4 Months

Goodness, it appears I am a great deal behind in posting about Maliyah and our new life.

She is just over 4 months old and is AMAZING in every way.

She smiles all the time and is starting to roll over.

When she is tired, she's a gremlin.

She loves to cuddle with her mommy and plays SO hard!

She knows to respond to "SOOO BIG" by throwing her arms up over her head.  (only sometimes...but often enough that it appears she recognizes the correlation)

She can fake a sneeze or cough to get our attention.

She shrieks with delight when someone is playing with her or talking to her.

She loves soft toys and crinkly toys, she loves things that make noise and things that light up.

She wants SO badly to sit up on her own, she loves her bumbo but loathes how restricting it is.

I wonder if she will ever crawl...or just walk instead.  She loves to stand while we hold her hands and has great muscle tone.

She is a total chatter box when she is happy and seems very opinionated.

She's learned how the game of "I throw it on the floor, mommy picks it up" works.  :)

She is not a fan of heat or humidity...very much like her momma.

She is easily bored and needs to change activities all the time...very much like her daddy.

She is learning to like her car seat.

She sings to Aimee Allen and Lady Gaga.

She can't wait to meet her great-grandma Dru, who is moving back to MN before the end of the month!!

She misses her grandma and grandpa Carson, and her Auntie Christine, Uncle Todd, and all of her cousins.

She LOVES other babies and enjoys hanging out with her best friend, Dulcinea.

She is learning the attraction of grabbing things that don't belong to her...the mail...mommy's glasses...anything she can get her hands on.

Have I said that when she's tired, she's a gremlin?  Just put her down for a nap.  :)

She has no interest in a spoon yet...but watches us like a hawk when we eat.

She smiles when I make her a bottle.

She is...the love of our life!

Maliyah's First Week

Things change SO quickly with a newborn.  The first night home she was fussing every 15 minutes.  We didn't get any sleep and had to be up and out of the house early for a follow-up doctor visit for Maliyah.  That made...4 nights of no sleep.  We were exhausted and borderline delirious.  Seriously...it was bad.


On her second night home we managed some sleep, but not until 5 am.  She was mixed up...bad.  She's still off when it comes to days and nights, I expect that will be for a while.  


When Maliyah is hungry or needs to be changed, it is RIGHT NOW!  And, she has lungs...girl can scream like no other.  Whew!


In addition, she's beautiful and sweet.  We love to watch her during the day when she is sleeping or awake.  She is so special to us.  She loves to cuddle and enjoys being warm.


She hates diaper changes but loathes dirty diapers.  She hates baths...hopefully she gets past that since we are still on sponge baths at this point.


She still gets the hiccups all the time (had them about 4 times a day when I was pregnant) and they drive her crazy.  


She's a good eater most of the time.


I can't wait until her awake time is more productive, until she is more interactive with us and we can see her growing.  (I know...don't rush it!)  


Sleep - this baby can sleep like her daddy!  When she's out, she's out.  She makes a lot of noises when she's sleeping.  Grunts, squeaks, little whines...all sweet noises that reassure me that she is breathing and sleeping normally.  I'm learning that I don't have to look at her every time she makes a noise, but I love to see her face so I do it anyway.  Brian vacuumed the living room with her sleeping in the bassinet in the same room and she didn't even stir.  Love it!!


Her first week has been amazing, and fast.  I can't believe she is a week old already.  

Labor, Delivery and Hospital Stay

Wow, we just had a baby.  What an amazing, life changing experience.  I figured I better write about Maliyah's birth story while the details are still fresh in my memory.


On Friday, February 24th, I saw the doctor and she told me that we still weren't making any progress.  We made plans for induction on Wednesday the 29th unless something happened before then.  Let me tell you, I didn't want a leap day baby...I was really hoping for things to kick start on their own.  Wouldn't you know it, at about 8pm on her due date (the 26th) I started having contractions.  They were about 15 minutes apart for the better part of the night and started coming about 10 minutes apart sometime during the early morning hours of the 27th.  I had a 1:00 doctor appointment scheduled for Monday, so we waited around for that.  The doctor gave me GREAT news, I was finally dilated to 4 cm.  Whew!  That sleepless night of contractions wasn't for nothing.  Doc hooked me up for a non-stress test and everything looked good.  She said go home and come in if the contractions become more frequent and consistent or, she said she would see us Wednesday morning.  The contractions continued to be anywhere from 5-11 minutes apart all afternoon and into the night.  Around midnight, they started getting more intense but were still all over the place for timing.  By 2 am I was exhausted and pretty uncomfortable, so we decided to head to the hospital.  We checked in at 3 am where the triage nurse told us that the timing of the contractions didn't matter, they were looking for progress via cervical check. If I hadn't made any progress, they would send me home again.  When I heard that, it was all I could do to not burst in to tears.  The contractions were 3-5 minutes apart and taking my breath away.  (Who came up with the whole "breathe through the pain" thing anyway?)  I simply couldn't bear the thought of going back home at this point and said a prayer (as I had been all night) that I made enough progress to stay.


