Happy Halloween!

Kate got to dress up a little, courtesy of her great aunt! Unfortunately, neither outfit lasted much longer than the afternoon. With the current spit-up situation, we go through at least 4 outfits in 24 hours. I've started using a bib which helps some but then the poor kid is wearing a bib all day! It's much easier, though, than trying to change her out of a onesie five times. I mean, whoever invented the onesie did not have a child who spit up a lot. On the other hand, they're easy to wash and they do get washed a lot!



Today I start a sidebar to try (likely in vain) to figure out what causes Kate's terrible horrible "I'm going to die from the pain" gassy times. This is seriously the most awful thing I've experienced. And that Elly has experienced, too. The poor dog goes positively berserk when Kate pulls out her pterodactyl cry that makes her face turn purple. Little consoles Kate when she is experiencing this yucky pain, which makes it all the harder for us parents to cope with. Daddy P discovered that walking up and down the stairs calms her (fun for all!) and falling asleep on our chests is hit-and-miss. Unfortunately the trade off being she's calm but you are totally stuck in one place indefinitely. She usually decides this is the approach that will work right around the time my hunger pains start.

My attempt to swing the vote

I have new respect for how McCain feels as he watches those poll numbers roll in. I mean, come on people! You really think my baby girl looks like Daddy P?! Well, just like McCain, I am going to attempt to give you unbiased, accurate information about the situation which you can use to make a better (correct) decision.

First off, a picture of that one:



And now, a picture of a real American, someone with Main Street values who knows how to put lipstick on a bulldog:



Make the right choice people. Get out there and vote!

g Diapers are a "go"!

We started with the gDiapers today! They fit now that Kate has her new belly. So far they have caught it all... although Kate's yet to put them to any serious test.

First Bath

Kate didn't much enjoy it.



But she was calm enough this afternoon to put up with me taking some clean baby pictures.



But, I'm off to nap, seeing as I only managed a total of 5 hours of sleep last night. And since we ventured to church yesterday I wasn't much better rested then! Daddy P is off at Starbucks getting some work done, and the baby and dog are finally quiet, so I am off to rest my eyes a bit. One of these days I will have something more to report on than sleep habits and silly TV...

I heart Target

We realized yesterday that Kate has been to Target three times in her three weeks of life outside the womb. Not a bad record. Daddy P is thinking about reinstating my Target ban now as a result... would be a good move for the pocketbook for sure...

OMG!!!!

At 4 in the morning, I made a strange realization...

Kate might be the secret love child of Colbert, of the famed "Colbert Report"! How could Daddy P keep such a secret from me?!?!

See the resemblance?

Recovering

Last week sleep deprivation hit pretty hard, as I'm sure is evident by the total lack of blogging. Kate's sleeping for about 2 - 2 1/2 hour stretches. The whole eating process takes about 45 minutes to an hour. So, that leaves very small chunks of time to close my eyes. Daytime and nighttime began to blur, my computer threatened to blow up from too much bad TV (it's amazing how much bad TV there is to watch -- thanks Hulu!). I have now watched all the episodes of "Lipstick Jungle" and "Sanctuary" to date (If you've never heard of these shows, that is very telling as to the quality), and have started watching "ER" and "Grey's Anatomy" again. The fact that I am putting up with whiny Meredith just goes to show how desperate I am for entertainment at 4am.

So yeah, last week was a little rough. But, after a few minor break-downs, we're settling into a rhythm. Thanks to Daddy P, I am now getting a little more sleep at night. At first we tried out the whole daddy-bring-the-baby-to-the-breast idea. For me, this cut out the burping/diaper changing/occasional clothes changing/putting down of the baby leaving me at a mere 20-25 minutes of feeding (down from about an hour, or in the case of a gassy tummy even longer). Which meant I was getting a 3 hour block of precious sleep at least once a night. Of course, the side problem was that both baby and I tended to fall asleep during this process since we were both lying down, so Daddy P had to keep us both awake to make this process efficient.

Although this was working decently, I was still crashing. Last week, our pediatrician said he thought now would be a good time to introduce a bottle, so we jumped on that idea. Daddy P has been taking the feeding that happens around the time he gets home from work (11pm), and I wake up just enough to pump. Then I've been taking the remainder of the night so he can sleep. This works absolutely terrifically when I can get her nursed, changed, and down and myself in bed to get sleep before 11pm (a surprisingly difficult task... last week we didn't go to sleep before midnight). I've managed this two nights so far, and have loved the bigger chunk of sleep. Even though I have to wake up enough to pump, this is small potatoes in the big scheme. Unfortunately, this plan is taking it's toll on Daddy P, so we're going to have to save this trick only for the nights he works late and maybe once over the weekend.

