Day 31: One Month Old!

Rylee has been in our lives for a month today! It's been a long, difficult, amazing month! Two days ago, we switched her formula per the pediatrician and we've had such a happy baby ever since. She still seems to have some painful gas, but she isn't crying all day every day.

I'm looking forward to a happier upcoming month. She has started smiling, laughing, and cooing, usually all at the ceiling fan in every room. I call ceiling fans her BFF! Every morning starts off with a conversation with the fan :) She's finally napping during the day again, several 30-45 minute naps and usually one 3-4 hour nap towards the end of the day. At night she's sleeping 3-4 hours and waking to eat, sometimes a full 4oz, sometimes only 1.5-2oz.

Last night we had a good bedtime routine and I'm hoping that it's successful again tonight, and it becomes a permanent one. Paul gave her a bath around 9:30 and when she got out I had a bottle waiting for her. This new formula is thicker so it takes her longer to drink it, but by the time she finished 3oz she was just about asleep. I laid her down and within 10 minutes she was asleep. She did wake up an hour later and drink another 1.5oz, but after that she was out until 2:30am. Before bath time, I'm going to add a play/tummy/read time. I haven't been able to read to her yet, because of how fussy she normally is, but I think now that she is feeling better it's the perfect time to start.

Here are the pictures from today with her 1-month Picky Sticky

Day 27: So Many Firsts

So the past few days have been pretty good, with the exception of sleep! Rylee has been awake and attentive a lot. She just seems to get fussy at night time. Mostly it's her fighting sleep. Her poor little eyes will get so droopy and she'll rub her eyes and face, but every time she gets close to sleep she gets herself worked up and cries for a little bit.

Last night bedtime started off really well. Rylee and I took a bath, we kept the lights dim, fed her, and then she was asleep before SNL came on. So I think we might have found a bedtime routine. After, she fell asleep, Paul took over for the night so the rest is from what he told me (I got 10 hours of sleep and feel so refreshed. Husband = AMAZING). She slept until 1:00, when she woke up to eat. Then around 3:00am she woke up again, and fought sleep until around 9. Only allowing herself to sleep no more than 30 minutes at a time. So hopefully, tonight we can do the same routine (probably will add in story time) and see how it works.

Rylee has had a few firsts in the past few days. She actually spent time in the carrier while Paul cleaned the house, she went to a birthday party, and she went to a restaurant! All of which she handled really well, with very little fussing! I thought she would have fussed at the restaurant having to stay in the car seat, but she was really good! She started to get a little red, but it's because she was getting hungry, so I gave her the bottle and she was great the rest of the time we were there! It was really nice to know that I can go out to eat and have her handle it really well. I know if we're having a bad day then it'll be a different situation.

Tomorrow, Rylee will be 4 weeks old, and on Thursday she will be 1 month old! I can't believe she's been in our lives for a month already, but then again, I don't remember life before Rylee. It seems like she's always been here. I think if she keeps being a happy baby I will have a lot of pictures to post this week! We shall see :)

Day 24: Happy Baby to Fussy Baby

So, Rylee hasn't really been all about me updating everyday.

Yesterday she was amazing! We smiled, we laughed, we played, we had photo shoots. It was great! She was awake from 11:30 to 3:00, and then she took a nap. Little did I know that when she woke up at 5:00, I would have a completely different baby. She ate when she woke up, and then all hell broke loose. I know her fussing is related to some kind of pain that she's in, but that doesn't make it any easier. In fact, it makes it harder. The fact that I know she's in pain and I can't help absolutely kills me!

Her crying/screaming lasted until about 11:45 when she finally fell asleep. She surprisingly slept until 6:00, but I don't think it was a good sleep for her. Ya know how you feel when you sleep a lot when you don't feel good, but when you wake up you don't feel any better and you feel like you haven't even slept? Well, that's the look Miss Rylee had on her face this morning. Since then, she's been just as fussy (I don't even know if fussy is the right word to describe how she's acting), but also sleeping A LOT!

I've spent the day holding and rocking her, and of course telling her how much I love her. She'll give me a fleeting smile and coo and look at me like she knows I'm doing the best I can, and those brief moments give me hope and happiness to get through the screams and the pain I know she's in.

I never knew I could feel so much pain for another human being, especially one that's so tiny. I knew I would love her, but to feel the pain that she's in and to look in those eyes and see her pleading with me to help breaks my heart and though I do really good to hold myself up, I lost it a few times today. It's interesting when I was holding her crying, she gave me a look like she understood that I was upset.

Babies are the most interesting thing to me at this moment...

PS I think a trip to the doctor's about this issue will be in the near future...

Day 22: Pack-N-Play

So here I sit with a cute lil girl asleep in my lap... right after typing that I had a screaming baby in my lap, and never got a chance to finish the post last night.

