Wednesday, October 27, 2010

One Week Old!

I can't believe that a week (and a day) have gone by already! I know half of the time we were in the hospital (we were discharged Friday afternoon), and it is so much nicer now that we are home. I admit I was nervous about coming home, but it has been fine. The cats have been great around Robbie and Simba hasn't jumped on me, which I did worry about. Matt's mom came up Thursday and stayed with us until Sunday. My mom came back up Saturday and is here until Sunday. My dad is coming up Friday afternoon for the weekend as well. It's been great having so much help around here. I only have to worry about healing and feeding Robbie. Everything else is taken care of! Saturday people from our Sunday School class will start bringing us dinner and that will last for 2 weeks, so I'm off the hook there as well. Unfortunately mom won't be here any longer to do the dishes! I guess Matt will have to start doing them.

Monday was a big day for us. Matt took me to the doctor in the morning to have my staples removed. I started counting how many she took out and I think I made it to 8 and then she pinched me and I couldn't count any more. Matt thinks there were between 25-30 staples. I should have asked the nurse when she was finished, but I was trying to think about other things. In the afternoon we took Robbie to his first check up with the pediatrician. He weighs 6 lbs 14 oz, so he is definitely on track to gain back his birth weight by his appointment next week. The nurse said he is 19.5 inches. I know babies "shrink" because their cone heads round out, but I don't think he would have shrunk by 2 inches if we go by the initial length of 21.5 inches. On Robbie's bassinet in the hospital it said he was 20.5 inches, so maybe we should go with that number. Monday night was the first time I slept in bed rather than the recliner. It is so much nicer to be in bed, but I was worried about getting up and down because our bed is pretty high off the ground. It hasn't been bad, though.

Matt goes back to work tomorrow. His work has been great about giving him so much time off. They also sent a cute flower arrangement. I know he isn't looking forward to going back, but I'm able to get around much better and have even started doing night time diaper changes so he can rest. Matt is going to try to go to bed early tonight. Neither of us are looking forward to hearing his alarm go off tomorrow morning!

Here are lots of pictures...21 to be exact.

Wednesday, October 20, 2010

Robbie's big day!!

I find it funny that the day after I post that we only have 4 weeks left until Robbie's due date he decides to start his journey into this world. It all started 2:30 Monday morning when my water broke. Of course, I didn't know that's what it was, especially since it was so early. It happened again at 3:30 and I started thinking that it could be the real deal, but tried not to get too excited, so I went back to sleep. When it happened a 3rd time at 5:45, I decided I should call the doctor just to get things checked out. I wanted to wait until the office was open, because I didn't want to have to go to the hospital and get sent home. I went back to bed until Matt got up about an hour later and went ahead and called. (I kept all of this from Matt because I didn't want to worry him.) While Matt was in the shower, I talked to the on call nurse and she said if I suspect that my water broke I need to go to the hospital. I started to get stuff together, just in case, and Matt started wondering what was going on. (I know it's common for pregnant women to get up a lot of times at night, but I was definitely up and down more than usual and Matt knew something was up.) I told Matt what had happened during the night, but told him just to go to work and I'll call him and let him know what the doctor said. He would have none of that and said he would be the one driving me to the hospital, so we left and checked in about 7:30 am.

The nurse checked and it definitely was my water that broke, but I wasn't dilated or effaced, so the doctor decided to get me started on pitocin to get things moving along. I was not thrilled that I was going to have pitocin, because I know it can cause contractions to start coming quickly and very strong. While we were waiting to get a room, I started making phone calls. Here is how I remember them:
Lisa, when she answered the phone: Don't tell me today's the day.
Me: Ok, but it is!

Mom: Nick is just about to leave for work, so let me say good bye to him and then I'll call you back.
Me: You can tell him before he leaves that my water broke and I'm in the hospital.

Jonathan: Are they sure your water broke?
Me: Yes.

(You have to be careful what you say to me, because I have a very good memory!!)

I got hooked up to an IV and they started giving me fluids and pitocin, as well as an antibiotic because I tested positive for Group B Strep, which isn't a big deal for me, but Robbie could catch it during delivery. Lisa was able to have her neighbor, Jenna, to watch the kids for a while before Jim and Shirley took over until Erik got home from work in the evening so she could come over. Things were going well, but they had to put me on oxygen for a while because Robbie's heart rate would drop after a contraction, which means he wasn't tolerating them well. After a while things got better, so I was allowed off of the oxygen, which I was glad about because the mask was really starting to bother me.

My parents were able to change their flight, so rather than going home from their visit with Nick and Robyn they came here. Apparently the airline called to verify their story and didn't charge them any fees to change their flight. Matt's dad and Jean also drove up to be with us.

The contractions didn't start bothering me until 4:30, after they hooked me up to an internal monitor. I'm sure that was just a coincidence. I held off getting the epidural for as long as I could, but ended up getting it around 9. Life was much better then!!

The doctor and nurses checked my progress a few times during the day. About 12:30 Tuesday morning, the doctor checked again and nothing had changed. I was only 4 cm dilated and everything was going very slowly. He said it wasn't an emergency to get a c-section, but if it was ok it would be better to go ahead and do it rather than wait several more hours, have nothing else happen, and have Robbie be in real distress. I can't say that I was surprised that the labor ended in a c-section, because I knew things weren't moving along like they should, but that doesn't mean I wasn't disappointed. Matt and I have always said that we would do whatever is best for Robbie, and a c-section was best. They were quick to get the OR ready and the anesthesiologist came and upped my medicine so I wouldn't feel anything (well, not too much anyway!). I will say he upped my meds twice during the procedure. Thank you!! It only took about 15 minutes for them to have Robbie out, and Matt got to be with him as he was getting checked out by the nurses. I was stuck on the table waiting to be stitched back up. I finally got to see him around 2, but they had to take him to NICU because he still had fluid in his lungs, which isn't uncommon for c-section babies. Other than that he looked great!

