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She Rolled Over

Monday, August 31, 2009
So we aren't sure if it was just a fluke, or if she is doing it during the night as well, but on Saturday John was downstairs with Kate and she rolled over.

Saturday was when she was officially two weeks old, there is no way that a two week old baby should be rolling over!

Then, the following morning she was more than halfway across her crib from where she was bundled and set down (out of the bundle of course, she mastered this move right away).

I think we may have to keep a close eye on this one!

First Day On Our Own

Today was John's first day back to work, so of course it was Kate's first day at home alone with her mommy. I could tell that he missed her when he came upstairs first thing after coming home and took her downstairs with him to cuddle. : )

We didn't get much done, which is actually a nice thing every once in a while (especially since this is the first day I haven't had a fever in a few). We did make it out of the house though to go grocery shopping/errand running, which didn't prove to be too hard. I definitely realized that when traveling with a baby in a car seat at the grocery store it is a good thing to have a limited grocery list. By the time I had gathered all of the things that I wanted to get, there was no more room around her car seat in the cart to squeeze much more. This may help me in dieting, since the baked goods and chips are always at the end of the store, if I don't have room in my cart then for sure I can't buy them! : )

When we got home it was time for her to eat again, which was quite noticeable by her letting me know through crying (basically the only time she does cry, except when made naked). She ate 4 ounces, which is a crazy amount but good because it means she should go longer between feedings. After that she actually started screeching when I put her in her swing so that I could pump. I had just changed her so I knew she wasn't wet, or constipated, I tried to give her a little more food but that didn't work, I also tried burping her some more to no affect. Finally I figured out she just wanted to be held, because when I just sat down with her in a good cuddle she fell right asleep. It's pretty obvious now that this little girl is getting pretty spoiled! : )

Kate Has an Gunky Eye

Thursday, August 27, 2009
Earlier this week our little girl started getting some puss or gunky yellow stuff in her eye. Throughout the day it just started getting worse, so we brought her into the doctor again. They were able to do a test on the puss and it isn't an infection, but is just eye gunk.

We have medicine that is a gel that we put into her eye two times a day, and she doesn't even mind. She also doesn't mind at all when we put a wet warm rag on her eye, or wipe out all of the gunk.

What a good little girl!

Some More Pictures of our Little Trucker

Friday, August 21, 2009







Fun Facts About Kate Taylor

  • She likes to sleep on her side. No matter how many times we put her on her back to go to bed she always ends up on her side.
  • She has won the hearts of all four animals in the house, especially our female beagle Nora. Every time that Nora and Puller go outside, the first thing they do when coming back in is peek into her pack n' play or find her wherever she is, almost like they are making sure she is okay.
  • She hates being naked, no matter if it is for changing a diaper, bathing, changing clothes, etc.
  • She already eats about 2.5 ounces for each feeding, though she loves to fall asleep multiple times during the process.
  • She burps like a little trucker, usually right away before you can even get her into burp position.
  • She doesn't seem to mind a wet diaper, but if she is hungry she will sure let you know!
  • She often sleeps with her mouth open.
  • She loves her Nuk already.
  • Her car seat/swing/bouncy chair are all very soothing to her. She can either just sit in them or fall asleep in them easily.
  • She loves to kick off her blankets and socks.
  • When she is laying on you on her belly she can push herself up and hold herself up already for about 10 to 15 seconds.
  • If you let her suck on your finger you will soon discover that she has the jaws of life, with the suction power to match.
  • She gets the hiccups, but doesn't seem to mind.

  • And of course we both think that she is perfect!

Kate's First Home Spa Day

We had Kate's first bath at home on Wednesday morning, was she impressed? Look below to find out!

Kate's Birth Story

Thursday, August 20, 2009
On Saturday, August 15, 2009 John and I were finally able to meet our little girl Kate at 10:39 pm.

Three days prior to this life changing event I was sent into the hospital by my doctor to start a long inducing process. The process began that Thursday afternoon at 3:00 pm when I was admitted into the labor and delivery unit of United Hospital. At admittance to the hospital the nurses started me on both fluids and Magnesium, which I was hooked up to until 11:00 am on Monday. The Magnesium helped to prevent my body from seizing, which is a complication that can result with pre-eclampsia. I was then started on a drug called Citotech, which is supposed to induce contractions to open the cervix. My body decided to fight the drugs the entire time, and after an entire evening I was barely any further along than I had been the day before.

That morning my original doctor came in and started us on a plan that included pitosin and gave us an end time of early the following morning. Unfortunately my doctor had to do her clinic rounds and after she left another doctor decided to change the plan. Midway through the day all efforts were stopped and we were told that they would not resume until the following day. Hearing this my doctor actually came back to the hospital and spoke with us in person with a kind of apology, we do not think that she was very happy that her plans were changed.

