Tuesday, September 30, 2008

How do you spell relief?

S-L-E-E-P-I-N-G-B-A-B-Y

What a glorious night we had! We corrected some gas issues from the day. Ellie then slept 4 straight hours, got up and fed, and slept for another 4! I got her up to eat and say good by to her daddy on his birthday and his first day back at work.

Joe's parents are coming down this evening for his birthday. We are really looking forward to the visit!

Ellie is napping - think I will too!

Monday, September 29, 2008

First Outing

Ellie had her first outing this morning: to the ER for me! Don't worry, I'm fine. Over the past 24 hours I started having SEVERE swelling in both legs. I mean SEVERE. I've never seen anything like it. It's from the tips of my pudgy toes to about 5 inches above my knees. At first, I wasn't too concerned, but in the course of about 2 hours (2-4 a.m. this morning) It went from below the knees to the 5 inches above. At that point, I called my OB's emergency answering service. After my description she promptly told me to to go the ER. They were concerned about a possible development of preeclampsia. I had never heard of it happening, but some women develop it after giving birth.

So, we packed up Ellie, who had been up all night, and my mom took us over. They tested for protein in my urine and it came back negative - a sign that show that this wasn't pre-e. Also, since I have the swelling in both legs, they weren't too concerned about blood clots. My OB arrived at the hospital at 7 and after performing a c-section, the ER doc contacted him. My doc felt that it is most likely delayed swelling from the much larger than normal amount of IV fluids I received while at the hospital. I have been told to walk as much as I can tolerate at this point, and when not walking or nursing, elevate my feet above my heart. He doesn't want to give my any diuretics since I am nursing, so we're giving it two weeks and watching it closely.

All in all, that's good news to me. It was one of those things that I felt funny going in because I felt fine otherwise, but it was weighing heavily on me and was definitely not normal.

Ellie was fantastic on the trip, by the way. She ate just before we left the house, and since she had been up so long, never made a peep in her car seat.

So, the big question is Do you want to see a picture of my grotesque legs? I guess we'll take a poll. :-)

Sunday, September 28, 2008

We're Home!


Ahhhhhhhhhh...........

What a feeling. We came home yesterday afternoon about 1:00 and are loving every second of being a family.

It is amazing the things that cause emotion to well up inside. As we were preparing to leave the hospital yesterday, we did the final bracelet check (They compare parent bracelets to baby bracelets any time we are separated and then again before leaving the hospital). Anyway, we did the final check and the nurse left the room. Then I cut off all Eliana's bracelets. There was something about removing all traces of the hospital's responsibility for her (and the acknowledgment of our responsibility) that overwhelmed me. Gratefully, only Ellie and I were in the room and I could get myself back together before the wheelchair was brought up to me. :-)

We had a really wonderful evening together. We ate our first meal as a family (A rather comical picture - We're still figuring out our timing issues). We gave Eliana our first sponge bath. (She's had several, but we are definitely newbies. The poor little girl. Our skills must seem very different from the nurses' at the hospital.) And we also weathered the first night on our own. (Let's just say that there is nothing better than the look of gratitude in my little girl's eyes when I finally figure out something that has been plaguing her all night. Let's just hope there's a learning curve, and I see that look of gratitude before 4 a.m. in the future. :-)

We are looking forward to showing Ellie off to all of you. Obviously, we are not at church right now, but we'd love to have some visits.

Friday, September 26, 2008

Getting Acquainted

Eliana is two days old already, and I can't imagine being without her. How is that possible?

I don't have much time to post at the moment, but I wanted to let you all know that we decided to go ahead and stay one more night at the hospital. All is well, but if someone else will take care of me for one more day, why not? :-) Thanks for all the well wishes and love! We won't be at church on Sunday, but feel free to give a call and stop over for a visit at the house! Joe and I want to show Ellie off to the entire world!

Thursday, September 25, 2008

Heeeeeeeeeereeeeeeeeee's Ellie!


Hi everyone! Sorry about the break in updates. That's that way the baby bounces. I ended up with two doses of Cervidil, neither of which had any effect. Then I got Pitocin at midnight Tuesday and labored without an epi until 7:30 a.m. Other contractions two minutes apart the entire night, the Pitocin had no effect on getting Eliana closer to being born. At 7:30 a.m. the doctor highly suggested a c-section. He said we could keep going with the Pit (although the dosage couldn't have been raised any more.), but it wasn't what he recommended. I was very tired by that point - 2 nights with no sleep, so we decided on the c-section. It was the right thing to do. It ended up that there was no way that I could have delivered her naturally. Her size and position just wouldn't have worked.


