Doctor Appt Update - 2/26/07

So now the doctor appointment updates will be for Marissa...not me!!

Last Tuesday we went to the doctor to make sure her jaundice was gone and didn't need to be treated...and the doc assured us that she was doing great (gave her an A+) and didn't have the jaundice anymore. She asked about feeding and I told her that it was a struggle to keep Marissa awake for longer than 15-20 minutes during a feeding, and I think she was a little concerned so wanted a follow up for one week, which was 2/26.

I have been worried sick that she wasn't getting enough food...despite the fact that she had plenty of pee pee and poopy diapers (the main indicator that her food intake is OK). So they weighed her at the appointment and she had gone from 6 lbs 14 oz to 7 lbs 12 oz in one week! The doctor was amazed. This is good news because it means that she's eating plenty (the goal is to get them back to their birth weight by the time they are two weeks old...and obviously she surpassed that). So the doctor said she didn't need to see us again until her 1 month appt. And, she told me that I can keep feeding her at the 2-3 hour intervals during the day, but at night I can let her go for five hours if she doesn't wake up on her own (this is huge in terms of sleeping for mommy). So last night I set the alarm for 5 hour intervals and she woke up on her own at 4 hours and 3 hours...it will be a learning process. The more she sleeps during the day the more she'll wake up at night...and she's currently a day sleeper. However, I am going to work hard at getting more "awake" periods from her during the day to try and get her days and nights straight.

She is truly a joy (and a challenge at the same time).

Marissa Elise Taylor is here!!

Our baby has finally made her much-anticipated arrival. A little early, 9 days early to be exact...but healthy as a horse (she scored 8 and 9 on her two apgar tests!) and perfect as can be.

People always try to describe to you what being a parent feels like, to explain the kind of love and emotion that you can feel for your own child...now I know that it's something that simply can't be explained or put into words. Of course I knew we would love her, but I had no idea how all of it would actually feel. It's amazing and I know that Matt and I feel so blessed and are so excited about this journey we're going to take together as a family.

Physically, I'm feeling pretty good (for being 4 days postpartum). The labor and delivery were pretty smooth. Here's how the labor went:

We went to the hospital on Valentine's Day (technically it was 2/15 by the time we got there) because I thought my water had broken (a very small leak). They admitted me, ran some tests, I was having contractions but they were sporadic. We spent the night (Matt slept, I didn't), and the next day determined that my contractions weren't really speeding things along. The doctor decided, with my permission, to speed things along with Pitocin in order to make the contractions more regular and therefore more productive. I received this at 1:00 PM and it started working pretty much immediately.

I hung in and at 3:00 the doctor came in and REALLY broke my water (so it would all come out in a gush) and that's when the contractions really started to hurt (the doctor told me that would be the case). I held out for maybe 30 minutes and then asked for the epidural. About 30 minutes later I had the epidural (Matt stayed in and held my hand...I was worried he might faint but they at least had him positioned so he couldn't see what was going on behind me). What a weird sensation the epidural gives! So for most of the remainder of labor I had to flip from laying on one side to the other to keep it working the way it's supposed to.

So the doc was thinking baby would arrive around 7:00 or so...but labor wasn't progressing quite that fast. So they cranked up the Pitocin (monitoring the baby the whole time to make sure she was handling the contractions OK) and the pace picked up. The baby had some valleys in her heartbeat when the stronger contractions happened, so they made me wear an oxygen mask to get more oxygen to her. It worked and she tolerated the remainder of labor pretty well.

Then I started feeling really weird (hot, nauseous, like the oxygen mask -- which hadn't really bothered me at all prior to this point -- was making me claustrophobic) and wondered when the show would get on the road. The nurse came in to check my progress, and the next thing I knew she was asking Matt to grab my leg while she grabbed the other and I started pushing. After about 20 minutes she went and asked them to make sure Dr. Graham was on his way. He came in, and told me the baby was crowning...they got a mirror so I could watch and after about two more pushes our little baby was born. Somehow the doctor got Matt to cut the cord!

