For Alexa's first Thanksgiving we went down to south Florida to visit family and lets just say that the first 36 hours of our trip was full of bodily fluid. Even though Alexa does really well in the car, we decided to stop in Orlando for the night to break up the trip. So Tuesday night we drove to Katie and Janell's. I was walking Alexa around the room because she had been kind of fussy (she does that in the evening) and all of a sudden I felt some wet nasty on my arm. I looked down and she had vomited all over the place. I know what you're thinking. How much could a little baby really have puked? Ounces people, multiple ounces. I ran into Katie's bathroom with vomit literally dripping onto the floor behind me (sorry Katie). There was puke all over her clothes, all over my clothes (shirt, bra, pants, everything), all over her face. I mean, I was wiping it out of her hair. It was everywhere. And the child never made a sound! So we got her all cleaned up, new pj's and we all went to bed. She got up at around 3:30 to eat (no big deal) but by 5:00 when she absolutely refused to go back to sleep we decided to just drive the rest of the way to Hollywood. So, on with the bodily fluid stories. The rest of the morning was pretty uneventful fluid wise. I had to change the sheets on the bed once because Alexa had some projectile sharting, but nothing too crazy. We took naps and waited for my mom to get home from work. That afternoon we went to go see Grammy (my grandmother). As she was holding Alexa she commented that the diaper had just turned warm and that Alexa probably just peed. I picked Alexa up to check her diaper and there was poo all over Grammy's pants. When I took the diaper off, there was poo coming out of everywhere. The top, back, sides, everywhere. It was on her dress. There was poo up to her chest. Alexa got her second wipes bath in 24 hours. That evening we had a little dinner for all of Alexa's grandparents and great-grandmothers. I went to change her at one point and as I lifted her butt up to wipe her, she had more projectile pooping that got onto my hand, arm and yes, the sheets. Great. The sheets have to be changed again, at least it didn't get on her clothes. So I finished wiping her down and when I picked her butt up the next time to slide the new diaper under her, she peed all over the place. Soaked her outfit and the changing pad (yes, that's right, I said changing pad. When she got poo on the sheets she shot it past the changing pad. Pretty impressive if I do say so myself. My kid could be a professional poo shooter.) and so Alexa had what seemed to be her fifteenth costume change of the day. At least she is getting to wear all her pretty outfits!
The rest of our Thanksgiving was wonderful with no more poo on outfits or sheets. Alexa got to meet lots of our friends and family and everyone loved her, of course. We are super excited to go back for Christmas!
Tuesday, November 30, 2010
Wednesday, November 3, 2010
My Child The Nudist
Alexa is one month old now which is kind of crazy. We went to the doctor Tuesday for her one month check up and she is 20 3/4 inches long and weighs 8lbs 3oz. She had to have LFTs drawn because she's still a little jaundiced but Dr. Elzie said that's pretty common for babies who are nursing. Other then that, she is in perfect health. Everyone keeps commenting on how tiny she is but I think she's huge! I swear I can see her growing. She is starting to have a little personality too. She loves music, her play mat, her bouncy seat, her little butterfly toy, and most of all she loves being naked. I'm not kidding. The kid is a nudist. At first I thought that she liked taking a bath so much because of the water and maybe she calmed down on the changing table because we were changing a dirty diaper. Nope. Not true. (well, maybe partially true) She just really likes to be naked. It's not like the clothes or diapers are bothering her. She has no rashes or anything and most of the time she is perfectly happy with her clothes on. But if she starts to get fussy for no reason, all you have to do is strip her down. I told her that it's all good now but she better try to kick the habit at least before she's five because it's socially unacceptable to go to kindergarten nakie (Nick and Katie, please appreciate the use of the word 'nakie'). Here's a picture of naked Alexa (at least she keeps the head band on...for now). We had them done at Picture People when we went to Orlando last weekend. I still think my mom and I do just as good with the photography.
Thursday, October 21, 2010
Sunday, October 17, 2010
Saturday, October 16, 2010
Alexa Is Here!!!!!