The nurse geared up for the check and I answered with some hesitation that I was 4 cm at my doctor appointment the day before.  (Please...PLEASE let there be progress...)  As she checked me her eyes widened and she said I was doing good, I was already 7-8 cm!  WOW!!!  We're almost there!  They immediately (and I mean IMMEDIATELY) wheeled my bed out of the triage room and up to the delivery room.  (remember, we checked in to the hospital at 3 am)  The doctor came in and talked to me and discussed our plan of action.  Shortly after the anesthesiologist came in to do his work and get the epidural started.  Let me tell you a little something about me.  When I am in pain, I don't like people to talk to me.  I get agitated and snippy.  I need to meditate the pain away and when people are chattering away at me, I have no control over my pain.  This man would not SHUT UP!  He was trying so hard to make light of the situation and talk me through what he was doing.  I have no idea how long the whole process really took, but I do know that he worked fast and furious, not stopping for anything.  He worked through some of the most intense contractions that I has as of yet and did an excellent job.  One specific thing I remember him telling me is that women often curse his name when it comes time to remove the tape after everything is said and done.  We'll come back to that point later.


Our Labor and Delivery Nurse was the MOST AMAZING woman we encountered during the whole process.  She was honest, sincere and hardworking.  She moved quick and made sure we had everything we needed.  (Even some juice and a snack for daddy to prep him for the delivery!)  She did another check and said that I was complete, they were getting the doctor and we should get the camera ready.  WAIT!!!  The camera?  It's still in the truck...on the other end of the hospital...we can't not have the camera!  Our nurse found someone to run with Brian out to the car (he had no idea where we parked in conjunction with where we ended up after moving rooms) and get back in time to deliver the baby.


The nurse had me do a test push around 6 and then said wait - we need the doctor now.  Things got crazy in the room and were sort of a blur from here.  I remember them taking the bottom half of the bed off and the doctor suiting up for pushing.  The nurse watched for contractions because at this point I couldn't feel them any more (finally...I felt them up until just before 6) and they told me when to push.  I want to say that we did about 5 or 6 contractions worth of pushing with about 3-4 pushes each time.  Other than feeling like my eyes might burst from the pressure, it was easy.  I was peaceful and calm and had Brian right by my side helping through the whole process.  He watched the entire thing and we welcomed our baby girl so quickly with the final push...I don't even think the doctor expected her to slip out so quickly.


Just as quickly as everything was set up for delivery, it was all taken apart.  The IV was taken out and the epidural was removed.  Oh, wait...remember when the anesthesiologist said that most women curse his name when the tape from the epidural is removed?  That hurt worse than any other part of this whole process!  Worse than my most painful contraction, worse than anything.  WOW!  


We were moved into our room and had a visitor the second we got there.  My mom had been patiently waiting to see her new granddaughter and was literally at the door the moment we got to the room.  She spent some time with us and enjoyed our little angel.  Our next visitors came in the evening, the Kemmetmueller family mark Maliyah's first official visitors outside of my mom.  (Come on, we all knew she would be the first.)  Despite the crappy weather (freezing rain) Jeremy and Katie brought the girls to meet our new little blessing.  We are so appreciative of the friends in our lives!


We didn't stay at the hospital long enough for anyone else to come visit...we wanted to get out as soon as we could.  I tested positive for some bacteria back in December (but not January or February??) that resulted in Maliyah and I being put in "isolation."  She had to room in, couldn't spend any time in the nursery, and I wasn't supposed to leave my room.  We weren't getting any rest and the three of us were exhausted, so we went home the day after she was born.  Nobody actually explained the situation to us until I asked my night nurse why Maliyah couldn't go to the nursery.  Then, when she did explain it she first told me the wrong thing - after double checking my chart she told me the right thing but explained it wrong.  I asked for documentation of the issue and it was completely different than what she explained.  I don't want to get in to details, long story short is that we are fine and it was the hospital's way of being cautious.  I was frustrated that nobody took the time to explain it to us and just wanted out.


So, in a very large nutshell, that's it.

