The nurses at Medical City are amazing...very knowledgeable and helpful in all things baby. If anything, Summer and I owe them an apology for taking advantage of their services, most notably in the area of diaper changing. The two nights we were in the hospital after Kaitlin was born, we had her stay in the nursery at night, so Summer could get some rest and recover. The nurses would bring her in every 3 hours so she could feed and then take her back afterwards. In all of those feedings, I can honestly recall MAYBE one time that we changed her diaper before sending her back to the nursery. Summer would be feeding her and all of the sudden we'd hear an explosion...then I would laugh, roll over and go back to sleep, knowing full well that the nurse was going to have a nice present to take care of when she came to pick her up. My how I miss those nurses now that it's just us at home.
Another funny story along this same subject matter. On the Monday that we were due to check-out, a pediatrician (older man) came to do one more final check-up on Kaitlin before discharging her. On her first check-up the day after she was born, they detected a slight heart murmur. Thankfully in this second check, it was gone. After finishing his work, the pediatrician wished us well and then walked back around the curtain (we had it drawn b/c Summer has been feeding before he came in) and was about to head out the door. All of the sudden this massive explosion occurs from inside Kaitlin's diaper that shook the walls of our room and rustled the curtain. The last thing the pediatrician says as he is walking out the door is, "I heard that." Simple and straightforward, but utterly hilarious. Kaitlin was very, very embarrassed.
We really enjoyed all of the visitors, gifts and flowers that made their way to our room this past weekend. I shot some video and pictures of the hospital room, so check out our Shutterfly page if you want to see how your arrangement's turned out. I also wanted to thank all of you for the prayers, well wishes and text messages I received during the labor and delivery process. Christine did an awesome job of being the point person for sending out my updates and then forwarding me your responses. From time to time, I would read them to Summer as she was resting and they provided a great boost to her. We are very blessed to have such great friends and family.
Friday, August 31, 2007
Wednesday, August 29, 2007
Pictures
We'll be adding pictures to our Shutterfly album, so check there often! The link is to the left and below.
Shutterfly
Shutterfly
Tuesday, August 28, 2007
Birth Story
Disclaimer: I wanted to have this all down to someday tell Kaitlin, so that's why it's so long and detailed. Please feel free to skim.
Let's see, where to begin? Friday, August 24 I called the doctor because I had some "issues" that I will not go into here, and he told me to go ahead and come up to the hospital so we could monitor the baby and make sure said issues weren't affecting Kaitlin. I called Scott at work at about 10 am and told him and he got home at about 10:10, even though work is 30 min from our house. Weird. He rushes into the house and starts packing everything up, not really speaking a word to me though. As we're going to the hospital, he is driving like a madman, weaving in and out of traffic with a determined, stoic look on his face. Finally I turned to him and said "Look, this isn't "it" and if it was, this is EXACTLY the opposite of how I need you to be behaving." He apologized and just said he was really nervous, but that he would try to calm down, and he did.
We arrived at the hospital and got all checked into a room, I got strapped to all the monitors and we waited around listening to her heartbeat and watching me have very small contractions for about 2 hours. Dr. Ruk came in and said everything looked great and that we were free to go, but he did mention that he thought he'd be seeing us again this weekend as I was having those small contractions.
Since it was now past 1pm, I was starving, and I figured it was close to the end, I deemed it alright for me to eat lunch meat again so I asked Scott to stop at Jersey Mike's subs to pick us up some lunch. I had been looking forward to ripping down a club sandwich from there for 9 months and I thought Friday was the day, but alas the A/C people called and said they were at our house to replace our unit so we had to go. (Note to self - never be due at the end of August in Texas with a temperamental A/C). At this point I had been standing in line for about 20 min though, talking to several people in front of me who were amused by the extremely pregnant lady in her dress. One was an Ag and one was an 7 month prego lady. The Ag had asked me when I was due and when I told him last Sun he said "Yes, I was getting the vibe that I may have to deliver a baby in the sub shop." I didn't tell him that I was actually having contractions at that moment!
