So the past couple of days have gone from good to worse. Monday was a week since we brought Raylee home from the hospital. By the way, I think I forgot to explain that whole experience in my last blog. When we left the hospital last Monday I felt as if I was President Bush's daughter or something. When we got ready to leave and go down to the car we were escorted by a hospital police/security officer to the car. We left the post partum floor and went out to the elevator. We get on the elevator and it is me, Billy, the nurse and the officer and another lady tries to get on there with us and the officer wont let her. She explains that it is hospital policy that no one can ride down with us bc we have a baby. This kind of freaked me out! So we get off the elevator and make our way out to the front of the hospital where the car is parked at the front door. Billy puts Raylee in and I hobble in and I turn around and the officer is still standing by the car guarding it. It took us a couple of mins to get situated and settled in before we start to go and the officer stood by the car until we pulled away. I understand the policy and that it was for our own safety but that really freaked me out. They acted like there are people lurking around in the halls just waiting to yank babies or something. But I guess the way the world is today you never know!
Anyway.....I have been breast feeding since we came home and I have come to the conclusion that miss priss isn't getting enough to eat. With that being said we have now added a little formula to her diet and she is a much happier, full baby. She nurses really well but sometimes she doesn't stay a sleep long. At least one of feedings during the night she will not go back to sleep after she gets finish nursing. She will just cry and cry like she is heart broken and nothing makes her happy. Several times I have been driven to do what I said I would NEVER EVER DO and that is put her in the bed with us. However, she has never slept more than two hours in our bed and once she gets to sleep good we put her in the bassinet. I have learned this week to never say what you will and wont do. When you have a baby that is screaming to the top of her lungs and will not stop and it is 2:00 in the morning, you do what you have to do!
Wednesday, July 30, 2008
Friday, July 25, 2008
One week ago today..........
One week ago today my life was forever changed. At 12:06 p.m. Raylee Elizabeth Reed was born via c-section at River Oaks Hospital in Flowood weighing in at 7lbs and 19 1/2in long. So much has happened over the last week and words will never be able to describe it. When we left our house last Friday morning I was scared to death. I felt as if I was being sentenced to death by lethal injection (and come to find out the c-section table looked like the one that they use when they are doing the lethal injections so I'm not totally crazy!). I thought the worst. I thought it all was going to be terrible and I was going to be in dire pain and on and on. The actual c-section was a breeze. I am so glad that my dr chose to schedule it instead of inducing me. There was nothing to it. I had a phobia of the spinal and not being able to move my legs when i wanted to, that wasn't even bad and it didn't hurt at all! My only fear was when i was bending over getting it and leaning against my nurse, which this cute little bitty skinny girl, I felt like I was going to fall on top of her. All I could think about was falling on her a squashing her to death!
Once Raylee was delivered Dr. Brantley held her up over the sheet and it was like the whole world stopped. All I could do was stare at her. Eventually I reached up and touched her little hand but that was all I could do. They took her over and weighed her and all I could do was sit there and listen to her cry (half of me was so glad to hear her cry but when she didn't stop crying for a while the other half was hoping like hell that didn't mean that she was going to be one of these babies that constantly cries.) Billy brought her over to me and all I could think about was how perfect she was. Everything from her head full of hair to her little crooked little toe!
Oh and for the record, I had serious issues with the fact that the mama does all the work in carrying the baby for 9 months and then giving birth and the daddy gets to parade the baby out in front of family and friends for the first time. I'm not sure if it was the drugs or the fact that I felt like I was in a dream, none of that mattered. All that mattered was that she was finally here and she was perfect.
I don't remember much of that day. I remember a little bits and pieces. I remember we had a ton of people who came and went all day visiting. I remember talking to some but I don't remember what was said.....so if I said anything to offend anyone I'm so sorry! One thing that I will never forget is Saturday morning about 3:00 a.m. I woke up to a baby screaming in the hall. As I laid there the noise got closer and closer. All I could think of was, that poor mama, they are going to bring that screaming baby in her room and wake her up. After a couple of seconds the door to my room swung open and that screaming baby that I heard from way up the hall was MINE! The nurse came in and was talking to me and the minute Raylee heard my voice there was a silence in the room and she immediately stopped crying. It was SO AMAZING! It was amazing to know that I already comfort this little person that I just met!