Yes, I know that this is two weeks late, but I've been a little busy...you know, having a baby. In the past two weeks we have discovered that Alexa is a bit of a drama queen (who would have thought that my child would be dramatic?! hehehe). So of course she had to make a dramatic entrance into the world. Enter disclaimer: Obviously, I'm about to talk about the birth of my child. If you don't want to hear about where babies come from, I suggest you stop reading. And without further ado, I present Alexa's dramatic birth:
Nick and I had a plan (I love a good plan) two weeks ago about how we were going to get ready for the baby. We were going to be prepared and have everything cleaned and set up just right. All those fun nesting things which was planned to start on Thursday, September 30th. So Thursday morning (OK, afternoon) I woke up and when I got out of bed a little pee came out. Let's get real for everyone who just made a face. We are talking about a nine month pregnant lady... a little bit of pee coming out every now and then when you change positions is just part of reality. Back to my story. So I started moving quickly toward the bathroom and instead of stopping, more pee came out. Gross! Also I noticed that I was having some Braxton Hick's contractions (so I thought). I figured it was no big deal so I went and layed out in the back yard (all part of the plan, people, all part of the plan). I was outside for an hour and when I came back in I was still having my little pee squirting problem and this time when I went to the bathroom my mucous plug came out. Well that was kind of exciting (and it made me a little nervous) but that thing can come out weeks before the baby comes so I didn't think much of it. The thing that I didn't like was that those Braxton Hick's contractions were pretty close together. They would come every few minutes for a couple in a row and then stop for 20 or 30 minutes. Anyway, around 3:00 I called Nick and we ended up calling my mom (and Merna, her office buddy) to see what we should do. I finally made the decision to just go to the hospital so that they could check me and figure out what this whole contraction thing was all about. OK, fast forward three hours of driving to TMH and sitting in the waiting room. By the way, contractions are now consistently every three minutes but really not that painful at all. We finally got into triage and they hooked me up to the monitors, made me pee in a cup, took my vitals (BP was 160/100) made me drink some juice and water, all that stuff. Around 7:30 someone finally decided to check and see if I was dilated at all. I got all excited and then the nurse said that I was about 1 cm and despite the Q3 minute contractions I was not in labor (well, crap). Did I mention that the Nettinas and the Weavers were in the car driving from Ft. Lauderdale at this point? They stopped in Ft. Pierce to eat dinner and said that they'd call to check on us when they were done. After the nurse had made some comments that I really did not appreciate regarding all the reasons why I was not in labor, she said that I should go home. I asked about the contractions, she said don't worry about it, they aren't real. Apparently I wouldn't be smiling through real contractions. Oh yeah, at this point Nick is repeatedly telling everyone about my unusually high tolerance for pain. Just wanted to throw that in there. So nurse #1 leaves, enter nurse #2 who says that the doctor is now ordering blood work because of my high blood pressure. Fine. An hour and a half later, Dr. Pierce (?) comes in and explains that she is admitting me overnight for a 24 hour urine collection to check for protein. Even though there was no protein in my dip stick urine she was concerned that my BP was so high, she said that my pee squirting thing was weird and, oh by the way, my white count in my CBC was 19.7. I told her that I was glad to be admitted because this contraction thing is really freaking me out. They were still every three minutes and getting stronger. Apparently, still not real because I was able to smile (get the sarcasm? Just making sure). She assured me that I was not in labor and I would be able to go home on Saturday morning. She did, however, order some prn pain meds just in case and said that if I did go into labor, they wouldn't do anything to stop it since I was at 38 weeks. OK, so at this point we spoke to the grandparent car and made a group decision that they should just turn around and go back. Apparently they were having a wonderful time and did not mind the fact that they just drove an hour and a half for nothing.