The section was fantastic. I had no pain with the prep and spinal - none at all! It took the doctors only 8 minutes to deliver her - so quick! Joe was fantastic through the whole thing. He supported me and then stood up to watch her coming out - without passing out! His play-by-play was perfect! I loved watching his eyes above his surgical mask. They said everything.


They finished up with me and Joe went with Eliana to the nursery. I went to recovery for just about an hour and by the time I was in my room they were bringing Ellie from her bath and tests. She scored a 9 on the Apgar test at birth and a PERFECT 10 at 5 minutes after birth. The nurse told me that she rarely gives out perfect scores! (That's my girl!) She is nursing like a pro and the pediatrician says she is doing great. I feel great as well. I'm doing so well, that my doctor said I can go home tomorrow instead of Saturday. I think we'll stay until after lunch and then head home.


Thanks for all your payers. Here are the vital statistics:


Name: Eliana (Hebrew for "My God has Answered") Helene Weaver (We call her "Ellie" for short.)

Weight: 9 pounds 4.7 ounces

Length: 20 inches


Tuesday, September 23, 2008

Birthday? Updates

6:52 p.m. The doctor stopped by. The plan is to remove the Cervidil at 10 p.m. and begin the Pitocin at midnight. That means we'll labor throughout the night to hopefully see our little girl sometime in the morning. I am having more consistent and stronger contractions, so hopefully when they check me at midnight some progress will have been made! :-)

12:45 p.m. Well, I've finally been released from my flat-on-the-back prison that Cervidil requires. What a feeling! That is a LONG two hours.

We may have a baby today, but there is a large likelihood that tomorrow will be her birthday. They can't start the pitocin until my cervix has thinned, and it's just being very stubborn. This dose of Cervidil will last until 10:00 tonight. That's when the doctor is hoping to start the Pitocin. Then we have to make it though the dilation process, which has also not begun yet!

One good note, I am starting to have mild contractions! Whoo-hoo! Hopefully, that will help the process along. They did allow me to eat lunch since it will be so long before I deliver. Joe went down to the cafeteria and brought his lunch back up to the room and we ate together. So for now, it's an afternoon of waiting, surfing the Internet, and watching TV (I forgot how much I liked TLC/HGTV/Food Network.).

Thanks to everyone who has commented and sent e-mails. Your messages are helping the time go by!

9:10 a.m. We are at the hospital. We arrived at about 9:00 p.m. last night and received the Cervidil. Joe was able to sleep pretty well from about midnight to 7:30 a.m. I was not. :-) There are just too many monitors and things to think about. I listened to about 5 podcasts throughout the night while trying to doze. The doctor was just in to check me and there has been very little progress. He was hoping to be able to start Pitocin and contractions when he was here, but I'm not ready yet. I'll be getting another dose of Cervidil in about an hour. Last night the doc was expecting a late afternoon delivery, but who knows? We are behind schedule, so we'll see.

I have no idea how long I'll feel like posting updates. Don't be surprised when I stop. That's just your signal to really START PRAYING!

Monday, September 22, 2008

Today We Start

What a strange day. I just couldn't sleep, so I got up about 3:00 a.m. and dusted and contact papered the bathroom cabinet. This waiting around is driving me crazy!

Here's the plan: We'll go see my doctor at 3:30 this afternoon. If I have effaced any further since Thursday, we'll head over to the hospital. I'll be given Cervidil during the night. Then starting tomorrow morning, I'll get Pitocin to bring on the contractions. I hear that after cocontractions comes the baby. :-) If I have thinned out, then we'll return home and go to the hospital in the morning for the Pit.

So for the rest of the day, my plans are to sweep, do final grocery shopping, clean out the van, and twiddle my thumbs.

Pray for us!

Saturday, September 20, 2008

Fish Tycoon

Can I just say that I love this game?

Friday, September 19, 2008

Trip to the Hospital

We had our 40+ week doctor's appointment yesterday, and while there, we had a non-stress test. My doctor does this for everyone who is overdue. Basically, they just monitor baby's heart rate, movement and contractions for about 45 minutes. The doctor was a bit concerned because she wasn't moving as much as they would like. I really wasn't worried because in the morning she had performed a kick-boxing routine NONSTOP for 3 hours until I was ready to vomit. When she is really active like that, it is common for her to take a long nap.

Anyway, the doctor sent me over to labor and delivery at the hospital for another non-stress test and then a biophysical ultrasound. She started to wake up during the second NST, and the US was just plain fun. She is doing great! She scored an 8 out of 8 on it! (I never doubted that she was anything less than perfect!) They measure things like fluid level, movement, and practice breaths. After quite a while, the technician was able to confirm that she is still a girl! That was a bit of a relief since there is so much pink going on in our house these days!

