Kylie's First Week

We took Kylie home on Friday. Everything was going great. She slept great, ate great (she latched on the first time we tried to breastfeed her), and she was just such a calm, happy kid. We had to take her in to the lab to test her billiruben levels, because hers were borderline. We had her tested Saturday afternoon, to find that the levels went up to the high risk zone. So the pediatrician had some lights brought to our home to start some phototherapy that night.
She didn't really like it, and so she was up every hour that night. Eventually she stopped fighting it and slept from like 4-7AM. We had to take her back in Sunday morning to test the levels again. She had gone down, but still was in the high-intermediate risk zone.
She slept fine Sunday night, and we took her in Monday morning to get tested again and to see the Pediatrician. Her biliruben levels went down again, into the low-intermediate risk zone. Our pediatrician instructed us to get tested again Wednesday morning and that if things looked good we could stop using the lights then. However, they weighed Kylie and found that she dropped weight to 7 lbs 4 oz (she dropped to I think 7 lbs 9 oz when we left the hospital), and the pediatrician was very concerned about this. She gave us little feeding tubes to supplement feedings. I initially didn't think it was a problem, and that her instructions to feed two syringes per feeding was too much. I tried feeding her just one tube and she spit it ALL up.
On top of that, Jared got sick Friday (yes, the DAY we took Kylie home from the hospital) and Kylie had started to develop a cough on Monday evening. Alora also started to really misbehave and get whiny/crying, which indicates that she's getting sick too. Darrel had also started to feel a little congestion, so we had just brought a little newborn into a home of sickies!! Luckily I hadn't gotten sick yet.
But we continued to feed with the tube, with lots of spit up. Then I decided to try burping her more effectively. This turned out to be the key to helping her keep her food down. Then we were able to feed her two syringes of expressed milk each feeding during the day Monday. That night, I really noticed how her sleepiness affected her eating, in that she didn't eat for very long, and fell asleep pretty quickly. So she probably really did need that extra bit of food.
Tuesday she still did great. Slept pretty much all day long (as newborns do). Her cough had developed a little bit overnight, but it didn't seem to hinder her sleeping much.
Wednesday morning we took her to get tested again and got a weight check. Her biliruben levels were down and she gained a few ounces since the last visit. So we got to take her off the lights! We're still working on feedings, to help her gain weight. After some feedings it seems like she is still hungry, so we're working on getting my supply to increase.

My recovery has been pretty great. I've been able to clean, cook, sit, stand, walk essentially pain free. Probably thanks to my medications. I still have a little trouble sleeping at night, which is kind of the funny part about my recovery. During pregnancy, I could ONLY sleep on my side, but that caused my hips to be off and caused a lot of pelvic pain whenever I moved. That pain still continues if I sleep on my side, but now I can sleep on my back, which causes me ZERO pain and I sleep wonderfully.

Kylie Ann

Kylie Ann was born on May 2, 2012 at 6:37 PM at the Orem Community Hospital. She weighed 8 lbs 5 oz, and was 20.5 inches long. Here is her birth story:

As many of you know, this pregnancy had been by far the most difficult one for me. The pelvic girdle pain disabled me and prevented me from getting much sleep. We were eager to have this pregnancy over and to have our little girl with us. We tried all sorts of things to get labor started, and it seemed for many days like I could go into labor at any time. At my doctor's appointment on April 24th, I was already dilated to 3 cm, and the Dr. said I could go into labor soon. Unfortunately for me, I made it to my next week's appointment on May 1, to find that I had dilated to 4 cm. Now labor was REALLY close.
We had been trying everything we could think of to start labor. For several days before I went into labor I had been having either consistent contractions (every 5 minutes or less), or pain, but never both at the same time, so I knew I wasn't really in labor. Then finally on the 2nd, I woke up with lots of cramping and contractions. I started timing them and they were coming every 5-6 minutes where most of them were painful. Because I had been having so many "false labor" contractions, I wasn't really sure that I was really in labor. But, we decided to go into the hospital anyways because we wanted to be sure to make it to the hospital since I was already so far dilated.
We get to the hospital to find out that the hospital (we opted for the smaller community hospital because we prefer the atmosphere there) had no labor and delivery rooms available! They started me in the "closet room" (which is the room where they check and then send women home who are not in labor, and is the size of normal delivery rooms at normal hospitals), where they checked me around 11:00am to find that I had dilated to 6 cm. The nurse then rushed to get everything done quickly because it seemed I was going to have the baby REALLY soon. They got me all set up with IV and epidural, and moved me into a labor and delivery room that had JUST become available. The room we got moved into is the best room in the hospital, called "sweet 16", because of how large it is and the huge windows with mountain view. It was nice!

