Anna's first few days

Friday morning after she was born, the pediatrician came in and told us that she heard a heart murmur in Anna. She called cardiology from Children's Mercy and they were going to come and see her and do an echocardiogram later that day. She also told us that Anna had some jaundice and was going to be on a bili bed for the day while waiting for cardiology. We were only allowed to take her out to feed her.

Cardiology came and did the echo, and they found 2 small holes in the bottom of Anna's heart. They are common, and he suspects they will get smaller and close on their own. We have a follow up echo on November 6 with him.

We had already been geared up to go home Friday morning, and we were delayed. Then we were ready to go home after the cardiologist came. When the nurse called the pediatrician to discharge Anna, the pediatrician decided she needed to stay another night because of the jaundice. We were so disappointed and just wanted to go home. The hospital was awesome though! Even though I had been discharged, I was allowed to stay in my room for no charge to be near the baby.

They drew another bilirubin level Saturday morning, and the pediatrician came in Saturday and told us her bilirubin had still risen more despite being on phototherapy. At that point, Anna had to be taken to the NICU and put under double lights. We could take her out every 3 hours to feed her, and that was it. The NICU nurse was amazing though and so sympathetic and helpful. They were going to redraw her bilirubin at 6pm so we could see how much it dropped and if we could go home. After Anna's 11:30 feeding, we went and picked the kids up from my Mom's to take them to lunch and spend some time all together. It had been a rough week on them and they just wanted all of us home. I went back to feed her at 2:30 and Jason brought the kids home. At that point, I was resigned to be there at least until Sunday.

They drew her bilirubin again, and it came back a couple of points lower, and the pediatrician let her go home! She still had to be on the bilibed all of the time at home. This morning, we had an appointment to go in to the pediatrician and have her level rechecked and have her looked at. Her level was up slightly from where it was Saturday evening, but she looked good, started gaining her weight back (Friday morning, she was down to 7# 5oz, and we don't know if she lost any more. This morning she was back up to 7# 8oz), isn't yellow anymore, is eating well, and just seems to be doing great overall! So, we got to leave her off the lights today, but she will sleep on them tonight. We will probably put her on them a little bit tomorrow morning, but then we have a busy day, and the pediatrician doesn't want her on them after early tomorrow. She goes back in Wednesday to be rechecked, and the doctor wants her off the lights before being rechecked.

So, we have had a bit of a roller coaster that we didn't experience with any of the others. On a funny side note, Anna sucks the same two fingers Sarah sucks. Well she tries to...we keep taking her fingers out and putting a pacifier in her mouth. We already learned from Joshua who was crazy about his suckies that they are still easier to get rid of than the finger sucking as evidenced by the fact that Sarah is 4 1/2 and still sucks them!

I don't have many pictures on my computer from the first few days (though Jason does), but you can check out facebook to see other pictures. Here is one of Anna on the lights.

10-20-2010 Baby Anna Arrives (and birth story with lots of pics!)

All along in this pregnancy, I have said that this baby would be born on 10-20-2010. Of course at the time, I didn't know I'd be induced on that day, so I think it's pretty funny. We are so blessed to have her as part of our family. She is so content and the kids all adore her! Here is the story of her arrival (pasted together from Jason's facebook updates for time-frames).

At 38 weeks, Dr Martinez set up an induction for 10-20-2010, when I would be 39 weeks. After my experience with my induction with Sarah, I was very nervous. But I didn’t want a giant baby, and I know Dr Martinez well enough to know that an induction with her would be totally different than the last one was.

So, at 7am, we walked through the doors of the hospital, and I was extremely nervous. I really didn’t want to go through labor and delivery again, though part of me thought it should be “easier” after the whole kidney stone thing. My nurse was amazing, and she was training a nurse as well who was extremely kind. They checked me and I was still only 1 cm so I knew it could be a long day. But, we still thought with it being my 4th baby, things would go relatively quickly.

Around 8am, the nurse started pitocin, and shortly afterwards, Dr Martinez’s partner came to break my water. Because the baby was so high and I was still barely dilated, she could not get it to break with either the amnio hook or the finger hook. Around 10am, Dr Martinez came in, and it took a lot of work, but she did get my water broken. I was still only 1cm.

