How things change...

You wouldn't dream of driving somewhere without baby safely strapped into a car seat in the back seat, but consider this...when Daddy went home from the hospital, a car seat wasn't even required. The nurse just handed him to his mom who held him in the front seat on the drive home. Mommy rode in a hand-me-down car seat used by her older cousins.

On the left is Mommy, at 2 months, in her car seat

On the right is Jillian, at 2 days, in her car seat

The first 2 weeks...

2 weeks old

I can't believe that 2 weeks have already gone by since Jillian was born! It was a crazy 2 weeks, as I had an allergic reaction (hives and swelling) to the pain medicine the hospital sent me home with and had to go to the emergency room, and then I spent 3 days with the worst headache ever while withdrawing from the pain medicine being stopped suddenly. I'm finally feeling more normal, and can enjoy spending time with the newest member of the family. But enough about me, here's what we've learned about Jillian:

• Jillian lost ~8 oz in her first 5 days (very common for newborns) but had already gotten back up to her birth weight by her 1 week birthday. It will be interesting to see what her weight is at her 1 month check up.
• Likes: She LOVES to eat and sticks out her tongue and opens and closes her mouth when she's ready to eat to let us know, and pants like a puppy when she knows the "food" is coming. She also loves to sleep curled up on Mommy's chest, and when she's awake, she likes to lift her head (which she can already hold up for several seconds at a time) up and look at Mommy with her big eyes.
• Dislikes: being swaddled, clothes (especially if they cover her hands), having chinchillas visit her while she's sleeping
• She has the uncanny ability to spit up within 2 minutes of being dressed in a brand new outfit. 
• At 12 days we made our first adventure out of the house to someplace other than the doctor's office - we had lunch at Bob Evans and then went to Babies R Us. 

 The youngest customer at Bob Evans (12 days old)

• At 13 days we got ice cream at Fritz's (she slept thru the whole thing!)
• At 2 weeks (today), she grasped an object besides mommy or daddy's hand for the first time in the baby gym. She tried to eat from the toucan's nose (well I guess it's a similar shape to a nipple?).

 Trying to eat from the toucan's nose, and grasping onto the ring to pull it closer

Labor and Delivery

Just before leaving for the hospital - 40 weeks, 3 days

At my last OB appointment (day before my due date), we discussed inducing labor, and when the doctor said that he was available Monday I said let's do it without giving it a second thought. It was really surprising to me how relieved I felt to know that baby was coming out in 4 days, whether she wanted to or not!

On Monday morning (April 5) we got to the hospital just after 8 am, reviewed paperwork, my vitals (3 cm dilated, 75% effaced, -1 station, anterior cervix), and got situated in our room. Around 10 they started an IV of Pitocin, a drug used to start labor contractions. I had a few contractions, but nothing really painful, and by 1:45 I had only dilated up to 4 cm. Even though I wasn't in much pain, when they offered the epidural I went ahead and had it put in and after that the doctor came and broke my water to get the labor going faster. I took a nap and when I woke at 7 pm I was at 8 cm, having felt nothing due to the epidural. By 8:45 I was at 10 cm and they started setting up the room for delivery.

I started pushing around 9:45. I could feel pressure in my lower pelvis so I knew when a contraction was coming but I couldn't feel anything else (thankfully!). The doctor came in around 10:30 and pushing continued. It became obvious pretty quickly that her head wasn't going to fit out without an episiotomy, and all at once, my IV came apart causing blood to start running down my arm (quickly attended to by the nurses), the doctor made the episiotomy cut (again, I felt nothing due to the epidural) and I pushed out most of her head. Tom tells me that after that push her head slowly slipped the rest of the way out and after another push I heard a nurse say, "now that is a big baby!"

She was born at 11:15 pm, April 5, 2010, weighed 8 lbs, 13oz, and measured 20.25 inches long.

Advise to mothers - when they offer you pain medicine before the epidural wears off, take it! I didn't feel any pain when I went to sleep at 4:30 am after the delivery, but at 7 when I woke up the pain was horrible - they offered me pain medicine at 4:30 am but I declined because I wasn't in pain (because I was still numb from the epidural) and didn't realize how much I would hurt when it wore off!

 

 35 minutes after birth

Baby girl is here!

We are so pleased to introduce Jillian Nicole, born Monday, April 5, 2010 at 11:15 pm,
weighing 8 lbs, 13 oz, and measuring 20.25 inches.

40 weeks - full term

Today is baby girl's official due date - but only 5-10% of babies are actually born on their due dates. If she doesn't come this weekend, we go in Monday morning to induce labor, which means that baby girl will have made her way into the world by very early Tuesday morning at the latest! Oddly enough, I feel much calmer about when labor will start knowing that Monday is the day. The doctor did say there is a 15-20% chance she'll come before Monday on her own.

So what does 40 weeks feel like? Constantly feeling like you have to use the bathroom, constant ache in my hips and back,  and the skin on my stomach feels so stretched that it feels like it just might split open at any moment.

We got the rocking chair for baby girls room in today, just in time for her birth.