In the closet room

Set in the "sweet 16" labor and delivery room

Our room

After they got me all set up, it was around 1:00 and they checked me again, and I had dilated to 7 cm. My water still had not broken or been broken yet. They were surprised that I had not progressed further, and my Dr. was ready to start me on Pitocin to help things progress, but we waited to see if things would progress on their own. My contractions slowed down and their intensity had decreased. At 3:00 they checked again and I was still at 7cm, so they started the pitocin. At around 5:20, my water broke, and my contractions REALLY started to pick up and got very painful. They redosed my epidural (I was so numb and feeling GREAT) and after 15 minutes, I had dilated to 9cm. They turned off the Pitocin and waited for the Dr. to get in. My Dr had 3 other women go into labor the SAME DAY, so I had to wait a little before he could arrive to deliver my baby. We were OK with this, since I wasn't in pain or anything like I was with Jared (he came like 2-3 hours after we got to the hospital). They got me all set up to deliver, and Kylie was born at 6:37 PM. The umbilical cord was VERY short and her head was very big. I tore a little, but other than that, delivery was very smooth.

She was perfect in every way, and we love her TONS!

With Mom

With Dad

little Kylie!

Family Photograph!

38 weeks

Just got back from my 38 week check up. My Dr. checked me and said I was dilated 2-3cm. With Jared I was only at 1 cm at my 38 week check up, and he came 4 days later! He doubts I'll make it to my next appointment, which is really stressing Darrel out! He's working hard to get his thesis finalized by Friday. (His defense is scheduled two weeks from Friday, so he HAS to turn in the final draft then.) He's almost done with his first round of revisions, and we'll see what his professor thinks. Hopefully he can get it done sooner, since Kylie really could come any day now!!
But until he finishes, I'm trying hard to stay relaxed (i.e., not yelling at the kids all day) so I don't go into labor too early. Darrel told me last night that his prediction is that Kylie will come this week, if not, this weekend. I'm starting to really think that might actually happen. I'm just so eager to have this pregnancy over with... so I can do things again, to walk around, to sit comfortably for more than 10 minutes, to be able to take care of my home and children. We've been so blessed to have so many wonderful, amazing people come over every single day to help take care of the kids for me. I wish I could come up with a way to adequately express our gratitude for their service and love.

Not too much longer now!!!

36 weeks

I'm 36 weeks now... and it feels like this is taking FOREVER. I had my Dr's appointment today. I was a little disappointed that they didn't check to see if I was dilated. But my Dr. said they don't check until 38 weeks because checking can actually cause labor, and they don't want very early babies. I was OK with that, since I really don't want this baby to come until about 38 weeks anyways, it just would have been nice to know if all this pain I'm going through is actually doing anything.

And my Dr. is willing to induce up to a week early if we wanted to. We'll see how miserable I am as May 8th gets closer before we decide to induce.

I did ask about a new pain I've been experiencing (like I really needed more?!?!), and apparently I may have a pulled stomach muscle. It makes it even more painful to move, but on top of that I experience pain on my stomach if I do rigourous things such as: laughing, talking loudly, sneezing, blowing my nose, breathing deeply, and even while relaxing. I often have to hold up my stomach just to be able to get around. They said it was unlikely to go away until the baby is born.