Anywho, Scott and I head to the house and hang out. At about 4pm I decided to try and take a nap, but at that point the contractions were strong enough that I couldn't really sleep through them, so I was just laying in the bed trying to relax. It was here that I started to get worried though, because the pain I was feeling was originating in my low back, which I knew was not a good sign. I had been feeling for a couple weeks that she wasn't facing the right way and this was proof of that. Quick lesson for those that don't know, the optimal position is to have the baby head down, which she was, but facing your back so when contractions happen she's bent in such a way that it pushes down on your cervix rather than your tail-bone. When she faces out towards your stomach, her head is basically a ramming tool directly into your low back. More on that later. Around 7pm we started a game of scrabble to try and keep my mind off of it, and then we took a walk. Throughout this I'm timing my contractions and around 10pm I notice that they've been 5 min apart, about 1 min apiece for about an hour, so I told Scott that we should probably start heading that way. I took a shower and Scott made sure we had all the last minute stuff and we hopped in the truck.
We got all checked in again at the hospital and got our nurse, Brandi, who told us at about 11pm that I was only 3 cm dilated. Yikes, not what I wanted to hear after what I felt had been quite a while of terrible back pain. At this point I was still wanting to go natural though, so I got up and walked around a bit, went to the bathroom and just tried to breathe through it. She checked me again around midnight and I still hadn't progressed any more so at that point I told Scott that I didn't think I could do it, that I wanted to have an epidural. He was completely supportive and so we told the nurse who got the paperwork started. It's amazing how quickly I signed all those papers once I decided to with the drugs! The anesthesiologist came in and got down to business and at about 1:30am I was a happy lady! It really was a blessing because I was now able to sleep for what turned out to be a long road ahead.
Cut to 6:30 am, 30 min before our nurse Brandi was about to get off. She checks me and says I'm at a 9 and that while she wouldn't be there to see our baby be born, it would probably be very soon that I would be pushing. Woohoo, celebration in the delivery room! This was short lived however, because around 7:30 the doctor on call, Dr. Ryder, came in and checked and said I was only a 7.5, maybe an 8! And Brandi of course is long gone at this point, so I can't tell her where she can put her 9 cm assessment! My water still hadn't broken at this point, so she pointed out that we could still do that and perhaps start a pitocin drip to try and speed things up. They gave me about an hour after they broke my water before they checked again, and I was still at an 8, so they started the pitocin. Another hour or two goes by and I'm still an 8, maybe an 8.5. Additionally, with the pitocin I'm starting to feel the contractions and they're STILL in my back! Ugh! That means the little lady hasn't turned around like she was supposed to. It was at this point that I fell in love with my new nurse, Suann. She was just the most patient, wonderful nurse who had many tricks up her sleeve to help us get Kaitlin out of there. Suann also asked us if we knew how big the baby was. We told her that we had no idea, but were guessing she would be somewhere around 7.5 lbs. She replied back that she had seen "skinny people like me" hide some pretty big babies before. Scott and I just laughed it off! She had me changing my position every 30 min to try and get her to turn, and she was upping my pitocin all along trying increase my contractions to get me over the 8cm hump. Finally, at around noon she said I was 9 with a small lip, so I would be able to push soon!
Around 12:40 she follows through on her word and we start to push. What a strange, strange situation that is, let me tell you. At the beginning it was just me, Scott down holding my left leg and Suann holding my right leg. With every contraction I was instructed to take a deep breath, hold it and push for a count of 10, exhale, and do that again 2 more times (total of 3 ten counts during each contraction). At this point my epidural had worn off enough that I felt each contraction starting in my back, so I would say "here it comes" and they would have me wait a bit until it built up and then we would do our thing. Scott was the BEST coach anyone could ask for though, always counting down for me and encouraging me the whole time. After about 40 min of pushing, Kaitlin was crowning so Dr. Ryder joined in the party. At this point there were also about 4 other nurses that kept coming and going in the room...must have been a slow day in Labor and Delivery! Oh, side note, Kaitlin finally turned about 20 min into the pushing, and then turned AGAIN 20 min after that. Interesting that she couldn't do that during the previous 20 hours of labor, but who am I judge? Finally, at 1:40 here comes all 9 lbs, 1 oz and 21 inches of Kaitlin Rose, onto my belly! It was the most wonderful, amazing, miraculous thing I have ever experienced in my life. Scott and I were laughing, crying, the nurses were exclaiming "Look at all that hair!", Dr. Ryder was saying "What a HUGE baby!" It was good times all around. Scott cut the cord and then ran out to tell the family that she was here. They took her to the other side of the room and cleaned her up while they attended to me.
I'll post some follow-up stories on the rest of the stay in the hospital and our first trip home as a family, a little later.
