Getting back in shape

It's amazing how my body went from this back in March:

Yes, those are bruises from the IVF shots.  I'm pretty sure the red one on the lower right got a little infected or something because this photo was taken a few days after giving myself that shot.

To this at the very end of November:

To this one week and two days after my C-section:

Two weeks after my C-section:

Three weeks after my C-section:

And finally, one month after my C-section where I am about 5 pounds lighter than my pre-pregnancy weight (although still softer in my stomach).

Obviously one of my New Years resolutions is going to be to continue to lose weight and to try to tone up the little pouch I now have over my incision.  I'm not looking for a six pack, but it would be nice to look a little better in shirts...

Currently I am still only walking as the only workout DVDs I own are ones like 30 Day Shred and I'm not cleared to run/lift weights yet so the only jumping around will be when watching football (yay Eagles!!!).  But I am hoping that I get cleared for all types of exercise on Jan 9th at my six week post-C-section appointment.

Any suggestions on post C-section exercises?

Other than trying to get my body back into shape, I don't have any resolutions.  I never seem to follow through with them, so I might as well only have one and hope that I can at least stick to that one!! So far I have been eating fairly healthy, but tonight won't be one of those nights. Because CP and I can't go out for NYE, CP is cooking me a fancy French dinner of braised short ribs, lentils, and an unknown vegetable. I will be making French bread and possibly dessert. Hopefully Izzy decides to sleep through dinner so that we can enjoy the meal!

What are you doing for NYE?

Breastfeeding

(I wrote this almost two weeks ago and had formatting issues that couldn't be fixed on my iPad. This is the first time I have been able to get to a computer.)

Well, it seems like every new mom not only has a birth story posted, but also a post on breastfeeding. I might as well join the club.

I went into breastfeeding fully convinced that it was going to be HARD. Reading posts from Bits and Peaces and Esperanza along with getting advice from friends like "don't quit on your worst day" and "I cried for 6 weeks straight" made me nervous. When people asked if I was going to breastfeed, I would say "I hope so!" but I knew that there was a possibility that it wouldn't work out. I also talked with CP beforehand, telling him that I would need support and for him to not let me quit. We also went to a breastfeeding class together. I'm happy to say that even though Izzy and I have had our ups and downs, three weeks into being a milk machine, it is working out.

Izzy lost 10.4% of her birth weight in the hospital. She had a good latch with a wide mouth, but fell asleep quickly after latching on. Once I got home from the hospital my milk was in but because she would fall asleep, I would have to switch boobs 4-5 times a feeding. I didn't think that was normal, but she was feeding every three hours and didn't seem to starve inbetween. Now I'm pretty sure that she wasn't getting the more caloric milk that comes after nursing for 5 minutes and thus not gaining enough weight.

One week after birth she was at 7 lbs 7 oz (birth weight was 8 lbs 3 oz). Two weeks after birth (when a baby is supposed to be up to their birth weight) she was only up to 7 lbs 13 oz. To my doctor's credit, even at two weeks he didn't talk about supplementing with formula- yet. But I did start pumping once a day after a feeding and then giving that bottle to Izzy.

Tips in the hospital that were very helpful included tickling or tapping the bottom of Izzy's feet, touching her body with a wet washcloth, stroking her chin, and taking off all of her clothes- all of these in an effort to keep her awake. We also tried lots of "aids" while in the hospital- nipple shells, the pump (including a bottle to feed her the pumped milk), a syringe to put milk on/near her lips, and the nipple shield. I was worried about the use of these aids on whether it would lead to the dreaded nipple confusion, but one of the lactation consultants told me that in all of her years, she has only seen nipple confusion happen once. I'm pretty happy with the fact that we used so many aids as I learned how to use the pump before leaving the hospital and from feeding Izzy bottles of my pumped milk, she is already used to bottle feeding and that won't be a problem when she heads to daycare. Even using the nipple shields for the past two+ weeks hasn't been the end of the world. I have offered my naked nipples a couple of times and she has been fine eating from them- the shields help her stay awake longer though by stimulating the roof of her mouth when she eats. At some point I may get rid of them, but for now they are fine.

