thelittlezoo.com

Originally posted August 4, 2003

This is kind of long…

We arrived at the Birth Center at 6:45 a.m. on July 31st for our induction. After checking in and getting into the hospital gown, the nurse came in and did some vitals and got my IV started. Dr. Bowtie came in a little while later and did an internal exam, and said I was at 3 cm and 80% effaced (I had been 2 cm and 50% effaced just a day and a half earlier!). He broke my water - which surprisingly didn’t hurt at all - and was “nice and clear”. He attached an internal monitor to Hannah’s scalp (because I’m considered high-risk), and they started the Pitocin. I started having stronger contractions shortly, and after about a half hour we noticed that every time I had a contraction, Hannah’s heart rate would drop about 40-50 beats per minute less than it had been. I got up to go to the bathroom, and we noticed a “slight stain” of meconium on the sheets. So the nurse called Dr. Bowtie and he came over to my room about 9:30. He looked over all the print outs from the monitors, and we started discussing our options. He said that we could decide to continue with labor, but that with her HR dropping so significantly from the get-go, that he was pretty sure I would end up needing a c-section anyway because her distress would just get more significant as the contractions got stronger. So DH and I decided that we would rather go ahead with the c-section than continue labor, because then the OR could get ready for us, and not have to rush us in at the last minute and have things go wrong. I was actually really, really relieved, because I was scared to death of labor and delivery, but a c-section didn’t make me nervous at all!

We had to wait for an OR to become available, so I just stayed in bed and waited the contractions out. Even though we stopped the Pit when we decided to go ahead with the c/s, I kept having fairly strong contrax, just not as often. We thought we’d be in a room by 11:00 but they had to do an emergency c/s on someone else, so we had to wait for them to finish that. Finally at around 1:00 we were wheeled over to the OR and had my spinal started. It felt really funny having my legs go numb, but I could still feel people touching me… it was kind of a “disjointed” feeling… I couldn’t really feel, but I could tell they were touching me. They brought DH back in after my spinal was started and I was all draped, so he stood holding my hand while they made the incision. That was the only time I was nervous - about 3 minutes of nervousness while they were starting the surgery. DH told me what they were doing the whole time, and took several pictures. When they pulled Hannah out, he went over to where they were working on her - all they did was put an oxygen mask on her for a couple of minutes at first. Turned out, she had her umbilical cord wrapped around her neck, which was the reason her HR kept dropping with the contrax. So I was really glad we didn’t wait and have to have an emergency c/s. She was 7 lbs 7 oz and 20 inches long. Charlie got to carry her in his arms out of the OR, and my Mom and my best friend were waiting outside. They both said he looked like he was 7 feet tall, he was so puffed up with pride. They took her back to my room while they finished stitching me up. I could hardly stay awake - must have been something in the meds, because I was also a bit nauseous! So I slept while they stitched me up, and then they took me back to my room.

We had to be monitored for about an hour for “recovery” time, but it went by really fast. Charlie was there holding Hannah the whole time, and I think I tried to nurse. (I can’t really remember… I was a bit dopey from the meds). Found out her APGARs had been 8 and 9 - pretty good! They weighed her again Friday night at midnight (I don’t know why they had to do it then, but whatever…) and she had lost about 5% of her body weight - less than 10% is what they’re looking for, so she’s doing great!

We came home Saturday night, which surprised my friend, since I had a c-section and only stayed in the hospital about 53 hours past her birth time. But we’ve been doing pretty good - I’m getting around without help now, and Hannah is still nursing like a pro. She had a bit of a set back yesterday when my milk came in, but she’s doing fine now. She had a check up with the pediatrician again today, and has gained back a little of her body weight, so she’s at 7 lb 1 oz today. I think by the end of the week she’ll be back up to her birth weight. The dr. said she looks good - just a teeny bit of jaundice in her face (like if you press on her nose, it’s a pale yellow underneath) but he said it wasn’t bad enough to have to worry about it yet, and just keep an eye on her, and keep feeding her at least every two hours during the day, and no more than 4 hours between feedings at night.

She’s such a good baby. She only fusses when her diaper is messy or when we take her clothes off to change her or sponge-bathe her or something like that. She hasn’t cried HARD for more than about 5 minutes - she consoles very easily. She doesn’t have her days and nights mixed up, thank goodness, and has most of her awake time during the day. So I’ve actually managed to get about 4 hours of sleep at a time most nights.

I will try to get some more pictures up soon!

Sarah (age 4) wanted to send her Grandma an email today.  Since I haven’t gotten a baby book going for her (or her sister), I keep as much of that kind of stuff on my blog as possible.  Here’s Sarah’s letter, written on her sister’s 6th birthday!

Where there’s smoke…

There’s a beautiful sunset.

