It's been a tough road, but it's been totally worth it!

Thursday, February 18, 2010

Holy cow, how time flies!!

Good grief, it's been over 2 weeks since my last post! We have been so busy these past few weeks, so I'll try and update more often, so it won't have to be all in one post! Elizabeth is doing great! She is growing nicely, and changing everyday. A couple weeks ago we had some issues with nursing that I think we finally resolved. It's been a hard road for that! You would think it's the most natural, easy thing in the world to do, but it's not! Thankfully now, she's eating normally and growing well as a result! I weighed her this morning before we gave her a bath (I have a US postage scale for the business that measures pounds and ounces... up to 10lbs!), and she is now weighing in at a healthy 9lbs. 2 oz! She has also grown an inch in length, so we are getting too tall for some of her sleepers already! She sleeps pretty good at night, we are down to only one feeding a night, usually around 3am, then off to bed again until about 7:30am.

We have made several outings already. On Feb. 6th we went to our friend's daughter's, Sofie, 6th birthday party! She was such a good girl, just let her get passed from person to person, eventually passing out in her carseat while we all ate dinner. She even got a picture with the birthday girl herself!



We also went to another birthday party for my nephew Ben, who turned 6 also! That was on Valentine's Day, where we had lots of good pizza, Stacy's famous salad, and cake and ice cream for dessert! This was the first time all the nephews got to meet their cousin Elizabeth! They were all very excited to meet her. The oldest cousin, John, who is 14, even held her for awhile!



We have also been to Target (which she slept through the whole time) and to a wedding rehersal dinner last weekend. She was perfectly behaved the whole time, as everyone just oohed and ahhed over her. Gotta love it! We have had lots of visitors come too, which is fun. It certainly has kept us busy at home. She also loves this gym thing that one of my friends bought for us for her, and I got a video of it. It was taken on my cell phone, so don't know how clear it will be:



Today, she is 4 weeks and 4 days. She is so much fun! Here are a few more pics we took recently:











I hope to keep updating more frequently, so please keep checking back to see how our peanut is doing! Thanks again for all the love and support everyone has shown us! We are so blessed!!

Tuesday, February 2, 2010

Elizabeth Rose is here - a birth story!

First off, sorry this is coming so late, it's been a bit hectic around here the past 2 weeks since the baby has come! But it has been such a joy and blessing to finally have her here and being able to love on her!

It all started Jan. 16, Sat night, when we went to the hospital to be induced. We got there, got checked into a room, was hooked up to all the monitors, when the nurse said, "looks like you're contracting on your own!" HUH?? I didn't feel anything, so she showed me the monitor. Sure enough, there were contractions! So I went into labor on my own, so no need for Cervadil! I hadn't really felt them yet, so my nurse suggested we walk around the floor to get things going. So Tommy and I got up and did several laps around the floor. That's when I started to feel them a bit. Yep, feels just like a really bad menstral cramp. We got back to the room and I sat on a birth ball (like one of those excercise balls you blow up and use for different excercises). Rotating my hips on that and leaning on the bed helped me through the contractions. Tommy just watched TV, poor thing that's all he cound do!

The Dr. came in about 9pm and told me to get some sleep if I can, that they will start Pitocin around 3am. Yikes! I heard that brings on some good contractions! So I tried to sleep.... yeah right! Every time I would just start to fall asleep, I would have a contraction. They were like 4 min. apart. I got NO sleep. Just watched the clock until 3am. So I labored all night (med-free!) and was only 1cm dilated by 3am. Crap. So they started Pitocin in hopes to speed things up. Contractions got a litte worse. By 7am they checked me again, and still only 1cm. WHAT!? The contractions sucked at this point. So my Dr. broke my water at 7am (that was a wierd feeling...) and then the contractions REALLY kicked in! By 8am, I couln't take it anymore and the Dr. checked me... 3cm! Time for an epidural! The anestesiologist (sp?) come in and got me all prepped. I had to sit all hunched over while he put the epi in my back. OUCH! It hurt to curl up like that, especially during contractions. He was having a hard time getting it in, so he had to try several times. I started to feel nauseaus from getting too hot. The best trick ever I got from my nurse, she opened one of those little packets of alcohol wipes and had me sniff that. It worked! My nauseausness passed! Finally the epi was in, and ahhhhhhhhh.... that was pure heaven after no meds for 14 hours! I felt NOTHING!

