Monday, August 29, 2011

One month letter and pictures.

8/24/2011

My dear Beautiful.

I can't believe that you have been here a month already.  It literally has been the longest and the shortest month of my life.  You are doing fantastic, and you are SOOOO perfect!  We took you to the doctor yesterday and you weighed 9 lbs, 11 oz and you are 22 inches long.  You are in the 90 th percentile for height, which given your Daddy and me, its pretty much a given that you will be at the top of the charts for that.  I will be surprised if you go any lower.  And you are in the 75 th percentile for weight.  You are perfect.  The doctor is pretty proud of your progress in the last month, and we are too.


The first couple of days that we had you home were pretty rough, and I would often wonder what we were doing wrong.  You cried for hours upon hours at night, but were a perfect little angel during the day.  I think that we were all still learning how to figure each other out.  You don't do that as often anymore thank goodness, or at least you don't cry for hours on end.  Of course as sure as I'm typing this out, tonight will be a rough one.  That's usually how my luck goes. 

You are trying to stay up more and more throughout the day.  You still love your naps though.recently you have begun to fight yourself going to sleep during the day.   The first couple of weeks you were waking up twice a night...at about midnight or 1 o'clock, and then again about 3 or 4 o'clock.  You have now knocked that down to once at about 3 or 4 o'clock.  Sometimes we are awake to see Daddy leave for work in the morning which I love because he gives you the sweetest little kisses if you are up.  If not, he just tells you goodbye so he doesn't wake you up.  But a couple of times you have slept straight through the night till about 5 in the morning giving Mommy and Daddy a full 6 hours of sleep!  I love you for that my little beautiful!

You are the perfect little snuggle bug.  You like to fall asleep on people.  Which isn't so bad.  But you are also really good at falling asleep in your bassinet if we help you out by wrapping you up tight, giving you your paci and keeping the lights off.  You love to be rocked and you love to cuddle with me in Mommy and Daddy's bed after you get up about 7 for your diaper change.  If I time it right we usually get another hour of sleep. Its my favorite time of morning. And being in Mommy and Daddy's bed usually calms you down in a heart beat.  You love to be in the big bed.

I can tell that you are really starting to notice things around you.  You love to stare at the picture of the Parthenon that I painted that is hanging above our couch in the living room.  You sit and stare at that painting for hours like its the coolest thing.  You are starting to notice the toys on your bouncer and I think you are trying to figure out that you can reach for them.  Sometimes your eyes get really big when I shake the rattle.  Its so cute.  I wonder what goes through your head when I do that. 

I keep telling your Daddy that I don't ever want you to get any bigger.  You are just so sweet and cuddly and squishy now.  He has to remind me that you will get so much more exciting and fun to be around...not to mention all the clothes that I have for you that I will get to dress you up in, and believe me sweetheart there are a ton of them!!!  You will be the best dressed girl in the neighborhood that's for sure!!! :D

You have started smiling more and more.  I can't always get you to smile, but when I can, you smile so big.  You like to smile when I put your on your changing pad and get you with the diaper monster, and when I kiss your cheeks, , when I tickle your neck when you are eating, and when I tickle your sides.  You like me to sing a song to you when I change your diaper.  Mostly its just me singing to you that "we are gonna take care of it" because you hate to have a wet diaper, so lately when you cry and I am taking you to change it you have begun to notice that you are going to get your diaper changed, so you usually calm right down. 

I can already tell a difference in the way you look now from when you were born.  For one, you have the longest eyelashes now.  You couldn't really see them when you were born, but they are there now.  You will love that when you start to wear makeup when you are older...you know about 30  ;).  Your hair is also starting to fall out a little.  I never noticed it before, but I can tell now.  It will grow back though.  I wonder if it will be blond like I was when I was little, or dark like Daddy's or light brown like mine.  You already look so much like Daddy did when he was little.  He is such a handsome guy, so I know you will be an extraordinarily beautiful girl.

You are also starting to get your tears.  When we took you to the doctor he had to give you a shot, you cried so hard, I never heard that noise come out of you before, it was definitely a cry caused by pain.  I admit that I cried right along with you.   Next month at your 2 month check up you will get even more shots, and I am really not looking forward to it.  I really don't know how I am going to handle that one.  I hate knowing that they are coming and that you will be hurting, and there is no way to let you know about it and no way to stop it from hurting when they do it.  I'm crying now just thinking about that.  You will learn that about me though, I tend to cry at the drop of a hat.

