It's been a week now (wow! Where has the time gone?) since I last posted and Kira is now 15 days old. She has been sometimes a challenge (breastfeeding anyone?) but mostly a dream. I love watching her sleep, she is so cute. And since she is a newborn, sleep is what she does most of the day.
Mom has been wonderful coming up and taking me to her pediatrician appointments and spending time keeping me company.

Yesterday, we took her to her two week appointment at the pediatrician and she has already surpassed her birthweight! (she is now 8lb, 10 oz so she is definitely growing)

I wonder what she is dreaming about? She seems so peaceful...
I haven't done much else exciting these days (today I got a shower and did my hair...whohoo!), we did have company last night come and play games which was nice. I am still getting used to taking care of her. Since I am kind of stuck at home for the next few weeks, I am thankful I have been blessed with a lot of visitors on most days so I have something to look forward to. Oh, it sounds like she is waking up so that is all for now...

Birth Story

Here it is Wednesday and already a little more than a week since I gave birth to a miracle baby, little Kira Dawn.

Since Tom posted when I was unable, I thought it would be helpful to relate the story of her birth. On Tuesday morning at 4AM, I woke up out of a sound sleep and just felt "off." So I decided to take a bath and see if that would help me go back to sleep. While I was relaxing in the bathtub, I started feeling weird sensations in my abdomen that radiated to my back. They didn't really hurt but they felt different from the contractions I had experienced up until this point. So I decided to start timing them and by 6:30AM, they were consistently 5 minutes apart. So Tom called his mom (who had promised to be my coach for the birth) and she promptly jumped in her car and drove over.

When she got to our house, we decided to drive over to my OBGYN office and have them check me to see if I was really in labor. So we got there and met with my OBGYN and she checked me (I was about 3 centimeters). Then she sat down and said the funniest thing...she said, "I can tell just by looking at you that you are not in labor." I guess she thought I was too calm to be in real labor since I wasn't wincing in pain or anything. But she agreed to hook me up to the monitor to see if I was really having contractions. This she did and left for 15 minutes during which time, my mother-in-law and I watched the very real contractions show up on the monitor. When my OBGYN came back, she was very surprised to see that I was actually in labor and told me I should start making my way to the hospital. I think we got to the hospital around 11AM. I spent most of my time in the tub in the hospital since it made me most comfortable. Unfortunately, my uterus didn't seem to be working very well as the nurse told me afterwards that my contractions were about a minute apart for hours. As the hours went by, I became more and more exhausted, especially with my contractions being so close together, I never had a chance to catch my breath before the next one was on me. Tom and my mother-in-law and the nurse sat by, Tom holding my hand and encouraging me.

After what seemed like forever, I finally reached 9 centimeters so they had me get out of the tub to complete the last little bit in my room. However, my cervix seemed to stall at 9 centimeters and Kira was also posterior so my midwife had me lay on my left side and push very lightly to see if we could get her to turn and help my cervix past that 1 centimeter so I could really push. Thankfully, laying on my left side worked because soon I was ready to push. I pushed hard for 45 minutes and she was born at 6:51PM! She came out with her hand on top of her head and gave me what we later found out was a severe internal laceration in my cervix. For 2 hours after her birth, I was running on adrenaline, and there are pictures of me smiling and holding her. However, as time went on, I began feeling worse and worse.

The reason for this was that my uterus became atopic. That is, it worked so hard during the labor, that as soon as I gave birth to her, it stopped contracting. So I was hooked up to pitocin to try to help my uterus expel the placenta and afterbirth. The nurse kept coming in and pressing on my fundus to get it to contract and every time she did, I would loose a huge blood clot. Finally, they were able to get the placenta expelled but I continued to bleed and nothing they gave me seemed to stop or slow the bleeding. My blood pressure began rapidly dropping and it was soon decided that the only way to stop the bleeding would be to operate. I was rushed to the operating room and thankfully, they stopped the bleeding, found the internal laceration and stitched me up. I required 2 blood transfusions and 4 IV bags to bring me to the point where I was well enough to be discharged from the hospital on Friday night.

But it wasn't all bad! I was able to make it through the birth of Kira without the need of any drugs, which was one of my goals....and the nurses and lactation consultants at the hospital were so helpful and kind during my stay, I was able to get a good handle on breastfeeding so I felt very confident when I left that I could do it. And Kira is such a blessing...every day, I feel more and more love for her. Of course I think she is the most beautiful baby and I feel so blessed to have her in my life!

