She's Here!

Introducing...[drumroll please]

Ella Grace M.

She was born Tuesday, February 26th at 3:10 P.M. She weighed 8 lbs. 0 ozs. & was 20 1/4" long.

Mom is doing fine, Ella had some trouble breathing at first but seems to be doing fine now. Hopefully they will get to come home Saturday.

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Her room...

Clockwise from walking in the door of her room (what used to be our dining room - it has french doors on the north & south end, a door on the west side that opens into the room we have our pool table in and a door on the east side that opens into our room)...

On the west wall, the changing table &...

the guest bed (with our packed bags, diaper bag & car set ready to be taken to the hospital).
On the north wall, one set of french doors (with almost-finished curtains that my mom helped me alter - to block out all the light).
These are two prints I'm going to hang above her crib on the east wall.
Her crib.
Also on the east wall, her swing & bouncy seat.
On the south wall, the armoire, her toy basket & the other set of french doors.
What's in the armoire... lots of pink!And, back to the west wall where we started, the glider rocker & boppy pillow.It's quite cozy in there (read: cramped) with all the furniture & equipment, but it's pretty much ready for her to make her appearance.

35 weeks...

From the newsletter: "Your baby doesn't have much room to maneuver now that she's over 18 inches long and tips the scales at 5 1/4 pounds (pick up a honeydew). Because it's so snug in your womb, she isn't likely to be doing somersaults anymore, but the number of times she kicks should remain about the same. Her kidneys are fully developed now, and her liver can process some waste products. Most of her basic physical development is now complete — she'll spend the next few weeks putting on weight."

I was supposed to have an appointment yesterday, but they had to re-schedule me until Friday because my doctor has been out (she's two weeks behind me & has been having pre-term labor, too - I heard she got sent to Nashville last week & then was back in Martin at the hospital yesterday, so she might have had her baby by now) & my midwife was going to be tied up at the hospital all day. So, I don't have an update on that front, but I'm still working from home & trying to stay off my feet as much as possible. I'm ready to be able to go back to work next week. I really need to get some things wrapped up before I'm off for my maternity leave. Hoping I can make it another week & a half before she makes her entrance.

Edited to add 35 week belly pic...

Wesley story as promised...

I wanted to post pictures with the story so I had to wait until I found a USB cord to upload them from my camera. So, here's the story...

I think all the excitement of me going into labor & spending the week in Nashville left Wesley feeling a little deprived of attention. Saturday evening he came out of his room, where he had been watching a movie, and something looked different about him. I looked close & realized he had cut a chunk out of his hair in the front. Needless to say, I wasn't happy with him. Anthony & I decided his punishment would be that he would have to pay for his next haircut (he had just had one maybe two weeks ago) & he would have to wear it to school like that for the next week. Case closed.... or not. Sunday afternoon I woke up from my nap on the couch & looked up to see that he had chopped off all his bangs to within 1/4 inch of his scalp. I was irrate! I was like, "Didn't you learn your lesson yesterday? WHAT were you thinking?!" He said, "I was trying to fix it." So, his punishment remained the same & in addition, he is no longer allowed to use scissors & he got a little something else for his antics.

Since I know that this whole fiasco would be hilarious to me if it were anyone else's child, I decided to share. Enjoy...

I didn't get a shot of when he had just cut a chunk out of his hair, but here's what it looked like after the second round of hair cutting (you can see from that little piece on the right how long his bangs used to be before he scalped himself)...



And what he looked like after I buzzed his hair off Tuesday night (because they had picture day Wednesday - if only he had waited a week to chop off his hair)...

34 weeks & an update...

From my newsletter: "Your baby now weighs about 4 3/4 pounds (like your average cantaloupe) and is almost 18 inches long. Her fat layers — which will help regulate her body temperature once she's born — are filling her out, making her rounder. Her skin is also smoother than ever. Her central nervous system is maturing and her lungs are continuing to mature as well."

