Introducing . . .

. . . Markin JoyAna

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My little Sweet Pea arrived safely via c-section on 6.26.10 at 10:10 a.m. She weighs 7 pounds and 2 ounces and is 19.5 inches long. She has tons of dark brown hair and long fingers and toes. She is absolutely perfect in every way!

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We did an u/s right before the c-section and she was still breech, so we had no choice but to do the c-section to get her here safely. And it was a good thing we did do the c-section - her umbilical cord was wrapped around her neck twice! Very scary to think what would've happened to her if the external version had been successful!

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Markin had a little bit of a problem keeping her body temperature up, so we did some skin-to-skin cuddling and she also had to go to the nursery to use the warmer for an hour. Other than that, she's been great! She had her first bath tonight and I got to watch - and I only had to watch them change her first messy diaper since I was still stuck in bed!

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I did manage to take a short walk tonight and keep some toast down. I had some vomiting earlier from the meds but a dose of benedryl (3rd med we tried) seems to be doing the trick. I was finally able to sit up at 8:30 and walked around the room shortly after that. Other than the nausea, I've been pretty painfree and hopeful for a quick recovery!

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ps - the pictures are in reverse order.

Ready or not, here she comes!

Can't believe I'm going to be a mommy tomorrow morning! I spent today getting last minute things done, but did manage to have a little "me" time: slept in a little (I figured it was the last morning I'd get to do that for a long time :), got a pedicure, and even had a last "baby bump" picture professionally taken tonight.

Everything is packed for our stay - I feel like I'm moving half of my house there! There's my suitcase, a diaper bag (with outfits, blankets, binkies - but no diapers), snack food, gifts for my nieces from the baby, the computer, camera, flip camera, phone, extra memory cards, batteries, chargers and cords for all of those things. My mom is trying to get me to bring a book along, but I figure I won't have time to read after the baby is here!

Hoping to post pictures of my little Sweeet Pea soon.

We have a date!

My ob is going to be gone on vacation during my 39th week, so I get the ob that I was really impressed with to deliver Sweet Pea! (see the post on March 20th for more info) She's on call the weekend that my 39th week starts, so I have my c-section scheduled for June 26th in the morning. She's on call at the other hospital in town so I'm not going to deliver at my first choice hospital (both were nice, but my first choice offered a closer NICU, a rooftop garden, professional photography, and daily massages for me) - but I figure that won't matter as much as it matters who's cutting into me!

Yes, that's only a week and a half away and there are so many things I need to do! Heading to my sister's tomorrow to buy a new car seat, since the one I have isn't compatible with my car. (who knew?!?) Can't think of the million other things on my list, but I know it's a mile long. However, trying to give myself permission to not have everything perfect - things will get done when they get done and babies can survive just fine as long as they have something to wear (diapers, clothes), eat (hoping for breast milk), and a place to sleep (in my arms - or the bassinet :)

Now that there's an actual date that she'll be here by, it actually seems real - and I'm in a little bit of shock! For the first trimester, I was afraid to get my hopes up that everything was okay. For the second trimester, I was still afraid that something would go wrong until she reached the point that she was "viable" and could actually survive if she came early. At that point, I think I went into denial/disbelief that I truly was lucky enough to have this little miracle entering my life after 4 years of trying so hard to get pregnant. Now, all of a sudden, I'm a week and a half away from holding this miracle. Can't believe how blessed I am to have her entering my life :)

Ouch!

I expected the external version to be painful, so it wasn't TOO bad - lots of pressure and I couldn't breathe at times but better than I expected (I had built it up to be really bad in my mind - some of the contractions I've been having are worse than the external version was :) However, I thought that afterwards I'd be fine - wrong! I'm so sore! I looked at my tummy and there are lots of bruises on there. Everytime she moves, I flinch. It hurts when the cats sit on my lap. Might have to take Tylenol before bedtime.

And it was all for nothing! My stubborn little girl refused to budge! They were able to move her less than an inch, so now I get to plan for a c-section at the end of the month. They want to try to wait until 39 weeks, so I guess she'll be coming on June 28th (my mom is trying to talk me into the 30th since my nieces were born on May 10th and July 20th, but since there's no 40th and I'm hoping to have one more baby, the pattern has to be broken sometime!)

They'll do at least 2 more u/s to make sure she's still breech - one at 38 weeks and one right before the c-section, but it looks like she's really comfortable where she is so I might as well just prepare myself for the c-section. On the bright side, my bag for the hospital is now packed, I have the car seat, just picked her pediatrician (I really like her and she agreed to the alternate vaccination schedule), and have lots of other things crossed off my list in preparation for today :)

The big appointment

Big appointment today - I got to see half of Sweet Pea's face! As usual, she had her left hand covering part of it and her other arm (right) resting on her head. Attaching the picture - it's the best I've gotten so far! You can see her mouth, her nose and her right eye - and her chubby cheeks!

Well, my little one was super active Memorial Day weekend and managed to get herself turned around into a Frank Breech position. I was given the option of just scheduling the c-section, but asked for the external version - what was I thinking??? I've heard that's supposed to be extremely painful, but figure it's worth trying. However, it might not do any good - even if it does work, Sweet Pea's head is HUGE! It's measuring almost 2 weeks ahead. Her body is nice and normal sized. They're guessing her weight at 6 pounds and 15 ounces. The doctor said I had several things indicating that I'll need a c-section, but if I can avoid it I felt that I should try. So, tomorrow - another u/s and 2 more NSTs (one before and one after), and a nice visit to Labor and Delivery. At least this one is planned!

Packing my bags tonight and leaving extra food out for the kittens, just in case. I figure if I'm prepared, things will go great and she'll cooperate (yeah, right - she's stubborn like her mommy :) -- but the second I'm not prepared, she'll make her appearance!