I promise as I now feel myself becoming coherent enough to carry on a conversation I will start making good on returning phone calls and emails... Thanks for the patience!



Thanks to Daddy P's sis for coming out and babysitting last weekend so we could have our first date since the baby! We sat by the lake, enjoyed a burger, and caught up on each others' life! Lovely!

medical update

Kate has been to the doctor twice since we last posted. The poor little girl just can't be left alone by anyone with a stethoscope! On Thursday she had her two week appointment with the pediatrician. The doc was very impressed by the size of her belly. Apparently Mamacita and baby Kate make a very good breastfeeding duo. Kate has already surpassed her birth weight (all babies lose weight after birth); she's up to 6lbs 7oz after being 5 lbs 13oz the week before and 6lbs 2oz at birth. The other news from the trip is that her umbilical cord has fallen off, and the belly button is healing nicely. So far, she has a clean bill of health.

This morning we got up EARLY (after an almost sleepless night) to visit the pediatric orthopedist. Kate is at a high risk for hip dysplasia due to her being a first born girl and being in a breech position in the womb. Mamacita is no stranger to hip dysplasia, having worn a brace when she was an infant to keep her hips extended so that her joint could strengthen in the right position. The doctor ordered up a sonogram to verify that everything was constructed soundly, and we had the nearly impossible task of holding our squirmy little baby still enough to get a sharp picture. It took two people holding her down and a soothing finger to suck on, but after about 20 minutes of poking and prodding with the sonogram machine they had a picture clear enough to determine that her hips were not in too bad of shape. Her left hip is slighly out of place, but they want to give it a month to see if it settles correctly. So, no brace for now, but we'll have to repeat the sonogram in a few weeks.

That's all the medical info I have to share with you. Kate enjoyed getting to meet her aunt Carolyn this past weekend. She liked Carolyn so much that she allowed Mamacita and I to get away for a lunch out together on Sunday. Our first date since she was born! Here's a picture of the two spending some quality time together.

Sleeeepppyyyy...

It's been a rough few days. At least, for Mamacita it has. Kate and I are currently working on re-figuring out feeding and burping. After two sleepless nights, my current hypothesis is that Kate's little tummy cannot handle the motion of being burped. I'm currently trying just holding her upright for twenty minutes after she eats and that seems to be doing the trick. Since this lenghens the feeding process some, as a result I've been watching just a ton of crap on hulu.com while going through the whole process. This is by far the best time to get a hold of me. During the day I tend to be napping and too sleep deprived to manage a conversation...

Kate's now sleeping in her crib and Daddy P moved one of our chairs upstairs until the rocker comes. We've done this in the hopes that at least one of Kate's parents will be well rested and functioning reasonably well. So far it's working pretty well and Daddy P is getting better sleep. I'm struggling with this napping idea. I'm a terrible napper, and I feel as though napping all day just sucks the day away. Of course, being exhausted is somewhat persuasive, so I am slowly giving in. The result though is that I wasn't up and dressed until 5pm today, which makes the day seem rather short! Of course, when you're up all night I guess it evens out.

Kate, however, is faring very well. She's slowly changing color, and is spending more time looking around and exploring her world instead of sleeping.



We tried going to church on Sunday which was a struggle. Daddy P made it through the service, but Kate decided it was time to eat not long after the service started, so that was fun. Seeing as we got up early to make it to church I then came home and fell asleep not long into the Texans game. Luckily I had it taped so that I could see the Texans long sought after win! Saturday we had much better luck and managed to go to dinner at friends' house with no problem at all.

We're slowly figuring this whole baby thing out. She'll probably be a teenager when we finally do, but little by little we're getting there.

Bye Bye Bili!!!

Kate's bilirubin levels are going down! They were high-ish today, but lower than they've been this week. We got the official go-ahead to stop using the formula. (Daddy P probably ensured this was so by buying a huge case of it last night...) It'll be a relief to Daddy P's pinkie finger!!

Baby baby everywhere

Because my stomach was split open, we decided the trip next door to the crib might be a little much every night. Now, I am not really one for the whole co-sleeping thing. Not my bag. BUT, we bought a co-sleeper because getting out of bed has been harder than usual this past week. Kate has taken to it brilliantly and we've managed alright with it so far. On one hand I have found it so much easier to roll over and breastfeed her in the middle of the night without having to get up and move around much. On the other, I cannot wait to have the bed to ourselves again. So, it's working for now, but she better not get too used to it.



