Friday, April 26, 2013
Saturday, April 20, 2013
Our Newborn Photoshoot
A picture is worth a thousand words! I don't have much to say about our newborn shoot besides that Ella decided to pee on the photographer enough times to last her through out the next year. I swear every time she changed the fabric she was using Ella would pee.
I am in love with these pictures! Heidi (our photography) did a great job. I look forward to working with her more as Ella grows.
It amazes me to look at them. I can't believe that our baby girl is going to be two months old soon.
(I really should do a better job at updating the blog!) Anyway.... here she is!
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I am in love with these pictures! Heidi (our photography) did a great job. I look forward to working with her more as Ella grows.
It amazes me to look at them. I can't believe that our baby girl is going to be two months old soon.
(I really should do a better job at updating the blog!) Anyway.... here she is!
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She is just the most beautiful thing I have ever seen.
Tuesday, April 16, 2013
Sleep or snuggle
I can't decide if I want my child to sleep through the night or continue to wake up to feed. On one hand sleep is a beautiful thing that I would like to enjoy. On the other hand I love staring at that beautiful little face every 3 hours. Oh the dilemma!
Good thing I have no say in the matter and little miss diva will do what she wants, because I can't possibly decide!
And now pictures of my precious little one (that's really why you keep checking this thing, isn't it?)
Here she is in all her sleeping glory over the past few weeks. Comment and tell me which is your favorite :)
Good thing I have no say in the matter and little miss diva will do what she wants, because I can't possibly decide!
And now pictures of my precious little one (that's really why you keep checking this thing, isn't it?)
Here she is in all her sleeping glory over the past few weeks. Comment and tell me which is your favorite :)
Tuesday, April 9, 2013
Prayers during labor
Wedding shower favors. Wedding favors. Baby shower favors. Gift bags at birthdays. You can spend a ton of money on these things! But there are so many cute ideas out there! I pinned a few ideas on Pinterest as we got closer to our baby shower that I thought about doing.
I had criteria though:
-It had to be inexpensive
-It had to be somewhat homemade
-It had to be something that everyone would use and not just leave on the table or throw away
Given our desire to have a natural birth, (and the fact we had a breech baby) we knew we would need some prayers. After giving it some thought I decided I wanted to do candles and ask everyone to light the candle and say a prayer for us when we went into labor.
I wrote two different poems to put on the bags:
Thank you for coming to share in our joy
We can't wait to welcome our new girl or boy
Here is a candle or you to light
Once the stork begins its flight
With the flicker of the flame
Please say a prayer in our family's name
Thank you for coming to share in our joy
We can't wait to welcome our new girl or boy
Here is a candle for you today
To light when baby is on its way
When you light it's flickering flame
Say a prayer in our family's name.
One of the issues I had as we got closer and closer to labor was that I wanted prayers- but didn't want a bunch of people to camp out at the hospital. I wanted my parents to be one of the first people to meet our baby. I think this was even more important to me because we didn't know what we were having- and I didn't want others to know before 'grandma and grandpa'
So my solution- the over planner in me wrote up a text we would send and who we would send it to and at what time (in the hopes my mom and dad could get there)
"Heather is in labor! Please light the candles you received at the baby shower and keep us in your thoughts and prayers! We ask that you please wait to hear from us before coming to the hospital (if you plan to) We will contact our family and friends to come see baby once mommy and daddy have had family bonding time with our new bundle of joy."
Did this go out?
Nope!
I have no idea who knew we were in labor. Matt called my parents and his parents. And I asked him to text a few people - I don't know what he said!
There wasn't really time to think- let alone send out texts.
My parents obviously didn't get there in time. We called them and told them that Ella was a girl and sent them a picture. There were tears. And they did get to come and see their grand daughter (after a snowstorm).
I can't remember who saw Ella first. It doesn't matter in the long run. She was here, she was healthy, we were in love!
We posted the next day on Facebook that she was here.
Ten little fingers
Ten little toes
One little heart
One little nose
Simply precious and oh so sweet
We have a baby GIRL we would like you to meet!
We didn't have many visitors at the hospital or once we got home- I liked it just being our little family. But now 6 weeks out- I'm ready to get back to life and being around people.
