Monday, January 26, 2009
Sunday, January 25, 2009
Saturday, January 24, 2009
Poll: Okay, you've seen the pictures, now who does she look like?
In a few days, I'll let you know the only answer I've gotten so far.
Friday, January 23, 2009
Why we chose Lydia Mabel...
Martin and I have liked the name Lydia for a long time now. If memory serves me correctly, we had the name picked out before we were even married and definitely before I got pregnant the first time. So when we found out we were having a girl there was no name deliberations this time. Mabel is Martin's paternal grandmother's name. We had about 3 middle names we were considering but Mabel won out. A lot of people have asked us "is that a family name?" so I guess folks aren't used to hearing that name these days. In fact, the name hasn't been on the top 1000 list since the 1950s. I think that makes it a good middle name.
Thursday, January 22, 2009
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
Hospital Stay
Despite not being able to sleep in the hospital bed and going home a day earlier, I had a much better hospital experience with Lydia's birth than I did with Dylan's. I think it had a lot to do with the time of day she was born, the fact that the hospital wasn't as busy, and much better nurses. First of all we got a room that was 3 times the size of the one we had last time. It was a double that they converted into a single. That was very helpful for when Dylan came to visit and was running around. Secondly, I realized that the fury of activity that I complained about last time happens at the 24 hour mark, not necessarily the afternoon of the day after you give birth when everyone is visiting. So we got all that business taken care of in the morning before our visitors. The staff seemed much more knowledgable and helpful this time and despite the fact that it was only a 5 hour labor, the whole stay seemed much more laid back and relaxed.
This is a really bad picture of me and not so great of Lydia but Dylan looks cute.
We had some cranky kids (we left the hospital at 7:30pm on January 3rd) so we didn't get many pictures of the actual departure from the hospital except this one of Lydia bundled up in her car seat. 
Here we are nice and relaxed at home! My mom swaddled Lydia up good - my mom took a class, Dr. Karp's Happiest Baby on the Block. :)
Dylan got to meet his baby sista the day she was born. Martin picked him up from Laura's around lunchtime and then they went home and both took a nap. They came back to the hospital around dinnertime. I was surprised - Dylan "got it" right away. We told him once who Lydia was and he never once got confused or pointed to me or my belly when we said baby sister. Dylan has been very good with Lydia. He asks to hold her almost everyday. And there have been times when he has said "Dylan's turn" when I've been holding Lydia but I'm beginning to think that he's more jealous of me getting to hold Lydia than he is of Lydia. Dylan likes to give Lydia kisses on the cheek. There have been a few true moments of jealousy where Dylan has pointed his finger and looked at Lydia and said "get off" very sternly but he's mostly very sweet to her. Here is our first family of four picture:
This is a really bad picture of me and not so great of Lydia but Dylan looks cute.
Shortly after Martin and Dylan arrived back at the hospital, my parents got there. They were so excited to get to see us in the hospital and to meet Lydia the day she was born. With the first round of grandbabies (Steven and Dylan) my parents didn't see the kids in the hospital but this round (Zak and Lydia) they made sure of it.
Here are the going home day pictures. Lydia wore purple for the occasion and so did grandma.
We had some cranky kids (we left the hospital at 7:30pm on January 3rd) so we didn't get many pictures of the actual departure from the hospital except this one of Lydia bundled up in her car seat. Here we are nice and relaxed at home! My mom swaddled Lydia up good - my mom took a class, Dr. Karp's Happiest Baby on the Block. :) 
Swaddling has actually been working very nicely for us with Lydia. It really helps her stay asleep. I think she's still mixing her days and nights up a little but we'll work on that.
Thursday, January 15, 2009
Lydia's Birth Story
Since I wasn’t having a scheduled C-section or wasn’t being induced, Lydia’s birthday was a surprise for everyone but God (unlike her name which I think everyone got with the last clue.) We had some clues as to when she would be born but the exact timing was definitely a surprise to us. Since Dylan was 10 days early I pretty much had it in my head that Lydia would be early too but as they say “every pregnancy is different.” Plus, after our last doctor’s appointment on New Years Eve (see earlier blog entry from that day) I was starting to expect that Lydia would arrive closer to her due date. Well, she ended up being 1 day closer to her due date than Dylan. But the similarities with her labor and delivery compared to Dylan’s ended there. While labor onset slowly and progressed slowly with Dylan, born in 2006, labor with Lydia, born in 2009, onset rapidly and progressed rapidly. At another doctor’s appointment we were told that second labors are usually about half the time of the first. So we thought we would be looking at about 12 hours this time, which sounded great to me after almost 25 with Dylan.
