Sunday, April 24, 2011

Easter Festivities

Keeping Gwen entertained daily has become quite a task since we don't go out anywhere. Thankfully, there is a holiday coming up that gives us some things to do.
Decorating Easter Cookies


Dying Easter Eggs

Gwen asks to see "my duck and dinosaur" and that means she wants to look in the window of this sugar egg.
Funny, eh? Nice dinosaur...worm.

Saturday, April 23, 2011

And Finally, A Brief Birth Story (for Posterity)

I was induced with Gwen, took FOREVER to progress even on Pitosin, and went from mild, crampy pains to sudden excruciating pain when my water broke completely. Even then, I was still only a 4.

So at my wed dr appointment for Caroline when the doc told me I was almost a 4, I really began to wonder what to expect. I had been having contractions off and on for over a week. Nothing consistent. I certainly didn't want to have our lil one arrive suddenly at home, so on Thursday when my contractions became more regular, we decided to go in to the hospital.
We packed Gwen up for an overnight at a friend's house (which she was stoked about, as you can see), and realized we didn't have a prego pic of me, so we took one. You can see from my face that I'm pretty comfortable. Yeah, my contractions were definitely there, but not too painful. Just crampy feeling like I had on the Pitosin with Gwen.
The hospital deflated us. I wasn't progressing. They told us to walk around for an hour and come back. We did. Let me assure you, the hospital did not design a nice path for pregnant ladies to help their labor along. We were off roading it. Came back, got checked again. Contractions were super close together... for about 15 minutes... then they tapered off again. At 9:30 pm the hospital sent us home. While they admitted we'd probably be back around 2 am, they didn't want us to wait around there, I guess.

We picked up Gwen, ordered a consolation pizza, and I prepared myself for what I thought would be a long, increasingly uncomfortable night with a delivery in the early morning on a night of little sleep. I was pretty bummed.

But, tender mercies abound, and sometime around midnight I fell asleep. Woke up at 5 am with absolutely NO contractions. I wondered about false labor, etc, etc, still having no real concept of what to expect.

Between 6:30 and 7:30 I had 2 contractions. Much stronger than the day before, but clearly not a regular pattern. 7:30 they all the sudden picked up the pace and became quite painful. We packed Gwen up, dropped her off at the same friend's house (thanks, guys!), and arrived at the hospital by 8:30 am. I was pained, but still worried that this wasn't the real deal and that they would send me home again. I was relieved to hear that I was almost a 7. They got us a room right away.

Got an epidural, hung out with Eric making phone calls and updating everyone. Started pushing around 10:30. There was miconium in my water, so they called up specialists in case she inhaled any. Also, her blood pressure was dropping with each push (which made me nervous because I was worried about her health but did NOT want to have a C-section after all that work I'd already done!) so we wanted to get her out quickly. OB told me that it would have been easier, probably could have gotten her out in 2 pushes, if she had not been posterior (facing front instead of back). Her forehead kept running into my pelvis. She wasn't coming out. Tried the suction cup, but eventually just helped me out with a healthy episiotomy. After that, she popped right out. No need to worry bout the inhalation of miconium, she was born bawlin and kept it up for a solid 15 minutes.

After a couple minutes of skin to skin, tried nursing. And she took right to it. Nursed for an hour. Yes, an hour. What a blessing, especially in contrast to how much Gwen HATED it!

The nurses and staff kept congratulating us on our speed. Apparently there were 18 other women in labor that morning. I was the last to arrive and the first to deliver. Go us!

So, in summary, hard labor started around 7:30, arrived at the hospital at 8:30, started pushing around 10:30, had Caroline at 10:53. Not a bad labor and delivery, I'd say!

More Caroline Pics from Grandma

I mentioned that my MIL took lots of pictures of Caroline. Did I mention she is talented?
I love how the lil feet here form a heart...

She's darling in pink

And in addition to the hands folded under her cheek (which I think is ADORABLE), I love that Mama Allan successfully captured her sucked in bottom lip. That puckery face is priceless!

