately wanted to get home. Finally on Tuesday, we were discharged. 

This was not the Easter I expected, but it was amazing. Molly is such a gorgeous amazing little baby (Yes yes, I'm biased), and such a cuddler already! She loves being held by us and just relaxing. I keep staring at her, wondering how on earth that little miracle came out of me. We are settling at home really nicely. It's amazing how right this feels. 


So that is my story for now. Quite the long one. Did not expect to be in the hospital for 4 and a half days, but Molly was worth it. We are so in love with this little girl. Cannot wait to see how amazing our life continues to get with her. 

Interesting Week

Ok then. I should probably update this.

So, this week has been incredibly interesting. First off, Monday, I woke up having minor contractions. Nothing too painful but definitely regular. 10-15 minutes apart, lasting about 45-60 seconds. These didn't let up like my normal Braxton Hicks I'd been feeling (usually I could move around, shift positions, and they'd ease up. These were not.) They started getting a little painful towards the middle/end of the day. So I called my doctor. He asked if I was leaking fluid and I told him I wasn't sure, maybe a little? 

So off go I to my first trip to L&D to get monitored and checked for fluid leaking etc. I wasn't. Everything looked great.  So they sent me home. The nice one was that we got to see where we're going, meet some of the nurses, and otherwise be able to get a grasp of how things will happen.

Monday night, tried to sleep. Tossed and turned like normal.

Tuesday, I was feeling really exhausted. People told me I looked really pale and beat. The contractions were still happening at the same frequency but becoming mostly painful, instead of just sometimes painful. Made it through work, got home, crashed early. 

Wednesday, got up, went to work. Then went to my normal routine doctor's appointment over lunch. By this time, still having contractions. I waited for about an hour or so, then got called in. I was chatting with the nurse like normal and she was taking my blood pressure. And her face went from smiling to really serious and worried. I asked her if it was high and she said "158 over 100". Yah, that would count as high. She put things away and told me she'd come back in a few minutes to try again. I usually have highish blood pressure in the normal range (hovers around 138-140/80). This was incredibly higher though. She came back five-ten minutes later, took it again, and it was 150/110. Now I'm worried. Doctor comes in, chit-chatting, and then looks at my chart doing the regular "Your weight looks good, urine looks good--oh wow, your blood pressure is high. We need to send you to L&D again to get checked out for Pre-eclampsia". 

I asked him some questions, he listened to Molly's heartbeat, and then away I went to collect Hubby from work to go sit in L&D for 4 hours. We got there, I got all hooked up like I was supposed to. Of course, the minute I get there, blood pressure is back down. Got 4 vials of blood drawn, had a catheter (Joy ><) done, and otherwise was laying around on a bed listening to Molly's heartbeat and my blood pressure being taken.

The nurse, who was the same one from Monday night, really sweet gal, came back in and told us that since we were here, Doctor was having radiology come get me to have an ultrasound to see Molly's growth/age etc. We had a really great ultrasound tech! And got our next surprise of the day, when she asked me how far along I was and I told her (37 weeks). She got this shocked look and went, "There's no way you're 37 weeks. Baby's measuring 40 weeks and 8lbs already." Apparently, Molly is big enough that the ultrasound tech could barely get the readings that Doctor wanted cause she couldn't see everything. I know they're just averages and can be off by a couple of pounds, but still!

Fun fact of the day: Molly has a FULL head of hair! I knew it! 

So after that, got brought back up to L&D. After another hour of monitoring, got told to go home and be on bedrest until my appointment Friday. We headed homewards, I called my boss to let him know, then called my temp so she knew to come in Thursday. Relaxed for most of the evening as much as I could, had my bloody show that night (TMI), and had contractions all evening. 

Thursday, I woke up, said bye to Hubby, scheduled my appointment, and slept in. Then I got up, made some food, got a big glass of water, and migrated to the couch where I pretty much stayed for most of the day, relaxing, keeping my feet up, and catching up on movies. I napped a little, and was otherwise very bored. Contractions are about the same frequency wise, but are getting more painful. Molly is even lower than she was before. Things seem to be progressing! 

I'll find out more tomorrow at my doctor's appointment. Call it instinct or mother's intuition or whatever, but I highly doubt Molly is going to be staying in there for another 2 weeks. I'd be surprised if I make it through the weekend. We shall see though.

All in all, it's very exciting to have things progressing and that Molly is almost here!