After another night of sleeping at the hospital, we woke up on Saturday full of hope that this day would be the day that Kate would make her grand appearance. Right away in the morning they started me again on pitosin (we think my doctor really kicked them all into gear). By 10:30 the resident and nurse came in to break my water, which started the contractions to fire off like crazy. Since I was on the magnesium already and could not walk around (the drug makes you feel like a wet noodle, and totally out of it) the nurse suggested that I get my epidural then, to prevent the chance that it got too busy later and I miss my window. After the epidural I was able to take a good two-hour nap.

At 7:00 pm Doctor Ozelle came onto shift at the hospital. I had met her before and really liked her. She told me that I was measuring at a 5 and that the nurse would check back in a little bit. After about 30 minutes the nurse told me that I had gone from a 5 to an 8, we were definitely starting to get close. Not long after that the baby started moving on her way, and we were ready to start pushing. After 24 minutes of pushing the doctor tossed Kate up onto my chest, where the nurse got her all covered up.

Once I got to see her I basically didn't realize that there was anything else even happening in the room. The first thing that I noticed was that she has John's lips, and really did look a lot like him. I was able to cuddle with her for a little while before we got moved to our permanent room down the hall from labor and delivery.

Throughout the next couple of days we were extremely grateful for all of the family and friends that came to visit. It was really great for us to get to show off our new little girl and have them all meet her. On Monday we were told that our new family was able to go home, so we packed it all up and headed back to our house.

Though this whole process did seem like a huge hurdle that we would never get over, we both realize now that the end prize definitely made it worth it.

Katherine "Kate" Adele Taylor

Tuesday, August 18, 2009
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Breakfast in Bed

Saturday, August 15, 2009
Who would have thought that all I had to do was get admitted into the hospital for a couple of days to finally get breakfast in bed?

There is one good thing to do with shutting off the pitosin last night, I was able to eat dinner and breakfast this morning.

We started back up with the pitosin this morning around 7:30. Hopefully that starts doing its job soon so we can get this show on the road! Later today, hopefully not too much later, they will manually break my water. After that happens there is a window of twenty-four hours in which they must deliver the baby (because of infection).

Some of you may be thinking that this sounds familiar, yes this was the same plan as yesterday. The only difference is that my body is a lot more receptive to the plan today than it was yesterday. I have so much confidence in my nurse, that when she tells me today is the day I believe her!

My parents and sister came by the hospital last night to visit us for a while. It is nice to get some new entertainment! After the baby is born we will let people know as soon as we can. People are definitely welcome to come and visit us at the hospital or at home once we get there (if I even remember where that is at this point). I am sure there are some family/friends out there just as excited to meet this little girl as we are. Send me/John and email or text/call and we will let you know where our new family ends up!

Not Cooperating

Friday, August 14, 2009
So go figure my body is not cooperating with the pitosin (medicine that makes your body go into labor). The doctor has decided to stop the medication for now and retry tomorrow morning. In the mean time we will just be hanging out hear at the hospital. Here are some pictures of us settled in, can you see how excited we both are to have to stay longer?

Yes, this is the chair/bed that John gets to sleep in, lucky guy!

At the Hospital

At my doctor's appointment yesterday my doctor made the decision to get this whole process started and sent me on my way dowtown to the hospital.

I was admitted into the hospital at 3 pm and was started on a medication that would start contractions to open up my cervix. It took a while for the contractions to start but though they were weak, they did continue all night. At this point we don't know yet if they did anything to the cervix or not, unfortunately even with the medicine it is still just a waiting game.

John came to meet me at the hospital not long after I checked in and had a very comfortable stay in the reclining chair in the rom.

This morning we are just waiting to see what the doctor's plans are for the day and we'll take it from there.

John's Volleyball Team

Wednesday, August 12, 2009
Tonight I was able to go and watch John's volleyball team in the playoffs for the first time. We took the dogs with us and I sat at the park with them on their leashes and watched. His team did win the first round but lost to the #1 team in the second round, which means they are done for the season.

It was great to sit and relax outside (in the shade) like that for a while. I swear that my crampy contractions even got better the more that I relaxed. Of course I am sure that is all about to change soon...

Wednesday

Today when I called into the hospital they were able to schedule me for my gel at 10:30 which was great! I went in and everything looked good so they did give me the gel. This caused me to start having contractions, which basically at this point feel like bad cramps. After two hours of monitoring they let me leave and I headed into work for a little while.

I am still getting the crampy contractions at this point. I don't think they are getting worse, though they have moved to my back a little depending on my positioning. Tomorrow I have a doctor's appointment bright and early in the morning. Supposedly at this appointment my doctor and I will make a "plan", so I guess we'll see where that leads us!

Tuesday

I feel like I have been constantly running these past couple of days, so why don't I catch you all up!

