One Month Check-up

Do you remember where I said that I was pretty sure that Minna is adequately growing? Well now I have proof. This last week Brian and I guessed that she was going to be around 7 pounds. Well she showed us up. Here are her stats:

Weight: 7 pounds 13 ounces (11th percentile)

Height: 20 1/4 inches (14th percentile)

Head: 13 3/4 inches (4th percentile)

So how do you get a baby to gain 2 pounds 3 ounces in 3 weeks. By having a girl that looks like this every time she wakes up and isn't immediately fed.

She also grows this much because her mom is a cow. If you notice her shirt says "I love my moo-mmy". Since I spend 3-4 hours a day nursing all I can say is "Moooo".

Seriously-I am working on it, it takes a while

Yesterday we went to the Farmer's Market. We bought some cucumber plants, and I mentioned to the lady selling them that we had planted seeds, but the starts died when we didn't water them the really hot week that Minna was born. She wasn't listening well or something because she looks at me and asks me when my baby is due. I pointed at the stroller behind me and said she was born a month ago. The lady then pointed at her stomach and said don't worry I have a pooch too. (Not a quote, but something to that effect). Thanks.

That reminded me of one time when I was going to visit Joshua in the NICU. He was probably around a month old. I was riding the elevator up to the fifth floor where the NICU and the labor and delivery is at Utah Valley Hospital. A guy was also on the elevator and when I told him I needed to go to the fifth floor and he asked me if I was going up to have my baby right then. I know I had a pooch then too, but I was only six months pregnant when I had Joshua, I don't think a month after he was born I was looking "ready to pop".

I am working on it, or at least I will be, but I am not going to have a flat tummy tomorrow. I think I am going to look for some chocolate now.

How I Know Minna is Growing

We haven't been to the doctor in a couple of weeks, and we don't go again until next week, but I am feeling pretty confident that Minna is growing even without a weigh in.

• Her diapers fit her now


• Her clothes fit her
  
• Her second chin is getting bigger
  
• She eats so much she has to grow because of it.
  
• In the hospital they would swaddle her, and then swaddle her again, and then put a hat on her to keep her warm. but recently I had her dressed in just a onesie and when it was time for her nap I was afraid she would be cold so I put her in the fleece swaddler. She screamed and screamed which is not normal for her, so I put her in her cotton swaddler and she went right to sleep. So she is now big enough to keep herself warm to some extent.
  
• She just looks bigger. Look she is starting to get cheeks, and she has two chins. You can't tell from this picture but she also is starting to get a little chunk on her thighs.

Story Time with Minna

Joshua loves Minna, but he is kind of clumsy. Today she was sitting in her chair and was awake and Joshua was over there standing over her. We were worried that he would trip and fall on her, so in an effort to keep him semi still we told her to read Minna a story.

Joshua runs into the living room and comes back with the Silmarillion. We then helped him find a picture book with some animals in it. We told Joshua to teach Minna the animals. He would go to a page and say one of the animals on the page, say a zebra, then stick the page in her face and say "Look, Look". Go to the next page point out a cat and then again hold the book up to her and say "Look, Look". It was so cute. He is such a good big brother.

Joshua-ism

In an effort to keep family scripture study going in our family and to keep it age appropriate for Joshua we have started reciting the first article of faith. We recite it one word at a time and Joshua repeats after us.

Brian and Karalee: "We"
Joshua: "We"
Brian and Karalee: "believe"
Joshua: "believe"

this keeps on going all the way through: "in God the Eternal Father, and in His Son Jesus"

and then it goes like this

Brian and Karalee: "Christ"
Joshua (with resounding enthusiasm): "AMEN!"

I think he thinks its the end of a prayer.

Then we continue: "and in the Holy Ghost."

Joshua (again with resounding enthusiasm): "AMEN!"
Brian and Karalee: "amen" (or we get in trouble)

Joshua-ism

I am nursing Minna instead of giving her a bottle and when I am at home I feel like I should be able to nurse without covering up (and at the beginning covering up isn't practical until the baby actually learns to nurse well). I don't want it to be a big deal for Joshua so I am just upfront about what I am doing. I tell him that I am feeding Minna, then I usually put in the nearest meal, because I am trying to teach him that breakfast comes in the morning, lunch at noonish, and dinner in the evening. Joshua thinks the three meals are interchangeable, and when he gets hungry will just pick a meal and ask for it.

Anyway one day I am feeding Minna and tell Joshua she is eating breakfast. Later he sees me and I was not nursing, and he comes up to me and points to my boob and says "breakfast."

