Ella's Birthday

Ella arrived at 8:14 PM on 8/14 by cesarean! We have been so excited to have her in our lives! Her story starts with us (John and I) arriving at the hospital at 1:30 last Friday. Our c-section was scheduled for 3:30 but we kept getting pushed back to some some emergencies and low staff at the hospital. Finally after waiting around for quite some time they wheel me into the OR at 7:30. The epidural was pretty painful and they had to try 5 different times to get the needle in and that's not including all the numbing shots they gave me. The worst part about it was that John wasn't allowed in during the epidural. I really needed his support the most at that point and he couldn't be there. But finally they lay me down and announce that he's coming in. He arrives in his scrubs and I couldn't stop smiling. He sat down next to me and comforted me by rubbing my head and holding my hand while I felt quite a bit of tugging and pulling when they were opening me up. Then I felt this immense pressure on my ribs and chest. My midwife tells John to stand up and watch as Ella gets pulled out. Apparently she was kicking and squirming all over the place. They swooped her away and John tells me how beautiful she is. I was very calm throughout the whole operation and I couldn't stop smiling. I was so excited to meet our little girl. They asked John to go into the other room where they had taken Ella to clean her up and weigh her and give her some medicine. I could hear her crying the whole time. John finally comes out with Ella in his arms and I got to kiss her a few times. She was so beautiful. The first thing I noticed is that she had John's lips. It was such an emotional moment that I will never forget for the rest of my life.

Afterward I get carted up to the postpartum room where I spent the weekend. I got discharged Tuesday night. Everything went by so fast for us. Ella has been doing great and we visit her everyday in the NICU. I'm attempting breastfeeding and so far it is going very well. Since Ella is a preemie she still has to get the bottle after I feed her just because we need to make sure she gets enough. We can't wait to bring her home and the rumor is that will be happening on Tuesday! So soon!

Here's a picture to leave you with. John's blog is updated more often but only includes pics, they are all very adorable.http://ellalynn.blogspot.com/
(I promise I'm not choking her :) )

New Blog!
John's been updating it with a LOT of pictures of our Ella. Here you go:
http://ellalynn.blogspot.com/
Enjoy!

So today has taken a dramatic turn for our baby. We went in for a regular appointment this morning. We had to get an ultrasound to measure how far away my placenta was from my cervix (originally it was 1.5 cm away and it needed to be 2). The ultrasound showed the baby very healthy and we got some great pictures (and she's still a girl, we made sure to ask!). The ones I'm posting are of her face. She definitely has Jones lips and Krueger nose (with a little Jones upturn). Both of these pics she's pursing her lips. She was very active for the tech. The midwife kept telling us how healthy the baby looked. I think she was gearing us up for the news.



The news is this. The midwife tells us we have to get a c-section in the next 1-2 weeks. This is because since my placenta is "lobed" (has two different parts) one part is on one side of my cervix and the other part is one the other. How convenient! And one very important vein is connecting the two. If this vein gets ruptured by my water breaking than BAD NEWS BEARS! So they absolutely do NOT want me to go into labor.

So John and I accept this fact that we are to become parents sooner rather than later and we head home to start our preparations. By the time we get home the midwife calls us and tells us that they need us back downtown in order to for a specialist to examine me. And she says "You also have a chance of delivering today". So in a bit of a haze John and I pack lightly (we did have a bit of a discussion about what baby blankey to take and we opted for this ugly bright yellow thing which I wasn't too excited about) and head downtown... again. The specialist takes a looksy. She tells us since the placenta is connected to the baby that I'm not necessarily at risk but the baby is at risk for bleeding out because its all fetal blood and not any of my blood in this vein. She gives us the option to deliver today or tomorrow. Obviously we choose tomorrow because NOTHING is ready.

The rest of today has been full of us talking to close family and friends and sharing this scary but exciting news. We are getting ready to go out to our last dinner as a couple with no children and maybe stop by babies r us to pick up some preemie clothes and some other needed accessories.

Wish us luck and keep us in your thoughts tomorrow. I go in at 1:30 to prep and 3:30 is the scheduled c-section. Tomorrow John and I are going to be known as mommy and daddy!

32 Weeks!

32 Weeks! Actually I'll be headed into 33 weeks on Monday, but whose counting? Jen, Jon, and my John, and I had a pregnancy day today. We went to Prentice Hospital and got a tour. We were pretty impressed with the hospital. The L&D rooms are HUGE! And the bathrooms with the showers look pretty awesome too. We met up with another couple from our natural birth class and went and had breakfast afterward downtown.

The new prego update is that I have gestational diabetes. Its not that bad but it still sucks. I really have to watch what I eat. No sweets for me :( . John's a little worried that the baby might be overweight when she comes out but I'm pretty sure she'll be fine and healthy. The GD does mean though that I can't have a water birth. I really had my sites set on it, but what can you do? I now plan on just staying at home for as long as I can and labor in my own tub and then head to the hospital and chill in the shower until she's ready to pop out.

Mom and Dawn came up this past weekend. They brought some great snack bars for my GD and some cute baby clothes. I plan on going through them tomorrow and start putting it all away (its been a week already, eeks!).

John was pretty funny the other night. The baby had hiccups and he was messing with her. He got really worried about her and thought something might be happening, like she was choking on her cord or something. He felt better once he realized she was just hiccuping. He's felt her move around a lot since so he knows she's okay.

Anyhoo, here are some 32 week pics for your viewing pleasure. I'm trying to gain only 1/2 lbs. each week from here on out. Its been going pretty good so far. :)