Fingers Crossed

We put an offer in on a house in East Lansing today. Send us good thoughts that it gets accepted!!

Music Picks from the Cradle

Anyone who knows us knows that Elena will be a tech savvy baby. As such, she already has an MP3 playlist for the iPod. This playlist includes several lullaby compilations, as well some silly songs (thanks Garrison Keillor!!)

By far the favorite so far (and Kiki's music pick from the cradle) is the album "Lullabies from the Axis of Evil." She received this as a gift and it has been played MANY times already.

In 2002, President Bush coined the term "Axis of Evil," identifying specific countries as the enemy in the fight on terrorism. Acts such as these do much harm to divide the peoples of the world, to set us all apart as fundamentally different. The producer of this album identified one thing that makes us fundamentally the same the world over. The lullaby. So simple, and used around the globe to soothe and comfort.

This album is a collection of traditional lullabies from artists in these "Axis" countries with translations from a variety of Western artists. The songs are beautiful performed and exquisitely arranged. There are some that are great for a bit of calming dancing, and others that are perfect to listen to as you fall asleep.

This is by no means only an album for babies. Elena and I would recommend it for anyone. Some of our favorite tracks are Lalolalo-Don't Worry My Child (Kulsoom Syed Ghulam & Lila Downs), Stars Are Rising (Sun Ju Lee & Eddi Reader), and Garibe-Watch Over Me (Halla Bassam & Ricki Lee Jones).

(E and J-If you want to borrow, just let me know.)

Last Trip to Ann Arbor

Yesterday Elena officially had her last appointment in Ann Arbor. Her 1 month surgical follow-up was performed and it was deemed that all future checkups will be conducted with the pediatrician at home. We basically just need to monitor her weight, to see that she continues gaining. She no longer has to take Zantac and she had her first "real" bath today (not a huge hit with the baby).

The trip itself was a challenge. The peds surgery office was a bit backed up, so our 2:40 appointment really began around 4:45. Luckily, we brought a few bottles with us. One we used during our time in the waiting room. The second we used in an emergency pit stop at Aunt Carol's house.

We thought we were going to make it home before feeding Elena, but she had other ideas. She began crying almost as soon as we got on the expressway. Thankfully, Carol lives in Brighton, so we made a quick stop to mix some formula and to feed Elena. We visited with Carol and played with Everett a bit, and then continued on our way.

Very exciting not to have to go back to Ann Arbor and to know that Elena does not have any further restrictions or medications. Good job, my quick healing baby!!

4 Weeks Already!?

As of Friday, Elena is 4 weeks old. She has had a very busy first 4 weeks of life. 2 weeks in the hospital. Christmas with both sides of the family. Ringing in a new year. And sadly, her first cold (RSV without the bronchiolitis).

With so much going on, it has been a bit difficult for her to settle into a schedule. But slowly, as she begins to get over her cold and all the holiday activities draw to an end, we begin to get acclimated to our life together.

Ray is back at work, so Elena and I currently spend our days together. Last week, Aunts Suz and Rae came over two days to help mom and get to know Elena a bit better. It was much appreciated and they really worked their magic with her. She will sleep in her bouncer or even her crib occasionally now!!

Monday brings a visit to Ann Arbor to check in with the surgeon. Hopefully our last trip! I will return to work on January 22nd, so the schedule this Tuesday will include a visit to daycare, just to check things out one last time. Friday will hopefully include a visit from Grandma R.

As things continue to settle down, I'll keep you all updated. Sorry it was so long between posts this time, but I've been busy, as you can imagine!!!

Oh So Tired....And Happy

We're home!! All three of us. It has been a long day, but Elena has been discharged. We will be able to celebrate Christmas with all our families. Every one will be able to meet Kiki.

Now we begin to sort out our new schedule, feedings every 3 hours (bottle and NG tube only so we can track volume), when will I pump, when will I SLEEP?

Time to take a quiet moment, relax, and reflect on my new family. :)

Latest update

Elena is doing well. We are learning that she 1) has a temper, 2) likes to assert herself, and 3) it's her way or the highway.

Earlier this week she was feeding by bottle, then had a little bit of trouble tolerating the food. I think perhaps the quantity of food was increasing a bit fast for her little system. As a result, she was on IV food all day on Thursday, no milk. Poor Kiki.

Yesterday she began bottle feeding again, at 15cc per feeding, increasing by 5cc every 9 hours. She was very hungry all day, inconsolable at times. Last night she was so upset that she was finally given a bit of morphine so she could get some sleep. The feedings continue to go up and she continues to tolerate the food. As of 7pm tonight, she is taking 40cc per feeding. If she does the same at 10pm, she will increase to 45cc at 1am and then increase by 5cc every 6 hours.