They admitted me to labor and delivery because the antipartum unit was understaffed for the night (thank God). I got hooked up to the monitors and started my 24 hour urine collection which was annoying because every time I got up to pee the monitor things came off. Finally the nurse said that since I wasn't in labor (are you starting to see a trend here?) she only needed a half hour strip to show that everything was ok. Around midnight my friend Nakima came to visit for awhile and then after she left Nick fell asleep. These "non-labor" contractions have been slowly getting worse but everyone kept on insisting that they weren't real because I was able to talk, laugh, smile, etc. Finally, at 2:00 I called the nurse to get something for pain. That got Nick up real fast...I don't like to take anything for pain in general, even Tylenol, so he knew something was wrong. I got a percocet at 2:30. By 3:00 the contractions were getting much worse and I asked for the Stadol. That is some horrible stuff. Not only did it do absolutely nothing for the pain, it made me crazy. I mean super crazy. I just remember saying over and over how this hurts too bad to be false labor. And instead of questioning the falseness of my labor, I was thinking 'Oh my God, this is really going to suck when I really am in labor!' Anyway, when she put in the IV and gave me the Stadol at 3:30ish, she put the monitors back on which showed that (suprise, suprise) I was still having contractions and they were closer together now. I was getting upset because I was feeling crazy, I was in all this pain that these pain meds did nothing for and now there was pee coming out with every contraction. Have I mentioned how wonderful Nick was through all this? Amazing. So finally the nurse said that she could swab to see if the pee was really amniotic fluid. WHAT?!?! I have been leaking pee for the past 12 hours and no one mentioned that they could just swab it to see if my water had broken?! ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!?! Now I could feel my craziness slipping away and I was getting mad. She swabbed it and guess what? My water had broken. Who would have guessed? At that point (at about 4:45 in the morning) she thought it might be a good idea to check to see if I was dilated more than the 1cm that I was 8 hours before. She checked me (I tried not to punch her) and said 'I feel her head, let me get my charge nurse to double check this.' WHAT?!?! You feel her head?!?! Damn right you're going to get your charge nurse to double check this!!! So charge nurse chick comes in, checks me and says 'you're 10cm and +1 station, there's no time for an epidural.' At this point, I don't remember specifics of what happened but I do know that a small break down took place which I'm sure looked something like mad Kristin (few people have seen her) having an adult temper tantrum mixed with a little bit of that Stadol craziness still on board. It was not attractive, I'm sure. Nick called the grandparents and Katie who were in the car and on the road by 5:00. I started pushing sometime after that and Alexa was born at 6:41am.
Apparently I am a good pusher, I have a lot of control over my body. I don't know if it's an awareness I have from dancing or if Dr. Pierce was just being nice to the crazy girl by complimenting pushing techniques. Probably the latter. Many people have asked me if I were to do it again, would I have the epidural. Yes. Are you insane? Of course I would have the epidural. But I suppose I'm not entirely upset that it happened the way it did. I was up and walking to the bathroom 1/2 hour after she was born and it's kind of cool knowing that I was strong enough to do it without drugs (or at least, without drugs that work). I think I'm most disappointed that my mom wasn't there. And Katie (she decided as she was frantically driving that she wanted to be in the room). But again, we will eventually have another baby and they can be in the room that time. Plus, it was kind of nice that it was just Nick and I.
Nick and I had a plan (I love a good plan) two weeks ago about how we were going to get ready for the baby. We were going to be prepared and have everything cleaned and set up just right. All those fun nesting things which was planned to start on Thursday, September 30th. So Thursday morning (OK, afternoon) I woke up and when I got out of bed a little pee came out. Let's get real for everyone who just made a face. We are talking about a nine month pregnant lady... a little bit of pee coming out every now and then when you change positions is just part of reality. Back to my story. So I started moving quickly toward the bathroom and instead of stopping, more pee came out. Gross! Also I noticed that I was having some Braxton Hick's contractions (so I thought). I figured it was no big deal so I went and layed out in the back yard (all part of the plan, people, all part of the plan). I was outside for an hour and when I came back in I was still having my little pee squirting problem and this time when I went to the bathroom my mucous plug came out. Well that was kind of exciting (and it made me a little nervous) but that thing can come out weeks before the baby comes so I didn't think much of it. The thing that I didn't like was that those Braxton Hick's contractions were pretty close together. They would come every few minutes for a couple in a row and then stop for 20 or 30 minutes. Anyway, around 3:00 I called Nick and we ended up calling my mom (and Merna, her office buddy) to see what we should do. I finally made the decision to just go to the hospital so that they could check me and figure out what this whole contraction thing was all about. OK, fast forward three hours of driving to TMH and sitting in the waiting room. By the way, contractions are now consistently every three minutes but really not that painful at all. We finally got into triage and they hooked me up to the monitors, made me pee in a cup, took my vitals (BP was 160/100) made me drink some juice and water, all that stuff. Around 7:30 someone finally decided to check and see if I was dilated at all. I got all excited and then the nurse said that I was about 1 cm and despite the Q3 minute contractions I was not in labor (well, crap). Did I mention that the Nettinas and the Weavers were in the car driving from Ft. Lauderdale at this point? They stopped in Ft. Pierce to eat dinner and said that they'd call to check on us when they were done. After the nurse had made some comments that I really did not appreciate regarding all the reasons why I was not in labor, she said that I should go home. I asked about the contractions, she said don't worry about it, they aren't real. Apparently I wouldn't be smiling through real contractions. Oh yeah, at this point Nick is repeatedly telling everyone about my unusually high tolerance for pain. Just wanted to throw that in there. So nurse #1 leaves, enter nurse #2 who says that the doctor is now ordering blood work because of my high blood pressure. Fine. An hour and a half later, Dr. Pierce (?) comes in and explains that she is admitting me overnight for a 24 hour urine collection to check for protein. Even though there was no protein in my dip stick urine she was concerned that my BP was so high, she said that my pee squirting thing was weird and, oh by the way, my white count in my CBC was 19.7. I told her that I was glad to be admitted because this contraction thing is really freaking me out. They were still every three minutes and getting stronger. Apparently, still not real because I was able to smile (get the sarcasm? Just making sure). She assured me that I was not in labor and I would be able to go home on Saturday morning. She did, however, order some prn pain meds just in case and said that if I did go into labor, they wouldn't do anything to stop it since I was at 38 weeks. OK, so at this point we spoke to the grandparent car and made a group decision that they should just turn around and go back. Apparently they were having a wonderful time and did not mind the fact that they just drove an hour and a half for nothing.
