Elli 3 months old

Well she is 12 weeks old this week. She is starting to sit in her Bumbo seat more and more and prefers that over tummy time. She has also become quite the talker. She loves gto lay in bed with me at night and talk until she falls asleep. Right now I'm guessing she is around 12.5 lbs and has probably grown about .5 to 3/4 of an inch. She is now starting to fit into 3 month clothes and most all of her 0-3 month clothes as well.

She is sleeping pretty good now. Normally she goes to bed around 9 or 9:30 and sleeps until between 2 and 4am then eats and goes back to sleep for about another hour or two. During the day she tends to stay up for 2 hours, take a 2 to 3 hour nap then back up again.

The only thing is her reflux is still getting the best of her some days. You can just see it on her face when its bad. Also she spits up a lot when it gets bad. The worst thing on her is that after she eats we have to hold her upright anywhere between 20 and 30 minutes then we can lay her in a swing or rocking chair. If anyone has any experience in other things to do to help her please let me know.I think we have it down but I'm always open to ways to make it better for her.

Elli 2 months old

Elliot turned 2 months old this week and had her pediatrician appointment. And the stats are:

11lbs 2 oz

22.5 inches long

She is in the 25^th percentile for both at the moment but no worries. We constantly joke at home that it took 3 kids for W to make a small one with hair.

She is really starting to show more of a personality now. She recognizes us more and responds to our voice. She also is more interested in playing and swatting at toys hanging above in her swing or bouncy seat. She also seems to think she has more head control than she really does and tends to want to flop around all over the place when she is on our shoulder being burped.

We found out shortly before I returned to work that she had reflux. She’s been on medication for a few weeks now and doing much better. Its so good to not see her in pain every time she eats.

Speaking of eating she is taking about 3 to 4 bottles while I’m gone of 4oz at a time. I’m pumping plenty at work and keeping up with her but yet I am still concerned about my supply. Just to be on the safe side I eat oatmeal almost every morning since its known to help with milk production.

Butters is doing well with her too. He recently started trying to give her a bottle when she gets upset. Also he will lay down on the floor and say “I love baby”, but will not call her Elli for anything. He will read the name, but won’t call her by her name. We think he knows and just wants to be stubborn. No surprise there. He does though however have a very bad habit of bringing us his empty cup or bowl and asking for something right when one of us sits down to feed her.

And now for the pictures. I apologize for the poor quality. My camera died a few weeks ago and I am taking all of these with my Blackberry. W did just get me an early birthday present so hopefully I can get a few with the new camera and post here soon.

 

Returning to work

On November 16^th I returned to the office after my 6 week maternity leave. With Butters I was very torn on coming back, but with Elli not so much. I guess this time I just had a better handle on how things would work and more confidence that we could do all of this. Still the morning I left part of me just felt bad. This would be the first day that she was on a bottle all day. I had no clue how much she would eat while I was gone. I left what I thought would be enough pumped milk in the refrigerator at home and told W that there was frozen bags in the freezer incase she powered through all of it.

Now returning to work this time was a little easier in one respect. When I went back after Butters was born I was determined to nurse as long as possible, but there was no place for me to pump at work except the bathroom. So up until the day I was laid off I pumped 3 times a day in the handicap stall. I had a metal folding chair in there but it was still not ideal at all. I would routinely have women come in and get irritated that I was in there pumping. My pump wasn’t really loud, but for some reason it bothered them that I did that. When I got hired at Sikorsky I did something similar because I honestly thought that if I raised questions with HR that something would happen to me.

That all changed when I went to the home office. There they actually have a lactation room that you can schedule with in outlook. The room is equipped with a chair, small couch microwave (for steam cleaning), sink, and small refrigerator. I was extremely impressed! So this time when I found out I was pregnant I asked at my office what could be done and was basically given the brush off and told the bathroom again. After talking to W and a local nursing mom’s group I decided to contact HR and ask if there could be some kind of arrangement made. Luckily since the laws up there are different than here (and better) the HR representative told me that they would help me. When I returned I was informed that one of the unused offices had blinds put up and I could go in there and pump and lock the door.

Since returning this has been great!! I pump 3 times a day and I’m not on an exact time schedule. I generally pump somewhere around 0630, 0930 and 1230 then head home around 1500. The door has a basic lock on it and I’ve never been bothered by anyone regarding the 10 to 15 minutes I’m gone to pump. When I’m done I transfer all the milk to a large container and take the parts to the bathroom to be rinsed out. I’m happy to say that at this point in 3 pumping sessions I’m getting somewhere between 18 and 20 oz a day and she is eating between 12 and 16 a day while I’m gone. This allows for some of the milk to be frozen every week.

So in general things are going well and its been good to get back to work and on somewhat of a schedule again.

1 month old

I've been wanting to do so many posts lately but they always come to me in the middle of the night while I'm nursing Elli or other wise trying to get us both to sleep.

She turns one month old today and its gone by really quick like I know it would. She is sleeping around 3 hours at a stretch during the day and between 1.5 and 3 hours at a time at night. We have gotten her to take a bottle which is great since I will be going back to work on the 16th and we needed to know about how much she would be eating at a time.