Thank goodness he does not think his meals come from me too.

Pictures of Miss Minna

Even though this post is mostly about Minna, I thought I would start out with a little bit about Joshua. He loves Minna a lot and does what he can to take care of her. When I change her diaper, he will bring over all of her toys one at a time for her to play with (too bad she can't actually hold them yet). He will also go and fix her blanket for her when she is sitting in her little bouncy chair. Today I hadn't gotten around to putting a blanket on her in her chair so he went and got a blanket and carefully put it on her. Then he put another one on her just in case. I did have to fix that one because it was covering her face. He is so gentle with her, he will give her the softest kisses. When she does tummy time he will turn the music on her gym for her to listen too. He is also fascinated by her gym, I swear he didn't like his gym this much when he was a baby, but look at him playing in it.

Now to Miss Minna. We have started her on tummy time already because Joshua hated it so much. She will lay there quietly for a while, but whenever she lifts or turns her head, she protests to the whole event.

Notice that she is wearing blue. We didn't have any girl sleepers for her in the newborn size until my baby shower. Now even after the baby shower she ends up wearing Joshua's old sleepers all the time because she poops or pees on her clothes all the time. She is tons worse that Joshua ever was for peeing every time the diaper comes off. One night in two feedings I went through three sleepers, five diapers, and a set of sheets for her. The laundry amount is crazy even when I use Joshua's things

Minna's personality is way different than Joshua's. She is so much more cuddly, and more sensitive too. The first couple of nights whenever she would poop or spit up she would scream. She is finally getting past that a little and only gets upset if it is super messy. She is pretty happy and social at least for a baby that sleeps most of the time. Here is her beautiful smile.

Here she is all dressed up for church with her big brother.

Rest of the Hospital Stay

After Minna was taken to the nursery we were told I might be able to nurse her in an hour or so, if things went well. So while we waited me moved over to the mother and baby side of the maternity ward. Then they came in and said that Minna's blood sugar was too low, so they gave her formula and I would be able to nurse her in 3 hours. So I began pumping (bleh). Brian called a few people in our ward to let them know about Minna, and then decided to go home since he had been up for more than 24 hours at this point.

Brian was so tired when he left I called him to make sure he made it home and he did. He even remembered to feed the cats, which I was impressed at. When he got home he felt a little awake, so he decided to wind down by watching a TV show. He sat down in Joshua's chair and started to get to the show he wanted to watch. Two hours later he woke up in Joshua's chair, and looked at the TV to see he never actually loaded the show. He went to bed after that.

When they said I could nurse Minna, I went in to the biggest disaster of a nursing ever. Minna had an IV in, so we were trying to manuever her around without bugging it. Well I failed and the IV ended up being pulled out. Then she wouldn't even wake up to nurse. So they put the IV back in, and I asked how long they would let her go without eating before they put a feeding tube in. The nurse responded that she would take a bottle, so they would just give her a bottle until she nursed. I went back to pump again with visions of having to pump for forever because she wouldn't nurse.

Three hours later they came in and said I could nurse again. This time went much better, and she did her thing, and then they gave her a bottle afterwards. I went back to pump for a few minutes afterwards too, trying to speed up bringing my milk in.

Nursings went pretty well after that point, I continued to pump to get my milk in because they were giving her formula in the meantime. Our pediatrician doesn't go to Saratoga Hospital and one of the on call pediatricians told the nurse to not limit the formula they gave her, and to give her as much as she would take. Fortunately the nurses used moderation here, since Minna would take almost anything from a bottle. The formula made her spit up and didn't settle really well with her, but I knew she shouldn't loose too much weight so she needed it. When my milk started to come in, her spitting up started to get ridiculous because she would eat everything in the bottle whether she needed to or not. The labor and delivery nurse said that we could start backing off the bottles, giving her less and see how she was doing. By the time we went home Friday we were done with the bottles.

I had to get used to the nursery nurses there. After having Joshua in the NICU, I was used to nurses only have 2 or 3 babies, not two nurses for all the babies on the floor. And at the beginning I didn't realize that the labor and delivery nurses could help with the babies, so I drove the nursery nurses crazy. I also got in trouble because my room was right across the hall from the nursery, so a few times Minna's feet turned funny colors because of poor circulation and being cold. Well it freaked me out when I unwrapped her, so I took her across the hall to inquire about why her feet were like that. But I didn't wrap her up to go the 3 feet, because it seemed dumb to wrap her up, go 3 feet, and unwrap her. Then I got in trouble for not wrapping her up. Same thing happened when she was unwrapped at the nursery and I needed to nurse her right then. My kids won't nursed all swaddled up, they just go to sleep, so I started to push her the 3 feet back to my room, but got in trouble for not wrapping her up again. I really wasn't trying to freeze her, just speed things up.