They admitted me to labor and delivery because the antipartum unit was understaffed for the night (thank God). I got hooked up to the monitors and started my 24 hour urine collection which was annoying because every time I got up to pee the monitor things came off. Finally the nurse said that since I wasn't in labor (are you starting to see a trend here?) she only needed a half hour strip to show that everything was ok. Around midnight my friend Nakima came to visit for awhile and then after she left Nick fell asleep. These "non-labor" contractions have been slowly getting worse but everyone kept on insisting that they weren't real because I was able to talk, laugh, smile, etc. Finally, at 2:00 I called the nurse to get something for pain. That got Nick up real fast...I don't like to take anything for pain in general, even Tylenol, so he knew something was wrong. I got a percocet at 2:30. By 3:00 the contractions were getting much worse and I asked for the Stadol. That is some horrible stuff. Not only did it do absolutely nothing for the pain, it made me crazy. I mean super crazy. I just remember saying over and over how this hurts too bad to be false labor. And instead of questioning the falseness of my labor, I was thinking 'Oh my God, this is really going to suck when I really am in labor!' Anyway, when she put in the IV and gave me the Stadol at 3:30ish, she put the monitors back on which showed that (suprise, suprise) I was still having contractions and they were closer together now. I was getting upset because I was feeling crazy, I was in all this pain that these pain meds did nothing for and now there was pee coming out with every contraction. Have I mentioned how wonderful Nick was through all this? Amazing. So finally the nurse said that she could swab to see if the pee was really amniotic fluid. WHAT?!?! I have been leaking pee for the past 12 hours and no one mentioned that they could just swab it to see if my water had broken?! ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!?! Now I could feel my craziness slipping away and I was getting mad. She swabbed it and guess what? My water had broken. Who would have guessed? At that point (at about 4:45 in the morning) she thought it might be a good idea to check to see if I was dilated more than the 1cm that I was 8 hours before. She checked me (I tried not to punch her) and said 'I feel her head, let me get my charge nurse to double check this.' WHAT?!?! You feel her head?!?! Damn right you're going to get your charge nurse to double check this!!! So charge nurse chick comes in, checks me and says 'you're 10cm and +1 station, there's no time for an epidural.' At this point, I don't remember specifics of what happened but I do know that a small break down took place which I'm sure looked something like mad Kristin (few people have seen her) having an adult temper tantrum mixed with a little bit of that Stadol craziness still on board. It was not attractive, I'm sure. Nick called the grandparents and Katie who were in the car and on the road by 5:00. I started pushing sometime after that and Alexa was born at 6:41am.
Apparently I am a good pusher, I have a lot of control over my body. I don't know if it's an awareness I have from dancing or if Dr. Pierce was just being nice to the crazy girl by complimenting pushing techniques. Probably the latter. Many people have asked me if I were to do it again, would I have the epidural. Yes. Are you insane? Of course I would have the epidural. But I suppose I'm not entirely upset that it happened the way it did. I was up and walking to the bathroom 1/2 hour after she was born and it's kind of cool knowing that I was strong enough to do it without drugs (or at least, without drugs that work). I think I'm most disappointed that my mom wasn't there. And Katie (she decided as she was frantically driving that she wanted to be in the room). But again, we will eventually have another baby and they can be in the room that time. Plus, it was kind of nice that it was just Nick and I.