I had criteria though:
-It had to be inexpensive
-It had to be somewhat homemade
-It had to be something that everyone would use and not just leave on the table or throw away
Given our desire to have a natural birth, (and the fact we had a breech baby) we knew we would need some prayers. After giving it some thought I decided I wanted to do candles and ask everyone to light the candle and say a prayer for us when we went into labor.
I wrote two different poems to put on the bags:
Thank you for coming to share in our joy
We can't wait to welcome our new girl or boy
Here is a candle or you to light
Once the stork begins its flight
With the flicker of the flame
Please say a prayer in our family's name
Thank you for coming to share in our joy
We can't wait to welcome our new girl or boy
Here is a candle for you today
To light when baby is on its way
When you light it's flickering flame
Say a prayer in our family's name.
One of the issues I had as we got closer and closer to labor was that I wanted prayers- but didn't want a bunch of people to camp out at the hospital. I wanted my parents to be one of the first people to meet our baby. I think this was even more important to me because we didn't know what we were having- and I didn't want others to know before 'grandma and grandpa'
So my solution- the over planner in me wrote up a text we would send and who we would send it to and at what time (in the hopes my mom and dad could get there)
"Heather is in labor! Please light the candles you received at the baby shower and keep us in your thoughts and prayers! We ask that you please wait to hear from us before coming to the hospital (if you plan to) We will contact our family and friends to come see baby once mommy and daddy have had family bonding time with our new bundle of joy."
Did this go out?
Nope!
I have no idea who knew we were in labor. Matt called my parents and his parents. And I asked him to text a few people - I don't know what he said!
There wasn't really time to think- let alone send out texts.
My parents obviously didn't get there in time. We called them and told them that Ella was a girl and sent them a picture. There were tears. And they did get to come and see their grand daughter (after a snowstorm).
I can't remember who saw Ella first. It doesn't matter in the long run. She was here, she was healthy, we were in love!
We posted the next day on Facebook that she was here.
Ten little fingers
Ten little toes
One little heart
One little nose
Simply precious and oh so sweet
We have a baby GIRL we would like you to meet!
We didn't have many visitors at the hospital or once we got home- I liked it just being our little family. But now 6 weeks out- I'm ready to get back to life and being around people.
Vaginal Birth Plan
I posted my wishes for a c section birth a couple days ago. Here is what I had written had we been able to have a vaginal birth
The following are a list of items that we would like to accomplish during our labor and delivery with your help. We understand that certain emergencies or other medical circumstances may not allow for the accommodations of our goals.
We ask that if an event should arrive where assistance is needed that the benefits and risks (and alternatives) be discussed with both my husband and I; and private time given for discussion before making a decision.
I would like to give birth without the use of pain medication. Please refrain from offering me any type of pain medicine. I will inform you if I change my mind.
I would like that ability to walk, move around and change positions freely during labor, therefore would like the minimum amount of monitoring necessary.
As long as vitals for myself and baby look good, and I wish to continue, I ask that I am allowed to labor as long as I wish without intervention (including artificially breaking my waters, pitocin, etc.)
If interventions are needed we would like the most noninvasive interventions possible (nipple stimulation)
I would like to limit internal exams to once upon arrival and once before pushing. As well as any time that I feel the need to be checked.
We wish to avoid having a routine IV and would prefer to have a Hep-Lock if needed.
I would like to delay cord clamping for a minimum of five minutes.
My husband would like to cut the cord. We would like have the cord blood donated to the cord blood bank.
I would like my husband tell me the sex of the baby.
I prefer for the lights to be dim and noise kept to a minimum during delivery.
I would like the opportunity to be able to eat and drink at my will during labor.
There were only a few things my doctor said wouldn't be possible. The vaginally exams- she said I would have to be checked (every two hours I think) but she said she would extend it sometimes but she had to keep track of how I was progressing. And she also said I would have to have an IV per hospital policy. I did not fight her on either of these things because they honestly weren't top of my list.
The following are a list of items that we would like to accomplish during our labor and delivery with your help. We understand that certain emergencies or other medical circumstances may not allow for the accommodations of our goals.
We ask that if an event should arrive where assistance is needed that the benefits and risks (and alternatives) be discussed with both my husband and I; and private time given for discussion before making a decision.
I would like to give birth without the use of pain medication. Please refrain from offering me any type of pain medicine. I will inform you if I change my mind.
I would like that ability to walk, move around and change positions freely during labor, therefore would like the minimum amount of monitoring necessary.