I love you so much my beautiful.  I know this is gonna be a good month (your second) but lets try to not have it go by too fast alright?  Lets take this growing up thing nice and slow.

I love you my Beautiful girl.   Happy one month birthday! 

Tuesday, August 23, 2011

Birth Story Part 4

The nurse tells me that I have to get off the table to go to a room or else I am going to have the baby right there.   By this time its about 1:45am.  The three of us make it to the room, one on either side of me holding me up and helping me walk, and I tell the nurse that I have to have an epidural now.  I can't have this baby naturally.  I'm in so much pain.  At this point I'm in panic mode.  In less than 24 hours I made it to 7 cm, and both my mom and grandmother had SUPER fast labors, I'm scared that I'm going to be the same way and not be able to get an epidural before she's here.  As they are getting me hooked up to IV's and blood pressure cuffs, and drawing blood and labs, and pumping fluids and getting me to sign stupid amounts of papers, I tell everyone who even remotely looks at me that I need an epidural, that I'm not having this baby naturally.

FINALLY the epidural nurse comes in and starts prepping me.  She has me sign more papers and then finally tells me to sit up and she is going to insert the catheter.  At this point, Richard is standing on the side of the bed helping me up and I am grabbing a hold of him because he's there and a contraction is starting.  The nurse who first checked me when I got there (who is a sweet little lady by the way, probably late 50's) tells Richard that they need to switch places so I can hold on to her and he needed to sit down.  He wasn't planning on doing that, he was OK standing next to me. Keep in mind that by this time I'm full on in the middle of a contraction.  Richard takes my hands from his arms and puts them on the side of the bed while he switches places with the nurse and somehow my hand slips in the middle of all this and my hand goes flying and I hit this sweet little nurse right smack dab in the nose.  I knock her glasses off her face, and I definitely dazed her.  I of course immediately know what I did, I'm HORRIFIED!!!  How could I hurt this sweet little lady who is doing her best to try to help me.  I immediately start crying and hugging her and apologizing.  And during this time when I am freaking out about punching her, the nurse gets the catheter in and I start to feel relief.  The epidural works.  The nurse I punched tells me that she is going to check me again since the epidural has worked, and she then tells me we're at 9 cm.   HOLY CRAP!!!!  9 CM!!!!  I look at Richard and we both say "We better start calling people"  Its now 2:30 am on July 24th.

I dial my parent's number.  My Dad answers the phone rather sleepy sounding of course.  I ask him if they are ready to come to the hospital.  He of course sounds like he is crying and says yes that they will start getting ready.  I tell him that they should hurry because I'm already at 9, but the nurse (the one I hit) makes sure to have me tell them that it will still be a while.  Meanwhile Richard calls his parents but because I'm on the phone with my parent's, I don't hear the conversation.  That being over and done with (the families will take care of calling everyone else) The nurse tells us that we better get some sleep, that its going to be a long day, and I will need my rest.  We turn off the lights and are just about asleep when my parent's come in.  They made it.  I'm so happy they did.  And not 5 minutes after they walk in, here come Richard's parents.

We have pretty much given upon the thought of sleep by this point, but thankfully they leave the lights off and aren't making too much noise so we are at least able to relax a little.  I'm no longer in pain thanks to the wonderful epidural, however I can still feel the pressure of every contraction.  At 4:00 the nurse comes in again and wants to check me.  9.5 cm, my water hasn't broken yet, and is rightthere (according to the nurse).  With each contraction I literally can feel the bag of water and try to push during each one hoping that I could make things go faster because I'm tired, I had been up about 25 hours straight at that point, and because of the epi, I can't move the lower half of my body, which makes for some very interesting requests on my part for other people to lift my leg and move it for me when my trying to wiggle my feet to get my legs to move fails LOL. 

More conversation with the parents and trying to relax and move to get comfortable, and at 7:30 the nurse checks me again.  10 cm, my water still hasn't broken...she's going to get the doctor.  However its not my doctor, its one of the others in the practice, which freaks me out because I have never seen any of the other doctors, so I'm not familiar with them.   That quickly gets my attention and wakes me up.  The doctor comes in, says he is going to break my water then we are ready to go.  By this point my parents had gone downstairs to the cafeteria to get breakfast, but Richard's were still up in the room with us.  As soon as they heard that I was getting ready to have the baby they rushed downstairs as fast as they could to find my parents to tell them.  My Dad says he ate a sausage biscuit in 2 bites and my Mom was already finished with her breakfast and they rushed upstairs to tell us one last time that they love us, and off they head to the waiting room.

