Fireplace Progress (or lack thereof!)

This is enough to make anyone cranky, much less a sleep deprived mommy of an 11 day old!  Our living room has been torn up and full of workers since Tuesday.   Avery and I have been hanging out in our bedroom and we're starting to go a little stir crazy.

I have high hopes that it will get finished tomorrow!

11 Days Old

Full belly = Happy, Sleepy Avery

10 Days Old

Avery's First Bath

Picture Overload of Avery

These are just some random pictures we have taken since we got Avery home.  It has been a wonderful 9 days.  I couldn't have survived without all the help from Adam and my mom.  The c-section has been more difficult of a recovery than I had expected.

Avery and I are very lucky to have a Husband/Daddy and a Cici that are willing to jump in and help in any way they can.

Even more pictures of Avery are on her Cici's blog.

Motherhood is exhausting! :)

Avery's First Doctor's Visit

Avery had her first doctor's visit on Friday, January 25th.  Here's her stats:

Length:  22 in. (95th percentile)

Weight:  7lb 11oz (75th percentile)

Head Circumference:  13.23 in. (25th percentile)

She's lost some weight, but the doctor wasn't concerned.  She's eating like a champ, so she should be back to her birth weight in no time.  The past several days she's been nursing very frequently and I wouldn't be surprised if she wasn't already back to her birth weight.

Welcome to the World, Avery Anne Johnson!

Welcome Avery Anne Johnson!

8 lbs. 11 oz. and 22 in long

Born January 20, 2013 at 5:10 p.m.

We headed to bed on Saturday night with no idea that we would be headed to the hospital in a few short hours.  I hadn't really been having any contractions and there was nothing to indicate that Avery was any where close to making her appearance.

I woke up at around 1:00 a.m. and couldn't go back to sleep.  I headed into the living room to watch some TV and eat a leftover blueberry muffin from Mimi's.  At about 3:00 a.m. I got up to go to the restroom.  As soon as I sat back down on the couch, I leaned over to pet Shelby and heard a "pop".  I knew immediately that my water had broken!  I jumped up and went to wake up Adam.  I think he was a little in shock that it was really time to head to the hospital.

The contractions started immediately and were much more intense than I expected.  We grabbed a couple of things, Adam made a cup of coffee (can you believe it! :)) and we headed out the door.  I gave mom a call to let her know that it was time. Luckily her and dad were at the lakehouse, so they didn't have a long drive. 

I started timing the contractions while we were in the car and they were coming 3 min. apart.  At that point I started freaking out a little.  Not only were they hurting, but we had at least a 45 min drive to the hospital and the doctor had said to come in when my contractions were 6 min. apart.  I was terrified that I was going to have her in the car or on the side of the road!  Adam must have been scared of the same thing, because we made it to the hospital in about 30 min :)  

By the time we arrived my contractions were 1-2 minutes apart and I was feeling pretty miserable.  They started hooking me up to monitors and working on getting us admitted.  Melissa, Mom and Dad had to wait for a little while before I made it into a room.  I think it took about 1 hour to get admitted and I was very glad to get in my own room.  The area that they had us waiting in was so hot that I had Adam fan me for the entire time that we were there.  Between being hot and having contractions so frequently, I was pretty sick at my stomach too.  My main focus was getting an epidural! :)

Once we were admitted, the anesthesiologist was there within about 15 min. to give me the epidural.  At this point I had been having contractions every minute for the past 2 hours.  I had been a little concerned about the epidural, but it was nothing compared to the contractions.  The hardest part was staying still since I was having contractions while he was trying to do the epidural.

After that, I started feeling much better and we began the waiting game.  Mom, Dad, Melissa and Adam were all there to keep me company.  They started giving me pitocin after a few hours because even though my contractions were still every minute, they weren't progressing my labor.  By around noon, the doctor said we should start to think about considering a c-section if my labor didn't progress within the next several hours.  The increased my pitocin dose, but didn't want to increase it too much since my contractions were so frequent.

