Our Beautiful Family

Baby Girl is 4 weeks old today. That is CRAZY! I almost spelled it with a K, not sure why. Krazy! :) Katie is getting so big & so heavy. I was sure she'd be over 7lbs today but nope. And I just knew she'd be like 20 inches but also nope. 6 lbs 9 oz & 19 inches long. She gained 1 lb & 1/4 inch in 2 weeks. She's eating like a rockstar which is frustrating at times aka frequent night feedings. I miss my sleep! Being a mom is exhausting work I tell ya. She goes through way more diapers than "average". 10-12 my butt! :) It's all good though. Do I feel like a mom? Nope! I don't know if it's because this is all so natural for me & I'm not getting that "I don't know what I'm doing" new mom feeling. I know what I'm doing because I've grown up around babies & I've wanted one since before we got married. I definitely never got that "afraid I'll break her" feeling some moms get. Anywho, Motherhood is good! I love being a mom, even if sometimes I feel like the babysitter. She's a REALLY good baby & hardly ever cries. Even when she does it's rarely loud. She does have her lungs & she can use them but usually she doesn't use them to their full potential. :) Anyways, I guess that's all for now. I'll leave you with a picture.

4 Weeks Old

I should've written my birth story a long time ago when it was more fresh in my head. I shall write what I remember.

Being on hospital bedrest sucked major ass! I seriously hated it & had a few mental/depressed shutdowns. The best nurse, the charge nurse, who was there for all 3 IVs I needed over the 2 week period even thought I was mad at her because I had shut down & wouldn't eat or talk to anyone. I had a few awesome nurses & a few crappy ones. I got great care & crappy care but what do you expect from a week hospital bedrest stay. On Monday, July 30th, I knew my friend was being admitted to have her beautiful son & I was so excited. I also didn't want to see my doctor because I wasn't happy with him. Haha! I shall remind you that I admitted I was a bitch in the hospital. Anywho, my doctor walked in & asked me whether I wanted to be induced that day or a few days later. Um, what?!?! NOW! Induce Now! Well, it was going to be later because Silva had 8 deliveries that day. YES, 8! Later that day (I don't remember the time) Silva checked me & surprise, surprise, I was already 1cm dilated! Whoops! The previous plan was to put in a cervix dilator over the next day & a half and pitocin would be started Tuesday night or Wednesday morning. Already being dilated meant cervix dilator that night & pitocin at 4 am! The dilator worked & I was 2cm at 4am. Pitocin was started around 5. Contractions, oh goodness. As weird as it sounds I loved feeling the contractions. They hurt but I was able to breathe through them fine. They kept telling me to let them know when I wanted the epidural & I kept saying "ok, go ahead & let him know" but apparently they didn't realize I meant I wanted him contacted then. They told me it could take an hr + for him to get there so I figured might as well inform him. Thankfully another women needed her epi so I was next. Surprisingly it wasn't so bad. I was scared I wouldn't be able to stay curled up during a contraction because they had always caused me to throw myself backwards but I was fine. After epi I felt NOTHING! No contractions at all. They were picture perfect contractions too. I'm told levels of 200 are what cause you to dilate. Mine were 250-300. But.......I wasn't dilating. Oh, I forgot to say at 8am, Dr. Stephens broke my water which is what really started my labor & contractions. So, at 4pm and not even 4cm I was told I had to have a Csection. It highly upset me. I wasn't against a Csection before labor, I almost wanted one, but when I knew I HAD to have one I wasn't happy. It was scary! But I wasn't dilating & also baby girl was refusing to drop. It turned out she was stuck up there. A funny thing is they had to put on an internal hb monitor on her head because she kept moving. I tell you, it is the most amazing thing to look over & see her hb continually. Anyways, Csection! Scary! They came in to switch my regular epidural to a Csection strong epidural. It didn't take affect as quickly as they wanted & I was told if I still felt anything when I got into the room they would put me to sleep. NO! I did not want to be put to sleep! Thankfully meds had fully kicked in by then. Laying on the table with my arms out like I've seen on all the shows was so surreal. I was having our baby, she was coming to this world through a cut in my stomach. The drug doctor told me that after she came out if I wanted to take a nap I could. Jerk cursed me because as soon as he said that I was instantly dead tired. Nearly the whole time they were cutting me I had my eyes closed & I was focusing on what I could feel & thinking how weird it all was. I was resting but making sure I stayed awake. Then the moment was here & our daughter was born!