At 3:15am on Friday, January 2nd, 2009, I awoke with a start, not sure why. The answer became clear seconds later, when I felt something that made me think “I wonder if that’s my water breaking.” I had had feelings like this before that turned out to be nothing so that was the reason for the pause. Still, I said to Martin, “I think my water may have just broken.” Moments later, I felt something akin to a gush of water exiting my body and look down and this time I knew for sure. “Yep, my water definitely just broke,” I exclaimed to Martin and you never saw anyone get out of bed so fast. We had both physically prepared for the event with packing, but this was much more sudden and sooner than either of us anticipated. I hurriedly cleaned myself up while Martin assembled the last-minute of the items on the packing list. I remember thinking “cool, she has 12 hours to be born so we can donate the cord blood!” We made a call to the doctor and in a very sleepy voice he gave me the choice to either wait at home until the contractions started or head for the hospital and just walk around for a while. Knowing that we had to drop off Dylan at a friend’s house, we opted to head out.
Martin packed up the suitcases and other items and got Dylan ready to go as well. Dylan was in a fine, happy mood, despite being awakened at such an early hour. About a mile after we departed, he mentioned that he didn’t have shoes (he was still in his pajamas). Realizing that we hadn’t packed any, we returned home to grab them. On our way to the home of my dear friend, Laura H. where we planned for Dylan to stay until my parents could retrieve him later, we passed about a half dozen trash trucks – the only other vehicles out at 4am. Dylan pointed them all out. We dropped Dylan off, hoping he would give Laura a bit more sleep, but after seeing all the Cars paraphernalia that her boys got for Christmas, we doubted Dylan would be able to sleep. He cried a little when we left probably out of confusion but was soon at ease.
From there we drove to the hospital, and I began to feel the contractions as we traveled. They were brief, but they were very frequent. We made it to the hospital around 4:30, and I had an extra walk, as the main entrance wasn’t open yet and had to walk around to the ER. After we made it through registration, we headed to Labor & Delivery. The contractions became more intense during the hour long process they called triage. By the time I got to my delivery room, I decided to start the process to get an epidural. This time the needle in the back seemed a lot more doable compared to the pain that I knew would come and the pain that I was already experiencing (the pre-pushing contractions seemed more painful to me this time.) I didn’t feel like going through the pain – been there, done that. So, I needed to have an IV full of cold liquid which dropped my body temperature significantly and I started shivering. My blood pressure was also very low (89/37) due to the pain. My blood pressure is usually low (105/60 ish) and my doctor told the nurse “she’s just very healthy,” but the nurse was unsure if the anaesthesiologist would give me an epidural with my blood pressure that low. She even said, “I’ve never had a patient with blood pressure that low.” Nonetheless, the anaesthesiologist was able to get the epidural started, albeit a bit slowly. Shortly after the epidural, I was having contractions but not even feeling them. I felt very calm and had a relaxing talking with the nurses. Dr. Bruchalski arrived around 6:00 and came in to check me. He felt everything was going well and spent time talking to me. We discussed baby names for a while. When Martin mentioned our plan to donate the cord blood, he lamented about private cord banks (where they charge people to store the cord blood) were unnecessary. It was a very relaxed time. I also gave the clues on the baby’s name (from my contest). They spent a while trying to figure it out.
At 7am, there was a shift change so new nurses came in. Also, Dr. B left and Dr. Lorna (Cvetkovich) came in. At 8:06, the nurses called me complete and I soon began to some pressure. Because of the epidural, I wasn’t sure if it was an urge to push. I began to laugh nervously at the prospect that my child would be arriving soon. Then when I pushed, it was only one push and Lydia’s head was out. One small push later (or what the nurses and doctor called a laugh), and she was out. Dr. Lorna delivered her onto my chest at 8:16 and I was overwhelmed with emotion and began to cry.