Kira Dawn

Well all...here she is! Kira Dawn S, 8lbs. 7oz. 201/2" long...cute as a button and looking more like her mother (which is good now...but not so good in the long run--have to buy a shot gun), but definitely has the TS hot gene!

Dawn had some complications last night, but came out fine! Breast fed this morning and she was ravenous...totally cool experience!

Overall, as you can tell below Dawn was a trooper throughout the entire birthing process--she went 12hrs strong and then only had about 50min. of pushing--she shot that sucker right out! Can't wait to have another! Dawn will provide more updates when she is able...enjoy the pics!

Quick update

After my visit to the doctor today I am now 2 centimeters dilated, 80% effaced and the midwife said she would be very surprised to see me next week. Here's to hoping. I also lost a pound this week which puts me at a total weight gain of 31 pounds now. Apparently it is common to loose weight at the end of the pregnancy and as long as the baby is still growing (she is) it is fine.

Filling the time...

So, despite the fact that the baby didn't come this week, we managed to have some adventures and fun anyway...Friday morning, Tom had off work, so we drove down to LBI at 4AM so he could surf. I sat on the beach in my chair (Xmas present from Amy!) and finished reading Treasure Island while he enjoyed the surf. Unfortunately, he had a little accident while surfing and got pushed out onto the jetty. His side was all scraped up, his feet cut and bleeding and board dinged a little. Despite all this, that didn't stop him from continuing to surf for a couple more hours, even though his feet were still bleeding...I don't know if you can tell from this picture but his one foot is now pretty swollen and oozing. I am sure it must hurt.

The next day, we had the opportunity to get this stand-up paddle board from a friend since Tom fixes surfboard dings so we were able to trade it for work he has done. This board is 4 1/2 inches thick and 9 ft. 3 inches tall. Tom was able to take it out on a local creek and said it was quite fun. It will be a good board to use when the waves are really small and a fun time for our kids once they get a little older.

Tonight we went to an awesome restaurant called "POD." The meal was family style, three courses and the restaurant was very modern.

I know it's silly but I wanted to include a picture of the baby closet. Little does our little baby know how she is getting hooked up with everything she could ever need, she has lots of cute little clothes and books, now all I need is for her to be outside my belly so I can use them on her!

My next doctor appt. is tomorrow, but Tuesday will put me at 40 weeks. Judging by the way I am feeling, I think I have another week or so to go. Things are uncomfortable sleeping at night but I haven't had one twinge or inkling of impending labor.

Nothing to report

Well, yet another week has gone by. Another week that brings us closer to meeting our little girl face to face! I am officially 39 weeks now but after leaving my midwife today, not much progress has been made...I am 1 1/2 centimeters dilated and 50% effaced. On the bright side, my weight has seemed to stabilize. Although my belly measurements have continued to grow indicating that the baby is still growing, I have not gained any more weight in the past 3 weeks. The total tally is 32 pounds thus far. Since she has gotten bigger, I have really lost my appetite. Even eating little meals gives me indigestion.

Things I am doing to keep busy:

Just so you know, I did not choose this book because it was a part of Oprah's book club, but because I enjoy reading about the Holocaust.

1. Bake bread in my bread machine (Tom's favorite of the moment is potato bread)

2. Read-I have read 3 books so far....Night by Ellie Wiesel, The Call of the Wild and White Fang by Jack London. Today I will start reading Treasure Island, another book I have always wanted to read.

3. Pack, write thank you cards, clean house.

4. Take trips to Barnes and Noble for more reading (can you tell I love to read?)

5. Long walks

6. Hang out with friends...last night went to see the latest Harry Potter movie and if I don't go into labor, Tommy and I will go to the beach and then dinner on Thursday night.

7. Any other suggestions??

Last week, my midwife told me I could go "anytime." What does that mean? All this time I have been hoping to go "early" but thinking that I will probably be overdue because of the family track record. It is a weird feeling not knowing when it will happen. I am so used to scheduling my life out and this is the one time when you are waiting for something big to happen and have no idea when it will be. It certainly doesn't help when you show up in church and people say annoying things like "When are you due?" or "You're still pregnant?" Yes I am....no, nothing is happening yet.