So many firsts

We are home. Finally, our entire family under one roof for the first time in nearly 6 weeks. Getting back to this everyday life is simply wonderful. I can't believe this is our life and we feel so incredibly fortunate to be here.

First outfit. Gwyn outgrew her one and only preemie outfit by the time we got home. We are officially in newborn clothes.

First car seat ride. On Tuesday afternoon, we were happily surprised when one of the neonatologists called from the hospital and announced he was ready to discharge Gwyn if we were ready to take her home. This was 2 days ahead of the tentative "schedule"...I was at the hospital 15 minutes later. We were ready.

First visit to the pediatrician. On Thursday, we had a weight check with Dr. Gus. I was nervous...silly me. This little piggy gained 5 ounces in 2 short days. The average weight gain for an infant is anywhere from 0.5-1 ounce per day. We know we have some catching up to do in the size department but Gwyn is clearly up for the challenge.

First stroller ride. Dr. Gus recommended stroller rides once or twice each day to help Gwyn distinguish her days and nights. This little lady loves to sleep all day and play all night long. Even though the sun was out and shinning during our walk, this did not deter Miss Gwyn from her mid day snooze.

Happy Easter Everyone!

Meeting our Miracle

On April 7th one of my many physicians decided to have a pow wow to discuss my condition. After 3 days of progressive contractions she was concerned. She argued that the acceptable parameters of what was "safe" in my situation kept being extended. She wanted to review the benefits and the risks of allowing me to stay pregnant until our scheduled c-section date. I already knew what the decision would be, but they sent in Dr. P to deliver the news.

The decision was to move up the delivery date so we could safely deliver our baby in a planned controlled environment instead of running the risk of having an emergency situation.

I have never seen Greg more excited in my entire life. It was adorable. This guy could barely stand still, he could not wait to meet our daughter. I was equally thrilled but much more anxious about delivering a baby 5 weeks early.

It all happened very fast. The nurse woke me up at 7 am the next morning and said we would be going into surgery at 7:30. Not a lot of time to gather my thoughts...maybe this was a good thing. I quickly got up and washed my face, took a final picture of my belly, and sat quietly savoring the feeling of little feet dancing in my belly.

The OR was cold, just what I remembered from nursing school. I knew what was coming but it is all very different when you are the patient. The pinch of the spinal was tolerable but what followed the spinal, I could have never predicted. They laid me back on the table and started with the poke test.

"Do you feel this..." Yes.

"Where?" On the right.

"Is it sharp or dull?" Sharp.

Five minutes later and the same set of questions. The anesthesiologist started tilting the table in all directions trying to get the medication to distribute evenly. After twenty minutes, he announced he wanted to use general anesthesia and put me to sleep. I protested. I had been waiting a very long time to meet my daughter so I asked for 5 more minutes. Finally, I passed the poke test.

I did not feel the incision but I was shocked at what I did feel as a large man, known as the surgical assistant, put all his weight on top of me in an effort to delivery my baby. I was being crushed. I had no idea how to judge if what I was feeling was normal but the anesthesiologist could tell I was in distress. Finally, I heard my baby cry. I will always remember it being a very sweet sound. Nothing like the typical cry I had imagined. It was so beautiful.

That is the last thing I remember. The anesthesiologist made the decision to give me medication and put me to sleep. I was told that they brought the baby over to me but I do not remember seeing her. I was told in the recovery room that my spinal "did not take well" and that this can happen to some people. I was given a patient controlled analgesia (PCA) pump that allowed me to receive pain medication every 10 minutes if I needed it. I needed it.

It was tough to keep my eyes open with all the medication on board but I remember telling the nurse in the recovery room that I was ready to see my baby several times. She told me the standard time in the recovery room was 2 hours. After 45 minutes she finally agreed to release me so I could visit my daughter in the NICU.

Gwyn was so perfect. She was tiny but absolutely perfect. I immediately saw my husband in her sweet face and later found a few of my features too. She was safe and she was healthy and that was all I needed to know.

Just a little update...Gwyn is still at the hospital in a step down nursery for babies who are stable but working on feeding or growing. We are still working on the eating part. Because of her young age, Gwyn gets super exhausted with feedings. But she is becoming more awake and alert everyday. She has been taking full bottles by herself for the last 24 hours! We will not be given any time frame for when she will come home but we hope it is very very soon. Please carry us in your thoughts :)

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Love

Gwyneth Olivia Polheber

Arrived April 8th 2011 at 8:27am

5lbs 8oz 18.5 inches long

We are so in love with this little girl!

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t-r-o-u-b-l-e

For the most part, things have been going very smoothly. I might even describe the last week as uneventful, boring, or dull...just the way I like it. I have accepted that I will have these miserable contractions for the duration of my pregnancy...this is my norm. Still, the nurses have to ask the same redundant questions about symptoms, every 6 hours when they check my vitals, to which I typically respond "no change".

Last night, we had a little excitement. I noticed some back pain late in the afternoon but decided to wait it out and didn't mention anything to my nurse. After an hour I nonchalantly mention the new ache and asked for some Tylenol. She gave me the Tylenol but I also earned myself an early date with the monitor. I knew I was having a lot of contractions but was crossing my fingers they weren't as close together as they seemed to be.

Not so lucky, they were coming every 5 min and the backache was getting worse. I could see the concern growing on my nurse's face although she tried to play it cool. She casually mentioned she would feel better with an IV back in my arm (I forgot to mention I managed to talk my way out of my IV about a week ago). So the IV went back in. Another hour passed, it was coming up on shift change. There was a knock at my door and an unfamiliar face dressed in scrubs came in.

