Week Two

On Sunday the 21st I went to Grandmommy and Granddaddys for my first Sunday brunch ... I mostly just slept but it was great to get out of the house ... when we got home Daddy gave me my first bath at home ... it was just a sponge bath because I still have my umbilicle cord stump ... I did pretty good and didn't cry much ... and Mommy and Daddy both kept telling me how wonderful I smelled afterwards ...

On the 22nd I had my first pediatrician appointment ... they needed to check on me since I had been in the NICU and the doctor said I was doing great and told Mommy and Daddy to keep doing whatever they were doing ...

Later that day Grandmommy came over to babysit me ... it was the first time Mommy and Daddy have left without me ... I did pretty good though ... just slept in Grandmommy's arms ... Mommy had to go and get her staples out from her C-section and it is a good thing they didn't take me along ... it wound up taking a lot longer than they had thought it would

On Wendesday the 24th my umbillicle cord stump fell off ... Mommy was happy about that because now I could wear anything she wanted ... but they weren't quite ready to give me a bath in my big bathtub yet ...

The 25th was my Daddy's birthday and I made hand and foot prints in clay for him ... they are in a frame with a picture of him holding me in the hospital ... they came out great and now we can compare to see how much I grow ...

On Friday I actually pulled off Mommy's glasses twice ... I think it was a bit of a fluke but it makes me feel like I am getting control of my hands ...

I would say all in all I had a pretty exciting second week of life ...

My First Week

Although I wasn't due to arrive until June 4, 2006 ... May 13th is my Birth Day ... Mommy went into the hosptial on May 11th to be induced ... I had already gotten so big (they thought about 8 pounds) and Mommy was having a hard time carrying me ... when they induced her labor on the night of the 11th we thought I would arrive on May 12th ... but it just didn't happen that fast ... here is my birth story:

On Thursday, May 11th David and I headed for the hospital. We were running late but because of all the wonderful advice I had gotten from friends on my Due In June message board we stopped to get something to eat ... and thank goodness we did ... it was hours/days before I was able to eat again ...

We got all settled in our room and I was told I couldn't have anything to eat or drink until 2 hours after the servadil was inserted and nothing more after midnight ... it was around 4 o'clock and I didn't think that was going to be a problem ... unfortunately I was wrong ... they didn't put the servadil in until 7:30 PM ... so at 9:30 PM I was finally allowed to eat and drink but only for 2.5 more hours ...

they hooked me up to all the monitors and my contractions were good and not too strong ... it was great David was allowed to stay with me in the hospital ... it made it all that much better ...

They told me they would be taking me over to L&D around 6 AM on Friday ... turns out at 6 AM Friday they told me I could take a shower if I wanted (thank goodness I did) and that they would be coming for me around 9 or 9:30 AM ... at 12:30 PM we were still in our regular room ... and as I was returning from the bathroom my water broke ... all on its own ... I just stood there laughing not sure what to do ... but I did think this would get me over to L&D quicker ... again, amazingly I was wrong ...

turns out everyone and their mother were having babies on Friday ... I think later a nurse told me they had something like 22 babies on Friday ... some crazy number ...

All in all I didn't get over to L&D until about 7:30 PM Friday ... it had me worried because my doctor was only going to be there until 7 AM Saturday and I really wanted him to be the one to deliver my baby ... but everyone was telling me it would be hours and hours before I had the baby ... (since I had been in the hospital 2 weeks before all the nurses remembered me and came to hang out and talk and help me prepare)

Once they gave me the Pictocin the contractions got hard ... there was NO WAY I was saying no to an epidural ... once they had that hooked up I felt much better ... I dozed on and off throughout the night ... and kept dilating at a good pace ... but it was looking more and more like my doctor would be gone before it was time to push ...

Unfortunately any time my doctor checked my cervix I could then feel contractions again ... at one point during the night it got unbearable and I just wanted it all to be over ... the doc came in and gave me a higher dosage of epi and I was numb from the waist down ... felt great then ...

At 7 AM my doctor came in and said that I was at 10cm dialated and all the cervix was about gone ... that he thought I would be able to start pushing by 8 AM but that he would be gone ... if I hadn't been so tired and hungry I may have cried but I didn't ... I just thanked him and kept praying it would suddenly become 8 AM ...

I had such an AWESOME nurse ... I just loved her so so much ... David was awesome too ... especially since neither of us had any idea what we were doing ... and my doctor was right ... come 8 AM we started pushing ...

Mind you at this point it had been since around 10 PM Thursday since I had eaten and I had maybe gotten a handful of hours sleep ... but I pushed as hard as I could every time they told me I needed to ... I really was hoping I was going to be able to have a vaginal birth ...