The other thing that drove me nuts was they did tests and shots between 1:00 and 2:00 in the morning. Maybe I was spoiled in the NICU where they didn't do anything to Joshua including baths after 10:00 pm so the babies would learn day and night. But they would give her a shot or poke her and then bring her in screaming to eat. Well she would be so exhausted she wouldn't eat, so then I would have to do a longer pumping session to make up for it at 2:00 in the morning. Then the first couple of nights when we came home she would sleep great most of the night (minus getting up to eat), but between 1:00 and 2:00 she would become inconsolable. After a couple of torture-less nights, she started sleeping then too.

I got along a lot better with the labor and delivery nurses and felt much better about the hospital stay, when I realized they were in charge of Minna too. They were chattier and more willing to help and more willing to let me do things my way. I really liked it when one of my nurses volunteered to give Minna her after nursing bottle, and I told her that she didn't have to if she was busy. She said no she had a minute and she loved to feed the babies. I thought that was really sweet.

One other thing that was interesting for me was when we were being discharged from the hospital. When I was discharged after Joshua they pushed me out to the car in a wheel chair even though I could have walked out. When Joshua was discharged from the hospital (2 months after I was discharged) the nurse had to carry him out of the hospital in his baby carrier. When Minna and I got ready to leave the hospital we got all packed up and waited and waited for a nurse to come by. Finally I went to the nurses desk, and she said to come out with Minna to the desk when we were ready to go and she would walk us down. By walk us down, she basically had to watch us put Minna's car seat in the car and that was it. I carried Minna out because Brian had gone to get the car. I am sure if I had been physically unable to walk or carry Minna I wouldn't have had to, but it was still really weird to me.

That is basically our hospital stay, minus the part where Joshua came to visit .

Growing Girl

I took Minna in for a weight check today at the doctor's office. She needed to get back up to her birth weight of just under 5 pounds 2 ounces. I was hoping for a little more....

From the beginning Minna seemed to show us that she is eating well. When we took her diaper off to weigh her, she peed all over the scale, not a sign of a dehydrated, starving baby. When the nurse got everything all cleaned up, we weighed her and found out that she weighs:

5 pounds 10 ounces! She gained 11 ounces in a week!

Minna's Birth Story-Really Long Post

I love reading other peoples' delivery stories, so I thought I would post Minna's birth story. I will probably do some comparing with Joshua's birth story, since they were such different experiences.

I woke up at 5:00 on Tuesday May 25, 2010 feeling kind of yucky. I looked at the clock and moaned because it was so early in the morning. I tried to get comfortable so I could go back to sleep, but I kept waking up. Then I woke up enough to realize the feelings were coming and going, so I tried to time them, but I kept dozing off in between and my timing was highly inaccurate. I eventually woke up and decided to go drink and eat to see if I could stop the contractions. It didn't work, so at 6:30 I called Brian at work and he left to come home.

Brian's brother had come into town a couple of weeks ago and had driven all night long to get here so he had bought some Red Bull to stay awake. He left one in our fridge. When Brian and I saw the Red Bull in our fridge we figured Minna would come when Brian was working nights, but we thought it we be the next time he was on nights right around Minna's due date. Brian had been up since 5:00 p.m. the evening before.

When Brian came home he started timing the contractions accurately and they were 6-7 minutes apart and 30-45 seconds long. I got Joshua up and Brian wanted to call the doctor, I said no that I wanted to eat a decent Breakfast because I knew they wouldn't let me eat in the hospital. I also knew from talking to some people that they don't try to stop labor after 34 weeks, that it was actually safer to deliver at that point. While I was up with Joshua Brian kept trying to time contractions, but he was getting tired and every time I told him a contraction was coming Brian had a hard time comprehending. I ate breakfast with Joshua, then Brian called the doctor.

The doctor said I should go to the hospital because I was on blood thinners and my history with Joshua. Brian called our good friends the Hannons who said they would take Joshua, then went upstairs to pack. Well I decided I wanted to shower first, I brushed my teeth before Joshua was born, so I thought showering was okay, because there was less worry this time around. Brian and I decided that if I ever go term I will probably get my hair done before I go to the hospital.

