11 days old

Baby Claire is 11 days old today, and has been a fantastic baby so far! She's a fantastic sleeper, and it's actually really hard to wake her up to get her to eat some days. And some nights, she's a good night sleeper. She has started to work herself onto a little schedule, we eat, have some playtime, and then a little nap before we start the cycle over again, every 3 hours. It does make life a little easier, knowing what to expect from her every day, but leaving the house does make it a little harder because she sleeps the whole time an then gets fussy later.

Claire's Nana has been down all week helping out with everything and going with us to the doctor/lactation/shopping. She'll be her next week too, and then after that mommy is on her own (until Nana decides she can't stand being away from her grandbaby). She's been working on baby clothes to get her smocked-wardrobe started. So far we have a really cute bonnet and by the end of today should have a dress to match. G-daddy has been down this weekend to visit and has been teaching Claire everything there is to know about golf. He loves playing with her and being baby paparazzi, he's all over the pictures.

We went to the pediatrician this week, and Claire is back up to her birthweight (5lb 14oz) within the first week, so we're happy about that, although it's probably mostly from the supplemental formula she's been getting. She (and I) have been getting better with the nursing thing, she actually nursed twice today without wanting any supplemental milk or formula, so something must be going right! We go back to the pediatrician for her 2-week checkup on Wednesday, so we'll see then how much she's gained. I can't tell any difference, but also couldn't tell a difference when we were in the hospital and she got down to 5lb 5oz, so I'm not a very good judge. It is funny to see her next to other babies, it makes us realize what a tiny little peanut she is, by herself she doesn't look that small, but next to other babies she really is little!

Here are some new pictures!

Bathtime!

Sleeping in my pack 'n play

My bonnet that Nana made

Crazy Baby Hair

Big smile!

Ah, home at last!

We're finally home with baby, so nice to be here and living our normal life with baby. We had visitors today, Becky, Josh, and Charlie came to visit from Alabama, and John, Leslie, Jimmy, Heidi, and Tripp came over too. It's only been a month and a half since we saw Beck, Josh, and Charlie last, but Charlie has gotten so big!! Can't believe he's double Claire's size! We hung out for a few hours and had lunch, it's nice to hang around with other new first-time parents that know exactly what we're going through right now.

In other exciting (for me) news, I weighed myself this morning to see where I was at, and I'm actually 1.5 lbs below my pre-pregnancy weight. I'm very excited, but still have a long way to go in terms of weight I need to lose and toning up the tummy. Guess that will have to wait a little while, c-section is still a little bit sore, and I'm on excercise restriction right now, so my weight loss is all from breastfeeding for the next few weeks. I go back to the doctor this week, so they can give me all the "rules and regulations" for the next few weeks.... it's hard to follow the rule of not lifting anything heavier than baby when baby is only a 5 pounder. We also have to go visit the lactation consultant tomorrow for some breastfeeding advice, and will be going to the pediatrician for the first time on Monday or Tuesday. Hopefully Claire hasn't lost any more weight, we've been supplementing her feedings, and she seems to be eating better, so I'm not very worried, she seems to be doing well. Lots of pee (yep, little things excite me now)

Congratulations are in order...

*Aaron's 30th birthday is today

*Kate and Chris, who got married yesterday, can't wait to see the pictures

*Sarah and Jason who got engaged last week

Some pics from Becky and Josh's visit...

Becky and I with each other's kids

Claire sucking on Charlie's elbow (true love)

Charlie with his arm around Claire (so cute, would have been better if they weren't crying!)

Announcing the arrival of Claire Grayton Parker

Claire Grayton Parker was born via c-section at 8.13.08 at 4:25pm. She's tiny, weighed in at only 5lb 14oz, and 19".... but she arrived on her due date, so she's just petite!! She's absolutely perfect, sooo good, a great eater and not fussy at all, just perfect.

We had tons of visitors come yesterday to see her, mommy was pretty much passed out in bed the whole time in quite a bit of pain, so she was really not very good company, but appreciated everyone coming up here!

Below are a few pictures of our new addition!

Mom at the hospital, just after checking in... MONDAY

Baby Claire at 20 hours old

Claire and Mommy

Our little family

New plan...

So, things haven't been progressing as quickly as they would like, and there was meconium in my fluid, so we're doing a c-section at 4 today.... 24 minutes! Baby Claire will be here soon! I'll try get some pictures on here sometime tonight or tomorrow!

yay!!!

Finally, progress! My water broke (on it's own) a few minutes ago! The pitocin has been on max, and I've been passed out, thanks to the awesome drugs that they gave me when the pitocin contractions started hurting. All the sudden I feel this pressure, and I go "oh shit". Aaron says what, and I'm like, "either I just peed myself or my water broke!" Sure enough, it was the water! Now I still feel like I'm peeing myself, but I'm very excited that things are starting to happen! I am also dilated to a 2, so some progress there.


More later!