I forgot to post here last week, although I posted on Facebook.  I’ll copy what I’ve posted there and then add my current update at the bottom.

Sunday, July 19, 2009, 1:56 p.m.:

Oh great… We were gone most of yesterday and just realized we haven’t seen our Slinky kitty since Friday afternoon. I’m afraid the kids left the back door open and she got out.

Sunday, July 19, 2009, 2:29 p.m.:

going door to door with the kids. Hannah is handing out missing kitty fliers.

Sunday, July 19, 2009, 10:41 p.m.:

poor Sadie-kitty is missing her sister, Slinky.  Sarah left the door open Friday afternoon and she got out. She hasn’t been outdoors for more than a minute in almost 4 years, since she was a tiny kitten. We don’t know where she is, and there are some really mean, nasty strays in the neighborhood. One of the toms killed the neighbor’s cat and beat up another neighbor’s cat not too long ago.

Monday, July 20, 9:33 a.m.:

Still praying Slinky comes home safely.

Saturday, July 25, 8:42 p.m. in response to “Did you ever find your kitty?”

No, we haven’t seen her. Yesterday was a week that she’s been missing.

So this morning, I was still sleeping and half woke up to hear Charlie at the back door calling a cat.  I thought at first maybe Sadie was trying to get out the back door, but woke up a little more and realized he was calling Slinky, and it wasn’t just a random cat-call.  She was out there!  I jumped out of bed and went into the living room to find out what was going on.  He said she had been sitting right outside the door.  She looks okay, not too skinny yet, but that’s probably because I’ve left food out a few times, and at least 2 neighbors are feeding strays as well.  She bolted off the deck when he opened the door, though.  I put a plate of food out there again today, and we’ve been calling more frequently.  I hope we can entice her to get back in the house!  She’s such a skittish kitty (hence her name Slinky - she used to slink around the edges of the room, trying to stay as far from us as possible, but has warmed up over the past 4 years to being much more friendly and almost a lap cat for us.), and after 10 days out in the “wild” for the first time since she was a tiny kitten, she’s gotten really skittish again.  *sigh*

At least we know that at this point, she’s okay.

Another benefit of a July birthday when it’s HOT outside… we have the party at a Spray Park and I don’t have to plan games or activities! We have at least 5 spray parks in the area to choose from, and the kids love it.

By the way… the green smoothie popsicles were a HUGE hit with the kids and grown-ups alike.

Tomorrow is the big birthday party for Hannah (6) and Sarah (4). Since it’s July and HOT, it’s hard to plan something that won’t melt too fast for their snack. I’m also all about convenience, so I’ve been doing cupcakes since Sarah’s first birthday - this makes our fourth year of that. Last year the icing all melted. Yuck. So this year I’m just doing powdered sugar dusted over the top of the vegan cupcakes I made from scratch. We have a couple of vegan kids that are coming, and others that prefer vegan when possible, and one that we invited is vegan by necessity - he gets really sick if he eats anything that has egg or dairy in it. So, vegan cupcakes it is! All the cake mixes seem to have dairy in them, and 99% of them have red dye in them - we also have someone coming who can’t have red dye.

That also brings us to the issue of ice cream. Again, the vegan issue. Popsicles? Sure… but then there’s the red dye issue again. And the natural ones are SO expensive! So one of my good friends suggested making my own fruit juice popsicles in dixie cups with popsicle sticks. Hope, you are BRILLIANT! Instead of fruit juice though, we made fruit smoothies. With spinach. Yep, we made green smoothie popsicles! Well, they aren’t the COLOR green, because they also have blueberries and blackberries in the mix, and that turns it purple, even with spinach in them. But we still call them green smoothies because they have greens in them. Our girls always insist we not forget the spinach when we make smoothies.

Here’s our tray of smoothie cups, ready to add popsicle sticks and toss in the freezer!

A better view of the railroad tie section of the retaining wall. We’re attempting to hide the view of the utility junction boxes when we are looking out at the yard from the front door. We’ll be adding one more railroad tie on the top; we decided it wasn’t tall enough!

We’re making quite a bit of progress on our retaining wall!

A show just ended on the Disney Channel and was followed by a music video for a song I don’t know.  Sarah asked me to sing along (a frequent request from her), but I had to tell her I didn’t know the song.  She said “I know it!” and proceeded to start pretending to sing.  I would say she was lip-syncing, but since she doesn’t know the words, she was just randomly moving her mouth to look like she was singing.  She also danced around a bit and played a bit of air-guitar.

Too funny!

Our church is planning a camp retreat in a couple of weeks so two other members of the social committee and the kids and I went to check out the facility this afternoon. It’s going to be fun, and the lake is absolutely beautiful!