In the end my experience at River Oaks was great! Everyone was great and so nice! We came home on Monday and have been trying to get adjusted to our new life. So far so good! We have had a couple of rocky nights but they seem to be getting better. I think we have about got her on a feeding schedule. She is doing great breastfeeding. I would have thought that I would have gotten frustrated and given up by now and given her a bottle, but everything is going good. The only problem I am having is my hormones. I guess they are trying to get back to normal, I wish they would hurry up and get there....ha!
We took her back on Wednesday for her check up and everything was great. When we left the hospital she had lost down to 6lbs 5oz. At her check up she had gained back to 6lbs 7oz. She was not jaundice, which I was concerned about bc she is dark, but they said that is just her complexion. We go Aug 1st for her first appointment with the pediatrician.
Looking back on the week it has not been what I expected, it has been more. I thought it was going to be horrible. I thought we were not going to get any sleep and everything would be a mess. I could not have asked for things to be any better. Yeah she wakes up at night and sometimes doesn't want to go back to sleep but other than that things have gone smoothly. It is amazing how much you can love something that is so much that you just met!
I will write more later, I want to try to get a couple hours of sleep in before she wakes up to be fed again!
Once Raylee was delivered Dr. Brantley held her up over the sheet and it was like the whole world stopped. All I could do was stare at her. Eventually I reached up and touched her little hand but that was all I could do. They took her over and weighed her and all I could do was sit there and listen to her cry (half of me was so glad to hear her cry but when she didn't stop crying for a while the other half was hoping like hell that didn't mean that she was going to be one of these babies that constantly cries.) Billy brought her over to me and all I could think about was how perfect she was. Everything from her head full of hair to her little crooked little toe!
Oh and for the record, I had serious issues with the fact that the mama does all the work in carrying the baby for 9 months and then giving birth and the daddy gets to parade the baby out in front of family and friends for the first time. I'm not sure if it was the drugs or the fact that I felt like I was in a dream, none of that mattered. All that mattered was that she was finally here and she was perfect.
I don't remember much of that day. I remember a little bits and pieces. I remember we had a ton of people who came and went all day visiting. I remember talking to some but I don't remember what was said.....so if I said anything to offend anyone I'm so sorry! One thing that I will never forget is Saturday morning about 3:00 a.m. I woke up to a baby screaming in the hall. As I laid there the noise got closer and closer. All I could think of was, that poor mama, they are going to bring that screaming baby in her room and wake her up. After a couple of seconds the door to my room swung open and that screaming baby that I heard from way up the hall was MINE! The nurse came in and was talking to me and the minute Raylee heard my voice there was a silence in the room and she immediately stopped crying. It was SO AMAZING! It was amazing to know that I already comfort this little person that I just met!
In the end my experience at River Oaks was great! Everyone was great and so nice! We came home on Monday and have been trying to get adjusted to our new life. So far so good! We have had a couple of rocky nights but they seem to be getting better. I think we have about got her on a feeding schedule. She is doing great breastfeeding. I would have thought that I would have gotten frustrated and given up by now and given her a bottle, but everything is going good. The only problem I am having is my hormones. I guess they are trying to get back to normal, I wish they would hurry up and get there....ha!
We took her back on Wednesday for her check up and everything was great. When we left the hospital she had lost down to 6lbs 5oz. At her check up she had gained back to 6lbs 7oz. She was not jaundice, which I was concerned about bc she is dark, but they said that is just her complexion. We go Aug 1st for her first appointment with the pediatrician.