On the way to drop Joshua off Brian commented on how long it was taking to get to the Hannons. I mentioned that he was driving way below the speed limit because we were just chatting and not panicking. When Joshua was born Brian was speeding like crazy. We dropped Joshua off and then we went to the hospital and got lost in the detours. We finally get to the hospital, and I went in by myself while Brian looked for a parking spot. I went in and talked to the information desk to see where I should go, the man I talked to looked really worried and hurriedly pointed to the maternity ward. I went to the desk in there, and they said they had been waiting for me. I made some excuse about dropping Joshua off, I didn't tell we had been dawdling.

They took me in and made me change, pee in a cup, and all that fun stuff. The nurse also started to put in an IV. I have really crappy veins and when people dig around in them, it tends to make them hide and make me feel dizzy. She dug around for a few minutes, until I had a contraction and then it went right in. When Joshua was born, they couldn't get an IV in until I had a contraction, I think they distract me from the needle digging around in me.

The doctor came and checked me and I was not dilated at all, or effaced or anything. The doctor said I could go home or stick around for a couple of hours to see if anything happened. I was ready to just go home, but Brian wanted to stay, later he told me he wanted to stay at the hospital long enough to be able to get out of work that night. I was still having the same contractions and I was just breathing through them. I had a nonstress test scheduled at the doctor's that afternoon, so they decided to do the ultrasound at the hospital to save me a trip. They estimated Minna at 5 pound 4 ounces, and said my cervix looked thin. The doctor said that is an inaccurate measurement, but when he checked me I was thinning and dilated to a four.

I wasn't going anywhere. I hadn't had my strep B test yet, so they did that and started dumping penicillin in me just in case. They also moved me to a different room that had a baby warmer in it, and told me that since she was preemie they wanted a pediatrician there when she was born, and he needed 10 minutes warning to get here.

The doctor told me because I was on the blood thinner I wouldn't be able to have an epidural. I didn't want one or any drugs anyway for a couple of reasons. I am terrified of getting a needle stuck in my back, when I was having Joshua I thought they were going to give me a spinal for the C-section I didn't end up having, and I was terrified that I would move. I also think it is safer for the baby not to have drugs in me or them, and since I can't seem to carry a baby to term, I do my best to keep the medicines out of me to hopefully give them a better chance. (Both of my babies did better than expected after birth). I also tend to have strong reactions to medicines, and I hate the fuzzy feeling that some medicines give me. Finally it sometimes seems like not being on medicines gives you more options during birth and less chance of interventions and hopefully an easier recovery. So I was gambling on one rough day leading to an easier recovery. So those are my reasons, but I have tiny kids, and it is just a personal decision for me.

The nurse said she thought I would have the baby within the hour, since I progressed so fast. That freaked me out because I wasn't mentally ready for that and I hadn't actually figured out how to push yet (more on that later). I was still have contractions far apart, and I wasn't ready to have them get right on top of each other yet. The one benefit would have been I would have been able to eat sooner. I was starving and getting sick of the sugar water diet they put you on. One can only eat so much jell-o.

Even though I had already given birth I was taking a birthing class because Joshua's birth was so weird. The last class where they were going to cover pushing the baby out was not for two more days. Brian and I had also been reading a book on the Bradley Method of natural birth, we returned home to get it on the way to the hospital. We had not yet read the chapter on pushing yet, we were going to do it the previous Sunday, but Brian had to work a ton, and we didn't get to it. So when we realized that Minna was coming that day, we whipped out the book and read the chapter between contractions. We also watched Monk and I tried to get Brian to take a nap because I was handling the contractions okay by myself, and I knew I would need him later on. Brian never did take a nap, he was too wired and excited to go to sleep even when I made him lay down in the hospital bed, while I sat in the chair.

During this time I had a nurse switch, and I ended up with the best nurse. I got along well with the first nurse, especially after I got to know her for a few days, but the nurse I had for the delivery, Sandy, was just perfect for the delivery. Sandy learned really fast that when I was breathing really slow, and had my eyes closed and wouldn't respond, I was having a contraction and she would be quiet and wait to talk to me until it was over. She also respected my hatred of the pain scale, and never asked me what my pain level was on a scale of 1 to 10. I never have the slightest idea what to say for those things, and what if I think it is a 7 now and it gets 4 degrees worse, can you say 11, and I would rather not sit there and contemplate my pain, doing that makes it worse. Sandy was really cool about us wanting to do the birth natural and never offered me drugs, and was enthusiastic about the whole thing.