So now we're home and trying to get settled into some semblance of a routine. I'm not going to lie, it's extremely tiring to be on a "every 2-3 hour" feeding schedule, it's overwhelming to realize that this amazing little girl's fate rests in Matt and my inexperienced hands, and I'm still trying to physically recover from the pregnancy and delivery. But I think as the days go by things will get easier, we'll feel more confident and this will all feel "normal." Matt has taken to fatherhood amazingly and I love to see him interact with our baby. As for me, I am enjoying this time with Marissa, even the hard parts, because I know it will all go by in a blur.

Doc Appt Update - 38 week appt

Met with the nurse practitioner this morning (my doctor was unavailable). The baby's heartrate is good. She still has not dropped (she's apparently sitting on my pubic bone and eventually needs to slip below that). I need to get out and do some walking to encourage the little booger to drop.

So yesterday I thought I started feeling some weird sensations and thought it could be contractions (I still feel like an idiot because I don't really know what they are supposed to feel like)...I think it was since I am about 1 cm dilated now (they were very sporadic and inconsistent, but at least my body seems to be practicing for the real deal). Not tremendous progress but at least something is happening!

I asked the NP how far past the due date they let you go before inducing (hey, I was just curious)...she said 1 week, and they would usually induce you on the day that your doctor is on call in that week timeframe.

I have my next appt on 2/21 with the NP again (my doc is out of town next week) and will have a "non-stress" test. Basically they test the baby's heartrate when she's moving versus when she's still to make sure it's fluctuating appropriately (which in turn means the placenta is still functioning OK...I guess as you get further along the placenta's functioning can start to deteriorate and they just have to make sure that's not happening).

Then she went ahead and had me schedule another appt with my doctor for 2/27 in case I haven't birthed by then, so we can check progress and discuss scheduling my induction (my doctor is on call on 3/1 so that's when it would be if it's needed). So we'll definitely have a baby by 3/1 at the latest!! But, the NP said since things are finally starting to happen that hopefully this will all happen naturally and we won't have to worry about the induction.

We'll just continue to wait!!

Happy Valentines Day!

Week 38 - 2/10/08

How your baby's growing:Your baby has really plumped up. She weighs about 6.8 pounds and she's over 19 1/2 inches long (like a leek). She has a firm grasp, which you'll soon be able to test when you hold her hand for the first time! Her organs have matured and are ready for life outside the womb.Wondering what color your baby's eyes will be? You may not be able to tell right away. If she's born with brown eyes, they'll likely stay brown. If she's born with steel gray or dark blue eyes, they may stay gray or blue or turn green, hazel, or brown by the time she's 9 months old. That's because a child's irises (the colored part of the eye) may gain more pigment in the months after she's born, but they usually won't get "lighter" or more blue. (Green, hazel, and brown eyes have more pigment than gray or blue eyes.) Note: Every baby develops a little differently — even in the womb. Our information is designed to give you a general idea of your baby's development.

How your life's changing: For many women, the next couple of weeks are a waiting game. Use this time to prepare your baby's nursery or to take care of necessary tasks you may not get around to for a while after your baby's born. Take naps, catch up on your reading, and spend uninterrupted time with your partner while you can. Some swelling in your feet and ankles is normal during these last weeks, but call your practitioner without delay if you notice excessive or sudden swelling of your feet or ankles, more than slight swelling of your hands, any swelling in your face or puffiness around your eyes, or have a sudden weight gain. Also let her know immediately if have severe or persistent headaches; visual changes (such as double or blurred vision, seeing spots or flashing lights, light sensitivity, or a temporary loss of vision), intense upper abdominal pain or tenderness, or nausea and vomiting. These are symptoms of a serious condition called preeclampsia.

