Up for Auction!

As it turns out my RE (Dr. Local) is one amongst several local bachelors being auctioned off for charity!  Now, how cool is that?

Oh, we’re alive over here.

We’ve been busy adjusting over here.  It took us a little while to get used to having such a small person in our home.  It’s been equally as difficult to help our nearly two year old adjust to having that small person around.  Sleep has been in short supply.  We’ll survive though. 

Miss Eve is back up to her birth weight.  I can now see my toes, and am sporting my old clothes.  The shirts are a bit short due to breastfeeding.  Nothing a trip out shopping didn’t fix. 

We’re two weeks into our “house arrest.”  I never knew staying home would be so difficult.  I miss being “out.”  We have between two to four weeks left.  I’m taking money bets on who goes crazy first.  My money is on Braden.

Thanks to a killer lactation consultant, we are doing well in that department. 

This post is all over the place.

I owe my mom a huge debt of gratitude.  She’s cooked dinner for us for the past two weeks, did my laundry, and cleaned my house.  Love you Mom!

We have our portraits on Friday. I’m looking forward to them greatly.

 A picture I snapped over the weekend. 12 days old.

 

Now, I must run.  I’ll post something real soon.

Home Sweet Home- Picture Included

She is home.  It has been a loooong week, but we are beyond thankful that she is doing so well.  Currently she is weighing in at 4 pounds 5 ounces.  We’ve been doing quite the happy dance that she can now eat 40 ml at one feeding.  Eating was the only issue keeping her from coming home. 

Today starts our six weeks of “house arrest.”  No trips, except to the doctor, for six weeks.  This, my friends, will be challenging.  Braden is not the stay at home kind of child. We’ll make it work though.

Newborn Photos

Home

Today I was discharged from the hospital.  It was a bit odd to walk to the car with all the things we had accumulated while there, but without the most important…our little girl.  It’s a bit sad, but we know that she needs this time to grow and get better at some of her skills. 

Currently she is working her hardest on making it to an ounce and half per feeding.  We’re kind of stuck at the one ouce limit.  However, we were shown some techniques today to help her feed better.  Often, Eve will drift to sleep as we try and feed.  I can’t blame her as the average temperature in the NICU is 82 degrees.  She’s also swaddled to keep her temperature up around 99.  It’s tough to want to eat when you are so warm!  So, I can’t blame her, but we’re working on it.

She is doing an amazing job at regulating her temperature.  She is a bit yellow, and her billiruben count came back in the gray area.  So, she might need some sunbathing  phototherapy.  We’ll find out tomorrow if that’s the case.  It will bum us out a little, because then we won’t be able to hold her once she’s under the lights.  However, we know that we want whatever will help her thrive.

It may be a crazy next week or so, with balancing her schedule and Braden’s.  What a balancing act!  We will be sure to keep all of you as updated as possible.

Beautiful Baby Girl

Our little Genevieve is in the NICU right now.  She is doing really well.  She has some amazing lung capacity, and didn’t need oxygen.  We’re extremely thankful.  She’s had her first bath and feeding.  What a teeny tiny amazing little girl she is.

I’m resting comfortably in our room, and am a bit tired.  I went into labor at 1 am on Sunday with contraction 15 minutes apart.  The contractions got closer together and stronger, but not at regular intervals throughout the day.  We arrived at the hospital at 1 pm.  We were given a total of two injections and one round of oral meds to attempt to stop labor.  Alas, they didn’t work.  At that time we refused magnesium sulfate.  I have very good reasons, but that’s another post.  We were sent home with a scipt for more oral meds to kill the labor.  HOWEVER, there wasn’t a single pharmacy open with the meds.  Uggghh.  So, I went home and took a hot bath.  I climbed into bed after taking the sleeping pill they gave me.

Yeah, that worked out real well.  My contractions were a regular and very intense three minutes apart.  We flew like the wind to the hospital.  They gave me another injection, and began setting up for the magnesium sulfate.  We took two bags of it to no avail.  My body had already been 80% effaced before leaving the hospital the first time, and .5 cm dilated.  By the time we came back, I was 100% effaced and 3 cm dilated.  We weren’t gone that long folks!  Mind you, I’ve had no pain meds.  I am soooo for pain meds.  Eventually they did give me some, but it was at the same time they were literally pushing a bag of fluid through me so I could get my epidural.  I was 8 cm when I got my epidural.  I’ve never been so thankful in my life.  However, it wasn’t 100% effective.  I’d take whatever I could get.

I begged the doctor prior to the epidural to let me stand for just a moment.  My back was killing me.  He gently informed me that my child was libel to fall out, I was so darn close to delivering.  Our jaws dropped.  Up until that point the goal was stopping labor, not delivering.  After finding out we were delivering, twenty minutes later we had our baby.  12 pushes.  Guess that’s what happens when they weigh 4 pounds 10 ounces.

I’ll put up pictures/delve into things more later.  Right now, I’m going to rest.

Becky

It’s a Girl!

Hi everyone! Becky’s friend Kellie here, writing to give you the wonderful news we’ve all been waiting for.

Genevieve May Winks came into the world healthy and beautiful at 6:21 am on Monday.

They tried to stop Becky’s labor, but Miss Eve already has a mind of her own and decided that it was time to make her debut.  

She weighed in at  a petite 4 lb. 10 oz., was 17 inches, and had fantastic apgar scores.  She’s in the NICU right now but is doing great, and Mommy Becky is tired and thrilled. You could hear the smile in her voice!

It’s been a long road getting this little girl here, and I know you’ll all join me in sending lots of love and congratulations to Justin, Becky, big brother Braden, and little Eve!

We are so thrilled for all of you!

In Labor

Contractions started at 1 am, averaging 15 minutes.  Down to five minutes apart now at nearly 7 am.  Hurt like freaking hell.  It’s  snowing here…in Alabama.  What are the dang odds of that?  Should make for one interesting day.  Owwww….