In walks the nurses with lights and blue towels, and trays of tools and stirrups.  Things start happening so fast.  The doctor comes in and breaks my water, and says he'll be right back that I'm about to find out why they call it labor.  Of course me being me I start freaking out asking if my doctor had forwarded my birth plan and asking what will happen once the doctor breaks my water and possibly a whole more slew of questions that I can't remember and probably had no relevance at the time.   I tell the nurses a little about my birth plan because with it being so early and my regular doctor being a no-show, there are some things that I had on it that were very important to me.

The other nurses were getting me ready and one was telling me to push, and telling me how while she was counting.  I went through 2 contractions with just her before she told me that her head was right there and asked if I wanted to feel it....heck yeah!...LOL.  It felt so weird.  I could tell she had hair, but it was kinda slippery and just weird feeling.  Anyway, they call the doctor, he comes in all masked up and everything and tells me to push.  With the second push of the contraction, they try to get me to arch my back more (which is impossible) so I tell them to bring my leg closer to me and I can try to sit up more, I also have them move the back of my bed up a little to help with that.  I finish off the contraction with 2 more pushes.  Then one more contraction and 3 more pushes, and they yell out SHE'S HERE!!!!

I am beyond shocked, and I think that Richard is too.  We expected there to be more drama.  We though they would be yelling at me to push, and Richard would be feeding me ice chips the whole time and putting cold towels on my forehead and such, but all that he did was rub my neck, which felt so good by the way LOL.  The first thing that comes out of my mouth after the doctor says that is "seriously?"  He says, yeah, and asks if I can see her.  I tell him that I can only see toes, so he puts her on my stomach.  She is beautiful.  Richard cuts the cord, which I am entirely proud of him by the way.  This shocks me because all along he was adamant that he didn't want to do it, but when I told the nurses that I wanted him to be asked once and if he said no, then I wanted to, he piped up and said yeah he wanted to do it. They take her to the warmer to clean her up, she's not crying much, and I'm getting cleaned up as well.  The placenta disintegrates upon delivery, so the doctor is having to make sure that all of it is out so I don't hemorrhage.  I also suffer a 2nd degree tear, which isn't that bad, not as bad as I had feared it would be.

They finally give her back to me.  I am in awe, she is BEAUTIFUL, and not just because she is my daughter, she really really is.  She doesn't have as much hair as I thought she would, but she is absolutely perfect.  I get to breast feed her for the first time which is awesome that I am able to do it, and Richard holds her for the first time.  We are totally in love.  At this time we ask the family to come back in since we are all clean and back to normal, they are in love, and everyone is crying and holding her.  The best part...while my Dad was holding her she starts to make a noise....it literally sounds like a dog bark....I'm not joking, my daughter is barking like a dog.  Turns out that is her cry.  Its so sweet, however, it only lasted a couple of days.  Sometimes she will let one out, but she has now found her voice.

So for now here are some pictures of her the day that she was born.  I will be posting more tomorrow (you're saying yeah right I know LOL) but its her 1 month birthday, so I will plan on showing some, and maybe post a letter to her, who knows.

But here is Leigha Summer Hughes.  Born 7/24/2011 at 7:51 a.m.  7 lbs, 14 oz, 21 1/4 inches long.



She's my little Beautiful girl

Sunday, August 21, 2011

Birth Story part 3

So as I was in the car headed to the hospital, apologizing to Richard, I notice that instead of going straight to the hospital, he makes a right down the main road.  I don't question it because I am in the middle of a contraction.  I realize that the time that he is taking the long way to the hospital!!!  Not the quick straight shot that will take about 5 minutes at 1:00 am, he takes the longer, 15 minute route.  I hear him say to himself, I don't know why I went this way.  In the mean time I am holding on to the console and my pillow for dear life.  The pain is SO BAD!  I hope and pray that these are contractions because if these are the fake Braxton Hicks, I just don't know what I'm going to do. 