39 weeks 5 days

Baby on the Way

As if you didn't know that already.  :)


So, we're still not making much progress and my doctor doesn't want me to go too far over (and have baby get too big) since we aren't sure how pushing will be for me.  (Because of my spinal cord injury)  We see the doctor again on Monday and she will decide at that point what we need to do.  She said we will probably look at inducing on Wednesday or Friday if I'm still not doing anything on my own.  It's likely that she would supplement with Pitocin anyway since it usually brings on stronger contractions and she thinks we'll need them to be pretty strong to help push baby out...so I guess I'm up for inducing if I'm getting the drug no matter what.  So, keep the baby little (I hope she's right...) and get things done.  Baby to be here by a week from today???

Who Knew?

More waiting...


All through the journey, we waited...and waited...and waited.  And now...we wait some more.  Are you kidding me?


Though the calendar says we have 2 days left, I'm curious as to what the doctor will say this morning.  I suppose I should be getting ready instead of blogging.  I truly feel in my gut (literally??) that she will be a March baby.  


I'm officially done with work for as long as it takes to deliver the baby plus 12 weeks.  The first thing I did this morning...wake up and check my work email.  I guess the separation will be tough, at least until the baby arrives.  


I can't wait to see her, hold her and name her.  (Although, don't tell anyone, but I think we already did name her!)  I can't wait to introduce her to the world, to show her off to our family and friends and to give her all of the love that we have been saving up throughout this journey!


As I sit here and think about how close we finally are, I'm amazed when I look back at all the trials and tribulations.  This path has not been easy, but the journey is one I would take again and again to get here.  All my life I've felt that I was put here to be a mom.  If nothing else, a mom.  And now it's finally happening!


Keep watching the blog for updates, our story will continue here over time.  Right now, it's off to the doctor to see if there is an update that makes me feel like we will still be having a February baby (I hope!).

We're almost there...

A week ago, Brian and I got away.  We went to the cities and spent time doing things we've always loved.  On Thursday night, he took me to Red Lobster for dinner.  He hates the smell of seafood, but always treats me like a queen so he took me there for my birthday.  Friday we spent the whole day at the Mall of America, just like when we started dating.  We browsed shops on every floor and just enjoyed our time together.  Saturday, we shopped some more.  Brian tried helping me find shoes and I learned that trying on shoes at 8 months pregnant is not worth it.  Although I have not gotten that big, it was a very challenging adventure. With one very swollen leg and a belly in the way, I was completely exhausted after trying on at least a dozen pair of boots.  Rather, trying to try on...I didn't actually get that many of them on.  We drove through car lots and looked at cars for the future.  We shopped at the General Store in Minnetonka, one of my favorite pastimes from my childhood with my grandmother.  We saw a movie and enjoyed a large buttered popcorn while snuggled together.  We slept in every morning.  We did something that we have always done together, enjoy each other and every minute that we are together.  I love him and I love that we are who we are.  I can't wait for us to meet our little one and include her in our adventures.  What a way to enhance life!  


Speaking of our little one, it's almost time!  At my last appointment, on Friday, Doc said that baby is not too big and that everything is great.  Her heartbeat is amazing and her activity level is crazy.  I can't believe all the kicking and movement that goes on in there...it's overwhelming at times.  I'm not dilated at all, but that's fine as I am just coming up on 37 weeks.  I've been really healthy throughout the entire pregnancy.  I lost 8 pounds at the beginning (had my starting weight wrong and originally thought it was 12) and have not yet hit my pre-pregnancy weight.  As the baby adds weight, I must still be losing because I haven't gained anything yet.  In fact, I went up 2.5 pounds in December and lost that in January.  I've had little issues like carpal tunnel in my left wrist that has been pretty painful, swelling in my left foot and leg, hives and just this past month I've been battling a UTI.  All in all, nothing too serious.  I couldn't be more pleased with how the pregnancy has progressed.  I didn't start showing until the 2nd week of January or so and for the most part am buying smaller clothes than I did before I got pregnant.  I did finally have to give in and get a few maternity things, but am pretty proud that it wasn't until I was 7 1/2 months pregnant.  


I'm getting through the last of the "pre-wash" laundry and have everything pretty set up.  We'll see how functional it is when she gets here and I'm sure we will make changes.  I can't wait to hold our little one for the first time and for all the times after.  I am finishing up thank you cards this weekend and hope to be all done with them by Monday.  I'm really putzy at that task.  There are a few things we don't have yet like a swing, video monitor (or any monitor at all) and diaper pail, but we'll get that taken care of soon.  We need to get the gate installed on the baby room door to keep the dog out, but the house has thrown a few wrenches in the way this week.  (Flooded basement, roots in the drain, washing machine issues - the roots are gone, the basement is no longer flooded and the washer is rigged until the parts come in...so we're getting through it all)  


Brian laid out a work schedule, so if baby comes "exactly" when she is "supposed to," he won't have to worry about coverage at the office.  I'm wondering what happens if she doesn't come at the "right" time...but I'm not going to ask.  