The neonatal nurse cleaned her up and checked her out as I lay there recovering. She was beautiful, and everyone commented on it. She weighed 6 lbs, 5 oz and was 19.25” and was perfect. Moments after birth, she found her fingers and began to suck. After she was checked out, I began to nurse her. Over the next 1.5 hours, she nursed with a few breaks. Martin, Lydia, and I had a lovely quiet time. We ordered breakfast and watched the sun start to light up the mountains, which we could see from the window. It seemed like forever before I had enough feeling in my legs to get to a wheelchair. We didn’t get to the post-partum room until almost 11am where we started making phone calls and got the cord blood ready for pick up. Lydia was nice enough to arrive before 3pm so we could donate the blood.
I’m glad I had the epidural this time. It was really only running for about two hours and I didn’t feel like I was going to die this time. That said, I’m glad I didn’t have one the first time. I feel like I can sympathize with all those women in our time and in ages past (like my mom, my sister, Mary (see my Christmas post), etc.) that have not have the desire or luxury to have pain medication. And since things were going so slowly the first time I’m glad I didn’t do anything that might make me later think I helped to slow things. I had a lot less fear of having a C-section this time, which obviously wouldn’t be the end of the world but it is something I like to avoid if possible.
At 3:15am on Friday, January 2nd, 2009, I awoke with a start, not sure why. The answer became clear seconds later, when I felt something that made me think “I wonder if that’s my water breaking.” I had had feelings like this before that turned out to be nothing so that was the reason for the pause. Still, I said to Martin, “I think my water may have just broken.” Moments later, I felt something akin to a gush of water exiting my body and look down and this time I knew for sure. “Yep, my water definitely just broke,” I exclaimed to Martin and you never saw anyone get out of bed so fast. We had both physically prepared for the event with packing, but this was much more sudden and sooner than either of us anticipated. I hurriedly cleaned myself up while Martin assembled the last-minute of the items on the packing list. I remember thinking “cool, she has 12 hours to be born so we can donate the cord blood!” We made a call to the doctor and in a very sleepy voice he gave me the choice to either wait at home until the contractions started or head for the hospital and just walk around for a while. Knowing that we had to drop off Dylan at a friend’s house, we opted to head out.
Martin packed up the suitcases and other items and got Dylan ready to go as well. Dylan was in a fine, happy mood, despite being awakened at such an early hour. About a mile after we departed, he mentioned that he didn’t have shoes (he was still in his pajamas). Realizing that we hadn’t packed any, we returned home to grab them. On our way to the home of my dear friend, Laura H. where we planned for Dylan to stay until my parents could retrieve him later, we passed about a half dozen trash trucks – the only other vehicles out at 4am. Dylan pointed them all out. We dropped Dylan off, hoping he would give Laura a bit more sleep, but after seeing all the Cars paraphernalia that her boys got for Christmas, we doubted Dylan would be able to sleep. He cried a little when we left probably out of confusion but was soon at ease.
From there we drove to the hospital, and I began to feel the contractions as we traveled. They were brief, but they were very frequent. We made it to the hospital around 4:30, and I had an extra walk, as the main entrance wasn’t open yet and had to walk around to the ER. After we made it through registration, we headed to Labor & Delivery. The contractions became more intense during the hour long process they called triage. By the time I got to my delivery room, I decided to start the process to get an epidural. This time the needle in the back seemed a lot more doable compared to the pain that I knew would come and the pain that I was already experiencing (the pre-pushing contractions seemed more painful to me this time.) I didn’t feel like going through the pain – been there, done that. So, I needed to have an IV full of cold liquid which dropped my body temperature significantly and I started shivering. My blood pressure was also very low (89/37) due to the pain. My blood pressure is usually low (105/60 ish) and my doctor told the nurse “she’s just very healthy,” but the nurse was unsure if the anaesthesiologist would give me an epidural with my blood pressure that low. She even said, “I’ve never had a patient with blood pressure that low.” Nonetheless, the anaesthesiologist was able to get the epidural started, albeit a bit slowly. Shortly after the epidural, I was having contractions but not even feeling them. I felt very calm and had a relaxing talking with the nurses. Dr. Bruchalski arrived around 6:00 and came in to check me. He felt everything was going well and spent time talking to me. We discussed baby names for a while. When Martin mentioned our plan to donate the cord blood, he lamented about private cord banks (where they charge people to store the cord blood) were unnecessary. It was a very relaxed time. I also gave the clues on the baby’s name (from my contest). They spent a while trying to figure it out.