At about 8:45 AM I told them I needed a little break from pushing ... and I got about 15 minutes ... I started telling them I couldn't do this ... I just didn't have it in me but of course everyone around me was a cheerleader and keep telling me I could do it ... so I pushed for another hour ... and during the 9 o'clock hour I was told they could now see the top of her head ... which I thought sounded great ... but I was getting so tired that I again told them I couldn't do this ... the doctor got me to agree to push for one more hour and then at that time we could re-evaluate the situation ... I was too tired to argue so I said OK ... unfortunately during this time my blood pressure got so ridiculously high they were worried about a seizure so I was put on Magnesium ... I wouldn't learn till much later that that meant I wasn't going to be able to eat for a long time ...

I kept pushing and pushing ... I was told they could see the top of the head ... but then she told me the head was starting to swell when I pushed ... and that when I started breathing during a push she was really taking two steps forward and one step back ... I told them it was starting to feel like she was coming up through my stomach rather than down when I pushed ... there wasn't a clock I could see so I asked David what time it was ... he told me 11:30 ... they had gotten me to push for an hour and a half ... so I said "seriously tell me where I am at ... is it like one more hour or more than that" ... the doctor said it would be at least 3 more hours if not more ... that I was not pushing as hard or as long as when I first started (ahhh duhhhhhhhhhhh) and that she was starting to worry because the baby's head was starting to really swell during the pushing ... I said "that's it I can't do this for another couple of hours you have to do a C-section" ... this was the first time no one argued with me ... they didn't even ask me if I was sure they just went into motion ...

first things first ... I got more epi to numb me from the waist down and then I was a happy camper ... they got David scrubs to change into and wheeled me down to the operating room ... they were quick to have everything set up and brought David in to sit up by my head ...

They were tugging and pulling quite a bit ... it didn't hurt but it didn't seem like it was easy to get her out ...

at 12:33 PM Schuyler was welcomed to the world ... weighing in at 8 pounds 8 ounces and 19 inches long ... I could hear my nurse and doctor talking and the doctor said "oh she was never coming out naturally" ... that did make me feel better about my decision to have a C-section ...

After she was checked out they handed her off to David and the two sat content for the rest of whatever it was they were doing to me ...

They kept asking me if I were a diabetic because she was huge for 36 weeks ... and over and over again I told them no ... while in recovery I was talking to my nurse and she told me that she and the doctor had been talking and it was a good thing I went for the C-section ... they said even if I had gotten her head out they would have probably had to break her arm to get her shoulders out ... that would have made me feel horrible ...

Unfortunately they found her sugar to be low and I got to hold her for about one minute before they took her to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit ... David went along with her ... by Saturday night I was settled in my room but since they had put me on the magnesium I wasn't allowed to eat, shower, or get up ... so there was no visiting Schuyler ... David on the other hand went to see her constantly which was good ... we were lucky the NICU was right across the hall from my room ... since I was on the Mag I didn't have to go up to maternity ... I got to go back to the high risk pregnancy section ... where I knew all the nurses ... and they were so cool that even after I was off the Mag they kept it on the board that I was on it so they didn't move me ...

By late Sunday afternoon I was finally allowed to get up and they got me a wheelchair so David could take me to go see Skye ... it was hard seeing her hooked up to all the monitors and IV and such ... but I knew she was big and doing well compared to other babies in there ...

Monday I was fighting a fever all day and wasn't allowed in there to see her whenever I wanted ... only after I got Tylenol and my temp broke each time ...

Tuesday she was put into an incubator with the purple lights ... again hard seeing her in there but I was able to walk around on my own now so I went in constantly to visit her ... I was supposed to go home Wednesday and they said she might be able to leave by Friday ... that made me sad since I felt like I hadn't really gotten to bond with her that much ...

Turns out because of my fever the doc wanted to keep me an extra day ... and she was doing so well that on Thursday morning they doc said she could go home too ...

So David picked up his girls on Thursday afternoon ... and we have been having a great time hanging out with her at home ... who knew this could be so much fun ... she even likes her room ... she seems fascinated by everything hanging on the ceiling while she is getting her diaper changed ...

So that is the story of how I entered the world ... I am now a week old and have been home for 2 days ... everyone fusses over me and kisses me constantly ...

I met Grandmommy and Granddaddy and Uncle Jason, Aunt Jenny and my cousin Eliana while I was in the hospital and they have all been over to the house already to visit me ... I am a pretty good baby so far so everyone loves to hold me ...