Ultimately the goal is to get her to take and tolerate 66cc of milk for consecutive feedings and then have a few days of weight gain after. The weight gain should not be a problem, as she has been gaining steadily. Born at 7 lb. 13 oz, she is now up to 8 lb. 6oz.

Her incision is healing beautifully. Right now it just looks like a scabby belly button. Her tum has been round and firm, but today finally softened, meaning that she has a bit let gas and discomfort. She is pooping up a storm (I know, why do parents feel that the world wants to know about their babies poop?) But this is a very good sign. It shows that things are moving well through her system, despite the section of her bowel being removed.

All in all, Elena is steadily improving. We hope to have her home very soon, although we are also prepared to spend an intimate Christmas at U of M.

Thank you to everyone for their well wishes and visits. It helps to be supported so well by family and friends!!

She likes it, she likes it!

Elena has officially eaten! On Monday, she had several feedings of 15cc of breast milk. Today, she had several of 45cc. Once she has had several feedings of 66cc, she tolerates them, and can show a few days of steady weight gain, she'll be coming home. Keep your fingers crossed. In the meantime, here is a video of her first feeding!!

Baby, we have a baby!!!

Just a quick post.

Elena Marie was born on 12/07/07 at 12:47am. 7 lbs 13 oz, 19.5". I went into labor around midnight on the 6th. Went to Ingham Regional for assessment, contractions were 4 minutes apart. A quick ambulance ride to Ann Arbor and 24 hours of labor later, we had a little girl.



Elena went into surgery around 4pm on Friday, came out around 7:30. She ultimately had a small potion of her bowel removed. She is recovering well, came off the vent on Saturday morning. Last night she had some stomach juices backing up out of her nasal tube, but x-rays show no blockage and this morning this seems to have decreased almost completely. She has a bit of a rash on her tum around the surgery site, so she will be put on antibiotics as a precaution against infection.

Our current course of action is to wait for the Drs. to determine that she can start getting small amounts of breastmilk ans she how well she digests. This was supposed to happen today, but because of the stuff backing up, Drs. are being cautious. Let's hope for tomorrow. Once we can see that her bowels are "awake", handling food well, and she poops, this little lady is home.

Quite honestly, we have heard several anticipated lengths for her stay. One nurse said that Elena will probably spend Christmas, but most others sound like it will be slightly sooner. Fingers crossed for sooner!!

Here is a short video of Elena on Saturday night. She has been a very calm baby. They have her on very little sedation right now. She is quite tuckered out and sleeps much of the time, but when she is awake, she is very alert and active.

Slo-o-o-o-w Going

I went for a Dr. appointment this afternoon. I did not get the news that Ray and I were hoping for. Essentially, things have not really progressed at all this week. I am not even far enough along to be induced. Boo!!!!!

Since I am currently 40 and 2/7 (that is medical jargon for "Come on already, Elena!!) I will start going to the doctor twice a week.
My next appointment is Friday. I will sit on the fetal monitor for 30 minutes, have an ultrasound, and meet with the doctor. Same drill two days next week. If nothing has happened by next Friday, then we'll take some next steps.

Unfortunately, the longer Elena puts off birth, the more likely it is that we will have to go the route of a C-section. Elena's going to keep growing whether she is in or out. And as the doctor put it, "You can't really naturally give birth to a ginormous baby when she's got part of her belly sticking out." Poignent, and not what I wanted to hear.

With any luck, I will suddenly progress quickly and the next thing you know, we'll have baby Elena here. Everyone keep your fingers crossed and think labor related thoughts!!

Week 40

So this is the "last" week of pregnancy. So far it has been a busy one.

Yesterday I was feeling a little off. Over the weekend I had pulled a muscle in my back/shoulder, and you all know that takes a little spunk out of your step. But I hadn't been seen by the doctor in over a week, was feeling a little swelling in my limbs and a few occasional moments of a racing heart. I called the doctor's office to see if I could move my scheduled appointment up to be seen that day.

The nurse called back to get a little info on what I was experiencing. I explained, she said there were no appointments, but that I should head straight for Ingham Regional for an assessment. It sounded to her like the beginnings of preeclampsia. So off we went to the hospital. I was strapped to monitors, explained symptoms to a billion people, and within an hour was told that I just felt "yucky," which I agreed with. Within a few hours of leaving work, I was back at my desk, happy that everything was OK. Yucky I can deal with.

