Sarah's weblog

Awesome friends and family

Yesterday, our wonderful neighbors brought over a box of cigars that they made custom labels for. They own their own business and one of the things they do is the custom wrappers. They gave us a box of cigars with the labels, as well as 10 more in glass tubes. Takers on people to help smoke them?

There are also more pictures up in the gallery from the past few days.

Getting Bigger already

Sarah had her first doctor's appointment today. She is growing already, she gained 3 ozs, 1/2 an inch in length and 1/4 inch in her head. We called the doctor yesterday because little Ms Sarah wasn't really eatting very well and she had gotten a little more jaundice. As a result of her not eating we have decided that I will continue to pump and not force her to feed right from me all the time because she just gets way too worked up having to work for the milk. This actually seems to work pretty well for us all--Doug can get a chance to feed her and so can others. I pump every 3 hours or when the need arises. The docotor said that its fine to continue this way. So she's healthy and he wants to see her in about 3 weeks.

Grow child grow

Today while feeding Sarah, she decided to help Karen hold up her bottle. Yes, we are breastfeeding, but using bottles if she get's too worked up to eat. It was sooo cute. I'm sure it is completely just reflex and not something she realized she was doing, but it was still cute and made me so proud.

Her feeding schedule has been a bit off today, and we called the doctor like neurotic parents. They moved her appointment up to tomorrow. They actually said that they wanted to see her at about a week old, and not 2 weeks like our appointments was scheduled. I'm sure everything is fine, she is still getting used to everything. I just want to be the best parent I can, and I worry about her constantly. This could be interesting for the next 50 years.

Fathers Day

Yesterday for the first time, I was the focus of a Fathers Day celebration. Karen is a bit jealous that I get a fathers day this year and she has to wait another year for her first mothers day, but she is happy to have Sarah here.

We had both of our families over yesterday, just to make it easier for us and Sarah. That way we didn't have to take her out of the house and worry about getting her all ready and being in yet another strange environment. I have a feeling that Sunday nights will be here for a while for the same reasons. We did the typical summer Bar-B-Que foods on the grill and just enjoyed everyones company.

The past few nights have been interesting to say the least. We had her rooming in with us at the hospital, so we are used to having to get up with her. She just hasn't picked a schedule yet :) She seems to alternate good nights and bad nights, not that her bad nights are really bad. She has decided that she doesn't like sleeping alone in her basinette at this point, so she lays with us for a while each night. Her feedings have become more uniform and consistent, every 3-4 hours and feeding for 20-25 minutes each time most of the time. She is just sooo cute!

We are already beginning to see small milestones in her development. She no longer struggles to hold her head up, although she still does not have the fine control over it (and won't for a while). She can pretty much hold her head up to look at one of us if she is laying on our chests, and she keeps her eyes open for a long time. It's really interesting to just watch her looking around and wonder what she is seeing. No one really knows what or how a newborn sees, but it's obvious that she is beginning to recognize our faces and voices.

This morning, she left me a little surprise when I was changing her. Nothing disgusting, just her cord. I guess we really can't put her back now because her means of plugging in has fallen off. It was just hanging out in the outfit that she slept in, and everything looks good, at least as far as I can tell. She does have quite the inney though.

Oh the horrors!

We just got finished giving Sarah her first bath at home, and let me just say, it was very traumatic for me :) Some people are traumatized by birth, some by the shock to their system with a changing schedule, some even other things. Well, for me, it was hearing her scream while she was naked and being bathed. Not that anything was wrong, it was just "different" to her and she was telling me that. But she has to stay clean. Luckily, we only have to do that every 2-3 days, and not every night.

Pictures

Pictures from her first few days of life are up at http://gallery.shoutstudios.com/Sarah. If you have pictures up on your site of her, post a link to them in the comments of this entry for everyone to see.

Welcome Sarah Margaret!!!

Wow!!! What an amazing experience! I never could have imagined that things would have turned out the way they did, and how I would feel about the happenings of the past several days! I would not trade any of it for the world, nor would I change anything.

