We're Back...

Hello! We have returned from our Florida trip. I was worried about traveling with a 6 week old, especially on the long plane trip, but she did so wonderfully. During all the flights, which were all 7+ hours, she slept almost the entire time. The takeoffs and landings didn't seem to bother her at all and the only time that she fussed a little bit was when she was hungry. Everyone commented on what a good baby she was!



(Lucy's First Plane Ride)


One thing that wasn't wonderful? We had a stop on our first flight out to Florida and Southwest didn't transfer her carseat on to our final destination! When we got in to Orlando at 11:00 pm we had all our bags but no carseat. We had been traveling all day, Lucy was exhausted and we had a 2 hour drive ahead of us with no carseat. It was more than a little frustrating. Since we were not staying anywhere near the airport Southwest told us we could take a loaner carseat that night and then pick up ours when we flew back the next week. I was ok with this until a saw the loaner. It was a piece of junk, it felt like it was made out of Styrofoam. We had no choice but to use it that night, but I insisted that they somehow get our carseat to us in Sarasota from Orlando. The next day they sent it to Tampa and dropped it off to is in Sarasota. Sometimes you just have to insist, even if you have to get a little...er...stern, especially since I felt like Lucy's safety was at risk. Basically what I'm saying is bitchy Bev came out when the baggage guy gave me attitude, he was a total punk. Don't mess with me when it comes to Lucy!


Seeing the family in Florida was so fabulous. She got to meet Rob's parents for the first time and they and the rest of the family were all absolutely enamoured with our Lucy. Rob even allowed a couple people to hold her, although that took a little convincing. He is so protective of her!



(Lucy and her Nonnie, fast asleep)









(First Beach Trip!)





(First Aquarium Trip)

What I think made our trip so easy? We stayed in a rental home instead of a hotel. That way we could do laundry and Rob could cook for us instead of attempting to take a baby out to a restaurant for every meal (plus Rob's cooking is way better than any restaurant). The house was supposed to provide a crib for us but when we got in at 2:00 am the night our flight came in there was no crib. What did we do? We emptied out my suitcase and voila, portable crib! We put the suitcase on the bed and Lucy never fussed a moment when we wanted to go to sleep the entire week, I think she liked being able to see us when she went to sleep since she was just at eye level with me.




(Lucy's Makeshift Bed)

Fabulous!


I was really worried about the trip before we left because Lucy had been having some really tough nights. She would cry and cry and cry from 9:00 to 11:00 pm and sometimes later. I kept thinking, "What if she does this in Florida?". Amazingly it stopped the day we left, and I'm happy to report she has been an angel every night since. Sure, she has a little bit of fussy time here and there, but nothing like it was. She is going to sleep wonderfully at night and has put herself on a schedule where she goes to sleep around 9:00, I feel her before Rob and I go to bed at 11:00 and she wakes up around 4:30-5:00 am for a feeding. Usually she'll go back to sleep for a couple hours after that. She's amazing!

Things that made traveling with a 6 week old easier than I could have imagined:

The Boppy for nursing and sleeping (she slept on the Boppy during all the plane rides, it was SO worth the hassle of carrying it on!)

My Bebe Au Lait Nursing Cover to keep from flashing everyone in the airport/on the plane/in the car/at the family wedding.

Lucy's own towels, because the ones that the house we stayed at had been bleached and were really scratchy.

Packing 2 heavier blankets and 2 light blankets, this was nice because the heavier/fluffier ones were great for laying her down on top of, and the little ones were great for putting in our diaper bags (yes that is plural, Rob has his own, it is very manly).

A sun hat, to keep the Florida sun out of her eyes and to keep out too much sun exposure.

My sling, it was great to to put her in for walking around. Although I really would have loved to have her stroller (I couldn't take it since my Brother in Law just HAD to have his own golf clubs, thanks alot Dave).

All in all we had a wonderful time and loved introducing our little Lucy to all the fam. If anyone has any questions about traveling with a tiny one please let me know in the comment!

(The Family!)







(At the Wedding)

Lucy has also grown so much in the last couple weeks. She is already in her 3 month clothes! She has a doctor's appointment the first week of March and we'll find out her exact weight then, but I'm thinking she is about 10 lbs already. I love seeing her grow but sometimes it makes me tear up because I feel like it is already going by so fast. That is a whole different blog post for another time!

“The child must know that he is a miracle, that since the beginning of the world there hasn't been, and until the end of the world there will not be, another child like him.”

-Pablo Casals

Lucy Pictures...

More LUCY!

"A perfect example of minority rule is a baby in the house."

-Milwaukee Journal

Finale...Finally!

Apologies for the delay! I've got no excuse other than all my time is taken up by Lucy...blame the baby! We're leaving on vacation to Florida for Rob's cousin's wedding tomorrow, so I figured I needed to finish up this birth story before we left.