D day was yesterday (note: the Thursday before Christmas) when Izzy had a weight check at one day shy of 3 weeks old. She had to be above her birth weight or else. I told her to hold her pees and poos until after she got on the scale, but of course she had a massive diaper when we started to take her clothes off. In the end, it didn't matter as she weighed in at 8 lbs 8 oz and I could officially breathe a sigh of relief.

So what advice can I offer? I think that going into the breastfeeding experience knowing that both you and your baby need to learn and work together is key. It's not going to be easy, so having patience and not freaking out during the first couple of days makes a world of difference when it comes to your sanity. Know that breastfeeding is not painless- so far it hasn't been too painful, but my right nipple has a tendency to crack (as it is right now), and that doesn't exactly feel great...  My last tidbit of advice is to take advantage of any tips and aids offered in the hospital. Izzy and I would not be where we are without them.

(Since I wrote this Izzy and I have done even better. No more cracked nipples, no more using lanolin, and at her 1 month checkup Izzy weighed 9 lbs 4.7 oz.)

1 month old

Izzy is one month old today. I seriously can't believe it. I feel like my pregnancy was light years ago and that we have had her in our lives for much longer than a month.

She is doing quite well. We marveled at the fact that on her first day she had great neck control and it just keeps getting better. She will tolerate tummy time for a few minutes and will turn her head from side to side to follow us/our voice, but will also burst into tears when she is done. She does enjoy playing what we call "Izzy Inchworm." She lays on her stomach and when we put our hands on the soles of her feet she uses her leg muscles to push forward on the mat. In addition, the mat has an activity bar that we have been bringing out more recently- the past few days we have noticed that if we crinkle the butterfly Izzy will intensely check it out.

Izzy loves her MamaRoo, but doesn't spend a ton of time in it. She also likes her car seat/the car so far. As long as there is someone around to hold her and we aren't eating a meal, Izzy is usually in someone's arms. Her doctor said that we can't spoil her at this age so unless we are asleep, we hold her and interact with her as much as possible. From day one we liked to test her mimic response- either sticking out our tongue or opening our mouth wide to have her copy us. It's quite cute. She holds her head up a lot while we are holding her as well. Every once in a while she will "dive bomb" when we have her at our shoulder- basically she throws herself away from the body that is holding her for an unknown reason.

Sleeping-wise she has been pretty good. From the first day home she has been just fine in the Pack n' Play bassinet in our room at night. I also put her down in it when I take my morning nap. She also sleeps on us throughout the day. We can generally get her to bed between 10 and 12 and she will usually wake up every three hours to feed. Breastfeeding is going better so most feedings are just both-boob affairs before going back to sleep (instead of switching boobs 4-5 times in a session).  I have been reading to her almost every night which she enjoys. She  also politely ignoring my bad voice and allows me to sing the ABC song and the Eagles fight songs to her. :-)

To increase my milk supply I have been trying to pump once a day. The problem is that I am not consistent and neither are my boobs. Sometimes I will pump 20 ml from both boobs which is depressing, sometimes it is 80ml. A lot of it depends on how hydrated I am.  

I haven't tried to use my nursing cover in public just yet so I do my best to pump before we go somewhere to have a bottle to feed her if she gets hungry. Izzy is a very loud and voracious eater (when she is awake) and her guzzling/heavy breathing noises would just be awkward. Are these noises normal or is it just my child who is really noisy?

