Never Ask a Lady Her Weight

The last two weeks have been fairly routine for me: breast feed, pump, rest, repeat.  All day long every two hours. However, even with this schedule little Elsa wasn't gaining "enough" weight.  Based on set norms, she should have been back to her birth weight at her two week appointment.  Well she was just shy of that.  Her birth weight was 6 pounds 8 ounces.  She dropped to 5 pounds 12 ounces in the hospital and was 5 pounds 13 ounces when we left. At her two week appointment she was only up to 6 pounds 3 ounces. They say she should be gaining 1 ounce per day. So they decided we needed to supplement her feedings with either breast milk (pumped) or formula.  Of course I am trying to breast milk.

At her appointment today she gained 5 more ounces, which we got excited about, but that still isn't 1 ounce per day. The ANRP that we have been seeing sent us to a lactation consultant at Shands. At that appointment we had some information confirmed that we had gotten at the hospital, she has a tight frenulum.  So what's a frenulum? It's that little piece of skin under the tongue that holds the tongue towards the front of the mouth. This is causing her to not feed efficiently.  So my little girl had a frenotomy. Basically, they split the frenulum to allow the tongue to have more movement forward and up.

Now we have to retrain her on how to latch and suck. We weigh again next Friday.  Here's hoping this works!

More info: http://newborns.stanford.edu/Frenotomy.html

The Sleeping Adjustment

I find it funny that as a pregnant woman I went through several months of uncomfortable sleep. People constantly were telling me "get your sleep now!" As if I could bank that sleep to draw on it later.
Then our little cutie showed up and we have spent some time figuring out new methods to get our sleep. One thing people say now is "nap when she naps, you;ll need it."  Ha! Easier said than done.  I would love to know how many of these advice givers actually took there own advice.
Steve and I seem to have evolved our sleep patterns into something that works for us.
At night I cater more to Elsa's needs, feeding and soothing, and Steve helps with diapers. With this method he gets a little more sleep at night.  Then when she wakes up in the early morning I feed her and Steve takes her out of the room to let me sleep a little longer.  He will take a nap late in the day.  And this seems to be working.
For me to feel refreshed from a nap it takes me about 20 minutes to fall asleep and I need a minimum of 2 hours down time.  An hour or a half hour just won't cut it. So I have a real hard time napping during the day.  But it doesn't mean I don't try.

The bad thing with our method is that Steve goes back to work in 2 weeks.  So I will have to get up in the mornings instead of going back to sleep.  I guess I may have to learn how to nap more efficiently then.

Sleeping Elsa

Reflections on Week One

Today marks a big milestone, week one with our little girl. Seven whole days.  I thought I might make some reflections on the wonderful week we have had with her.

Falling in love instantly is possible.  It took time for me to get to know my wonderful husband and eventually fall in love with him.  With Elsa, it was instantaneous. One look and I was hooked!

I have fallen even more in love with my husband.  Didn't think that was possible, I loved him so much already.  Watching him be a daddy is an amazing sight. Elsa will definitely be a daddy's girl.

My fear about the dogs with her have so far been unrealized.  They really don't mind her. If she is crying really hard, Brisco gets a little concerned but otherwise they leave her alone. I will not let my guard down with them though, We are waiting for our new baby gate to get here so I can have some separation between the them and Elsa and let her do things like sit in her swing.

I was so worried that Keegan's barking would surely keep her awake. We worked hard with him, but it was a failure.  She is completely unfazed by his barking, or the vacuum, or load speaking people.  This is AWESOME! Unless something changes I am hoping we won't be a "Shhhh baby is sleeping" household.

Everything takes practice.  Swaddling, breast feeding, baths, all of it takes a little patience and a lot of practice!

Baby Burrito

It's more than the fundamentals. I may have nannied for eons while growing up, but it only prepared me so much.  Being a momma to this little girl is going to take way more than basic fundamentals on how to change diapers. Figuring out how to shape her into a young woman that can conquer anything in this world carries way more weight than a few dirty diapers.

Each day teaches us something new about her. I wouldn't trade this for anything!

The New Norm

Steve and I have been adjusting to what I like to call our new normal.  Adding another human to our family was not only a long lengthy process, but also one that has enriched our lives tenfold and it's only been 7 days.  Our new normal includes: lots of snuggles and kisses, changing diapers, cute tiny clothes, constantly making sure the animals don't use the baby's stuff as their own, late nights, sore breasts (for me only), and a myriad of other things.
SInce we are off work right now our new normal isn't quite normal yet.  Once we both go back to work (which will be awful) then the daily routine will be established. I like the new norm! Actually I LOVE the new norm!