So, where were we. Ah yes, the breaking of the water. Since I still had my epi going strong I didn't feel anything after they broke my water, but according to the monitor I was having some huge contractions. Boy was I glad I wasn't feeling those suckers. At this point it was about 12:00 in the afternoon and they doctor and nurses assured me that I would be pushing before I knew it. 1:00...2:00...3:00, all passed by, I can't even tell you how many baby's cries I heard. Every time I heard on I kept thinking, "Come ON, when is it our turn?!" But Miss. Lucy was going to take her darn time and ever time the nurse checked me she would tell me that I would definitely begin pushing in half an hour or so, but it never happened!

At 3:00 I was 10 cm, but the nurse told me that the doctor was with a second time mom right now, so if I wouldn't mind hanging out and waiting just a little bit longer... At this point I had been the the hospital for when felt like a million hours, my left leg was completely dead from the epidural, I was now farting uncontrollably (another lovely side effect of the epi I'm assuming) and was dying to meet my Lucy, but SURE I'll just hang out here a little longer!

Half an hour later the nurse bustled in, shooed out my best friend Lindsay and my mother and told Rob and I that I was going to do some "practice pushing". Let me tell you, I was sooooo ready to be done with this labor thing at that point. When I say I pushed, I PUUUUSHED. Rob was so great coaching me and the nurse was telling me I was doing such a good job. I assumed she said that to everyone, and thought I would be pushing for quite awhile since the nurse told me that I would most likely push for 1 1/2 to 3 hours. 15 minutes and 4 practice pushes later the nurse said, "Ok well, you're almost there, her head is RIGHT THERE. You are so awesome! Hold it right there, don't push anymore and I'm going to go get the doctor."

Wait a second, hold it? After all of that I need to just HANG OUT HERE with my poor baby's head squished in the birth canal? I wasn't so crazy about that idea, luckily the doctor came in quite quickly, then proceeded to take her dear, sweet time putting on her outfit, which bore a striking resemblance to a Hazmat suit, sat down and 2 pushes later Lucy had arrived! I pushed for 1/2 an hour (counting the practice pushed with the nurse) and out she came at 4:05 pm. Apparently I am quite the talented pusher. And yes, TMI but I did poop on the table. As the nurse said, if you don't poop you're probably not doing it right, and damn it I was going to do it right. Poop or no poop!

Lucy cried right off the bat and the NICU nurses quickly looked her over and left since she thankfully hadn't swallowed any menconium. She was perfect. While the doctor stitched me up, Rob held her, and I somehow, in the middle of delivering the placenta and getting stitched, grabbed Rob's camera out of the back pocket of his jeans and took pictures of him and Lucy. She was so perfect, I just had to document that moment.

Apparently I had only a small tear, weirdly enough it was a sideways tear not a front to back one, and very small. I think I probably only had one or two stitches.

We were moved to our little recovery room very quickly, and even though the first night was rough. I was on 800 mg ibuprofen but was still in a lot of pain and along with my lovely Lucy had also given birth to the hugest hemorrhoid ever, (hey, I told you this was not going to be labor story light, you asked for it!), that was almost worse than anything, it really hurt!

The nurses were wonderful but we were so glad to leave 48 hours later. Any now here we are, a month and a half later, a deliriously happy little family. She's been so wonderful, even with her bouts of fussieness like clockwork at 9:00 pm. We still love her so much I can't even describe it!

I'll be in Florida for the next week but am planning a "Items I Can/Cannot Live Without" post for when I get back. Wish me luck on our 7 hour plan ride tomorrow!!

Pictures to follow!

"It was the tiniest thing I ever decided to put my whole life into."

-Terri Guillemets

STTN...

So this isn't the final installment of my labor story yet, HOWEVER, I just had to announce (drumroll please) ....Miss Lucy SLEPT.THROUGH.THE.NIGHT last night! First time EVER. Usually she wakes up at 2 or 3 am and again at 5 or 6 am, but last nigh I got 7 , YES SEVEN, hours of fabulous, glorious, uninterrupted sleep. I had forgotten how amazing that felt! The Tiny Pig (our nickname for her, which will cause her no embarrassment whatsoever later in life) had her last feeding at 11:30 and woke up just after 7:00 am. It was incredible!

Just had to brag.

Labor story finale to come soon, but right now we're off to Babies'R'Us for a bunch of stuff we probably don't need and to a local Portland baby boutique for some cloth diapers (more to come on our late start to cloth diapering later)!

"Having a child is surely the most beautifully irrational act that two people in love can commit."

-Bill Cosby

As Promised...

Lots of Lucy pictures to tide you all over while you wait for Part 3 - The Finale!

"If one feels the need of something grand, something infinite, something that makes one feel aware of God, one need not go far to find it. I think that I see something deeper, more infinite, more eternal than the ocean in the expression of the eyes of a little baby when it wakes in the morning and coos or laughs because it sees the sun shining on its cradle."

