New Hats!

Today has been a really good day so far. I uploaded a video onto facebook of Bella for my brother, and she got two new hats from her gramma! I never knew she knew how to knit...but apparently it's one of her (many) hidden talents.

I cleaned a lot today and feel very accomplished from what I have done. Bella has been a good girl today, and we got a break last night, because she stayed with her grandma. She also has new bottles that are shaped exactly like her pacifers...those things are amazing, because now she likes her binky (pacifier) more. This is something mommy likes VERY much!!!

Christmas

Ugh...I'm having so much trouble keeping up with this thing!

Anyway, Christmas has already come and gone. I won't say it's been the easiest Christmas I've ever had, but what I can say is that it has been an establishing one. Being away from home has been difficult this year, but it was good to have an independent Christmas as well. I even watched skating on TV, which made me feel happy. I have to get back on the ice soon, before I go crazy! =)

Bella has been her normal self, as you can imagine, and on Christmas day turned 6weeks old. I have to go back in for my "post" doctor's appointment soon. For Christmas, Bella got a really pretty dress and shoes, as well as cute earings. They're diamond stud ones. I'm sure my family at home will freak out over this...just wait until I hear what they have to say about it...lol.

I talked to both my brother and grandma on Christmas, and was very glad to hear from them. Apparently my cousin made a bunch of sweets for Christmas, and went nuts baking. From what I heard, people had to take home pies, squares, and an assortment of small cakes and cookies afterward!

All in all, we look forward soon to 2008, and I hope everyone reading this had a very Merry Christmas!

1 Month Old!!!

Apparently I'm getting worse at this whole "lets keep up the blog" thing. Hopefully things will go in a better direction from here.

Yesterday Bella had her 1 month birthday! She is definitely keeping up with drinking her bottles, and that is pretty much all she wants for Christmas this year. "Santa: I'd like my stocking to be full of bottles, please!"

We have quite a pretty Christmas tree up in the house now, and Isabella LOVES it. She stares at it night and day, and as long as her diaper is changed and her tummy is full, the Christmas tree will keep her occupied.

Also yesterday Bella got presents from Jenna & John. She got a bunch of clothes, a Christmas spoon ordiment, and a little stuffed frog-prince. Perfect for the little princess that she is.

Well, to be honest, there hasn't been any "big" news since Thanksgiving. I did register for school at Bakersfield College for the spring semester. I'm definitely excited about that!

Otherwise, just keepin' on keepin' on. Bella gets bigger every day! =)

1 week old! (And a day)

Tomorrow is my due date, and let me tell you...I'm so happy I didn't have to wait that long! Bella would be almost 8lbs if she would have taken the full 40 weeks! It was kinda cool to be due on Thanksgiving, but I'm glad I actually can share Thanksgiving with everyone, instead of being in the hospital.

Bella came home on Monday at around 4pm. She's been such a good baby, and she only cries when she needs something. She sleeps most of the day, and her favorite thing to do right now is explore her surroundings after her bottle. We've had quite a bit of family over to see her over the past couple of days, and practically everyone has seen her asleep. I'm hoping Thanksgiving will show her true colors...haha.

Our first night home (Monday night) was one of the longest nights ever, but an adventure all the same. Dorian and I took turns feeding her, changing her, and comforting her every couple of hours. I think he actually was awake more than I was though, because anytime she even whimpered he shot up out of bed to see what she needed. He's taking to the Daddy thing really well. Sometimes I can see he's frustrated (anyone would be with how often she wakes up), but he's always patient with her, and she loves to cuddle with him.

Breastfeeding has been particularly difficult for Bella and Mommy, because she had been in the NICU for her whole first week. She LOVES her bottle, and gets very upset when I try to feed her otherwise. We're still working on it, and I'm trying to not give up. We'll see how the next few days progress.

Yesterday Bella was 1 week old, and had to go see the pediatrician. Man, was THAT interesting. We had to work through a bunch of paperwork to get her enrolled, and then we waited for quite a bit more time before being called. I didn't like being in the waiting room, because there were a lot of kids there, and I really didn't want her to get sick. We made a "bio-dome" out of her car seat with a thick blanket, so I'm hoping that helped.

