Things I Would Recommend for a Baby Registry

Swing	When I made my registry, I didn't want to put anything super expensive on the registry. I am always trying to think practically. Will I use this? Do I need the $120 swing or is the $69 swing just as good? My advice is buy the swing that comes with the A/C adapter; that means it might be $120. This things gets used everyday for long periods of time. You will become tired of buying batteries. Does that mean it needs to play music, vibrate, have a mobile,  have lights, etc? Nah, just make sure it has a power cord.
Diaper Genie	My husband was a big advocate of this device, and I have to say...the baby's room never smells poopy. Also, you can get a 3-refill pack on Amazon.com for $19. Every once and a while they have the 3-pack on sale for $16. Buy in bulk!
Video Baby Monitor	This was also on my husband's list. At first I thought it was dumb to have a video baby monitor. Once she was born, I felt differently. It tells us the temperature in her room (Note: 68-72 to help prevent SIDS), has night vision, plays music in her room with the touch of a button, has an intercom built in, and saves me many nights of going into her room when I hear a little "waa." Sometimes I see that she is just sleep-talking.
Pack-N-Play	We keep our Pack-N-Play downstairs. I love the napper device that attaches onto the top, so you can put the baby in when they just come home from the hospital. It's a great make-shift bassinet! I would recommend buying one with a higher changing table attachment to prevent back strain though. And if you can get one with a storage caddy for all of the diapers, wipes, etc. that you will use, then yay for you!
5-ounce Bottles	If you pump, buy a billion 5-ounce bottles. I didn't start needing these until about 5 weeks into it, but now I feel like I am scrounging around the house to find a clean, empty bottle for the fridge.
Halo Sleep Sack	Notice that I specifically said the Halo. This guy has a zipper, so it is easy for husbands to put on the baby :). We bought the lightweight cotton one because the fleece just looked like it would be too warm. The baby sleeps wonderfully when she is swaddled. When she is not swaddled, her arms flail about and she smacks herself in the face. Begin screaming....
Pacifiers	I didn't think we would use pacifiers a lot because I've always been told they are bad for tooth development, but we heard many pediatricians swear by them for 0-6 months of age. Now our daughter loves her pacifier at certain times. When she was 1-2 weeks, she only liked the Soothies because they are shaped just like a bottle nipple. Then we switched to Nuk because they seem to stay in her mouth longer due to their shape.
Bottle Warmer	My husband also wanted a bottle warmer. I thought it was silly, but I think this is a great resource for the 2nd floor houses. It quickly heats the bottle, and we also have the cooler for keeping another bottle cold. This helps in the AM because we can wake her up, pop a bottle in the warmer, change her, and then the bottle is ready to go.
Homedics Sound Spa	Someone bought this for me for my Baby Shower. This KICKS the Sleep Sheep's butt any day. You can set the sound timer for 15, 30, 45, 60, or always-on. It has your typical white noises like ocean waves, heartbeat, rain, etc., but it also has some lullabies. The thing that makes this thing extra awesome is the projector that shines little cartoons on the ceiling! It comes with 3 disks that contain different images. BTW the Sleep Sheep only stays on for 23 or 45 minutes. It sometimes takes 45 minutes to put a baby to bed, and by the time she falls asleep, the sheep stops, and she is awake again. The Sound Spa is awesome because it helps give just enough white noise that the dogs, the TV, and other things don't wake her up.
Gerber Cloth Diapers	My mom bought me a 10-pack of cloth diapers to use as burp rags. We use these for 3 or 4 different purposes, two of the most important being burp rags and poop-splosion rags. When she poops so much that is comes out of the diaper on all sides, we put one of these under her while we change the diaper. Sometimes we even use one to wipe her bottom after a huge poo instead of using 25 wipes to get her clean. And then there is always the bathtub if no amount of wiping will get her clean....

Baby Organization

Babies involve a lot of stuff, which means your house becomes a mess. So what to do? Buy a billion bins at Target!

Now most of these tubs are actually for my husband. After having a baby for 2 days, he came down the stairs with his hair all disheveled saying, "I can't find a single thing in the baby's room!" Then the next day, he tried to put clean clothes away, and they were just all over the place :). So I used my teacher labeling machine to label lots of tubs. Since then, I haven't heard him complain about not being able to find things, and everything has ended up in the right drawers. Yay!

A planter to help contain all of the stuffed animals!