-Vincent Van Gogh

Labor Story: Part 2...

Ok, I'm back! My excuse for being such a bad blogger is Lucy, plain and simple. That and the fact that my laptop computer is total junk and turns off if I move it an inch!

Anyways, where was I? Ah yes, to the hospital. We arrived at the hospital at about 9:00 and at that point my contractions were definitely stronger and 5 minutes apart, if not closer, but I was still in the "ohmygoshI'mgoingtohaveababy" mindset so they didn't bother me too much. We got settled into our room, which I now wish I had a picture to share with you all because it was such a nice room. You could fit at least 15 people in it!

I got changed into the super hot gown and the nurse checked me (um, OW)... I was so sure I was at LEAST 5 cm...NOPE! 2 1/2. WHAT? 2 1/2??? Panic definitely started to set in since if this was 2 1/2 cm pain WHAT did I have in store for me? The nurse told me that she was going to have me walk around and labor in the room for 2 hours and then they would come back and check me at 11:00 pm to see if I had progressed. If I had they would admit me, if not they would send me home. SEND ME HOME? No way, no how!

So the next two hours were probably the worst part of my entire labor. The pain started to get REALLY severe about 1/2 an hour into my 2 hours. I started freaking out a little then, ok I lied, A LOT I freaked out A LOT. Rob was so amazing, he would walk wherever I walked, sway with me, hold me hands during my contractions, get me on the birthing ball, talk me down calmly when I started saying things like "I don't think I can do this" and "I want to go home, like now!" My mom, who was all in favor of a natural birth my entire pregnancy, sat there any didn't say a word. She looked terrified every time I had a contraction because I was in so much pain. I even started crying during my contractions towards the end of my two hours because the contractions were almost bringing me to my knees.

So after two hours of the most excruciating pain of my life, the nurse came in at 11:00 pm to check me. When she did she announced I was now 3 1/2. I almost lost it since I thought they might send me home. At this point, I was laying on the bed and whenever I had a contraction my entire body would shake so violently that I would almost shake myself off the bed. The nurse, thankfully, decided that they were going to admit me at that point because my pain was this severe and since I was having major back labor since Lucy was face up. I almost killed her when her next question was "So we're going to do this naturally then?" She's lucky I was having a particularly strong contraction at that moment or I might have jumped up off the bed and strangled her. Rob quickly explained that no, I would like the epidural...preferably sooner rather than later.

The nurse gave me a shot of something to take the edge off the contractions, which worked almost immediately and then before I knew it the anesthesiologist was in the room. Hallelujah! I didn't even care how big the needle was, bring on the epi! It was instant relief. I even told the anesthesiologist that she was my new best friend. I totally admire anyone who has their baby naturally, you women are amazing, but me, I was so happy to have that epi I can't even tell you. For those three hours before the epi I felt like my back was being hacked at with a machete. I'm not even kidding. On a scale of 1 to 10 my pain was a 15.

The rest of the night I rested, sleeping on and off. I would have gotten more sleep except for the fact that the epi didn't take on my left lower back. It wasn't excruciating, but I could definitely feel it quite a bit. I asked the nurse about it and she told me I could push the button to give myself some more epi, but only if I REALLY had to. I pushed it once, and could still feel it, but was afraid to push it anymore because I was terrified of it "running out".

In the morning we had a change of nurses, this nurse asked if I was feeling any pain and I told her about my back. She asked if I had pushed the button. Once, I told her. Her response, "Honey, PUSH THAT BUTTON, if you need it to rest." I told her about my fear of the epi running out and she laughed and said "We're a hospital, we have more of it." God, I loved that nurse.

My best friend Lindsay arrived at 5:00 am in the morning. I had called her the night before and I know she was up all night wanting to come to the hospital. Crazy girl! I was so glad she came since she definitely helped keep my mom company and me as well while I sat and waited to dilated!

I was still only 7cm in the afternoon, so the doctor decided to break my water (unfortunately it wasn't my doctor, who I love, since she was on vacation). When they did the doctor saw that there was meconium so they decided to "flush me out". This involved yet another tube running out of my body, flushing my uterus out with liquids to get rid of the meconium. By now I had an IV, the epi, a catheter and now a tube up into my uterus. Lovely! When it came time for delivery they would request the presence of the Neonatal Intensive Care nurses just in case Lucy swallowed any meconium. This freaked me out a little, but the flushing out seemed to work right away which made me feel better.

Up next for Part 3..the big finale! Sorry for the incredibly long story... what can I say, I'm long winded.

Quick update, Lucy is doing wonderfully, although she's had a couple fussy weeks lately. We don't mind though, she's lovely even when she's fussy. Updated pictures to come when I get onto my own computer!

"A new baby is like the beginning of all things - wonder, hope, a dream of possibilities."

-Eda J LeShan