Celebrating Rosie's One Month B-day

Today is Rosalie's one month birthday. Happy month birthday Rosie! Boy does time fly. 

Check out the weight gain! Go Rosalie.

Below are five things we're grateful for that have really helped us through the first month:

Nipple shield

1. The nipple shield...but only because it has helped Rosalie gain her birth weight and then some. I actually hate the shield because it gets slippery and is annoying, but it's needed. Rosalie was a little under weight when she arrived and we had to make sure she was getting enough to eat. In addition, her tongue tie (see earlier post) meant it was harder for her to latch on. The nipple shield has allowed for breastfeeding to progress. Now if I can just transition her off the dreaded (for me) shield. If anyone has tips, let me know. But take a look at her bigger tummy in the photo below - for that I am thankful for the slippery shield. 
   
2. Rosie is a champ of a sleeper..at least for now - Rosalie sleeps quite a bit. According to the books it's normal for a newborn to sleep 16-18 hours a day. I think Rosie is a little more on the 18 hours a day side. The strange/good/slightly unsettling thing is that she usually sleeps a 5 hour stretch followed by a 4 hour stretch at nights. The books say that most babies wake up every 2-3 hours for feeding - which means several night time wake-ups. Even though we're only waking up 1-2 times a night, we're still exhausted because the interrupted sleep in the middle of the night with the feeding and bouncing/rocking back to sleep does take time, but it's way better than multiple wake-ups. We have her one month doctor's check-up tomorrow and will ask if this is normal behavior. The video below shows our sleepy girl in sleepiness action. While she does sometimes wake on her own to eat, we're usually the ones waking her.
   
   
   
3. The blue exercise ball - at our labor and delivery class the teacher recommended that we get one of those exercise balls. Apparently they are also called labor balls. While the ball was not useful for my labor, it has been a life saver for getting Rosalie to stop crying and for general calming, especially in the wee hours of the night. The first picture of Adam with Rosalie on the ball is the normal position. The one with just Rosalie on it is not. Adam just thought it'd be funny to include a photo of Rosalie on her beloved ball. It's more like our beloved ball.
   
   
   
4. The 5-S guy - All new parents have likely heard of the 5-S's - Swaddle, Shhhh, Side or Stomach position, Swing and Suck. They teach it to you in the labor and delivery class and there's a video called, "The Happiest Baby on the Block" that goes over the 5 S's in detail. We checked it out from the library and have been implementing all but the suck (aka pacifier) one because Rosalie hasn't latched on to the real nipple yet. The S's really work, especially the swaddle.
   
5. Rosalie's library of books - my sisters and mom thew us an awesome baby shower where the theme was books. Everyone brought Rosalie a book and just like that she had a full library of some wonderful reads. When you're hanging out with a baby all day, it's nice to have some good books to read to her. We've certainly been loving our collection, which we still have yet to get through. It's fun reading her a new book every day. So thanks to everyone who got Rosalie a book!  

Adam reading Rosalie - Sophie's Squash

 Stay tuned for the next blog post where I'll describe Rosalie's name origin. :-)

Hee Hee Hee Hoooo: My Birth Story

Warning - this post is long because I found it hard to concisely capture the experience. So hee hee hee hoo - here it goes:

PART 1: Preparing for labor

This being my first baby, I didn't know what to expect on the big labor and delivery day. I was at the birth of my nephew 10 years ago, but I mostly remember it being like in the movies. It was Christmas eve and at 2am my sister's water broke; we rushed to the hospital; and Logan was born four hours later. I was so focused on my cute little nephew, I didn't store in my memory bank everything else that went on that day.

So I was surprised to learn at our labor and delivery class that most births were NOT like in the movies at all. Our teacher told us the average number of hours a first pregnancy labor takes is 24.  That's twenty-four hours people - a whole day! And that's on average - so it could be more (or less). I was shocked. That seems like an awful long time of discomfort and pain. I was glad we were taking this class so we would know what to do. 