So, they called my doctor with my results and he sent us home. We are still on for an induction starting Monday evening. All-in-all, I'm actually grateful for the trip to hospital. I was truly never really worried about her, and I was able to get a feel for the labor and delivery department. We were in one of the labor rooms, so it was nice just to become familiar with the surroundings. It was also great to see the baby again since our last ultrasound was at 18 weeks, the pregnancy has been so uneventful. Because she has moved SO low, we couldn't see her face, but her bottom is pretty cute! Those practice breaths she is taking are pretty amazing to see as well.

It's about 1:40 a.m., and I can't sleep at all. I didn't get the fridge cleaned out yesterday, so maybe I'll do that now.

Bye all!

Thursday, September 18, 2008

Negative

I hate to say that I'm being negative today, but take a look at the pregnancy counter: -1 day till my due date! You know what that means, I'm officially overdue. I go see the doctor today, so that should be fun. I'll have the nonstress test and make sure everything is still a go for Monday evening's induction. Really, the induction begins Tuesday morning with the Pitocin, but we'll be in the hospital overnight.

Nesting job for today: clean out the refrigerator.

Pray for Joe - He had a lot of sinus drainage all night and doesn't feel too hot today. He said that his throat isn't sore like it was yesterday, he's just tired from not sleeping well. I told him to take it easy at work. He just laughed.

Wednesday, September 17, 2008

A Momentous Day

Sorry, no baby. But,wow! Look at that pregnancy counter: "100 % of Pregnancy Completed"; "0 Weeks and 0 Days Left." Then why am I still here?!?!?!? I wonder what the counter will say tomorrow. :-) Will it not compute and make the Internet crash like we were afraid would happen in 2000?

Well, I have to tell you my good news from yesterday. I got a new job at TRECA Digital Academy, the online school I have been subbing for. I will be the district's AYP Reading Coach. Basically, I will be working with teachers to provide them resources that will help the district meet the State's Adequate Yearly Progress requirement. I will be working from home two days a week the last part of October and then 4 days a week for the rest of the school year. I am so excited about this new direction for my career! God has been so good to me and Joe during the past year. It would take me too long to really describe here all that He has done for us, but, please, give me a call and let's talk in person! I want to tell you all the details! :-) He's so good!

Now, let's have a baby!

Monday, September 15, 2008

Wind Storms

I'm sitting at our local public library using their wireless Internet. Ours is still out from last night's wind storm. We lost power for quite a while. It came back on some time during the night--not sure when. My mom's is still out in Uhrichsville.

We were really very lucky. We had no damage to our house at all. New Phila actually looks like a tornado came through. There are branches and trees down everywhere. Quite a few huge trees came up from the roots. There's a lot of damage to homes. Hope everyone else fared as well as we did!

Saturday, September 13, 2008

Last Saturday?

It was a strange thought to think that this might be our last Saturday without a child to take care of! So, what did we do? First and foremost, we slept in! I think we lazed about until about 9:30 a.m. Those days are almost over. Then we went to Sugarcreek to have the breakfast buffet at Dutch Valley. YUM! After that, I was so tired from the effort that I took a nap until 3:00 p.m. Nights have been wearing on me. I'm up every hour, so it was nice to grab a few extra hours during the day today. After the nap, Joe and I scrubbed the carpets one last time before the baby arrives. Then we watched The Happiest Baby on the Block. I don't know if the 5 techniques will work as well as they appear to, but I'm willing to give them a try! Joe took notes while I practiced the swaddling. Check out the fruits of my labor:


Thursday, September 11, 2008

No Progression

UGH! Those were not the words that I wanted to hear. Apparently, we have stalled out, so say Doc D. If nothing has happened before then, I will be induced on Monday, September 22. We would go in at 4:oo p.m. for preliminaries and Cervidil, spend the night, and then have Pitocin started the next morning. Let's just say, this is not how I want things to go! :-) So, as Ma Weaver says, "Start the jumping jacks!"

On the brighter side of the things, my friend Mandi brought over her bassinet for us to use. It's so beautiful. How could our little girl not sleep through the night in a bed that beautiful?! ;-)

Too Funny!

Okay, here are two quotes from yesterday. They are completely unrelated, but both hilarious.

Joe apparently was talking to a co-worker about the possibility of me being "artificially inseminated" instead of "induced." We'll blame that on the brain surgery!