At my next check, I had made some progress but still wasn't where I should be.  The doctor said that based on my contractions, he would have expected me to have had Avery within 2 hours of when I arrived at the hospital.  At this point, we were going on 12 hours of labor.  We decided that we would give it 1 more hour and if I hadn't made significant progress we would decide on if we should do a c-section.

I started feeling some pain at this point and I told the nurse that I was starting to feel some contractions.  We increased my epidural medicine, but it kept getting worse.  After a few minutes, I was feeling every single contraction.  We called the nurse again and had her page the anesthesiologist.  I was in pretty significant pain and starting feeling sick at my stomach from the pain.  The anesthesiologist arrived and checked to make sure my epidural hadn't come out.  He didn't think it had, but said that it could have moved underneath the skin.  He gave me a large push of medicine to see if that would work.  We waited 15 minutes for it to take effect and there was no improvement   All of a sudden the anesthesiologist looked over and said "Why is her medicine clamped off?"  Apparently our nurse (who had done several things already to make us think she wasn't very experienced) had changed my epidural medicine and forgotten to remove the clamp.  I hadn't been receiving any medicine for over 2 hours!  What made it even worse was that she never thought to look at it!  So, after 1.5 hours of feeling everything, I finally got some relief.

As soon as I was feeling better, the doctor came in for his last check.  Since I was still only at 7 cm, we decided to do a c-section.  Avery was still doing great, but we didn't want her to get distressed by continuing with the labor.

Adam was so helpful during the c-section.  He talked to me about everything but the c-section which really helped keep me calm.  Miss Avery was so big that they had problems getting her out.  At one point the nurse and doctor were practically standing on my chest trying to push her out and I couldn't breathe.  Then after what seemed like ages, we heard her beautiful cry!  The doctor showed her to me over the drape then Adam headed over to see her get cleaned up under the warmer.  He did a great job of taking pictures and even remembered to take a pic with his phone and text it to my family.

Adam brought Avery over to me so that I could see and kiss her then they headed off to the nursery.  I asked the nurse about how she was and she had an APGAR score of 8-9...she was perfect! :)

After what seemed like ages, the doctor had finally gotten me stiched up and I headed to recovery.  I was finishing up surgery and in recover for about 1 hour after her birth.  I was missing Avery terribly, but knew that her daddy was taking good care of her.  It was wonderful to get to see her again when I was out of recovery and they finished up with her in the nursery.

As you can see from the pictures, her face was very swollen and bruised from being in the birth canal for so long.  She also had gotten her feet tangled in the umbilical cord and it was wrapped around her ankles 3 times.  I'm so glad that we decided to do the c-section when we did since she was so bruised up.  Adam was such a help and just jumped right in.  The first night , I wasn't able to  get out of the bed so Adam changed all her diapers (and there were a lot!) and brought her to me throughout the night to nurse.  On the second day, the nursery nurse brought her in and said they had to change her to size 1 diapers bc the newborn diapers were too small. :( All the bruising gave her a little jaundice, but after two days in the hospital we were able to take her home.

 

Updates

I had my weekly doctor's appointment today.  Still no baby Avery, but I'm now 3cm dilated and fully effaced.  He said if she hasn't arrived by my appointment next Wednesday, then he'll schedule an induction.  Come on, baby Avery!!!

Yesterday was a flurry of activity.  From about 3:00 until 6:00 p.m. we had a plumber here replacing our hot water heater and the fireplace guys putting in our fireplace insert.  I'm glad we are making some progress on the fireplace and we got to have our first fire last night!  All that's left now is for them to finish the framing and put up the rock.  I can't wait to see it all finished.  Here's an updated pic:

39 Weeks

Pregnancy Highlights

How far along:  39 weeks. 1 week until my due date!  But she is welcome to come any time :)  

Size of baby:  7+ lbs and 22 inches long.  She's the size of a watermelon and based on my picture, you can see that it looks like I'm carrying around a watermelon!

New developments:  She's fully developed and is just continuing to gain weight. 

