Wool pants!

Louisa is now 6 weeks old / one week old adjusted age.  Still a snuggle bunny.  She has gotten big enough that we are starting to transition her into cloth diapers.  I've got pockets (which don't fit her that well still), a few fitteds (which are surprisingly great.  I'm going to sew a few more and hope that I love them as much as the "real" ones I bought used.), and 2 dozen newborn prefolds with snappis.  For covers we have fallen in love with wool.  We are NOT in love with the price of wool, though!  I do not blame the WAHM's at all for charging what they charge for knitting up longies, but we can't swing paying that to keep Louisa in pants.  I scored a few wool covers and a pair of longies on consignment for not too much $$.  My mom has knit up a cover for us (yay!) and I'm starting to sew some out of sweaters we have picked up at thrift stores.  Here is my first pair of sewn wool longies.


Ugly sweater.  When we picked it up it took us a minute to figure out which was the neck hole.


Louisa in her new cute wool pants and Halloween top.  The pants pattern is Fishsticks Designs Little One Layette.  Her top was my first applique project with my embroidery unit.  Louisa is looking big, isn't she?!  She's pretty much outgrown the preemie stuff.  The onesie she has on is newborn size and I made the pants 0-3 month.  The pants are large - all the better to fit her longer!    

4 Weeks Old / -1 Week Adjusted

Tomorrow Louisa will be 4 weeks old.  I can't believe that it's already been 4 weeks.  It's strange to think that my due date is not for another week.

Stats-
Weight: 7 pounds
Height: 19-1/2 inches
Size: preemie and a few newborn things are starting to fit
Things she likes: Mommy!  Nursing, but only when she is calm.  Being held.  Being swaddled.
Things she dislikes: Anything that involves being flat on her back: Louisa's got some wicked GERD going on.  Her car seat.  Baths.


Alice reading to Louisa


That is my sock on Louisa's hand.  She was mesmerized by the colors (says big sister).


The Lazy Trinity


At my baby shower - which turned into a "meet the baby" shower!  

Guess Who?!

Louisa Jane was born on Thursday, September 13th at 35 weeks.  I started having (more) regular contractions on Wednesday night on my way home from our symphony performance.  When I went in to be checked out at the hospital, my blood pressure was going up and up and up, so it was time to deliver. 

Louisa had no NICU time!!!!!  She got a little bit of oxygen right after she was born, but that is IT!  We took her home on Saturday after the UT / FL game started, but before it ended.  (The hospital is a few blocks from the stadium.  They didn't want us to have to deal with game day traffic, lol.)  As they wheeled me out of the hospital WITH the baby, I started sobbing.  What a gift to come out of this with a cordless, take-home baby.   

Louisa is doing so amazingly well that it is easy for us to forget that she is 5 weeks early.  The only problematic areas are sleeping and eating.  She would much rather sleep than eat.  We have wake her every three hours to eat.  This includes setting an alarm throughout the night.  Her sucking reflex is not quite there yet and she's still getting the hang of the whole suck / swallow / breathe thing.  She gets tired VERY quickly and will fall asleep after eating 1/4 of an ounce if we let her.  Luckily, we learned ninja feeding skills with Alice.  We can usually cajole her into eating an entire ounce.  Right now that takes 30-40 minutes, but she'll catch on.








My two beautiful girls.

34 weeks and change

34 weeks!  This seems so surreal.  The closer I get to my due date the more I can't believe that this is actually happening this time.  So, here is a quick update on what has gone on in the past month.

- I switched from Lovenox to Heparin yesterday.  Heparin is safer to be on close to delivery.  The OB's that I'm seeing usually switch women from one to the other at 36 weeks.  I switched two weeks early because of my history of premature birth.  Huge sigh of relief when I made the switch last night.  The people at the pharmacy must have thought I was nuts because I was so excited to fill that prescription.  I was really afraid of going into labor on Lovenox.  It would have been okay, but I've got a lot more options with heparin.  It clears the body faster so, say, if I had to have a c-section I would be able to be awake for it and not have to go under general.  (Any spinal aneasthesia is a no-no on Lovenox.  It can cause paralysis.)  Downsides of heparin - it's twice daily and the syringes are NOT pre-filled.  Even with the crash course the pharmacist gave me on how to load the things it took me a good 20 minutes last night before I was able to draw up the medicine without a gigantic air bubble.  Thank goodness for youtube.  You also bruise more on heparin.  On the bright side, the injections don't hurt at all.  Lovenox burns.  Heparin doesn't.  At least not yet.

