A twist

So fantastic birth experience and beautiful healthy baby equals momma on blood pressure meds...go figure. For the last week my pressure has been in the 170s over 100s-114 (at the highest). With that I am on medication for a week to see if we can get it lower. I am hoping that means the head ache I have been having for the last week will ease. After the first dose I am at 165/97. Haven't made it below 100 in days on the bottom.

Cora has been wound tighter than a spring for a while now and today was rough on me. I haven't been able to figure out if the rollar coaster is the hormone dump or a sign of something more serious. I figure I need to give it some time and see. Had a hard time not being in tears for most of today...

First dinner out with Grammy and Auntsy. We got to Jacobi's only to have Lili give us her first vomit demo...are we prepared? Nope! But she slept through dinner and Cora did really well the whole time, even with out a nap today.

Now Lili is giving me lots of cute asleep smiles and I don't have a camera handy,,, girl has timing!

Lactation Appt with Lili

So today I went in for a meeting with the lactation consultant at the hospital. Lili weighed in at 9lb 3oz and drank 3oz of milk. She is growing and nursing well. I can't wait till things even out and I don't feel like my boobs are going to explode. She is drinking more and sleeping well. She wakes up about every 2.5 to three hours or so on her own. Now if I can get Cora to sleep past 5 or 6am I would be happy. She has been getting up early I think because Grammy, and Oma for another morning. I hope she will go back to the 7am waking as things settle down.

Cora is having a hard time on occasion, as is to be expected. She really wants to touch, hold, and carry Lili but not all of those is a go. She also seems constantly burned out and grumpy. Doesn't matter if she has a nap or not. She just is melting down at not a whole lot. She wants to be really helpful but will melt if its not going the way she wants. I am going to guess that is pretty normal.
It is exhausting though!

First Appt

So Lili had her first Dr appt on Friday. Her bili was up to 9.2 but that was ok for a 3 day old. She has gained some weight back. She was 9lb 1oz then went to 8lb 12oz then 8lb 8oz then on Friday she was back to 8lb 12oz. She is doing very well.
First night home was good, last night was very long for me. She was up most of the night and a bit fussy. Today I made sure we were up and going so that she was around activity during the day. My hope is she will sleep better tonight...hope... Cora is having a bit of a rough time with sleeping because she can't make up her mind where she wants to sleep or next to who... its nice that we have enough room for both of the girls between us. Solved some problems already...

Home, safe and sound

Right.  So I realized that some people may not know the followup.  So, here we go.

Darby and Lili came home on Thursday.  Lili's biliruben numbers were down to 7 (under 8 is where they need to be for the first 48 hours for the doctors to be happy).  Today at the three day followup her numbers were 9.2, but as she's "older" now, that's still a good number.  Just have to have her take a few naps in the sunshine and make sure she eats well.  She's eating well, Lili gained 4 ounces in the day since her last weigh-in, so the doctors are happy.

Cora is doing well and adjusting to life as a big sister.  There's lots of "I wanna hold her" and her telling us what Lili really wants.  My mom has been here helping with the house stuff and riding herd over Cora - which has been a real help.

Updates

For those of you following along at home.  Lili's Bilirubin number's were a little higher than they like them to be.  Not nearly as high as Cora's, but still high enough to warrant one more night in the luxury hotel that is the Hospital.  She's under the UV lights, but seems to be handling it much better than Cora did. 

There's two lights to the top sides, and one underneath the pad on the bottom.  The lead on her chest is to make sure her temp stays good - she's under a warming machine as well.

Well... it's happened.

Liliana Abigail Le Clair
Born at 10:17am on 4/20/10
She was 9lb, 1oz
19.75" long with a head circumference of 13.5"

Mommy and baby are doing splendidly.

9:15 update

Labor is going well, contractions slowed a little after the epidural
kicked in. At 9, they added a little Pitocin to the saline mix...

Looks like it's actually happening... (finally)

I was awoken this morning at about 2:30 because Darby's water had actually broken.  And she was in labor.  And it was going quickly.  Contractions were hard and about 5 minutes apart.  I got up, got dressed and woke Mom up to let her know what was happening.  We then went to the hospital, where, yes in fact, her water was broken.  Quick exam put her at 3cm dilation.  Contractions here reasonably rough (I'm told), and she decided that the miracles of modern science were the right choice for her.

Anesthesiologist showed up a little later, and after a few attempts to get the needle placed while Darby was sitting up, he had her move to her side with her knee's curled up (ha!) and finally got the needle placed and in.

Contractions are moving well while she's medicated.  As of right now (5:30 am) she's laying in bed playing "Words with Friends" on her iPhone with me and waiting for about another half an hour before the nurse will check her dilation again.

More updates to follow (maybe).  :)

Nothing to see here, move along... no fire. Just some punk kid pulling the fire alarm. Move along.

Right.  So this is *not* a picture of Darby going into labor... just thinking about it.  You know, a dress rehearsal. 