My main takeaways from labor and delivery class

1. The majority of the labor will take place at home, not at the hospital. In fact if you go to the hospital too early they will send you home! The general rule of thumb is 4-1-1. The hospital usually does not admit you unless your contractions are 4 minutes apart or shorter, last for at least 1 minute and they are that way for at least 1 hour.
2. Drink - Pee - Move - Time - Eat: Every hour from the beginning of labor I should stay hydrated, empty my bladder, move/change position, time contractions and eat! They called this "Basic Comfort."
3. Breathing was essential: I should start and end every contraction with a "cleansing breath," breaths should be slow, deep and relaxed with one example being "hee hee hee hoo." The hoo was low and extended - like this - hoooooooooooo
4. Items that might be useful to get: an exercise ball (good for laboring and for bouncing a crying baby once it's born), popsicles and comfort foods for eating during labor, and a music playlist in the event that I'd want to listen to my favorite tunes while in labor. I got all of these, but used none, except a half of one popsicle.

Adam at our class

In addition to making sure I memorized all the helpful tips from class and stocked our cupboard with the recommended snacks, I read about how to prepare for labor on babycenter.com and watched real life labor and delivery videos from the site.

The best preparation, however, was being with my twin sister when she gave birth to my nephew Isaac just 6 weeks before Rosalie was born. I was there to see her labor at home for over 12 hours and then also at the hospital where she labored for another 12 hours before my beautiful nephew was born. My takeaway from that experience was - oh schnikees this looks like it's going to hurt!

PART 2: The pre-labor signs (Sunday and Monday, September 7th and 8th)

1. Exhaustion - Rosalie's original due date was September 4th and my sister Nikki was in town from the 3rd - 7th in hopes that Rosalie would be on time, plus or minus a day. But alas, it was not to be and after dropping Nik off at the airport on Sunday, Adam and I headed to Ikea to get a few picture frames for Rosalie's room. I was so exhausted afterwards that  I took a four-hour nap once we got home. We had stayed up a little late the night before, but I hadn't been that exhausted in a while. We didn't do much the rest of the day and had an early dinner before heading to bed at around 9:30pm.
2. Bloody show - As soon as I laid down to sleep, I felt a little rush of fluid and immediately thought my water broke. However, after referencing my handy dandy "What to expect when you're expecting " guide book I determined what I felt and saw was something called "bloody show." According to the book, "This show  usually means labor will start within 24 hours." I was uncomfortable, nervous and excited all at the same time. Adam had already dozed off to sleep, but I couldn't sleep at all. So I assumed my position out on our lazy boy couch (where I slept when I got heart burn - a frequent occurrence towards the end of pregnancy) and surfed the net to learn more about this blood show business.
3. Increase in urination - It was a sleepless night as I was up often to go to the bathroom.

The next morning I was pretty exhausted, but very excited about the prospects of going into labor. I still hadn't felt a contraction, at least that I could truly identify. My plan was to sleep most of the day in order to be well-rested for the labor that I knew was soon to come. But instead of sleeping I spent the day writing email, reading the news, and watching a very unexciting US Open men's final. I didn't feel any contractions during the day, but did feel a little bit funny and kept seeing the bloody show.

I spoke with my mom who was debating whether or not to come that evening or the next day. I told her it was probably fine to come the next day as I thought Rosalie probably wouldn't come til the following evening…

PART 3: Laboring alone begins (late Monday night, September 8th)

Monday evening we had an early dinner and headed to bed at 9:30pm. At about 11:30pm I woke up suddenly with a bit of a cramping feeling and the urge to go the bathroom. I didn't register that this was a contraction, but this was the start of my labor.

Adam was snoozing soundly and I didn't want to disturb him with what I thought was just going to be me getting up to go the bathroom constantly like I did the night before. So I took my pillow to the living room and propped up on the lazy boy couch again.  I was so tired from not sleeping much the night before or during that day and craved some shut eye.

I leaned back and closed my eyes and probably 15 minutes later the uncomfortable cramping feeling along with the  bathroom urge came on again. I kept feeling the need to have a bowel movement, but couldn't go. For the next hour I was getting  up like this every 20 minutes or so. The discomfort got progressively worse and I started having to get up more often. No longer could I even lean back on the couch before having to get up and the discomfort was turning into pain. It finally clicked with me that I was in labor.