What else....she still loves snuggling, completely curled up on someone's upper chest with her legs tucked in. To be honest, it is my absolute favorite position with her. Sometimes she will drape an arm around your shoulder/upper arm and hang on like a little monkey. On Christmas we had to wash the diaper change pad cover twice because when we were in the middle of changing her she peed all over herself/the cover. Whoops! She is not a fan of baths but does like it when we wash her hair. Go figure. We have taken her on a few walks around the neighborhood which she has enjoyed but it has been so freaking cold. She has also been to a few restaurants and the outdoor mall- we have been careful to not allow people to get close and/or touch her. She has had a few hours in the Bjorn, but nothing extensive. Her first Christmas was exhausting and she slept almost the entire day! Finally, sometimes when her startle reflex is triggered, she throws her hands up. We like to joke that she is throwing up her gang signs. :-)

Basically she is perfect which her doctor declared after her one month visit today. :-) She is up to 9 lbs, 4.7 oz and is 21.5 inches tall. We are head over heels in love with her!

Izzy at Christmas

She strikes again

Only three days before Christmas and my sister struck again. It wasn't enough to invite four extra people plus a baby to Thanksgiving, the day before my scheduled c-section. Now she was calling to ask another favor.

CP and I had decided, after speaking with the pediatrician, to not attend Christmas afternoon at my aunt's house. Thirty people including a bunch of kids was a recipe for Izzy getting sick and we didn't want her to possibly get a fever and have a major workup in the hospital. We had already agreed to watch my sister's dog while my sister, her boyfriend, and my parents went to my aunt's house. He is an okay dog- not really well trained, but at least he tires Buster out. 

Well now she was calling because her boyfriend agreed to watch a neighbor's dog for the week and could we also watch that dog while they are at my aunt's house? I thought about it for approximately 2.5 seconds and said no. While they are at my aunt's house I want to relax and enjoy the rest of the day with CP and Izzy- not care after some random dog. The last time she brought a neighbor's dog it barked, snapped, and growled at my dogs the entire time and it was quite a mess (famous last words from my sister- "but this dog is usually so nice!" At some point she will learn that it is generally not a good idea to bring a strange dog to another dog's house.). Not to mention, Koda is steadily declining (more in a future post), so I don't want to stress her out with another dog coming into our house.

Turns out my instinct was right. As soon as I said no my sister started whining about what she was going to do with the dog as it is a PUPPY and is in constant need for attention. Oh and it's some sort of small dog which guarantees that Buster will hate it. (Shakes my head.) My sister tried to conveniently leave out all of that pertinent information when asking us for her "favor." 

Oh well. It's Christmas, she is family, and she could be much worse I guess. I hope all of you have a drama-free day. 

Snippets since birth

A couple of you guys asked....my sister did not get engaged over thanksgiving. Our guests weren't too bad but the baby did end up using the exersaucer and the high chair. :-/ I would have looked like the biggest bitch if I had said no, so I just tried not to think about it.

You know on sitcoms when the father drives 5 miles an hour home from the hospital? That was CP as we took Izzy home. It was seriously the most adorable thing ever.

Help when coming home with a baby is awesome. I know that some people want to bond with just their husband and the baby but I was terrified of not knowing what to do and I wanted my mom. Turns out I either have a fairly easy baby or people are right, your motherly instinct just kicks right in as I haven't been at a loss of what to do with Izzy. That being said, my mom was super helpful by doing laundry, making meals, holding Izzy while I showered, etc.

Right now my MIL is staying with us for a week and I was VERY EXCITED to go to my RESOLVE dinner last night. My MIL is great and we do get along but it's the same stories over and over (and no break since Sunday because CP is at work this week). Also, she has continued to tell the "I knew CP was going to be a good father" stories that were so much fun to listen to as we were battling infertility. (Sarcasm)

A week after Izzy was born my dad set up a photo shoot at our house for their Christmas card. It's been so adorable to see my dad as a grandparent- my mom says that he seems more excited about Izzy's arrival than he was for my arrival (although I'm not sure how to feel about this- maybe because he can leave Izzy here after a visit?).

