Amazing

She is amazing! She changes and grows every day...she is 2 weeks old today. This past week, she showed me how smart she already is. She is mocking me when I stick my tongue out at her. She feels like she has gained at least a pound. We have our 2nd pediatrician appointment Monday morning with Dr. R, so we'll see how she is doing then!

Breastfeeding is going pretty well, however, I am feeling quite anxious about how BF will go down once I am at work. I was so worked up about it last night I tried to discuss it with Preston...at midnight..lol. It didn't really take. There is no doubt I will have to buy/rent an electric pump. I have a single manual pump and that is tiring! I was able to freeze my first bag of milk though. I think I got about 4 oz in total. I was quite proud of myself...Don't have much else to be proud about these days besides the baby so give me a break! =)

I am very much looking forward to the holidays. T-day is next week and we'll go about 1 1/2 hour north of Atlanta to his Moms side of the family as we do every year. There are at least 50+ people and they have a very nice spread of food. The only downfall, no leftovers. I think one year I made our own T-day dinner afterwards or the day after...I need my leftovers. We'll just have to see.

This week has been much better. My Mom stayed with us for a month...something that we will not do again. It was by far the most stressful week in our almost 8 year relationship. We've never had this much tension on us before. I plan on writing my mother a letter, because there is just too much to fit into a phone conversation and she needs to know how I/we feel. She unfortunately has a substance problem. She has health issues and while these are prescribed meds, they are over done. I worry that she (combined with smoking/drinking/not eating healthy) will pass younger than she should. I am just sorry that my husband and our relationship was put through this, but that which does not kill us makes us stronger.

There is the baby. I'm off.

She's here, and it's over!

Or is it just beginning? My daughter, Addison was born on 11-8-08 at 1:38 pm. I am posting my birth story for those interested :)

I will firmly believe that my appointment that Friday (11-7) was the reason I started having contractions. The doctor had me sitting (not laying) in a reclined upright position. My legs were bent up on the table and she was touching my brain just about. I asked her if she wanted to break my water for me.

I began having contractions regularly at around 8 o'clock that night...they were short, about 30 seconds to 1 1/2 minutes every hour until around 10:30. Then every half an hour, still lasting 30 sec to 1 1/2 minutes. They gradually picked up in their intensity and frequency. I did not sleep at all that night. Around 2am, they really started in pretty good. I called the dr office where they have a messaging service and they paged the midwife (even though we were a designated dr patient) who told me to take a shower and drink water and if they don't let up to call her and let her know and to come in. Around 4:30 they were still very strong, at that point I had already showered and I had told Preston to go ahead and get ready to leave and to tell my Mom so we could be ready to go. We left around 5:30 and got there at 6am.

Admission was fairly quick. Got into the L&D room, got changed and went through the 90 question drill with the nurse. Gave me some sort of painkiller to help relieve the contractions...at that point they were pretty rad. They checked me and I was about 4cm (and ready for the epidural!). Around 8 or so they gave me the epidural. It sucked dick. I feel like my back is kind of screwy after that...even moreso than before. I did not see the needle, but I did not like the feeling of them digging around in my spinal column. I ended up moving/jumping while they were in there which they do NOT want you to do...but that shit hurt. About 10 minutes later the epi kicked in...to my left side. Nothing happened on my right. It had a numbed feeling...but the epi did not affect that side. I could gradually start to feel contractions on my right side so I called the nurse and let her know. They gave me an additional shot of meds which rendered my waist down useless. Literally. I could not move. This created a big pain in the ass a couple hours later.

They checked me shortly after the epi and proceded to put me on pitocin as an epi can sometimes slow/stop contractions, which it had done with me. I don't recall times (please forgive me-short term memory...basically ALL memory has been out the window since pregnancy) but I went from 4cm to 7cm in short of an hours time. This was after the epi was done. Because of the rapid progress, they decided not to hook up the monitoring device that goes inside you to monitor the baby heartbeat and they continued to monitor using the stomach devices.

I was forced to lay on my right side after the epi which became very uncomfortable after a while, especially prior to them giving me the add'l shot of meds. If I were to rotate to my left side, the medicine would continue to drain out of the right, so I had no choice but to stay on the right. The other thing that I was dealing with a couple days prior to delivery and into delivery, was my right hand/wrist was very painful to move. It hurt so badly, it felt like a sprain or when you pinch a nerve. It went away the day after delivery...but it was really odd.