Baby's Room

Sorry, it's impossible to get a good picture of the room as a whole, so I had to take photos of bits and pieces...it doesn't really give you a good view. But it will have to do. It turned out really cute...now all I need is some wall stuff and maybe some accessories...but we're pretty much done.

Dr. Appt Update

I had my week 37 doctor appointment today. Nothing much new to report. Everything looks good. No action from the baby (she hasn't really dropped, still pretty high...cervix still closed). So looks like she's not going to be early...which is OK. Just hoping she's not overdue too much!! There's only so long I can deal with fat feet and ankles.

Our baby furniture was delivered today, which is good. Hopefully the nursery will be complete this weekend. Matt has the painting to finish and the crib to assemble, which should all be done soon. I'll post photos when it's all done.

Gonna pack my back for the hospital tonight just in case...maybe it's wishful thinking :-)
But it can't hurt to be prepared.

I'll post another update if there's anything new to report. My next appointment is a week from today. I'll be seeing the midwife because my doctor has no availability!!

A cute article on pregnancy

I loved the description this writer gives to the experience of pregnancy in the last trimester. I am not a tomboy, so the first few paragraphs aren't relevant to me, but the last part is really cool...especially where she describes the vaudeville act between her and her baby. Baby Girl Taylor and I have the same routine!! :-)

The last thing tomboy Jennifer Senior expected while expecting? That she'd discover her inner girl. By Jennifer Senior

For as long as I can remember, I have thought of myself as a tomboy. You might think that pregnancy would have momentarily rid me of this belief about myself. It is, presumably, the peak state of femininity — or at least the peak state of womanhood, the incomparable expression of what separates gals from men. And yet carrying a child did nothing to free me from the conviction that I am more masculine than feminine. Instead, it sharpened it — for the first six months, anyway.

Before I got pregnant, I was analytical and unsentimental and indifferent to shopping; during my first two trimesters, I was analytical and unsentimental and indifferent to shopping (I refused all offers of baby showers, for instance, and never once set foot in Babies "R" Us, which I consider a Hades of chiming plastic and battery-operated kitsch to this very day). Before I got pregnant, I gained weight in my gut, just like a man; when I got pregnant, I ... gained weight in my gut, just like a man. (Now, at least, this trait makes aesthetic sense.)

During the first trimester, I was spared the gestational tortures so many pregnant women endure — the relentless nausea, the bloat, the volcanic acne — which somehow suggested to me that I was tougher than the average pregnant dame. In my second trimester, true to stereotype, I hummed with energy, working late at the office and assembling bookshelves at home. I ate a lot. I slept the unanguished, crude mammalian sleep of a man. And like a man, my skin got rougher in patches, drying out around my feet and elbows and knees (which explains the liters of goo marketed to pregnant women). I was also constantly complaining about being too hot, just like my father. And when the women around me started comparing notes about their own pregnancies, I wandered into the next room, bored.

Mark, my partner (I'm also too unsentimental to get married), developed a term for my attitude. He called it "the macho pregnancy."

But I am now in the end stage, the preposterous stage, the stage where the fundamental inelegance of my condition cannot be ignored and machismo is completely out of the question. Being macho requires a certain cool, and it is hard — very hard — to be cool when you're wearing stretch pants. Recently, a dear friend proposed I be towed out to sea to start my own artificial reef. Another began calling me "Goodyear." I've become a hopeless dependent, relying on the kindness of strangers to give up their subway seats, open doors, and in one especially awkward instance, tie my shoes (in end-stage pregnancy, the feet are apparently more elusive than the cervix). My doctor assures me it is normal — depressingly average, even — to have gained 25 pounds on a 5-foot-6 frame by week 36. But these extra pounds have both revealed and weakened every kink in my posture, my core muscle strength, my gait. (About five weeks ago, my hips gave out, driving me to a fabulous physical therapist named Isa, who observed: "Girlfriend, you walk all wrong.")

