Released

We spent 4 days in the hospital because we had to wait a complete 48 hours after A's arrival because at delivery he had a fever.

Tuesday, there was still alot of anxiety and excitement and visitors. I was having alot of pain in my right hip. I thought I had dislocated it. It was very hard for me to get around that day. The nurses graced me with some pain pills and a heating pad. I pretty much laid in bed all 24 hours of Tuesday except the frequent bathroom trips.

By Wednesday, the hip was feeling so much better, but I had pulling,tugging, stretching feelings in my stomach. (and still do just a lil) It felt like a pulled stomach muscle and the onset of one of my really, really bad periods. (which btw nothing can really prepare you for the amount of bleeding that occurs after birth) I was getting around MUCH better then Tuesday. (which if you think about it was only hours after I delivered the lil Man). Baby A was circumcised this day also. The dr's came to do it on Tuesday afternoon, but the pediatrician forgot to sign his release forms.

By Thursday, I was up, walking, showering, and getting dressed all by myself. I was, by far, ready to go home. I was tired of being in the tiny rooms and having nurses come in every hour to check something. Not only check me, but check Baby A. Since I had GD, they had to monitor his blood sugars. I could not feed him until they checked his sugars and his vitals. Something about this just frustrated me. Thursday morning Baby A was cleared for discharge, but I waited until 1pm before I was seen by my dr to discharge me. By the time she came to discharge me, we had everything out of the room. My mother and sister came and helped E pack everything up and get us out of there faster. The ride down to the car in the wheelchair carrying my baby was the most surreal for me. Everyone stops and looks/mutters "oh look a baby" or something to that effect. I received many congratulations and happy smiles. It felt overwhelming perfect. I had NO IDEA that many strangers could totally make me feel like the mommy I had been longing to be.

Friday, we had our first pediatric appointment. It was adventurous, exciting and comforting. All went well. I am to up the amount of a bottle A takes. Our feeding challenge was his sucking. This however seems remedied by the wonderful bo.rnfr.ee stage 1 bottle/nipple. He is eatting about every 3-4 hours. His sleeping is alittle irratic. I am pumping, So he is getting a combination of breastmilk in the bottle w/ formula.We are hoping to have a good pumping supply to cut out the formula. I can pump about 20-25 mls at a 30 min pumping session.

To answer questions:
We had narrowed the name selection down to 2 names that we both agreed we liked and were waiting to see Mini before deciding ... After he was born, I asked E what he wanted his name to be ....I had already made many choices by that time in my pregnancy, I really just wanted E to have such a say.

I think, so far, the hospital stay was the worse part. The facility is fantastic, room service was great, the nurses were/are really helpful. I can't really put one reason why I disliked the hospital stay so much. I think 1 big reason is that the post partum rooms are sooooo incredibly tiny and I am a tad bit claustrophobic. As the days progressed, the rooms illusioned to get smaller. There wasn't any real place to get comfortable except the bed and I get cabin fever in a bad way. So I blame that on my cabin fever.

sorry so long, I know you just came for more cuteness baby photos.

Birthing story take 2

Ok where were we ... Oh yes .. arriving at the hospital. We called our parents and a few friends to let them know that our plans had changed ... meaning baby sooner than anticipated. I went up to L&D Admin to find out that my OB's office already notified them of my arrival. I checked in, was brought upstairs to a room and was hooked up for more N.ST monitoring. The nurse informed me that my ob's office told them that I could not get any meds until 6pm - they wanted to make certain the hep.arin was out of my system. (I had the shot at 6am) So we waited, they tried and tried and tried some more to get iv's started, labs drawn, etc.. have I ever mentioned that I am a "hard stick" .. took 4 tries to get the IV working (Had to call the "IV team experts" which later I had to end up getting another one after delivery because they thought the first one stopped working)