Various Laboring Positions

I started using my "hee hee hee hoooooooo" breathing technique and also got my water bottle to make sure I drank in between contractions. The best I can describe the feeling was a super painful menstrual cramp combined with a need to take a really painful poo. In the beginning I sat on the toilet when having a contraction, but after a while I couldn't take sitting and the only comfortable position was standing and leaning against the wall while swaying back and forth. I tried many of the laboring positions we learned in class (see photo) but the only one that I could get through a contraction was the standing and leaning against a wall one. In between contractions I would walk to the bathroom and try to go and would also drink water. I was not hungry one bit. So of the Drink-Pee-Move-Time-Eat advice, I was doing 3 of the 5.

PART 4: Time to wake up Adam

Finally, at 3:30am I couldn't bear it any longer and woke up Adam. My legs were so tired from standing and I was exhausted from lack of sleep. I was worried that I wasn't going to have any energy by the time I got to the hospital and hoping that Adam would somehow help me rest a little.

The problem was that I only felt comfortable standing up. I asked/told Adam, "How am I going to get to the hospital if I can't sit down in the car? I have to be able to get through a contraction sitting down." I had set up a chair backwards against our dining room table and put a pillow on the table earlier in the morning with hopes of straddling the chair and resting during the contractions. But I hadn't tried that position in a few hours. With Adam there I was relieved to try it again.

"A contraction is like climbing a mountain..."

What was getting me through my contractions was my "hee hee hee hoos" and the image I remember from class. Our teacher told us to visualize a contraction like climbing a mountain. The contraction is small at first and then builds up to the most intense pain; but as soon as you reach the peak, it's all downhill from there. You just have to reach the top and you're through to the other side. She also told  us that during a contraction you obviously will tense up, but if you focus on relaxing as much of your body as you can, like your face, limbs, etc. it would really help with the pain. With these three ideas, I was finally able to sit down through the contractions.

Adam dutifully timed my contractions and made sure that I drank water. He brought me popsicles which were helpful for a little while, but I didn't have much of an appetite. All I remember was being so thankful to be sitting down and resting my head. I would fall asleep for what I thought was 15 minutes, but Adam said it was only about 2 minutes, before saying "here it goes again," and starting my breathing routine to get through a contraction. After about 2 hours of having the 4-1-1 contractions, Adam called our doctor's office to see if they agreed that it was time to come in. It was around 7am. The doctor called us back 30 minutes later and told us to come on in.

I stayed resting my head on the table while Adam scurried around the house gathering our bags and the last minute items I had written down on a post-it note. He texted our families that we were headed to the hospital and my phone started ringing with calls from my sisters and mom, who wasn't landing until 1:15pm. There was no way I could even talk. "I can't talk to anyone," and "Adam - we need to go now!"  I remember saying, as he was stuffing a small cooler with popsicles in one hand and carrying the exercise ball in his other hand. I yelled, "I don't care about the popsicles!"

I "hee hee hee hoo'd" during the 15 minute car ride with my eyes closed the entire way. Adam pulled up to the hospital's valet parking, about 20 feet from the entrance. He helped me out of the car and I couldn't get 5 steps without a contraction rearing it's ugly head and stopping us in our tracks. Good thing a nurse walking into the hospital got us a wheel chair or else I don't know how long it would have taken us to walk in.

PART 5: At the hospital (Tuesday, September 9th - 8:45am)

Lovely chart showing stages of labor

Once on the third floor of the hospital, Adam checked us in while I sat in the wheel chair doing my hee hee hee hoos. They took us to the triage room and a wonderful nurse, Jenn L., had me get on a bed so she could check how far along I was.  Eight centimeters! She couldn't believe, and neither could I, that I labored at home for all that time. I jokingly asked, "So you're not going to send me back home?" "No," she said, "we're taking you to a delivery room now."

We requested one of the bigger rooms that had a bathtub. And I'm so grateful we did because that bathtub was key to getting me through to 10 centimeters. Jenn filled the bathtub up with hot water and had me get on my hands in knees in the tub with my head resting on a ledge. She placed a warm towel on my back and Adam's job for the next hour and a half was to shower my back with hot water. This relieved my horrendous lower back pain almost immediately because being in the water helped the baby to float, relieving the pressure..but only for a while.