Let's see, where to begin? Friday, August 24 I called the doctor because I had some "issues" that I will not go into here, and he told me to go ahead and come up to the hospital so we could monitor the baby and make sure said issues weren't affecting Kaitlin. I called Scott at work at about 10 am and told him and he got home at about 10:10, even though work is 30 min from our house. Weird. He rushes into the house and starts packing everything up, not really speaking a word to me though. As we're going to the hospital, he is driving like a madman, weaving in and out of traffic with a determined, stoic look on his face. Finally I turned to him and said "Look, this isn't "it" and if it was, this is EXACTLY the opposite of how I need you to be behaving." He apologized and just said he was really nervous, but that he would try to calm down, and he did.
We arrived at the hospital and got all checked into a room, I got strapped to all the monitors and we waited around listening to her heartbeat and watching me have very small contractions for about 2 hours. Dr. Ruk came in and said everything looked great and that we were free to go, but he did mention that he thought he'd be seeing us again this weekend as I was having those small contractions.
Since it was now past 1pm, I was starving, and I figured it was close to the end, I deemed it alright for me to eat lunch meat again so I asked Scott to stop at Jersey Mike's subs to pick us up some lunch. I had been looking forward to ripping down a club sandwich from there for 9 months and I thought Friday was the day, but alas the A/C people called and said they were at our house to replace our unit so we had to go. (Note to self - never be due at the end of August in Texas with a temperamental A/C). At this point I had been standing in line for about 20 min though, talking to several people in front of me who were amused by the extremely pregnant lady in her dress. One was an Ag and one was an 7 month prego lady. The Ag had asked me when I was due and when I told him last Sun he said "Yes, I was getting the vibe that I may have to deliver a baby in the sub shop." I didn't tell him that I was actually having contractions at that moment!
Anywho, Scott and I head to the house and hang out. At about 4pm I decided to try and take a nap, but at that point the contractions were strong enough that I couldn't really sleep through them, so I was just laying in the bed trying to relax. It was here that I started to get worried though, because the pain I was feeling was originating in my low back, which I knew was not a good sign. I had been feeling for a couple weeks that she wasn't facing the right way and this was proof of that. Quick lesson for those that don't know, the optimal position is to have the baby head down, which she was, but facing your back so when contractions happen she's bent in such a way that it pushes down on your cervix rather than your tail-bone. When she faces out towards your stomach, her head is basically a ramming tool directly into your low back. More on that later. Around 7pm we started a game of scrabble to try and keep my mind off of it, and then we took a walk. Throughout this I'm timing my contractions and around 10pm I notice that they've been 5 min apart, about 1 min apiece for about an hour, so I told Scott that we should probably start heading that way. I took a shower and Scott made sure we had all the last minute stuff and we hopped in the truck.
We got all checked in again at the hospital and got our nurse, Brandi, who told us at about 11pm that I was only 3 cm dilated. Yikes, not what I wanted to hear after what I felt had been quite a while of terrible back pain. At this point I was still wanting to go natural though, so I got up and walked around a bit, went to the bathroom and just tried to breathe through it. She checked me again around midnight and I still hadn't progressed any more so at that point I told Scott that I didn't think I could do it, that I wanted to have an epidural. He was completely supportive and so we told the nurse who got the paperwork started. It's amazing how quickly I signed all those papers once I decided to with the drugs! The anesthesiologist came in and got down to business and at about 1:30am I was a happy lady! It really was a blessing because I was now able to sleep for what turned out to be a long road ahead.
Cut to 6:30 am, 30 min before our nurse Brandi was about to get off. She checks me and says I'm at a 9 and that while she wouldn't be there to see our baby be born, it would probably be very soon that I would be pushing. Woohoo, celebration in the delivery room! This was short lived however, because around 7:30 the doctor on call, Dr. Ryder, came in and checked and said I was only a 7.5, maybe an 8! And Brandi of course is long gone at this point, so I can't tell her where she can put her 9 cm assessment! My water still hadn't broken at this point, so she pointed out that we could still do that and perhaps start a pitocin drip to try and speed things up. They gave me about an hour after they broke my water before they checked again, and I was still at an 8, so they started the pitocin. Another hour or two goes by and I'm still an 8, maybe an 8.5. Additionally, with the pitocin I'm starting to feel the contractions and they're STILL in my back! Ugh! That means the little lady hasn't turned around like she was supposed to. It was at this point that I fell in love with my new nurse, Suann. She was just the most patient, wonderful nurse who had many tricks up her sleeve to help us get Kaitlin out of there. Suann also asked us if we knew how big the baby was. We told her that we had no idea, but were guessing she would be somewhere around 7.5 lbs. She replied back that she had seen "skinny people like me" hide some pretty big babies before. Scott and I just laughed it off! She had me changing my position every 30 min to try and get her to turn, and she was upping my pitocin all along trying increase my contractions to get me over the 8cm hump. Finally, at around noon she said I was 9 with a small lip, so I would be able to push soon!
