Our Days Since Mercy

It's crazy to think that we are approaching 2 weeks already!! I always said they grow up so fast but never really understood the level of that until now! We continue to marvel over how much Alivia has changed just in 2 weeks time and how different life really is aside from what we thought it would be like.

Grandma Lint arranged to spend the week here with us while Daddy returned to work the following Monday; however that was ended prematurely. We ended our first week at home in a less lightening circumstance and did traveling much earlier than we had anticipated. My Uncle Russell passed away very unexpectedly at the young age of 53 years old on August 24th...Jay's 31st birthday and only a few hours after my grandpa's 93rd birthday. This caused some unexpected travel back home to attend his funeral which aside from the sleeping at night, Alivia did fantastic!! We couldn't have asked for a better baby and were amazed by how good she did! Sleeping at night was less than stellar in a new place and with new surroundings which she had only begun to adapt to at our house and caused for a night in the recliner snuggled with Mommy. However, Alivia was able to meet several family and friends that were looking forward to meeting her and might not have been able to do so for a few weeks had we not traveled unexpectedly including her Great Grandma and Grandpa and Great Uncle Larry & Uncle Mike. He will be very missed and remembered each year on Jay's Birthday!

We had our first week appointment with Dr. Megan Beebe and got good report for Miss Alivia. She gained 4 oz of the 8 that she lost before we left the hospital and grew an inch!!

I am sure there is so much that I am not putting on here that I could; including today being the roughest day for Momma n Alivia with Alivia's first tummy ache and her first bout of actually crying breaking Momma's heart into a million pieces. We continue to struggle through that in addition to Daddy working extra hours at work and starting bowling league tonight so Momma dealing with it on her own. Thankfully our friend Brina came over and gave Mommy a reprieve for a half hour to run out and get gas drops, cry some tears and take deep breaths. It is certainly not great timing for Daddy to be working extra hours and less than ideal since he was working 3 day weeks for so long before Alivia and now has to work extra when I could use him at home. Overall, Alivia is a terrific baby and I love her to absolute pieces!! I will have to learn to take the good with the bad and even though I don't know all the caveats, I have been assured it doesn't make me a terrible mom that I feel like I am! I end this post with day two of a fussy baby and only hope that we can figure out the trick to make her our happy content baby again! Until our next update....

I think I am in love....

I started this post several days ago when we were still in the hospital. But as so many warned me time flies and everything else takes the back burner...a lot has happened since the start of this post but I will start with publishing this one and continuing with another post to continue the journey since August 18th!

I never in a million years could have imagined what this would feel like. Parenthood has always been an "appealing" concept to me and something that I wanted to do...no one could have ever prepared me for the feelings that I would feel! Even watching some of my very close friends become parents in the last few years and watching them "change" and how they love their children endlessly; I still couldn't put those feelings into perspective until a days ago.

Alivia Kayann Kern was born August 18, 2011 at 6:37 pm. She weighed in at 8 lbs, 9 oz of pure perfection and 21" long. And she is absolutely precious in our lives!! We haven't determined who she looks like other than she has both of our traits that we have picked out. She still has her daddy's long "circus" feet as we saw in the u/s pictures. She has her mommy's nose and chin dimple and "temper" when it comes to waiting too long to eat! ; ) Most of all, she has her mommy and daddy's hearts 100%!!

The labor process was less than ideal but completely worth it as everyone told me would be the case. I woke up about 4:00 Thursday morning for my morning "pee" wake and some slight cramping. Didn't think much of it, tried drinking some water and walking them off, they weren't painful just annoying. After about an hour decided to try a shower and warned Jay that I would be taking a shower in which he responded "do I have time sleep some more" *sarcastic smile*. I took the shower and the cramping intensified a little bit but still nothing major. Another hour and Jay had to get up and get ready for work so I called the perinatal office and Dr. Hwang asked me to go to L & D and get checked; we did so. After an annoying journey in getting checked in (which we preadmitted for) and finally getting seen at about 8:15, we realized that we weren't going home...we were dialated between 4 and 5 and the doctor came in 30 minutes later when I was between 5 and 6 in minutes time. The dialation process went fast....I was at 10 cm by noon...then it went "down hill" from there. We started pushing by 2:00 and we were still pushing with horrendous back labor and contractions at 5:45 where we had to make the decision that this momma had nothing left (considering I was still fighting a cold too) and the doctor was not able to get her to even start crowning. We would push which she would go do the canal but retreat back after we stopped pushing. We had to resort to a c-section...thank god they were able to get my epidural to kick back in for the medication and didn't have to sedate me in which Jay would not have been allowed in the room with me. By 6:45 Jay was holding our little girl and beaming from ear to ear...even through his scrubs!!!