So today I had my scheduled appointment. It was a usual quicky appointment with a short exam. Sparing you all the gory details, some things are progressing quickly; others, not at all. I know those values of effacement, dilation, and station don't mean a whole lot until I'm in active labor, but it would have been nice to be a little further along.

So many people have given statistics on how many babies are born/on time/late, it makes my head spin, but the conclusion I've come to is this: she'll come when she comes. So far we haven't had any contractions, not even Braxton-Hicks. It seems that this first-timer will get all the "fun stuff" at once with no practice. Oh well, it doesn't make it any less exciting!

The current plan of action? My next appointment is next Tuesday, if we make it that far. If I make it to one week past due, we will schedule for inducement. Elena is active as ever and seems perfectly happy, if not a bit cramped in her current home. If there are any changes, we'll be sure to get the word to all of you.

Last trip to Ann Arbor

I had my last regular exam in Ann Arbor yesterday. Everything was normal, nothing amazing or interesting to report. Elena is still head down, which we like. No ultrasound this week, so no weight estimate, but the doctor's pelvic palpations lead to the comment "Normal sized baby."

We're at 15 days and counting until Elena's due date. Pretty much everything here is set and ready to go. Everything is washed and in place. Bags are packed. Contact lists are written.

Yesterday the doctor requested that I schedule inducement at 1 week overdue, so Elena will be here within 3 weeks for sure!! Yay!!! Actually, 3 weeks feels like forever. I swear this baby girl has been trying to claw her way out for the past 2 weeks. Either that, or she's throwing a MAJOR tantrum in there.

In the meantime, we will stick close to home and await her arrival. We intend to enjoy one last Thanksgiving as just the two of us.

Hope everyone out there has a great holiday!!

Kiki's Bedroom Toursplosionpalooza 2007

Here it is. Enjoy!

A Quick Update

Sue and I went to Ann Arbor Thursday for what I THOUGHT would be my last trip there before labor. No such luck. While I did have my last ultrasound, I still will need to go back for an OB appt once more before delivering (assuming Elena doesn't surprise us with an early arrival.)

Nothing too exciting to report. Elena weighed in at 5 lbs, 2 oz, but the Dr also noted that, at this stage in pregnancy, that number could be off by as much as 15%. So really, she could be anywhere between 4 lbs 6 oz to 5 lbs 14 oz. And she still has 1-2 lbs to grow!

Right now Elena is content to be a little rocker and roller. She rarely takes time to sit back and relax, but stays on the go constantly. And she is still as strong as ever. She kicked (pushed, nudged, whatever) so hard yesterday, it cracked my back!!

So we are at 5 weeks and counting, further excited by the birth of Linnea, which is going to happen at any moment (or at least I hope, for Jilly's sake!!)

Home Sweet Home

Thanks to the generosity of family and friends, Elena's room is really coming together. She has a nice clean bed, complete with sheets, to sleep in. She has a soft, comfy changing table to get changed on. She has enough clothes to fill her dresser for the next year, and tons of toys. She will certainly be living the high life!!

I have washed everything and put it away. It wasn't as hard as I anticipated to find space for everything that we received as gifts. It just required me to clean a few areas of the apartment that had been neglected!!

I'll try to get a few pictures of Elena's room up soon so you can all see. These last few weeks in utero are going to be busy ones, so no guarantees!!

Elena goes to school

Actually, it's her parents who are going to school. We are now 3 classes into our 6 session Child Birth program. So far, we are both skeptical. Is it bad that every relaxation technique I've been shown so far, I think "Well THAT'S not gonna work"? I guess I'm just not a lavender aromatherapy/Kenny G kind of girl.

It's actually funny because many of the techniques require equipment that we would have to take to the hospital with us. I am imagining Ray's Beetle chock full with a birthing ball, rice sock, CD player, fan, car seat, suitcase, etc. Where would this laboring momma sit!?!

We also had another appt. in AA today. Pretty run of the mill, nothing too special. For a moment I thought we might get a 3-D ultrasound pic, but Elena had herself situated so that there wasn't enough fluid around her face for a clear picture. She's gonna make us wait to see her (although Ray is convinced that she has her mom's nose).

The good(?) news is that she has FINALLY turned around to the right position. No more breech baby!! Hopefully she will stay that way for the next few months. AND her new position makes it SO much easier to kick me all day. We've really started to bruise...uh, I mean bond.

And she is getting heavy, too!! She weighed in at about 3 pounds 3 ounces today (43rd percentile for her age, up from 35th). So far I am comfortable with this. Given her "big boned" parents, I was thinking I might have to give birth to a turkey large enough to feed the whole B clan!!

