Category: the Oldest

"There she goes…

there she goes again…”

Friday night Rachael decided to sleep for eight hours. I woke up after 7 hours because my body hasn’t slept for seven hours straight in about 8 or 9 months now so it’s forgotten how to get good sleep in one chunk. I wondered if Rachael’s night was a fluke.

Last night, even with the time change, Rachael slept for 8 hours. Too bad I woke up a few times last night and when the alarm went off it felt like my body had been through a blender. So two extra strength Tylenol later and there is much rejoicing in this household.

It’s funny, but in Rachael’s sleeping patterns she seems to dabble in the next highest amount a bit before settling for a little. She briefly started at 3 hours at a time at night, bounced into 4 hours and then chose to stick with it, then she jumped to 6 for a couple of sporadic nights, then settled on five for a while, then hit 7 twice,and settled on 6 for a while, and now she’s hit 8. So even if she goes with her trend of sticking with 7, that’s completely doable. (And right in time for Mommy returning to work.)

Now if only we could teach my body not to hate me…

I had another realization last night as the baby smiled a huge animated smile at me, that baby’s ours. Blew my mind again.

Thanks be to God!

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Rock a Baby

She has found my weakness. Mama can’t put down a sick baby.
That’s right. Mama will rock a sick baby until she falls asleep – even at 4 in the morning.
Because that sick baby has a hard time falling asleep when it hurts her to suck on her pacifier due to thrush. Poor thing. The sure-all sleep inducer paci is no match for painful mouth sores.
God love the poor thing. To the doctor we go – a little later today of course.
‘night all.

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Eleven to Five : Fifteen

That’s right, we got a “full night’s sleep” (according to pediatricians last night. Way to go Rachael! She was out cold with no grumblings that couldn’t be curbed by self-soothing. And then to top it off she slept her usual 3 hours after a 5:15a feeding to allow a whoppin‘ 8.5 hours of rejuvenation for her Daddy and Mommy. Oh yes, world, we’ve got a good one and we’re not trading!

And I also pumped a whoppin’ 5.5 ounces of liquid gold last night. That’s right, friends, I filled that little bottle and have six feedings stored in the fridge. Guess it’s time to start asking Lydia how exactly I should freeze this stuff.

Awake times have increased, including morning and evening awake patterns for approximately an hour. Yay Rachael! And it’s fun to watch her explore her world – studying faces and things.

Anyway, that’s how things are going here. Just simple
and finding a good routine.

Alrighty, off to a little cleaning and breakfast for myself.

Looking forward to Jackie visiting for a while today and Aunt Yvonne visiting and Matt’s day off tomorrow. Oh and then there’s the Melting Pot outing with Ron and Ellen. (We will never eat so lavishly and expensively again!)

The church has also so graciously signed up to start bringing dinners by for Matt and I. Thanks again, Lydia (if you actually read this) for setting it all up with such joy and ease.

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Morning Sunshine

Waking up content is a beautiful thing. And the value of the state of awake without direct correlation to a demand feeding is also wonderful. Many wonder how kind Rachael is to Matt and me regarding sleep. Giving you the average amount of sleep for a newborn to grace their parents with I do believe will help Rachael’s cause. A newborn sleeps an average of 2 hours at a time. Rachael has slept between 3-3.5 consistently (barring no extra gaseous problems) since birth. But last night after a midnight bought with “working out her diaper” she slept for 4.5 hours. To the single and married without children world, this amount of sleep may seem to feel unGodly or aweful. But to one who has been getting up every 2-3 hours to pee for the past month and a half, I rejoice and thank God for the opportunity to “oversleep.” And then to top it off we had some good awake and feeding time this morning.

It’s as if she woke up today and said, “I’m one week old today so that means it’s time to hit some milestones in survival.”

Gratefulness cannot be expressed enough.

=)
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All Home

Thank you, Lord, for bring us all home safely. Thank you for helping Rachael to make progress toward passing her jaundice. Lord, I pray that our efforts to get things cleared through her body will bring back reward at her visit today. Lord, I thank you for educated and dedicated medical staff who helped bring Rachael into this world. Lord, I thank you for your provision during the pushing stage of labor. Lord, I thank you for the amazing family and friends who so graciously offered their words of love and support. Lord, I thank you for the friends and family who eagerly looked past my exhaustion and said such kind words of encouragement and joy at the hospital bed. Lord, I thank you for the miracle of life and the reminder that you are in control.