- LJ weighs just about 6 pounds now.  She is practicing breathing and has passed all of her biophysical profiles with flying colors.  She still likes to suck her thumb and fist. 

- I went for monitoring on Monday and discovered that I was having contractions every 4 - 5 minutes and not feeling them at all.  I'm still working (Sweeny Todd performances just about every night.) but otherwise I've got my feet up.  This really threw me because with Alice there was no prolonged preterm labor.  My water broke and she was born 6 hours later.  It has been difficult for me to slow down.  I would love to get past 36 weeks, though, so my attitude is "whatever it takes."  Reading and sewing are my main pastimes these days.

- Monday was a wake-up call for Tim and I.  When the nurse at the hospital said, "Well, your baby looks great, but you're having a lot of contractions.  I need to run this by the OB to see if you can go home or not." I started to panic.  We had so much to do to get ready.  I had a small emergency bag packed just in case, but nothing else was done.  So, after I got home (phew!) Tim got the crib up, we bought a few things that we needed and we packed hospital bags for us and an overnight bag for Alice.  Tim installed the car seats.  I have some sewing I'd love to finish, but that is the icing on the cake.

- I've got some crib sheets nearly sewn and a quilt almost done.  I'll post some pictures when I finish them!         

30 week appointment and Alice update

Today I had my 30 week appointment, an ultrasound to check the babies growth, and the dreaded gestational diabetes test.  Everything went incredibly well.  I passed the GD test with flying colors.  I'm so glad because in a few weeks I have to switch from Lovenox injections (once a day) to heparin injections (twice a day) and the thought of torturing my poor belly with insulin injections on top of that was making me very sad.  Baby weighs just shy of 3-1/2 pounds now.  She is in the 55th %-tile for weight.  Heartbeat was great, movement was great.  My fluid level is perfect and the placenta is functioning fine.  PHEW!  Two slight bumps in the appt: my BP was up the first time they took it.  The nurse had me lie on my left side for 5-10 minutes and then took it again.  It went down enough to satisfy everyone.  I'm still having to watch it, though.  They also checked my iron today and it was low.  No iron pills at this time, just an advisement to increase my consumption of red meat.  Red meat and taking it easy - I think I can handle that.  : )

Overall I couldn't ask for a better appointment.  In fact, this is the week I was supposed to start bi-weekly appointments, but the OB was so impressed by how well the baby and I are doing that I have a whole two weeks off!  My next appointment is the 20th.  I have Monday / Thursday appointments scheduled from then until a week before my due date (Oct 18).  Mondays are non-stress tests and Thursdays are ultrasounds.  I'm not sure if I'll see a doctor both days or only on ultrasound days.  One of the nurses commented that things were about to get hard in this last stretch since I would have so many appointments.  I just laughed.  This is gravy.  I am so thrilled to be at this point and to be doing so well.  Her comment made me think about everything I've done and gone through so far with this pregnancy:
*185 injections
* 3 stints of bedrest
* 1 middle of the night trip to labor and delivery
* 26 doctor's appointments
* 24 blood draws
* 6 ultrasounds
* hyperemesis to the point of dehydration and significant weight loss

No, I'm not just starting the marathon now.  This is my victory lap.

------------

Alice is doing better.  She is still having pain on and off, mostly off these days, thankfully.  There were no significant findings from any of the tests that the GI ran.  We will consult with her pediatrician at the end of the month to talk about what to do next.  Meanwhile we are keeping her diet the same (for now) and have started giving her a b vitamin complex every day.  Tim and I both have genetic mutations that inhibit our bodies from processing b vitamins.  (We found this out when we were undergoing testing for multiple miscarriages.)  I have a double mutation; I'm not sure if Tim's is double or single.  Either way, Alice has at least one mutation from me.  We had talked about starting her on a b vitamin, but I couldn't find a kids stand-alone formula.  A few days ago I was looking up information on MTHFR (our mutation) and saw that two of the symptoms of a vit. b deficiency are mouth sores and stomach pain.  Hmmmm.  So, we'll try this and see if it helps.