Back to the Dr. in Okemos in 1 week and back to AA for probably the last ultrasound in 1 month. We're getting closer!!!

One, Two, Three...KICK!

I went to the Dr. last Friday for my first appointment of the third trimester (good result on the blood glucose test!!) They gave me some paperwork to read over that outlined things to know for this last phase of pregnancy. One new thing that I was instructed to do was start counting Elena's kicks, to help monitor that she is remaining active and healthy.

Now, the Dr. said the average baby will kick around 3 times per hour, and 10 times in periods of high activity. It's this ten kick hour that you want to make sure the baby has. The suggestion is to have a snack and then shortly thereafter, lay down and start counting. I don't have time to lie around for an hour and count!!!! So, ever resourceful, I devised a plan. I created a spreadsheet (I do love my Excel) that covered my hours at work. Since I am at my desk much of the day, I figured "I'll make a tick mark for each kick and track it that way. Not too disruptive, and then I can easily determine if she has kicked 10 times in an hour. GENIUS!!!!"

So there I was yesterday at 8:30am, sitting with my chart, ready to go, expecting 26 to 33 kicks over the course of my 8.5 hour day, based on the averages stated to me. Maybe a few more, since we all know this baby seems to have a bit more energy than others. Imagine my surprise (exhaustion, irritation) when 5:00pm rolled around and Miss Elena had kicked, swished, punched, head-butted, and poked me 99 times!!!!

Now, don't get me wrong, I am elated that this is an active baby, full of life (although I see some LOOONG nights in our future.) However, this exercise of drawing attention to how active she is MAY have been a bad idea. I think the genius plan will need to be revised so that once I have hit that ten kick mark, the chart goes away for the day, and I try to forget that I've got an aspiring punter with me!

A Day at the Fair

In our annual tradition, we went to the Michigan State Fair yesterday to see all that Michigan agriculture has to offer. It was a bit of a mixed bag. There seemed to be less agricultural displays and more sponsorship displays. It seemed a bit weird that the "Miracle of Life" display, formerly housed in a tent in the center of the fair, was tucked in a side building behind several rows of Chevy cars and trucks.

One thing that we had never done before was go to see the Anastasini Circus performance. It was pretty good. It was your typical, predictable circus stuff, but isn't that what makes the circus so great!?!

We only caught a bit of the pig races, which was OK with me. The group that put on the races really need to get a new show!! Another old standby that I love, even though the program never changes, is the lumberjack show. I love to watch them demonstrate with their saws, and also have log rolling contests. Being a lumberjack must be a really hard job!!

The Final Countdown

 

There are officially less than 100 days until Elena's expected arrival. Exciting!! We got this little Baby Countdown clock from Ray's mom early in the pregnancy. It hasn't held TOO much interest until today. And now we're in DOUBLE DIGITS!!!!

Last night we went to the parent's baptism class for preparations for Elena's baptism. Now, I know what you are thinking, "This early? Isn't that jumping the gun a bit?" Elena will be baptized in January 2008. The preparation class for that group of baptisms (and incidentally, the next available class) will occur during the period that we may still be in Ann Arbor with Elena. Luckily, we looked into baptism early, and did not miss our chance to go to the class this time around.

Per the request of MANY people, here is a quick glimpse into Elena's room. There's not much to it yet, but it is starting to take shape.

3 More Days.....

....until my next post. Stay tuned!

A Day in Ann Arbor

It is 6:00 and we just returned from a full day in Ann Arbor. Four appointments in one day. Quite a lot, but well worth the time, as we were given good news all day long!!

As evidenced by the many tests, pokes and prods she endured today, Elena is doing very well. She currently weighs in at 1 lb 1 oz, up 2 oz since our last visit. Her heart looks very good (the cardiologist couldn't stop taking pictures!!)

But the best news of all came from the surgeon. While we have been taking all precautions and considering all possibilities that are wrapped up with an omphalocele, the surgeon said that he feels that Elena's condition is more consistent with an umbilical hernia. This is better for a number of reasons. Needless to say, we are VERY happy and relieved parents-to-be today.

We also got a tour of the NICU and labor and delivery areas of the hospital. This baby is gonna be born in style!! We were happy to see stellar facilities, and were happily surprised to see how friendly the ENTIRE staff was.

Other highlights of the day were our lunch excursion to Krazy Jim's Blimpy Burger and a visit to our nephew on the way home.

All in all, a very good day for this family (seriously, how many times did I use the word "happy" in this post?) Now we can kick back, relax, and concentrate on battling the heat!!