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I am home! And I'm a mom! (Long)
Helloooooo ladies! I am home, but it may be a while before I am "back." This little baby takes up a lot of time and energy! I have 10 mins now before I need to wake her up for her next feeding, so here goes... (That didn't work out, so I had to break, nurse, eat, change several diapers, and then come back and finish this... LOL)
She is ADORABLE! Every time I look at her I can not believe she grew inside me. She seems to get cuter every day. She is even cute when she cries and poops. Ha!
However, I might need to keep her away from that Ashton Winter baby tho, because those pics Renee just posted are smokin! He's going to be quite the looker!
Thank you to Ericka for posting my blog link. My sister updated that for me the day after I delivered. Unfortunately the hospital I was at had NO INTERNET CONNECTION! Arg. I don't think I have gone FIVE DAYS with no Internet in like forver. Not even on our honeymoon! It was probably good tho, bec it forced me to focus on Alexa and learning to breastfeed.
So, I have a TON of pics but no time yet to edit or post... I'll get on that soon and they'll be on my blog. We have a family contest to guess the NUMBER of pics taken at the hospital of Alexa. Because my family takes a LOT of pictures!
Anyway, without further ado...... My baby daughter, Alexa Leilani, was born on 9-9-09 at 5:14 p.m. weighing 7 pounds,12 ounces and measuring 19 3/4 inches. She popped out via c-section with a very hearty scream, scoring a "9" in the 1st minute of life and a perfect "10" at 5 minutes, prompting the doctors to all comment on how rare and amazing that was... I was in an epidural fog, but I thought that was pretty cool. My little Alexa, acing tests from the first few minutes of life. :-)
As you all know, I never went into labor. She was late and did not want to come out! I had mixed feelings about an induction. I was open minded about whether I'd end up delivering vaginal or c-section, but I always thought I'd at least GO INTO LABOR NATURALLY..... Well, I talked to my doctor last Tuesday and I was still just 1 cm dilated. He said since she is 1 week late, induction was not inappropriate and in his medical opinion, she was ready to come out, no matter what my body was or was not doing about that.
So I checked into the hospital at 7 p.m. Tuesday night. I was put on an IV and hooked up to a fetal monitor and contraction monitor, two belts around your belly. Then my doctor came and inserted the Cervidal, which is a shoe string that is put into you like a tampon. The medicine is on the end of the string and that is placed next to your cervix. You then keep that on all night and it's supposed to soften the cervix and get you ready for induction. At about midnight, I was allowed one last snack: I ate 2 Luna bars, a fig newton, some Chex cereal and drank an Izze soda. I had eaten a hearty meal of enchiladas my mom had cooked earlier, so I wasn't that hungry.... I wish I had eaten more tho...
I barely slept, because the nurse kept having to readjust the fetal monitor... But she woke me up at 5:30 am to shower, which was nice. After the shower, I got back into bed and never got out for almost 2 days. My doctor came by and removed the Cervidal string. He then checked me and announced happily that I was now 3-4 cm dilated. He said that was great and we'd get the party started with Picocin and see what happens! Yay!
By this point, I was feeling mostly just an intense back ache. Pain was rated at a "4" since it was "tolerable." DH put on "The Rookie" and we watched the movie to pass the time. My doctor kept coming in and out inbetween his scheduled c-sections to check on me. I remained at the same 3 cm dilated position tho. So he had them stop the Pitocin for an hour and restart it, hoping to jumpstart some contractions.
Up until this point, I was just feeling the back ache and some cramping. I couldn't tell when one contraction started and the next one ended. It felt like continual menstral cramping. I never did feel a REAL contraction... My doctor said honestly that he didn't know why this was happening to me but that it was a problem. He said I was feeling very minor contractions every minute or 30 seconds. They wanted me to be feeling LARGE BIG contractions with rest inbetween spaced out about every 3-4 minutes. Those are the kind of contractions that help to dilate the cervix.