My bag is packed and I'm ready to go...just waiting for that special moment now!  Stay posted!

6 weeks left...

SIX WEEKS!

Make your guesses here:

Baby Guessing Game

More extensive post coming later...like later this week...I hope.  :)

61 days left

Being sick during pregnancy is the pits...I've been down for a week with what started as a cold and morphed into a sinus infection.  I can't wait to feel better.

Christmas was nice.  Friday we spent the evening with my mom and grandma and opened our gifts.  Brian had to work Saturday and Sunday (preparing for next year, he negotiated to have next Christmas off in turn for working this weekend).  It worked out alright as I have been sick all weekend...I've either been in bed sleeping or on the couch sleeping.  I never realized how much cold medicines really work and I miss them so much!

Our baby girl received her first Christmas gift from her Auntie Christine and family.  It's a Raggedy Ann and Andy doll set.  My Raggedy Ann doll was my favorite toy growing up, I only wish that I still had it to pass on to my little girl.  Anyway, this one is going in her baby book.  :)

Baby girl is active as ever, making her presence known all day long.  That's been my saving grace while I have been ill.  I get to lay here and feel the baby flipping and kicking throughout the day.  

We've ordered all of the decor for the nursery (with gift cards!), so between that and getting the crib mattress, which we have been instructed by a friend not to buy, we'll be ready to go in no time.  We have one more shower on the 6th of January and that should about take care of us and our baby girl.  

Oh, did I talk about the first shower yet?  WOW!  20 people in my living room, and no, my house isn't that big.  That is a lot of attention for one person.  (Well, two people, depending on how you look at it.)  Thankfully, that shower was right before I got sick.  It was the last day of energy I had.  We received lots of great things, two of my favorites being the "Jenny Jump-Up" from my grandma and the little hat from my friend Jamie that says "I was worth the wait."  Little girl, you have NO IDEA how worth the wait you were!!!  It was a great time overall, and really awesome to see everyone that came.  The only thing I didn't like was that I didn't get to talk to people more.  There was just so much going on.

Today, it is back to work for 3 days and then another 4-day weekend.  I could get used to this!  I'm just glad that I was sick for Christmas, when Brian was working, and will (hopefully) be feeling better for New Year's weekend when he will be home with me.  I should add, day two of antibiotics and I am feeling lots better than before, but still rough.

I will post pictures of the nursery as soon as it is ready as I know everyone is dying to see it!  :)  The goods won't be here until 1/5 or so...but keep watching after that!  :)

Reflections

One year ago, I was terrified of becoming pregnant again while at the same time wondering if it would ever happen.  I feared another loss and was devastated at not yet being a  mother.  I struggled with the next step of our journey for quite some time.  The thought of calling the Reproductive Endocrinologist made me sweat.  11 months ago, the day after my birthday, we were meeting with our RE for the first time and creating a plan of action.  One that made me giddy with hope and excited to be moving on to the next step of our journey.  6 1/2 months ago, we were having our second IUI, and beginning that next dreaded two week wait.  Then, it happened...we found out we were pregnant.  The next few months were filled with excitement, sickness, fear, more excitement, planning, more fear, and yes, more excitement.  There were sleepless nights and tears...many tears.  Tears of joy, fear and sadness.  


Today, I am almost seven months pregnant!  I cherish every kick and hiccup (even the kicks against my full bladder and stomach full of that fresh cold glass of water I chugged).  While there are still hard moments (sleepless nights, missing my dad, not being able to share with my grandma that the baby will be named after her) there are also so many great moments!  We're deciding how we would like to feed our baby girl, what we would like our birth plan to look like, who her pediatrician will be, and what her name will be.  We're anxious to meet our baby girl and see what she looks like.  Whose family traits will she have?  Will she be quiet or vocal?  Will she be active or calm?  Will she have dark or blond hair, or will she be bald?  Most of all, we can't wait to hold her in our arms and share our love with her.  


We've waited SO LONG for this, and we're almost there.  The next chapter in our journey is about to begin!


Thank you, everyone, for the continued support and prayers.  I enjoy hearing from each and every one of you and appreciate the anecdotes, words of wisdom and overall presence in our journey.