Cloth diapering so far has been great and really easy. Definitely feel good about my choice to do so.

I have been trying to eat rolled oat oatmeal and drink Mothers Milk tea every day to keep my milk supply up. Unfortunately, the tea gives me awful gas so I have had to discontinue using it. It's a good thing that I really like oatmeal!

Two days ago, Izzy and I took our first walk around the neighborhood. We finally had a nice day out and it felt great to get out and stretch my legs.





So far Koda has been fairly aloof towards Izzy, while Buster is fascinated. He follows whomever is holding her around the house and loves to lick her feet. He also loves laying down right near the mat we put down for tummy time. It's adorable.





That's all that I can think of today!

Recovery from a c-section

Day of surgery

Once the surgery was over I was wheeled up to the recovery room. The spinal started wearing off and I started to feel my incision. I had tons of shivering (even though I wasn't cold) and teeth chattering. That seems to be my m.o. when I come out of surgery. After about two hours I was moved up to my room in the maternity ward. I didn't have a ton of pain, but I also wasn't moving around. The nurses put compression boots on my legs that filled up every couple of minutes with air- that was to make sure I didn't get a blood clot. I also had different machines hooked up to me checking my blood pressure, oxygen level, etc. so there was a lot of beeping and hissing going on in our room.  I also had an IV for hydration and pain meds and a huge pad between my legs for bleeding.

CP and Izzy slept in the room with me. Izzy was up crying most of the night and needed to be held by one of us at all times so CP and I got about an hour and a half of sleep that night. I couldn't leave the bed so I wasn't a tremendous help and I was trying to breastfeed every three hours. We knew Iz was at least getting something as she had some wet diapers.

Day 2

The next day a nurse helped me stand up fairly early on which was to help with my recovery. The pain of getting from a laying down position to sitting and then to standing was nothing like the pain after my fibroid surgery. I'm guessing it has to do with where the doctors made the incision- even though it is much longer than any of my other 5 scars, it isn't used as much for that movement. I was surprised and happy that I wasn't going to feel like my insides were ripping apart again because that was not fun.

I also had both the catheter and the compression boots taken out/off this day. Nurses had to help me to the bathroom where I got the oh-so-glamorous mesh underwear and huge pad. Iz got checked by the pediatrician (she looks great!) and I got checked by a doctor (your incision is perfect!).

This day was a bit rough as I did my best to recover from major surgery and battle no sleep. My pain levels weren't too bad though. I was allowed to shower but chose to wait until the next day.  When my parents came to visit, they offered to hold Izzy while we took naps. This was super helpful and even my 30 minutes of sleep during the day felt great. 

I was still trying to breast feed every three hours and it really was hit or miss. One nurse gave me nipple shells which helped to bring out my nipples prior to feeding.  The nice thing about a different nurse every 8 hours or so is that they all have different tips and tricks, but at times consistency would have been nice. We only had two nurses that were not super helpful the entire stay which was good.

That night CP and I did a better job of sleeping while the other person held Izzy, but it was still a rough night.

Day 3

This morning we got to meet with a lactation consultant.  She warned us that starting on this day, babies tend to get very frustrated because they are hungry and your milk hasn't come in yet.  She advised me to start pumping until I saw milk, then to get Izzy to latch.  This definitely helped because Izzy was almost inconsolable when she was hungry and getting her to latch when she was that angry was difficult.

I felt better and could move around the room, but was warned not to overdo it.  I also got to take a shower which felt down right luxurious. 

Randomly, my legs filled with fluid during the day which the nurses told me was normal.  You get a lot of fluid pumped into you during surgery and when that is mixed with starting to walk around, most people blow up.  My feet were more swollen at this time than they were during pregnancy- it was really gross.

The hospital food was pretty disgusting and CP was getting bored with eating in the cafeteria, so that night we ordered sushi.  It was awesome and totally worth it.