The Arrival

The story of the arrival of Elsa Anna Ladendorf.
Born April 7, 2012
6 lbs 7 oz, 19" Long.

Woke up on April 6th at 2:30am with some idea that something was happening. We were 4 days past our due date, and I was really getting impatient. By 9:30 am my water had broke and we knew we were headed to the hospital sooner than later. We were at the hospital by noon, got checked in and were waiting for progress.
Contractions began and by 3pm our doula, Kym, was there to help us with our labor.
The first thing to not go as planned was that my blood pressure was high enough for the nurses to limit my mobility. Basically, I was allowed to only labor while laying on my side.  We were not allowed to walk around, use the birthing ball, use the jetted tub, or anything else. The contractions were intense, and prolonged and eventually got to a point that I was not getting a break. I had about 3 in a row with no break that lasted about 10 minutes.
The second thing to go not as planned was that once the pain and contractions were no longer able to be controlled naturally, I had to get an epidural. This was a decision that was difficult and against everything I wanted.  Not being able to manage the pain using the techniques we learned because of the high blood pressure was a major disappointment. We had been in labor for about 5 hours and had only progressed to 2-3cm so the epidural was not going to be avoided.
After the epidural we were finally progressing but very slowly.
The third  thing to not go as planned was pictocin to try to get some progress.
We made it to 6cm, but at 2am after being stalled for some time, the doctor asked us to consider to plans: 1. c-section and 2. redose of epidural, sleep, and let them spend an hour adjusting the pictocin.  In that hour we progressed to 8 cm, and by 6 am we were ready to push. 21 hours of labor, then the pushing began.
The fourth thing to go not as planned was that after 3 hours of pushing and excruciating pain we made no more progress. The doctor decided it was time for us to make the call on the c-section. This was a horrible emotional decision, that was the one thing I had wanted to avoid from the very beginning. The doctor was predicting that Elsa was face up and stuck.  After the decision was made, there may have been some crying. Then off to surgery. She was in fact face up AND chin down and stuck on my pubic bone.  But she was here and she is beautiful and healthy!

I have to be thankful for the most supportive doula ever.  With every decision she supported us and talked us through it, and helped us come to terms with the changes that were made that upset us. She was not judgmental against the fact that although the plan was to go all natural we were heading down an unintended path of the exact opposite of a natural birth.

I have learned that plans are great, but never are foolproof.  Life will get in the way and the best you can hope for is a safe outcome.

And this is the best outcome ever!!

Waiting....

April 2nd (this past Monday) was our due date.  All along I have said, that I want Elsa to come naturally when she is ready.  These babies know when it's their time to be born.  But I had no idea that as soon as the due date passed I would start to get super impatient!  Luckily, my belief in the bun in the oven timer is strong enough for me to not resort to medical inducement, but it certainly doesn't keep me from looking for natural inducement.  Kind of a hypocrite, but I just want to see my little girl....NOW!

I feel pretty good.  Very tired, starting to feel bigger, but overall good.  So although I would love to get this show on the road, I;m not so uncomfortable that medical inducement is an option.  Of course the doctor will probably only let me go to 42 weeks.  But I will insist on the biophysical profiles to monitor her fluids and let her cook as long as she needs to.

Pregnant Chicken

What a brilliant blog!! http://www.pregnantchicken.com/

I just read a great post about visitors after birth.  Hilarious and so true!!!

Random Baby Thoughts

As I sit here watching and feeling my belly move all over the place, I have that surreal moment that Elsa will be here very very soon.  I can't wait. I want to see what this little bugger looks like. Hold her. Love on her. I'm really exhausted all of the sudden.  A little from not sleeping well for several days in a row, and a little from just being pregnant in general. I guess that what being in the ninth month of pregnancy will do to you. Other than being tired I'm feeling pretty good. I have to be thankful that for the most part I have had a wonderful pregnancy.

Everyone keeps asking Steve and I if we are ready. Are we? We have all the stuff we need.  And we are excited to get her here. So I guess you could say we are as ready as we possibly can be. Is anyone ever ready?  Although I nannied for years, I was always able to give the kiddos back to mom and dad at the end of the day.  Elsa isn't going anywhere. She is ours 24/7.  How awesome and how scary all at the same time!

Cricked Neck

Today Steve told me that he knows why babies are born all surly and crying. They are upside down for at least a month if not more, and their neck's have to hurt. They have cricks in their neck and it takes some time for them to work it out.

Too cute!