Hmmm...who was this guy? He introduced himself as Dr. (something long and difficult to say), he was an anesthesiologist, he was the anesthesiologist on call for the evening. Now, I have been here for a while and have not been introduced to a single doctor in this specialty. He must have the wrong room. Nope, he came to talk to me. It turns out he had heard about our recent "activity" and wanted to get my history in case things should "progress". Geeez...news travels fast around here. We went through the questions and I thanked him for stopping by, but I had no intention of seeing his face again until next week.

The excitement lasted about 4 hours, when things started to slow down the nurse asked if anything felt "different" before or during this episode. That was a good question and yes, yes there was something. I've mentioned that our baby is extremely active, but this afternoon it felt like she was using my uterus as a bouncy castle. When they put to toco monitor on me (belly strap with pressure sensor to monitor size of contractions) she attacked the toco like a nija warrior warding off the enemy with kicks that nearly had me jumping out of bed. I noticed she seemed to be napping now and my contractions had finally slowed down.

The nurse laughed and told me it was very possible that all her activity aggravated my overly sensitive uterus. What a little trouble maker!

Dear Baby,

We are so happy that you are enjoying your stay in Mom's belly and growing big and strong. Please feel free to continue your daily Jazzercise routine, but maybe take it easy on the Tae Bo? Also, the toco monitor is our friend. We would really like you to stay put for one more week.

Love, Your Parents

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Bigger is not always better

The emotional state of a pregnant woman is not easily defined. After spending 24 hours in the new giant room I desperately missed my old room. I had spent a total of 3.5 weeks (nearly a month) of my life in that room and it was my home.

Greg urged me to give the new room a fair shot but a spotty internet connection, poor water pressure, and the big bare walls had me wishing we had never moved. To add to my devastation, I learned a new patient had been admitted to MY old room and I had no idea how long this woman would be there.

Around 6pm last night Greg noticed a wheelchair outside our old room and after a little spying, he confirmed that a volunteer had taken the occupant away in the wheelchair. I had no idea if the woman had been discharged already, that would be strange because this is the long term high risk unit. But I wasn't going to wait around to find out. I jumped out of bed leaving my dinner untouched and went straight to the nurses' station. There was no time to put on my call light and wait around for someone to answer. In a loud whisper, I asked the nurses if my old room was vacant again. They all looked at me like I had lost my mind. They did not want to confirm anything right away but assured me they would put in a request to transfer me back if the room was available. Frustrated that I did not have a definite answer, I had no choice but to return to my dinner.

I spent the next 2 hours driving Greg crazy with my speculation about whether or not they would give us the old room back. After shift change, I was thrilled to see one of my favorite night nurses walk through the door with good news We had to wait a while for the room tobe cleaned but we could move back! I immediately started packing up our things and loading them on to a transport cart. I don't know how many times Greg told me to sit down and let him do the work but some weird anxiety had taken over me. If I didn't pack up quickly I was sure the room would be given to someone else!

My awesome night nurse had already done so much for us but I still had one last request. I wanted to take the bed from the giant room with me. Like I mentioned before, it inflates and adjust to my hips and back, it is awesome. Surely this was pushing the envelope but it was necessary for my comfort...we still have 10 days to go! The nurse happily moved the bed and didn't make me feel like I was being a pain at all. We also took the Lazboy recliner back with us, a new refrigerator (our old one disappeared), and a new fancy bedside table (why not, we were on a roll). It was really quite the production...I realize this must have looked crazy but I'm pregnant and in a temporary prison, I might as well be comfortable.

Today, we are happily back in our home and will not be moving until this babe is born and we are allowed to graduate to the mother/baby unit :)

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We moved....

...next door!

My old room was directly across from the nurses' station and every morning at 7am (shift change) there was a loud cackling from the nursing staff as they settled in and exchanged report. Usually, I am up pretty early but lately I've had trouble falling back to sleep after my 3am meds/vitals so I've been getting a little grumpy with all the noise. This morning my very thoughtful nurse mentioned that the patient in the very coveted corner room had delivered as was moving upstairs to mother/baby. She offered me the corner room as a quieter option.

The corner room is tucked away off the path of the main hall. Not only is this room MUCH quieter, it is gianormous with a gianormous bathroom. I also have a new view which happens to be very pretty. Another fun surprise is that my new bed inflates to adjust to points of pressure...this is an amazing feature. I can't believe they've had beds like this the whole time and I never knew about them. I'm pretty sure my last bed was at least 10 years old. The mattress was caved in even before my large butt landed on it.

The only negative I can come up with is that the TV is in an odd spot. I had a feeling this might be a bigger issue for Greg than it was for me. So I asked the nurse if it was possible to move the large blue Lazboy, that Greg has been lounging in, from our old room to the new one. The chair is massive but it is on wheels. I'm glad I asked, the chair easily moved with us and I know Greg will be excited when he sees it in our new place!

I should probably post updates about baby too! Baby continues to impress our doctors and nurses with her stellar performances on the monitor everyday. They continue to use the words "active, happy, mature, content, and feisty" to describe her. Which makes me one happy mama! I keep telling everyone if baby is happy, I am happy. I have been told, on more than one occasion, that this will continue to be true well after she is born and may become the motto to my life. I have no doubt a happy baby equals happy parents.

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