Jenn was preparing the delivery room but kept checking on us every so often. Soon I felt the urge to push and it was pain I had never felt before. Jenn had me get out of the tub and onto the bed. During this transition from the tub to the bed, my twin sister, Renee arrived. My lower back was killing me and Ren and Adam took turns massaging my back and squeezing my hips together to help relieve the pressure. Soon I was on my back and the doctor arrived. It was 11am and it was time to start pushing.

PART 6: Let the pushing begin! (Tuesday, September 9th - 11am)

When it was time to start pushing I was spent. But Adam, Ren and Jenn were cheering me on as I took deep breaths in and then "beared" down trying to push out this little baby. It really does feel like you're trying to take the biggest poop of your life...and you're constipated. In other words - it frickin hurts and is way uncomfortable.

To give you a decent idea of the set-up- I was on my back on the bed that was titled up so I was somewhat sitting up. My legs were spread open. Adam was on one side of the bed and Jenn was on the other. During a contraction (when I would push) I would put one foot in Adam's hand and the other in Jenn's as they held my legs up. I would grab the underside of my quads, curl my neck and head towards my stomach, take a deep breath and then push like I was going number two. The idea was to try and hold the push for 10 seconds, which was really hard to do.

When it comes to the pushing stage, most women must push pretty fast because I remember Jenn saying it would probably  only be another 10 minutes or so. But I knew, from seeing Ren push for 3 hours just 6 weeks before that it could take longer. The doctor gave me some Lidocaine, a local anesthetic to help numb the burn for what they call "the ring of fire" or expanded opening where the baby comes out.

After about an hour of pushing, the top of Rosalie's head was showing. The doctor was worried about Rosalie because the external monitors weren't reading her heart rate very accurately. The doctor asked if she could attach a monitor to Rosalie's head to get a better read of her heart rate. We didn't want her to at first, but eventually complied. They also gave me an oxygen mask, which only made it harder for me when it came time to push. What did help was a stand up mirror they brought in so that I could see what was going on down there. I was having trouble holding my pushes long enough (I was exhausted!) and so my pushes weren't super effective. The mirror helped me see how I was doing during the pushes.

The doctor was worried about Rosalie being stressed and also could see that the umbilical cord was wrapped loosely around her neck. There were about 10 times where they thought I'd push Rosalie out. It's funny to watch the 10 iphone videos that Ren took because she thought it was going to be THE push! It was the doctor's threat that she would need to use the vacuum to get Rosalie out that motivated me to the finish line. With two more pushes Rosalie's whole head was out. The doctor told me to stop for a second while she unwrapped the cord from Rosalie's neck and then asked me to push again. And with a super easy push the rest of Rosalie's body came out.

They quickly put Rosalie onto me while they wiped her off and did the visual checks to make sure she was okay. Rosalie was crying up a storm - a good sign! She was delivered less than 4 hours after my check-in at 12:33pm weighing 5 pounds, 14 ounces and measuring 19.5 inches long. 

First photo of Rosalie - she came out crying!

Our first family photo: My face was super swollen and my eyes were bloodshot. Apparently I was pushing a lot with my face. Rosalie spent the first night in the NICU because she had low blood sugar levels. 

Don't Tell Me About the Labor Pains, Just Show Me the Baby

Before I describe our labor and delivery story (will be in the forthcoming post), first a few photos and update of our little Rosalie.

On her 9th day Rosalie is doing awesome! She's feeding very well and has even woken us up a few times because she is hungry--and that's a good thing. We think she has passed her birth weight too. By our calculations of getting on the scale without  her and then back on with her - she's just over 6 pounds.

This evening her Grandma and Grandpa Bernstein will be arriving to spend the next 10 days with her. She's already met her Nana Joy who arrived from Nevada just an hour after she was born.

Adam and I are doing well - very sleepy, but are hearts are full and happy.

Rosalie on the changing table - she's peed on Adam at least 6 times already

Her typical face after feeding

And then after the yawn...

And finally Adam's time to burp her

A week old today

How do you suppose Rosalie celebrated her first week of life? That's right by sleeping, eating, and pooping!

