First Bath At Home

Anabelle had her first sponge bath at home yesterday. She was not a happy camper about it and she peed all over her daddy (which I thought was quite hilarious)

Hook 'Em

Don is not really a baseball fan. However, he is a die hard Longhorn and since they are playing in the college world series, he put Anabelle in her longhorn bow for luck. It must have worked because they won last night.

Update on Jaundice

Here is a picture of Anabelle at her Pediatrician's office yesterday. The doctor checked her bilirubin level and it had gone down almost a full point. So, he wasn't too worried about her because apparently her level peaked on Sunday and should keep going down from here. We are still drinking formula and pumping so mealtimes are highly involved around here. We are going to visit the lactation consultant today at 3:00 to see if we can't get her working back toward nursing.

Jaundice

Being a new mommy is certainly stressful at times. Anabelle was diagnosed with Jaundice while in the hospital. This has affected her ability to nurse because it makes her very sleepy. But, it also means that she needs to nurse more often. I had a very hard time getting her to nurse yesterday after we got home from the hospital and I thought that it was because of gas. However, it turns out it was because her jaundice was getting worse. I finally decided to give her formula last night. This was totally traumatic to me because I am trying to get her to be a breast fed baby. But, it turns out, I did the right thing. We had to go to the hospital this morning to check up on her levels and they had gotten a lot worse over night. She probably would have had to be re-admitted had I not given her the formula. I was pretty emotional about the whole thing because if you commit to the nursing then her jaundice gets worse but if you give formula, you may ruin the chances of getting her to breastfeed properly. But, I talked with the pediatrician and a lactation consultant today and we have a plan. Hopefully, I can get this figured out soon. Here are some pics from today:

Naked Sun Therapy


With Mommy Getting Ready To Go To Baylor


Waiting For My Bloodwork With Daddy

A Star Is Born

On Thursday night at 9:22pm, Don and I welcomed the love of our lives, Anabelle Elise, into this world. After 39 long weeks and 4 days, we were scheduled for an induction at Baylor.

Our day began at 7am when we left our house for the hospital. Once we got there and checked into our room, I was started on Pitocin. The first couple of hours were quite enjoyable and uneventful. Around lunchtime, my doctor came to examine me and I was still holding at 2cm dialated and was totally comfortable so she broke my water. After that it didn't take long to start feeling some serious contractions and about an hour later, I was asking for an epidural (which, I now know is the best invention EVER).

It took my body a little while to respond to the epidural so I started to sweat it a little thinking that I was going to have to live with the pain. By the time it did kick in though, they had given me so much that I could not move my body at all. That was a little scary so I had them back off a little. The nurse checked me again after this and I was only at 3cm. By this time, it was like 2pm so I was thinking that it was going to take forever. But, alas, my body kicked in. When my OB came to check me approximately 10 minutes later I had gone from 3cm dialated to 8 centimeters dialated. Apparently I was having some seriously strong contractions, which Anabelle didn't like so much. They actually had to give me a shot to stop my contractions! From there, we were allowed to relax and let my body get ready to push.

At 6pm, I was ready to start pushing but my epidural was wearing off so we had to wait for the Anesthesiologist to come back and give me a new drip. So I didn't actually start pushing until around 7:15. The first hour, I was doing great but after about an hour and a half, I was starting to get totally exhausted. So, when we hit the 2 hour mark, my OB decided to help me out with the vacuum. I honestly don't think that I could have gone much longer so this, I thought was a great idea. After she came out, we realized that the cord was wrapped around her in a way that wasn't putting her in distress but was inhibiting her from descending well. Regardless, she was born and we were all very happy/exhausted. We finally got to our hospital room around 12:15am so it was a LONG night and I had nurses and other hospital people in my room pretty much every hour.

We got to come home yesterday and have been adjusting to live with Anabelle here. We really could not be more thrilled. Here are pictures from her birthday

YAY!

Last week, I spoke with my doctor about possibly inducing. Working was getting harder and harder and I wanted to stop, but at the same time, I didn't want to be sitting around for 2 weeks wasting my maternity leave without a baby.

Well, today I heard from my OB and I am going to be induced on Thursday morning (assuming I don't go into labor before that). I am so excited...and also terrified! A huge life change is coming!

Ta Da!

Well folks, I finished the nursery. I don't have a lot of decorating sense, but I think that it looks pretty good. We still need to put together her swing and the video monitor but that is about it.

As you all can see in the pictures some changes have been made since I last posted pictures. I bought those bird prints online and then I mounted and framed them and made the bows for the frames. All in all, I think that they came out pretty well. We also got the glider and the mobile since I last updated the blog. The glider is now my favorite chair in the house, but I am not too sure about the mobile. I was deciding between that one and one other. I ultimately got that one since it matched the art, but I am not so sure that I like it in the room. I think that it is really cute by itself but I am not sure if it really matches and it seems like a big plastic eye sore attached to that beautiful crib. I thought about returning it, but I bought it online and that seems like a hassle...what do you all think?

38 Week Update

Today I saw the doctor for my 38 week check-up. I have made progress, but I wish that it was more...oh well, I guess that I will just have to stay pregnant a little while longer. So far, I am dialated 2 centimeters and am effaced about 70%. My doctor still thinks that I will have this baby very close to my due date, which is next Sunday. I go back to see her next Wednesday so I will have another update then.

We have made a lot of progress in the nursery, I will post pics soon, it has just been SO busy. I got the glider together, put up artwork, and got the mobile attached to the crib so there are really just a couple of odds and ends that I need to tie up before Miss Anabelle arrives.

Pretty

I love hydrangeas!

This hydrangea bush was a gift from my dad. It is called an Anabelle Hydrangea so he bought one for me and one for himself. It is starting to bloom just in time for Anabelle to get here. How pretty!