Expectant parent club! Where the pregnant people hang out.

[Rare Feathers Farm]

When do you start "tummy time?" Audrey is almost a month old (she will be on Tuesday!) She's been lifting and holding her head up since she was 2 days old...it's pretty freaky, actually! LOL When you go to burp her--she will lift it up and stare at your face.

My SIL got her this:

http://www.amazon.com/Fisher-Price-...s=baby-products&ie=UTF8&qid=1314980683&sr=1-8

I just was not sure...I guess I can always lay her on her back on that? I just feel bad for her when she's wide awake for hours at a time and seems to get bored staring at my face and different patterns on things I'm showing her!

 

[ChikeeMomma]

Quote:
I am 14 weeks as well, and STILL vomiting! What the heck?!

Well, at least I'm in good company, krote! I hope it ends soon for us!

 

[Ms.FuzzyButts]

Praying for Daxton! I am so sorry yall are dealing with this.

that they let him eat!

RFF... The discharge nurse told me that I could start Carly on "tummy time" as soon as we got home as long as I was watching her. HA! Was she serious? I can not take my eyes off of her.

We're almost right with ya, on the poopie diaper. It wasn't as bad as Audreys', but she had her first, up the back, poop yesterday morning. I had her in her vibrating chair also. I was standing there brushing my teeth when she let it rip, not once, but twice!! The smell was not what I wanted to smell when brushing my teeth.. But she got the biggest smile on her face when she did it , that I couldn't help but laugh.

On another note:
As I climbed into the bed last night, and got snuggled in..... DH asked me if I want to have another one!!!!!!!! Very surprised he would say that this soon, But I'm sure glad he asked. I don't think Carly had been born much more than a day before I decided that I wanted to do all of this again...

 

[Ms.FuzzyButts]

Suzette: Yes, we had her in front of the window in our room. It just wasn't enough. And they don't have anywhere we could have went outside. This hospital wont let you leave the room with a baby in your arms. It has to be in a warmimg tray, and even then, can't leave the L&D floor. So, I've been sitting on the porch with her every morning since being home. In early morning the sun isn't bearing down as hard and the heat hasn't hit yet either. So it is more bearable for us both. Then outside with her agian in the afternoon when the sun starts to set and it cools off some. This coming Monday, I will have to take her back to the pediatrician and get her blood checked to see if it has gone down. She definately isn't getting any yellower, but if it's gone, I couldn't say for sure. I just know she seems a little more pink, than yellow to me. Wait, this Monday is a holiday.. Crud. I wonder if they boo boo'ed on scheduling us an appointment or if they are actually going to be open on Labor day..... Hmmm

They are already closed for today, so I guess I will call first thing Monday and see if they messed up or what.....

 

[Quail_Antwerp]

Is this not the cutest quilt ever?

http://www.modabakeshop.com/2010/09/snuggly-squares-baby-quilt_07.html#more

I am totally thinking about using it as a template to make my own quilt. I realize I won't have it done before Baby Girl is here, but it can be her first Christmas gift!

I think I want to make a few bigger ones for my older kids, too!

I've got the quilting bug!

 

[Rare Feathers Farm]

Ms.FuzzyButts :

Praying for Daxton! I am so sorry yall are dealing with this.

that they let him eat!

RFF... The discharge nurse told me that I could start Carly on "tummy time" as soon as we got home as long as I was watching her. HA! Was she serious? I can not take my eyes off of her.

We're almost right with ya, on the poopie diaper. It wasn't as bad as Audreys', but she had her first, up the back, poop yesterday morning. I had her in her vibrating chair also. I was standing there brushing my teeth when she let it rip, not once, but twice!! The smell was not what I wanted to smell when brushing my teeth.. But she got the biggest smile on her face when she did it , that I couldn't help but laugh.

On another note:
As I climbed into the bed last night, and got snuggled in..... DH asked me if I want to have another one!!!!!!!! Very surprised he would say that this soon, But I'm sure glad he asked. I don't think Carly had been born much more than a day before I decided that I wanted to do all of this again...

I know....I already want another but unless I can find a surrogate, it's not going to happen.

With HELLP Syndrome it's more likely for me to get the same issues again and even with the hospital knowing that, it's not a risk I am willing to take.

 

[ChikeeMomma]

RFF-- I started tummy time as soon as life settled back down. They don't always like it, but try for a couple minutes anyways. Can I ask what HELLP syndrome is? I think I must have missed something.

 

[Rare Feathers Farm]

Quote:
Thank you! I tried it with Audrey for a few minutes--she lasted about 10 minutes before she fussed and I moved her.

I thought I'd summarize how things went down....that way everyone knows.

Friday the 5th I was feeling really sick...went to Hiley's rehearsal dinner and then came home. About 2am I woke up nauseous, and having contractions. I had Zach (DH) take me to the hospital Saturday morning at 7am. They hooked me up to machines (one for baby's heartbeat & one for the contractions) and started an IV. They also hooked me up to a blood pressure cuff. My blood pressure was normally 110/64 or so and never did get high. I had not dilated anymore and was still 70% effaced. I was throwing up though and they chalked it up to bad contractions and gave me anti-nausea medicine. They said I was really dehydrated. They gave me 5 bags of IV fluid and kept measuring my pee, which was nothing and very dark. Probably TMI, but yeah know....As of 4pm, nothing had progressed so they said it was "false labor," and gave me anti-contraction drugs, more nausea medication and sent me home with prescriptions for each. I missed the wedding but Zach was able to go over and it turned out really nice. Luckily, I left my tags on my dress so I will be able to take it back.

