Isabelle has started stretching out, her little arms flailing around uncontrollably. And she’s started making more noises besides her crying. She makes little cooing noises and little sighs. It’s adorable.

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Here’s the finished umbilical cord hats. Now just to wash them so I can get a picture of her.

And on Isabelle: She had an appointment yesterday and she’s gained 4 oz in 4 days. But after we left the hospital Alan said the nurse forgot to take her diaper off before weighing her. So the weight gain wasn’t accurate. How much could a diaper weigh? And also she’s been much more cooperative at feedings. No more refusing to suck so YAY!! In fact a couple of times I got her on my boob without the nipple shield. And she went poop. She hadn’t gone in 3 days and who knew we would be so happy to see a poopy diaper. So basically we’re doing really good. Now if we can just get some more sleep.

Posted in: Family, Finished Project, Knitting
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Who knew such a little cutie could cause such heartache. It’s been a frustrating 24 hours filled with crying and tears. I couldn’t get Isabelle to suck. She would just cry and cry and pull her little head away. And her feeding time had come and gone. It was so upsetting. She was crying, I was crying. I felt so helpless…sitting there with all this milk dripping out and her refusing to drink from me but screaming and crying in hunger.

It breaks my heart to see her crying so much. I was so frustrated I about gave up and almost had Alan go out and buy formula. I ended up pumping some milk for her and eventually she got onto the breast maybe 10 hours after her last successful feeding. It worries me so much. At our last appointment with the lactation counselor she had only gained half an ounce from her previous appointment and she still only has about one or if we’re lucky two poop diapers a day.

I don’t know how to make her eat when she’s not sucking.

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I’ve discovered I can post to my blog while little Isabelle is breast feeding. Everything takes a little longer though because I only have use of one hand and the laptop is at an awkward angle to me. I feel very out of touch. I can’t remember when I last read my favorite blogs.

Well anyhoo this was the last thing I was working on before Isabelle joined us. It’s the umbilical cord baby hat from Stitch N Bitch. I’ve finished it along with another one but just haven’t managed to take a picture yet with my erratic sleeping impairing my memory. Let’s see if I remember tomorrow.

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Isabelle has lost her umbilical cord. We would do a happy dance if we weren’t so tired and wanting to sleep all the time.

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I didn’t mention this on my last post. But on Thursday, the day after we brought Isabelle home we noticed her lips looked dry. We thought she might be dehydrated. We were concerned so we called the hospital. We already had an appointment set up for Friday but the nurse told us to come in anyways.

At the appointment we found out she had lost weight. It is normal for breast feeding babies to lose weight after they are born. But the nurse was concerned because she seemed to lose more weight then they would like to see. So they watched me feed her and saw that Isabelle wasn’t latching on as well as she could so I was sent home with nipple shields (I think that’s what they are called) to help in her feedings.

We kept our appointment on Friday and Isabelle had lost even more weight. So this time we were sent home with a breast pump machine to supplement her feedings and we were told to come back on Monday. We’ve basically been bundles of stress.

Well at our appointment yesterday we found out happily that Isabelle has gained weight. We have another appointment on Friday and I’m sure she’ll be fine. She’s become quite a little piggy much to the pain of my boobs. But I don’t mind. I can’t believe how much we love her already.

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Little Isabelle is cradled in my arms with her eyes open and staring around. So…let me take this moment where she’s not crying, or being fed, or the three of us sleeping to tell you about how Isabelle joined us.

Last week, on Sunday the 11th, we got home from a party around 5:00am in the morning. After about 2 hours of sleep I woke to contractions at 8:37am. I didn’t think they were contractions at first. I kept saying: maybe I ate something that didn’t agree with me. Alan kept saying: you’re having contractions honey. I guess I just couldn’t believe it. Irrationally I was thinking this can’t happen now, I need more sleep, this needs to wait until later. Well that wasn’t going to happen.

Right from the start my contractions were pretty close together. And at our hospital when they are 5 minutes apart they want you to come down. Well they were pretty much 5 minutes apart from the get go but they weren’t very strong. So when they got closer to 2 minutes apart and stronger we drove to the hospital. It had been a hard day…only 2 hours sleep and contractions during all those hours so no sleep at all.

At the the hospital they checked me and I was only 2 cm dilated. That was maybe around 5pm in the evening so they sent me walking around. After 2 hours they checked me again and I was still only 2 cm dilated! The contractions were painful and I was beyond tired. So they gave me a shot of morphine and sent me home to try to get some sleep.

At home the contractions spaced further apart…maybe 7 to 11 minutes apart. The morphine made me sleep but I felt every contraction and it wasn’t a restful sleep. When the morphine wore off and I was mostly awake and couldn’t stand the pain anymore we went down to the hospital again to check how much further I had progressed.

We arrived at the hospital for this second time around on Monday, the 12th, around 5am in the morning. They checked me and I was 4 cm dilated, enough to be admitted. I was so happy! There was another woman in there before us but we were put into a room first because I was dehydrated and they needed to give me an IV with fluids.

I got to the room, I got my IV, and I got my epidural. Can we say YAY! I was having contractions and I did not even know it. So the hours went by and I told Alan to go get some food because he had not eaten lunch yet. When he got back the contractions had gotten worse. It was about 1:45 pm and the epidural did not seem like it was working even though it was. They decided to check my progress and suprisingly I was at 9 cm. It was the pressure of Isabelle coming down that I was feeling. At 2:15 pm I began to push.

After about 2 hours of pushing our litttle bundle of joy was born. At this point I was beyond exhausted and was pretty out of it. It was only later that Alan told me what happened. I’m going to feed Isabelle now, so here’s Alan:

The midwife and NP seemed very surprised at the progress that Kuky had made and seemed even more surprised that she was going to deliver without help (suction/forceps/etc…we had found out earlier in the day that she has a tilted tailbone). She continued to push and I could see the top of Isabelle’s hairy head. It was the most amazing sight. The lulls between pushes became shorter and shorter. The top of her head (up to her ears) was out. The midwife began to pull her out with the next contrations. Her little head popped out and the midwife quickly suctioned out her mouth and nose. She did not make a sound. At the next contraction the midwife turned her shoulders and out she came. The midwife apologized about not letting me cut the cord and quickly handed her over to the other nurses, Isabelle wasn’t breathing. I watched as the nurses brought her over to another table with her little arms and legs dangling limply. They proceeded to give her oxygen and stimulate her. After what seemed like forever she finally began to cry.

Ok, Kuky back now. So that was how Isabelle joined us on September 12th at 4:28pm. She is fine, with all the right amount of fingers and toes (one of the first things we asked about since in my family we come with extras, my sister and grandfather did) She weighed 7 pounds 11.8 ounces at 20.5″ length with a head at 12.5″. Wow I pushed her out of me?!

The nurses and midwives with me during my labor at the Kaiser hospital in Walnut Creek were WONDERFUL. I mean WONDERFUL! Klara, Shanon, and Debbie were their names. I feel so lucky to have had them. The midwife massaged the perineum so I didn’t tear or rip. Yay again. I just have a slight abrasion like a skinned knee.

We were discharged from the hospital on Wednesday and even with the exhaustion from lack of sleep and the pain I hope to soon heal from we are happy beyond words and so in love with Isabelle. I haven’t been on my computer much at all so haven’t checked my email (I’m using Alan’s computer) and don’t know when I will be on again but hopefully I’ll be back soon with more news of how we are doing. Thank you everyone for all the kind comments and congratulations.

Posted in: Monthly Family Picture, Pregnant
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