Katelyn Marie C. was born on July 31st, 2012 at 5:12 pm weighing 5lbs 12 oz and only 17.25 in. long.

Hearing her cry was so surreal. She came out so healthy & with no complications at all. Everyone kept saying how much she looked like me. Mike ran off to be with her & I laid there in denial. I was not a mother & we did not have a daughter. They brought her over for me to see & I still couldn't believe it. It was truly a dream.

Meeting Baby Girl!

When it was time Mike went with Katie to the nursery & I slept! I just let myself fall fast & hard asleep. Next thing I knew I was being tranferred back to my bed & being wheeled back to my room. There was Mike holding our daughter. Recovering from a Csection is NOT easy. My body fought hard! I started shaking more & more and the pain was crazy. I think they gave me 5 different injections of pain meds & anti-shaking meds. The shaking just got more & more violent to where they had to hold my arm down when the blood pressure cuff was going. Finally after what seemed like forever the shaking subsided and life with a baby begun. Breastfeeding...... was an adventure! Because she was so little with such a small mouth & because my breasts & nipples are so large it was hard for her to latch properly. She barely ate anything the first 24+ hrs and I was faced with them either supplementing her with formula or her getting an IV. I forgot to mention baby girl was born with her daddy's blood type which meant a higher risk of jaundice which she did develop but a small case. She was put under the lights. Back to formula. I finally, after fighting with the nurse for an hour, agreed to supplementing with a syringe(drops into her mouth) but not a bottle. Baby girl needed food for energy and I was not willing to let her be stabbed with an IV just to keep her off formula. The supplementing worked & the next day we went back to breastfeeding. Thank goodness! By noon the next day, as I was sitting in the nursery talking with the best baby nurse ever, Annette, the doctor told us that baby girl's levels were good enough to be sent home if I was ready. Now, that's scary! I was scared I wouldn't be able to breastfeed properly without Annette's help. She was the biggest cheerleader seriously! She spent at least 3 hours in our room over baby girl's first 2 days helping me feed her. She was also a lactation specialist. At 5 o'clock Thursday evening Mike sprung his 2 girls from the hospital! Luckily my mom & sister had showed up Wednesday afternoon so I had A LOT of help!

Unfortunately my incision did not heal correctly. I developed major blood clots which I knew while still in the hospital that it wasn't healing right. I just felt like it bleeding too much & kept insisting something was wrong. A week later I found out I was right. My incision has been left open to heal on it's own. I have to drive either to the OB(once a week) or on post(the other 6 days) for daily wound care. I was offered surgery this last Tuesday to close the incision again but I decided against it. I just was not ok with another surgery & being off breastfeeding for 24+ hrs. The incision has healed about 30% in the week they've left it open so I hope we only have another 2-2.5 weeks of daily wound care left. Also hope my husband is able to take over the wound care because it is a major pain driving the 15-20 mins to the post clinic for the care. The nurse is seriously the sweetest girl ever & I learn more & more about her sweet daughter Emily each day but yeah, I'd gladly say adios to her. :)

Baby Girl has GROWN and I've already noticed it. I wanted to cry when my mother in law handed her to me a few days ago. I thought "woah, wait, this is not the baby I gave birth too, she's so big now!!!". I was right. Intially baby girl lost 9 ounces in her first week of life but grew 1/2 inch. The next week she gained back 6 of those ounces & grew another inch. YES, she's grown 1.5 inches in her first 2 weeks of life! Please tell her to stop growing!!! Even though she's still 3 ounces under her birth weight I swear she feels a pound heavier. It must be her longer body that makes her feel so heavy. :)

So, there it is. We have a daughter & I am A Mommy! (And Mike is a daddy!). Seeing Mike with her is seriously the most amazing sight. It makes me smile so full heartedly. :)

1 week old: 5lbs 3oz 17.75 inches