Gender:  Girl!  Avery Anne Johnson

Maternity Clothes:  All maternity.  Most of my maternity shirts have gotten too small because she is so low.  I have a few long tanks that I have to wear under things to keep my belly from hanging out.

Movement: She's started to slow down a little bit.  I think she's starting to run out of room.  I still feel movement, but they aren't as big as they used to be.  She gets really active after I eat a Cutie (clementine)

Sleep: Some nights are better than others.  I have been sleeping better since I've been working from home because I don't get so sore during the day.

Symptoms:  Some contractions, but nothing consistent.  At my last doctors visit (on Wednesday), I was 2 cm dilated and 80-90% effaced.  Not tons of progress, but I'll take what I can get!  The doctor said that he won't let me go past 41 weeks so she will definitely be here by 1/28

Cravings: Vanilla wafers!

What I Miss: Having a fireplace and hot water.  It's been a rough week for us with home repairs.  The fireplace project continues to grow and at this point it's not looking like it will be finished in time for Avery's arrival.  I'm trying to look at the bright side - we never really liked the rock and since we have to replace it all now, we got to order rock that we like.  And it's going to be really nice when it's finished.

The hot water heater went out this morning and of course it's a morning that its 15 degrees outside and I have to go into the office for a strategy meeting.  They ordered us a new one and should be installing it tomorrow.  I'll keep my fingers crossed that all goes well!

Best Moment this Week:  

Realizing that Avery could be here any day and we are ready for her arrival! (Aside from the fireplace and no hot water :)).  I've been trying to encourage labor - spicy wings on Saturday, lots of cleaning on Sunday.  I know she won't come until she's ready, but it keeps me busy trying  these things.  Don't worry mom - I won't even consider castor oil.  

Here's an updated pic of the fireplace:

38 Weeks

Pregnancy Highlights

How far along:  38 weeks. 2 weeks until my due date.   

Size of baby:  6+ lbs and 22 inches long  

New developments:  She's fully developed, but I read an article in a baby magazine yesterday that said babies brains are continuing to develop until 39 weeks.  Babies born at 37 or 38 weeks have lower test scores in Math and Science than those born at 39 weeks or later, so 39 weeks is our new goal.

Gender:  Girl!  Avery Anne Johnson

Maternity Clothes:  All maternity.  A lot of my maternity stuff is getting too small, but I refuse to buy anything new since I have very little time left to wear it.

Movement: She's started to slow down a little bit.  I think she's starting to run out of room.  I still feel movement, but they aren't as big as they used to be.

Sleep:  I actually got some pretty good sleep last night.  I think after a few nights of not sleeping, I'm so exhausted that I can sleep through some of the discomfort.

Symptoms:  Some contractions, but nothing consistent.  When I went to the doctor last Wednesday, I was 1 cm dilated and 80% effaced.  I have another appointment this Wednesday - hopefully I will have progressed some.

Cravings: Chocolate has been tasting pretty good here lately.

What I Miss: Being able to do normal things like getting up and down off the couch. 

Best Moment this Week:  

It's been a fairly uneventful week.  I started working from home today and plan to work from home most days until Avery arrives.  It makes a big difference in how I feel when I don't have to get dressed and make the drive into the office.  

On another topic - I'm super excited that we are getting a wood burning fireplace!  We have had gas logs that we never used and we will really use a wood burning fireplace.  Unfortunately, a project that was supposed to be completed on 12/28 is still on going.  We probably should have known better than to start something like this so close to my due date.  They were originally just supposed to pull out our insert and replace with a new one.  Once they opened it up, they realize that inside was not built correctly.  They project has continued to grow and now we have to reframe and replace the entire front of the fireplace.  Not only are we unhappy about the increase in cost, but I'm really nervous that they won't be able to finish it in time for Avery's arrival.  I definitely don't want a bunch of workers in here with a brand new baby!  The removed all the rock today, the framing and insert will be done by next Monday and hopefully the rock guy can come start working on the rock a week from Tuesday.  Avery just needs to stay put until the rock is finished and we get all this construction dust cleaned up :)  

Shelby wanted her picture taken too! :)

Avery's Nursery

I've been putting off blogging about Avery's nursery because I still have a couple of things left to do.  But I decided to go ahead and post some pictures and I can just update it once I have finished the last two things.