Around 5 the OB came - She let me know that she and Dr Wonderful had a bit of a "disagreement" Monday morning when he called her about my 4cm dilation and Wednesday induction. They had a difference in medical opinions and practices and My OB thought the amino was not a wise choice - nor was she ok with his wanting to induce me on Wednesday. It was too late for me to draw my own opinion, I was already in active labor dilated to 6cm. She talked with the dr who was going to do my epidural - they all agreed the Hep. was out of my system ~5:30pm and all things were a go for the epidural. I received the epidural around 6:15 ish. (OMG AMAZING Miracle drug- think what you want of me)
(ok gonna get a lil graphic)
The baby was turned face up toward the va jeeen and I had to roll from extreme side to sides for about 3 hours in hopes to get the baby to turn the way the dr wanted. The nurse checked my cervix again after the flipflopping side to side to help position baby and found I was 10cm dilated. She called the dr and she advised the nurse to have me push and see what I could do - I pushed and the nurse yelled OK GOOOD STOP ... The dr came back in around 11:15pm - I was cleared to start pushing and at 12:02 Mini arrived safe and sound. The ob dr had E pull/guide the baby and actual do the delivering. I think he was shocked and traumatized but very glad he was allowed to partake that much in the birth. I tore a little, had to have a few stitches (this is when my epidural pretty much stopped working)

The pushing was a bit of a challenge - it was hard to tell if/how to push during contractions because of the epidural - but I learned to compensate. It was a GIANT flood of emotions when Mini was actually delivered and placed on my chest. I just cried and cried for a good 5 minutes. It felt A-MA-Zing. They cleaned me and the baby up, I asked E what his name was - he declared Austin ... so We went with it. (the other nurse in the room found out that I was a patient of Dr Wonderful's - she was floored because she worked for him in Michigan and didn't know he was in FL- she was so excited and asked me for his office number) That nurse, tested A for his blood sugars. They were all good, he was being assesed and I was being cleaned up.

After 1 hour, E went down to let our families come up one at a time to meet Baby A. They were all so thrilled and excited - It just felt so magical really. It was by far a greater birthing experience I had imagined and everything was just on our side. I was/am beyond pleased with the L&D unit and my experience. About 2 hours after delivery, I got REALLY nauseous and ended up throwing up pretty good. I think it was coming off a high mentally and physically. Poor E got hit with it and had to get a pair of scrubs (we forgot to pack a few of his items because we were a little rushed for time)

Around 3:30-4 I was moved to my post partum room. I was EXHAUSTED. We crashed.
(ack gotta stop again - will continue later)

It started out a Dr's appointment

Thank you for all the congrats and delurkers. It was so great to read all of these sweet, encouraging, beautiful comments and well wishes for our family. It gave me something to do in the weee hours of the mornings when Baby just wanted to be held.

I want to start at the beginning to record this for all it's worth:

We worked really hard this past weekend to get the nursery up and functioning. Monday morning, brite and early (645am) we headed off to my mf.m appointment. I got there and was called back. They did another growth scan and b.pp. The scan measured Mini to be 8lb 4oz. I PANICKED. I was just imagining how big he was going to be by the induction date. Dr Wonderful asked if i had a cervical check at my n.st on Friday. I told him no. So he wanted to check. I agreed. He was VERY shocked to find that I was in between 3-4cm dilated and he quickly went and got my OB's office on the phone. They decided that an animo was the next safest decision, so I obliged. The amnio really was no big deal, I was going to go home for the day. Rest up and wait for the results Tuesday. Dr Wonderful and the OB's office were tossing around induction on Wednesday as long as the amnio looked well. I was told to get dressed so we could move me to the ns.t room. I stood up to get dressed and water just gushed out of me all over the floor. (like 2 glasses full) I called the u/s tech back and told her, they rechecked my fluid level via u/s and noticed a significant difference. Plans started to change. Dr Wonderful got on the phone with OB's Office to let them know of the new situation. I was did an ns.t and was showing baby was fine and my contractions were there but not in any rhythmic pattern.

While i was hooked up for the nst, Dr Wonderful came in and told me that after leaving his office i was to go home get my bags and get to the hospital. So we left his office 1 hour away from our house - got our bags and headed to the hospital. I arrived at the hospital around 1-130 pm.

(more to come - all i can get typed out right now)