A cute tub to store diapers, antibacterial hand  stuff,  thermometer, diaper rash cream

A tub to store all swaddles because my husband can't ever locate these things

A tub to contain the billions of socks

The changing table/dresser

Everything we use at night

My husband doesn't ever know what is in each drawer :).

A tub for the boob juice

Christmas Baby! (Part 2)

Later on the 27th (the day we came home), my parents visited us for a little while that night. My neck was really bothering me; it seriously felt like whiplash from a car accident or something. It just hurt so bad to keep my head upright. So we exchanged Christmas gifts while I laid down on the couch and opened all of my gifts sideways. I was really starting to question whether or not I did have side effects from the botched epidural #1.

Peter and I decided that we would take "shifts" to get some sleep on the first night home, but I felt so weak that I stayed on the first floor with the baby. My neck was killing me, I had a small headache starting, I was exhausted, my boobs were soooo sore, and I remember thinking that this was the worst night of my life :(. It had nothing to do with the baby, but taking care of a baby on top of all of that made me feel extra terrible. How do you take care of a baby when you are barely taking care of yourself?

I know this sounds weird, but my neck hurt so bad that I really don't remember a lot of the Christmas gifts that I got. I even tried to take a shower on the morning of the 28th, but I felt so dizzy during the shower that I had to sit down while showering. I was so nervous that I would fall over, and I had to call Peter into the bathroom to make sure I could get out of the shower without falling over. Worst shower of my life. When I walked into the bedroom, I actually fell face first onto the bed because everything started to turn white, and I got really tired and scared that I would faint.

We decided to call my mom and dad that night to babysit, so Peter and I could go to the ER. It just got to the point where I felt useless. Peter had been taking care of Emma all day, and I just laid on the couch in pain. I know this sounds dumb, but I really hate overreacting to things, and I hate when people are overly dramatic about things. I didn't want to admit that this was a reaction to the epidural. I just figured, "Hey, it's childbirth. Everyone says it sucks. This must be normal," but it was so hard to see other friends of mine who have just given birth making posts on Facebook about how they are taking the baby on a walk, going to visit people, etc. I felt like if they could do it, I could to. I know, I know. I am stupid.

So we went to the ER around 7pm, and when we walked in, there were no seats open, and the place was PACKED. Everyone had the flu.

Peter checked me in, and they said it would be a while. I stood in the ER waiting area for about 20 minutes and cried in pain because my neck hurt so much to stand upright. The nurses and patients were looking at me like I was crazy. Finally, a nurse said I could lay down in the car, and Peter could call me when it was my turn to be seen. So I went to the car and slept in the front reclined seat for four hours. Yes, 4 HOURS. :(

Wet Tap (spinal fluid leak)

Finally Peter called my phone, and I went back inside. They took me to a room where I could lay on a bed. The doctor came in and said it definitely was from the "wet tap" epidural #1. Then she told me that the anesthesiologist wasn't available to the ER at night, so I could either:

1. Stay overnight at the hospital. They would give me a caffeine drip and Motrin until 11am when he might be able to fit me in.
2. Come back to the ER tomorrow at 8am, sign in again, and wait to be seen. 

For someone in excruciating pain, both of these are terrible options.

While I laid in the room crying, Peter and I talked about option #1. Who would want to come back to the ER and wait again for 4 hours? I hurt so much that I honestly didn't even care if I couldn't see the baby for a day. 

Then all of a sudden, this wonderful man in green can into the room and introduced himself. One of the ER nurses saw me and knew what the problem was, so she ran upstairs and told the one anesthesiologist who was working that I was in pain. He said he wasn't busy and thought that the hospital's policy on not working in the ER was stupid. He told me that his wife had a wet tap epidural and he knew how badly she hurt, so he couldn't let me lay there in pain for a day while he was upstairs doing nothing. Apparently the procedure to fix the problem only takes 5 minutes, and he was ready to go. He didn't even care that my boobs were leaking all over the place. Oh, child birth. Yay.

Now I don't say this kind of thing ever, but this man was honestly an angel in disguise. I cried from being so happy that he was there to help me feel better. He was so reassuring and told me that he would have to give me another epidural to fix the pain (yep, epidural #3). He wanted to perform a blood patch, which is when they give you an epidural and inject your blood into your spinal cavity to patch up the previous hole that is leaking.