Nursing this time around has been easier with her than with Butters but its still had its challenges. With Butters I never knew about the cluster nursing at 1.5 to 2 weeks. There are times right now where she will nurse off and on for anywhere between 3 and 6 hours with only a 20 minute nap in between. These are the times I'm glad that I got rid of all the formula we were given in the hospital. During her last marathon session we did how ever give her a bottle of pumped milk from that morning.

I have kept pumping at different times during the day so that we have plenty stored up for when I go back to work. Right now we have around 15 bags of 7oz a piece stored in the deep freezer.

Speaking of pumping I was able to work something out with my situation at work. There is an open office that apparently has a privacy curtain that can be pulled across the window that I will be allowed to use. This is a huge improvement from having to pump in the bathroom. The only down side is that I will have to use quick clean wipes between pumping sessions and if there is an executive in town I will have to work around that schedule but luckily I will not be made to go to the bathroom and pump which is a huge relief.

Having the time off has been nice but I'm ready to go back. I'm not exactly one to stay home and take it easy. I'll be going back to the office on the 9th to get my free flu shot then back full time on the 16th. The odd thing is I had already scheduled my vacation for the next week so that I am off the week of Thanksgiving! W is really ready to get me out of his house and will be relieved to have a week with just him and the kids.

At her last visit to the pediatrician she gained a full pound in 10 days and she was 25 percentile in weight and 50 percentile in length. This week I was able to weight her and at a month old she is just over 9lbs and has gotten much longer!

So here are some pictures of things over the past month including halloween and her first hockey game series.

Finally sleeping in her bed. She doesn't do it often right now. Normally she sleeps on one of us or in the swing.

Content with her paci on the changing table.

Halloween shirt.

Sleeping through a hockey game just like big brother used to.

Where she normally ends up at night on my chest.

Wordless Wednesday

After a morning at a Rocket City Slingers meet up I got a lot of help with how to use my ring sling with Dot. As you can see Butters had to get in on the action as well!

The Grunt heard round the world...the second go around

The birth of Elliot was in some ways ironic and similar to her brother's two and a half years ago.

Things all started last Sunday Oct 4th. We spent the morning watching the UAH hockey team's open practice at the iceplex. I actually really enjoyed walking around with Butters and watching his fascination with the defensemen's practice. He was so involved that he wouldn't watch the forwards practice at all.

After the practice we ran a couple of errands and grabbed a late lunch on the way home. The contractions had been off and on all morning but around 1400 they started getting more painful and closer together. They stayed like this until around 1700 when they tapered off. W went ahead and made dinner but I didn't feel like eating at all. Around 1800 they picked back up and around 1830 I called my ob's office. The on call doc said to go on in to L&D. We packed up the car and called my mother in law to come get Butters from the hospital. Once back in L&D the nurse checked me and hooked me up to the monitors. Contractions were every 1.5 to 2 min apart and strong. I was bout 2.5 cm and 50% and -1 station. After an hour I hadn't progressed at all so the on call doctor gave the order for me to leave and come back when things got more intense. I was once again crushed and annoyed. I wasn't allowed to walk around and help things but made to stay in bed.

When we got home I tried taking a warm bath which didn't help much at all. I tried sitting up and rocking which helped just a little. Laying down was the worst and finally aroun 0030 I was able to get my body to relax enough toget a little sleep. I woke up about every hour from strong contractions. Being the stubborn individual that I am when my alarm went off around 0430 I decided to go ahead and get up and go into the office. I had a doctor's appt at 0915 that morning and thought that maybe working on things would take my mind off of what was going on. I got to the office around 0530, moved the small refrigerator that was in a common area with the guys to under my desk and got to work. Surprisingly being pissed off Igot a lot of work done that morning. I did feel really nauseated and tried to just eat some oatmeal which made me even sicker. I finally caved in and sent W a text message asking him to come get me and take me to the appt. By this point the nausea was bad and any kind of touching of my belly really hurt.

Once in the office my doctor went ahead and checked me and I was 3 to 4, -1 and 50% effaced but very soft. I told him everything that had gone on and his response was that he completely saw how I was feeling so bad and could feel me having contractions. He then asked if we wanted to hve her today. We were a little shocked to say the least. I got dressed and we met him in his office. He went ahed and called over to L&D to tell them we were on our way. We drove over and on the way I called work and family to let everyone know that we would have her by later that afternoon or early evening.

When we got to the room IV's were started and monitors attached. I was still having contractions regularly. They were about 1.5 minutes apart and alternating strength. I would have one big one followed closely by one strong one. The order was given for a low dosage of pitocin to be given to help them become consistantly stronger. I was started on the lowest dose and about 45 minutes later my ob came in to break my water. About an hour after this the contractions were to the point that I could no longer talk through them and had to turn the tv off. They were about every minute and really starting to hurt more and more. Soon after I reached this point the anasthesiologist came in to give me an epidural. It took very quickly and the only small problem was my left hip was still in a lot of pain. After rolling 45 deg to my left the pain subsided and I sat up in bed to better help my body to what it needed to do.