39 Weeks

Approaching the final stretch! While I feel a lot of times I comment and think that I am never going to meet our little girl that is clearly unrealistic and we are in the final leg of the journey!! We will get to meet her soon and it's only a matter of time, whether we have to move her along or not. : ) That being said, our appointment this morning was another less than eventful one. There was a little bit of progress this week going from 1 to "between 1 and 2" and from 50% to 75%; so progress. Contractions seem to be more and more frequent this past week but clearly nothing that is concerning or reason to believe that things are moving along. The hardest part is really knowing "is this it" or "just practice". So many have said "you will know" but I have also heard condescending stories that you don't always "just know". It all depends on the person, the pregnancy, the pain tolerance (which I still have not really determined how high mine is but time will certainly tell!) The subject of an epidural has come up several times and at one time I considered not being the "give it to me" and just see how it goes; however, I have seen the medals that those women that give birth without one get and well...they just aren't that impressive and I don't really care to have that "bragging" right! Sooo...after discussion today with Amie and how soon I can get it (and after she confirmed that they are great!) I will not be martyr and will take whatever relief they can offer. I will find another way to "impress" my husband and anyone else that might think that I need to impress them!!! : )

In other news...I have come upon one of few times that I get to say that I am proud of myself! Today, I am officially done with school and completed my Master's Program with an MBA!! Well officially the end of the class is next Tuesday; however, with the great help/understanding of my professor, I was able to work ahead and turned in my last participation posts today to complete early! It is such a great feeling to be done, to be completed and to still have time to "spare" before Baby comes! I am not embellishing on it as much as I had thought because obviously the anxiety and excitement of B2K is overtaking that; however, I am proud of myself and consider it an accomplisment that I can check off my "bucket list". With that, I pat myself on the back and can't wait to enjoy the "spare" time with my husband and daughter that I have dedicated the past 2 years to school!! And in the same breathe have to thank my husband for all the patience and support that he has given me to allow me to take these classes and complete that accomplishment!! Now it's his turn! ; )

With that, that is the quick update for the week. Another appointment set for next Friday morning at 8:00 putting us at the full-term mark. We will see if she decides to come before that!! : )

38 Weeks

Our little girl proves to be more and more like her mommy and daddy each week and she's not even born yet! : ) Stubborn, bullheaded and set in her ways!! I pre-empt this post with the fact that we know (aside from being reminded constantly!) that we still have 2 weeks to go before our actual due date, plenty of people go past their due date, and just because one is dilated at all does not mean Baby is coming any sooner. However, that does not go without a little bit (okay, a lotta bit) of anxiety and hopefullness at this point in the pregnancy that she will decide to come grace us with her presence early, give mommy some relief from her organs being used as punching bags and let her mommy and daddy see her beautiful self! In the same breathe, we also know that the longer she decides to stay in there the better off she will be and that she has free reign to my internal body until 40 weeks...then she is cut off!! Kidding of course! The intro to this post goes without saying that last Friday's appointment was again uneventful and without progress as we are still dilated to 1 cm from 2 weeks prior. And we again, know that she will decide when it's time and she still has plenty of time, but we can still be excited/anxious/impatient all at the same time for her to make that decision just a few days early so we can finally meet our little girl!
Aside from the uneventful appointment and the decision that I am probably going to be pregnant forever (kidding, of course...but somedays it feels as though I will be) no new updates. Our little kicker is all over the place in her little living quarters. This mom has come across a couple of days the last two weeks that I have had all the energy in the world to get things done (Nesting, so I have heard) so lots of things have gotten done around the house; both expensively and inexpensively. Jay and I, after 3 years got our first dining table set and continued this weekend with finishing the basement with our big screen television. It will be a cozy place for Baby and I to hang out and enjoy the "darkness" for our nap times too! : ) We are excited that a couple more things got crossed off our "wish" lists + "accomplished" list. But I can see it becoming a big issue if she doesn't come soon because I keep thinking of "projects" to do and they seem to get a little more spendy with each one!! But outside of one room I think I have gotten my re-organization and cleaning done for the time being and Jay is hoping that I lose that energy burst so I quit giving him honey-do-lists too!! He's been a great help (usually in exchange for something that he wants to do but still a great help!) : )
I will close this week's post with a few of our favorite maternity pictures that we got back this past week. We are looking forward to putting the finishing touches on Baby's room with the pictures being hung for her to see how much she is loved and how much we are anticipating her arrival!! Until Friday...another doctor's appointment in the morning...if we make it that long....