Grandpa & Gwyn

This past week Greg was in Houston for a training course put on by his company. The idea of taking care of Gwyn 24/7 without Greg seemed like a daunting task for me. We knew there would be lots of family members excited to meet Gwyn so I asked for a volunteer to come stay with us while Greg was away.

Gwyneth is the first grandchild for my parents. My father has been anticipating the arrival of his grand daughter since we announced we were expecting (maybe even before!!). Needless to say, he and his wife happily volunteered to keep us company.

On day one of their visit, my dad could not contain his excitement and ran out to purchase this giant bear for Gwyn. I had a large brown bear when I was growing up and I loved it. I'm sure Gwyn will love her bear too when she is a little bigger. In the meantime, I'm not sure where we are supposed to keep Mr. Bear!!

This is one happy Grandpa!

Thank you Dad and Goli for giving me an extra hand this past week!

5 weeks and Full Term

Our baby is getting so big! She is weighing just over 7lbs, average newborn size, just in time for her original due date which was yesterday!! She is still "tiny" for a 5 week old baby but with every visit to the pediatrician she moves up a percentile or two so we will get there eventually.

I had a lovely first Mother's Day. It was the first beautiful "spring" day that we've had here in Chicago so Greg made breakfast and we ate out on the deck. All our flowers and trees were in full bloom and it was perfect. Greg surprised me with a gift card for a massage and even took the liberty of booking me an appointment that afternoon! It was just what I needed.

Thank you for the helpful hints and suggestions for Gwyn's fussiness...I am willing to try anything! We did start medication for gas, I tried the Mylicon drops alone for several days and they do seem to help some. But, Gwyn is still very fussy when she eats.

Next, I went for a lactation consult to evaluate my milk supply and determine if I should be using a different technique (such as the block nursing). Lactation did not feel that Gwyn was being overloaded with too much milk but the consultant did witness this little lady having a full blown fit during our appointment. We are nursing one side at a time just to make sure Gwyn is getting sufficient hindmilk and were told to make an appointment with the pediatrician because the fussiness could be due to reflux.

The pediatrician agreed that alot of Gwyn's symptoms were reminiscent of reflux so we started baby Zantac a few days ago. We use the Zantac three times a day and the Mylicon drops in between. It can take a couple weeks for the Zantac to start helping so we will keep this up and cross our fingers!

To update on our sleep siutation...it's about the same. Because of the reflux Gwyn is sleeping upright in her swing or bouncy seat. She has been sleeping in our room since we brought her home. Last night I moved Gwyn's swing into her bedroom (this was hard for me), but I slept a lot better as a result. She makes so much noise at night in between feedings and this is the only way I can get any sleep, even if it is just a quick nap. Since her room is directly across the hall, I can easily hear her when she is truly awake and ready to eat again. I think we will stick to this arrangement for now and hopefully with the addition of the reflux medication we will all be getting more sleep in the near future!

Feel free to keep the fabulous advice coming!

What sleep?

My most favorite piece of advice..."sleep when she is sleeping."

Ha! This is very practical and logical advice, don't get me wrong. But it just does not apply to our daughter. I'm not really sure how she functions with so little sleep because I am barely able to remember how to complete activities of daily living.

Gwyn eats every 1.5 hours...this is not a joke. We are nursing and sometimes it can take 30-45 minutes to eat, so this activity occupies most of our time. However, our efforts are paying off. Gywn is growing out of her clothes! I could barely believe my eyes this morning when I pulled out a newborn sized outfit and could not manage to get her long little legs to fit in the footies! We have an official weight check with the pediatrician tomorrow and I can't wait to see how much growing she has done.

I know you have done the math, and there should still be 45 minutes to an hour for napping right?? We are dealing with this pesky little thing called colic. I'm not sure if Gwyn is working out her digestive plumbing or if this is just typical newborn fussiness but the poor little babe just can't seem to get comfortable. She fusses between nearly every feeding and sometimes even when she is eating. Our pediatrician gave us the heads up that this will probably get worse and peak around 6 weeks. We have no choice but to wait it out and give her all the comfort we can until things start to get better.

It's hard to believe our little girl will be 4 weeks old on Friday. The last month has been total chaos but I'm savoring this time because I know it will continue to pass quickly. My favorite moments during the first month have to be watching all of Gwyn's funny facial expressions, Greg experiencing projectile poop during a diaper change, and lastly all of Gwyn's noises.

My goodness, the noises that come out of this baby are hysterical! When she is really hungry she starts doing this little laugh. Then the laugh gets faster and more intense, a little like a crazy person! That's when you know the clock is ticking and you better get moving because you don't have a lot of time. On the rare occasion that she doesn't get her milk fast enough, the laugh turns into a full on scream but I'm getting better at avoiding this type of melt down. We are learning how to interpret more of her "language" every day and love watching her grow.

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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