It's only been a week, but it seems like a lot longer than that in some ways and I can't believe just a week ago today, she made her way out from the inside world to the outside world. How our lives have changed.

Adam and I have had a nice quiet week together adjusting to parenthood and learning how to manage our lives in 2 to 3 hour increments that revolve around this tiny human being. A big change from the first four days, was in the feeding department. Initially, we had to supplement Rosalie's feedings with pumped breast milk. The feedings took at least an hour. Here's how it would break down:

1. Adam would wake Rosalie up by changing her diaper while I prepped the pillows, boppy, burp cloth and nipple shield to be ready for the feeding as well as prepped the bottles for pumping afterwards. (~10 min)
2. Adam would bring Rosalie to me and I would breast feed her for as long as she would stay awake. Sometimes getting her to latch would take only a minute or two and sometimes 15 min. We would do everything we could to wake her when she fell asleep which seemed to be every other minute. Tactics included tickling her feet, moving her arm in a windmill fashion, tapping her chin and when necessary, putting a cold, wet washcloth to her face. (~15-45 min)
3. Once done with that we'd feed her the supplement through a feeding tube into the nipple shield that was on my breast. This was definitely a two man operation, with Adam holding and filling the syringe / tube with pumped milk and me holding Rosalie to my chest so she could drink it. This went pretty fast because Rosalie happily welcomed the free flowing milk that she didn't have to work so hard to eat. (~5 - 10 min)
4. After the feeding was done, Adam would burp her, change her diaper, swaddle her, and wash out the feeding tube, while I started my 15 minutes of pumping, which was followed by cleaning out all of the bottles. (~20 min)

And we did that routine every 3 hours....meaning we had a 2 hour break in between each feeding.

On Monday, we had an awesome lactation consultant come to our house. She helped me with my breastfeeding technique and told us to up our feedings to 10 times a day instead of 8, which enabled us to stop pumping and it also helps Rosalie learn how to better latch on and breastfeed. We've tried this new routine for the past 2 days and it has been working well. Even though we have more feedings, the time it takes is only between 15-30 min as opposed to an hour. 

We also took her to the doctor again to check on her birth weight. She was 5 pounds, 8 ounces on Saturday and on Monday was back up to 5 pounds 11.8 ounces. So only about 2 ounces to go until she's back at birth weight! The doc says she's looking good and we don't have to go back until her one month check-up. 

Below are some photos from her first week. Most of them are of her sleeping, but this first one is of the many funny faces she makes. I did not include any photos of her pooping...but Adam can tell you all about it. We've separated tasks so that I'm in charge of all input and he's in charge of all output. He's been peed and pooped on several times now! 

Rosalie's many facial expressions

Sleeping in her Ergo

Sleeping in bed

Family Cat Nap

P.S. Happy birthday Dad! Rosalie's happy to share the same birth month as you. :-)

Back at Home with Our Little Burrito

Smiling Rosalie

What a week! The past five days have been quite a whirlwind. After spending two nights in the hospital, we were discharged on Thursday and made our way home around 2pm. We are having a great time getting to know our little girl. So far we'd describe her as:

• Big-eyed, alert and curious when awake
• Petite in weight, but with long skinny limbs
• A very good sleeper - we have to wake her every 2-3 hours to eat (and we've slept through 2 of her night time feedings because we both didn't hear the alarm).
• Persistent - she keeps at it even when feeding is tough and agitation creeps in

We have a lot to learn about how to be parents, but are thus far loving it, despite the haze of little sleep. Rosalie is not super fussy, but the times when she has had her better cries, it has been in the wee hours of the morning. Funny how it turns out like that.

Below are a few more photos of Rosalie. I'm working on a post to describe the labor and delivery - don't worry, I won't get into the gross details - and will hopefully post that later for those who are interested. To close out this post, I'll just give an update on why Rosalie was in the NICU, her tongue-tied procedure and how her first pediatrician appointment went today.