We tried the pack-n-play Monday night and Rylee stayed in it for 3 hours before waking up to eat, and would not go back in it after that. But I think it's a good start :) I have no problem co-sleeping though, and I know Rylee will sleep on her own when she's ready. There will be a time when she won't want to snuggle with Mommy, so I'm going to take advantage of this time while I can, no matter what effect this has on the future.

Yesterday was rough. We started the day off with a dirty diaper (YAY!), unfortunately that usually means a cranky day for Rylee. This held true yesterday. I think her little bum hurts after using the bathroom, because every time she toots after a dirty diaper she shrieks and then cries for about 15 minutes. This lasts all day after having a dirty diaper. The next day (today) is usually a good one, she's happy, with only a few bouts of crying.

I hope this fear and pain go away soon, or the doctor is going to have to give me some kind of advice to help her. I know she's in pain, but it makes a tough day for mom. I spent the last 45 minutes she was awake calming her down and rocking her and then she slept wonderfully! More on that later for day 23's update!

Day 21: Three Weeks in Our Lives

I've decided that I am going to try and do a daily update when Rylee is down for her evening nap/after Paul gets home from work and hogs her. I'm sure I'll miss some days, or there might not be anything to update on other days, but hopefully I will have something to share most days. I find myself writing things down in my planner to remember stuff that she does, so I figure daily blog updating is a better way to keep track of all the things my growing princess does.

I will go ahead and update for this past week, and tomorrow will start the daily updates.

We started the Karo last week and it seems to be helping in the dirty diaper arena. She has had a dirty diaper every other day since we started, and even slept for 5 hours Saturday night/Sunday morning! I have never felt so refreshed! She is still straining pretty intensely, and screams out in pain when she does, but the fact is that things are happening. I just can't wait for the day that she doesn't cry in pain and when she go to the bathroom without any help from suppositories or Karo.

She has been pretty fussy while awake these past 2 days, the only time she isn't crying or we aren't doing everything we can to prevent her from crying, is when she is asleep. Thankfully we got a swing on Friday and it has been a lifesaver! Not that she doesn't cry when she's in it, but it usually quiets her long enough (she's mesmerized by the mobile and lights and motion) that I can fix a bottle or give my arm a break from holding and rocking her. When she's in it and not crying, I can definitely get a lot done! Today, I got laundry started and the dishwasher unloaded and reloaded, which is a lot in my book.

We have started daily tummy time, and though she doesn't like it for too long, she's doing a great job with it! She holds her head up and looks around, and is starting to try and turn herself over. She got her lower half turned today, but was "over" tummy time and gave up before getting the rest turned over.

She's been turning herself from back to side for more than a week now, because she prefers to sleep on her side but we put her down on her back, so she turns herself.

We are still co-sleeping, but I want to try and start to get her in the pack-n-play this week, even though I think I sleep better when she's in bed next to me (I'm not constantly checking on her). I know it will be good for when we need to transition her down the road. The sooner we get her to sleep in the pack-n-play, the better it will be when we move her to her crib in her room (still not for several weeks, maybe a few months). She naps great in her crib during the day, but hasn't really done well in the pack-n-play, probably because I'm more likely to put her in the crib during the day and in our bed at night, so she hasn't had much experience in the pack-n-play. We'll see how it goes...

2 Weeks Old

I don't know how much I have to "say" but thought I would update while Rylee is sleeping.

Yesterday was my official due date and Rylee turned 2 weeks old! We went in to the doctor for her 2 week appointment and is up to 7 pounds! She's still tiny, but gaining. Everything is looking good healthwise, except her poor little tummy. Little girl hasn't been able to use the bathroom without the use of a suppository in over a week. She strains and tries so hard, but usually just ends up screaming in pain. It breaks my heart. We started her on a 1 tablespoon (3- 1 teaspoons) of dark Karo per day. She had a hard time last night after the first full day of it, and was up from 11:30pm-6:30am straining and in pain. She finally used the bathroom on her own around 4:00am, but was still straining and in pain. We gave her another suppository around 10:00am, and she finally got some relief and has been sleeping ever since, waking up twice to eat for maybe an hour. I sure hope her belly gets better soon.

Other than that, she is a wonderful baby, and I think as soon as we get her belly taken care of, she'll be happy, and start sleeping more regularly, which will make mom happy.

Here are some pictures in her "Picky Stickies" to signify her age. Obviously, we didn't do the "0" right when she was born so the difference between that and 1 month won't be much, but I'm excited to watch her grow and to have a cute way to photograph it.