So the day passed and even with the "restart" of pitocin there was no change. By this point, it was around 4 p.m. So I had been in "labor" for 10 hours already, not including the 12 hours spent at the hospital for the pre-induction procedure. This time though, when the nurse asked me to rate my pain, I said "5." She asked me, what changed to move it from a "4" to a "5"? I was like... "Well... It's been TEN HOURS... I'm getting a little tired of this backache and these cramps and I'm FREAKIN STARVING!" She was like, OK, I'll mark it a "4/5."
Then my doctor came in and said if I wanted the epidural, I could have it. He had told me that all day and I had kept saying, no, let's wait until it gets bad.... I was scared of the needle in my back thing..... This time, he told me it was entirely appropriate for me to get one now and i shoudl not feel bad. He also wanted to check dilation again and said if I got one, he'd wait and check afterward so it wouldn't hurt. I was tired. And I didn't want another painful check. So I was like... Sure, give it to me.
When the anastesiaologist came in, I asked him if the epidural would also take away my hunger pains? He laughed and said if I was making jokes, maybe I was not in enough pain for an epidural! I was like.... Oh baby I am, give it to me! But pain never was really TOO BAD... I was just tired mostly. The needle thing still freaked me out, but I leaned over like a yoga pose and soon it was done and WOW.... LOVED IT!!!!!
Then when I could no longer feel my legs, my doctor came back and checked me. I was STILL FREAKIN 3 CM DILATED!!! WTF??!!!!
He said we had 3 options:
(1) Stop the Pitocin and then restart it. Same thing we already tried, but maybe it'll work a 2nd time? But he said since we already tried it, he didn't think it would work, it would just prolong the process.
(2) Now that I had the epidural, we'd crank up the Pitocin REALLY HIGH and HOPE that my contractions came in the pattern they wanted. The danger woudl be if they did not and they were too strong and too close together... It could put the baby into distress, she could pass menoconian, and we'd have to be rushed into more of an emergency c-section situation. But if I wanted to go for the vaginal delivery, this was the best option and my dr would try it if I wanted.
(3) The third option was to just do the c-section now.
He left the room so DH and I could discuss. It was a short discussion. We agreed that the GOAL was a healthy baby. Not a vaginal delivery. And we agreed that we'd rather deliver that baby when she was still having a good heart rate and NOT when she was under distress. So we told my doctor..... Let's do it. Let's have this baby. Gimmie a C. Honestly, I was teriffied of either a C or vaginal, so WTF, let's do it.
It was about 4:45 by now. They prepped the room. It was FREEZING. I had to lay on a table wiht my arms out on either side. They put a warm blanket over my arms. There was my Doctor, some guy who was his assistant, David the anestologist, my replacement nurse since my primary nurse had dumped me to go have a baby with another patient, and a couple pediatricians. I was spread eagle in front of all of them. I asked for them to crank up the epidural. Then they put up the curtain and brought DH in. I was SO SCARED.
Then my doctor said the procedure had started and it was going perfectly. He kept saying that it was going perfectly. And I felt a tugging on my belly. And then I heard my baby crying! And I started bawling. I was crying so hard DH asked if I was OK and all I could say was... That's our baby.... Alexa was delivered at 5:14 p.m. In what seemed like forever (when she scored the 9 and 10 Agpar scores), the brought her to my side to show me for a second. Then she went back for more checks. Then they handed a bundled up baby to DH to hold as they wheeled my bed back from the OR to the delivery room.
Once back in the delivery room, they washed her in my room and I could see her dirty two diapers in a row with meloconian. Then they handed her to me to try breastfeeding. To my surprise, she latched on right away! Then I took a few pictures of DH posing with Alexa in his operating room scrubs. He looked so handsome holding Alexa! He was totally smitten and it was the most adorable thing ever.
Then he went and got my parents and sister and my two BMs who were waiting in for the delivery also.... Then after the visit with family, they moved us to the postpartum unit and transferred me into a bed there. They kept me on the epidural until about 4 p.m. the following day, so I had to stay in bed. It was good because I could drink all the fluids they told me to and I had a cathedar so I didn't have to get out of bed. Haha. I kept practicing breastfeeding and holding Alexa.....
I was taken off the epidural Thurs afternoon and got out of bed breifly. Friday morning, I took a sponge shower and we attended a breastfeeding class for new moms and dads in the hospital. I did more walking... Like walking down to the cafeteria with my sister for an ice cream! By Saturday, I felt MUCH better and was up and walking normally. Getting up is the hardest part, but once I am up, walking is fine. Mostly in the hospital, I focused on breastfeeding.
