7 weeks old

Delaney is now 7 weeks old!  The time has passed quickly, and it has been great having her home with us.  She sleeps a lot, and eats a lot..normal baby stuff!!   She fits right into our lives..and its already so routine I forget what it was like without her.   Collin LOVES his little sister :)   He likes to touch her, but he tends to hit...we are trying to teach him how to "do nice" or "gentle", but he is very young and it might take awhile for him to fully understand.  He loves to "kiss" her though, his way of kissing to anyone is leaning in and placing his forehead on you. lol. he is so cute!

So far Delaney has been sleeping pretty well. She feeds about every 3-4 hours.  She has had a couple nights where she slept 5-6 hours.  She rarely cries, but when she does she makes it count!  She likes to be held and snuggled.  She does not like the swing.. oh well.

She's already started smiling and cooing also :)

I have to go back to work on monday.. mixed feelings.. I am very excited to get out and be an active part of society again. Being on bed rest since August I am so ready to get back to work.. But I will miss my babies so much!  I'm glad to have a husband that is also a great daddy..I know they will be just fine when I'm at work!

She's Here!!

Delaney Morgan Madison was born @ 1:45 PM on November 16th.  Weighing 10 lbs. 4 oz. and measuring 22 inches long!


We arrived at the hospital at 11 am and went through some pre-surgery stuff like signing consent forms meeting with the team that would deliver the baby and then the anesthesiologist.  I had to get an epidural for the procedure.  It was a very awkward feeling...not terribly painful, but uncomfortable.

I was moved into the operating room and Jason had to "scrub-in" putting on the blue outfit with hair net and face mask etc.  The room was actually pretty comfortable, they had music playing and they talked to me the whole time about what was happening.  Same as the epidural procedure, the actual c-section was not terribly painful, but lots of pressure and weird feelings.

Everyone was astounded at Delaney's size..they took her out and Daddy was able to cut the cord.  Dr. Beal (one of our NICU drs. for Collin) was there to look after Delaney while they finished my surgery. It was surreal to be able to hear her crying and know .."WOW she can breathe ALL BY HERSELF!!!!"   What a great feeling :)

After I was all stitched up, and Delaney was weighed and measured they took us back to a recovery room for a few hours where they monitored mine and babies temp and blood pressure.  She wanted to feed right away and she was amazing at latching. She is a little piggy to say the least!   She did have low blood sugar as suspected, so they gave her a tiny cup of formula.  Her temp was low for quite awhile so they had us do skin to skin.  It was so great to be able to hold her and feed her within the first hour of her life.. Such a different experience this time around.

Once Delaney's temp was acceptable they took her for her first bath :)
She is doing so well...She is sleeping good and eating well..We had to supplement some formula because breast milk takes a few days to fully come in and even though she is breast feeding, she wasn't satisfied enough.  So we let her have some formula and then she was very happy and napped for 4 hours on the full belly :)

We think that both of our babies are a good combination of us, with Collin leaning towards Daddy, and Delaney leaning towards me!   I found it very interesting though, that Collin's blood type is mine, and Delaney's is the same as Jason's.

I feel that I am recovering pretty well from the surgery..It is a little sore and hard to move around too much, but I was able to take a shower today and put on real pajamas instead of the hospital robe.. So i'm feeling pretty great :)

We should be able to go home sometime tomorrow!  Here's the first pictures of our "little" lady..

Last Prenatal Check-up!

Today was my last prenatal check up and all is well!!  We are scheduled for a C-section this Friday!

Ultrasound showed plenty of amniotic fluid, so she's happy moving all around still.  She is in position for a vaginal delivery, but that will not matter since she's getting cut out!!  Her measurements were off the charts and they are guessing she will be around 10 lbs 3 oz at time of delivery! WOW. thank goodness we opted for the surgery!!

My Dr. also wanted to inform us that because of her size and my history with the gestational diabetes, do not be alarmed if they bring her up to NICU for observation. She could have low blood sugars at birth because often when the mother is gestational diabetic, baby tries to help out and produce extra insulin. This wouldn't be the end of the world as the NICU staff are like our family! And, we know she will be taken care of by some of the best people in the world.

These next few days will be busy as we prepare for Delaney's arrival. I've started the "nesting" process and have the nursery all ready to go along with clean laundry for everyone and a sparkling oven! LOL why I felt the need to clean the oven?!  who knows!   Now all I have to do is pack up the hospital bag and we should be good to go :)

We will post her first picture sometime Friday evening!

The "Plan"

This week I am 36 weeks gestation a.k.a 9 months!!!! HOLY COW, we made it :)    After having a 25 weeker, this kind of feels like the longest pregnancy ever; and it is accompanied by all the glorious uncomfortable, restless, peeing every 2 hours kinda nights!  .. As my mom said, "Be careful what you wish for!!"