Looking back on the week it has not been what I expected, it has been more. I thought it was going to be horrible. I thought we were not going to get any sleep and everything would be a mess. I could not have asked for things to be any better. Yeah she wakes up at night and sometimes doesn't want to go back to sleep but other than that things have gone smoothly. It is amazing how much you can love something that is so much that you just met!
I will write more later, I want to try to get a couple hours of sleep in before she wakes up to be fed again!
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
Ready or not here she comes..........
I went back to the dr today for my 38 wk visit. For the past couple of weeks things have not been going real well and complications have started so we prepared ourself to be sent to labor and delivery to have her every week except this week. This week we didn't even get our hopes up. We went to the appointment as usual and was sent home to wait for lab results the next day....as usual....which have been coming back ok.
This week my blood pressure was actually ok but i am dehydrated and there is protein in my urine. When we left the drs office we were told that we were keeping our July 24th scheduled date for the c-section. So we left and I was ok with that. After all we had a busy weekend planed, even though I'm on bed rest! Madison, my niece, 4th bday is Saturday and she is having her party at the Pump It Up in Flowood, neat place and I was SO excited to go! My sister and I were going to take cupcakes to her school on Friday and surprise her with a little mini party for her class. Billy's bday is Tuesday (22nd) and we were going to go to Bonsai but little did we know that last weekend was the last weekend that we had to spend together just he and I for a LONG time!
So, life was good until about 5:33 p.m. I was driving home down HWY 18 talking to Billy on my cell fussing about his broke down car and trying to tell him what he needed to do to fix it and i get a call beeping in. I look at it and it is the drs office so I tell him to hold on that its the nurse calling. This caught us off guard bc we were told that they would let us know tomorrow and over the past several weeks they have taken tons of blood and i have peed in many of cups and jugs and everything has been OK so why would today be any different? So anyway, I flip over and expect to hear Mrs. Connie's voice but instead its Dr. Brantley's. My first reaction was to slam on breaks and then I thought....oh my gosh, this is bad. She is calling me herself. I bet she is going to tell me to turn around and come back now, but luckily she didn't. She said that they got my lab results back and a couple of counts were low and she is pushing my c-section date up to this Friday at noon. Like an idiot, "This Friday as in the day after tomorrow" flew out of my mouth. However, what I was really thinking was oh no, I have a lot of plans for this weekend, but I couldn't say, Friday really doesn't work for me but Monday sounds better! She said, "Yeah, is that OK?" " I thought you would be excited and happy." I told her I was but also shocked and nervous. So just like that and with one phone call our life was majorly changed.
So after I got off the phone with her I immediately starting balling and I called Billy back crying to say that I'm going to miss Madison's party! I want to go so bad! However My sister and I rescheduled her party for school and we are going to do her party in the morning so at least I will be there for that! I think I have gotten over the shock of everything but now I'm fixated on the c-section not being until noon, which means that i wont be able to eat, which means that no one is going to want to be around me! My only advise to to take the good with the bad and don't take anything that comes out of my mouth personal...ha!
This week my blood pressure was actually ok but i am dehydrated and there is protein in my urine. When we left the drs office we were told that we were keeping our July 24th scheduled date for the c-section. So we left and I was ok with that. After all we had a busy weekend planed, even though I'm on bed rest! Madison, my niece, 4th bday is Saturday and she is having her party at the Pump It Up in Flowood, neat place and I was SO excited to go! My sister and I were going to take cupcakes to her school on Friday and surprise her with a little mini party for her class. Billy's bday is Tuesday (22nd) and we were going to go to Bonsai but little did we know that last weekend was the last weekend that we had to spend together just he and I for a LONG time!