As long as vitals for myself and baby look good, and I wish to continue, I ask that I am allowed to labor as long as I wish without intervention (including artificially breaking my waters, pitocin, etc.)
If interventions are needed we would like the most noninvasive interventions possible (nipple stimulation)
I would like to limit internal exams to once upon arrival and once before pushing. As well as any time that I feel the need to be checked.
We wish to avoid having a routine IV and would prefer to have a Hep-Lock if needed.
I would like to delay cord clamping for a minimum of five minutes.
My husband would like to cut the cord. We would like have the cord blood donated to the cord blood bank.
I would like my husband tell me the sex of the baby.
I prefer for the lights to be dim and noise kept to a minimum during delivery.
I would like the opportunity to be able to eat and drink at my will during labor.
There were only a few things my doctor said wouldn't be possible. The vaginally exams- she said I would have to be checked (every two hours I think) but she said she would extend it sometimes but she had to keep track of how I was progressing. And she also said I would have to have an IV per hospital policy. I did not fight her on either of these things because they honestly weren't top of my list.
Wednesday, April 3, 2013
My C Section Birth Plan
Since I ended up having a c section I thought I would share my c section birth plan. I did not write up an exact birth plan for my c section like I did for my natural birth plan. But I did discuss some things with Dr. H and Dr. P.
Here are the things that I had written down that I thought "would be nice" (not all of these were discussed with my doctors-- I only hit the really main things because I figured I would write up an actual plan and bring it with us. That however didn't happen so some of these things didn't happen. And I am ok with that!
My main wishes that I discussed with the doctor were:
* Schedule the c section after 40 weeks so that I have the opportunity to go into labor and see if the baby flips before having a c section. (We scheduled for March 7th which would be exactly 41 weeks. I went into labor at 39 weeks and 5 days)
* Go into labor and labor at home before going to the hospital for the c section (I'd say we definitely did this)
* Cut and stitched in a way so that I can attempt a vbac (vaginal birth after c section) in the future. (I later learned Dr. P is very good at what he does- so if I decide to have a vbac in the future I shouldn't have any problems. Unless our second child wants to jump into the work and land on two feet the same way Ella did)
* I would like my husband to cut the cord if he would like and donate the cord blood. (Matt did trim the cord but I never mentioned the cord blood so that is my fault that didn't happen. Our hospital actually has free cord blood banking bc it is housed at the facility, I think. The banking wasn't top on my list. But figured since it was free and could benefit others in the future I would do it- except I completely forgot to mention it in all the hustle and bustle)
* Delay all new born procedures. (Because I had a c section Ella was not pushed out, therefore she didn't have the fluids in her lungs pushed out like she would have if she were born vaginally. Because of this c section babies have to be deep suctioned and have to be taken away from the mother instead of instantly placed on their chests. Because they are taken to be deeply suctioned in the corner of the room the nurses typically want to do EVERYTHING at that time since they already have the baby. I told them I wanted to delay everything but the suctioning and hoped Matt would speak up if they tried to do anything else. Delaying these procedures was more for if I had birth vaginally because I didn't want to delay having her skin to skin with me. Anyway- they suctioned her, wiped her off, weighed and measured her, then swaddled her and gave her to Matt. Am I disappointed that all of that was done. No, I think because I knew I couldn't hold her until I was stitched up. I would have been highly disappointed had all that occurred if I had her vaginally though.)
* As long as there are no complications with myself or the baby I would like to have skin to skin contact immediately. If there is a complication with me I would like Matt to have skin to skin contact as soon as possible. (This did and didn't occur. Oh how I wish that when Ella came out she could have instantly been placed on my chest. I knew going into surgery that this was not possible though. Dr. P had told me that hospital policy is I can't do skin to skin due to possible contamination while I am being stitched up. But that Matt could- just wear a button down shirt and they would squeeze the baby in there. And that as soon as I was stitched I could do skin to skin.
We however PACKED his button down in the suitcase, since I was in denial about being in labor, and everything went so quickly that he didn't have a chance to put it on. Matt was able to hold Ella within the first couple minutes of her grand entrance and as soon as I was stitched I was able to do skin to skin- before leaving the operating room. )
* Have the opportunity to breastfeed my baby immediately after birth in the operating room or as soon as possible. (This goes along with the one above- I obviously wasn't able to try breast feeding as quickly as I could have had she been born vaginally; but as soon as I was stitched I held her skin to skin and she had the opportunity to try to go towards the breast. Once we got into the recovery room we were able to get her latched. So within an hour or so I'd say we were able to start our nursing relationship.)