Rylee's Arrival

Let's start with after my last update. The night before my 37 week appointment I had contractions for over 2.5 hours. The last half hour they were coming between 4 and 5 minutes apart and lasted about 45-50 seconds. I was getting everything ready for the drive to the hospital as I only had to wait 30 more minutes, then they stopped. I was disappointed but was certain that when I went to the doctor I would be dilated further.

I went to the doctor on Wednesday, December 22nd and Dr. Summers said I was still between a 2 and a 3. Everything was looking good for me to be pregnant for the duration, she was head and face down but not "locked" into the pelvic area. I made my 38 week appointment for the 29th and went home. I was a bit upset but was knew Rylee would come when she was ready and all I could do was get myself comfortable and wait (I'm not a patient person, this was going to be hard!).

I waited until Christmas Eve to wrap anything (I was hoping Rylee would be here and I wouldn't have to ha!) The whole day was spent getting everything ready to go to my parents that night and Paul's parents the next day. My hips were killing me by the end of the day, I could barely walk. Here's a picture from that night and the last pregnancy picture I took:

Christmas came and went and still no Rylee. I was convinced she would be waiting until closer to her due date to make an arrival. Some people were still saying she would be here before the new year, but I decided to not even think about it. It was wearing me out always thinking "will it be today??" 

The 26th didn't seem like it was going to be any different of a day. Paul and I laid around all day, he played Need for Speed and I watched. We also watched 500 Days of Summer and Inception, both of which were great! When I finally got Paul to turn the game off for some quiet time and dinner, I started to notice some leaking around 7:30pm. Since I had mixed this up before, I ignored it, thinking it was the same as last time. An hour and a half later, I had changed underwear and pads 3 or 4 times, and started to question if the leaking could be my water. I called my mom and then the on-call service at my doctor's office. Dr. Parks (Dr. Tran was still out of the office on vacation) advised me to go to the hospital to get checked because it sounded like it could be ruptured membranes. 

After getting everything together and calling everyone, Paul and I left the house around 9:10, and got to St. Francis around 9:30. After getting into the room, the nurse was 95% sure that I had a high tear in my membranes (there was still a pocket of fluid under Rylee's head) and I was going to be admitted! I was also dilated to 4cm at that point. YAY for not being crazy this time! Since we weren't sure when Dr. Tran would be back the plan was to let me labor on my own until 5am, at which point they would start Pitocin. At 7am, they would break what was left of my water and we would be on our way to Rylee getting here (all of this was assuming that it didn't progress on it's own). The whole time I was hooked up to the fetal monitor I was having contractions 2-4 minutes apart, and the nurse was shocked that I wasn't really feeling them, and she kept offering me the epidural if I wanted it. No pain, no need, so I just hung out at in the bed, and completely understood why they say wait to go to the hospital if you can.

At 5am, they started the Pitocin at 2mL/hr and I noticed a slight difference in the contractions, but nothing that I was really concerned about. I was still at 4cm though. After an hour, the nurse upped the dosage to 4mL/hr. At 7am, a resident doctor broke the rest of my water and they upped my Pitocin to 6mL/hr. This was all that it took! I don't know if it was the water breaking, the increasing of the Pitocin, or both but my pain went from 3-4 to 7-8! I waited out the pain until around 8am, when I finally asked for the epidural. Let me tell you, those things are AMAZING! My nurse kept commenting that I had the "perfect epidural." I couldn't feel anything from my abdomen down, but I could still move on my own with little assistance. I wasn't feeling ANY pressure from the contractions, and really only knew I was having one by looking at the monitor. I do have GREAT RESPECT for those that deliver naturally! I don't know how they do it.

Around 10:30am, the nurse checked me and I was at 8cm, so close! We figured out Dr. Tran was still out of the office until the next day, but the nurses were confused as to who was going to be doing the actual delivery. When the nurse called the office, she gave the report to Dr. Summers, but Dr. Parks was the doctor on call and was the doctor who checked on me that morning. While they figured that out, everyone started to prepare for Rylee's arrival and were trying to guess what time she was going to enter the world. 

Around 11:15, the nurse had me practice pushing and I apparently did really well. Next thing I know, they are running around trying to get Dr. Parks in the room ASAP and I had to sit there and try not to push on my own. 2 or 3 pushes (1 contraction) after Dr. Parks got there (she ran from the Kelly building to the hospital), Rylee was born at 11:56am. She weighed 6lb7oz and was 19.5 inches long.

I lost a lot of blood and spent the next two days in the hospital making sure everything was OK with both of us. On Wednesday, December 29th, Rylee and I came home and the adventure began!! It has been a great week, and I can't wait for many many more! One last pic of me at 1 week post delivery (ignore the comfy clothes, it's all I wear right now):

I will add more of our adventure at home in the days to come when I have the time. Life with a newborn is kind of unpredictable.