Our most recent ultrasound for baby's measurements showed she is now weighing in at around 8 pounds.  Just 3 weeks ago she was estimated at 6.. so her growth pattern is very strong.  This is a tad bit concerning, seeing that we have 4 weeks to go!  They think she will end up around or over 10 pounds!!!  Because of this information, my Dr. has strongly recommended we opt for a C-section.

There are pro's and con's to this decision.  Overall, it is safer for baby (and me) to get the C-section.  This is because a)  My first baby was under 2 lbs, he didn't exactly pave the way for his MUCH bigger sister and there are risks or tearing, etc. b) Since it took awhile for the gestational diabetes to get in-line with medications, Delaney was exposed to high sugars at times and has obviously packed on the weight.  It is very common for gestational diabetic babies to carry their weight more in the shoulder area and they look like football players. The Dr.'s main concern is shoulder dystocia for the baby, meaning the baby would be at risk of breaking arm/collar bones, cause nerve damage, or worst case death from compression of the umbilical cord in the birth canal.  

So, knowing all of this, the decision is an easy one... C-section it is!

The only real "con" besides the longer recovery time and soreness, and being al drugged up, which I also did not want.. is missing out on the magical moment you see in movies when the baby comes out and is immediately thrown onto your chest and is such a wonderful experience..blah, blah...

That was the one thing I was really looking forward to, but it seems that is something that just cannot happen for me.  I have to remind myself, "who cares?!, I get to hold her for the rest of her life!!"  And besides, after waiting 10 hours to meet Collin, and waiting 5 DAYS to hold Collin.  I am okay with waiting an hour or whatever this time!  I just want her to get here safely, and we can go from there!

Unless nature decides to take a different course and start labor early, Delaney's expected arrival date is November 16th!

Big Girl!

Today was the first appointment of my new regiment.  Every tuesday I will get an ultrasound to measure Delaney.  Followed by a 30 minute non-stress test to make sure her heart rate is normal and watch for contractions.  Finally I meet with the doctor to get my blood pressure, weight etc and go over the week's blood sugar numbers.   Every friday is another NST and my delalutin shot.

So today's ultrasound was great.. I brought my Mom and we got to see lots of details of the big girl!  The ultrasound technician estimated she now weighs about 6lbs 1 oz. HOLY MOLY!  And with 7 weeks to go!!  I guess there is no happy medium for me.. My first was less than 2lbs..and she'll probably be 10!   My dosage of gly-buride (for the diabetes) was upped to 2x's a day. This should help keep my sugars in check.  Since she is already getting big, and with the diabetes it is important to keep the sugars at normal levels so that she wont gain too much weight.  It could cause complications for delivery (such as having to get a c-section) or it could cause her to be hypo-glycemic at birth.

I'm actually hoping that with these check ups every week they will let me deliver a little early.. Hoping for a nice birthday present :)  We will see, it would be cool.

So, here's a picture from the ultrasound of her facing forward, not a terribly clear picture.. but you can see she has fat cheeks already :)

32 Weeks!

So this is all the stuff people told me about pregnancy....
 Heart burn constantly!  TUMS with me at all times
Pee..constantly.
tired..constantly.
uncomfortable..constantly.

haha..oh man...

All these joyous things I never got to experience the first time around.  The good news is, Delaney is now 32 weeks gestation ( 8 Months!)  This was our goal to get past as it will be the safest for her delivery and well being.  We could actually make it full term this time!!  The thought of it really just amazes us and we can't believe that bed rest had such an effect on the pregnancy.  
Oh, and please don't get me wrong I'm not truly complaining about these symptoms, I mention them and laugh and am very happy about it.. because I would much rather have to get up to pee a few times in the middle of the night and have heartburn, than watch my little baby struggle to breathe every night. The trade off is worth it.

Starting next week I will be going to the Doc's 2 times a week!  Every Tuesday I go for a check up as well as an ultrasound to measure her. Reason for that being with the gestational diabetes she could A) Stop growing (which would mean get her out of there)  Or B) Grow too rapidly, in which case they would try to get her delivered by a healthy weight, no more than 9 lbs as that could cause big issues during delivery!   Then of Fridays I will go get my delalutin shot, and also sit around the office for about a half hour getting a non stress test to make sure the baby's heart rate is good and look out for signs of labor/contractions.

It's going to be busy, busy until the end.  All the while getting bigger and more uncomfortable, taking care of Collin, planning his birthday party and praying to God she stays in until after his birthday party!!  LOL

Heart Beats

     

We were given a fetal heart monitor when I was pregnant with Collin, and we pulled it out today to let my visitors have a listen to Delaney's heart beat!

Collin tried it out and he was very happy listening to little sister :)

All is well right now.. I started Gly-buride pills for the gestational diabetes. My numbers have already been improving.  I've been feeling pretty good with a little more moving around. But, most of the day is still spent in bed just to be safe,  since it is still another 10 weeks until the due date.
This weeks appointments consist of tomorrow, a check-up and thursday another delalutin shot.