First Stroller ride

I really want to get Christina into the habit of taking walks, so we decided that Monday, July 27th was as good as any day to start.
We put her in the car seat and that into the frame and headed off for a short walk around the block. That's about all mommy could take and plus it's still really hot.
Well, we figured she didn't dislike it, because she snoozed through the whole ride. Apparently the motion is soothing. As the weather improves, we'll continue to take our walks so mommy can get back into shape.

From Christina Imee Manuel Birth Pictures

From Christina Imee Manuel Birth Pictures

First Bath

Monday, July 27, 2009
Christina had her first bath on Monday July 27, prior to her pediatrician visit. Ruel gave her this bath and we now have at least one picture of daddy with baby girl. She fussed a little, but loved having her head/hair washed.
Enjoy!

From Christina Imee Manuel Birth Pictures

From Christina Imee Manuel Birth Pictures

I'm One Week Old

From Christina Imee Manuel Birth Pictures

Tuesday, July 28, 2009
Christina - Today is my one-week birthday, and it's super special. Today, I share my little birthday with Grandpa's big birthday. Even though I'm only a week old today, Grandpa's a whole year older. We went to Grandma and Grandpa's house for dinnr and the adults had pizza and ice cream to celebrate.

I'm still really mixed up with my days and nights, but mom and dad are trying to be patient with me. They've been getting good advice from friends and family and I should be straight soon.

I'm a really good eater (especially at night when I'm up constantly). At the pediatrician's office on Monday, I had almost gotten back to my birth weight (I was 6lbs 10oz at birth and 6lbs 8oz at the Dr. on Monday).

Mom likes to dress me up, but daddy is practical and prefers things that are easy to get on and off for diaper changes.
I've tried tummy time twice and well, I can't move much, so it's not all that exciting.

I'm still getting the hang of things, but I'm sure to have a lot to talk about in the coming weeks, months and years.

I can't wait to meet a bunch of you, but Dr. says that until I'm 6 weeks old, I should stay with mommy and daddy for the most part; something about germs and yucky stuff.

Talk to everyone again soon.
Christina

P.S. My umbilical cord stump fell off today. Mommy and daddy can't believe it. It seems to have happened so fast to them.

A trip to Arnold Palmer Hospital

Friday, July 24
After being discharged on Thursday, July 23, we had a long night at home. She seems to have days and nights mixed up.
On Friday, we had an 11:30 pediatrician appointment. My milk was still coming in and so Christina wasn't getting much food and we were lightly supplementing b/c I really wanted breast feeding to work. At the pediatrician's office the Dr. checked out Christina and then wanted to evaluate her sucking reflex. He gave her a bottle of formula, which she promptly sucked down 2 oz in less than 5 minutes. The Dr. observed a "dusky spell" along with a slight variation in pulses between her upper and lower extremeties. Between these two things, he decided to err on the side of caution and have Christina admitted for the night at Arnold Palmer hospital for babies and children. Needless to say this really upset me. I was 3 days post partum and I was being told that our daughter needed to go back into the hospital. I was a crying mess! We got to the hospital at around 3:30 and the resident doctor evaluated her and observed a feeding session. He said, by all accounts on observation, she seemed fine; I was still crying. They hooked her up to a pulse oximetry machine which is just a probe that is taped to her foot, and scheduled an echocardiogram for the next day. It was the longest 24 hours (longer than the labor). Ruel and I got to stay with her, but we slept on a double size fold out cot that was very uncomfortable. The next day they did the echo for which she was very cooperative thankfully and we waited for results.
Around 2:30 on Saturday afternoon, the nurse came in and said the Dr. review of the echo showed no abnormalities and we were free to go home! I was so relieved. And still exhausted.
Since then, we have gone back to the pediatrician (on Monday) and had an all clear. I told the Dr. "with this good visit mommy is no longer scared of the pediatrician." He laughed, but I was so serious. I told Ruel that I was so dreading going back for fear they would find another reason to send her to the hospital again.
We've had good times since though...

Birth Pictures Slide Show

Here are the pictures of us from the hospital and coming home.

Our Darling Daugher - Birth Story

It's been a LONG time since I posted, so this will be a big post (maybe a few parts).
Let's start with Monday, July 20th.

From Christina Imee Manuel Birth Pictures

It was my last night prego (barely). Ruel had to work, so I went down to visit mom and dad. We walked the dogs and I just kept saying that it still didn't seem real that I would be going to the hospital at 3:30 the next morning. We finally went to bed around 10:30. I slept surprisingly well.
Tuesday, July 21st!
The alarm went off at 2:30, we both got ready and before we left did a short video to memorialize our leaving of the house as a two-some for the last time.
We arrived on time (4:00) and got settled and hooked up to the monitors. The nurse asked, "are you feeling those contractions?" I said, I didn't know that's what they felt like. So I was encouraged that my body was already doing what it was supposed to, before the medicine had been administered. Maybe this wouldn't take so long after all!
By 5:25 a.m. the pitocin was started in my IV and was supposed to help me along with labor.
At 10 a.m. I was checked by the Dr (Dr. Merritt!) to see how far I had progressed. 3cm. Not much, but she broke my water anyway. This should help things move along again.

From Christina Imee Manuel Birth Pictures

After the water was broke, I whimped out and got my epidural. I was totally scared of this procedure, but it ended up being nothing at all, and it provided such relief! I will definitely do that again, if I have more children. Now, it was 11:00 and a matter of waiting. I was hungry, but couldn't eat anything. So they let me have some juice around 1:00 p.m. (8 hours into labor). This I promptly spit back up. Yuck. Then I got ill again, so they gave me some medicine through the IV to help with the nausea.
The next time I was checked it was 5:00 p.m. Only 5cm dilated. Bummer, but now it was supposed to be 1 cm every hour. Well, we'd been in labor for a while and Christina started to react a little poorly to the contractions. So they started and internal monitor. The staff was really surprised at the strength of my contraction once they were able to better measure them. Several position changes later and Christina was still not doing well, so they called the Dr. back around 9:00. She came back and it was clear that she was ready to do a c-section to get Christina out if necessary. Instead, she checked me again and I was at 8cm. Dr. said I was so close that she wanted to try an amino-infusion to see if it would help Christina and maybe take me to complete. An hour later, I had to call the nurses back, I felt the urge to push! It was at least 10 p.m. by now, maybe a little later. I was exhausted, but this was the main event! Dr. checked again and I was complete.
I started pushing, no lie, it was probably the hardest thing I've ever done.

At 11:31 p.m., Christina Imee Manuel joined the world. I kept waiting for her to cry...it seemed to take forever. Finally I heard tha lusty bellow that let everyone know she was here.
Mom and Ruel were in the delivery room with me, Dad was pacing the halls outside. As soon as possible, Ruel took her out to meet her Grandpa. Everyone was exhausted and ecstatic.
She scored an 8 and 9 on her Apgars. We were finally a family of 3.

From Christina Imee Manuel Birth Pictures

I'll detail hospital stay and next days in following posts.