Introducing Connor Ross!

On Saturday afternoon, 6/6/2009, I was outside watching Riley play for a few minutes. We came in about 3:15 PM and when I put Riley down on the floor, and crouched slightly, I felt a “trickle”. It didn’t feel like I peed, but I wasn’t sure. I knew that if it was that my water had broken, it would happen again, so I waited. It didn’t really happen again, so I was confused. At 4:00 PM, though, I had had NO doubt that my water had indeed broken! My pants were soaked and the fluid wasn’t stopping. Steve was at work and wasn’t answering his cell phone, so I had to track down the phone number for his work so I could get a hold of him. We arranged for my friend Crystal to come over and spend time with Riley until my mom could get down to Kansas City from Lincoln. At about 6:00 PM, we headed to the hospital to have a baby!

As soon as I arrived at the hospital the doctor confirmed that my water had indeed broken and got me into a room. She did not check to see if I had dilated anymore because she wanted to decrease the chance of infection, so assumed I was still at 3 cm dilated and between 25% and 50% effaced (thinned out). I started to have some contraction on my own, but nothing close to regular or enough that would make it be called “labor”. So, at 7:15 PM (4 hours after my water had broken), we decided to start some Pitocin to help labor along. My labor was really slow to start, but the contractions were getting uncomfortable. At 1:00 AM I got the epidural. It was a horrible experience for me this time because they were having trouble getting the catheter inserted, so it took FOUR tries! OUCH! The nurse checked me at 2:00 AM, and I was only 4 cm and hadn’t effaced any additional amount! I was very frustrated and could tell I was in for the long haul again (this labor story is starting to sound VERY similar to Riley’s….). The contracts started coming VERY regularly every two minutes after that and at 4:30 AM the nurse checked me and I had progressed to 5.5 cm and 80% effaced, and the baby was at 0 station, meaning that as he was as low as he could get without me being dilated more. YEY! Only one hour later, at 5:30 AM I had progressed to 7 cm dilated. Things were finally moving along! The next two hours were HORRIBLE. Even though I had the epidural and had no pain, the “transition” part of labor brought on nausea and SEVERE shaking. I didn’t experience any of those symptoms with Riley, so this was new and very unpleasant. At 7:30 AM, I was fully dilated and effaced, but the nurse wanted me to wait a little longer to push to see if the last slightest “lip” of cervix would disappear to make pushing easier. At 8:45 AM, I called the nurse back, basically insisting that I was ready, the doctor said that it was time, so they got everything ready. At 8:55 AM I started pushing and at 9:11 AM Connor Ross O’Neill was born!! I once again was lucky and didn’t tear at all. My body sucks at getting into a good labor pattern, but it’s GREAT at the actual delivery, LOL! He weighed 5 lbs. 11.8 oz, and was 18 inches long. He did AMAZING for being slightly premature and scored an 8 and then 9 on his APGARs.

This labor was FULL of every possible medication intervention, like Riley’s labor. Connor’s heart rate would decelerate with some of the contractions, so in addition to the IV fluids, Pitocin, and epidural, I also had an oxygen mask, internal monitors placed, and at the end an amnioinfusion (saline fluid pumped back into my uterus). I started to develop a fever at the end of my labor from my water being broken so long and at that point Connor’s heart would INCREASE with every contraction instead of decreased. I also struggled with very low blood pressure after I got the epidural and that lasted several hours after delivery so my transition over to the mother/baby unit was delayed to stabilize me (which was nice because then we were able to get a bigger room on the mother/baby unit).

Connor is doing well and has taken to breastfeeding pretty well. The nurses were all amazed at just how well he did with everything for being a “36 weeker”. It crazy all of the extra stuff that they have to do when your baby is just a few days short of being “term”. Riley just adores him! She constantly is asking for the baby and is able to say his name. At the hospital she even tried to share her toys and books with him and got upset when she couldn’t sit next to him anymore. She has done well with him coming home and entering her “space” as well. I couldn’t have asked for a better transition! I hope that it continues….

It's Not Over Yet...

The rollercoaster ride continued over the last couple of days. As I was getting ready to leave the house on Wendesday to take Riley to daycare and go to my doctor appointment, I all of a sudden had a GUSH of blood . In both of my pregnancies, I have never experienced any bleeding. So we immediately went to the hospital to see what was going on. They did an initial examination and couldn't figure out what it happened, but we were all glad to see/hear that baby Connor was doing well. As a result of the unexplained bleeding I again had to be admitted to the hospital.

