The First Month

Oh. My Goodness! I can't believe it has already been a month since Blakely rocked our worlds! I had really intended to make this blog more of a weekly priority but something about a newborn has prevented that from happening. She is really keeping us busy! It kind of feels overwhelming to even think about how to write about the first month. It's been such a blur really because it's gone so fast. She has had some really fussy moments (the kind where I'm almost in tears trying to calm her down) and some perfect moments. She tends to give us one bad night followed by one good night and so on and so on. There's really no way to predict how she's going to be from one day to the other. Keeping us on our toes for sure! We have managed to make it grocery shopping with her every week since she's been home. If we go in the afternoon she tends to sleep straight through. Evening outings however are a completely different story. Last weekend we planned on a sushi date on Saturday night. I've been wanting sushi since I found out I was pregnant and couldn't eat it anymore. We got ourselves all ready, got her ready, and headed out the door. She was a little fussy but not too bad when the car was moving. Once we got to the restaurant she was crying hardcore. We couldn't get her to stop! So we decided to give her a bottle- nope. Then we decided to drive around to get her good and asleep. We drove around for about 20 minutes and she was OUT. We pulled back up to the restaurant and guess what. She woke up screaming. We decided this sushi date just wasn't going to happen. We ended up with Wendy's drive-thru that night. We did try again for lunch the next day and that was a success. Thanks for that Blakely. =) That was really her worst moment. Most of the time she's great. She usually sleeps a lot better in the afternoons than the mornings so I spend the mornings bouncing and singing and rocking and doing whatever I can and then the afternoon is sometimes filled just holding her. I could put her down maybe a little more than I do but she prefers to be held and I really am trying to soak up all the snuggles I can get from her right now. She's truly a blessing to our family. We couldn't be any happier to be her parents. Sometimes I wonder how we got so lucky. Ok that's enough for now. Hopefully I'll write again before the 2 month mark. =) -Geneva

The First 2 Weeks

Wow....I've already been a mommy for 2 weeks! How did that happen? At times it seems it's gone by so fast and other times it seems to be moving in slow motion. I think the past few weeks have brought me so many different emotions I probably couldn't even list them all. From the moment we brought our girl into the world she has been loved by so many people. We had so many visitors in the hospital and we're so grateful to have amazing friends who care so much about us and Blakely. We ended up staying in the hospital for 5 days and came home on Friday, September 13th. My parents stayed the night that evening before they had to go back home. It was nice having them here to love on their sweet new granddaughter. Once we were home she pretty much just slept....and slept....and ate and pooped and slept some more. We were ok with that. It made for an easy transition home. Her first appointment with the pediatrician went well too. She had gained weight and everything else about her checked out just fine. We were pretty pleased to hear that. What wasn't so pleasing was that she required 3 diaper changes while we were there! Yikes! We had her newborn pictures made when she was a week old and she did great. She was a little fussy at first but it was nothing that a full belly wouldn't cure. We've seen a few sneak peek photos that our photographer (Queen Bee Studios- Kattie Hansen) let us see and they were amazing. Don't you think? Seriously, if you need photos done you should look up Kattie, she does great work!

Then the next week hit us and we were shocked at how our sweet sleeping girl seemed to be so upset all the time. She had a really rough few days of crying so much that we didn't know what was wrong with her. I have to admit I was pretty scared for Cody to go back to work but there wasn't much of a choice in the matter. He went back to work yesterday and surprisingly she did really well. She knew I needed the reassurance I guess! We had our last appointment at the SARA Study yesterday and she did really well getting in the carseat and the drive over and even laying in the little cradle long enough for them to get a good reading. She slept a lot throughout the day yesterday and only got fussy when Daddy got home. I guess that was her way of saying "I missed you!" So I'm sure I missed a lot of the last 2 weeks recap but it's honestly gone really fast. I couldn't be more in love with this sweet little girl even when she's crying. She stresses me out sometimes when she cries and I can't console her but I know that's just part of learning to be a mommy. We'll figure each other out soon I know. I'll leave you with a few pictures that I couldn't share in the last post.

P.S. I swear I know how to type using paragraphs but for some reason Blogger keeps running them together. If you know how to fix this I'm all ears! =)

My Birth Story

I've tried this blogging thing before and never made it very far. However, now I have a little girl to blog about and I don't want to forget a single moment so I'm going to try to make a better effort. Even if I'm the only one that reads it, I'll at least have memories written down to look back. I thought a good starting point would be my birth story. I'll try not to let things get too lengthy since I do have a tendency to go on and on. At our 37 week OB appointment Dr. Beck did a routine ultrasound to check fluid levels, etc. She noticed that Blakely's head measurements were a few weeks behind where they should be. After referring us to a genetics doctor at UAMS we had an ultrasound that revealed the same thing Dr. Beck had found. Unfortunately, there wasn't much else we knew at this point. We would have to wait until she arrived. This left us pretty scared at the uncertainty of everything. At our 38 week appointment, the day we had the ultrasound at UAMS, Dr. Beck found that I had protein in my urine which is generally a clear indicator of pre-eclampsia. Eclampsia is seizing so pre-eclampsia is the condition that develops before seizures. She sent me home for the weekend to do a 24-hour urine collection. We met again on Monday, the 9th, and my protein levels were still pretty high. I was officially a pre-eclamptic. Since this was supposed to be a routine visit, Cody wasn't there. He had to take our dog Bailey to the vet for routine shots. Because of the new diagnosis and the risks that it poses and since I was already full term she determined that it wouldn't be of any benefit to try to keep me pregnant and decided to induce labor that evening. This was very scary to me since I didn't want to be induced. I had read so many statistics that inductions result in a C-section around 50% of the time and that was not something I wanted. But if it meant doing the best thing for our Blakely, I would have done anything. I went home after that appointment in tears and very scared. I took a shower, we packed the rest of our hospital bag, ate our last dinner as a family of 2, and headed to the hospital. They let me labor all night hoping that I would progress some on my own, and I did. The next morning, the 10th, I had already progressed from 2cm to 4cm. They started Pitocin at 7:30AM and I continued to labor all day. At around 1PM, Dr. Beck came in and broke my water. I was at 6cm at this point. From there they had me labor in various positions to try to get Blakely to move and for me to dilate even more. At 7 that evening I was still a 6. It was a catch-22 at this point. If I stayed on the Pitocin my contraction stayed consistent but it also prevented Blakely's heart rate from fluctuating as they like to see. Of course, I wanted what was best for her. We stopped the Pitocin at this point and Dr. Beck suggested a C-section. My worst fear! I was terrified. Cody did everything he could do to calm me down and was wonderful the whole time. We had to wait for an open OR but finally went back around 9:15 or so. They gave me some pretty strong meds and brought Cody back with me. At 9:53PM our little girl was born. I could hear her crying and it was more than I could take. I'm not sure if I cried or if my eyes only watered but I felt so much emotion at that point. Cody held her first after the NICU staff checked her out. They gave me more meds to counteract some of the first ones and that really did me in. I couldn't focus on anything. They brought us back to our room and I really felt my life was complete. I had prayed so hard for this little girl and she was finally here with us. She was and still is amazing. It's only been 8 days but I couldn't imagine life without her anymore. Cody and I love her so very very much. I'll wrap this post up since it's pretty long. Keep your fingers crossed I write back again soon! -Geneva