Newborn Photo Shoot

Here are more pictures from Lauryn's newborn photo shoot. I am in love with every single picture! There is one of my husband and I, a few of me with her and then the other couple is my parents :o)

Newborn Photos

We had our newborn photo session this morning. The photographer, Kelly Jones (kajonesphotography.com), already posted a sneak peak picture:

Look at our beautiful girl!

More to come as soon as she posts them!!! :o)

First week with Lauryn

So far this first week is going well. She sleeps ALL the time and hardly ever cries. We had to wake her up for feedings her first couple of nights home until we got a clean bill of health from the pediatrician on Monday. Now, I don't wake her up at night. If she wakes up, I will feed her, but otherwise I will get up around 8:00 and wake her up to feed her, and then during the day I work on breastfeeding her every 2 to 3 hours. So far she is sleeping through the night! Crazy.

The most frustrating part for me so far has been breastfeeding. I never knew it could be so hard. My milk didn't come in until yesterday (4 days after I had her!) so we had no choice but to formula feed her since her bilirubin levels were a little high. The more a baby eats, poops and pees, the better the bilirubin level gets, so you better believe I was feeding this baby like crazy! The downfall is that she got used to the bottle nipples that made the milk practically pour into her mouth and all she had to do was swallow, so sucking for a few seconds before milk comes is foreign to her. Anyway, I pumped every 2 hours until finally I had a decent milk supply and then I talked with a lactation consultant today for some tips on how to get her to latch on. I ended up buying a Medela nipple shield, which is a silicon nipple that you put over your nipple and it sucks your nipple up into it. Then the baby sucks on that and it is more like a bottle for them. It is a nice transition from bottle to breast. Eventually you stop using the nipple shield, but this will take some time. So far it is working GREAT! I am still giving her breast milk in a Breastflow Bottle and she gets formula a couple times each day to make it easier on me time-wise, but I hope to have her exclusively on breast milk by the weekend. We will see!

Here are some pictures of my pretty girl from this week:

Lauryn Irene is here!

My beautiful girl popped out at 7:24pm on October 14th. She weighed 7lb 1oz. and was 20 inches long. Here is a quick birth story before you see the pictures so you understand the sad picture:

As most of you know, labor was induced on Thursday morning due to the gestational diabetes I had. They were worried the baby would get too big if they let me go past 38 weeks, even though I kept my blood sugars almost completely controlled the whole pregnancy (go me!!).

So, the pitocin was started and my water was broken by 8:00AM, and I was already 4cm dilated by this time. The contractions I started to have were really bad... way worse than what I thought contractions would be... so I wimped out pretty quickly and got an epidural, which I later learned it was so painful because I was having back labor (more on this later). My epidural was in by 10:00am and by about 11:00am I was "6 or 7cm and completely effaced." They were supposed to check me again around 1:00pm but apparently the flood gates opened and a bunch of women came into the hospital in labor and they were short staffed. They didn't check me again until 3:00pm and I was 10cm, but the baby was still up pretty high at +1, so they repositioned me to try and get gravity to help bring her down, and after calling my doctor to let her know I was ready, they had me start pushing.

My doctor was supposed to be there in 30 minutes, but she didn't get there for about an hour, and I had been pushing this whole time. I pushed a total of 2 hours (1 hour with the nurse and 1 hour with my doctor) to no avail before my doctor decided to check how Lauryn was positioned. This was about the time that my epidural STOPPED WORKING! I can't even begin to tell you the pain that took over my body. Nothing mattered anymore. I was cussing at everyone and screaming for them to just get "it" out, lol. I honestly thought I was going to have a heart attack. I was begging for a c-section by this time. The anesthesiologist came in and put a bolus of lidocaine into my epidural, but it didn't help at all. Turns out Lauryn was face up and her nose was caught on my pubic bone, and this was causing so much trauma that even the epidural couldn't mask the pain. My doctor quickly decided that she needed to use the vacuum to turn her head so she could come out. This worked great, and after about another 20 minutes of me pushing and the doctor using the vacuum, Lauryn came into the world weighing 7lb 1oz. and 20 inches long (so glad she was a normal size!)

Unfortunately, the vacuum not only gave her the typical red swollen area on her head, but it gave her a good sized laceration, which looked MUCH worse directly after being born than it did after the swelling went down. I am only posting one picture of Lauryn directly after she was born because it breaks my heart to look at and she is perfectly fine now! She had to spend the first night in the NICU to make sure she wasn't bleeding in her head, and they are still watching her bilirubin levels closely, but she is in perfect shape!