Getting an epidural is a scary thing. I was terrified because only 1% of people have complications with epidurals. What if I was going to be in the 1% again? He performed the procedure in the 5 minutes as promised and talked me through it to calm my nerves. He kept saying, "I am doing this...and it is textbook perfect so far! Ok, now I did this, and I did it perfectly again!" It was really helpful that he was talking me through it because it really did calm my nerves. 

I had to lie on the bed for 30 minutes after the procedure to allow a blood clot to form in the hole. After the half-hour, he slowly sat me up, and for the first time in 4 days, I was able to sit up without feeling like I was hit by a train. Peter had switched places with my mom at this time, so she was waiting with me in the ER room now. When I sat up, it was immediate relief. I think I thanked the doctor 50 times and told my mom that he really was an angel. 

I had to take it easy for the next 24 hours to make sure that the blood clot stayed in place, but the difference was night and day. I was able to sit up and hold the baby, feed her, stand up, take a shower, stand up, etc. 

Even with all of the epidural stuff, I would get another epidural in a heartbeat for the next baby we have. It helped so much during labor, and I am still an epidural advocate! 

Thank you to my mom, dad, husband, and the wonderful doctor who helped me that night!

Christmas Baby! (Part 1)

Since I had reached my due date and nothing was going on, we decided to make as many plans as we wanted for the Christmas Holiday. We went to my company party on the 22nd, cleaned the house for guests on the 23rd and 24th, went to a Christmas Eve dinner, attended Christmas Eve mass, and (baked and) bought lots of food for Christmas Day when both of our families were supposed to come over.

So when I woke up at 12:30 am on Christmas Day with cramps that seemed to come and go, I thought, "Oh, no...."  The cramps were like period cramps, but this was the first time that they had a start and stop to them. I tried to go back to bed, since the cramping was minimal at that point, but then I kept waking up every 20 minutes or so. Finally at 2:30, I decided to wake Peter up and said, "How would you like to stay awake with me for a while?"

He knew what that meant and downloaded an app on his tablet to time the contractions. When I went to the bathroom, I noticed a tiny bit of blood, and I just started laughing. I knew my Christmas plans were out the window now!

The app was actually pretty neat because it alerted you when to call the hospital based on the duration and frequency of the contractions. Things were about 4-5 minutes apart, but I felt like I could talk through them for the most part. The hospital said to come on in and get checked out anyway. By this time, it was 4:30 when we arrived at the ER. I noticed that the pain of the contractions had definitely increased to the point where I did NOT want to talk anymore.

They wheeled me into a room where they put monitors on my belly and started monitoring the baby's heartbeat and the frequency of my contractions. I was 2cm dilated when we came in, and they wanted to watch things for the next 2 hours. The plan changed when a nurse came in and said that the baby's heartbeat was responding to my contractions, so they were keeping me at the hospital.

They gave me some Cervadil, and from there things progressed rather quickly (or at least it felt quick) with dilation. Once I was 7cm, they moved me to a Labor & Delivery room, which was like a fancy penthouse room. My water broke while I was laying there on the bed, but it wasn't like a crazy explosion or anything.

Finally the doctor came in and told me that she wanted to make my contractions more regular, since they weren't consistently spaced. She said they were going to put me on a tiny bit of Pitocin, so I said, "Then let's get that epidural BEFORE these contractions get worse!" It seriously felt like someone was stabbing me in the stomach with a sword at this point.

The anesthesiologist came in, and I was terrified. Like absolutely terrified to the point where I was shaking. Poor Peter...he was such a trooper. He tried so hard to calm me down, but I was almost crying from being afraid of the epidural. The doctor numbed my back, which was the worst part of the epidural, and I jumped a little when I felt it. When the doctor actually put the epidural needle in, we heard, "Oh, no...I just nicked your spine. Yea...you're probably going to hurt tomorrow." I could tell that he felt really bad about it, but I don't blame him. He then had to give me another epidural in another spot, and that one took effect in about 5 minutes. It was wooooonderful, and I couldn't feel the contractions anymore! The one thing I did notice about the epidural was that I had the shakes after I got it. I don't know if it was my nerves or if it was an effect of the epidural, but I felt like I had nervous shakes.

The doctor came in a little while later, and I was 9cm. She said I should start pushing when I "felt the urge." I had no idea what that meant, but I understood soon enough. The pushing wasn't horrible...not until a head came out. Holy bajeez. No epidural can stop you from feeling THAT. My throat was soooo dry from all of the deep breathing. The nurses kept promising me that they would get me whatever I wanted as soon as she was born. All I could think about was a nice big Diet Coke -- cold and bubbly! So at 4:06 pm on Christmas Day, Emma Rose was born!

