Baby Face

So I'm doing some mad rush photo taking for Snapfish's Buy 1 book get 2 Free deal, which of course ends today.  I had to rush to get the studio set up, give Elina a bath and pick out her outfits.  It didn't help that poor Elina was way over tired and wanted nothing to do with me changing her clothes, messing with her posture and flashing bright lights into her eyes.  In the end, I was able to capture a few goodies.  I can't seem to take my eyes off of this particular gem...

Now how can you not love that face?

Rough Week

It really has been a rough week. My second week back at work and I’ve been hit with nothing but issues. Sadly they aren’t even my issues, they have been escalated to me. Which I guess it’s nice that my customers think I’m higher up instead of equal to my coworkers. But still. I’ve been spending so much time working on these issues that my own work has been stacking up. Of course it doesn’t help that Mason, Elina and I are all sick, or that I came home yesterday to poop on the kitchen floor. Not cool Charlie, not cool. The last couple of nights I’ve woken up at 3:30am to blow my nose so I can breathe again. Mason snores through the night regardless of my jabbing and Elina has become good friends with the aspirator bulb. She’s the only baby I know who thinks it’s funny most of the time.

This morning after my shower, I snuggled Elina while Mason was making her bottle. She stopped crying, curled up to me and started to drift back to sleep as I rested my cheek on her head. If I moved my head away from her, she squirmed until I put it back. For that little moment, standing in her dark room with a ratty towel on my head, all was right with the world. The stuffy nose was forgotten. The issues at work didn’t exist. It was just the two of us. Nothing else mattered.

Monday

Today isn’t just any Monday, it’s the Monday that I haven’t been looking forward too at all. It’s the day that I am once again sitting in my cubicle. Did I miss it? Nope. I’m sure there are some things that I missed, like being able to talk to some of my coworkers on a daily basis. Having time to write and read blogs. Actually being productive on a computer, like creating the annual Christmas Shopping List spreadsheet. (It helps me make sure I don’t forget anyone and it helps me see how much I can expect to spend and how much I actually spend. I’ve spent $25 so far, but that isn’t counting what I have bought for Elina. But she would have gotten those items anyway, even without the approaching holiday). Well, that was a long tangent.


Anyway… I got to the office to discover 89 missed calls, 22 voicemails around 800 emails (I forgot to write down the exact number before I started attacking them with the delete button) and access to exactly NONE of my programs. Sounds like a fun morning, doesn’t it? But here I am stuck in the cube with a random tiny Christmas tree and my giant monitor. Which by the way, I had a dream about the other night. I dreamt that I came to work and my monitor was missing. I was very confused as to why it would be missing, but that was it. Great story, huh?

Now that I’m back at work, I really miss my gallbladder. Bathroom runs just aren’t the same when you don’t have a gallbladder or a magazine. I’m also wondering how long this particular symptom is going to last. The doctor said a few weeks, I’m hoping he didn’t really mean the rest of my life!

My Baby Has Blond Roots

I had a dream last night that my two and a half month old baby could walk.  And not just walk, but run.  She got up, took three steps and took off running. Running with her arms out wide and laughing the whole time.  My sister was there too and I was telling her how shocked I was that she could run when she couldn't even sit up.  And then the dog barked, or the baby cried, or the alarm went off and I woke up (not really sure which time it was that I woke up).

Excuse Me While I Brag A Little

Elina had her 2 month check up on Monday, and I couldn't wait for the opportunity to tell her doctor that she rolled onto her back already.  I knew it was a little early, but I wasn't sure just how early.  So when he asked if Elina liked tummy time I seized the opportunity.  "She loves tummy time... and she rolled onto her back a couple of times." 

"Really?"  He asked with his eyes a little wider, "that's a 4 month thing."  Once he was done with the exam, he laid her on her tummy to see for himself, and she did it.  I thought for sure that she wouldn't do it for him, but she is clearly a performer.

Before I laid her on the table for the exam he got in close and talked to Elina, she looked at him and smiled.  After I set her on the table, he did the same thing, she looked him in the eye and started crying.  The doctor said that looked like stranger anxiety, which is mentally a 6 month thing.  So I got in close, put my hand on her head and she looked at me for the rest of the exam and was perfectly content.  Well perfectly content until the shots came.

Unrelated, we also went to the pumpkin patch last weekend...

So Much To Say, So Little Time

So I thought this whole being home thing would leave me plenty of time to blog.  Not so.  Every time I sit down to blog, a cute little baby beckons me.  She was just passed out, drooling on my shirt, so I handed her to her daddy, and now she's awake.  So which story do I start with?  Let's start with the most traumatic.

Three weeks after Elina arrived I was back in the hospital.  That horrible pain I had experienced during the pregnancy came back.  And this time I couldn't blame it on the baby.  In total the pain happened 4 times while I was pregnant and 3 times after she arrived.  Some times the "episodes" would last only 30-45 min.  Other times they would last a couple of hours.  One night it lasted 4 hours and caused me to throw up twice before going away, Mason had to be on baby duty and feed her formula that night. 

The next day, September 1st we were over at my parents house to celebrate my Brother in Law's birthday, and the pain came again.  I ended up sending Mason home to feed our puppies and go to bed while I stayed there with Elina.  My sister stayed too and took care of her while I was in too much pain to move.  This time it lasted ALL night.  Finally at 5am it eased up enough for me to fall asleep, or I was exhausted enough to pass out. 