We came home from the hospital Sunday afternoon and just had our first pediatrician appointment this morning. Alexa is already gaining back the weight she lost in the hospital! She left the hospital weighing 6 pounds, 15 ounces and today she weighed in at 7 pounds, 2 ounces!
Also at the appointment, I learned more about breastfeeding and ended up renting a hospital grade pump for $75 for the month. They gave me all the tubes and bottles for the pump at the hospital and the lactation consultant at the pediatrician office said she'd write me a prescription for the pump and say it's medically necessary since I'm engorged and all.
Engorged. Yeah. I didn't know about this part. I guess I should have read that breastfeeding book that I kept meaning to read........ I am HUGE. Freaking HUGE. They look like overinflated balloons! I am up 2-3 cup sizes from my pre-pregnancy size. I learned today how to get Alexa onto a bigger latch and she mastered it immediately. Such a smart baby!
So anyway...... She is in her new infant bouncer now dealing with yet ANOTHER bout of the hiccups. Poor baby... Also since home we've dealt with two diaper changes where she decided to fountain pee in the middle of it. LOL. Plus a blow-out. And I HATE this.... But all those Seventh Generation and Huggies Pure & Natural diapers that I bought? Well...... I am sending my mom out tomorrow to buy up a bunch of newborn Pampers with the yellow line that turns green when they pee. I'll just suck it up and admit I bought the wrong kind. Pampers with the line is SO MUCH easier. Not sure if I'll even try the gDiapers. Maybe later, when I exit this fog that is the first few months.
I got her down last night and was able to sleep for 10 minutes. Then I got her down again and got in 5 minutes. I AM NOT KIDDING! I had my clock and I couldn't believe it. I was up and nursing her and changing her diaper and burping her and nursing her and trying to make her fall asleep and changing her and burping her and...... Soon it was 5:30 am and my DH (he had to go to work today after the pediatrician apt and file something in a big case he's working on, so I told him we are a team and I'd take the night and he needed to sleep)... Anyway, he came in and took her and put her to sleep on his chest so that I could sleep for a couple hours before our pediatrician appointment.
I am hoping Alexa will take a long nap sometime today so my mom can watch her and I can nap too. The tiredness is making me weepy. I got a book from my cousin today and I couldn't even read the first page and I was crying.... BAWLING! Did someone on here mention the book - "On the Night You Were Born." I started to read it at lunch today with my DH and parents and I was suddenly shaking with tears and sobbing uncontrolably. Then DH read the page and he started crying too. Then my Dad said he'd read the book and he started getting watery eyes too!
Good book. So this is long enough. If anyone read this far... Wow.... It might be a while before I am back..... But I hope to post pics on my blog soon. Thank you all for your comments! And your support and well wishes here and on Facebook! Kisses! And to all the pregnant ladies....... Just you wait...... Motherhood is the most amazing thing that has ever happened to me. That and finding DH, who sort of made this whole motherhood thing possible in the first place. You are in for such a wonderful amazing thing..... :-)
M
Re: I am home! And I'm a mom! (Long)
phew! now THAT'S an update. I got tired just reading about it all... (kidding...)
take care yourself and your new baby. Congrats!
WOW!! That was LOOONG! But I read through all of it... well most of it.
Congratulations! Alexa is a gorgeous name. I know how you fel about not being able to sleep-- Brooke had her days and nights mixed up for what seemed like forever. It will definitely get better.
I'm glad BF is going well. I'm not totally surprised about the diaper thing-- I've heard loads of stories of moms who initially bought expensive diapers and trashed em for huggies/pampers.
It's good to hear that you are happy and healthy with your little one! Congratulations mommie!