5 hours after our last Bradley class, Karen awoke in a puddle at 3:15 AM. Her water had broken, and the process of birthing our child had begun. I woke up, and stayed up with her at that point. Her contractions started about 30 minutes later, while she was cleaning off. We had a regularly scheduled appointment scheduled for 8:00 Tues morning, which we decided to keep and just wait until then to see where things were. We took advantage of the relatively easy contractions and the time to finish packing the things we would need for the hospital, played some cards, and just hung out. Her contractions were consistently around 5 minutes apart, lasting about 45 seconds on average, the signs of early first stage labor.

We got to her appointment, and got checked. She was 2-3cm dialated, 90% efaced, and -3 station at about 8:20 AM. Because of her positive result for Group B Strep, and her being borderline hypertensive, we were sent over the triage at the hospital and admitted. We got over to triage at about 9:00, had an initial strip, and we were moved to our Labor and Delivery room at about 11:15.

Once we got over to our room, we used some of the techniques learned from our Bradley classes to help speed her labor and make her more comfortable. She was really loving the exercise ball, and we went on a few walks. At about 1:20 PM, the CNM decided that she did not like the look of the crontractions on the Fetal Heart Monitor (which she had to be on because of the hypertension). She thought they should have been stronger and they she was not progressing. Karen was still at the same stage in her labor, and very little progress had been made. Now, this is not normally an issue, because we woul d have been laboring at home during all this time, but since her water had broken, she was placed on a 24 hour time limit due to an increased risk of infection. Interventions were suggested in the form of Pitocin, but we refused. The CNM suggested that Karen take a warm shower and see if that would stimulate the contractions. This worked, as the contractions got much more intense.

She continued to labor, while being monitored, until about 5:30 PM, when the OB on call decided to do an internal to see if the contractions were doing what they needed to do. Unfortunately, they were not at this point, so she was really pusing Pitocin, mentioning the 24 hour clock and the risk of infection. Out of curiosity, I asked if she had read our birthplan, which specifically said we did not want any intervetions, and she said that she did not. This really made me mad. Karen and I decided to discuss the options at that point, and after a decent discussion, we decided to allow them to start a Pitocin drip under the condition that we were informed of everything that was happening. They agreed, and the drip started.

Her contractions became extremely intense with the Pitocin, and Karen asked about a little something to help take the edge off. She ended up on a pain med that would last 2-3 hours and help her out again, after the two of us discussed our options and came to our own decision.

She went through some intense labor, even with the drug, for another 6 1/2 hours until she felt ready to push at about 1:00 AM. We called for a consult and internal, and found that she was 9 1/2 cm dialated, 100% efaced, and -1 station. The CNM suggested that we hold off on pushing for a bit longer so the cervix could finish dialiting, and the baby could drop to where it should be. We agreed, and she labored for another 1 1/2 hours, (3:00 AM) before she entered Second Stage Labor, and began the pushing.

Karen pushed for about 2 hours, and at 5:00 AM, I saw the babies head! Another half hour later, and Sarah Margaret was born.She was placed immediately on mom's belly, and attempted to crawl up and begin feeding, but her cord was too short to let her rutch her way up there.

To make a long and wonderful story a bit shorter, at least for this posting, I cut the cord, looked at the placenta after it was birthed, and had absolutely no issues with the blood or anything else that I figured I would. I think it was the adrenaline kicking in, but I made it.

Ok, the important part, Sarah is perfect, Karen is doing really well, and now we are home. More details will be posted later about her stay and other fun.

Sarah Margaret Hilton
Born: 06/16/2004 @ 05:31 AM
Weight: 6lbs 13.5 oz
Length: 17 1/2"
Head: 12 1/2"
Chest: 12 3/4"

In short, perfect!

Heartfealt Thank You!

Tonite was our final Bradley Method child birth class. We have been going to these classes for the past 12 weeks and have got to know the other two couples and our mentor quite well. I will definately miss going every Monday nite, now that it's over. On the good side of that, it means that we are now prepared and time is getting close.

I must admit, at first, I was a bit skeptical of everything, not just the "Natural childbirth" part. It's not what I grew up knowing. I grew up thinking Doctors know best, Lamaze was the only child birth method, and things were just going to happen the way they do on TV. Now I feel much better knowing that we have the power and knowledge to make those decisions for ourselves and this birth will turn out the way we want it to. Regardless of what ends up happening, we will be making informed decisions about the wellfare of both Karen and our child.