Sometime late Thursday night she started having contractions.  Nothing productive mind you - but contractions none the less.  They were about 8-10 minutes apart, and walking did alter them.  They went on through the night without really changing time between.  Friday morning she called the hospital, they said to go for a walk and check back with them later on if they get stronger.

Well, since except for the strength of the contractions this is just about what Cora did when she was ready for the world... we decided to check things out after dinner.

Wandered over to the hospital around 6pm or so.  They hooked her up the monitor, did a quick exam and did a quick test - said "yup, you're water's broke - Dr. will be here soon."  After a shift change (and another 45 minutes of walking around the hospital hallway.  The new staff came in and took samples for a lab test.

At around 8:30, the Dr. (on call doc, ours is in Haiti) came in and said that the lab tests said it wasn't amniotic fluid, to go home, take it easy...

So, we're back at home.

After the appt

So the appt was nice and mellow. Things are softening a little but not much else is happening.My BP was up...new Dr and no sleep since 2:30am or so...go figure...After the NST they took it again and it was still high. So I was sent to the birth center for an hour of monitoring. The nurse scared the crap out of me by coming out of the office and telling me I needed to head over to be induced. At which point the Dr said no it was for an hour to get a couple of readings. (Like that will keep the bp low...)

So I went over and checked in and sat there staring at the clouds in the sky for an hour while on the monitors. I tried to look at the TV for about 10 seconds and decided it really wasn't worth it and used my phone to listen to Pandora and Nightnoise and look at the sky. Seemed to do the trick because my BP was just fine.

I was released, managed to get lost in the hospital briefly and got home to eat dinner. So I guess that was more that what usually happens. I think she is going to hold on for a while longer.

I have an appt next week set up and they might or might not induce. I will be at 41 weeks at that point. My Dr won't be back till the 26th so I am going to guess they won't let me go that long! A bummer though. I really like that man!

Any questions?

D-Day +1

(subtitled.... "another day, another Doctor" or "where Dr Woocheck go*?").

We went in today went in and had another appointment with one of the other OB's in practice there.  Darby's BP was a little high in the NST so she got to run over to the Birth Center for an hour long, extended BP check.  I'll leave the details to her though

(*quote from Cora as we were leaving)

.

No baby yet...

Well.  It's here.  The "official due date."  From this point on, Lili will never be classified as "delivered early."  :)

Just a quick heads up and reminder.  "Aces's Lady" will probably be the one making the majority of the phone calls with the details - so if you want to be notified... lemme know (by email).

That's all for now.

Thoughts (feeling a bit whiney)

So I am torn between wanting the munchkin here and wanting her to wait until our Dr gets back. At the last appt he told us he was leaving for two weeks the next day for Haiti. I figure with the due date being Tuesday I can make it another week to have him back. He has been so awesome and while I am glad he has the chance to help over there I want him here! We agree on so many things and I am not sure how the other Dr.s are.

This cold sucks. Its in my head and lungs. When the Braxton-Hicks start they are hard enough my eyes start watering and I feel like my head is going to pop. I hope this doesn't end up being a problem later on. I am tired of not being able to breath and feeling as if snot is coming out of everywhere....Whine...yes I will take some cheese....

I need a housekeeper and a nanny for a few days so I can get better! :) Trent does a lot but still I bet we could both use a break...

I want the little red house....I want out of this one... I want I want I want....sigh

Whine over...

...we have wormsign the likes of which even God has never seen.

Ok, not really - but we watched Dune (the David Lynch one) last night. 

Ok, raise your hand if you got the quote before reading that previous line.  Ok.  Seriously guys, you need to watch it.  It's stream-able from NetFlix.  Go.  Watch it.  I can wait.  We haven't got a lot of movement over here.  Belly measurement was down 2cm.  Might have been from the substitute doctor we had and the different position he put Darby in the measure. 

What?  You're back from watching the movie already?  Right.  Darby's weight was up 1lb from last week.  And yes, she's miserable.  I think as much from the pregnancy as from the cold she's fighting (the same one Cora got 3 days prior).

We're hanging in there.  Darby does seem to the the popular topic of conversation at work though.

:)

Body Cast

eek I decided I was wanting to do a body cast for this munchkin. Cora had many ultrasounds and we had many pictures of her before she got here. Lili isn't going to have the pictures so when I found this idea I thought it would be a great keepsake for her.

I did an internet search about them and figured we didn't have time to get a "kit" and get it here in time so I sent Trent out while he was in Tri-Cities to find a kit but there was none to be found. He went to four stores before Micheal's Craft Store and found the plaster wrap we needed and I got the petrolatum jelly at Bi-Mart on one of my trips.

Wednesday night we had time to sit down and do it. Most of the things I had found online said it would take 20-30 minutes. It was a bit longer than that.... and I thought I was going to fall off the chair. But the final piece looks pretty good. I am not sure how I want to decorate it or if I want to yet - and we still need to cut it down a little to make the sides even.

Here are the photos that Trent took tonight after its had the two days to sit and harden up. Its cell phone pics so until we get a better camera (its supposed to be here on the 6th) these will have to do. I hope the camera gets here before the baby!





That's all for now.