At 7am, there was a shift change so new nurses came in. Also, Dr. B left and Dr. Lorna (Cvetkovich) came in. At 8:06, the nurses called me complete and I soon began to some pressure. Because of the epidural, I wasn’t sure if it was an urge to push. I began to laugh nervously at the prospect that my child would be arriving soon. Then when I pushed, it was only one push and Lydia’s head was out. One small push later (or what the nurses and doctor called a laugh), and she was out. Dr. Lorna delivered her onto my chest at 8:16 and I was overwhelmed with emotion and began to cry.
The neonatal nurse cleaned her up and checked her out as I lay there recovering. She was beautiful, and everyone commented on it. She weighed 6 lbs, 5 oz and was 19.25” and was perfect. Moments after birth, she found her fingers and began to suck. After she was checked out, I began to nurse her. Over the next 1.5 hours, she nursed with a few breaks. Martin, Lydia, and I had a lovely quiet time. We ordered breakfast and watched the sun start to light up the mountains, which we could see from the window. It seemed like forever before I had enough feeling in my legs to get to a wheelchair. We didn’t get to the post-partum room until almost 11am where we started making phone calls and got the cord blood ready for pick up. Lydia was nice enough to arrive before 3pm so we could donate the blood.
I’m glad I had the epidural this time. It was really only running for about two hours and I didn’t feel like I was going to die this time. That said, I’m glad I didn’t have one the first time. I feel like I can sympathize with all those women in our time and in ages past (like my mom, my sister, Mary (see my Christmas post), etc.) that have not have the desire or luxury to have pain medication. And since things were going so slowly the first time I’m glad I didn’t do anything that might make me later think I helped to slow things. I had a lot less fear of having a C-section this time, which obviously wouldn’t be the end of the world but it is something I like to avoid if possible.
Next posting: my thoughts on the hospital stay this time
Tuesday, January 06, 2009
New Every Morning
"Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope: Because of the LORD's great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. I say to myself, 'The LORD is my portion; therefore I will wait for him.' The LORD is good to those whose hope is in him, to the one who seeks him; it is good to wait quietly for the salvation of the LORD." - Lamentations 3:21-26We are praising God for His blessings that are new every morning, especially the one we received on the morning of Friday, January 2, 2009. Lydia Mabel was born at 8:16am after only 5 hours of labor. She weighed 6lbs, 5.2 oz and was 19.25 inches long. We are all doing well aside from the lack of sleep. Lydia is eating like a champ and big brother Dylan is still very excited about Baby Sista.
Thursday, January 01, 2009
Cord Blood Donation
If you've had a baby in the last few years, you've probably been bombarded with companies offering to store your baby's cord blood for a hefty fee. Many people may not know that you can also donate your baby's cord blood for free and it can be used to help people immediately or through research. According to the Cryobanks International website, "Currently, umbilical cord blood stem cells can be used to treat over 75 life-threatening diseases, including leukemias, anemias, lymphomas, and inborn errors of metabolism. As science continues to discover new uses for umbilical cord blood stem cells, many other diseases could potentially be treated using these unique cells. There are currently over 700 clinical trials being performed for diseases such as type I diabetes, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, stroke, paralysis, heart disease, and wound repair." Cord blood is rich in stem cells and the more cord blood can be used, the less will be the demand for controversial embryonic stem cells. So we are going to try to donate our baby's cord blood. I say try because it has to be collected at a certain time and be a certain weight for Cyrobanks to accept it so hopefully it will work out that we can donate. I wanted to do this with Dylan but I got some misinformation and was told that my hospital didn't do it. But I asked again this time and my doctor told me that we could. I'll be blogging out this as part of my birth story and will let you know how it goes. So far, I had to fill out an online form, then fill out and mail in a more extensive medical history. Once they reviewed the forms, if I check out, which I did, they sent me the collection packet which I need to take to the hospital with me when I go into labor. I'm supposed to call Cryobanks when I'm in labor and then within a few hours after the baby is born. My doctor will do the collection and then give me the goods and then Cryobanks will come to the hospital and pick it up from me. I'm excited about it. This might make up for the fact that I almost passed out giving blood in high school and wasn't able to donate much blood and have been afraid to try again....but that's another story....
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