Anyway, it was one of the most painful and traumatizing things I have ever had to do, and though I would have told you otherwise in those moments, it was SO worth it. I would do it all over again for this little baby. I will end this story by saying: if you have ever doubted that God exists, just experience pregnancy and childbirth. It is amazing, surreal, life changing... there just isn't a word appropriate to describe it. Jimmy and I are so happy and content! Thank you to everyone who prayed for us!

Without further adieu, Lauryn Irene:

The laceration and her swollen right eye. Poor baby girl!











And of course, what birth story is complete without a shot of the post-pregnancy belly. I am amazed at how much it went down so fast.

On the eve of your birth

Lauryn,

On the eve of your birth, I am feeling many emotions. I am anxious, scared, excited, hopeful, curious and elated. I am anxious to feel how much pain I will really be in tomorrow, and I pray that it isn't so much for me to handle so I can avoid an epidural, which would be the healthiest option for you.

I am scared about becoming a mother, though it is something I have wanted since I first learned what a mother was. I hope I am a good mother to you and that I make the best decisions possible so that you grow up to be the best person you possibly can.

I am excited for many reasons, like meeting you, seeing your daddy hold you, watching your grandma Nancy hold you (and, no doubt, cry hysterically, as she has waited to meet you for a very long time), and lastly, I am excited to be able to sleep on my stomach again!

I am hopeful that everything will go smoothly tomorrow, and that you will be born healthy and without complications, and that we will both get to go home on Saturday without problems.

I am curious to see what you look like: will you have my eyes and lips, and your daddy's cute dimpled chin? Will you have dark hair, light hair, or no hair? Will you have a "button nose" as your grandma Nancy calls it?

Most importantly, I am elated. I am elated that God has chosen me to be your mother. I haven't met you yet but I love you so much already. No matter what, tomorrow you will be born perfect in my eyes. I will love you unconditionally and take the best care of you that I possibly can. I won't be able to protect you inside my belly anymore, but you will always be safe and will have everything you need, even if it means me going without.

So, enjoy your last day inside of me, because tomorrow is a big day!

Love,
Your mommy

Doc's appointment today

Well, I am back from my LAST doctor's appointment. The midwife checked me and said I was a "good 3" and then hurriedly went to talk to my doctor about my progress, so I knew something was up. She told me to get dressed and meet her in her office (side note: my husband stayed in the room while she checked my cervix... this was a first for him. He was mortified that she had a "big chunk of something" on her glove after examining me. I assume it was part of, or the rest of, my mucus plug which I have slowly been losing the past couple of days. Anyway, it was pretty funny).

So I got dressed and we met her in her office. My doctor decided to schedule me for induction this Thursday! I am making progress, but not contracting regularly, and with everything else going on medically (gestational diabetes, monitoring twice a week, swelling, general discomfort) she doesn't want to make me go past 38 weeks. So, the midwife called the hospital and has me scheduled for 6:45AM Thursday morning. I, of course, could go into labor on my own before then, but at least I know we will be seeing our beautiful baby no later than Thursday!

The part I am worried about is that I can't have ANYTHING to eat or drink past midnight on Wednesday. Lately I have been waking up dying of thirst and starving, so this should be interesting. I am hoping the nerves will make me not notice the hunger.

Anyway, if you think about it on Thursday, please say a prayer that everything goes ok. Pray that the induction is successful and that I don't end up with a c-section (my biggest fear). And most importantly, pray for a healthy baby!

Wow!

I had my doctor's appointment today and they surprised me by doing a pelvic exam to see if I was dilating at all. Big surprise: I am 3cm dilated, 70% effaced and the baby's head is almost to 0 station! The midwife said "I wouldn't be surprised if you went into labor tonight!" and she didn't seem very confident that I would make it to my appointment on Monday! She said if I DID make it to my appointment on Monday, she would check me again, and if I was to 4cm they would have to send me to the hospital to be induced (if I wasn't contracting) because it is considered "advanced dilitation" and isn't safe for the baby.

Scary and exciting!! We may be having a baby this weekend! Good thing our hospital bags are ready :o)

37 week picture

I definitely dropped if you compare this week's picture to last week's picture. Plus, the ultrasound tech yesterday said that Lauryn's head was so low that she couldn't get all the brain structures. She had the wand right above my pubic bone and it still cut the top of her head off! Yikes!

Ultrasound picture

I totally forgot to scan and post this yesterday! Here is Lauryn's ultrasound picture from yesterday. To me it looks like she is blowing kisses because her hand is in front of her face and her lips are puckered! Haha.