* The amount of time baby is spent away from mom and dad should be minimized. (Matt was able to hold her in about 5 minutes. I was able to hold her about 50 minutes after she was born. And she roomed in with us and never went to the nursery. When they did need to take her do her hearing test Matt went with her and I believe this was 2 days after he was born.)
Some other things I wanted but didn't have the opportunity to share with anyone.
* I do not want my arms strapped down. (They weren't)
* I would like a mirror to be able to watch my baby come out or have the drape let down to see my baby born. (This was offered to me by Dr. P when I first met him- I was not sure if I was 100% on board with watching and said I would decide later. I didn't even think about it. Matt was given the opportunity to video tape the entire thing but he declined just incase he passed out or something.)
* Please don't carry on side conversations in the operating room. (This one DID NOT happen. But I think if I would have spoken up it cod have. I remember the nurses talking about their lunch or something. I remember thinking "I don't care about your lunch, shut up! I'm having a baby and don't want your lunch to ruin my thoughts! I was going to ask the nurse that was in charge of standing by my head to ask them to stop talking, but instead I asked Dr. P and Dr. H what they were doing.)
* I would like to be told what is going on and guided through the procedures. (I wasn't given a play by play- but they did tell me the main things that were going on behind the blue drape- and when I asked they did tell me.)
* I wanted warm blankets if I got cold. (My teeth chattered from the spinal, and they did help cover my arms up and rub them to help me get warm. It didn't help though)
* Have our music played during delivery. (Matt and I got a cd of all the songs played at our wedding, and we planned to play that during delivery. But we didn't bring it, and I never asked if it could be piped into the operating room anyway.
* Take pictures. (As I said in my birth story, Matt didn't bring the camera into the operating room with him, I wouldn't have remembered either. I asked where the camera was and he said he didn't know. I told him in my purse and he had no idea where my purse was. Poor boy was pretty shaken up. The nurse in charge of my head said they couldn't get it if it was IN my purse. And I said I didn't care if they went through my purse, I wanted pictures. The anesthesiologist took charge and made someone being Matt my picture. They took the camera out, got batteries out of my purse as well and put them in the camera and offered Matt the opportunity to stand behind the blue drape and take pictures. He declined, worried he would pass out, so the anesthesiologist took pictures for us.)
So all in all- our c section was a success. We have a beautiful baby girl and she arrived safely and they let us keep her. All of the "I wishes" aren't that big of a deal! There is always next time ;)
I will share my natural birth plan another day since I worked hard on writing it up!
Here are the things that I had written down that I thought "would be nice" (not all of these were discussed with my doctors-- I only hit the really main things because I figured I would write up an actual plan and bring it with us. That however didn't happen so some of these things didn't happen. And I am ok with that!
My main wishes that I discussed with the doctor were:
* Schedule the c section after 40 weeks so that I have the opportunity to go into labor and see if the baby flips before having a c section. (We scheduled for March 7th which would be exactly 41 weeks. I went into labor at 39 weeks and 5 days)
* Go into labor and labor at home before going to the hospital for the c section (I'd say we definitely did this)
* Cut and stitched in a way so that I can attempt a vbac (vaginal birth after c section) in the future. (I later learned Dr. P is very good at what he does- so if I decide to have a vbac in the future I shouldn't have any problems. Unless our second child wants to jump into the work and land on two feet the same way Ella did)
* I would like my husband to cut the cord if he would like and donate the cord blood. (Matt did trim the cord but I never mentioned the cord blood so that is my fault that didn't happen. Our hospital actually has free cord blood banking bc it is housed at the facility, I think. The banking wasn't top on my list. But figured since it was free and could benefit others in the future I would do it- except I completely forgot to mention it in all the hustle and bustle)
* Delay all new born procedures. (Because I had a c section Ella was not pushed out, therefore she didn't have the fluids in her lungs pushed out like she would have if she were born vaginally. Because of this c section babies have to be deep suctioned and have to be taken away from the mother instead of instantly placed on their chests. Because they are taken to be deeply suctioned in the corner of the room the nurses typically want to do EVERYTHING at that time since they already have the baby. I told them I wanted to delay everything but the suctioning and hoped Matt would speak up if they tried to do anything else. Delaying these procedures was more for if I had birth vaginally because I didn't want to delay having her skin to skin with me. Anyway- they suctioned her, wiped her off, weighed and measured her, then swaddled her and gave her to Matt. Am I disappointed that all of that was done. No, I think because I knew I couldn't hold her until I was stitched up. I would have been highly disappointed had all that occurred if I had her vaginally though.)