I had a couple of friends planning a baby shower for me (post on this will come another day), and one friend emailed me to ask me if it was okay to send the invitations out. I emailed her back between contractions (they were close enough together, it took several contractions to get through the short email), I told her to wait because I was in the hospital in labor and I wanted to make sure everything turned out okay, so she wouldn't have to cancel or reschedule.

After that, I decided it was time to kick Brian out of the bed, because I needed to lay back down. At this point I was getting some pretty strong pains in my back, and I asked Brian to rub my back and my hips. I had to keep telling him to rub harder, and I later found out that he kept falling asleep as he was rubbing my back, because he had been up for about 24 hours at this point. He did decide it was time to drink the Red Bull and choked down some of the can. He was able to help me through the rest of my labor. At about 5:30 the doctor came back in to check me. We all thought I would be at about a 7, because it didn't seem like I had hit transition yet. Well I was a 10. The doctor asked me if I felt like I should push yet, and I said no, but the doctor told the nurse to call the pediatrician to come over to the hospital and he went to go get ready for the birth.

A couple of contractions later I felt like I should push. I tried to hold off through a couple of the contractions, but it was really hard. Finally I told Brian that after this contraction was over, he was to help me sit up so I could push, and that someone would show up to catch the baby. Yep, I sat up and the doctor came running in, and he and the nurse took off the bottom of the bed. Also when you get ready to push they have these lights come down from the ceiling, I thought that would freak me out, but instead I was freaked out a little by the table the doctor pushed in, that had about 85 different pairs of scissors on it, along with a few other devices.

When the doctor checked me, he said my water still had not broken, and asked me if I wanted him to break it. I said no, unless there was some reason that he should. He said he would wait, but would break it after I started pushing. Well with the first push my water broke and there was no need.

I am not going to lie, the pushing part was the hardest part for me. From things that I had read and heard, I thought pushing was going to be a relief after transition. But since I had an easy labor, the pushing part caught me off guard. It didn't help that she crowned after like one push, and after that Brian said that was the only part where it seemed like I was in a lot of pain. Everyone was really encouraging, Brian, Sandy, and the doctor, so that helped a lot, and I only had to push for 4 minutes so it was over quickly. It was cool to see her head come out, and see all the hair on her head. She also came out looking sideways, which I did not know was even possible, but she did.

The part right after her birth was the coolest part for me. When Joshua was born, I hardly saw him for 1/2 a second before he was gone in a mob of nurses. She was born and I was able to see her, the doctor suctioned her out so she could breath. Brian was able to cut her cord, which was really short, she wasn't going to be tying knots in that thing. Then they took her over to a warming table in the room, it make sure she was okay. (The pediatrician had come in before she was born, so he made it). We were able to watch her get taken care of, and listen to her scream in protest.

Before Minna was born, I had thought it would be cool to nurse her right after birth, but after giving birth I realized that I would need a few minutes. I was shaking like crazy, and the doctor was putting a couple small stitches in (I had really minor tears, that he wouldn't have seen except I was on blood thinners and that made them bleed a little). They also hadn't put the bottom of the bed back on, so I felt all perched. I also kind of felt like I was in a daze, it seemed surreal. But after a few minutes she and I were taken care of and I was able to hold her for a minute. Brian was able to hold her too, then she was taken to the nursery for more monitoring.

I will do another post later on the hospital stay, but the birth was wonderful, and so much more relaxed than Joshua's. It was great to be excited about her coming, and to be able to enjoy her briefly afterward.

New Born Check Up

Tuesday Minna had her first official check-up. She had a weight check on Saturday to make sure she didn't loose too much weight in a day and to check on her jaundice. On Saturday she weighed 4 pounds 13 ounces, and her bili levels were the same as the day before when we left the hospital.

Minna's stats on Tuesday were:

Weight: 4 pounds 15 ounces, 1st percentile (finally starting to gain weight)

Length: 18 1/4 inches, 4th percentile (her head rounded out after birth making her shorter now that when she was born).

Head: 12 1/2 inches 1st percentile

And here is a picture of Miss Minna, since she is so pretty and thoughtful.

Going home from the hospital

Friday my doctors and Minna's doctors decided that we were all ready to go home. Because Minna is so small she had to pass a car seat test where she had to show that she could breath fine while sitting in the car seat. She passed.

When my kids are in the hospital I forget how small they are until we put them in the car seat. I thought Joshua was the NICU giant then I put him in the car seat and he looked tiny.

And then Minna was about a pound and a half smaller than Joshua was when he came home. She looked absolutely tiny in the car seat. She also wasn't thrilled about being in the car seat.

But we were able to bust out of the hospital with only one extra day.