On the way from my house to the hospital, I have 4 more contractions.  I no longer am apologizing to Richard about the baby being born on his birthday, I am telling myself that we are almost there, just a little while longer and praying that he will go faster and run lights and drive like a mad man. (Which is what he said he would do, and I am quite proud of him that he managed to keep cool during this whole time)

We finally make it to the hospital.  I tell him to go to the ER.  I'm watching the parking lot as well pull in and there is only one parking spot open.  I hope that its not crowded, I don't want to be the pregnant lady having to be wheeled in in labor like you see in the movies, that would be embarrassing.  Richard however would tell you that he asked if I wanted him to drop me off at the entrance and he could park later, and that I growled and told him to park, I don't even remember this question being asked LOL.  We park.  I get the car door open and a contraction hits.  I grab onto the only thing I can to help with the pain...the car door.  Richard comes around to help me out.  I'm holding onto the car for dear life and he grabs my arm not realizing I'm in the middle of a contraction and starts to pull me out of the car.  Now in his defense, he didn't know, and for weeks prior I had been having trouble getting out of my car without help.  Being forcefully moved in the middle of a contraction is no fun, let me tell you!!!  I immediately start crying and screaming in pain.  We wait till the contraction passes and I get out of the car with his help as fast as I can.  Its the only way that I would be able to without triggering another contraction.

We make it across the parking lot and inside the ER slowly, but no contractions.  Inside we go to the check in desk.  I had already made it a point to preregister, so I know that won't be an issue, but problem is, there is no one at the desk, no bell to ring or anything.  Richard starts pacing in front of every door and window in the ER hoping that someone will see him and come help us.  Finally someone does and he tells them I'm in labor.  she asks my name, birthday, social, Dr. name, etc.  FINALLY after getting the third degree from this woman, I'm wheeled to L&D.  The woman pushing the chair is going so fast, that I know Richard has a hard time keeping up because it literally seems like she is running the halls.  In the elevator, another contraction...,up to L&D and to the exam room, another contraction.  Getting out of the wheelchair to the table, another contraction.  They are coming so fast at this point, I can't hardly move.  The nurse tells me to get undressed, put on the robe and she is going to hook me to monitors and check me to see if I am in labor.  I remember telling her that they have to be contractions otherwise I just don't know what I am going to do. 

I try to get undressed and into the bed so that she can check me, but the contractions are just so painful, I can't catch my breath.  I finally manage with Richard's help and get on the table, and hooked to the monitors.  The nurse comes back..yup contractions!  THANK YOU LORD JESUS IN HEAVEN!!!  She checks me...7 CM!!!   I made it to 7 cm ALL BY MYSELF WITH NO PAIN MEDS!!  I am so excited, I tell that to the nurse and to Richard, I just can't contain my happiness among all that pain. 

I had been playing with the idea for a few months that I wanted to go without meds for as long as I could stand it, but I never told this to Richard, I knew he would veto it, but as it turns out, I got what I wanted.


Monday, August 15, 2011

Birth Story part 2

So while I was working the contractions pretty much completely stop.  I don't have one unless I get up to go to the bathroom or get a drink.  They don't increase in intensity, they are still about a minute and a half.  I get through work, with no problems.  The contractions are about an hour apart if not more if I can even call it that.

Since the next day is Richard's birthday his parents and sister come over to give him his presents.  So they get here about 6:30 and I am sitting there talking to them and Richard and I have another contraction.  No biggie, they haven't been consistent since that morning.  About 30 minutes later, we are still talking and here comes another.  I begin to think that its kinda weird especially since about 10 that morning, they haven't been regular.

About 7 Richard runs out to get a pizza.  The contractions at this time are still about 30 minutes apart.  About 9 we go to bed.  Richard falls asleep, but my contractions are coming closer together, about 20 minutes.  Of course since they are pretty strong, I can't sleep.  I have the computer next to the bed on contractionmaster.com and am timing the contractions. They are about 15 minutes apart by that time.  I can't stand laying in the bed anymore so I move to the floor so that I can move around better and try to find a position that would help me find some relief.  It doesn't happen.  I move the computer and myself to the couch in the living room.

I find that lying on my side curled into as much of a ball as I can with a super huge belly in the way, really helps the pain.  By this time its about 11.  The contractions start coming about 5-7 minutes apart, are a minute and a half to 2 minutes long, and I know that there is no way that I would be able to walk or talk through them, I can barely breathe through them.  I start to think, OK if these last like this for an hour, then I can go to the hospital.  My doctor had told me that if the contractions were 5 minutes apart, over a minute long for an hour, and I could not talk, walk or breathe through them, then that's when I needed to go to the hospital.

Almost an hour passes, its now 12:00 am on the 24th and I can't stand it anymore.  I need help.  I try to get up and I can't without a contraction hitting.  I try to start screaming for Richard....literally screaming....and he doesn't hear me.  I'm no longer being quiet about the contractions, there is no way I could be anymore.

