Monday, February 27, 2012
The little mess maker.
This did not take long to create... He pulled out every book, brought some to me saying "read this one" and walked away to get the next one when I started to read.
Let's see how clean up time goes.
Let's see how clean up time goes.
Thursday, February 23, 2012
Claire - 2 Weeks Old
Claire is 2 weeks old!
She is 7lb, 12oz (32%) and 21 1/4 inches (84%). She is still bigger than Cason who was 6lb, 10oz and 20 1/2 inches at 2 weeks.
Dr. B said everything looks great. Our only concern was the frequency of her throwing up during/after meals... once or twice per day (a few times more) He said it sounded like classic reflux but that since she didnt have any of the other symptoms, he'd call her a "happy spitter" and said they don't do much for it. We just have to do lots of laundry, eat small-frequent meals and burp her often. Most of which I was already doing.
Claire vs Cason
The other big 2 week news is that as of today, Claire has a belly button!
She is 7lb, 12oz (32%) and 21 1/4 inches (84%). She is still bigger than Cason who was 6lb, 10oz and 20 1/2 inches at 2 weeks.
Dr. B said everything looks great. Our only concern was the frequency of her throwing up during/after meals... once or twice per day (a few times more) He said it sounded like classic reflux but that since she didnt have any of the other symptoms, he'd call her a "happy spitter" and said they don't do much for it. We just have to do lots of laundry, eat small-frequent meals and burp her often. Most of which I was already doing.
Claire vs Cason
The other big 2 week news is that as of today, Claire has a belly button!
Beautiful Day
It's a warm spring like day here... High of 80 expected. Going to be 58 on Saturday. Ah, Houston.
Cason loves to play outside and Claire didn't seem to mind either. Of course Admiral loved the attention.
Cason loves to play outside and Claire didn't seem to mind either. Of course Admiral loved the attention.
Wednesday, February 22, 2012
Phone pictures
I have tons of pictures in my phone that I never post. So, here are some recent ones.
Sunday, February 12, 2012
Claire's Birth Story
Claire Caitlyn was born on Feb 9 at 1:58 pm, 7lb 4oz, 20 1/2 inches.
After a spike in my blood pressure and a few hours of monitoring in Labor and Delivery on Tuesday night, we were scheduled for a medical induction on Thursday morning. I had gone back and forth on being induced so this made my decision for me. We didn't want to wait it out and have a repeat of Cason where my blood pressure got super high and stayed high for 2 weeks after birth.
I documented our day on my phone so I could come back and write this all down... so here are all the details... if you care.
5am -- wake up and call the hospital to make sure they could take me.
6am -- arrive at the hospital and start the process of everything. For the next hour, we had this crazy lady nurse... she was nice, almost too nice. Ha. She had trouble getting my IV started (poke #1) so another nurse came in to help. They both said I had good veins so nurse #2 boasts that she could do it with her eyes closed. She does get the vein on the first try, but it's too close to a valve or something so we have to try again (poke #2). Finally, they get me set (poke #3) right near my wrist which was a pain in the you know what the rest of the day. And now my whole right arm is bruised... as well as my left arm having a nasty bruise from the triage nurse missing on her first attempt. All of this and the intake questions take almost an hour.
7am -- pitocin is started and contractions start showing on the monitor pretty quickly but I'm not feeling much. Crazy lady nurse goes off duty and I get a new nurse, also nice, but very quiet and almost nervous seeming. Ryan and I were starting to worry because we knew from Cason's delivery that the nurse is the most important person in the room.
8am -- the pitocin has been upped twice and I'm starting to feel the contractions but they are not regular. the nurse tells me that I can get the epidural once the contractions regulate and that she's hoping to get the anesthesiologist into me between c-sections so I don't have to wait.
9am -- my doctor arrives to check on me. she says I'm still only 1cm but that I'm more open than I had been the past few weeks so I'm progressing. She broke my water and they upped the pitocin again.
9:45am -- the anesthesiologist arrives to administer the epidural. I don't remember it being as complicated and uncomfortable a process with Cason but I was glad to have it.
10am -- epidural complete and I'm relaxing as much as I can. I can still feel the contractions but they are not painful.
12noon -- I start getting uncomfortable on my back and as the contractions increase so I roll to my left side (that was a challenge). After about 20 minutes on my side I start to notice that my left side is VERY numb but my right side is almost completely awake and I'm feeling the contractions pretty strong. I give myself an extra dose of the epidural to try to help.
