miss daphne enters the world

Of course, I cried the first time I saw my little one.

I was going to write this post more as my daughter's birth story, but I decided that might be a little too personal and possibly scary to some. Instead, I'm just going to make this a brief, happy post.

Miss Daphne was a sweet baby from the beginning.

I went into the hospital for a scheduled induction on a Wednesday night. I had some health factors that my doctor was working with cautiously. She didn't want me to go too far past my due date because the health risks increased the longer the baby was still inside. 

  

The surgery was really fast, and my baby was here before I knew it.

The induction failed, and on Thursday morning I was given the option of either trying again, or having a cesarean. My family and I discussed it and I decided to go with the c-section.

Right after she was born, in the operating room.

Miss Daphne was born at 3 o'clock on Thursday afternoon. She was (and still is) a healthy baby. She was 6 pounds 10 ounces at birth, and 19 inches long. 

Shortly after her birth.

Daphne was born with dark hair and blue eyes. She looks a lot like me, and has her father's eyes. 

Taken on Saturday, 2 days old.

We were blessed with a happy baby. She lost a little too much weight in the first couple of days after her birth, but once my milk came in she started gaining weight again. She loves to eat.  

Taken on Saturday, 2 days old.

She was such a tiny baby when she was born. I'd look at her in amazement. As big as I felt, I expected her to be much bigger. She's perfect, though, and we love her dearly.

Picture taken by our friend, Michelle, when she visited in the hospital.

We only had a few visitors in the hospital. My mom stayed with me Friday night, because my husband had to go to work Saturday morning. Our friend, Nancy, and her granddaughter, Keeona, came on Saturday, as well as our friend, Michelle. Sunday was the last day I was in the hospital, and our friend, Barb, visited. My in-laws live 250 miles away, so they couldn't visit until Monday, when I was home.

Daphne with Dr. Stewart at my 2-week checkup.

My doctor was on vacation when the induction was scheduled, so her colleague, Dr. Stewart, actually delivered Daphne. He was very kind and took care of us so well. We were all very happy in the end.

Daphne is now three months old. She's still a petite little thing, but she's growing. Her eyes are getting darker and she's growing more hair. I love dressing her up in cute outfits. We take walks now that it's getting warmer. Even when she's fussy and cries I absolutely adore her. She's learning how to use her voice, and giggles and coos a lot. It's the cutest thing.

I love being a mom.

{vlog} baby's room - in progress

Hello there bloggy friends!

I've really gotten into watching youtube videos the last few weeks while I've been preparing for my wee one to make her arrival. There are so many helpful and entertaining vlogs out there. I thought I'd try my hand at vlogging, since I've been wanting to do something a little different for a while.

The hubby and I have been working on setting up baby's room, and his mom wanted to see some photos of it. I decided, instead, to shoot my first vlog and give her a better perspective of what we've been up to around here. Now I'm sharing my video with you. I hope you enjoy the tour!

click here to watch the tour

week 36 and the hospital scare...

Last Thursday, I had my 36-week appointment with my doctor. The nurse had taken my pulse and blood pressure, all the regular pre-doctor stats. My blood pressure was slightly elevated at 100 over 80. (I usually have really low BP, too.) When the doctor came in, she started asking all sorts of questions, one of them being "Have you noticed any difference in your baby's movements?"

I hadn't thought of it, but she had seemed less active than normal. I had no solid data, because I haven't been doing fetal kick counts, it was just a feeling. Before I know it, my doctor is calling in a tech who hooks me up to this monitor to read baby's heart rate. In the middle of being monitored, a phlebotomist enters the room and takes some blood. Everything was so overwhelming and was happening so fast. I started crying, fearing the worst.

After monitoring baby's heart for about half an hour, my doctor decided to send me across the parking lot to the hospital to get hooked up to their (more powerful) monitors. By this point, I had calmed down, but everything that had been said kept echoing in my head. "The baby's heart rate doesn't go up high enough when she moves," being the number one comment I kept thinking about. "Is there something wrong with my baby's heart?" I wondered.

At the hospital, another nurse hooked me up to another machine. There were two sensors attached to long cords that go into the monitor. The sensors get strapped to my belly. One of the sensors monitors baby's heart rate, and the other detects when I'm having contractions. I guess they use the same equipment when a lady goes into labor.

I sat for over two hours with this stuff hooked to me. Thank goodness my mom was there with me. (She takes me to all of my doctor visits.) We watched TV and patiently waited.

Finally, the doctor came in to update me on what was going on. My blood test from the doctor's office showed abnormal platelet and liver levels. Combined with my baby's heart rate, they were concerned I might have pre-eclampsia. I was admitted to the hospital for 24-hour monitoring. He informed us if I had protein in my urine or anything else was off, there would be a possibility they'd have induce me to start labor. I did NOT want that to happen.

I stayed in the hospital two nights, in which I got very little sleep. Every eight hours, someone would come in and take more blood. I had the monitors hooked up to my belly the entire first night into the next day. Sleeping with those on was difficult because I'd change positions and the nurse would have to come in my room to adjust the sensor, as I had knocked it off moving around. On Friday, they cut down to 20 minute monitoring intervals (which meant they had to get a steady 20 minutes, and sometimes that actually took over an hour). I was relieved to have those things off, though.

My husband came and stayed with me after work on Friday. He was worried and just wanted to be with me. He couldn't concentrate at work, so they let him go home early at noon. He stayed with me until Saturday afternoon, when my parents came back to the hospital. (My dad actually had to do a sleep study the night before, at the same hospital.)

In the end, there were some minor problems but nothing to make them keep me any longer or induce. Saturday evening I got to go home. I've been on bed rest, and I won't be going back to work until my maternity leave is over. At my 37-week appointment (yesterday), my blood pressure had decreased and everything looks "back to normal". The baby's head is low and my body is preparing for labor. It's coming down to "any day now"- which is both exciting and a little scary. We're both healthy, though, which is really the most important thing. 

{baby shower} making signs

My baby shower is this Saturday, and there are some last minute things I thought I'd work on. While I'm not supposed to be doing a whole lot, I can't resist.  I love making signs and doing crafts.

I still need to finish my baby book- or at least the part I plan on bringing to the shower. If I haven't posted about it before, I'm creating my own book from scratch. I cut down sheets of chipboard to make the front and back covers. Then, I spray glued some pretty scrapbook paper to the chipboard covers. The pages are 12"x12" Kraft paper cardstock, and it's all bound together with metal binder rings.

 The section I plan on bringing to the shower is sort of like a guest book. Each guest will write a message on a card, and tuck the card inside an envelope on one of the pages of the book. I used the same idea to make my wedding guest book, and since people didn't quite know what to do, I made a sign this time around!

 

 My mom had me make the following signs for two of the games we're going to be playing. 

As you can see, our theme is green and pink. I know there will probably be a lot of pink decorations, so I wanted to use a good amount of green. 

I made these signs using Paint.net. It's a really easy program, sort of like Photoshop only much simpler. I use Paint.net for all my blog designing, and any time I want to make printed material. For me, it's the best program and it's FREE!

How was your weekend?