Life will be so much will be better when the baby is born....

Photo of how HUGE I am. Sorry, I hate looking at the camera while taking photos of myself. I always make goofy faces.

And this post marks our blog's 100th post. some accomplishment, right?!

Videos

Darrel downloaded a bunch of photos and videos from his phone. If you're up for a good laugh at the expense of my children, watch away!

Jared Dancing

Alora doing Hop-Scotch

Jared trying to rock the chair

Getting their wiggles out during General Conference

Alora putting her toys away- she came up with this method on her own!

Oh, and happy birthday to my mom :)

Pregnant dreams

I have the weirdest pregnant dreams. Last night I dreamed that I went to bed one night, still pregnant, and woke up the next morning not pregnant anymore, and I saw that I had a c-section wound on my belly. Apparently I went to bed and the baby was ready to come and so they had to do a c-section because....I was asleep??? Not sure why, but I was excited to not be pregnant anymore and to have Kylie finally! When I met her, she was almost 6 months size (not sure if I was "asleep" for that long of a time), and she had blue eyes. I was also very excited that I was not experiencing any more pain.

Then I woke up, still pregnant, and still in pain. 6.5 weeks will not go by fast enough.

Pregnancy update 32 weeks

I'm the worst when it comes to taking pictures, especially of myself. But I got one because it's been a LONG time since I took a belly shot.

I feel so HUGE for being only 32 weeks. It also doesn't help that a bunch of ladies in our ward who are also pregnant (and most due before me) are smaller than me. I just have to keep telling myself it's because I cannot move/exercise that I have been gaining the normal 1 lb per week.

I was going to post this blog Tuesday, but it got postponed to Wednesday, and ended up happening on Thursday. It's a good thing too, because those were really bad days for me and the post would have been completely negative, like some of my past posts.

The physical therapy hasn't really helped. Everything in my pelvis is just too flexible, it makes everything painful. Getting up from laying down is the WORST pain ever. I have to move my legs by using my feet to inch off the bed to avoid pain. Even then, once I put my full weight on my legs, I get intense pain. Usually, I get my pelvic bone to pop once a day- when the pain gets REALLY bad, and after the pop it feels a little better. I cannot walk for long distances of my hip falls out of place. I have a belt that I can use to help keep my hips in place, but it's only really good if I end up doing a bunch of stuff, which I rarely realize is happening until it's too late.

The nice weather has been helpful/disabling. It's nice to be able to go outside and let the kids run around ALL day. I can't quite find a comfortable place to sit yet. The longer we spend outside, the longer I spend with an aching back. If I were to lay down (which is the most comfortable position for me), I wouldn't be able to get up without either pain or help. I also get really bored outside. It also doesn't help that the journey outside and back inside are hard for me, and doing it multiple times a day (we go out, come back in for lunch, go out, come back in for nap, go out, come back in for dinner, and throw in the occasional potty break). I'm usually REALLY exhausted by the time dinner comes around, which is nice because Darrel comes home and takes care of everything.

I feel Kylie kicking ALL of the time. She's already head down, so I can tell what are punches and kicks. I even was able to move her foot around a little bit. She's so active, and big, that I hope she's expressing her desire to come to us EARLY. We got Kylie's carseat! We're super excited to have her.

Darrel accepted the job at Solar Turbines in San Diego. They want him to start the first week in June, that means we'll have to move out sometime in May. The trouble is, Kylie is supposed to come sometime the first week of May (We'll probably induce if she's late). We're thinking about moving the weekend of the 26th, but I want to get out of here sooner, so if Kylie comes sooner, I might be able to convince Darrel to leave like the 16th or 17th. There really isn't anyone left here to help. My mom is probably moving out of Delta soon, and all our siblings have moved out of Utah. San Diego is where it's at!!