12:30pm -- Dr comes to check on me and helps me roll to the other side to try to get the epidural balanced back out. She checks me and says I'm 4.25cm and that we should have a baby about 4 or 5.
1:00pm -- I'm still feeling my right side pretty bad and the contractions are getting very strong. I give myself an extra does of epidural and hope that it starts balancing out. The nurse says to give it 10 minutes so I give it 15 and give myself a 3rd upping. I'm a wimp and don't do pain. Sometime around now an orderly starts bringing in a warmer and all the delivery supplies. She doesn't say a word and Ryan and I just look at each other wondering what is happening.
1:20pm -- Contractions have gotten very irregular. The nurse comes in to check on me because she saw this on the monitors. I tell her I don't feel any pressure but I had also "pushed the button" on the epidural 3 times in the last hour. She checks me and says "you don't feel any pressure? you have a baby between your legs". It was go time. She calls the doctor and they start getting me all setup.
1:50pm -- The doctor arrives and we are ready to push. The contractions are almost non existent so we just keep pushing instead of pushing through contractions and waiting. I push 4 times and...
1:58pm -- Claire Caitlyn joins the world. The doctor put her right on my chest and Ryan cut the umbilical cord. They cleaned her up really quick and gave her right back to nurse... and she latched on and started nursing right away.
After a spike in my blood pressure and a few hours of monitoring in Labor and Delivery on Tuesday night, we were scheduled for a medical induction on Thursday morning. I had gone back and forth on being induced so this made my decision for me. We didn't want to wait it out and have a repeat of Cason where my blood pressure got super high and stayed high for 2 weeks after birth.
I documented our day on my phone so I could come back and write this all down... so here are all the details... if you care.
5am -- wake up and call the hospital to make sure they could take me.
6am -- arrive at the hospital and start the process of everything. For the next hour, we had this crazy lady nurse... she was nice, almost too nice. Ha. She had trouble getting my IV started (poke #1) so another nurse came in to help. They both said I had good veins so nurse #2 boasts that she could do it with her eyes closed. She does get the vein on the first try, but it's too close to a valve or something so we have to try again (poke #2). Finally, they get me set (poke #3) right near my wrist which was a pain in the you know what the rest of the day. And now my whole right arm is bruised... as well as my left arm having a nasty bruise from the triage nurse missing on her first attempt. All of this and the intake questions take almost an hour.
7am -- pitocin is started and contractions start showing on the monitor pretty quickly but I'm not feeling much. Crazy lady nurse goes off duty and I get a new nurse, also nice, but very quiet and almost nervous seeming. Ryan and I were starting to worry because we knew from Cason's delivery that the nurse is the most important person in the room.
8am -- the pitocin has been upped twice and I'm starting to feel the contractions but they are not regular. the nurse tells me that I can get the epidural once the contractions regulate and that she's hoping to get the anesthesiologist into me between c-sections so I don't have to wait.
9am -- my doctor arrives to check on me. she says I'm still only 1cm but that I'm more open than I had been the past few weeks so I'm progressing. She broke my water and they upped the pitocin again.
9:45am -- the anesthesiologist arrives to administer the epidural. I don't remember it being as complicated and uncomfortable a process with Cason but I was glad to have it.
10am -- epidural complete and I'm relaxing as much as I can. I can still feel the contractions but they are not painful.
12noon -- I start getting uncomfortable on my back and as the contractions increase so I roll to my left side (that was a challenge). After about 20 minutes on my side I start to notice that my left side is VERY numb but my right side is almost completely awake and I'm feeling the contractions pretty strong. I give myself an extra dose of the epidural to try to help.
12:30pm -- Dr comes to check on me and helps me roll to the other side to try to get the epidural balanced back out. She checks me and says I'm 4.25cm and that we should have a baby about 4 or 5.
1:00pm -- I'm still feeling my right side pretty bad and the contractions are getting very strong. I give myself an extra does of epidural and hope that it starts balancing out. The nurse says to give it 10 minutes so I give it 15 and give myself a 3rd upping. I'm a wimp and don't do pain. Sometime around now an orderly starts bringing in a warmer and all the delivery supplies. She doesn't say a word and Ryan and I just look at each other wondering what is happening.