She cried a little for about 30 seconds, and then they whisked her off to the corner of the room to clean her off and weigh her. Peter got to hold her first, since I got to hold her for 9 months. I think he was hooked :). I remember looking at her thinking, "Who does she look like? I want a Coke now." And at this point, I really didn't care that it was Christmas Day anymore. The hard work was basically over!

The nurses took her back to the corner for a while, so the doctor could give me a few stitches. Yes. Va-jay-jay stitches. I don't care what they say; the sewing might have been worse than the childbirth. I was slightly terrified, so I sang songs while I held Peter's hand tightly, "When will it stop? I don't like this. This is horrible. I want to be dooooone! I thought the pain was ooooover." Those were the lyrics to my song.

Soon after, my parents came into the room, and Peter finally announced the baby's name. We had been keeping her name a secret until birth because we wanted a little surprise factor. I think everyone was so excited about Emma's birth that they didn't have many opinions on her name...but we are big fans :). Peter's mom and Jim also came in shortly after, and they were just as excited about baby Emma. Emma's first gifts were a teddy bear from Grandmom & Grandpop C. and an owl from Grandmom and Grandpop McC.

  

After that, I remember the nurses taking the baby up to the nursery to clean her off more, and a nurse helped me pee for the first time. Talk about an experience. I have never had to use so much equipment to help me pee before. Two weeks later, things are finally starting to get less complicated in the bathroom department.

After a pee, they wheeled me up into the Mother Baby floor, and lots of family greeted Peter and me there. I honestly don't really remember much of the conversations that we had or what people gave us. I was dead tired at this point. I do remember being happy that my brother and his wife were able to be there, since they were flying out of the country on Dec. 26 to go on their honeymoon in Jamaica.

 

The next few days in the hospital were extremely tiring...mostly because the nurses, doctors, consultants, etc. kept coming into the room every 20 minutes, so we never got any sleep. I started to get a headache/neck ache which I definitely thought was a result of lack of sleep and labor pushing (--you tense up every muscle in your body, so I expected that was why my neck hurt). I had never birthed a child before, so I didn't think anything of it when I felt like I had been hit by a train.

On Thursday, Dec. 27., we were scheduled to go home. Before we left, an anesthesiologist came in to check on me and see how I was doing. He started to give me funny looks when I told him that I had a strange neck pain when I stood or sat. He said it sounded like the result of the botched epidural #1, but if I could live with the pain, then it would go away in about a week.

We packed all of our stuff up, and I was wheeled out to the car. The wheelchair was excruciating for my neck, since I had to sit up. The car ride home was also absolutely horrible for my neck. Once we got home, I flopped on the couch to lie down.

But we were happy to be home! The dogs were happy, too. Lily was curious enough to give a good lick to Emma's head. Lennon was (and still is) very interested whenever Emma makes a noise. We are fine to have them sniff and lick her, but we are trying to manage Lennon's interest level by giving her billions of toys to keep her busy.

Part 2 to come later!

Belly Pics - 39 weeks and 5 days

We went to the doctor yesterday, and she said I am not dilated at all, but the baby's head is in position. So basically, we are just waiting on me now! She suggested going for a lot of walks, but it is tough with the pelvic pain that I have been having. I am trying though!

39 weeks and 5 days

The past few days the pressure on my bladder has been ridiculous! I feel like there is a person doing break dancing head spins on it. Not even kidding. My stomach looks like it is having a tsunami; there is some crazy action going on. Pretty much the only positions that are comfortable are sitting on my yoga ball and laying in bed on my side. Getting up from those positions is another story :). 

Since the doctor pretty much told us that she doesn't expect a baby before Christmas (although she reminds us that she could be wrong), we are getting ready for the holidays as normal. I probably won't be moving around town much though, which is fine by me.

I am kind of excited that it is Friday. Now I can start my "Christmas Break," however long I might get....

I have been loving the Lifetime Channel app for my iPad and the Netflix app. I can watch Hallmark, sappy Christmas movies in bed in the middle of the night when I wake up and can't get back to sleep. 

I am still having some sappiness this week. It seems to have trailed over from last week. I was discouraged/frustrated at the doctor's office this week, so I cried. I felt bad for the doctor because it was not her fault at all. I guess a few weeks of emotional craziness at the end of 9 months isn't that bad.