I finally got some sleep on and off and then the epi started to wear off on one side... so they came and juiced me back up. He gave me some extra heavy meds that lasted for an hour, then the regular epi took over. It was all good again. It was about 1pm on Sunday at that point. I was feeling pretty good, my mother-in-law Sharon and sister-in-law Shelly came up to visit. That's when I started feeling some pressure down there. I got checked.. 4-5 cm! Woo hoo, finally making some progress! So after they left, I tried to get some sleep again. Meanwhile, we were watching movies we brough from home to help pass the time. About 3pm, the nurse came in to check me, 7cm!! YES!! She also said she noticed some swelling on one side of my cervical lip. Weird. She said she will check again soon to see if it had gone down.

She checked an hour later, and the swelling was worse! My entire cervix and surrounding tissue was swelling, and I closed back down to 4cm. Come to find out, Elizabeth's head was too big, and my pelvis too small, so she kept hitting my cervix with her head and caused it to swell. Also, my epi was wearing off AGAIN and it ws getting painful. So Dr. Gernhart told us it didn't look like she was going to come out naturally, and said we better do a c-section now. I was upset for about a minute, but was so tired after 22 hours labor at that point, that I was ready and excited to meet my baby girl! The nurses quickly got me prepped, Tommy dressed in his scrubs, and we were wheeled down to the OR around 4:20pm.

We got in the OR, there were so many people in there ready to help out! It was Sunday, and I guess it was just me and one other person on the L&D floor, so lots of nurses were bored! :) Tommy got a picture of my laying on the operating table, as the anestesiologist put in more meds into my epi to get me totally numb. I was soooo sleepy at this time, mostlyl from not sleeping, but also from the meds that I was given. It was so hard to keep my eyes open! Tommy finally came to sit by my head and he grabbed my hand. Surgery started.

I didn't feel a thing, of course, but Tommy could see everything around the drape they put up in front of my head. He didn't look much, as I'm sure there was lots of blood! At exactly 4:42pm, Elizabeth Rose was born, weighing 7lbs. 7oz., and 20 1/4" long, screaming and all! They cut the cord, and brought her over to me to take a look at her for the first time.. I just cried. It was so great to see her finally and hear here crying! She was fine! I pushed Tommy to go get pictures, so he went over and got a bunch of pics. The nurses were great too and got lots of pictures with Tommy in it. I couldn't see any of this, so glad it was documented for me.

While Dr. Gernhart and the others sewed me back up, I could barley stay awake. I just wanted out of there to hold my baby girl. Tommy went with the nurses and Elizabeth down to the nursery on the floor below us. Meanwhile, I was wheeled into recovery, where I dozed on and off for an hour. They gave me good pain meds and took out my epidural. They had to watch me for an hour to make sure my blood pressure and stuff was fine. Tommy came up to see me and showed me the pictures he got of her... she was perfect! He also brough up her footprints that they stamped on stickers. Big feet! Around 6:15pm, I was taken down to my room (Tommy negotiated with the nurses to get us a corner room.... they are HUGE!! Way to go, baby!!!).

When I got there, only nurses were there waiting for me. Tommy and Elizabeth were in the nursery still, I heard she was getting her first bath. About 15 min later, the proud papa came in with our baby girl and I got to hold her for the first time... and it was wonderful!! She was so tiny, cute, warm and absolutly the most beautiful thing I've ever seen. Tommy had called our families and soon Tommy's parents, sister, my mom and my sister were up there in the room welcoming the latest Wehling into the world. It was great. Soon after they left, I was sooo tired, I had to pass out.

We ended up staying in the hospital for 5 days total, due to my c-section and Elizabeth's unwillingness to pee or poop like she should! She held it for 24 hours at one time, so Dr.'s wanted to make sure she was OK. Finally she peed and pooped like normal, and has been normal since. She is stubborn! :) We finally packed up and left the hospital Wednesday afternoon. It was so good to be home with our family. The dogs were REAL curious as to what this "thing" was that we brought home. Lucy really just sniffed her to check her out, and walked away. Oscar, on the other hand, is very protective. He is always looking at her, sniffing her, wondering what she is doing, wehre she is going if we walk with her. He's the over-protective big brother. It's kinda funny!

So here we are, 2 weeks later, trying to get into a routine. Elizabeth is sitting here next to me in her bouncy chair, fast asleep so mommy can type this out. She is such a precious angel brought to us from God. I still can't believe it sometimes I am finally a MOM. And to see Tommy with her, makes me so proud... he's such a loving dad, so excited about her, and such a wonderful husband. I truly and blessed to have him in my life. He is and will be the BEST daddy ever. To see him hold her makes me wanto to cry in happiness. I finally was able to give him what he wanted.. a child. And me, I finally have what I always wanted... a family.