I was finally convinced to call my doctor, who happened to be out of the office for two weeks.  The other doctor in the office told me to call my internist (my what?).  If I didn't have an internist then I should go to the ER.  So my Dad and I hopped into my car and drove off to the hospital where Mason met up with us.  And we waited, and waited, and waited.  Finally it was my turn to go into the room and put on the gown, where we waited, and waited, and waited.  I was told I couldn't keep my bra on even though I was leaking like crazy.  Talk about embarrassing.  It became a game of mine to see how long it took each person who came into my room to look at the giant wet spots on my gown.  Finally, I was wheeled away to get an ultrasound to see if I had gall stones.  I was sure I didn't.  I'm not the type of person who gets stones.  Turns out, I had stones.

By the time I finally got to my room, and they brought me a pump, it had been more then 24 hours since I had fed Elina.  I wasn't allowed to eat or drink anything the first day, not even ice chips, and I wasn't allowed to eat anything for the rest of my stay there.  There are a few things that you need in order to produce milk, food, water and a baby.  I had none of those.  My baby did come and visit me those three days, but I still missed her so.  Finally on Saturday I had my surgery.  They removed my gallbladder and gave me five new scars in it's place.  I went home that afternoon.  I tried to get my milk back, but it just didn't happen.  If I had to leave the house at all, it was a major set back in any progress that I had made.  Eventually I just had to give up.

I was prepared to not be able to nurse in the beginning.  I wasn't ready to be successful at it, only to have it taken away from me 3 short weeks later.  I still have a strong, healthy baby and no more severe abdominal and back pain.  Which makes it a whole lot easier to take care of that sweet baby.  Especially since her 8 week old self rolled over onto her back yesterday.  I'm going to have my hands full, aren't I?

A Much Belated Announcement

She's here!  Technically she's been here for just over a week, which is why this post is way belated.  I wanted to get her birth story down before I forget the details.

Early Wednesday morning I got out of bed with the incredible urge to use the restroom.  As soon as I sat down it was as if I had lost control of my bladder.  Two thoughts crossed my mind and I'm not sure exactly which one came first.  1. There was a child in there putting a ton of pressure on my bladder.  2. My water just broke.  I was pretty sure I knew which one it was, but since it was 2:30 in the morning and Mason tends to be a worrier, I thought I would make sure.  So I walked to my dresser to grab my pregnancy books and then dashed back to the bathroom with my knees together.  Okay, so by this point I was 90% sure it was my water.  But again, this was a completely new feeling for me so I wanted to be 100% sure.  By the time I was able to get up and walk back to the bedroom it was 3am.  When I told a very groggy Mason why I was waking him up he shot out of bed and went into high speed mode.  Gathering all that we needed that hadn't made it into the car yet and getting food ready for the dogs.  Off we went to the hospital making our phone calls along the way.  I was most looking forward to waking up my sister since I'm quite sure I owe her a few years worth of being woken up. 

By the time we got into our first room to confirm that it was indeed my water breaking and then moved into labor and delivery, it was almost 5am.  Since I wasn't having contractions, they wasted no time in inducing them.  A couple hours later I was informed that I was having contractions every four min, but I couldn't feel them at all.  So they upped the dosage and when they became two min apart, I could feel them.  Each hour they became more intense.  By the time I got the epidural they weren't seriously painful, they were just seriously annoying.  Leaving virtually no time to relax in between.  Not to mention I had a room full of people.  Finally after 18 hours of labor with very little progression and a baby that was refusing to drop, they took me in for the c-section.

Apparently my legs are immune to the epidural.  While I couldn't feel anything, I could still lift them.  So they added more and more.  The strong epidural made it near impossible to keep my eyes open which was so very frustrating because I wanted to be awake for this moment.  I spent the majority of the surgery fighting the sleepiness that overcame me and the shakes that were taking over.  Every part of me that wasn't numb was shaking uncontrollably as if I were freezing cold, and trust me I was trying to control them.  That's the part that bothered Mason the most.  He told me later that he was used to seeing me as a strong woman, and seeing me with no control over my body really shook him.  But anyway, back to the birth of my little peanut.

Since I was in and out of consciousness, this part might be a little discombobulated.  I do remember the first time I heard her cry, and Dr. B told her she wasn't allowed to cry because she hadn't been born yet.  Mason told me that her head was out and they had just suctioned out her mouth and nose, which she apparently didn't care for at all.  Moments later, at 11:50pm Elina was here.  I forced my eyes open as they walked her past me to get cleaned up.  She had hair!  Dark hair!  Where did that come from?  Mason and I were both bald and blond.  I was sure she would be the same.  I mean I would have bet money on the fact that she would be bald and blond.  There is nothing about this little girl that hasn't been a surprise.  Including the dimples I saw from across the room.  Eventually Mason brought her over to me and laid her on my shoulder so I could look at her beautiful little face.  At one point I'm sure Elina and I took a nap together while I was being stitched up.  But then I had to make Mason take her away because I was about to throw up.  Dr. B was sewing up the inner lining of my stomach, and when he finished, I went ahead and emptied the contents of my stomach.  Which was pretty much nothing.  But then my baby appeared on my shoulder again, and all was right with the world. 

Fortunately my shakes and my lethargy ended while I was in the recovery room and the lady in there was way impressed with my ability to move my legs.  This is also when they took my baby away to be cleaned up and measured and my husband ran off after her to watch.  Shortly after the shakes stopped I was wheeled off to my room with a short little pit stop to see my baby.  This is where it starts to get a little fuzzy, because I had been up for more then 24 hours, but eventually they wheeled in my baby and all of my visitors followed.  Or the visitors came in and the baby followed.  All I know is that by this point, I was exhausted.  I'm pretty sure it was 5am before I finally feel asleep. 

But there she was.  All 7 lbs 5 oz, and 19 3/4 inches of her.  With her beautiful brown hair and her sweet little dimples.

Thanks to my sister for this great picture.