They did an ultrasound and still couldn't figure out why the bleeding happened. They did determine that I will likely have another small baby though. Right now at 36 weeks Connor is measuring only 5 lbs. 3 oz! The bleeding stopped over the course of the day and my doctor and the perinatologist (who by the why suggested I just make an appointment to come in to the hospital next Wednesday, haha) suspect that my placenta possibly started to separate from the wall of the uterus but then the blood clotted and the separation did not continue.

So, I was released from the hospital yesterday (Thursday) at 5:30 PM after 24 hours of no bleeding. My doctor has put me on some more strict "modified bedrest" until I deliver to prevent any unnecessary stress on my body that would cause additional bleeding. Thankfully Steve's mom is coming to stay next week to help with Riley because today is her last day of daycare!

Here is a picture from the hospital showing my belly at 36 weeks (under the gown, of course).

Rollercoaster...

The past few days have been an absolute rollercoaster!!!!

Wednesday morning I go to my regular doctor appointment. I had been struggling with a lot of painful contractions, and I progressed from 0-2cm in one week. I also mentioned that I was afraid that I might be leaking a small amount of fluid, but wasn't sure. Doc had me lay down for awhile so she could test the fluid and while I was laying there, contractions started again. She comes back, tests the fluid, and one test says negative, but another says positive. Since I was having contractions again and the tests were inconclusive, she sends me over to Labor and Delivery.

So at L&D I get hooked up to the monitors and I am contracting regularly every 3 minutes and they are getting more painful. All believe I am in labor. Doc comes over and does a more reliable test for amniotic fluid and it comes back with a faint positive! Doc admits me to hospital to "labor" and says that she will come back tonight to likely start pitocin if I have not progressed much on my own.

During the course of the afternoon my contractions stop. Doc comes, says that she expected that I would still be contracting and says since the test was a faint positive she wanted to test the fluid again to make sure before she induced me since I was only 35 weeks. So she repeats the test and it is negative!!!! So, no induction! ARRGG! My mom is already on her way down to spend time with Riley.

But, it's still not over! Doc thinks that my water really did break but it is just a small leak so we keep getting differing test results. So, I stay in the hospital. That night I start contracting again and this time they are severe. Coming every 3 minutes again and reach a pain scale of 8 out of 10. I hit 3 cm dilated and 50% effaced, but since they don't know for sure if I am in labor, no epidural yet . So, I get two doses of Stadol for the pain because I also hadn't slept in a LONG time (side note...that stadol is CRAZY stuff. I didn't really like it and it didn't let me sleep. It did take away most of the pain though). Not to mention my contractions were all back labor. So, after 11 hours of painful, regular contractions, they STOP again!!! OMG...SO frustrated at this point and SO sleep deprived.

So Thursday morning....doc knows how frustrated I am and stays at the hospital with me in the morning even though it's her day off (love her!). She has the perinatologist(high risk OB) come to see me to figure out what to do. We decide to do the "smurf" test. So, I had an amniocentesis (needle inserted into uterus) done, they drew fluid to test for infection, and then injected blue dye into the amniotic fluid and had me put a tampon in for two hours to see if any leaked onto it. I had NEVER heard of this test before, but was told that if baby was delivered in the next 48 hours he may come out with a slight blue tinge, LOL! Still having contractions off and on throughout the day and some of them reach a pain scale of about 6 out of 10. Given Morphine, but it doesn't really help...just makes me feel funny.

Thursday night....no blue on tampon, so leak likely relsealed itself, no infection in uterus (THAT is GOOD!), and it's obvious that the contractions that I am having are not putting me into full blown labor . So, I am sent home.

Currently, I am an emotional wreck. EVERYONE at the hospital thought that I was going to be having my baby while I was there, and I go home still pregnant. My emotions are way out of wack and I can't stop crying. I've lost 6 lbs. because of all this stress and can't take being pregnant much longer. I'm really counting on a baby being born at 37 weeks....I think my doc is too.

I never thought that this experience would happen to me and I am totally miserable and stressed out. I am having a hard time not crying. On the plus side, I will be working from home next week to finish up some loose ends and then I am DONE. My mom and dad have Riley for the weekend in Lincoln to give me some time to recover, which is GREATLY appreciated. She will have her last week of daycare next week.

A Day at the Park!

Riley absolutely LOVES going to the park! The slides are her favorite part... The only problem is: when it's time to leave she is MAD!

