hope you like the pics!

I think her next trick was going to be sending a text message to brag…

I'm a cutie pie!

Okay, so I have been horribly bad on showing off the newest member of the Vandenbergh clan. Hopefully, this will count as a step toward redemption. Today Violet is 11weeks old and she is thriving (go us!). With Boob Power, Violet is 22 inches long and weighing in at a whopping 10 pounds, 14.5 ounces. She’s cooing and smiling and discovering her hands. Orien and I (mainly me) are starting to get a little more sleep at night. She usually feeds every 3 to 4 hours during the day, but over night I tend to get a 4-5 hour stretch, sometimes (if I’m really lucky) I get 2 in a row. I’d say she’s doing pretty darn (gotta start censoring) well. I’m off to try to catch some Zzz’s, but here are some pictures to hold you over until my next post

Oh Hi! I'm Violet!

Born on 12/21/08 at 5:10 pm MST. She was 5 lbs. 5oz. and 19 ½ inches long.

On Saturday (12/20) We went to the hospital about 4pm because I was having contractions about 3-5 minutes apart. After spending an hour in triage my cervix went from 2cm to 3-4cm dilated and 80% effaced to 100%. So they admitted me. After a couple hours my blood pressure was up and I was confined to a bed. After a few hours my contractions were getting weaker and spacing out. They kept me overnight, but by morning the contractions had basically stop and the baby had moved off my cervix. By doing so, I backtracked a little and was only 3cm dilated and my cervix was back to 80% effaced. My blood pressure was also stabilizing and we were just waiting for the doctor to decided whether or not to discharge me or not.

Finally, at 11:30am (12/21), we got word that we were going to be discharged and by noon we were leaving the hospital. Back on more bed rest until my Tuesday appointment. Hungry we decided to get some pizza on the way home. I waited in the car while Orien picked it up, then we went home. When we got home Orien stopped the car before pulling into the parking spot and I got out. As soon as I stood up from the car, my water broke!  I hadn’t even stepped far enough away to close the car door. Water gushed everywhere, thankfully not in the car though, I left a good size puddle in the parking lot. Needless to say I changed, ate some lunch (cuz they won’t feed you at the hospital if your in labor and I was starving!) and went back to the hospital. They confirmed that my water broke and readmitted me at about 1pm. I was gone for all of an hour and we even got the same room.

The first hour of labor wasn’t to bad. I was up and about and doing fine. Then my blood pressure started to go up again and I got stuck in the bed. It took all of 2 contractions in the bed for me to start asking for an epidural. Laying on my side was the worst position for me. I believe my exact words were “If I have to stay in bed like this I want an epidural”. Luckily, after a couple more blood pressure checks, they allowed me to sit up in the bed and that was much better.  They did send for the ‘Epidural Man’ but by the time he came I was already 8cm. I almost went ahead and had it, but my doula (Abbey), reminded me that I didn’t want one, I wanted to go natural. Also that since my labor was going so fast that by the time it kicked in, it will probably be time to push, and it would be harder cuz I wouldn’t be able to feel where to push. In the end I sent him away, although I did get some Fentanyl via IV. It’s a short lasting pain med that just takes the edge off.

By 3:30pm I just shy of 10cm (like 9.75cm), they had me start pushing a little to see if that would make me go all the way to 10cm. Which it did, I spent the first hour of pushing trying to get her past my pelvic bone. I’d move her then she’d slide right back.  After I got her past that, it didn’t take too long. She came out sunny side up 40 minutes later at 5:10pm. Sunny Side up means she came out face up. Normal position is face down, that way the smallest part of the head comes out first. With sunny side up the largest is coming out first.

My labor went surprisingly fast for it being my first. Just less than 5 hours from my water breaking to birth. But most importantly we have a beautiful baby girl that I can’t wait for everyone to meet. I’ll post more as soon as I have the time. Love Ya!

Burrito ala Violet

The funny part of this story is that Orien and I had a Newborn Care Class at the hospital that we signed up for last night. I tried to get permission from my O.B. to go, but she said no. They really wanted to make sure that I stayed off my feet. So, poor Orien went alone. The class was from 6-9pm and at 8pm I had to page Orien to come home so that he could turn around and bring me back to the hospital. If I’d gone to the class I would have already been there. Luckily, we live about 5 minutes away. Orien picked me up and got me settled, then he went back to the class. He only missed about a half hour.

Tomorrow I hit the wonderful mark of 36 weeks! If contractions start up again, my understanding is that they will not stop them. I’m still having contractions, they just aren’t consistent. The hope is that I will make it to 37 weeks, once there the baby will no longer be considered pre-term. If the last week has told me anything, I’m not sure I will make it. So far I’ve gone to the hospital 3 times in the last 6 days. It seems like each attempt to stop my contractions lasts for about 2 days, then I’m right back in. But, you never know, I could become one of those women that end up having to be induced cuz they did such a good job at stopping the pre-term labor. Won’t that be funny?

Another perk, is that after tomorrow I will be off of strict bed rest and on light duty (resting as much as possible). IF, I don’t have the baby this weekend, then on Monday I can return to work. I just can’t wait to do something other than watch tv. I’m going INSANE! I’ll let you know if anything changes!

1.  Cervix is now 2-3cm dilated.

2.  She didn’t give me an effacement percentage, but she did say it was very soft.

3.  I have a bulging amniotic sac.

4.  Did ultrasound to verify that the head was down, which it is. (sorry guys, no picture was given to us)

5.  Lastly I THOUGHT I was having contractions about every 15-20 minutes apart. But after monitoring for 35 minutes I was actually contracting every 5-6 minutes. I just couldn’t feel 4 out of the 6 that I had.

Needless to say I got sent to the hospital for another dose of turbutaline. Which was a good thing. At the hospital my first contraction was 5 minutes apart, then I had 3 more that were 2.5 minutes apart. The turbutaline seems to have done the trick again and now I’m back home. Back on bed rest til Friday. The nurses seems to think that I won’t make it til my due date, I’m starting to wonder myself. And lets just say Orien is….as any first time father would be….freaking out!

I go back on Thursday. I’ll let you know if there are any new developments.

Once there they strapped me up and started monitoring me. Contractions were still coming every 5 minutes and even though I only felt about 30 seconds worth of the contraction they were lasting about a minute. Since I’m only 35 weeks and 1 day along they wanted to stop my contractions and prevent me from going into labor. Perk was that my cervix is still the same, no change from Thursday. Anyway they gave me a shot of terbutaline (they called it terb. for short). Technically it’s an asthma medication, but it works as a muscle relaxer. After the shot I pretty much stopped having contractions. After about a half hour I had one that was half the intensity and shorter. They kept me hooked up for about 45 minutes after the shot and that one contraction was all I had. So they sent home, back on bed rest, and instructions to come back if things start up again.

That’s all I got for now, I’ll definitely post again if anything exciting happens.