Day 3... I heart Ambien

Technically on my third day in the hospital now. Through the wonders of Ambien, I slept pretty much from 8pm until 6am, with just a little wakeup at midnight. Not too bad. I'm resting right now, 2nd round of cervadil is done, so hopefully that helped. Pitocin starts again as soon as the nurse comes in, and some more sugar water, which is about the only think I'm eating these days...

I've been told that treatment today gets "a lot more aggressive"... higher pitocin levels earlier, breaking my water, and helping to get rid of scar tissue from a surgery I had 4 years ago that is probably a big part of the reason I'm not dilating as fast as I should. So maybe once they get that cleared out I'll just go from a 1-10 right away! Right....

Okay, pitocin is in, let's get this show on the road!!

No baby today

So, 5pm check...still no progress. I've been taken off the pitocin, and they'll restart the whole process again at about 8 tonight. We will be having her tomorrow, either the regular way or by c-section if I don't make any progress tomorrow. Super frustrating, and not a lot of fun to spend this much time at the hospital, although everyone has been really nice.

Frustrating...

So far, no new progress. Ridiculous... Still having contractions every 2-3 minutes, they just aren't doing much of anything at the last time I had been checked, around 2 hours ago. So if nothing happens by 5, they'll shut off the pitocin, let me eat and take a shower, and then will start the cervadil again around 6 I think. It's very frustrating how slow it's going, but at least it's not too painful, since I'm no where near ready for an epidural.

Fun stats... current blood pressure 122/82, baby's heartrate 157. More to come later...

6lb 6oz!

That's what the doctor last night put in as her guess on the baby's weight, but she's still not here yet to compare.

We got to the hospital last night at around 9:30, and they called us upstairs a few minutes after 10. The midwife on duty was one of the midwives that I see in the office pretty frequently, so it was nice to see a familiar face, since I had been freaking out a bit. My nurse was really nice, even though she couldn't get my IV in. I have thin, rolling veins. She had to get another nurse to come in an get my IV set .... it took her 2 tries too, so I look like I have track marks on my arms. I got the cervadil at about 11:30, and an ambien to help me sleep. Woke up around 6 am to have the cervadil removed, took a shower, and was started on the Pitocin about 6:30. I've been on it almost 4 hours now, and am having contractions about every 2-3 minutes, although not particularly painful. I'm guessing they'll check me in a little while to see if I've made any progress, until then just hanging out in my rocking chair making gravity do it's job. I'll keep updating!

News!

So, nothing really happened on Tuesday, the doctor called back Tuesday evening and said that the OB surgeon had decided I wasn't "a good enough candidate for c-section", so they were just going to see me in the office again on Thursday.

I went back to the doctor today, and surprise surprise, the blood pressure was still up! On the plus side, baby has dropped lower and seems to be locked into place. I was measuring a lot smaller than I had been on Tuesday, she said that was a good sign that the baby had dropped pretty well. So anyway, after I told them that my headaches were not going away, I was still seeing spots, etc, they decided to send me into triage at the hospital and let them montior my blood pressure for a few hours and then decide what to do with me. Typical to everyone else, they monitored me for a few hours, then decided to send me home. But they did decide that they will be inducing me Monday night, so baby Claire will be here on Tuesday! I'm going in Monday night at 9:30 and they'll start the induction at 10, and she should be here sometime on Tuesday. It's exciting to finally know something, and to see an end to the high blood pressure and the headaches that come with it.... to be followed by headaches from the baby! I am also going back to the doctor tomorrow (yep, again, I live there) and if the headaches/blurry vision/swelling gets worse over the weekend, I'm under strict orders to return to the hospital.

So I'm excited, and will try keep up (or teach Aaron how to use) the blog so you can keep up to date while were in the hospital. I'll be your own personal "Truman Show", like Becky was for me! And I'll do better to post some pictures of her than I did of my fat belly!

Pictures, finally

So, I figured it was time to put up some nursery and belly pics, since today could potentially be the last day that I have the belly... I went back to the doctor this morning, and my blood pressure is still climbing, the baby, while head-down, is "sunny side up", I'm not dilating any more, and with a bunch of other issues, I'm a good candidate for an elective c-section. I was also put on bed rest for at least the next 3 days. So right now I'm sitting on the couch, waiting for the doctor to call me back and see when they can schedule a c-section for... possibly as early as today, since they are essentially starting my maternity leave today by sending me home, although I am working from home until baby gets here. Hopefully I'll hear something soon, I'm getting impatient!! I'll keep everyone posted on what happens, in the meantime, here are the nursery and belly pics!

The nursery, minus curtains, which are made but not hung...

The nursery, view 2

The crib with the bedding that Nana made

The dresser, with the pink softball glove daddy bought her

The changing table

A blanket chest for now, sure to turn into a toychest before long...

Little CGP's initials

Belly pic, 38 weeks, 6 days (in the guest bathroom)

Eww... up close of the big belly