Monday, September 20, 2010
Pictures of the belly
Alright, for everyone who has been asking for pictures of the belly, here are week by week so far. Well, kind of week by week. I'm going to take some pictures of Alexa's room and put those up too...maybe tomorrow.
Tuesday, August 17, 2010
Ode to Chick-fil-A (and random thoughts about people's maternity pictures)
Can we please talk about how amazing Chick-fil-A is? I feel that if I were to name one food that I've "craved" during this pregnancy (even though I really don't think of it as a craving, more like an ongoing love) it would be the chicken nuggets at Chick-fil-A (and maybe also Mexican food!). They are so good...the nuggets, that is. Do you know what's better then Chick-fil-A nuggets? Chick-fil-A breakfast sandwich. The one with chicken on a biscuit (it's a number 1 in case you want to stop by for breakfast sometime). I discovered this little piece of heaven about a year and a half ago. My friend Magan and I would discuss food, amongst other things, at work in the middle of the night and she suggested that I try breakfast at Chick-fil-A. So the few times that I drove to Orlando after work to visit Katie, I would stop at Chick-fil-A for something to eat before driving for four hours. I only did this a few times and considered it my treat for having to drive after working all night. Do you know what else I deserve a morning treat for? Having to go to a doctors appointment at 8:30 after working all night. Wouldn't you know that the past 3 doctors appointments have been mysteriously scheduled for 8:30am after a night that I worked. Hmm, funny how that worked out.
On a completely unrelated subject, I've been looking at maternity pictures online because Lissette got me thinking about them. (Wow, I'm really influenced by my friends) So now I kind of want them. I wanted my mom to take them (she's a very good photographer) but she didn't seem too thrilled about the idea. I'm not going to be upset or anything if I don't have them I just feel like since I'm not a Duggar, I'm probably only going to be pregnant one or two more times in my life and I like documentation. And lets face it, I'm probably a lot cuter now then what I'm going to be next time. Anyway, off topic. I'm at work, bored, looking at pictures online and on every website I go to there are maternity pictures with the women naked...naked!!! They don't show anything. There is very strategic placement of arms, crossing of legs, draping of fabric, etc. but they are still naked. That's gross. Why would you want a naked picture of yourself? What are you going to do with that? Do you tell people about your naked pictures? What do you say as a person looking at your friend's naked pictures? "Your boob looks really good in that one" "I really like how they covered your cellulite" Lets get real, that is ridiculous. Plus, I feel very uncomfortable looking at them. And everyone who reads this knows that as a general rule, I am pretty comfortable with nakedness. If any of you have had naked maternity pictures taken and I have offended you, I'm sorry, but thank you for not showing them to me. I don't want to see them. There are so many cute pictures that people take that are happy, smiling, mommy and daddy-to-be with clothes on and then BAM naked pregnant chic. I feel that if you want a picture of yourself naked (pregnant or not), bust out your little digital camera, put the timer on and snap away in the privacy of your own home. And then label the media card so no one ever sees it but you.
On a completely unrelated subject, I've been looking at maternity pictures online because Lissette got me thinking about them. (Wow, I'm really influenced by my friends) So now I kind of want them. I wanted my mom to take them (she's a very good photographer) but she didn't seem too thrilled about the idea. I'm not going to be upset or anything if I don't have them I just feel like since I'm not a Duggar, I'm probably only going to be pregnant one or two more times in my life and I like documentation. And lets face it, I'm probably a lot cuter now then what I'm going to be next time. Anyway, off topic. I'm at work, bored, looking at pictures online and on every website I go to there are maternity pictures with the women naked...naked!!! They don't show anything. There is very strategic placement of arms, crossing of legs, draping of fabric, etc. but they are still naked. That's gross. Why would you want a naked picture of yourself? What are you going to do with that? Do you tell people about your naked pictures? What do you say as a person looking at your friend's naked pictures? "Your boob looks really good in that one" "I really like how they covered your cellulite" Lets get real, that is ridiculous. Plus, I feel very uncomfortable looking at them. And everyone who reads this knows that as a general rule, I am pretty comfortable with nakedness. If any of you have had naked maternity pictures taken and I have offended you, I'm sorry, but thank you for not showing them to me. I don't want to see them. There are so many cute pictures that people take that are happy, smiling, mommy and daddy-to-be with clothes on and then BAM naked pregnant chic. I feel that if you want a picture of yourself naked (pregnant or not), bust out your little digital camera, put the timer on and snap away in the privacy of your own home. And then label the media card so no one ever sees it but you.
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