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Malia, I was fighting back the tears when reading through most of this. Seriously. I've got my own issues going on, of course (thinking of my m/c and all), but mostly I'm just so happy for you and your family. I truly appreciated your openness and honesty about being afraid -- I think of those things all the time when I think about having a baby. Good grief -- it's some scary stuff! And I think there's this weird pressure on women that we shouldn't be afraid because childbirth is natural and women have been doing it since we've existed and instinct will just take over and blah blah blah. But anyway, I'm so glad that after all of that, you got a healthy little Alexa. And I really enjoyed reading your recap of your experience. (BTW, I LOVE her name! So beautiful...I love how the "L" sounds roll off of each other).
Good luck getting some sleep and enjoy your next adventures in motherhood! xoxo
Malia, congratulations, I am so glad that mommy and baby are healthy. Thank you so much for sharing all that too - as a DINK who is not TTC yet, I don't know anything about anything in terms of babies, and it was really eye-opening! I love that I can learn from you ladies lots about the whole pregnancy and TTC thing before I start.
Sending lots of warm fuzzy-feeling nestie vibes - you are awesome - you did an incredible thing, and you have a beautiful daughter now because of it!
Thanks for posting Malia, I was thinking about you guys!
I'm glad to hear things are going well and that you're loving being a momma!
Take care and I can't wait to see pictures.
xo
Married Bio
I love Hawaii!
Tara & Ian . 4/24/2008 . The Kahala Planning . Married
Jaime & Brent
Oahu, Hawaii | Sept. 9, 2005
My Food Blog - Good Eats 'n Sweet Treats
Oh my goodness M....you totatlly had me tearing up.
Thank you so much for sharing and so glad to hear everyone is doing well.
Take Care
{{{hugs}}}
malia-
thanks for the update-the baby is GORGEOUS!! and of course love her name. sounds like you are handling everything really well. The first few weeks are the most challenging and then you will just get into a rythm. Hope to see you back here soon with more adventures in mommihood.
xo
Yay! I'm so glad to hear about the delivery. I know what you mean about deciding between the c section and vaginal delivery. But you are right a healthy baby is the best thing. Oh yeah and the line on the diapers that tell you that baby is wet is FABULOUS!!!! Huggies and Pampers both have them in the newborn size but once baby is in ones that line is gone. Have fun with baby, try and sleep when she does (easier said than done)
Congrats again! Alexa is beautiful! Reading this makes me think back to that first week (the crying, 1 hour of sleep, etc.) and it makes me sad to think that Ashton is a month old already!!
Huggies are the best..I've yet to try my cloth diapers since Ashton poops about 13 times a day and I just can't do all that laundry right now....oh and we tried Huggies and they suck!! I went today and bought more Pampers (Ashton poops so much that the Huggies doesn't absorb anything) so I am happy as is Ashton:-)
Keep us posted. I have had a hard time keeping up on here. I am not sure how I am going to make out once my mom leaves:-( Take advantage of your family being there and really nap when you can. I wish I had taken that advise earlier. I am so exhausted still since Ashton still wakes me 5-6 times a night!!
This.
Thank you for sharing all of this with us, I loved reading it. It is really nice to get an honest, real perspective on the whole experience and the first few days! (Although I did know about the engorged boobies, one of my closest friends made me feel her girls two days after giving birth and they were like rocks. I haven't forgotten it.)
I hope you are able to get some sleep in there somewhere!
Oh my goodness Malia! I can totally understand how y'all were so weepy...just reading your recap & I was fighting back tears!!
I am so happy to hear everything worked out for you & Alexa.
Thanks for keeping us updated & congratulations again!!
What a great story Malia! I almost got weepy myself reading your story and I'm not even KU or a mommy yet! She is beautiful and so glad to hear you, daddy & Alexa are doing great
Congrats again!
| Olowalu, Maui ~ August 6, 2008 |
| Family of 4 ~ April 2, 2011 |
| Family of 5 - October 24, 2012 |
Great recap! Thanks for unselfishly sharing your experience. Couldn't help but smile while reading. It's so heartwarming to read your journey. I can't believe you're a mommy now
. I am sure you'll be a great one too! Look forward to meeting Alexa one day :-). Now, if you're reading this, get off the computer and get some ZZZss!! lol.
P.S. William the painter came yesterday and did a great job painting the interior of our house! They were so quick. Got done in a day! We're having him come back this weekend to paint the exterior/front of our house:-). Thanks soo much again for the rec!