1:20pm -- Contractions have gotten very irregular. The nurse comes in to check on me because she saw this on the monitors. I tell her I don't feel any pressure but I had also "pushed the button" on the epidural 3 times in the last hour. She checks me and says "you don't feel any pressure? you have a baby between your legs". It was go time. She calls the doctor and they start getting me all setup.
1:50pm -- The doctor arrives and we are ready to push. The contractions are almost non existent so we just keep pushing instead of pushing through contractions and waiting. I push 4 times and...
1:58pm -- Claire Caitlyn joins the world. The doctor put her right on my chest and Ryan cut the umbilical cord. They cleaned her up really quick and gave her right back to nurse... and she latched on and started nursing right away.
Claire's first days
I'm going to get real posts up eventually but for now, here is a slideshow of all the pictures from the hospital.
Claire - Hospital Stay
Our hospital stay with Claire was different than with Cason, in so many ways.
The most obvious is that we were at the hospital for less than 36 hours vs the almost 5 days we were there for Cason. Though I was induced for elevated blood pressure it never got as high as with Cason and was mostly "normal" the day I delivered. And, thankfully, it didn't elevate after Claire was born. So, everything was just very routine for me. Miss Claire was full term unlike her 5 week early big brother, so everything for her was routine as well. It was so nice to be home so soon and start getting in our routine, sleep in our own bed, etc. The bed thing was major... can you image 6'6" Ryan sleeping on that pull out loveseat? Uncomfortable. And the labor and delivery hospital beds aren't much better.
The other big difference was how much we were left alone. With Cason, people were in and out of our room every hour, all day and night. I guess most of the reason for that again is that Cason was so early and my blood pressure was so high. But we almost felt neglected this time and would go several hours without the nurse coming to check on us.
Here are some pictures of our few hours in the hospital.
Cason meeting Claire for the first time. He spent most of the first few visits with his finger in his mouth not knowing what to think.
Still not quite sure what to think.
Our sweet little girl's first hours
Proud Grandparents... somehow G-Pa missed the hospital pictures but we made up for it when we got home.
Waiting to go home!
And our door... Cason didn't get a door decoration since he was such a surprise. I made this wreath with the scraps from all my sewing projects from Claire's nursery.
And a little funny... I marked "no information" on my registration papers which means they don't give out information to anyone asking if you are at the hospital. I did this because, well, I dunno, we just figured everyone who we'd want to see us would call or text us before they came. Well, turns out, when you are "no information" they almost treat you like a celebrity... you get a fake name! So from now on, you can call us Sarah and Ryan Hersey! I think Hershey would have been more appropriate with my love of chocolate!
The most obvious is that we were at the hospital for less than 36 hours vs the almost 5 days we were there for Cason. Though I was induced for elevated blood pressure it never got as high as with Cason and was mostly "normal" the day I delivered. And, thankfully, it didn't elevate after Claire was born. So, everything was just very routine for me. Miss Claire was full term unlike her 5 week early big brother, so everything for her was routine as well. It was so nice to be home so soon and start getting in our routine, sleep in our own bed, etc. The bed thing was major... can you image 6'6" Ryan sleeping on that pull out loveseat? Uncomfortable. And the labor and delivery hospital beds aren't much better.
The other big difference was how much we were left alone. With Cason, people were in and out of our room every hour, all day and night. I guess most of the reason for that again is that Cason was so early and my blood pressure was so high. But we almost felt neglected this time and would go several hours without the nurse coming to check on us.
Here are some pictures of our few hours in the hospital.
Cason meeting Claire for the first time. He spent most of the first few visits with his finger in his mouth not knowing what to think.
Still not quite sure what to think.
Our sweet little girl's first hours
Proud Grandparents... somehow G-Pa missed the hospital pictures but we made up for it when we got home.
Waiting to go home!
And our door... Cason didn't get a door decoration since he was such a surprise. I made this wreath with the scraps from all my sewing projects from Claire's nursery.
And a little funny... I marked "no information" on my registration papers which means they don't give out information to anyone asking if you are at the hospital. I did this because, well, I dunno, we just figured everyone who we'd want to see us would call or text us before they came. Well, turns out, when you are "no information" they almost treat you like a celebrity... you get a fake name! So from now on, you can call us Sarah and Ryan Hersey! I think Hershey would have been more appropriate with my love of chocolate!
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