Reason for the NICU

Rosalie was in the neonatal intensive-care unit (NICU) for about a day because when they tested her blood sugar 2 hours after she was born it measured very low. She was also a little under weight for her gestational age, so that made them more concerned. Our labor and delivery nurse was great and tried to help us not have to send her to the NICU because the low blood sugar reading may have not been Rosalie's fault. It took 2 hours after delivery before I could feed Rosalie. But at the end of the day, it was probably better to be safe than sorry.

Her Tongue-Untie Procedure

While in the NICU they noticed that Rosalie's tongue is what they call tongue-tied which, "happens when the string of tissue under a baby's tongue (frenulum), which attaches her tongue to the floor of her mouth, is too short. If a baby has tongue-tie, her tongue can't move freely, and this can cause problems with feeding." The doctor said it basically means a tongue-tied baby has to work 10 times harder to get the same amount of milk. A simple procedure for fixing it is called a frenulotomy. A doctor snips the string at the base of the tongue (the frenulum) and it allows the tongue to more freely hit the top of the mouth, making feeding easier. The doctor performed this procedure the morning before we left, and Rosalie was a trooper.

Her First Pediatrician Appt

Today Rosalie had her first doctor's appointment. Her umbilical cord stump fell off right before we left for the hospital this morning, so the doc checked out her belly button which she says looks great. Rosalie seems to be doing very well. She's a bit below her birth weight -- she was 5 pounds, 14 ounces at birth and is now 5 pounds, 8 ounces - but it is totally normal for babies to lose weight at first. But because Rosalie was on the smaller side to begin with, we will return to the doctor every few days until her weight is back up. So the next appointment is on Monday.

That's all for now! Thanks for all the emails of congrats and thoughtful comments. ...Now for a few more photos:

Rosalie a couple of hours after birth

Rosalie in the NICU

Adam reading to Rosalie at home

Rosalie 4 days old with 6 week old cousin Isaac

Rosalie with our cone-head dog Heart

Rosalie is here!

Rosalie made her way into this world on Tuesday, September 9, 2014 at 12:33pm. She weighed in at 5 lbs 14 ounces and measured 19.5 inches. She was a little low on blood sugar levels so spent the first night in NICU, but is now back with us. Here are a couple of photos. We head home with Rosalie tomorrow. More to come soon.

Our new family member!

Rosalie in the NICU

Love,

Em and Adam

Déjà vu - a revised due date so we're back at 39 weeks and 2 days

So….it's Sept 5th and baby Rosalie is still a cookin. I had our NST today and also got an ultrasound. Baby Rosalie is moving well and her fluids are good. We also had a doctor's appointment. I'm same as last week: between 1 and 2 cm dilated, 60% effaced and she's at the -1 station. Our doc started to talk about intervention options, when I told her our theory about our "real" due date being September 10th as opposed to September 4th.

Why do we think our due date is September 10th?

Well, usually doctors base your due date on the date of your last menstrul period, assuming that you have a 28-day period cycle.  This is generally the case for most women, but since Adam and I were intentionally trying to get pregnant and were tracking our cycles using the Fertility Awareness Method we had more information: 1) my cycles are much longer than 28 days - around 40-50 days and 2) we know the date when we conceived (we were tracking!). With that info, the due date calculators put us at Sept 10th. In addition, our first early ultrasound estimated that our due date was September 8th based on the baby's size. We brought this up to our first doctor when we lived in San Francisco but she didn't really want to listen and said she wanted to keep the date at September 4th.

But, our new doctor in Berkeley was all ears and happy to listen to our tracking tale and theory and agreed that with this new information we should change the date to Sept 10th. Usually they will induce after 41 weeks and definitely after 42 weeks because the placenta starts getting old.  So, six days makes a difference when you start talking about interventions like inducing pregnancy. The doc said, she thinks it's good to let the baby decide when she wants to come out and that we'll give her another week. So bottom line - our new date is next Wed, September 10th!

Auntie Nik doesn't leave until Sunday, the 7th so she may still be able to meet Rosalie. In the meantime, Nik, Ren, Adam, Baby Isaac and I had a delicious lunch at East End Pizza in Alameda.

Back to working from home! And til next time. Below are a few photos from this week of waiting.

Working from home

Baby practice with nephew Zach

Rosalie's Aunties with Cousin Zach