So, life was good until about 5:33 p.m. I was driving home down HWY 18 talking to Billy on my cell fussing about his broke down car and trying to tell him what he needed to do to fix it and i get a call beeping in. I look at it and it is the drs office so I tell him to hold on that its the nurse calling. This caught us off guard bc we were told that they would let us know tomorrow and over the past several weeks they have taken tons of blood and i have peed in many of cups and jugs and everything has been OK so why would today be any different? So anyway, I flip over and expect to hear Mrs. Connie's voice but instead its Dr. Brantley's. My first reaction was to slam on breaks and then I thought....oh my gosh, this is bad. She is calling me herself. I bet she is going to tell me to turn around and come back now, but luckily she didn't. She said that they got my lab results back and a couple of counts were low and she is pushing my c-section date up to this Friday at noon. Like an idiot, "This Friday as in the day after tomorrow" flew out of my mouth. However, what I was really thinking was oh no, I have a lot of plans for this weekend, but I couldn't say, Friday really doesn't work for me but Monday sounds better! She said, "Yeah, is that OK?" " I thought you would be excited and happy." I told her I was but also shocked and nervous. So just like that and with one phone call our life was majorly changed.
So after I got off the phone with her I immediately starting balling and I called Billy back crying to say that I'm going to miss Madison's party! I want to go so bad! However My sister and I rescheduled her party for school and we are going to do her party in the morning so at least I will be there for that! I think I have gotten over the shock of everything but now I'm fixated on the c-section not being until noon, which means that i wont be able to eat, which means that no one is going to want to be around me! My only advise to to take the good with the bad and don't take anything that comes out of my mouth personal...ha!
Friday, July 11, 2008
Oh yeah one more thing that I forgot......
We learned a few things when we were sent to L&D for observation. The nurse was hooking me up to all of the machines and I told her, I think you have one of the belts to tight because it is squeezing my stomach every so often. she said, its not the belt, you are having contractions! I just didn't know what they were. I thought they were just normal pains of pregnancy. Every week when I went to the doctor she would ask me if I have been having them and I have been telling her NO. I would always think to myself..... well hell this is my first baby, I don't know what contractions feel like! It's not really a big deal. I think they are Braxton Hicks but some of them really hurt!
The end is near........
So, I have been on bed rest for a little over a week now and it has not gotten any easier. I never thought I would feel like this, but I really miss working. I miss my patients (well there are select few that I could live without ever seeing again) but I guess mostly I miss having adult interaction and to feel like I am doing something. The doctor and nurse practioner that I work with call me several times a week to fill me in on all the gossip and what has been going on but It isn't the same. In the beginning it was nice staying home and hanging out with the dogs but all they do is sleep all day. I find myself getting excited when I drop food or something on my shirt because I can wash it, now thats sad! We haven't ran the dishwasher in over a week now because I have been hand washing all of them. I guess you get the picture on how bored I am.
We have had a pretty rough week. We have been back in forth to the doctor all week and had to check into labor & delivery for several hours for observation Wednesday. My blood pressure has been up and down and all out of whack. I have been having bad headaches. End result....i have pregnancy induced hypertension that turns into toxemia when i am not doing what I am suppose to and staying on bed rest. I have not dilated any and the doctor scheduled a c-section for July 24th at 7:30 a.m.! I was going to have her at Woman's Hospital but due to the complications that I am having and other factors we are going to have her at the Suites at River Oaks. Until Wednesday, I was hoping to have her early. There was something about being in the labor & delivery room, hooked up to all those machines and being stuck with needles that cooled my jets and is making me appreciate the two weeks that we have left.
We have had a pretty rough week. We have been back in forth to the doctor all week and had to check into labor & delivery for several hours for observation Wednesday. My blood pressure has been up and down and all out of whack. I have been having bad headaches. End result....i have pregnancy induced hypertension that turns into toxemia when i am not doing what I am suppose to and staying on bed rest. I have not dilated any and the doctor scheduled a c-section for July 24th at 7:30 a.m.! I was going to have her at Woman's Hospital but due to the complications that I am having and other factors we are going to have her at the Suites at River Oaks. Until Wednesday, I was hoping to have her early. There was something about being in the labor & delivery room, hooked up to all those machines and being stuck with needles that cooled my jets and is making me appreciate the two weeks that we have left.
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