I had a doctor's appointment today. The ultrasound showed that my cervix was still a good length, although it has shortened like a millimeter and a half in the last ten days. She is allowing me off strict bedrest. Now, I'm up to 'restricted activity.' I can do light-duty housework, go to a movie or make a quick trip to Wal-Mart, but no lifting anything remotely heavy or being on my feet for more than an hour or two at a time. If I make it to 36 weeks I'll be released back to normal activity. I asked if they would try to stop my labor if I went into labor today & she said they would try to stop it with the Brethane shots (which they tried before & all they did was slow it down a little), but wouldn't put me back on the magnesium (thank goodness!).

Edited to add 34 week belly pic...

Update IV...

I was released from Centennial on Friday night and came home Saturday afternoon after spending the night at my dad's in Clarksville. I'm on bedrest at least until I see my doctor on Wednesday. I don't know if she'll want me to stay on bedrest after that or not. I'll be 34 weeks then. So, baby & I are doing well. I'm still on an oral medicine to keep me from having too many contractions (Nifedipine - brand name Procardia). I still have 3 to 4 each hour, but as long as I behave myself & don't try to do too much, I don't start having too many more. Poor Anthony has had to take over all the household chores & drop off & pick up Wesley each day. Ironically, it's good preparation for when she gets here & I'm out of commission for a while :)

Funny Wesley story to come later tonight...

Update III...

They took me completely off the mag today. I feel so much better - no double vision or trouble breathing. I had some mild contractions, but they weren't too concerned with them. I'll have another ultrasound in the morning to see if there has been any change in my cervix. If there hasn't been, they're going to discharge me to go home to be on bedrest for at least another week. The doctor here seems to think that if my doctor at home sees me in another week & there still hasn't been any changes that she might let me resume normal activities. After 34 weeks they probably wouldn't try to stop labor, they would let her be born. I'm 33 weeks one day today, so that's only six more days. I'd rather her stay in there until 37 weeks so she's not born premature.

Another update...

Baby & I are still doing fine. They have me on a magnesium sulfate drip as well as oral procardia medicine to keep me from contracting too much. I still have some contractions, but not enough to be worrisome as far as throwing me into full-blown labor. They have started decreasing the magnesium sulfate (thankfully) & I'm beginning to feel more like myself. If you don't know anything about 'mag' (as it's called), it relaxes your muscles (the uterus is one big muscle), so you can't breathe as deep, can't focus your eyes (I was seeing three of everything on Sat. morning when they had me on 3 grams/hour - I'm now down to 2 grams/hour & can focus as long as I don't move my head around), can't walk (my legs felt like jello when they let me get up to go to the bathroom the first time yesterday); it's even hard to chew.

They gave me steriod shots Friday & Saturday night to help the baby's lungs develop in case they can't stop my contractions & she comes early. They did an ultrasound on Sunday (TMI warning: if you can't deal with childbirth talk you might want to skip to the next paragraph) to check my cervix & it had closed back up (was 2 cm dialated Friday night & Sat. morning) & was a good length. The doctor thinks that is an excellent indication that as long as we keep the contractions under control I will make it to 34 weeks or later & will likely be able to get moved back to Martin after next week.

They also looked at the baby on the ultrasound - all her organs, measurements, fluid levels, etc. & everything looked good. The tech estimated her weight at 5 lbs. 9 ozs. (I've read that ultrasounds can be off by as much as 1 lb., but if the tech was right, she would be in the 76th percentile for her gestational age.) Translation: I grow big babies :) Wesley was 8 lbs. 9 ozs. at full-term. If I were to carry her to term (40 weeks) and she gained the 1/2 lb. per week that they estimate, she could be around 9 lbs. The tech went on about her chubby cheeks & even printed out a couple pictures of her face for us.

Looks like it's going to be an exciting night here in Tennessee with some severe weather rolling through. Hope you and yours are safe and sound.

UPDATE

This is Anthony, posting for Mindy. She wanted to let anyone that didn't know already what is going on with us. She went to the hospital Friday night to be monitored for contractions. They tried everything they could to get them to stop and decided Saturday morning to transport her to Centennial Medical Center in Nashville, TN. Centennial has tertiary care neonatal ICU that is equipped to handle a 32 week baby where as Martin cannot. They have her contractions stabilized and are hoping to hold off the delivery for at least two more weeks, at which point she might be able to go back to Martin to have the baby. Other than the pre-term labor, Baby and Mindy are doing fine. The doctors do not know what caused the pre-term labor. We'll try to post an update every couple of days.