My nurses kept bumping the pitocin very slowly, and my contractions were very manageable. I was even smiling and joking between them. They had a really difficult time getting her to stay on the monitor, so I was stuck in bed on my side because it was the only way they could keep her on. Finally around 1:45pm, I reached 3cm, and they were going to try to put a scalp electrode on her so I could have more mobility. The nurse tried several times and couldn’t get it because she had so much hair and it kept getting tangled up in it. Then they tried to get the monitor to pick up her heartbeat while I was standing or sitting on the ball, but they couldn’t. My WONDERFUL nurse ended up telling me that since they hadn’t upped the pitocin in several hours (the contractions were 2-3 minutes apart lasting a minute, so it hadn’t needed to be turned up), and since Anna’s heartrate had been steady, she was going to unplug the monitor for 30 minutes and leave me alone. She said I could sit on the ball or do whatever I wanted and that she would take the heat for it. Those 30 minutes did help bring the baby down some, but I was still only at 4cm.

I made sure I kept getting out of bed to go to the bathroom since it was the only way I could be “off the monitor” at all. And the nurse was great allowing me to take my time to get back to bed. She said “For all I know, you are still in the bathroom.” Around 4:30, I was 5-6cm and was having a lot of pressure. I kept waiting for things to just happen quickly because that is how it was with all of my other births. I decided to take a dose of stadol at that point, but I was very much in control. Usually with my other births, I started to “loose it” around 6cm and become almost incoherent. This time, I just continued with my deep breathing (instead of going into the next phase of breathing), and could carry on conversations between contractions. I really have to wonder if the whole kidney stone thing gave me a new perspective on pain. With my other 3, I don’t really remember being aware of the breaks between contractions. This time, I remember it well and was able to use that time. Also at one point, someone came in the room and said “how is your epidural working for you?” I said “I don’t have one.” She said “Wow! I never would have guessed that!” I took it as a great compliment.

Around 5:30, I was at 7cm and just kept telling my husband that the contractions felt weird and the baby moving down felt weird. It was unlike I remembered with the others. The nurses kept coming in because I was having a hard time telling what was going on. At about 6:15, Dr Martinez came in and said I just had a lip of cervix. We waited through a couple of contractions, but then she ended up telling me I could probably just push through that lip. So I started pushing because I wanted her out! My other 3 were born in 3 or 4 pushes at most, and I was really having to work hard at this one. In between pushing, I kept asking “Why is this taking so long?!” The nurse told me several times that she had women with epidurals that were more noisy than I was.

Finally after about 20 minutes of pushing, she was born at 6:49 and was sunny-side-up. I never had back labor or anything, and we didn’t know until she was born that she was posterior. The nurse told me that most c-sections are due to a posterior baby, and that most women cannot deliver a baby that way without some kind of help (forceps, vacuum, or the doctor reaching in and turning them). I needed 2 stitches and was out of bed 30 minutes after birth.

Here are some pictures from that day and evening she was born.

LABOR

10-15-10 Deanna Rose

The kids were out of school because it was the end of the quarter, and it was a beautiful day! Since we had an induction set up for the following week, I decided to spend part of the day at Deanna Rose Farmstead with the kids. They all love to go. They fed the baby goats, played on the playground, and just spent time looking at the other animals. I can't wait to take Anna there with us in the spring.

10-5-10 Ultrasound

We had an ultrasound at 36 weeks and 6 days to check Baby Anna's size. We got to spend 30 minutes watching her play with her toes, seeing how much hair she has, and just relishing the chance to peek in on her again. They told us every measurement was measuring 39.5 weeks to 40.5 weeks and that she was already weighing 7# 11oz, so we were really worried that she was already just a huge baby.

I put labels on the pictures because otherwise I think it is hard to tell what you are looking a.

9-24-10 Soccer

Zachary started soccer the end of September and he loves it! The program is great and he is learning a lot. The nice thing is, the have an open field right there that Sarah can play on too.






The program Zachary is doing spends 30-40 minutes working on a skill each week and then 20-30 minutes playing a game.