* As long as there are no complications with myself or the baby I would like to have skin to skin contact immediately. If there is a complication with me I would like Matt to have skin to skin contact as soon as possible. (This did and didn't occur. Oh how I wish that when Ella came out she could have instantly been placed on my chest. I knew going into surgery that this was not possible though. Dr. P had told me that hospital policy is I can't do skin to skin due to possible contamination while I am being stitched up. But that Matt could- just wear a button down shirt and they would squeeze the baby in there. And that as soon as I was stitched I could do skin to skin.
We however PACKED his button down in the suitcase, since I was in denial about being in labor, and everything went so quickly that he didn't have a chance to put it on. Matt was able to hold Ella within the first couple minutes of her grand entrance and as soon as I was stitched I was able to do skin to skin- before leaving the operating room. )
* Have the opportunity to breastfeed my baby immediately after birth in the operating room or as soon as possible. (This goes along with the one above- I obviously wasn't able to try breast feeding as quickly as I could have had she been born vaginally; but as soon as I was stitched I held her skin to skin and she had the opportunity to try to go towards the breast. Once we got into the recovery room we were able to get her latched. So within an hour or so I'd say we were able to start our nursing relationship.)
* The amount of time baby is spent away from mom and dad should be minimized. (Matt was able to hold her in about 5 minutes. I was able to hold her about 50 minutes after she was born. And she roomed in with us and never went to the nursery. When they did need to take her do her hearing test Matt went with her and I believe this was 2 days after he was born.)
Some other things I wanted but didn't have the opportunity to share with anyone.
* I do not want my arms strapped down. (They weren't)
* I would like a mirror to be able to watch my baby come out or have the drape let down to see my baby born. (This was offered to me by Dr. P when I first met him- I was not sure if I was 100% on board with watching and said I would decide later. I didn't even think about it. Matt was given the opportunity to video tape the entire thing but he declined just incase he passed out or something.)
* Please don't carry on side conversations in the operating room. (This one DID NOT happen. But I think if I would have spoken up it cod have. I remember the nurses talking about their lunch or something. I remember thinking "I don't care about your lunch, shut up! I'm having a baby and don't want your lunch to ruin my thoughts! I was going to ask the nurse that was in charge of standing by my head to ask them to stop talking, but instead I asked Dr. P and Dr. H what they were doing.)
* I would like to be told what is going on and guided through the procedures. (I wasn't given a play by play- but they did tell me the main things that were going on behind the blue drape- and when I asked they did tell me.)
* I wanted warm blankets if I got cold. (My teeth chattered from the spinal, and they did help cover my arms up and rub them to help me get warm. It didn't help though)
* Have our music played during delivery. (Matt and I got a cd of all the songs played at our wedding, and we planned to play that during delivery. But we didn't bring it, and I never asked if it could be piped into the operating room anyway.
* Take pictures. (As I said in my birth story, Matt didn't bring the camera into the operating room with him, I wouldn't have remembered either. I asked where the camera was and he said he didn't know. I told him in my purse and he had no idea where my purse was. Poor boy was pretty shaken up. The nurse in charge of my head said they couldn't get it if it was IN my purse. And I said I didn't care if they went through my purse, I wanted pictures. The anesthesiologist took charge and made someone being Matt my picture. They took the camera out, got batteries out of my purse as well and put them in the camera and offered Matt the opportunity to stand behind the blue drape and take pictures. He declined, worried he would pass out, so the anesthesiologist took pictures for us.)
So all in all- our c section was a success. We have a beautiful baby girl and she arrived safely and they let us keep her. All of the "I wishes" aren't that big of a deal! There is always next time ;)
I will share my natural birth plan another day since I worked hard on writing it up!
Sunday, March 31, 2013
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