While cooking yesterday, I dropped a pan of hot grease on the carpet in the kitchen (Don't ask me why the owner put carpet in the kitchen!). Anyway, I was apparently at the end of my hormonal wits and actually said,"That's it! I'm done dealing with life until after the baby comes." After I calmed down (and cleaned the carpet), Joe laughed at me and asked, "What exactly did that mean anyway?" I replied, "I have no idea, but we are both going to find out!"

Well, we're off to the doctor's again today. I'll let you all know what he says.

Wednesday, September 10, 2008

Final Countdown

Well, we are down to one week from our estimated due date. It's a good thing too. Although people keep telling me I don't look big enough to be ready, my stretch marks tell a different story. Two hurt so much this morning that I put a Band-Aid on them to relieve the pain! Joe laughed at me. He's not allowed to laugh at his pregnant wife, is he?

I'm feeling a bit nostalgic these days. Imagine that. Today I thought I would focus on what I have loved about being pregnant. Here goes...
  • That little pink line. I've seen a lot of tests without them. So that's what it is supposed to look like.
  • Being able to say those words to Joe: "I think I might be pregnant."
  • Looking forward to seeing an OBGYN. I never thought that was a possibility.
  • Feeling her move. I'm not sure this one can be topped. I live for every little bump and roll. Is it possible to feel closer to someone?
  • Feeling her kick when she hears her daddy's voice when he comes home after work. At first, I thought this was coincidence, but after so many months, it can't be. I just love it!
  • Speaking of Daddy, I love hearing Joe talk about swaddling and shushing and other baby things. The look on his face when I held up the 18 month footie PJ's and said, "Can you believe in a year and a half she'll be running around in these?" was PRICELESS. A mixture of joy and terror!
  • I love how amazing my body is. I was just marveling again at how quickly every part of it seemed to focus on doing only one thing: growing the baby. I should say that I'm really amazed by how God created a woman's body to be able to do this.
  • I love the look in people's eyes, especially other women, when they look at me. Am I just imagining it? I can't even really describe it, but it's like they, too, are somehow experiencing part of the fulfillment of my dream.

Well, I know I could go on and on. This has truly been a miraculous year. I can only imagine what the next one will hold.

Monday, September 8, 2008

14 Hours!

No, this is not the length of my labor (and no, I have not gone into labor). 14 hours is the length of time I slept (not counting potty trips) starting Sunday afternoon after Convention. It was an exhausting but absolutely wonderful weekend. I must say, I was glad not to have missed it. I ended up learning how to run the EasyWorship program that we use to put song lyrics and message notes up on the view screen. So I was able to sit during all the meetings and still was able to contribute in some way. God is good!

I think it will be an early bedtime again tonight, but not quite the 3:00 p.m. I had yesterday!

Thursday, September 4, 2008

38 Week Doctor Appointment

We had our doctor's appointment today. The baby has continued to drop lower. In the doctor's words, "We just have to wait." Isn't that what we've been doing? :-) He said that once we get past our due date, then we'll talk about induction. My BP is great and I'm not having any other problems. She's not really big, so there's no need to rush things. Aparently. So, for now it looks like we'll make it to convention!

Wednesday, September 3, 2008

No Progression

Well, after a contraction-filled day, now I'm back to normal. Oh well! I go to see the doctor tomorrow, so we'll find out if there have been any changes going on in there.

Joe and I got our bags packed for the hospital. They are sitting in the living room, ready to go. That's a strange feeling!

I'm heading out this morning for my first Home Instruction of the school year. I hadn't planned on doing any this year with the baby coming so soon, but this is actually a family who goes to our church, and the student will be out of school until January. They don't have a problem with me bringing the baby to the house, and neither do I since I know them so well. So I let the school know that I would cover it, with the exception of the weeks immediately after the birth. They were happy because they didn't have anyone yet who is willing to do Home Instruction. I did all of it last year for them. It will actually be great to have something to focus my attention on these last two weeks other than the baby. I love thinking about her, but the waiting is mentally exhausting!

Tuesday, September 2, 2008

Interesting Day

Let me just say, LOTS of contractions. They aren't regular at all, but they are stronger than they have been up to this point, and moving around seems to bring them on rather than making them go away as in the past weeks. We'll see if anything comes of them. Maybe, maybe not! Ahh, the waiting game.

Monday, September 1, 2008

3 Miles!

I have just rested and cleaned up from our 3 mile walk. That's right! Three miles! I'm so proud of myself. Joe, Shasta and I just returned. We made it all the way to Tuscora Park and back.

Happy Labor Day! (Will it really be LABOR Day for us?)