Lil Monkey

Who is going to have the CUTEST lil monkey this Halloween? Jimmy and I are!!

Doctor's appointments update

We had our ultrasound this morning. She is so squished in there, poor baby! They looked at her brain, her heart, her bladder, hear kidneys, blood flow to several organs, blood flow through the umbilical cord, measured her head, arms, legs and belly, and then after telling me everything looked great, they punched some measurements into the computer and gave us a current estimated weight of 6lbs 12oz! Big baby! If she isn't born for another 2 weeks she will be nearly 8lbs! She also has a big head - almost 10cm which is the average measurement of an almost 38 week fetus, yet her belly is small (I can't remember what it measured, but it was the measurement of a 36 week fetus, lol). I told Jimmy she has his big head and small belly. Anyway, after the tech did the ultrasound, the doctor came in and went over everything with us... she said again that everything looked really good, and then she scanned me to look at a couple more things, and she was able to get a good picture of the baby's face, although we didn't get a print out. She is really cute! I can't wait to see her in person!

After the ultrasound the doctor wanted to do a non-stress test (NST) which is where they hook me up to the monitor for about 10 minutes to record the baby's movements compared to her heart rate. This is from americanpregnancy.com:

"The primary goal of the test is to measure the heart rate of the fetus in response to its own movements. Healthy babies will respond with an increased heart rate during times of movement, and the heart rate will decrease at rest. The concept behind a non-stress test is that adequate oxygen is required for fetal activity and heart rate to be within normal ranges. When oxygen levels are low, the fetus may not respond normally. Low oxygen levels can often be caused by problems with the placenta or umbilical cord."

Anyway, she moved a TON while I was hooked up (thank goodness, because I would have had to sit there for longer until she started moving) and she passed with flying colors!

After that appointment I went downstairs for my normal weekly prenatal appointment. Nothing major happened there... she just talked to me about the signs of labor and what to look for. They will be checking my cervix for dilation at my next appointment on Monday. They will be doing another NST then too, just to monitor her more closely now that I am so close to the end.

I love getting good news about our baby! We are SO excited that she could technically be born any day now (the baby is full-term tomorrow!) Can't wait!

I will post the ultrasound picture we got sometime today.

Officially on maternity leave!

I guess it's not REALLY maternity leave since I'm not getting paid... ha. I worked at a dead-end job that I got a little over a year ago to get me through nursing school, and since I became pregnant before graduating, I decided to wait until after having the baby to get an actual RN job. Anyway, my last day at this job was on Friday. It feels so weird to be home. I was afraid I would be bored, but I am doing a pretty good job at keeping myself busy. Already today I have cleaned up the house (some vacuuming, dishes, etc.) and washed up some baby stuff (cradle bedding and blankets - I was afraid if I put it off too long that I would go into labor and it wouldn't get done before she came home!) And I went over to my parents' house to clean up a little since my mom comes home from her trip today. I did some vacuuming over there, washed their sheets, and bathed their dog (and gave him a little hair cut!) I've also enjoyed being outside a little today with the dogs. The weather is SO NICE outside. We have highs in the 70s and lows in the 50s this week. It's fantastic!

Tomorrow morning is our ultrasound to determine how big Lauryn is and how the placenta is holding up. Then right after the ultrasound is my 37 week doc's appointment. I will be seeing the midwife this time because the place I get my ultrasound is at a hospital downtown, so I am going to my doctor's downtown office, but unfortunately my doctor is at another office tomorrow. Oh well, anything for convenience. I happen to like the midwife I am seeing tomorrow... she is the only midwife at this practice that I like! Anyway, I will update tomorrow after my appointments. I am hoping to hear more about if/when they will induce me. My doctor was so pleased with my blood sugar levels and overall health at my appointment last week that she was saying she may not induce as early as she originally wanted to. She said she still won't let me go pass 40 weeks though, so I am thinking at the LATEST, Lauryn will be born on October 21st when I am 39 weeks 1 day (if they induce me on that day). We really want to be induced on a Thursday if it comes down to it. I really think she will come naturally on her own though. I have been having SO MANY Braxton Hick's contractions, and for about the past week they have been accompanied by mild cramping that is slowly turning into very uncomfortable, period-like cramping as the days go on. Today, at my dad's house, I thought I was in labor because the cramping and stomach tightening was so unbearable... but I sat down and drank some water and it went away. I'm not 37 weeks/full-term until Wednesday, so she has to stay in there for at least a couple more days!

I will update after my appointment tomorrow. Hope everyone is having a wonderful Monday!