We have had a lot of fun putting together a "girly" nursery.  As you can see, there is a lot of pink but we tried to keep it toned down a little.  One of the things that I need to finish is a monogram for the wall above the recliner.  Hopefully I will get that done next weekend.

We have a few things in the nursery that have some sentimental value.  The leather recliner was Adam's Granddad's and is super comfortable.  The quilt on the back of the chair was made by my Grandmother.  The rocking horse in the bottom right corner (you can see it better in next pic) was mine when I was little and so was the white dresser (see in next pic).

Some people probably think it's crazy to have a TV in the nursery, but I think it's going to be wonderful for late night feedings!  Here's some close ups of the crib.  I made all the bedding myself.  I just couldn't find anything that I really liked - it all had too much of a theme.  I was pretty pleased with the way it turned out.  The tiered bedskirt definitely was the most work, but I'm glad I did it.  You'll notice that there aren't any bumpers because they are now saying that any bumpers are dangerous.  The piece across the front is a "teething guard" and there are also two bolster pillows in the crib for decoration that will come out when Avery's sleeping.  

The room has a dormer window that was pretty much wasted space because it was so narrow.  Luckily the changing table fit perfectly!  We also added the wall decal for a little extra color/interest.  The last thing we have to finish is hanging a small white chandelier above the changing table.  

And here is Avery's closet.  Most of her clothes are in the light pink baskets instead of hanging up since her wardrobe for the first 3 months is mainly comfy one-piece outfits.  We also have another closet directly behind the recliner that is full of diapers, wipes, toys, etc.  I'm glad we have plenty of storage!

Now all we need is Avery! :)  

37 Weeks...+ 1 Day

I'm officially a blogging slacker.  For some reason I keep forgetting to do my posts on Monday!  Maybe it's because of all the holidays and my days are confused or maybe because I'm 37 weeks pregnant and have other things on my mind.  Hopefully I will do better next week.

Pregnancy Highlights

How far along:  37 weeks and 1 day. 2 weeks and 6 days until my due date.  She's considered full term at this point!  

Size of baby:  6+ lbs and 22 inches long  

New developments:  She's fully developed, but I read an article in a baby magazine yesterday that said babies brains are continuing to develop until 39 weeks.  Babies born at 37 or 38 weeks have lower test scores in Math and Science than those born at 39 weeks or later, so 39 weeks is our new goal.

Gender:  Girl!  Avery Anne Johnson

Maternity Clothes:  All maternity.  I pretty much live in leggings these days (when possible).  They are one of the few things that are still comfortable.  You'll notice that I'm super casual in my picture from today.  We just hung out at home all day, so I didn't feel like getting dressed up.

Movement: Lots of movement!  Her movements are sometimes so extreme that my whole belly jerks.  She also has hiccups at least once per day.

Sleep:  The lack of sleep has probably been one of the hardest parts.  I have always been a good sleeper, but my hips and back just hurt too much to get comfortable.  I move from the bed to the couch to the recliner almost every night just trying to find some relief.

Symptoms:  Tired, some Braxton Hicks contractions, and back pain when I've been doing too much.

Cravings: Not anything specific, still liking sweets and carbs.

What I Miss: Being able to do normal things like getting up and down off the couch. 

Best Moment this Week:  

We had a relaxing New Years Eve at home and it was just what I needed.  We rented Dark Knight Rises on PPV and were able to stay up until 10:00 - that's a record for us here lately :)  I was feeling pretty miserable last night, so I was glad that we didn't try to go anywhere.

I spent the day doing some sewing for Avery and playing with my new Cricut machine and Serger.  I made a cute baby blanket and did my first applique onesie. 

We also got a lot accomplished this past weekend.  We took down all the Christmas stuff and put together Avery's pack n play!  It seems weird to have a pack n play in our room - I can't believe that we are just a few weeks away from having Avery sleeping in it!