This is where things got interesting. About 10 minutes after sitting up I said something to W about feeling a lot more pressure. Like everythng else I thought it was nothing and just figured it was her getting lower. My nurse came in followed by my ob who decided that they needed to check again. Good thing they did because when he checked I was on the verge of her crowning. He quickly changed while the nurse set things up. She had me do one practice push with a contraction and quickly told me told me to stop and not push anymore until my doctor was ready! I rested through couple while they finished getting ready and 2 contractions later at 4pm weighing in at 6lbs 15 oz and 19.5 inches long Elliot Avery was born. She had a head of hair and was a little slow to cry.

She was taken over to the warmer and dried off and that is where the nightmare began. I heard the same words I had heard 2.5 years ago. She's grunting. Great. They continued to work with her and got her crying good but the grunt was still there. The NICU was called for a consult and the decision was made to take her to the NICU for obersvation. Luckily I was allowed to hold her for a few minutes. I was in complete amazement of how tiny she was. Then W took her and followed the nurse up to the NICU.

I was patched and cleaned up and after what felt like an eternity as my nurse was taking me up to the 5th floor W returned. The nurses were hopeful that she would be with us soon so we really weren't too worried. After getting set up in the room at 1930 I got the call from Dr. Dworsky. She was being admitted. They tried everything they could but the grunt was still there. At this point I was hysterical to say the least. All I wanted was to room in with her and have her be healthy and once again she wasn't.

At 2000 we went to go see her. I have to admit she looked really good compared to how Alvin did. I got to hold her and the nurse went over everything. She was amazed at how much we remembered. An old friend from Space Camp now working there came over to see us. The NICU was a bad place but it helped knowing someone working up there. Far too soon it was time for us to go so we left our little girl. Luckily when we made our way down the next morning we got wonderful news that she had already been moved to the progressive side. Apparently she screamed all night and the grunt completely went away.

Over the next few days there were highs and lows. We were told many different dates about when she would go home and how many rounds of antibiotoics she was being given. I broken down many times during it all. I was mad, frustrated and just genearlly depressed that she wasn't with me. I was discharged on Wednesday and continued to go to every care time barring the midnight and 4am ones. Thursday morning I got the news that her weight had dropped 4oz in one day and she had jandice. I fed her pumped breast milk in a bottle and she was wrapped in a billi blanket for 12 horus.

On Friday we got the best news yet. I had been told the day before that there was a possibility she would go home. At the 8am care time I was sitting beside her bassinet feeding her a bottle when the neonatologist made rounds. Her bilirubin had went down and they were ready to discharge her! I waited to call W and tell him until I spoke with Dr. Dworsky personally. He was impressed that given the news the day before I already had her a pediatrician visit ready and said that she was ready to go home.

The next 2 hours went by so slowly. I ran outside the NICU and called W. He was of course also thrilled to be having his "little peanut" coming home. While I waited I sat and just held her, and slowly got her dressed to visit the outside world for the first time. Finally it was time for discharge and after signing the paperwork I pulled the car up and packed up her and all of the clothes, bags ect and headed to the doctors office.

Her peditirican was happy with her. At that point she had lost 5oz but he said it was to be expected. His only concern was her jaundice but he gave us instructions to keep her in sunlight when we could and call if we noticed her being more yellow.

The days that have followed have been sleepless but very good. She nurses wonderfully and sleeps around 3 hours at a time then wakes to nurse and nurses for about an hour off and on. Duing the day she sleeps great in her bassinet but after her 1 to 2am feeding only wants to sleep on my chest. I can't argue too much though. I can deal with that as long as she is home now.

I've been posting pictures on my flickr site that you can see here.

Today she turns one week old and I am very happy that I've found the time to tell her story even though it was a much longer post than I expected.

Elliot Avery is here!

The entire story of her arrival will have to wait until later but I wanted to do a quick post to update what has happened.

She was born yesterday at 4pm weighing in at 6lbs 15oz and 19.5 inches long with a head full of hair. She came out screaming but the NICU was called for a consult due to grunting. She was taken to the NICU and W was told that she would probably be down with us later that night. At 7:30pm we got the news we dreaded. She was being admitted because the grunt would not subside. We went down to see her at 8pm and I was amazed at how good she looked compared to Butters when he was there. We spent about an hour there holding her and talking to her. Also we are very fortunate to have a friend we previously worked with at Space Camp working nights in the NICU. Elli was very responsive to everything we did and our voices which was great.

This morning I woke up early and went to go see her again. To our surprise she has already been moved to the progressive side of the NICU. The nurse was confident that she would get to start bottle feeding today which is great news.

Right now it looks like she will be here until sometime on Thursday at the earliest while we will go home on Wednesday.

I'll be posting more on twitter later today as we get more news but I wanted to try and summarize things here really quick.

Thank you for all the well wishes and I will post more in a couple of days on this site once we get more information.

Here's a link to a picture W took last night just so you can get an idea of how she looks now.
Elli