That night Izzy's weight dropped down to 7 lb, 4 oz (down from her birth weight of 8 lb, 3oz), or about 10.4%.  While up to 10% of weight loss is normal, the extra .4% didn't make the nurses happy.  No one tried to push formula on me though and they could tell that my milk was about to come in and her weight would start to increase.

Day 4

We were doing well as a group and had the option of going home this day, but we chose to stay another day and I'm glad we did.  Although the constant (every 2-3 hour) check-ins by nurses and aides were annoying, the extra breastfeeding tips were really helpful.  That day my milk came in and I was very excited about my ridiculous fun bags.

The best news of the day was that Harry and Biff have deflated and will hopefully be retreating in the coming days or weeks.

Day 5

We were warned that discharge would take a while and that we would be waiting and the nurse was right.  We had our pediatrician visit and an OB visit to check up on me and Izzy and got some more helpful tips from a different lactation consultant.  She advised me to start wearing a nipple shield while breastfeeding to keep Izzy awake.  The shield would hit the roof of Izzy's mouth, thus keeping her awake for longer periods of time while feeding.

After getting home, I weighed myself.  I weighed 10 lbs less than my last weigh in at OB's office at 38 weeks 1 day (not sure how close OB's office and home scale are though). The fluid build up in my legs is not helping, I have to admit that i was hoping for a bigger drop off.

Today I also had my first little poop which wasn't too bad.

I do have some pain in my uterus when peeing, which my doctor attributed to them moving around my organs during surgery.  This is normal and should go away in a few days.

Day 7 

Down another 6 lbs!  I had a slightly more satisfying poop, but I am still constipated.

Day 8 

Amazingly enough, I seem to have stopped bleeding!  I'm only taking Motrin at this point as the Norco results in constipation.  My only pain is when I pee which is odd because the pain is mainly close to my butt.

Day 9

Another day of no bleeding and I'm down another 6 pounds!  At this point I'm only 3 pounds away from my first OB appointment weight/pre-BFP weight.  Not sure what my weight was before I started on the fertility meds and I really need to lose a lot more. Let's hope healthy eating and breastfeeding can keep the scale dropping even though I can't exercise just yet.  I'm still having pain when I pee which can't be normal.  I'm looking forward to my OB appointment.  The fluid in my feet and ankles is finally much better. Shoes that were tight on discharge day are now okay to wear.  I still have nice sock lines though.

Day 13

Today I'm back to my pre-BFP weight but boy is my stomach still soft. Stomach skin seems to be pulling back up so that I have less of a pouch, but stretch marks are still angry and red (albeit less red). Gas is not as much of a problem today.  Bleeding has started back up again.

Today I met with my OB and asked her about the peeing pain.  She seems to think that I might have an internal hemorrhoid so she gave me a steroid that I get to stick where the sun don't shine.  (My OB called on Monday and let me know that I actually have a UTI, so I am now working on getting rid of that with antibiotics while not getting thrush at the same time).

Day 14
It has now been two weeks so I am officially cleared to drive, walk up and down the stairs as much as I want, and to start walking for exercise (too bad it's FREEZING out!).  I am still not allowed to carry anything heavy (basically just Izzy), but it will be nice to start to do more around the house again.

Birth story

If there is one thing that I would have changed I would have gone to bed earlier than I did Thanksgiving night. Our guests had left after dessert so the rest of us just hung out watching Modern Family reruns. At one point I went to the bathroom and thought that I was maybe leaking amniotic fluid because my underwear was wet (it didn't seem to be the normal discharge)...but decided that I would wait a little bit see if it continued or not (spoiler alert- it did not). Finally around 11:30 I decided to head to bed after having some Turkey Day leftovers. It still wasn't hitting me that I would meet my son or daughter the next day. Right before I got into bed I'm fairly certain that I had a REAL contraction as it lasted about five minutes and was painful.  

