Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Carrot Top!

It finally happened! Victoria is with us and we are complete. :) Mom has decided her nickname should be Gorgeous (or at least that's what I think, because she calls her that more than anything else. :P ) And Greg finally has a little sister (diaper changing lessons coming soon!).

Little Via made her entrance about how I thought she would. Fast and furious! 15 minutes after Barbara's water broke we were beholding an orange-haired smurf! Of course her skin turned the lovely pink, but Victoria's hair decided to stay red! Go figure. And my 89-year-old grandmother called it the day before. She's like a gypsy prophet or something. I laughed out loud when I saw her hair was red. We're kind of hoping it stays that way, but you never know with babies.

We came home Saturday afternoon and have been on baby-watch ever since. Daddy takes the first part of the night till about 2 or 3 am, then mommy takes over till dawn and beyond (she's a machine I tell ya!). We'll see how this works out going forward, but it helps alot that Via is a very agreeable little girl. Already she's looking about and focusing on people's faces, very alert and responsive. Mewls like a kitten though, which is cute, but she can bark a bit when she's hungry. :p

Anyway, here are some of the pics we took over the first few days. We're going to break out the video camera tonight and take some rolling footage so you can see some of the expressions she makes.




Monday, February 15, 2010

Crisis Averted!

So it's been a while since the last post. Some of that was due to not much happening, and then it was due to WAY TOO MUCH happening all at once. :)

At 36 weeks we went for our visit with the midwife. She couldn't tell where the baby was positioned, so we had a new ultrasound done (got some new pics, really cute, though one looks like she's giving us the finger and grinning). The baby was breach and we've been spending the last few weeks trying to get her out of the comfy position she seems to have been in for the last 2 months (she was basically sideways).

We went to the chiropractor and he suggested using the Webster technique to get the baby to "spin" as they call it. He tried this for a few sessions, but wasn't having much luck. He then referred us to a lady by the name of Jeannie Ohm, who apparently learned from Webster himself how to do this technique. This was Monday of last week. On Tuesday Barbara went back to the midwife to speak with the doctor who partners with her about the baby being in breach. Unbeknownst to us, this was a consultation for a C-Section for this morning! And I was at work during this! At one point the doctor asked if she had any questions and Barbara said "No. but my husband will." The doctor said that even if we could get the baby to turn, they would induce anyway, as the chances of the baby staying in position were slim.

So here we are, scrambling to get the baby to turn. Trying to run here there and everywhere to meet with specialists and what not (during a BLIZZARD!) We met up with Mrs. Ohm and she did her thing, told us to call out sick from the c-section and gave us some incense to burn near Barbara's pinky toes to help enhance baby's calm (or something like that). This only helped to make Bea sick (she's midly asthmatic so inhaling any kind of smoke makes breathing even more difficult, let alone having a baby up in her ribs.)

By Saturday night we'd had enough. Between her laying upside down on ironing boards and half burning her toes with the incense to freezing her out with frozen bags of vegetables and taking weird homeopathic drugs, we said enough. We put it in the Lord's hands and said if it's going to happen, it's going to happen, but either way, this baby is coming on Monday!

So we spent part of yesterday cleaning the house, and then Bea and her friend Nell went out for mani/pedi/facial/shopping extraveganza! I bought a new TV (hey, we all cope in different ways). We went to bed and woke up at 4:00am to be at the hospital by 5:30 to prep for the procedure.

Long story short; it took them 4 tried to get the IV in her arm (ended up putting it in her hand and making her even more miserable), sat us down, and we waited till 7:30 when the doc and midwife showed. They gave us a courtesy ultrasound just to make sure where baby was at and.....Lo and behold, her head was in position! I have no idea what all the other bulges are in Barbara's stomach, but the one that matters is where it needs to be! Hallejujah!

The midwife did a quick check and said we are going home, as there is almost no dialation and Barbara's body isn't ready to deliver yet (though the monitor showed small contractions every 3 minutes or so).

Final analysis, we go back Wednesday night at 7:30pm (thank God. I'm dragging here at work after the early morning roll call) and they will give her a "ripener" to help the process along and possibly induce if need be. We are both just happy and relieved that we've averted any kind of sugery, and thank the Lord and all of our friends for any prayers or thoughts toward the health of our baby and mom. As it is right now, we'll hopefully have an update some time Thursday morning! :)

P.S. I'm also kind of glad it didn't happen today, since we're both sick! I don't get sick but once every 2 years or so, but feeling this crappy on the day my daughter is born would have sucked! So go Victoria! Make daddy happy! :p