This Is Us: 2010

Wednesday, December 22, 2010

[Oct 30] Homeward Bound

Both mom and baby feeling a little better. I'm sure it had nothing to do with the percocet. Cough Cough.

This made me love Kaiser even more. A built in To Do List bolted to the wall. Love!

We got to check everything off. Done and Done!

Yes she's "one of those babies."

We handed the camera to the nurse to get a family photo.

Note to all nurses: DO NOT TAKE FULL BODY PICTURES OF NEW MOMS WEARING HORIZONTAL STRIPES.

I can't decide if I look more like the Cheshire Cat or if I look more like I ate the Cheshire Cat. Maybe a little bit of both. Oh well, let the water retention games begin!

A few people told us that we should have Lainey "bring Luke a present" when she comes home. and it will make him like her.

She brought him his two favorite things: a flashlight and Silly bands (which he thinks are called Souey bands because our neighbor kid has a speech impediment and told Choob that's what they were called)

While Luke in no way "liked" his new sibling, perhaps these two small gifts saved her from the fiery pits of hot lava he had originally destined her for.

Star Wars "souey" bands. What a treasure.

Grandpa holding Lainey for just a minute until Grandma snatched her up.

Wednesday, December 15, 2010

[Oct 29] Day 2- Choob's First Encounter

We were lucky enough to have my parents take care of The Choob while we were in the hospital. They fed him, dressed him, took him to school, bathed him and put up with his crazy bedtime routines. Thanks mom & dad!

During my pregnancy Choobie would always say, "When my sister hatches out I am going to throw her in hot lava!"

My parents brought him down to meet his sister for the first time late that night. Dan & I made sure there were no volcanoes around.

He looked at her but wouldn't touch her. Especially not with his bare hands!

The awesome nurses brought him a "big brother kit" (a small bag full of ordinary medical supplies) which he loved.

His favorite part of the kit was the shot.

Which he decided to give his sister multiple times.

And his dad some of the time.

After all, stabbing people with a shot is way more fun than meeting your baby sister. It also proved a wonderful distraction from his current views on siblicide.

He ended up leaving the encounter with his blue darth vader mask on as happy as a clam! A Successful meeting in my book.

Monday, November 29, 2010

[Oct 29] Day Two- Parade video for the Grandparents

Make sure to listen for the raccoon sound effects as he walks by. Hilarious!

[Oct 29] Day Two- Choob's Halloween Parade

That morning Dan left the hospital to watch Choob at his school Halloween Parade. He was a raccoon. Pretty obvious. Not sure why several people thought he was a skunk. (He can be a little stinker though)

Click on the image below and try not to explode from the cuteness. I dare you.

He was so excited to show his best school friend "Ellie" his raccoon costume. You can see why she is his best friend, she was anakin skywalker for the parade. Dreamy.

With them it was love at first fight. They love to battle sabers and chase one another around the playground. It makes me so happy to see him playing with a peer at school. Yay Choobers!

When him & Ellie are together they just run and laugh and run and laugh. It is so cute.

Marching in the parade.

Raccoon face.

Choobs class. They are the "ponies" this year.

After the parade my parents came down to see Lainey. Dan had our camera so I didn't get any pictures. Just picture my mom holding the baby and not wanting to share her with anyone. She did let my Dad hold her for a few minutes at the end of their visit. Hee hee.

Day Two

Day two was difficult. I am not one of those moms that looks fab after giving birth. Especially after your newborn has puked hard core 3 times that morning and then they decide to pump her stomach while she's in the room with you. See below:

This is what I look like when they don't give me pain meds that work. It took 48 hrs before I finally got the right drugs. Once I did, it was sweet sweet heaven.

We had a visit from Uncle Tyson & Auntie Alex. Don't they look cute with a babe? Hint Hint.

Lainey- 24 hrs. old

Saturday, November 27, 2010

[Oct 28] The Gory Details- Part III

After my mandatory baby holding was done, they whisked Lainey over to the warmer to conduct all the necessary tests etc. and in rolled my first meal!

I was ravenous and starving and snarfed down every last bit of food in front of me just like Agustus Gloop. Same Same.

Dan went out and got me this cookie to satisfy my sweet tooth. Yum!

Daddy & Daughter

Time to go to the recovery room. They mummified us in warm blankies and wheeled us to our room.

Lainey in her crib.

Her first bath.

Her first hairdo.

[Oct 28] The Gory Details- Part II

2:03 pm- Pitocin Started

2:30 pm- contractions too infrequent, pitocin upped to increase

At this time I was still not feeling any contractions and they were still not showing up on the monitor. The nurse just kept increasing my pitocin drip to see if we could get some contractions to show up.

2:41 pm- contractions regular now but too painful. Calling back the anesthesiologist to be like WTH?

Dan actually wrote some naughty bad words in his notes because it was getting a little crazy. I was feeling a lot of pain and I was panicking thinking that I wasn't numb and we were going to have another horrific labor if I was in that much pain and only 3 cm. I was pretty much demanding more drugs and shooting Dan the biggest stink eye ever so he knew I would slay him if he didn't get the anesthesiologist in there ASAP.