In Her Own Time

We have been given our first lesson from our daughter.  She will do what she wants when she wants. No matter what we want. We are a mere three weeks away from our due date and Elsa had been quite comfortable in her snugly womb, in breech position! We had spent weeks trying everything that we could do to get her to flip. On Monday we had another ultrasound that showed she was still happy where she was.
We decided to schedule a procedure called External Cephalic Version, commonly just called "Version," for Thursday morning. This procedure is an attempt to manually turn the baby. It requires being admitted into labor and delivery, getting an IV, and taking a medication called terbutaline to relax the uterus so that the Dr can manually turn the baby from the outside. It has about a 50% success rate.
We checked in to North Florida Regional Hospital at 6am. Got all the paperwork and questionnaire stuff done, got hooked up with the IV.  Then at 8am Dr. Brazzel came in to start the procedure.  Before they start they do an ultrasound to figure out where everything is like the placenta, baby, and umbilical cord.  Well he made a funny face when he started viewing the ultrasound, and come to find out she had flipped on her own!! Sometime between Monday at 10am and Thursday at 8am, she turned head down. We all had a good laugh. The nurse asked us all when was the last time we had seen her in breech, and Dr. Brazzel  and I both said "Monday!"  Then he said that it wasn't like she just turned breech, that she had been like that for weeks.  The likelihood that she would turn on her own at this point was very small.

We are grateful she has finally turned, which gives us an even bigger chance to avoid a c-section and try to have her naturally. Now, if she will just stay head down! :-)

Turn Baby Turn!

Two weeks ago I had a doctor's appointment and found out that Elsa was in Frank Breech position. This is where the butt is down by the cervix, the head is up by the ribs and the feet are in her face. She is basically in pike position.  After doing some research I of course started to worry.  She could end up with hip dysplasia  and worst yet I could end up having a c-section.  A c-section is my worst fear.  I have never had surgery before, and I don't want to start now!!



After that I started trying all kinds of techniques I had read about to try to get her to turn: breech tilt, inversion, acupuncture, chiropractic for the sacrum pain, cold on the top/heat or music on the bottom. Anything to get her to flip down. 

Well we had our follow up doctor's appointment today and another ultrasound to show she is still breech. She has moved from Frank breech to complete breech. For some reason this makes me feel better.  I'm still trying everything under the sun to get her to turn. At our 36-37 week appointment they will try to do an external cephalic version (aka manually turn her from the outside), and if that doesn't work they will schedule a c-section at 39 weeks.

I do not want a c-section. So crossing my fingers she gets on it and turns in the next couple of weeks.

Comfort Zone

So I decided to break out of my comfort zone today and take an aqua aerobics class at the gym.  Things that made this uncomfortable for me:
1. I had to be in a bathing suit.
2. I'm 7 months pregnant in a bathing suit.
3. I'm 7 months pregnant in a bathing suit in front of people!
4. Thought I could keep my hair dry. ha ha.

Things that made it glorious:
1. I was weightless.
2. The stretching was awesome.
3. The other pregnant ladies were really nice.

More Nursery Projects

Over the last couple of weeks I have been working on some more nursery DIY projects.  All of these I got inspiration from the internet for them.  And I love how they are turning out.

First, we have the mobile.  I took two different ideas and combined them into one.
                                                    Flowers                            Elephants

Mine

Then I found this really cute art piece on Etsy. For about 1/3 of the cost I duplicated it with some minor modifications. I used the same paper on this that I used in the mobile, so they match!

Etsy version

 Mine

And last, I wanted to do something with either Elsa's name or her initial. I found these letters and decided to just do one initial.  

Etsy Version

Mine

Slowly but surely things are coming together. Can't wait to have it all put together!

I might be overestimating my abilities

We had our first event in a series of 3 for February at work tonight.  I started it early at 5:30 so it could end at 7:30.  I am really exhausted after a full 12 hour day. I'm wondering how on earth I am going to make it through the Valentine's Dinner event that ends at 9pm, and even more Passport! I'm supposed to leave that one at 9pm and I will be 8 months pregnant, I just hope I make it that long.

How old is too old to have a baby?

I watched an episode of Dr. OZ last week. I have ever actually watched it before, and my overall opinion is that a. it's not very organized and b. he cuts people off in a rude way. But besides that the topic was "When Are You Too Old to Have a Baby?"
Being that I have been described as "advanced maternal age" I stayed on the channel to watch it and see what they had to say.  Mostly they were referring to women 40 and up. But they tried to dissect a couple of theories like "women can have it all" and Dr.s don't really talk about the consequences of having babies that can occur from fertility treatments.

