A Day at the Park

Sophia is 2 weeks, 1 day old!

Hi all!  Just wanted to update you all quickly before she starts fussing again...  Over the weekend, we took Sophia for her first walk around Town Lake.  It wasn't too hot outside, so we piled in the car with the diaper bag and stroller and picked up a yummy decaf Americana with a pump of vanilla from Starbucks and a Very Berry Non-fat coffee cake and off we went!  It went well, though walking around made me pretty uncomfortable as I'm still healing.  So we made it somewhat short but very sweet.

Here's proud Daddy!

***

And happy Mommy!

***

And here's our beautiful Sophia in her stroller!

***

Also, on Tuesday we had our 2-week checkup.  Everything looks great with our little girl, she's weighing in at 7lbs, 8oz.  We have another checkup next week to weigh her again to make sure she's still gaining well, as she is already.  We may have a little problem with Reflux, so we're keeping an eye on it.  Her belly button is in the process of coming off, on Tuesday the outer stump came off and left a clam-looking goo in the little hole, but that, too has come out.  Now it's a little red and moist, but is slowly but surely drying out.  I'm looking forward to it being completely healed, because to tell the truth, it grosses me out a little!  :(

Other than that, we will be moving this weekend and we finally get to set up her nursery, so we're excited!  I'll update again soon!

Introducing Sophia Nicole Maurer

She loves to nap with her hand by her face - if she's able to get it out of the swaddle!

*****

Daddy does the "football hold" to burp me and calm my gassy moments.

*****

I'm adorable, but I'm not without my fussypants times!  Here's me exhibiting said moments...

*****

And here's one of Mommy's favorites.  Such a peaceful little angel!

Oh How the Time Flies!

Sophia is 1 week, 3 days old!

First I'd like to apologize for not updating until now.  We've been a little busy...  ;)  Anywho, things are great here in the Maurer house; a little loud, but great!  Needless to say, we've been trying out all sorts of new things, routines, practices, etc., in order to get our little one in some sort of pattern.  The dogs are adapting well, but I think they're as tired as we are!

Yes, our sleep has suffered.  A lot.  I think I was up with Sophia until past 4:30 last night and then Shawn held her the rest of the morning.  She has her nights where she really does not want to sleep in her bassinet, but then she has nights where she sleeps in it just fine.  Those are the good nights.  Today we are watching "The Happiest Baby On the Block" in order to hopefully gain some insight on how to switch a newborn's day and night.  I can't wait until she sleeps through the night.

These days, I feel like Sophia is constantly attached to my boob.  This girl eats a lot!  It's going well, though, thankfully.  I was very worried about breast feeding and my ability to do so, but no problems as of yet!  She gets a little sleepy sometimes, so I have to stimulate her every minute or so (her least favorite is when I blow in her face - she scrunches up and bears down into my chest).  Thankfully, we've mastered the position where she can feed while I'm laying down, so that's how we do the middle of the night feedings.  I am looking forward to starting to pump a little so Shawn can feed her, and so I can get a little break.  Although for a while, I will still need to pump or feed every 2-3 hours.

We're trying to take as many pictures as we can, and I'm uploading them to my snapfish account.  If you aren't getting emails to view them and you would like to, email me and I'll add you.  I will start to research photographer prices today, so hopefully we can get some pro pics done soon.

So our move is coming up, and we're trying to put together a game plan.  I am excited to finally set up her room in the new place!  I also can't wait to make a fresh start with all the storage room that we'll have.  I love the unit we are in now, but it just seems a little cramped now that we are a family.  Wow - we're a family.  Such a weird concept still!  We can't wait to take her out and show her all the neat things Austin has to offer.  My parents will be visiting in mid July / August, and I can't wait for them to meet their first grandchild!  I also can't wait for Mary to come, I have a feeling she's going to make a beeline for Sophia the second she gets off the plane!  :)

Well, I have to sign off for now, God knows I've got a million things to do and a baby who needs to be fed again, but I will try to get back on here within a few days.  I will add a couple pics on here as well!

Our Big Day

Today, Sophia Nicole is 1 day old!

Here's how it happened:

On Monday, May 10th, I had retired up to my bedroom for an afternoon nap as I was feeling very tired and having "cramps."  No more than ten minutes after Shawn left did my water break.  Thank goodness I had a basket full of clean towels nearby!  So I called Shawn and he raced home, sweat already on his brow.  He made sure I was okay, and he raced to pack some clothes for himself in a bag, along with some last minute electronics (iPod, computers, camera).  I got dressed and we left for the hospital!