Doc came rather quickly and maxed out my dose. I was still in serious pain and could move my entire lower body. It was then that he told me that there was nothing more he could do and that "sometimes epidurals don't always work like we want them too."

EXCUSE ME?! Instant meltdown on my part. Tears, gnashing of teeth, shaking. The sweet nurse decided to check me to see if I was maybe a 5 to give me hope of making it through labor with the pain.

3:05 pm- Very painful... checking her...she's a 10!

The look on her face was priceless. She said I was a 10 and not to move...she had to get the doctor.

3:15 pm- Pushed...nothing

3:41 pm- Taking a 20 min break to wait for the baby to move lower

4:01 pm- Pushed again

I pushed for an hour until the midwife said she needed to do an episiotomy because my band of scar tissue from Choob's arrival was so thick that the baby was not going to come out on her own. (Once again, thanks for nothing intern from UH)

2 snips later Lainey arrived.

Turns out I was having contractions the entire time but the monitor wasn't picking them up because the band around my belly was in the wrong spot. So I was having contractions the whole time and then they kept increasing the pitocin so it was like a FastPass for labor. I highly recommend it!

4:19 pm- Born. 7lb 11oz 20.5 inches. Midwife Kathy Vaux

When I called to tell Choob he said, "fine I don't even care!" and hung up.

Her face was all red on one side because she was delivered "sunny side up".

Right after she was born they put her on my chest and said "hold her there for at least an hour." This was really fun, especially when she pooped all over my bare stomach. Awesome.

5:00 pm- Dr. Nystul arrived.

Ironic. The entire reason I was going to be induced was to guarantee that my doctor would be the one delivering. With kaiser you just get whomever is on call so Dan & I decided to be induced because my doctor knew about my previous birth and promised me it would be 100% different with him. He was so sweet to come over after seeing patients all day. He ran into the room in cap & scrubs ready to deliver the baby that had arrived 45 minutes earlier.

It all worked out rather nicely in the end.

Tuesday, November 16, 2010

[Oct 28] The Gory Details- Part I

Surprise, I had a babe! If you didn't know don't feel bad. We didn't tell many people because we were in escrow for so long and there was a chance we would lose the house if we were suddenly to become a "family of four" so we kept the cat in the bad for a very long time.

I had Dan write down times and notes during my labor so we could remember all the gory details. His notes are displayed in red.

4:00 am- Contractions started

I had contractions most of my pregnancy so I usually ignored them. I was set to be induced on Saturday and planned to run all my last minute errands and babysit for a friend on Thursday.

Turns out, my offspring had different plans.

When the contractions were 2 to 3 minutes apart for over two hours I started to take them more seriously.

7:30 am- left for the hospital

At this point all I can think of is how much I look like Violet Beauregarde. Same Same.

8:45 am- dilated 2.5 cm. rounded up to a 3 to get admitted.

Upon arriving at the hospital, the midwife made an executive decision to round up so that I didn't have to turn around and go home. See how happy she made me? Get this baby out of me now!

9:05am- moved to labor/delivery room

We had THE BEST nurse nearly the entire time. She was really funny and was adamant about helping me get the most drugs possible so I wouldn't feel anything. Love her.

We still had no name picked out at this point. We did have a list though.

9:43 am- IV first attempt in left arm. Jaime said, "I think its in the bone."

Ironically enough, this was the most painful part of the WHOLE labor. For some reason nurse Cathy decided that I needed to donate bone marrow or something because she stuck that needle into my radius AND ulna and it is still bruised sore to the touch 3 weeks later. Wah. Needless to say no blood was coming out (bone lady, you're sucking out my marrow) so she had to go to my other arm.

9:55 am- IV 2nd attempt in right arm- made in

10:41am- Epidural by Dr. Baker. He did a really great job, Jaime was nervous but very impressed with how easy it was. "Way easier than I thought"

Easiest ever. No less than one gagillion times better than Choobs epidural. Hawaii anesthesiologists suck. Especially interns from UH.

10:58am- Catheter and pee. gross.
I omitted the picture for your sake.

11:19am- Can't feel the contractions she's been having
This was bizarre because I could move my legs and feet. Literally. I could lift my legs up and down and left and right but couldn't feel the contractions. Miraculous I tell you.

11:22am- First self dose of epidural.
Definitely not the last. I pushed it so many times it would lock me out and beep at me.

12:07pm- decided on name
12:45pm- Broke her water
The midwife came in and I hadn't dilated at all. I asked her to break my water and she did. No big deal. So far it was smooth sailing with this child.

1:45pm- Still at 3cm. Going to do pitocin.
Midwife thought the epidural stopped my labor since they weren't picking up any contractions on the monitor and I wasn't feeling any. She asked me if I wanted to try pitocin and I said, "of coruse, the more drugs the better."

1:54pm- started letters to juliet dvd
Apparently this was noteworthy to Dan. What? The dvd player was busted so he spent some time rigging ours up with various cables so we could watch movies while we waited for her to arrive.