Around 12:30, the device that monitors the heartbeat showed that the babys heartbeat was slowing down. I had about 8 people rush into the room at once. They shoved oxygen in my face and hurried my mom and his parents out of the room. Preston stayed. I was so out of it...I felt like crying but I was so numb, I couldn't muster anything. All I could feel was the nurse massaging my stomach like they were trying to wake the baby. Because of the add'l meds for the epi, I still could not move my legs. It took Preston and 2 nurses to rotate me onto my back so that they could bring the babys hb back up. She had found a way to lay on her cord so the hb decreased very rapidly. They were able to bring it back up, but I felt so bad for Preston. He told me afterwards he was really scared. I don't blame him...they really don't tell you anything until after the fact.

About 15 minutes later, they checked me, and again it became chaotic. I could feel the presence of something, but not so much b/c of the meds. I was dialated to 10 and it was time to push! The doctor left me with the nurse (while I thought to myself- where the hell do you think you're going????) and we started to push around 1pm. Again, we had to rotate me onto my back. Preston got to hold up one of my 80 pound legs while I pushed. I did about 25 minutes of pushing, and the nurse told me to push 1x, then stop. Did the same thing one more time and she said NO MORE PUSHING. They then attempted to call the doc who had made his way down to the cafeteria...lol. He finally came up and he got his t's crossed and Addison was born at 1:38pm. I pushed for about 1/2 an hour.

Doc said 2 things: He didn't think that I'd deliver vaginally. He expected that we'd have to do a C. He gave me a big pat on the back for that feat.

Also, he was amazed how quickly I delivered, which is why he was down at the cafeteria.


-I look back to the day we found out I was PG and how horrified I was. I wouldn't change anything now. The whole process of life is so amazing. I sit here every day and can't believe that she is mine. She changes and grows every day. I love her. I love watching Preston with her and know that he will continue to be a great father. Babies are truly a miracle.-

So behind!

I'm a slacker! Yes I'll admit it. It's been almost 2 months without an update. There hasn't been too much going on but I'll try to break it down the best I can with my horrible memory.

The update on baby is as of today, she is 4 days overdue. She is still active and we had a NST (non-stress test) Monday I believe and everything checked out. We have a follow up appointment tomorrow at 8:30, where they will schedule me to be induced either Sunday/Monday. So at the most we're looking at no more than 4-5 days until she is here! I am very excited but also nervous. It is such a huge life change that incorporates so many emotions and changes...it still seems very surreal that I will be a Mom.

Over the last couple of months we've had a few appointments obviously. At the end of Sept, (9/26 I believe) I had an appointment with a midwife who stated the baby was growing bigger than they'd like, so they scheduled me for an ultrasound that following Wednesday, 10/1. They determined that she is in the 89th percentile for growth however my fluid was low (a 7) so they placed me on bedrest for 3 days. I returned to work that following week with improved fluid levels at an 11. Don't ask me what "normal" fluid levels are...I have no idea.

At 36 weeks, I had them check me- I was 1cm dialated. They typically don't check until 39 weeks, so we'd have to wait a couple more to see what progress I've made.

We've had appointments since then every week...We saw the last doctor, Dr. Ivan on the 17th who also made a comment about our big baby. He scheduled us for another u/s the following week on 10/22. Saw Dr. Amy who informed us she is 8lb 3oz give or take a pound however she was not concerned with the baby being too big. One thing that sucks about having so many doctors at a practice- you have about 8 different opinions from 8 different people...one says she is too big, the other says she is fine and not to worry...I think next round, we'll make sure we have one doctor handling things. I can't deal with all of these personalities.

My last day of work was 10/24. I was growing increasingly uncomfortable and tired...now with her being late...I almost wish I would have tried to stick it out for another week. ..but what are you going to do? P has made a few comments about it which gets me upset because again, what am I going to do? If I deliver vaginally, I get paid for 6 weeks. C-section, 8 weeks. We'll be ok financially but just tight.

Anyhow, our last appointment was 11/3, and I was still only 1 1/2-2 cm dialated and still 50% effaced. I hope I will have shown some improvement tomorrow. I'd really rather go naturally than be induced.

My Mom arrived on 10/15. It has been interesting to say the least. I think it'll need its own post which I will do at a later time.

I just wanted to get this out of the way before I totally forget the last month and a half.

Crossing my fingers my daughter will show herself soon! Mom is tired!