Tales of the Hospital

After Alice was born and we'd had a couple hours together in the delivery room, I wanted to go down to the nursery with her for her first bath and all that.  Unfortunately my epidural was still working too well and an attempt to stand up to use the bathroom resulted in 2 near black-outs involving the nurse having to catch me while on the toilet (awesome moment) and then once she got me back in the wheelchair she tipped it upside down and refused to upright it until I had color in my face again.  Another nurse walked in at that moment and we all had to laugh at how ridiculous it all looked.  So instead of getting to go to the nursery, I was banished to my recovery room to recoup while Dan got to go along. 

When we were all reunited, we had just a couple hours of peace before the next drama.  Enough time to notice that Alice seemed to have frosted the bottom tips of her hair in utero.

Around 10 PM Dan started feeling nauseous so he laid down on the pullout couch to go to sleep for the night.  I was nursing the baby and planned on finally getting some sleep after she finished.  (I'd been up since 4 AM with no nap after all!)  At 11, I had called the nurses in to take Alice to the nursery when Dan suddenly leaped to the bathroom to empty the contents of his stomach in reverse.  Lacey had gotten a horrible stomach virus 3 days before my induction, but no one else had caught it . . . until now.  Dan had been the one to take care of her the most since I was trying to avoid getting sick right before having a baby though I still cuddled Lacey a ton and got puked on more than once myself.  We called my mom to come pick up Dan and a neighbor to sit with our sleeping kids.  As they wheeled him out of my room I just BAWLED.  This was not how I wanted to spend my recovery days in the hospital, alone and worried that the baby and I would get sick as well.  I couldn't sleep that night no matter how hard I tried.  I finally drifted off around 5 AM the next morning for about 90 minutes.  It was a rough night.  I felt so alone after such a long day and spent a lot of the night praying Alice and I would stay healthy.   The next 2 days were mostly Alice and I hanging out and napping when we could between the 50,000 visits from doctors, nurses, and cleaning people (who, by the way, thoroughly sanitized my room TWICE after Dan left just as a precaution.)

My compassionate nurse Amy was my nurse for both nights.  

She was such a blessing!

Matty and Jossy got to come visit with my mom.  Lacey was still suffering some bowel issues from her puking virus a few days before so we decided she should stay home.  The first thing the kids

did when they walked in was notice her little toes sticking out from her blanket as she lay in the bassinet.  They thought those toes were adorable.  (Top left picture below)

 We had a few other visitors but not many.  Normally I prefer that, but it got pretty lonely since Dan wasn't there with me.  

Dan's supposed 24-hour bug was taking a lot longer to get over even when he was done throwing up.  He just wasn't getting his strength back.  Still he managed to pull himself together enough to come a couple hours before it was time for us to leave the hospital so that he could drive us home.  It was nice to have him back!  We took a couple pictures and got ready to leave.

Ready to break out of there!

Alice's Birth Story

We got to the hospital at 7:30 AM the morning of the 10th for my induction.  I had been awake since 4-something despite having taken a sleeping pill and was feeling exhausted already.  It took two nurses to get a good vein for an IV.  The first attempt had me totally in tears because it hurt so badly and I was already super tired and overemotional, not really two things you want on the day you're giving birth.  At 8:15 we started my first dose of required antibiotics.  I was 3 cm, the same as I was at my previous appointment.

At 9:30 I got my epidural and started pitocin at the same time.  I warned the anesthesiologist that my BP always plummets when I get my epidural and last time I even blacked out while it was being placed.  He decided to not give me a big dose like normal, and instead just slowly administered a little bit.  The problem with that was it wasn't working very efficiently and I was feeling contractions BADLY!  I was numb from my toes to my knees . . . and that was it.  At 10:20 he came back and gave me the big dose he had been avoiding to see if that would help it move up more.  We figured I was already lying down and hopefully my BP would be fine.  At 10:35 my midwife Erica and I decided to turn the pitocin off until we could figure out the epidural issues since I was in way too much pain.  AT 10:45 I suddenly felt extremely hot and lightheaded.  I knew I was going to black out.  After a quick measure of my blood pressure, my midwife hurriedly called extra help into the room.  I was semi-aware of everyone around me trying to fix my blood pressure but I didn't care, I was too busy trying to cool myself off and not throw up.  It took 3 bags of meds and about 20 minutes for me to feel perfectly normal again, minus the racing heart which was a side effect of those meds.  It was then I found out my BP had been around 55/22.  Erica said she didn't totally panic because I was still conscience but she was definitely very concerned and reluctant to say how concerned.  The anesthesiologist finally got back to my room at this point.  He said, "You scare me.  Do me a favor.  If you ever have another baby, call ahead and make sure I'm not the one on call that day."  He said the reason I scare him is because my response to the drug was so delayed it made me unpredictable and he didn't like me for it.  I'm good at making friends everywhere I go I guess. 

Not long after that as Erica and I sat talking about the incident, around 11:05 she was watching the baby's monitor and suddenly jumped to her feet.  The nurse responded equally quickly by turning me over in bed, and Erica started, as she put it, "giving the baby a little noogie" to make her move.  I guess her heart rate had dropped down to the 50's and was staying there.  They got the baby to move and everything seemed find again, but her heart rate had been that low for about a minute.  That was a fun scare. 