It took a while for me to fall asleep and when I finally did, I had the weirdest dream that I gave birth vaginally to a Butterball turkey.  The hospital was like a library with other people trying to check out books while I walked around with the turkey, trying to figure out how to get it into my uterus to turn it into a child.  I was very aware that I only had so much time to attach blood vessels.  After a while of trying to get someone behind the circulation desk and not getting anyone's attention, I started to realize that this is not how it works and WTF why did I not have a child at the end of these past 9 months??  What can I say- it was quite an odd dream!

After waking up, CP and I took showers, said goodbye to the humans and dogs in our house and headed off for the hospital to be there by 9am. We were a little annoyed after checking Facebook and seeing that CP's sister posted something that tagged the two of us and proclaimed that she was very excited we were having the baby today.  We weren't putting anything on Facebook until the baby had been delivered....it's just like both of our sisters to steal the thunder from us!

On the drive over, the mood was still very relaxed. After parking the car and heading to Labor & Delivery, I was led into a room where I changed into the L&D tube top and gown. The baby's heart rate looked great on the monitor and it went up whenever she squirmed.  I think getting into the room, having the anesthesiologist come to talk to me about what would happen/the potential risks of a spinal tap, and then having my doctor and her resident come into the room to talk about what would happen/potential complications, etc completely got to me. My legs started shaking uncontrollably and my blood pressure was all over the place. CP even seemed to be a little anxious, especially once they told him to suit up in the OR scrubs.  

I was wheeled into the OR and immediately scared everyone in the room by stepping over my IV line while on the stairs leading up to the bed instead of waiting for them to fix it for me. The anesthesiologist resident gave me the spinal tap which consisted of a smaller needle to dull the pain, then the bigger needle full of the serious medication. Neither one was that painful, although I was worried that my legs shaking uncontrollably would cause him to miss and puncture something else!  Part of the way through the procedure he was called and told about lunch that day- I was thinking to myself...ummm he's a little busy not paralyzing me!!!

The medicine started working pretty quickly as I lay down on the narrow bed as doctors prepared around me. Not being able to feel from my chest down was odd. I could feel the doctor's touch as he checked my legs, thighs, and stomach but had no pain from the pinching.  As soon as everyone was ready, I started to feel a little odd from the medicine so they quickly gave me anti- nausea medicine which made me feel better. CP was brought into the room and the doctors got started.  I had no idea what was going on behind the curtain, but the nice anesthesiologist kept a conversation going which was a nice distraction. Every once in a while he would lean over the curtain and tell me where they were in the procedure. 

Pretty soon I heard " okay you are going to feel pressure" and really that was the worst part of the surgery (but still not that bad). Basically they had to press down right below my breasts which made it hard to breathe when they were trying to pull Izzy out.

Izzy immediately started with a gargled scream as soon as she hit the cold air and my doctor said "it's a girl!" I immediately started to cry in relief and happiness. CP said he got a little misty eyed as well. They brought her over to the table to clean her up a bit, weigh her, get the gunk out of her throat, etc all while we watched. Her apagar scores were 8 then 9. She was a perfect shade of pink with a ridinkulous head of dark brown, almost black hair.

After only a few minutes Izzy was in CP's arms and right next to me. The rest of the procedure is a bit of a blur as I was watching my new daughter, first off amazed that she was a girl (75% of people guessed boy because I was all belly) and secondly, shaking like a leaf. Anesthesia tends to do it to me but my arms couldn't stop shaking and my teeth couldn't stop chattering. CP held onto Izzy with one arm, taking pictures while also holding onto my arm. The nice anesthesiologist also took a few family pictures as well.

My OB found one of the fibroids- it is located behind the uterus and isn't too big right now.  We will have to keep an eye on it as it is located in a crappy area to remove it and just hope that it doesn't get too big.  The rest of the procedure seemed to take forever compared to how quickly Izzy came out, but finally I was stitched up and ready to head to the recovery area.