Looking back, it just amazes me how much we actually learned over the course of 12 weeks. I feel really bad for the people whom either don't take any class, or just take the one day, cram course offered by the hospital. There is just too much to learn, and the consequences are just too great to either make decisions uninformed, or just not make them for yourself. So far, that has got to be the best thing we have done in her pregenancy by far.

One of the couples had their baby early and came back tonite to share their experience with the two remaining couples. Just hearing them describe everything and knowing that they also went to the same hospital eases my mind. I know now that the hospital is definately open to the methods we want to use, and everything can go the way we want it to. That is now 2 couples that we know that have had their kid there, and both have shared the same outcome. It was also tough seeing them with their baby. I know now, that it could be any day, and that is really hard on me. I'm not a patient person, especially when I know the goal is near. I've been really excited throughout the whole pregenancy, but now I can hardly contain it. I just can't wait to hold my child for the first time and know that we both created that life and did everythign we could to make it's entry the best possible.

Thank you Rhonda for everything you have done for us, for the knowledge you have given us, and for the empowerment you have bestowed upon us. We owe you a great debt of gratitude!

Countdown time?

I just got an email from Karen with some of her contraction times. There is no regular pattern to them, but they are averaging about 12 minutes apart. 2:25, 2:33, 2:42, 3:04, 3:11. Granted, that is only for about a 45 minute time span and anything could change, but there are other signs that things are getting close. Her spiderwebs the other night, her belly has been really tight to the touch for the past couple of days, and she just feels "different".

T minus 3 weeks and counting

Today, Karen has passed her 37th week of pregnancy. The baby is now medically considered full-term and can, in theory, be born at any time.

I keep teasing her that she has to wait until at least Tuesday, after I graduate from our child birth classes and become a "certified Bradley Method" coach, but that doesn't matter in the grand scheme of things. One of the other couples in our class "graduated" early by delivering, and they had it just the way it was planned. I hope they are there at class on Monday nite so we can see their bundle of joy.

In preperation for the ultimate experience, last night we packed some of the clothes and other such things to take to the hospital. We also went grocery shopping over the weekend and got food for me and some honey for Karen. Bottles have been in the freezer to use as ice packs, and other such items have been gathered or located.

As things get close (whether in reality or not), I've been getting more and more excited. I know Karen will do a wonderful job, I just hope I can provide her with everything she will need. I know the classes have helped ease my fears tremendously, mostly due to the educational side of things. I think I worry more about having to fight the doctors to get what we want than I do about how we will handle things. Only time will tell.

Circumcision

Monday night, at our Bradley Method classes, we discussed circumcision and watched a video of one being done. Not that either of us were considering having it done if we have a boy, but now there is absolutely no doubt in our minds as to whether or not to do it. That has to be the single most horrifying thing you can do to a 1 day old baby! Just the images of them clamping the foreskin and the child's blood curdling scream made me dizzy, to the point that I had to put my head between my knees for a long time. I could not watch it. I think they should make all parents who choose to have that procedure done watch that video. That would seriously cut down on the number of circumcisions performed.

Spiderwebs

Last night Karen informed me that while at Star Glazers, she started to get the stringy, almost spiderweb like, mucous being expelled. While this is one of the signs of early first stage labor, we have learned through our Bradley Classes that this can happen long before the onset of labor, and doesn't mean anything is coming soon.
She "neglected" to tell me right away because, as she said, there is no point in making a big deal about it and getting excited. And from what she was saying, this is not necessarily her loosing her mucous plug. We'll see what transpires over the next few days.

36 weeks

Everything is going smoothly......there were just a few bumps in the road today. I had to have some blood work done because again my blood pressure was higher then it has been (140/98) but after I laid on my side for a little while it came back down. The Midwife still ordered some blood work and I have to pee in a bottle for 24 hours--fun stuff. The baby is way down low and the heart rate was 152 which is higher than it has been lately too but he/she was moving a lot while the midwife was pushing on me.

I had the GBS test done today also, that was very uncomfortable. I feel good and the midwife did not seem very concerned about the blood pressure stuff. I guess everyone has to have a few bumps in the road during pregnancy most people just have sickness and some have gustational diabetes, I apprently will have periodic high blood pressure.

The midwife also indicated that I may be working my way down to a four hour work day also, I will have to see how that will affect my time off and working at home and what not. I will go crazy if I have to stay home for potentially the next 5 weeks.