We had to check into the ER and I was wheeled up to the Labor and Delivery unit of my hospital.  I first was sent to a triage room, but then soon afterwards made my way to our room, Room 18.  This was the room that I was to labor and deliver and recover in.

At my first checkup, I was only about 3 cm dilated.  A little later, I believe I made my way to 4.5 cm and we decided to walk around the L&D unit a few times to see if that could get things going.  I then sat on the labor ball (just a yoga ball) for a little to help, too.  I wasn't progressing very quickly.  So at that point, we settled in for the night.  During the night, my contractions had become 4-6 minutes apart and had started to really hurt.  I was given Fentanyl and Phenergan which made me very sleepy and took away some of my pain in two hour spurts.  So I would be comfortable and sleep for two hours, then wake up and labor for an hour.  This cycle continued into the morning.

Around 6am on Tuesday, May 11th, my doctor came to give my her first exam.  I believe I had progressed to 6cm dilated.  I was tired and in pain, so around 9am I was administered my epidural.  It worked pretty well, at first...  I was also given a bag of Pitocin to increase my contractions and to hopefully help me to dilate more.  Later that afternoon, with not much further dilation, my doctor had examined me again and found that my water had not fully broken and that I had a forebag.  Evidently what happened was my bag had ruptured on the top and had continuously leaked out and since there was still a bag of water at the bottom, where her head touched my cervix, I was not progressing very quickly.  So she ruptured my bag and she guessed somewhere between 3pm and 6pm would be my magic hour.  Sometime after that, my nurse told me we were at 9.5 cm dilated and we would begin soon.   Around 5pm I had progressed to 10 cm, fully dilated, and we could start.

I started pushing around 5:30, but unfortunately, my epidural had run out at that time.  I was told that it would still have it's effects on me for another couple of hours, but I quickly found that to be untrue.  I had regained some movement and feeling in my legs around 6pm, and even more soon after that.  So I pushed for about an hour and a half while feeling everything.  And it didn't feel good.  But I had my eye on the prize.  I don't know what time the doctor came in to deliver, but with a team, Sophia came into this world at 7:25pm on May 11th.  She weighed 7 lbs and 10.8 oz and was 21 inches long.  She was a big girl!

The bad part was, other than laboring for 28 hours and feeling most of the delivery, was that (sorry if this is TMI) I had 4th degree tears, which is pretty much as bad as it can get.  Some of the nurses here call it a vaginal C section.  When I was walked to the bathroom to see if I could go, I passed out twice only to wake up on the bathroom floor, which freaked Shawn out.  So my recovery is and has so far been a little painful, but Shawn has been a wonderful miracle, he is the best daddy.  He is having to tend to Sophia as it has been hard for me to move around.  I still have not been able to pick her up while I was standing.  :(  Shawn is handling this all like a pro and while I have the most admiration for him, he keeps telling me what a good job I am doing.  I hope he knows how grateful I am for him.  It is beautiful to see him be a daddy.  He is in love, let me tell you!

So today she is a day old, and we couldn't be happier.  Breastfeeding is going well so far, thank goodness!  We will be going home tomorrow and we're both anxious to see how things will go, but for now, we're enjoying it one minute at a time.  I'm not looking forward to my recovery as it will be tough, but we'll take it!

Thank you for all the well wishes and we will update with pics very soon.

Today!

I'm in labor!

Nevermind...

So I didn't end up getting my membranes stripped.  Oh well.  But I had only progressed to almost 2cm dilated with 70% effacement, so we really didn't think that the process would actually increase my chances.  So we've got an appointment scheduled still for next week, and it looks like there will be no need to cancel as I am sure we'll still be pregnant by then.  Ugh.  But the good news is, Dr. Hart switched her on call status with another doctor at the practice, and instead of being on call this weekend, she's on call next weekend, so it looks like we might get lucky!  Anywho, just wanted to update y'all.  Little progression but progression nonetheless.

I'm a little grumpy because I was really selfishly hoping for some relief SOON, so sorry for the shortness.  Maybe soon it won't take me twenty minutes to put on a pair of pants...

Really Not Looking Forward to Today

Today we are 38 weeks, 6 days pregnant!

Today at approximately 11:30am our time, I am getting my membranes stripped.  So if you hear a weird cry that seems to come from the central United States, that will be me.  Some sources state that doing so increases your chance of going into labor within 48 hours.  We'll see!  But I'll probably still be here next week, just as pregnant, just as waddley, and just as stretched past my limit, as I am now.  Anywho, I'm off to attempt to shave my legs in the shower, we'll see how successful I am at this adventure...  If you hear a loud thump and an expletive with the faint sound of a shower in the background, that will be me.

:D