Around 12:40 she follows through on her word and we start to push. What a strange, strange situation that is, let me tell you. At the beginning it was just me, Scott down holding my left leg and Suann holding my right leg. With every contraction I was instructed to take a deep breath, hold it and push for a count of 10, exhale, and do that again 2 more times (total of 3 ten counts during each contraction). At this point my epidural had worn off enough that I felt each contraction starting in my back, so I would say "here it comes" and they would have me wait a bit until it built up and then we would do our thing. Scott was the BEST coach anyone could ask for though, always counting down for me and encouraging me the whole time. After about 40 min of pushing, Kaitlin was crowning so Dr. Ryder joined in the party. At this point there were also about 4 other nurses that kept coming and going in the room...must have been a slow day in Labor and Delivery! Oh, side note, Kaitlin finally turned about 20 min into the pushing, and then turned AGAIN 20 min after that. Interesting that she couldn't do that during the previous 20 hours of labor, but who am I judge? Finally, at 1:40 here comes all 9 lbs, 1 oz and 21 inches of Kaitlin Rose, onto my belly! It was the most wonderful, amazing, miraculous thing I have ever experienced in my life. Scott and I were laughing, crying, the nurses were exclaiming "Look at all that hair!", Dr. Ryder was saying "What a HUGE baby!" It was good times all around. Scott cut the cord and then ran out to tell the family that she was here. They took her to the other side of the room and cleaned her up while they attended to me.
I'll post some follow-up stories on the rest of the stay in the hospital and our first trip home as a family, a little later.
Wednesday, August 22, 2007
Quick Update
We went to our last weekly appointment with Summer's doctor today and everything looks great. As some of you know, Summer asked that he push the inducement date back (it was originally going to be today) a few days to give the baby more time to come on her own. Today, we booked our final inducement date for this monday at 7:30am. So, she'll either be her on her own terms or we will go and get her Monday morning!
Please keep all three of us in your prayers!
Please keep all three of us in your prayers!
Sunday, August 19, 2007
She's late!
So it's my due date today and no sign of the little lady. I thought she would come for sure on Friday night, after making me work every last day that I had committed to, but alas she did not show. And then I thought she'd come today since we had tickets to Wizard of Oz in Ft. Worth, but again, she stood me up. So I guess I'll stop trying to determine when she's going to show and just wait it out. I'm off of work all week so feel free to call, stop by, whatever because I'm sure I'll be bored. Here are the links:
Link 1
Link 2
Link 1
Link 2
Wednesday, August 15, 2007
Nursery Pics
We've still got a few things to add, but I thought I'd go ahead and post pics since it's almost complete. We will probably put her name on the wall above the crib and add a few more hangings, but this is the gist. Notice the fine painting and craftmanship on all the furniture, thanks to a one Mr. Scott Keith! And also notice she will not need any new clothes until she turns 2! Hope you like it!
Sunday, August 12, 2007
Happy Birthday!
Today is Summer's 28th year and our little girl's 39th week birthday! Last night, Summer requested Freebirds for dinner, followed up by a trip to Marble Slab. Summer had initially requested a trip to the Rangers game last night, but common sense finally intervened. I simply pointed out that the long walk from the parking lot to the game, only to be rewarded with a hard-plastic seat in 95+ degree temperatures were not good things for someone a week away from her due-date. Instead, my parents met us at the movies to see Bourne Ultimatum (which was greatness!). This morning we got up for church, where the little old lady sitting next to us was amazed that Summer was out and about one week before her due date! It's funny to watch all of the eyes follow Summer's stomach as we walk around church. After church, we went to brunch at the Blue Mesa with my parents. Summer had one plate of breakfast food and then a heaping pile of dessert. After brunch, we took some of the birthday money our parents had given Summer and went and bought her a hardwood bench for the back-yard.