I also broke out the baby sling that Cece bought me today. It is soooo awesome. I can see how those nutty baby-wearing people get really into this. Kate being Kate she slept through the whole thing, but I'm sure she liked it.

Hospital Stay Part II

After we were out of surgery, Kate and Daddy P took care of the baby matters in the nursery, and they wheeled me off to recovery. I was joined by my family soon thereafter. (Daddy P will have to fill you in on his version of this story later.) We got to spend a little time together in the recovery room and not long thereafter they got me into our room upstairs. Kate stayed for a little bit, and we tried our hand at breastfeeding. It was a largely unsuccessful endeavor, and then they took her off to the nursery for more sticks and pokes. Unfortunately, I didn't get to see her for quite some time after that.

Kate stayed most of the evening in the nursery at that point because she was breathing too rapidly. We were told later that this is pretty normal for pre-mature babies (which is what they were considering her at 36 wks 5 days) because their lungs still have fluid in them so they work extra hard to get them dried out. Daddy P spent time in the nursery with her checking on her and making the nurse there feel really bad for me that I wasn't getting to see her. He was so effective at this, in fact, that the nurse brought her down to the room at 3am even though she wasn't "supposed" to. I got a chance to feed her before they wheeled her back upstairs and it went better than the first try. Oh, I forgot to mention that Daddy P was an *awesome* advocate for baby Kate, including making sure they didn't give her a bottle. Instead they fed her some formula via a little tube tied to the nurses' pinkie finger.

That night was pretty painful for me and I took advantage of the Percocet. I accomplished the goal of sitting up, which my brother-in-law told us was step #1.
We finally got her for good early that morning, and she spent the rest of the day with us.

Friday she met her Texas grandparents and her auntie Pam came by to see her and check on me. The lactation consultant came to visit and gave me some help (yay for lactation consultants!). Kate is very good at nursing though and pretty much taught me what I needed to know. Daddy P ran home for a shower and to take a nap but missed us so much he ended up coming right back as soon as he was clean. (He's so cute with her it just kills me.) I made my first small walk (to the bathroom, woo hooo!) and by the end of the day got all my tubes unhooked (sweet freedom). Even better, I got to take a shower!! The most amazing feeling! I saw my stitches in the mirror and got a little woozy, but other than that I was managing well.

That night we decided to have her room-in with us (which I felt was a brave move, but Daddy P strongly advocated for it and was willing to get up and bring her to me to feed her). Our doc encouraged us to take advantage of the nursery which would keep her but bring her to us to nurse, but we both felt that it was a little over-stimulating in that room for an early baby. We decided her little brain needed the dark and quiet of our little room to do some last minute development it was getting cheated out of.

For one reason or another (jaundice or her small size) she wasn't waking up to eat enough, so we were told to wake her up every three hours to eat. This I was not expecting. I thought that *I* would be the one she'd have to force awake to feed her. But nooooo. Every three hours we engaged in a crazy routine to try to wake her up. We tried turning the light on. Changing her diaper. Tickling her foot. Stroking her cheek, her back, her leg, her foot. Taking her clothes off. Putting a damp cloth across her cheek. She is a heavy heavy sleeper. It went much better than I had expected, largely due to Daddy P's wonderfulness and his ability to annoy Kate awake.

Little did I know that we would be getting less sleep that "normal" because one nurse or another would be poking in every hour. Daddy P was awesome in getting up to bring the baby to me, and managed to semi-sleep through most of the nurses' visits. I had brought ear-plugs (the one thing I would not be there without) so I was able to sleep through hall-noise and the nurses' checking on the baby.

Saturday we started supplementing my feedings with some formula. The nurse also had me pump to keep everything going, which was a fun activity to figure out. Between having a tube taped to my lady parts and then squeezing them I was feeling very much like a science experiment. Despite all these attempts, her bilirubin levels were going up and the doctor said we needed to keep monitoring her jaundice. I took a slightly longer walk down the hall (yay!) and was feeling a bit more mobile.

By Saturday night I was tired enough that with my ear plugs in I was sleeping through the nurses' visits throughout the night, including the visits when they were trying to check on me. Daddy P said that at one point the clinical assistant came over and began to pick up my arm to take my blood pressure and I didn't stir at all. Daddy P didn't think this boded well for Kate being able to wake me up. I was tapering of the heavy meds and just relying on Motrin, so things were looking good.

Sunday her bilirubin levels still went up a bit, but the doc was hopeful that they were topping out, and gave us the okay to go home. Every nurse and doc that day kept asking if we wanted to go home, to the point that I started questioning the decision. Were we ready? Did they know something we didn't?? I do want to go home. Please? Can I? So we went. :)

Kate's bilirubin is still high. She got poked again today, and we head back tomorrow. The doc has her on formula for every other feeding at this point, so Daddy P has been helping with some of the feedings graciously to let me sleep a little more. His pinkie finger is getting mighty sore I think. He said he had a new appreciation for what I go through.