At 11:30 we turned the pitocin back on again (though very low) now that my epidural seemed to be working it's way up my tummy.  Erica also broke my water hoping that would induce labor instead of needing a lot of pitocin.  No such luck on that front.  Breaking my water never does anything for me.  At this point I was 4 cm dilated.  I was given more antibiotic around noon, and my pitocin was slowly upped every 15 minutes or so.  At 1:55 PM I was 5.5 cm and starting to feel too much pain from contractions again and had to have Dan push on my lower back with each one.  I upped my epidural dose a few times and switched the side I was laying on, which eventually seemed to fix the problem.  At 2:45 I was 6 cm, and everyone started getting things ready for the delivery.  In the past I've gone from 4-10 in about an hour, so we knew I could be fast.  Erica and I were chatting again (she's a friend who used to live on my street) about the differences between public and charter schools when the nurse came in at 3:30 and said we should check me.  I told her I felt absolutely no need to push, something I always have felt even with an epidural when I'm complete.  They checked me anyway and I was shocked to find out I was 10 cm and the baby was at +2 station!  Seriously, that epidural was doing it's job for once!  In no time, preparations were finished and in about 3 painless pushes Erica and Dan helped deliver our beautiful baby Alice at 3:37 PM.  Alice got the privileged of being baby #300 for Erica. 

Fresh angel arriving

When they placed her on me I thought she seemed big but surely not much bigger than my other kids.  She hardly cried to the point that I had to ask if she was even breathing.  They assured me she was and everything was fine, she was just taking her time to pink up.  When they weighed her I was shocked to find out she was more than a pound bigger than my other 2 girls at 8 lbs 4 oz!  Those chubby cheeks of hers suddenly seemed even chubbier.  They gave her back to me for a little skin to skin time.  She was just the calmest thing ever at that point.

 

More tales and pictures from the hospital to come!

Introducing . . .

Alice May

Born June 10 at 3:37 PM

8 lbs 4 oz, 19 inches

More to come when I can handle sitting on a hard chair longer than 10 minutes.  ;)

More Birthday

Jossy had been telling me for weeks before her birthday that she already felt 5.  (Maybe that's because it seemed like we were celebrating it for a month!)  The night before her actual birthday she said to me, "Mom, I already feel like I'm 5, so tomorrow I'll probably feel 6."  Silly girl.

We had a little celebration with some family after church on her birthday.  She loved having everyone over to celebrate . . . again. 

 

 Happy birthday to our crazy blond-haired, dance-lovin', hug-giving, accident-prone, determined little princess!

The Cutest Bumblebee in All the Land

I guess that's a bit of a biased opinion, but Jossy was pretty darn cute in her ballet school's performance of Snow White.  She's so serious on stage though!  I tried to tell her to smile and she said she was.  I know she gets really nervous but I'm so proud of her for going up and performing anyway!  She LOVES ballet and dancing.  

Watching these bees shake their "stingers" was the cutest part by far!

 

Memorial Day is a Good Day For . . .

. . . breaking out the grill, enjoying a day off from work and school, and getting ready for the summer swimming season by pretending it's warm enough outside to visit the splash pad on opening day.  70 degrees with a small breeze feels good when you're sitting on the sidelines but apparently not so much when you get soaking wet from water that is surely just slightly above the freezing point. 

This is a "Hurry up and take the picture, Mom, so I can stop pretending I'm not turning blue" kind of face.  

Changes

The same day as Jossy's birthday party, some big changes took place.  My sister had her baby for one.  We went to visit her and the new baby the next day.  I only took Jossy and Matty with me since Lacey had a cold.  They were both very excited about holding their new cousin Gia.  They kept wanting to hold her again and again.  Hopefully they'll feel the same about their new baby sister for a while so Mommy can have help!

I also took what will probably be my last belly pic that day at 37 weeks. 

You may notice another change that took place, but if not here's a big clue.  

I've always wanted to donate my hair to Locks of Love but have never had the patience to grow it out quite that long.  I get sick of it just a couple inches shy of the requirement and cut it off.  Well I finally did it!  I've been growing it out since February of last year, telling myself that when I reached my goal weight I would treat myself to a new hairstyle.  That goal came and went last July but I never got my hair cut.  Once I found out I was pregnant in October, I decided that since my hair was already getting pretty long and it would grow fairly quickly while pregnant then maybe this was the time to finally try and donate.  It's been driving me a little crazy the last 2 months or so, and I REALLY wanted it gone before the baby came.  So last Saturday I got it measured, cut, and mailed off for someone else to take care of!  

Yeah for shorter hair and being able to help someone else!!!

Party For a Princess

Due to some scheduling issues, we chose to have Jossy's birthday party a little earlier than we thought we would.  I ended up being glad we had it when we did because with each passing day I feel less and less like doing . . . um, anything.

This was her first time ever having a birthday party and she was THRILLED!  Thankfully, it didn't matter how this pregnant momma chose to cut corners because she had a fantastic time with her friends.

She chose to have a princess theme which made things pretty easy.  We decorated crowns, painted nails, and played some games like find the pea under the pillow and pin the kiss on the frog prince.  One thing I learned very quickly was that princesses leave A LOT of glitter behind!  Holy cow, my couch and floors were COVERED in it!

 

We had a little picnic outside with sandwiches and pink lemonade.  Then each princess got to decorate her own cupcake.     

 

The princesses then got to practice defending themselves from a dragon by beating up this castle pinata.  You know, just in case a prince isn't around and she needs to do it herself!  Unfortunately, we were severely running out of time at this point and had to have "Prince Matty" come beat the crap out of the thing to get it to break since these dainty princesses weren't leaving much of a mark on it.  

All in all, the enjoyment Princess Jossy got from playing with so many friends and being the center of attention for once made the huge mess (including mounds of glitter) worth it.