I called in the morning to see if the hospital would have room to do a gel. I was told that they would call when they had an opening. So I started working from home and then decided to head into work around lunchtime. After working, on the way home, I stopped at Target to grab some milk and waffles. Just as the cashier was handing me my receipt the hospital called letting me know that they had space but I would have to come in right away. I proceded then to return the milk and waffles that I just bought (they would have gone bad in the car). It was pretty weird returning them like that, but after my explanation as to why I was doing it the woman at guest services completely understood.

At the hospital they started monitoring me, my blood pressure was up again at 150. Unfortunately I wasn't able to get the gel though because my body was allready contracting too much (not that I could feel anything). So after sitting there from 4:15 to 7:30 we were on our way home again. At that point I was getting pretty frustrated to have gone to the hospital two days in a row without leaving with a baby in my arms!

A Day of Fun

Monday, August 10, 2009
Today I had one of my bi-weekly bio physicals (ultrasound and NST). The nurse checked my blood pressure while I was there and go figure it had gone back up. At that point it was at 144/88 and after the biophysical it was still at 140/92.

This prompted the doctor to send me on my merry way to United hospital to be monitored. At the hospital they monitored me and the baby for a while and eventually my bp started to go back down. Though I was at the hospital already, this was good because of course there are a million things that I need to do! : )

Starting tomorrow I will be going into United to get the "gel" which will hopefully start opening everything up (I know TMI) so that they are able to induce by the end of the week. If all goes as my doctor plans we may even have a baby by Friday.

I would still rather wait for her to come naturally, but the doctor today said that she was sure my doctor wouldn't want to take that risk. I figured that if we were going to have to start this stuff soon anyways, we might as well start tomorrow.

I'll be hanging out at the hospital for a little bit each day but will still be working from home and trying to fight the boredom of bed rest. I hope that she decides it is okay to come soon!

Someone Else is Waiting...

Thursday, August 6, 2009
Uh oh, it looks like someone else in our house is patiently waiting for the baby too...


Week 37

I had another doctor's appointment today, which of course came with another "lovely" exam. I guess that once you hit 36 you should expect a physical exam each week until the baby comes, oh joy!

During the ultrasound Kate was perfect. She was doing her breathing exercises (moving her diaphragm to build up the muscles to breath, or cry, when she comes out), squirming around (i.e. punching her mother), and hanging out in a sufficient amount of amniotic fluid. She continues to cover up her face whenever the ultrasound tech tries to get a good look. Today she was even rubbing her eyes which was cute. There was a point where the tech said "Oh look, there is her hair on the back of her head", which again makes me nervous for a hairy monkey baby! : )

The NST went without a hitch, her heart rate fluctuated in the 130s and she had a good number of movements in combination with increased heart rate around the 160s.

In the exam I found out that my body is no further along but that she has moved down slightly so that her head is resting at a -3 instead of a -4. Hopefully the added pressure will kick my body into gear. The doctor decided that since everything looked good we should wait another week to see where things are before making a decision on inducing. Now if I could just convince Kate that she would rather come naturally sometime this week that would be best!

Hot Flash

Wednesday, August 5, 2009
So today when I was in the office for my allotted and allowed 1-hour of actually being at work, I got the craziest hot flash.

First my hands started shaking a little bit and then I felt super hot. This hotness was of course followed by profuse sweating which was lovely, especially since it happened in the one hour that I am actually in public.

It went away after like ten minutes, but it was icky. I guess that makes me super excited for that stage of my life, yuck! Hopefully it won't be for a long while!

Hello From Home

So I have been on moderate bedrest now for a full three days (Friday, Monday and Tuesday). It is amazing how much more work I can get done without the extra distractions.

We've basically got everything ready for the baby including the house cleaned and even all of the laundry done. I even got a chance to organize my closet and dresser! All of her newborn sized clothes that we have are washed and ready. I have to iron her take home outfit and pack it into my suitcase, which is also practically ready to go. I swear that all this readiness will only mean that she will take longer to get here!

I had an appointment with the ultrasound tech on Monday that went great. The NST machine was broken, but since the ultrasound went without a hitch the doctor did not make me drive to St. Paul on Tuesday to have the NST there. The baby was moving and squirming the whole time. When the tech tried to get a picture of her face she kept putting her arm and hands up in front of it, so I guess that means she may be shy. : ) By the end of this pregnancy I think that we will have the most ultrasound pictures ever created for one baby. She'll have tons to look at when she gets older!

My appointment with the doctor is tomorrow as well as another ultrasound and NST. Maybe the doctor will say then that she thinks it is time for the baby to come, I would be all for it! The best thing would be if the doctor said she thought the baby would come naturally within the next week, that would make me the happiest of all!

I will keep everyone updated on our status!