Day of firsts

Daddy P was off today (yay!) and got to cart around his two favorite gals (I'm being presumptuous here, I know, but considering how many kisses Kate gets, I'm fairly certain about at least one of the counts being accurate).

First off, the doctor. Kate's first trip to see the pediatrician. He said she looked good, albeit yellow, and seemed happy with how she was doing. We asked all of our long list of questions (yep, we really came with a list), some of which we knew fell into the paranoid parent category, and others we thought were actually reasonable. I liked our doc even more for normalizing our worry, and even including himself in our paranoid parent category. Our question list included:

1) How are her hips? Mom and aunt have a history of hip dysplasia and seeing as she was breech for so long one of the docs from the weekend was worried about her. Our ped said that he thought a trip to the pediatric orthopedist would be a good idea, although he didn't see anything that looked concerning.

2) Why does she stop breathing?!?! Apparently, it is normal for babies to hold their breath. Freaks me out though.

3) Does a swaddle delay motor development? No, he said, nothing to be worried about.

4) This whole grazing thing -- eating for 20 minutes, breaking for 30 and then starting up again... Anything to do about that? Answer: Not really, she's tiny, and jaundice, so she has to be fed whenever she's hungry or even when she isn't.

5) She hiccups after EVERY feeding. Anything to do? Nope.

6) The lactation consultant at the hospital was adamant that her tongue couldn't reach as far as it needed to and she needed surgery. Neither of the two weekend on call peds thought it was a problem, and our doc didn't either, so we are going ahead without surgery. She sticks her tongue out and nurses just fine as far as we can tell. No surgery, thank you very much.

After all our questions were answered, we made our way on to our next of firsts...

The next stop was to get pricked at the lap to check on her bilirubin (jaundice). This was my first visit with her to get pricked (Daddy P had plenty of experience with this at the hospital over the weekend). Apparently, her jaundice is getting worse so we are supplementing with formula today and she has to be pricked again tomorrow to see how it worked. I have opted out of the trip tomorrow. Can't watch/listen to that whole thing again. Daddy P let her suck on his finger during the event to try to help her calm down. He said he now has a better appreciation for what breastfeeding might be like. I think his expression was: "she's quite a little sucker!"

We then had our first time of breastfeeding in the Target parking lot, and then shopping in Target. I desperately needed some new tops to accommodate all aspects of my new figure, so we made a quick stop of it.

Then she got to hang out at Texadelphia on the patio while Daddy P bought Mamacita a little snack and got me outside for some much needed fresh air.

Now that we're home, I'm beat and headed for a nap (Kate beat me to the punch on that one). Stupid surgery.

Backtracking

Let me tell our story now that I have a bit of time.

We arrived at the hospital on Thursday at 1:30pm to check in. We got lost on our way in the maze of the hospital but made it up to Labor and Delivery. We got checked in and settled. And then we waited. There was some emergency at my docs office earlier in the day so she was running late. As a result, we sat in our pre-op room (IV'd up, and ready to go) from 2pm until about 5pm. I took lots of random videos of Daddy P and he tried on his surgical outfit in the meantime. I tried hard not to think about knives and blood and focus on the fact a baby would soon be appearing from my belly!

They wheeled me in and had Daddy P wait in the waiting room until I was prepped. This was the not-fun part, and sadly what I would want to be totally different. So, in I go. And I warn the anesthesiologist that I have a slight mental block against blood, and I tend to almost faint. I say "almost faint" because everytime in my life I have gotten close I've thrown up all over. (Can you hear your English teacher saying "foreshadowing" in your ear?) Yeah, so, sure enough.

I sit and get my spinal block. They have me facing the nurse prepping the instruments for the doctor. A whole table of gauze. I close my eyes. Then they lay me down, and before I'm even down my feet are already going all pins and needles. As I am laying there a nurse is noticing a stain on her scrubs and trying to figure out if it is blood or some chemical or other. Another nurse says it looks like finger marks so it must be blood. I get dizzier. I warn the anesthesiologist of this. He tells me to breath more deeply on my oxygen mask. I wonder how this will not just make me lightheaded, but take slow deep breaths, trying to practice my labor breathing. Dizzier.

Now he realized O2 is not sufficient, and anti-nausea drugs go into my IV.

I'm trying to think happy thoughts. I'm trying to channel all my positive energy. Now I hear ringing....