I finally realize that there is no hope for me ever getting to the hospital if I don't somehow get up and get Richard up and get him out the door.  Still trying to move, a contraction hits with every move I make, every step, every breath I take.  I make it to the room and tell Richard we need to go.  He says OK and goes back to sleep.  I try again, he says OK and falls back asleep.  I go to tell him a third time and a contraction hits.  I don't hold back with the moaning and growling as he puts it.  That finally gets his attention.  He jumps out of bed tries to comfort me by rubbing my back and then suddenly realizes that I am in so much pain, and the contractions are coming so fast that he needs to take his focus off me and get moving.....and fast.

Somehow I pack the rest of the bag with the last minute things and we make it to the car and start to head out at about 12:30.

All I can think of and all that I can tell Richard the whole way to the hospital is that I am sorry, sooo very sorry.  We are going to have a baby today, and its going to be on his birthday, and I'm so sorry about it.

Monday, August 8, 2011

Birth Story part 1

Early Saturday morning on the 23rd, I woke up about 3:00 am just like any other morning having to go to the bathroom.  Nothing unusual there.  I got back to bed and all of a sudden a contraction hit me like a ton of bricks.  It literally knocked me over on the bed it hurt so bad.  At the time I figured that I had just twisted wrong getting back in to the bed because between the basket of clothes on one side and the bassinet on the other there was a very small spot for me to climb back in and being as large as I was, it was quite a feat on a normal night.

After that painful thing, I was wide awake so I decided to go get the computer and play a couple games of solitaire.  As I was playing the games the painful twinges happened twice more.  I normally wouldn't have thought anything of it but something in the back of my mind told me that I may want to see if I could time whatever those things were.  Turns out I could.  They were about 10-15 minutes apart or so.  I still didn't think anything of it because I knew that labor would take a really long time, especially since just a few days before my doctor had told me that I was not dilated, not even a little effaced and she wasn't coming any time soon.
 
So I continue to play solitaire and time the contractions.  I don't wake Richard up because I figured that he has to get up at 4:30 for work anyways, and why not just let him sleep that extra hour, because he may need it.

True to form, Richards alarm goes off at 4:30.  I hear it out in the living room so I go in and sit on the bed till he wakes up.  After hitting the snooze button several times he finally does.  I tell him that he has a choice to make.  When he asks what that is, I tell him that he can either go to work and chance having to come home right away, or he can stay with me and go to the hospital later that morning because I have been having very time-able contractions.  It surprises me that he doesn't freak out.  He asks how far along and I tell him that they have been about 10 minutes apart with a couple that were 7.  We talk about it some more and we decide that he should go to work and that I am to call him if they start consistently coming at 7 minutes and he will come right home.  I am OK with this decision.  (although admittedly a little scared that he didn't stay)  and he leaves. 

I try to take it easy the rest of the morning.  I lay on the couch, I watch some TV, play more solitaire, get on facebook.  I tell a couple close by friends what is going on in case all of a sudden I need someone immediately with me at the house.  But then I start noticing something, instead of coming closer together, they are getting further apart...damn!...maybe its not labor afterall and just that false labor that everyone on babycenter.com talks about.  Then I really start freaking out....those things that I was feeling HURT!  If those aren't real contractions, but the false labor that people mention, how the heck am I going to handle real contractions!!!  Well by noon they are about 45 minutes to an hour apart so I decide to start working and see what happens the rest of the day.   I decide to tell Richard to stay at work till he gets his work done that the contractions have slowed down, and I decide not to tell my work about the contractions because I didn't want them to be false labor and freak my work out for nothing, and that if they started coming faster, then I would tell them. 

So I spend the rest of the day sitting and waiting for something to happen.

Maternity shots

A couple of weeks ago I asked a good friend of ours if she would take some maternity pics of me.  I had been debating whether or not I wanted to do them because I was feeling so HUGE and awkward.  But I decided to do them anyway because what if (heaven forbid) I never get pregnant again for whatever reason.  So my friend came over and we started shooting.  I think they turned out fantastic!!!  I am very pleased and very happy that I have them, especially since I now think that I wasn't THAT big LOL  (go figure).  Here are a few of my favorites.  I still have to do some editing of them...apparently the color scheme I chose for the nursery doesn't bode well for pictures LOL, so I have to play with the color a little.

Oh and these were all taken 4 days before she was born.











Those are some of my favorites.  I look at them now that she is here and I can't hardly believe she was in there LOL.  I just don't see how she fit! LOL. 

Anyway, like I said I will probably play with the color of them a little and make some black and white, but I am SUPER glad that I have them, and I love them and couldn't be happier.