Sunday I felt better, not great but better. Monday I started feeling sick again--but I was well enough to go grocery shopping with Zach and get my nails done.

On the way out of the salon, I happened to notice a huge fencing nail in my right front tire.

So we took my car into the tire place. Of course, they didn't have my size tire in stock (it's an odd one) so I had to leave it overnight. Zach picked up my car about 4pm on Tuesday with its new tires and by 6pm I was back to throwing up and having bad contractions.

About 6:30pm, I thought my water might have broke so I had Zach take me down to the hospital.

They hooked me up to the monitors again and did a test for amniotic fluid. They said my water had broke, I was 3cm and 80% effaced. They started prepping me for the c-section. Part of the prep is drawing blood and my platelets were a little low (125,000). Normal adult platelet counts are 150,000 to 450,000.

The c-section went fine. From the time they started prepping me until I was in the operating room was maybe 1/2 hour and that's because it took them four attempts to find a good vein on my arm for the IVS and the blood draws.

The worst part of the whole ordeal was when they inserted the catheter.

Both Dr. Bradford and Dr. Meyers did the c-section. Audrey was born at 9:26pm.

After the c-section I was wheeled into the recovery room for about 1.5 hours. After that, I was moved into another room and they did another (routine) blood draw on me and found that my platelets were at 27,000 and my liver enzymes were at 1,500. That's when they started freaking out. They did another blood draw and my platelets were at 15,000.

Dr. Bradford came in and told me I was really sick and no more visitors....other than Zach--who had gone home to feed/water the animals before it got too hot outside. He said they were getting platelets from Yakima on a courier service but they were 3.5 hours away. He said they were going to start me on a steroid to prevent seizures and central nervous system failure.

Once the platelets arrived, they gave me those and a few minutes later, Dr. Meyers came in and told me they were flying me to Spokane in a helicopter. It was really scary but at the same time I was just really tired...I did not feel sick at all.

Within 45 minutes, Med-Star was there and they got me prepped again and packed up. They brought Audrey to me and let me kiss her goodbye, Zach was crying...his parents were there and crying. Zach called my parents who left work and immediately started driving from Portland to Spokane. They said Zach was 6lbs too heavy to fly with me and would have to drive. They asked me if I planned to breastfeed and when I told them yes--they decided to discharge Audrey at about 12 hours old so she could travel to Spokane, too.

As they were loading me into the helicopter, Dr. Bradford told one of the medics to "induce coma" if they needed to do so in order to save my brain--I heard it and that was really scary. Zach and Dr. Bradford watched the helicopter leave and then Zach and his mom dashed home to pack their bags while the nurses took care of Audrey, gave her shots, PKU test, a bath, etc.

On the helicopter, they monitored my blood pressure and heart rate and about half-way to Spokane, they told me I "qualified for oxygen." So I got hooked up with that. The vibration of the helicopter made my staples hurt pretty bad and I was really tired. I was too scared to close my eyes because I kept thinking I would not wake up.

I had nothing to do but think and it made me think about a lot of things...like life is way too short and can change (or be gone) in a split second.

Once I got to Spokane (35 minute helicopter ride with a tail-wind), there were four doctors, a bunch of nurses and some sort of breathing specialist who all met us on the roof. I was wheeled into ICU and more blood was taken. I was back to 47,000 platelets and then hooked up to a steroid and magnesium sulfate.

After a few days in ICU, I was well enough to move down to the regular labor & delivery floor in Deaconess and was able to get the catheter out (yay!) but that also meant very painful, slow walks to the bathroom.

Normally, they get you out of bed and moving within 12 hours of a c-section because the faster you are out & about the faster your recovery time. With as sick as I was--I was in bed, flat on my back from Tuesday night until Friday morning.

As it turns out--Dr. Bradford said had I attempted a vaginal delivery I would have died. He said more than likely, they'd have lost both Audrey and I. He said in the 25+ years he's been doing his job he's never seen a better example of what can go wrong turn out so right and that luck was definitely on my side. Part of that was because I am healthy and was active during my pregnancy and the other was just plain scary because I was so healthy. Normally, with HELLP Syndrome high blood pressure is one of the main symptoms which I never had...but I had most of the other symptoms went undetected because they had no reason to think anything was wrong. :\\

The odds of me dying during a HELLP episode were 1 in 4. I am very grateful for the doctors here, the nursing staff and all of our friends and family who have really been supportive and wonderful through all of this.

Some links on HELLP Syndrome:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmedhealth/PMH0001892/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HELLP_syndrome

Overall, I had 26 blood draws and four IV's. Which is pretty amazing, considering I have VERY bad veins and it was a b*tch to get stuck so many times!

 

[ChikeeMomma]

Oh wow! Yuck!!!

 

[greenfamilyfarms]

Quote:
That is cute! I wouldn't be that hard to make since it is just squares and strips of fabric. You may can find a generic block quilt pattern and modify it.