Mar. 24, 2006

Today was Emma's three month check-up. Emma is 11 pounds, 6 oz and 21 3/4 inches, Emma is 25% on the weight chart. She got a smile face on her chart from the doctor.

Mar. 19, 2006

We drove by Balboa Park to see if the cherry blossoms were in bloom. Some of the trees are but not all of them. I would say about 50%-60% of the trees were blossoming. If you want to see them for yourself you should go this week. I uploaded some pictures of our quick little outing. You can see them under Emma. If you don't know the password, email Kevin or myself.

Mar. 10, 2006

Well, things have settled down a little. I finally got a new monitor, so I can finally work on my computer again. I was going to buy a new monitor on Dec 24th, but someone wanted out and derailed my plans.

Emma was so tiny. We look at other people's babies or the clothes people have bought her and wonder if she'll ever get that big. If she co-operates, she could sit upright in just one of my hands. She's almost 10 pounds now. Almost double her birth weight. And most of the weight seems to be on her thighs. She has outgrown the newborn diaper and is in the 1-2 Pampers. I don't think that will last too long though. Wow. She's growing so fast.

I'm doing much better now after those two tried to killed me. =P I'm only half joking. I still think Kevin tried to give me food poisoning and Emma tried to bleed me dry and now she's trying to be the sole heir.

Kevin tells it better. We went out to dinner to Fleming's and had a nice meal. We came home and I started throwing up. Kevin called the doctor around 4:00am and the on-call doctor said to try Zantac. I threw that up an hour later.=P

Kevin drove me to the doctor's office around 9:30am and they sent us over to the hospital around 11:00am on the 23rd. My blood pressure was 180 over 120. They thought it was preeclampsia and decided to induce using prostaglandins and put me on magnesium to prevent seizures. I only remember bits and pieces after that because the magnesium made me very sleepy and out of it. I know I got the epidural around 10:30pm and they push the Pitocin. I think I was only 3cm at the time. The nurse didn't think that I would deliver until tomorrow afternoon. Well, I was a full 10cm about 11:45pm.

I couldn't figure out why the button for the epidural wasn't working. I snapped at Kevin(so he told me, I thought I asked nicely considering). He asked the nurse who got the intern. Unfortunately, the catheter got blocked just as I started to get to 10cm . The intern wanted to re-insert it, but he didn't want to do it without the attending present.(whim) And I kept thinking there's no way I'm going to be able to be still enough for this idiot to re-insert it. Thus, I ended up delivering without drugs. =P

They called my doctor when I was 6-7 cm and she said she would be there in an hour or so. Well, it didn't take that long for me to get to 10cm more like 15 mins. The nurse said I could push, so I did. But then when the baby was crowning she said don't push. We had to wait for the doctor. I was not happy. =(

Once the doctor got there, the baby didn't take very long to come out. Kevin would know for sure maybe 15 - 30 mins tops. I know she came out very fast. And I remember the doctor asking if Kevin wanted to cut the cord. After that, I don't know what happened. All I remember is that the doctor was working on me for a very long time because I wouldn't stop bleeding. I remember getting some sort of med that numbed the area below the waist and getting a couple of shots in my thigh to try and stop the bleeding. Plus, I was really tired of having my legs in the stirrups for so long.

Kevin said it took hour and half to get the bleeding under control. I guess I had a couple of bleeds on the cervix and the uterus that the doctor had to stitch up as well as delivering the after birth. They almost had to do a transfusion. I didn't have an episiotomy, but I ended up tearing so the doctor had to stitch that up and a couple of other areas inside that were also bleeding.

Kevin was very good and didn't leave my side. I didn't get to see or hold the baby, not that I could have seen her with all the magnesium. It made it very hard to focus.

We had wanted a suite, but with all the post-delivery complications, we end up in delivery ICU area, so the nurses could keep an eye on me. I think we had the worst room in the whole hospital. It was so small and the window looked out onto the walkway, so we kept the shades closed most of the time.

They said I had some of the symptoms for HELLP, extremely low blood platelets and liver functions where high. So they gave me steroids to help with the low blood platelets and watched my liver functions (ie more blood work)

They had me on the magnesium for 24 hrs after delivering and that really sucked. I had the BP cup on my arm 24/7 and nurses drawing blood every 6-8 hours. I had so many bruises and tracks from the blood draws that I looked like a junkie.

So 2 weeks later, I passed a huge blood clot Sunday night. We called the doctor's office and they had me come in and did an ultrasound which showed that there was still stuff in my uterus. They wanted me to come back and do more blood tests for the pregnancy hormones on Friday and then on Tuesday discuss my options whether they would have to do a D&C or give me some medication to help pass the stuff in my uterus.

Jan 13th, Friday the 13th, we ended up going to the ER because the bleeding wouldn't stop. But it did seem to mostly stop by the time we actually saw a doctor three hours later. ER not a fun adventure. Emma stayed with her grandparents while Kevin and I were at the ER. Another IV and lots of blood work. The doctor gave me a Rx for the medication to make my uterus contract.

So, the doctor that delivered Emma thinks I should pass everything on my own. Yay.

Feb. 28, 2006

Emma's two month check-up, Emma is finally on the growth charts. At 9 pounds, 3 oz and 21 inches, Emma is 3% on the weight chart and 10% on the height chart.

Jan. 24, 2006

At Emma's one month check-up, Emma is 6 pounds and still 18 inches.