Potty Time!

Although I am in NO rush to start potty training Riley, I figured I may as well get her used to sitting on the potty. So, today I bought her a little gift...her first potty chair (pink of course). She thought it was pretty funny sitting on it and sat for a good 3-5 minutes. Of course nothing in it this first time. I plan to just put her on it occasionally to get her used to the idea and I'm sure sometime I will catch her at the right time.

Bedrest!

I will start from the beginning... Sunday Connor dropped. So, not only does my belly look totally different (and smaller), but he's also causing some "problems". Ever since he dropped I have been having a lot of pressure and cramping when standing and have been contracting a lot more...including some painful, "real", ones. Thankfully, generally as long as I am sitting down or laying down, I usually only have about 3 contractions per hour (which is considered "normal"). Unfortunately if I just sit all day long, without putting my feet up, my ankles become as big as softballs (seriously)! So at my appointment today, my doc decided that some "rest" may be in order. Having delivered Riley, she knew that complete bedrest would be out of the question for me, and probably wasn't really needed since I have made it to 34 weeks (which means a lot to OBs). So until my appointment next Wednesday I am on "modified bedrest", meaning that I am working from home with my feet up and taking breaks to lay down. I am NOT strapped to a bed, thankfully.

Everything else with Connor seems to be great. My uterus is now measuring just 1 week ahead of my due date and at an ultrasound today all anatomy looked great. He is head down and ready to go in good birthing position! We also saw that he had A LOT of hair. You could see all of the fuzz surrounding his little head.

So we are just waiting patiently and hoping that he stays put for 2-3 more weeks!

So you can see the difference in my belly...

31 weeks


Monday

Riley Roo is 18 Months!!

Mommy is stealing the blogging rights away from me...with two children she is afriad it will get too confusing : )

It's hard to believe that my little baby is officially 1.5 years old! It seems like I was holding her tiny little peanut of a head in my hand just yesterday! I'm not an overly sentimental person or anything, but it's hard to believe that my tiny baby is now this beautiful big girl standing next to me repeatedly demonstrating how a sheep says "baa" (with the throat shake and all, haha).

Between 12 and 18 months Riley has made HUGE strides in her development. She runs all over the place, loves to go up and down the stairs, says over 50 words regularly (and will repeat other ones after her dad or I say them), eats well with a spoon, and amazes me EVERY DAY with the directives and instructions that she understands. One of Riley's favorite things is to play outside...she is actually obsessed with it and gets up sets if she isn't able to go out. Riley is also a terrific eater and will eat almost anything you put in front of her including "stranger" things like asparagus, cabbage, and some pickles. Her favorite foods of all times are probably hot dogs, strawberries, and bread, though. She is still doing fantastic with sleeping in her big girl bed and STILL won't get out of it unless I tell her she can (well, except for one occassion this weekend and gramma and grandpa Bryant's house). One of her new favorite "tricks" is picking people she knows out of pictures. She especially like identifying her mommy, daddy, and self in pictures. She has also gotten more teeth. She now has her four front ones on top, three front ones on bottom, and her top two one-year molars. Her fourth bottom tooth and one of her bottom one-year molars also just broke through her gums. So, that 11 teeth so far! I'm sure I am forgetting MANY of the other fabulous things that she is doing, but it's so hard to think of them all when you are blessed enough to experience the joy of the Roo every day!

Here is a new list of things that Riley is able to say, sign, and identify for keepsake purposes:

Words By 18 Months:
Dog
Bye, Bye
Milk
More
Thank You
All Done
Mama
Dada
Grandpa
Wally
Water
Night, Night
Bird
Elephant
Diaper
Eye
Shoe
Up
Book
Open
Apple
Hot Dog
Lion
Duck
Mouse
Mouth
Uhoh
Baby
Flower
Please
Riley
Heidi
Lola
Ryla
Outside
No
Bus (as in "Wheels on the Bus go Round and Round...")
Wow
Whee
Frog
Bottle
Ball
Turtle
Hot
Help
Bear
Banana
Bath
Baa (like what a sheep says)
Moo
Hello
Hi
Rock (if she is rocking in a chair or on a horse)
Bread

Can Sign:
Milk
Please
Thank You
Help
More
All Done
Eat

Can Identify:
Eye
Hand
Head
Tum-Tum
Foot
Nose
Ear
Tongue
Toe
Teeth

Some pictures are to come probably next week with the posting of her 18 month stats from her doctor appointment.