First Weekend Alone...

This past weekend marked the first weekend that Ryan and I were by ourselves with Guen. But it turned out to be a great weekend. Weather wise it was perfect. On Saturday, I took Guen to Olan Mills for a free baby portrait package. Well free is actually $6 for a processing fee. She had her first photoshoot and she did ok. When we got there she was a little rowdy and a crankster. So I fed her again (even though I just fed her before we left the house to go to Olan Mills), she vomitted and then was the perfect baby. I think we got a good photo, we will see when the prints come on Nov 9th! That is right, I have to wait that long for the prints to come back. I did get to see them on the computer after the photoshoot but the lady whizzed through them so quickly, I hope I picked the best one. After that trip, I went home and showered, fed Guen again and then Ryan and I were off to downtown Houston. Guen's first trip to the big city. We met Aaron and Sarah at the Discovery Green Park because it was so pretty outside and had an early dinner at The Lakehouse in the park. We walked around afterwards and saw a wedding going on. It was kinda sad because in the park they were practicing the Thriller dance by Michael Jackson that was supposed to occur nationwide all at the same time that evening in tribute to Halloween/Michael Jackson. Meanwhile the wedding was going on with Thriller music and dance instructions over the loud speaker blaring throughout the park. After our child was the perfect baby (asleep) for 4 hours straight, I was about to pop, so we went over to Aaron and Sarah's house where I got to feed the little one and then we headed home. Ryan, Guen and I got home around 830pm and Ryan and I were discussing on the way home how it felt like we were getting home at 2am, we were that tired. We put Guen to sleep and she slept for 5.5 hours straight that evening, she was pooped too. Sunday we got up early for our first church outing with Guen. We sat in the very back and she did great the entire time except she let out a little peep and I panicked and took her outside. Once outside she did not make another word but I was so scared that she would wake up again that I did not take her back inside. We got through almost our entire sunday school class before having to leave 10 minutes early because she had reached her breaking point. She was going almost 4 hours without eating and she was protesting. We got home and had some lunch and Ryan's mom, Lovey, came over to see the kid. We all went for a walk around the neighborhood to get outta the house and enjoy some more of the delicious weather. That night she slept almost 6 hours in a row. She had a big weekend and was catching up on her sleep. Hope you had a great weekend.

Week 1 and 2 in the life of Guen

I am going to make this a short post and because I don't have much time til the next feeding time, here goes. Week one with Guen consisted of tons of tears with breastfeeding. I would give birth 1000 times than to relive that week again. My milk did not come in til about day 7, took meds to bring in my milk which lead to some horrible side effects of jitteriness and calling the doctor. She lost weight from 8lb 12oz to 8lb 4oz. But at least she did not have an increase in her bilirubin which I was panicked about being a NICU nurse. Week 2 was 1000 times better and consisted of Guen finally getting satiated from breastfeeding and hanging out with family (see pics). This weeks pedi visit consisted of another weigh in. She is now up to 9lb 10oz and did great during her exam and lab work for her newborn screen. Week 2 also started the meal deliveries for us from our Sunday school class and my neighborhood mom's group. We will have meals every day from Oct 19th-Nov 1st. It has been so helpful to have those meals! Yesterday was also a big day because my parents decided to go home for awhile. I don't think they will stay away long but they wanted to give Ryan and I the weekend alone together. They had been in Houston for 1 month! They were here 1 week before waiting for Guen to arrive and today she is 3 weeks old. They were so helpful and will be sorely missed but I gotta figure out how to take care of this baby on my own. Here are some random pics taken these few weeks since her birth.

Baby Guen's Arrival

On Thursday, October 1st, Ryan took off of work to work on the sprinklers and ceiling fan in the baby's bedroom with Grandpa, aka, Pappy, Bill. That evening, after my parents left, Ryan was out working on the sprinklers that still were not working and I noticed that my stomach was hard at times. I just thought it was the baby moving, I mentioned it to Ryan, we went to bed and I slept great that night. The next day, Friday October 2nd, I had my ob/gyn appointment to do an ultrasound and then they decided, since I was over a week due, to do a fetal monitor test. They noticed I was contracting about every 5 minutes. I saw the midwife (covering for my ob/gyn) afterwards and said she would schedule an induction on Tuesday, October 6th, when my doc was back in town. That day I went home and rested and noticed that my stomach got tight still but I was still determined that it was the baby moving and not contractions.

When Ryan got home that evening from work, I had made homemade spaghetti and called it an early night, since Ryan had to work the next day. I went to bed and noticed the “tightening” of my stomach was a little harder. I did not want to wake Ryan since he had to work and still blew it off as the baby moving around in my belly. I kept expecting labor pains to feel like menstrual cramps but now I realize your belly gets tight is what labor pains truly feels like. I tried to time my contractions that evening but drifted in and out of sleep so I never got really a true timing in between contractions.

At midnight I got up to use the restroom when I returned to bed, I thought I was urinating on myself for a brief moment but realized I just urinated so it could not be pee but my water breaking. I woke up Ryan and told him to get me a towel when it really started to gush. I took a shower, fixed my hair, and put on makeup so I would look good for all the pictures. This is when I really noticed labor pains and swayed back and forth when one would come but they were very tolerable. We called my sister, Tootie and my parents who were staying with Tootie and called Ryan’s mom to let them know we were going to the hospital. We got there around 130am. I noticed when there were labor pains at the hospital and did not really talk through them much but again they were still tolerable.

The nurse, Robyn, was very nice and did all my admission paperwork while another nurse started my IV. She checked to see how much I was dilated and I was already 5cm when at the docs office that morning I was 3.5cm. The nurse said I could have an epidural anytime I wanted it, I said the sooner the better. About 20 minutes later, the anesthesiologist Dr Herrera came and placed my epidural. My parents, Tootie and Lovey, Ryan's mom, got to come in briefly and see me before the nurse politely asked them to leave so I could rest before having to push.

At 6am, Robyn came to check on me before she left for her shift and said “oh my we are going to have a baby”. She asked for me to push once for practice and told me to stop because the baby was coming with my one push. She went to call for the doctor. I did not feel anything--I love epidurals. Dr Castillo was on call for the weekend since my ob/gyn was out for the weekend. Because it was shift change when I was about to deliver the baby, Robyn stayed over and Jaime the day shift nurse came to help too. I pushed 6 more times and Guen came out. Again, I did not feel anything. Did I mention that epidurals are great!

They laid Guen (Guendaline Ann Fennell) on my belly and announced, "It's a girl." I was so sure that this baby was going to be a boy I said, “Are you sure?” Dr. Castillo spread her legs and said, “Look!” Guen was pink and crying immediately. They took her to the warmer and cleaned her up and did footprints. Ryan held Guen first and then handed her to me. She was a whale compared to the premies I am used to taking care of in the NICU! She was 8lb 12oz and 19 inches long.

After they cleaned me up, they immediately transferred me in the bed down to the postpartum unit. That is where everyone got to come in and see the baby and see me since giving birth to Guen. We had many visitors that day, and on Sunday (see video). We got discharged Monday afternoon at got home around 3pm. More to come with Week One and finishing up Week Two.