I think it was about 2:30 when I was finally brought back to the room. Lisa was with me because only parents and grandparents are allowed in the NICU. That started October 1st because of the beginning of cold and flu season. Lisa was worried that she wouldn't get to hold him before she headed home, but he was discharged from NICU at 12:30 Wednesday afternoon, so she did get to hold him before she left!

I know this is long already, and I could post a ton more, but I'll leave it for later. For now, here are a few pictures that you may or may not already have been emailed.

Sunday, October 17, 2010

4 weeks!!

I can't believe we only have 4 more weeks until Robbie's due date. He'll be here before we know it! Matt thinks Robbie coming sooner than the 14th. He is predicting the 6th. I think he'll be pretty close to his due date, but I'd much rather have him come sooner than later!

We got a coupon in the mail from Target for 10% off items on our registry, so we went yesterday with our gift cards to buy stuff. I wanted to add more to our registry so we could get other things 10% off, but Matt said I was not allowed to register for candy corn. Party pooper!! We also had a 20% off one item coupon for Babies R Us, so we went over there and bought the bouncy seat we like. We grabbed a few more 20% off coupons that we can use next week, so we'll get more things that we need. It's so fun to shop for Robbie!

Here are a couple of pictures of me and Robbie. The first one was taken at my parent's house in August. I think I was 28 weeks then. The second one was taken by Matt today. I think Robbie's been doing some growing!



Thursday, October 14, 2010

Baby Shower #3

Monday was my baby shower at work. It's so nice that they were still throwing me one even though I no longer work with them. Monday was a planning day, so we didn't have to worry about wandering kids. I was surprised that some of the new teachers came, but that was very nice of them. There were even 2 former teachers that came. It was very fast, but I know that at the end of the day people don't want to just be sitting around. We had cake and punch and I opened presents and then most people left, though some of us stuck around to chat. I brought my camera, but didn't take any pictures. I did save the sock and mitten flower that was on one of my gifts. A very cute idea! We got a few more outfits, more diapers and lots of gift cards which I'm sure will be used soon!

Here's a picture of the flower:



On a different note, only 1 month left!!!

Sunday, October 10, 2010

Chew toy?!?!

I didn't want to post a bunch of pictures from the baby shower of me opening gifts, because I'm sure no one wants to look at 50 pictures of me and all of my gifts. (There really weren't that many.) As I was looking back at the pictures, I saw this one and I'm pretty sure it was taken right after I realized that I called the teethers chew toys. Maybe I'm not ready to be a mom!! Or, as Amber said, babies are just like puppies.

Friday, October 8, 2010

For Lisa

Last week I took my thumb drive to Amber's house to get Amber's pictures from the baby shower. Unfortunately, there wasn't enough space to get all of the pictures that night, so I took it back last night to get the rest. Last week I didn't get the pictures of me and Lisa playing the dress the baby game, but I have them now. I don't think you can tell how much fun we were having, but it could be my all time favorite baby shower game.



After the shower I had a few friends tell me how similar Lisa and I are in personality, voice and laugh (and looks, of course). I guess that's why we get along so well! I love you Lisa!

Sunday, October 3, 2010

Baby Shower #2

Last weekend was my second baby shower. The girls in our couple's Bible study hosted it and it was mostly girls from our Sunday school class that came. Lisa, Erik and the kids came over Friday afternoon and we hung out for the day. We went to the mall and Kayleigh, Lisa and I rode the train that takes you around the first floor of the mall. Kayleigh saw it last time they were in town and had been talking about it, so it was fun to go with her. Erik and Brian stayed and played in the play area. Kayleigh kept asking why the train conductor kept ringing the bell and we told her it was so people would hear us coming and not get hit. Jim and Jean came into town later that night and stopped by the house for a short visit before we were all ready to go to bed.

Saturday morning we all went out to breakfast at The Original Pancake House. Matt and I went with Jim and Jean the last time they were in town and really liked it. I got the Fruit Stand, which was a Belgium waffle topped with fresh strawberries, bananas and blueberries. I shared a lot of it with Kayleigh, so I also had a lot of Matt's ham and cheese omelet. Mom and Dad were at the house when we got back, and it was a quick turn around for us to head out to the baby shower.

The baby shower was at Amber's house, which is practically around the corner from our house. She had her porch set up nicely for the shower. There was a ton of food! I was super excited about the punch. We had made it for another girl's shower and it was the only thing I asked for. We played 2 games. The first game they handed out a gift with instructions on it. It said stuff like "pass it to someone with blonde hair", "pass it to the woman with the most children", and "pass it to someone with blue eyes." The last one said "pass it two people to the right", which some of us thought it should have gone to Jean, but we were sitting at round tables, so it could have gone either way. The next game we played had a doll that had to be dressed with a diaper, pants, shirt, a hat and then wrapped in a blanket. Even though we worked with a partner, each of us could only use one hand. I thought mom and Jean would have the best time, but I guess it has been too long since they had to dress a baby! They came in a respectable second place, though. I wish I had video of mine and Lisa's turn. Lisa was bound and determined to win at any cost, and let's just say that if it was a real baby, it would be cold because we did not do a good job, though technically the doll had on all of the required clothes. I didn't hear the final ruling because I had to go to the bathroom from laughing so hard, but apparently we were disqualified because we did such a bad job. Oh well.

Matt and I are blessed with such great friends that were willing to shower us with gifts. We are so much more prepared for Robbie's arrival now. Not only did we get gifts from our registry, the hostesses also asked the guests to bring diapers and wipes, so we have a great supply now. It was a great afternoon.