The first theory of "women can have it all" is a stigma that modern women have to address when planing a family. I get this. I had a series of things that needed to be accomplished prior to starting a family, college, find the right guy and get the right job. I didn't think it would take as long as it did, and I did have a lot of anxiety about my biological clock ticking away. Some of the opinions on the show were that the women weren't worried about the biological clock. This did bother me. It was as if they thought their eggs would last forever. They were kind of naive in their belief that it didn't matter how old they were. There definitely was a lack of realization that it could be hard, very emotional, cost a lot of money and may not work in the end.

The theory about the Dr's not fully disclosing the consequences and safety issues of fertility treatments and having babies at an advance age, was quite interesting.  I hadn't really thought about that.  Having gone through fertility treatments I could relate to this.  By the time I had to go to a fertility dr it was an emotional decision not a logical one. Logically with any other medical treatment, you would weigh the pros and cons and then make a decision. But having a baby of your own really does become an emotional one and I think most women get to the point of "whatever I have to do." So I can see where Dr's probably say things, but some women will ignore it.  The drugs can cause things like cancer, chances of down's is 1 and 12 at age 45, and the older you get the higher chance of your health overall could fail before your children are grown. No matter how healthy you are, your eggs still age.

Overall they presented some interesting statistics, but again it was very unorganized and they did not actually address the emotional decision vs. a logical decision that I think comes into play.

Link to the show: http://www.doctoroz.com/episode/when-are-you-too-old-have-baby

This is a weird experience

I often say to Steve that being pregnant is so weird. His response is "well this is what we wanted."  He is so right, it is.  Two years of trying and we finally have we want.  But it's still weird. To have this little thing inside me growing, knowing that in a couple of months we will have this little thing in our arms is surreal. It is one of the most natural things on earth. I have seen so many women in my life have babies, but this time it's me. I'm in constant wonderment in what our bodies do biologically, perpetuating our species.

I can't wait to see her. To compare her facial features to that of Steve and I. And look at those little feet and hands and knees and elbows that spend most of the day poking me from the inside. April needs to come faster!!

Nursery Projects

Spent this weekend working on some nursery projects. I am loving seeing things come together, albeit slowly. We had already painted the walls a pale yellow last weekend.  And right now I am praying all of this matches the bedding, which I have only seen online.

My first project was to add a little pizzaz to a mirror I bought at the Just Between Friends sale.  I got it for $8!  I saw this photo on pinterest.com and loved the subtle hint of teal on the edges of the bunk bed railing.

 It gave me a great idea to do that to my mirror.

Before

After

I saw this lamp online and really wanted it. I talked about this in an earlier post.  It was at target, but I couldn't find it.  Then they finally got it in.  But it cost about $50 with the lamp and lampshade.

So I scored an old lamp from my mother-in-law that had a great shape to it.  It was pretty dated, and was forest green and brass.  With a little bit of spray paint I ended up with the a new painted lamp.

Before

After

And I made my own lamp shade out of an old one we had, plus some matching ribbon I picked up at Michaels.

Before

And the finished product

After

After

Also got some ideas for the mobile while I was at Michaels.  But that is a project for another day.

Birthday Painting

On Saturday night  group of great gals and I got together at Corks and Colors Studio to do some painting.  We had a blast and got some good art out of it.  I choose to alter the painting colors to match Elsa's bedding.  I really love how it came out!

New Traditions

With Elsa coming it has really made me think about traditions.  I have to say there aren't many that are related to my heritage (Swedish) that we have with our family.  So I have decided that Steve and I need to start some new traditions of our own.  Some of the things I want to do include having a signature dish we cook for the holidays and learning about and using traditions from both our heritages.
One thing that we did do in our family was make yummy rosettes. This is a Swedish tradition and I want to start making them this year. My mom has all of our original irons, but a local store sells them as well, so I may purchase a set of my own.

Last night we went to Haile Village Center for their Light the Village festivities.  Andreas' mom Marianne owns a store in the Village called European Essentials.  And of course (since she is Swedish) she carries tons of Scandinavian items.  Including Swedish ornaments.  So we started our collection,  and got these adorable ones:

So let the traditions begin!!

Just Between Friends sale

Ok, so I'm back and it was awesome. They have staggered check in so earlier today any volunteers and consignors, tonight was the first time mom's (could be your fist time every going) night. Then tomorrow it opens to the public. 

They had everything!!

So for $104 I got the following:
3 burp cloths
a boppy pillow
a summer digital video monitor (big score!)
a nursing cover
a mirror for the nursery
8 outfits
1 cherrios bib
a hooded towel and washcloth
an Eddie Bauer head thingy for the carrier/car seat

All in pretty good to excellent condition. They also had tons of toys, play centers, strollers, high chairs, swings, bouncers, tons of baby crib bedding sets, nursery decorations, clothes clothes clothes, shoes, breast pumps, bathtubs, I could go on. Tons of stuff.