We hope you all had a great weekend!
Here is the week 39 update.
Link1
Link2
Friday, August 10, 2007
Pack-n-Play
Ok, so lets talk Pack-n-Play. Summer and I have been debating on what to get for the baby to sleep in our room the first few weeks. On Tuesday night, we went to Baby's R Us and scouted out both the bassinets and the Pack-n-Plays. After much consideration and debate, we decided to go with a Pack-n-Play since it is relatively close in cost to the bassinet, but is multi-purpose. Summer had been trying to get me to set it up all week, but I had not had a chance to do so. Also, I kept pointing out that it seemed like it would be very easy to put together and it would be 2 days before the baby even came home from the hospital. So, finally last night, I gave in. At 10:14pm, I confidently told her that I was about to begin assembly and would be finished before 10:30pm. So, I hastily ran down the hall, retrieved the box and set to work. In about 3 minutes, I had it pretty well put together and was feeling pretty confident that I was about to shatter my quoted time of 16 minutes. However, I hit a snag when it came time to install the netting that goes below the mattress for the bassinet portion. Nonetheless, I fought through it and had everything put together by 10:26pm.
Pure domination!
Pure domination!
Wednesday, August 8, 2007
38.5 Week Update
We had Summer's 38.5 week appointment today. Not much progress has been made since last week, however her blood pressure, weight and measurements were all looking really good. Dr. Ruk went ahead and scheduled an induction date for 8/22, as an administrative measure, as that is the day he is on call during the week after her due date. We're hoping our little girl decides to come out on her own, but if not, we'll see her in two weeks!
By now, you're probably wondering what purpose the picture to the right serves. Those of you DFW residents should know him as the greatness of David Finfrock, NBC 5 lead meteorologist. How does he fit into our weekly doctor visit update you say? Well, we actually rode down the elevator with him on the way out of the hospital. It's not every day you get to stare Finfrock eye to eye. Looking back, I should have taken the opportunity to discuss how terrible his morning weather girl is, Becky Miller. For those of you who know our Golden Retriever, Chunk, he has very high thunderstorm anxiety. That damn Becky Miller has cost me a FORTUNE in missed weather predictions. She'll call for rain, I'll take Chunk to doggy day-care, and it ends up being drier than the Sahara. And my personal favorite, she swears there will be no rain, I confidently leave Chunk at home and then come home to a soaking wet dog who is covered in mud and has tracked it all over the house...or, better yet, he chews up the bottom of the door frames, trying to escape.
I missed my only chance to 1) get $1,000 back from Finfrock; or 2) take it out of his ass!
More nesting...
Monday I had tickets to the suite for the Rangers game with work. The game ran kind of long, so I was not on the road home until 10:15pm or so. I called Summer on the drive home and she sounded pretty tired and said she was just about to put away her Harry Potter book and get some sleep. Naturally, I expected to come home to a quiet house...quite the contrary. When I walked into the house, it was lit up like a friggin' Christmas tree. As I made the corner to the kitchen, I saw pots, pans, Tupperware, dish towels and all sorts of other kitchen items strewn around the counter tops and piled up in stacks on the floor. Summer was standing in the rear of the kitchen next to the pantry and sporting a very sheepish grin and saying, "I just came in to get a snack!" Apparently, the snack trip turned into a complete rearrangement of all the items in the drawers and cabinets in the kitchen. I hope the baby will sleep peacefully, once she gets here, knowing that this critical task has now been undertaken prior to her birth.
You can all rest easy, now.
You can all rest easy, now.
Tuesday, August 7, 2007
She beat us to the punch...
My cousin Joanna had her baby this morning and both mom and baby are doing well. She was due the same day as Summer, but this was her second baby, so she came a little early. So it looks like Summer is on deck!!
Monday, August 6, 2007
Sunday, August 5, 2007
Wednesday, August 1, 2007
Doctor Visit
We had our weekly visit and yes, it's true, I have not only been MAKING A HUMAN BEING, I have also been preparing to give birth! According to Dr. Ruk, I am 1 cm dialated and 50% effaced (meaning the cervix is thinning out). Thank you, thank you very much. Scott was bugging Dr. Ruk with repeated questions "So, when do you think it will happen? Do you think it will be this week?" I finally said "He's not psychic Scott!" Silly boy. However, Dr. Ruk did say in parting, "See you next week...or maybe sooner." :-)
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