Luckily, the nurse standing next to me hears me as I pull my oxygen mask down and peekly say "I think I'm (gag), I think I'm going (gag)" and grabs a container for me. Just in time. Nothing like being totally paralyzed from the tummy down and trying to throw up. More nausea drugs... Thoughts I am having:

"I am never doing this again."
"It's okay. I can do this. I'm strong."
"They are going to have to knock me out. I can't do this."
""Think positively."
"I'm going to choke and die."
"Breath through the feeling. In through the nose, out through the top of my head."
"I'm going to throw up."
"Where is Daddy P?!?!"

More drugs into the IV...

And finally, I am okay. They have me numb, shaved, and with a nice little line drawn where my cut will go... all just in time for them to let Daddy P come in. He said he was surprised that I was smiling when I saw him. He didn't realize how happy I was to see his face and what he had just missed!

The rest went pretty quickly for him. They worked hard to unwedge her from my pelvis (her poor little butt and lady parts were bruised from being wedged in there!), but then she was out! A couple more seconds and I heard crying, and Daddy P reported she was beautiful and gross looking (still covered in her white waxiness). They cleaned her up and let me hold her for a minute or two before whisking her and Daddy P away to the nursery. I then got to spend something like 40 minutes listening to the nurses and my doctor gab as they stitched me up.



More later on the hospital recovery...

Home and recovering

We are home. Baby Kate is sleeping and we are watching some football. I am definitely feeling the moving around today and am enjoying my prescription drugs as much as I would rather avoid taking them. But, a wise little mama counseled me to not let the pain get in front of me, and this was truly the best advice ever. So, I have been taking pain meds preventatively to some extent (for instance, before venturing out of the hospital today) and then avoiding them and taking ibuprofen instead when I know that I won't need them (at night sleeping). Working okay so far!

More soon with pictures, I promise... I'm spent for now...

sleep-a-bye

hi all! just a real quick note to thank you all for the many well
wishes. hopefully I will have time soon to give you a more thorough
update and respond to you individually. we are sleepy and gleeful and
truly blessed to have so many wonderful friends. thank you so much
for sharing in this amazing journey with us. it has only just begun!

...to be continued...

She's here!

Kate was born at 5:42pm, and is very healthy. Mamacita is doing well, and is already up and around. More to come soon!

update

well, the doc is running late so daddy p and I are exploring cable
tv... i'm all hooked up and ready to go though!

Kickin' butt and taking names

Disclaimer: Forgive me in advance for not notifying you in person of this news. I have been told to rest, which to me means my mouth, which means I can type but am vocally challenged. :)

Apparently, Kate doesn't like to be told she has bad music taste. In fact, she was so annoyed that she decided that she's going to come on out and kick her papa's butt a bit. Yes, that's right folks, Kate has decided to make an appearance.

Tomorrow, we meet our little girl in person!

Our OB this morning said that my amniotic fluid has mysteriously disappeared. So, here, let me back up and talk about what a dunce I am.

There has been a trend established of me making very good observations and then not following through on them. The most glaring example was when my purse was stolen. (Mental observation on the way to the ladies room: "Huh, that guy looks out of place. Huh, he's just kinda standing there. Huh, he's just looking around but seems like he's here alone." Mental observation on the way from the ladies room: "Huh, that weird guy is sitting at the table and chair directly behind me but the bar is huge and empty." Mental observation when I reach for my purse on the chair back: "MY FREAKING PURSE IS GONE!") There is also the whole breech thing. And, now, let us add: LACK OF AMNIOTIC FLUID to the list.

This weekend, comments went something like this:

"Man, Daddy P, her head really just pokes out of my stomach now."

"Wow it is REALLY UNCOMFORTABLE when she moves. I never hear about it hurting for the baby to move."

"You can totally see all of her poking through my skin."

Uh, yeah. So, retrospective "duh."

So, doc says she's fine: good heartbeat, everything normal and looking good. She just doesn't have any room to swim. (Sorry, baby, for blaming you for not turning. Looks like it was an impossible task...) But, she doesn't want to risk waiting any longer than tomorrow. Risks of staying in exceed couple weeks of prematurity.

Which brings us to: October 2. Kate's b-day!

So today we spent packing our hospital bag (finally), going to Target to get stuff to pack in the hospital bag, and just generally getting our shit together. Amazing, huh? The most planned emergency c-section ever.

And, there is the very bad news that I had to save for the end... I won't be getting to see Katee, or Josh, or (sigh) Marc dance live and in person from the FOURTH ROW at the "So You Think You Can Dance" concert. I am crushed. Universe, why doth thou thwart me?!?!