And Lord I thank you for bringing Matt, Rachael and I home – how desperately we wanted to be at home- and I thank you that you made it all work out that both Rachael and I were released despite some medical concern for the both of us I (my blood levels and Rachael’s jaundice count0. And Lord I thank you that you are healing us both with rest and recuperation. Thank you, Lord, for Dakota doing well with the adjustment and shift of attention.

Thank you, Lord, for Matt’s love and compassion. I see You shining in him as he cradles Rachael and has such great patience with her learning. Lord, I thank you so much for Mom’s willingness to come take care of me and support Matt and i as we learn to best take care of Rachael. Thank you, Lord, also for Daddy’s humor and love that he has lavished on Matt and I through random house projects and delighting in Your work. And Lord, the list of thank you’s could go on and on regarding the endless love and support and encouragement that our family has already received and will receive. Thank you, Lord for Matt and Rachael who sleep so soundly across the hall. Thank you, Lord. Thank You, Lord. Thank You.

In Jesus’ name.

Amen.

-first night home-
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Sunday Night Contractions bring…

Monday morning baby.

Announcing …

Rachael Elizabeth

born Monday, January 5 at 3:33am.
She was 8 lbs and 14.9 oz. And 21.25 inches long.

She has big feet and a full head of brown hair that is very easily styled into a Mohawk.

I think she has her daddy’s nose. Daddy says she has my beauty. And we’re just happy as anything that she appears to have our easy-going-ness.

As of this post time she is officially over 24 hours old and going on 48 hours old. According to doctor’s reports we all should be going home tomorrow “after breakfast.”

As for the laboring, we went to hospital Sunday night at 6:30p after an hour of consistent 3-5 minute contractions, but very minimal pain. (I just wanted to see if we had advanced anywhere from the Monday 1 cm reading. The measure me at 1cm at the hospital and 80% effaced. After an hour of observation I measure at 1 cm and 80% effaced. But thanks to my high blood pressure spike they had to do some blood work on me before they could discharge me to go home. When the blood work came back 2 hours later they decided to check me before making the final decision of whether or not to admit me. I measured at 80% effaced, but a whoppin‘ 5 cm of dilation. That’s right folks, I went from 1 cm to 5 cms (in what should have taken some 5-10 hours) in 2 hours. And yes, you all, I was definitely feeling the contractions at that point. I decided with little effort that I would like some kind of pain medication. They gave me Nubian (or however you spell it) to “take the edge off the contractions). After dilating to 7cms in another 2 hours I happily received an epidural and advanced to 9cm in about an hour to an hour and a half. After that I sat at 9cm for about an hour and then hit 10, was pushing, and had Rachael out in 43 minutes. So total hospital birthing time was 9hours and 3 minutes (and if my math break-down doesn’t add up then take into consideration that we really were in hospital active labor for 9 hours and 3 minutes via admittance records and I just felt a bit fuzzy after the Nubian).

There were some bleeding complications with me after Rachael was pronounced as doing great, cleaned up, and introduced to me while they did an hour and a half of stitching attempts. Then I was moved to the OR where I received another hour of stitching and a thoroughly big does of epidural medicine to coax me through it. I spent 6 hours in recover – wanting to see my daughter- while Matt witnessed Rachael’s bath and caught a few hours of much-needed sleep. I caught a few hours of sleep, finally was cleared to go to my family, and then Matt and I had some baby time and sleep time.

I really can’t describe to you the incredible joy I felt being rolled down the hallway to go see my daughter for the second time. I was bed-ridden for the rest of the day – primarily sleeping and attempting to recover. And then today at 11:30am I was cleared to pee on my own, remove the IV and shower to feel like a person again. Today has been such a wonderful day in comparison to the amount of pain and emotional stress of yesterday. But you know what? Rachael was totally worth it. TOTALLY!

Today we spent the whole day just hanging out with Rachael. And it felt like we were actually going to take her home tomorrow – and that she was ours. But there was still the newness of remembering her name during sparatic questions and all the newness of the beginning realization that we are now officially parents in a nine hour sweep of quick labor.

So thus ends the pregnancy story of Rachael.
And thus begins the greatest adventure of our lives – named Rachael Elizabeth.

“hello world.”
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