Pregnancy Journal

Raina is doing great! She's 3 months old now and weighs just over 12 lbs.

She's cooing and giggling, and says "uh-oh" hahaha. Also she's starting to roll herself over. she's plays with toys and has her favorites. Sometimes she yells at big Bird for a few minutes, but then they're friends again.

She's going to see the plastic surgeon today to have a look at the skin tags on her ear. They're either going to tie them off or wait until she's 6 months old to do surgery. It all depends on wether or not the cartiledge is in the way.

Raina is a really good baby, she's usually smiling and happy. Of course she still has crying fits and can be loud, but that's normal anyways.

Only a few more week unti she can start semi-solid foods, although she's already tasted watermelon, and she LOVES it :) I just hold a little peice and let her rub her gums on it and suck on it, but when I took it away man did she scream! hahaha. I think she'll like having different tastes other than milk.

Take Care everybody :)

Sorry the print is all weird, maybe it's too much all at once or something...Hey, I've had a rough week... Here's the details, even the icky ones! I Went into labor on Wednesday night, went from no contractions to having them every 2 minutes without warning. So Chris and I got in the car and made our way to the hospital. They did a little monitoring and checked my dilation (2-3cm still) they sent me home telling me to come back if my water broke. We came home pretty much just in time to leave again, but my water didn't break. I was stopped dead in my tracks and keeled over the sofa, where I had 3 contractions one right after the other, I was worried I wouldn’t be able to get up again! I was hemorrhaging at that point so our trip back to the hospital was a fast one. Poor little Raina was too big to fit through my pelvis, but they tried anyways. I was in labor all night, I tried to push for 2 hours with no luck, and then they tried to vacuum her out, her head made it out of my cervix...but her poor little head wouldn't go through my pelvic bones so they pushed her head back into my cervix. (Ironic I have big hips and she still wouldn't fit through) So finally they said enough is enough and that she was too stressed, so off I went to the emergency operating table to have a c-section.  I really wanted to try having her without an epidural, and I did pretty well from 4 until midnight and couldn't handle the pain anymore since she wasn't in a good position with her head. I lost it and started to cry when they told me I had to have a c-section, I was really hoping for a natural birth. I felt really disappointed and a little ashamed that my body would fail me like that.

The C-section was supposed to be 20-30 minutes, but I went in the operating room at 6:40am and came out at 9:00am because of complications...Again I was hemorrhaging, I must be a bleeder lol.

Little Raina blessed us with her presence at 7:06 am February 22nd. She weighed 7lbs1ounce and was 20.25 inches long.

It was really scary for me because they took her out of the operating room with Chris to have her checked out. She had been in the womb too long and passed meconium, so there was some in her lungs and she wasn't getting enough oxygen. I didn't get to have her in my room with me like the other ladies in the hospital. I got to stop briefly in the special care nursery to have a quick peek at her before going to my room. Since she was more overdue than they thought, her feet were really cramped and her left foot is cramped pointing upwards. It's not a big deal and it will correct itself soon enough. But what scared me was that the nurse told me she had skin tags on her ear, which develop in the womb at the same time as her liver and kidneys, so she was scheduled to go for an ultrasound to make sure everything was ok. My first nurse was nothing short of a bitch (pardon my French) and that's being nice!

I sent Chris and My sister home (they were such awesome support people for me!!!) so that they could sleep after being up with me all night.  I was alone for the better part of the day and waiting impatiently to find out how my baby was doing. Every time the nurse came in I would ask her if she knew anything about Raina and if she was ok. She always said the same thing, “I don’t know, I never checked, I don’t work on that side.” I pleaded with her each time she was in the room to try to find out for me, and she never did.  I really wanted to see her and feed her, I was afraid something had happened and the nurse wasn’t telling me anything.  I couldn’t get out of bed to go see for myself because I wasn’t able to walk and I was attached to a million different beeping machines. I had lost so much blood I was white as a sheet and shaking like a leaf. By the time 5pm rolled around I was bawling, I was so exhausted and worried about Raina.

I developed an insane itching problem while I was there the first day and they had to give me IV bags to stop it. I found out later that the stupid bitchy nurse game me Tylenol 3 with Codeine, which I’m ALLERGIC to, and that’s why I had an itchy rash all over my body. She was supposed to give me plain Tylenol.

So at 5:30pm a different nurse came into my room and took me in a wheelchair to the special care nursery to see Raina. I bawled the whole time, but I got to hold her for a little while then they put her back in the oxygen tank because her breathing wasn’t great yet.

She did really well after that, I got to get one breast feed in that night and have been going strong since. Things are a little sore and the breastfeeding is a lot harder than I thought it would be, and not as “natural” as everyone always talks about. We’re both getting the hang of things though.

I slept maybe 8 hours my whole stay at the hospital, between anxiety and all the construction going on. I was happy to be discharged tonight so I can have my own pillow. I’m exhausted and still having intense pain in the surgery site.  I can’t take care of myself and feel pretty useless at this point; I need Chris to do almost everything for me, including handing me Raina for feedings.

I’m sorry I didn’t get to call anyone with updates, we just kept my sister and parents and Chris’s sister and parents informed. There was just too much going on and I was too stressed out to make any calls at all.

Nadine and John got flowers for us and a t-shirt for Raina that says “I was born at the Rockyview General Hospital ” a pink teddy bear with a heart shaped frame on it and John got me a Mercedes Benz Giraffe for my obsessive collection. Chris brought us matching mom and baby Giraffe stuffies, so cute!!!

Chris became instant daddy, I’m so proud of him, I love him so much!!!

He’s done so much, and so much more than I could ever ask for.

We’re now Mommy and Daddy and so happy to have our precious little one finally with us.

Well I have to go now, I hope that’s enough info for everyone for now, we’ll be staying with my parents for a few weeks until I’m healed up and better able to care for Raina and I. We will let everyone know when they can come for a visit to meet her.

Love,

Chrissy, Chris & Raina

XOXOXOXOXOxoxoxo