Worst of all, I've become stupid in these final laps, and intellectual helplessness is far more humiliating than physical helplessness. Words desert me. (Terms I forgot in the last 24 hours: self-aware, neonatal, and shelf.) The basic skills of my profession elude me (filling me with the panic of those dreams in which we're asked to do things we cannot — conduct the New York Philharmonic, play professional basketball). My prefrontal cortex, at long last, has been hijacked by hormones. In her best-selling book, The Female Brain, Dr. Louann Brizendine says the brain shrinks by about 8 percent during pregnancy and doesn't return to its full size until six months after the baby is born. The image suggests that our brain loses computational and reasoning power, but that's not what it feels like. What it feels like is a case of brain termites.

I've been told that all of these changes have a higher purpose. They turn your focus from outward to inward, creating a closed world where only you, your baby, and the bond between the two of you matters. And I am beginning to recognize not just the evolutionary value of this design, but how it can be a lovely and liberating thing. Work is losing its sense of urgency. Finding some fine-looking onesies suddenly seems like a matter of top importance, particularly if they feature cars or trucks.

The other day, as I was rubbing my belly, I realized I'd unconsciously developed a modest vaudeville routine with my unborn son: He'd kick and I'd rub back, and he'd kick again and I'd rub back again, each of us telling knock-knock jokes from our own sides of the door. Knock knock, knock knock.... And I really do wonder who's there. I have no idea who this person is that I'm carrying.

But in the meantime, there will be four more weeks of pregnancy to get through — weeks during which my hip joints will scrape, my feet will swell, and the real estate currently occupied by my stomach will shrink to a plot so small I'll be forced to eat and drink in separate shifts. I'll spend my days lurching between a fugue state and one of utter disgust, wishing the baby were out, and that reaction will be mirrored in the faces of loved ones and strangers alike, who will look on in a kind of terrified awe, watching as I burst to the breaking point, carrying a 10-pound turkey in a two-quart pan.

Never mind that billions of women do this the world over. Pregnancy, in the end, illuminates the double meaning embedded in the word extraordinary, an event both beyond ordinary and exceedingly banal. Something about the sight of a massively pregnant woman both reassures and terrifies, conjuring up pictures of beatific Madonnas and monsters in Bosch paintings, of Venuses and creatures in horror films (The call is coming from inside the house!).

But then, in the end — my son. The very thought of meeting him makes me cry. I hope he'll appreciate tough women. I hope he'll have a feminine streak himself. And I hope, one day, I can thank him for finally introducing me to my inner girl, the one who was clearly there all along but until this moment never managed to rear her head. I secretly hope she sticks around. And I suspect I'll continue to like her.

Week 37 - 2/3/08

How your baby's growing: Congratulations — your baby is full term! This means that if your baby arrives now, her lungs should be fully mature and ready to adjust to life outside the womb, even though your due date is still three weeks away. Your baby weighs 6 1/3 pounds and measures a bit over 19 inches, head to heel (like a stalk of Swiss chard). Many babies have a full head of hair at birth, with locks from 1/2 inch to 1 1/2 inches long. But don't be surprised if your baby's hair isn't the same color as yours. Dark-haired couples are sometimes thrown for a loop when their children come out as blonds or redheads, and fair-haired couples have been surprised by Elvis look-alikes. And then, of course, some babies sport only peach fuzz. Note: Every baby develops a little differently — even in the womb. Our information is designed to give you a general idea of your baby's development.

How your life's changing: Braxton Hicks contractions may be coming more frequently now and may last longer and be more uncomfortable. It may be harder than ever to get comfortable enough to sleep well at night. If you can, take it easy through the day — this may be your last chance to do so for quite a while. Keep monitoring your baby's movements, too, and let your caregiver know immediately if you notice a decrease. Though her quarters are getting cozy, she should still be as active as before. While you're sleeping, you're likely to have some intense dreams. Anxiety both about labor and about becoming a parent can fuel a lot of strange flights of unconscious fancy.