Friday, April 22, 2011

Gwen's Tea Party

Not to be outdone, Gwen needs a couple of shots to demonstrate her love of her new tea set, which she has dubbed "my tea party". First thing in the morning, when you open her bedroom door, the first words out of her mouth after 'hi mama' or 'hi daddy' are "I play with my tea party? I go downstairs? Play tea party?"


She's 2 Weeks, so here are some more pics

Snuggling with Daddy

Please take a binkie...
First real bath... not too bad, just a lil chilly. She loved snuggling in the froggie towel afterwards. and then peeing on Mommy.

This face isn't flattering, kind of makes her look like a gremlin, but take a look at the fuzzy head. Think she'll be curly, or will she outgrow that?

Tuesday, April 19, 2011

Eric Makes Us All Proud


Eric makes me so proud.

I don't brag about him enough in this blog. Usually posts are dominated by kid antics, photos, or random musings of my own. But I really need to take this opportunity to share some of Eric's accomplishments in the past 2 weeks.

He not only got accepted into the Landacre Honor Society (a medical research honors society), but scored a 3,000 scholarship for his excellent research in Radiation Oncology.

In the same week, he presented a poster on his research and was awarded a 500 dollar travel award so that he could present his research at various conferences.

And that day was actually my due date. (Good thing she was late, eh? Eric wouldn't have been able to present if he'd been at the hospital with me.) So immediately after scoring these recognitions, we were greeted by our lil gal. Needless to say, the emails that floated around the department about Eric's awards and his new family member were pretty impressed with all his accomplishments! Well-deserved recognition, if you ask me. He has worked so hard this year to try and boost his match potential...and it is validating to see his efforts finally bearing fruit!

We are so proud of you hon!!!!

Sunday, April 17, 2011

Sweet Caroline


duh-duh-duh duh... (You do hear that song in your head, don't you?)

Grandma has been here visiting with us. She has cooked delicious food, cuddled the lil gal, played lots of tea party with the bigger gal, and treated Caroline to more than one photo shoot. These are my favorites from the first one. Eye candy! More to come later!

First 2 are just precious, demonstrating how sweet our lil one is.
and these others capture some of those great faces that she makes. We don't yet have a successful capturing of the dimples, but we're working on it!






Tuesday, April 12, 2011

Caroline Isabel


Caroline Isabel

born April 8, 2011 10:53 am

7 lbs 7.7 oz

19 in long

13 in head


head full of dark hair! We love it!
Labor and delivery were actually not too bad at all. I can't complain. In fact, I received some great blessings for which I continue to feel really grateful. I suppose I'll do a longer post about the whole experience, but not today. We are home now. Recovery is going well, Caroline is a champion eater (no kidding--she would eat ALL DAY LONG if I'd let her) and loves to sleep too.

Gwen is only interested in Caroline in small doses. When she arrived at the hospital, Eric said, "Gwen, there's your baby sister, right there!" and she said, "Yup. ....I look out the window?" as she gave only a passing glance at Caroline and bee-lined it for the curtains. :)
She asks to hold "my baby", but is ready to be all done after about a minute. She is mostly intrigued by her sister's tiny features and wants to touch her ears, nose, cheeks, hair, etc. She giggles as soon as Caroline is on her lap, though, which is really cute. She also LOVES the teaset that Caroline brought as a gift. She wants to play "Tea Party" with someone, anyone, ALL DAY LONG. Good gift, Caroline. You've found the key to winning your older sister's heart. :)

Friday, April 1, 2011

Baby Time!

LOL, nah, that's April Fool's. But I guess it isn't really that funny. Oh well. :)
I finished Gwen's stool for her bathroom (to facilitate hand washing post potty use). Her potty is a lil green turtle, and she loves fishies, turtles, and all sea creatures, so I thought this would make a nice matching set. I got the unfinished stool for Christmas. Looked online and on cover of Finding Nemo for inspiration. Drew them on the wood. Painted with acrylic paints. Finished with spray to seal it. Tah-dah!