When it was time to weigh her and take her temperature, Bella was the most cranky I've ever seen her. She got MAD! Although, I don't blame her. I wouldn't want my temperature taken in my rear either. She is the same length, but weighs 7lbs 13oz now (up 3 oz from birth). When she was being weighed, she was so feisty that she scratched her face, yet again, and left quite a mark. I wasn't happy about it, because everyone wanted to know why she had a scratch on her face. It's much better today though, practically gone, thank goodness. Other than that, her doctor's appointment was completely normal, and was accompanied by a whole list of the "do's and don'ts" that we've heard over and over in the NICU.

Today is a lazy day of getting paperwork together, and taking care of little details that weren't ironed out before. We feel much better, and we'll be enjoying Thanksgiving tomorrow! Too bad Bella's turkey will taste a lot like formula!

3 Days Old!

So we just got back from visiting Bella again. We got to hold her and feed her this time! And yes, we took more pictures. Tomorrow we get to go and give her a bath! I'm definitely feeing separation anxiety now. I totally cried tonight when I had to leave her. The good thing is that we found out yesterday that she will be coming home Monday morning.

Tomorrow Dorian and I will be cleaning and sanitizing everything in the room...lots of work. I'll be washing her clothes and her no-scratch mittens...which we bought today and are my personal favorite item. We also bought her bunny socks and pacifiers and little ribbons. It was a good day for all 3 of us!!

Baby Bella: Being Born!!!

My labor story:

Hi everyone! I know you all want to know exactly what happened (especially those of you who still are expecting) so here goes!

At about midnight on Sunday (Nov. 11), I went to sleep feeling just like always. I had a doctor's appointment scheduled for Monday morning. I woke up around 4:15am...and there was water everywhere...my water completly broke. No warning signs, no plug, no prior discharge. But I knew...time to go to the hospital anyway. I hadn't felt any contractions, but the water just kept coming out! Dorian's aunt came and drove us to the hospital, where I was admitted about an hour later. I wasn't contracting, so they took their time admitting me...go figure. Haha. Anyway, it was kind of embarrassing sitting with a towel under me the whole way, and everywhere I walked and went!

At around 5:30, they ran an IV, and at 6 they gave me pitocin...time to induce contractions, since my water had broken. I was in labor for six hours with what felt like menstral cramps at the beginning, to really bad contractions, when I finally asked for the epidural. The epidural itself didn't hurt or anything...it was NOTHING compared to the contractions. Trust me, by the time you ask for the epidural...it's a waaay better choice. I was at 4cm & 80% effaced when I got it. For the next hour or two, I felt great. I even let Dorian leave to go get something to eat. But by the time his mom and him got back, I could feel my right side...not good. So a little later, they gave me some Demerol along with something to keep me from being nautious, and I felt a little better. They had to wait a little while before they could give me another epidural...so yay...I had to go through contractions until then, which wasn't fun again. Dorian was the best coach ever, and I don't think any daddy could have done better. He helped me focus, and I found that when he put his hand on my forehead and rubbed it hard, it was easier to deal with the pain. After I finally got another epidural (I was 7cm & 90% effaced), I actually slept for a couple of hours. When I woke up again, I was fully dilated. The nurse could feel her head already, so 20 minutes later of some seriously hard pushing, I got her out!

While I was working on getting her head out, sometime, I had an epistotomy. I didn't even feel it, as you can possibly imagine.

When she came out, Dorian cut her cord, and the nurses let her rest on my chest for a few seconds, then took her to be cleaned, and doctor stitched me up! I think he took quite a few stitches, because I seem to remember it taking a long time. At least my second epidural worked, because I didn't really feel him stitch me either.

So overall, 18hrs of labor. Isabella Christine was born on November 13th 2007 at 12:45 pacific standard time, weighing 7lbs 10oz. She was 20 inches long, 10 days early, and she looks beautiful!

The Update:

I just got home, and Bella is still in the (NICU) at the hospital, because I also had developed a fever that I didn't even really know about while I was having her. They are running anti-biotics through her system for a few days just in case. So I'm home, and we're running back and forth to the hospital to see her now.

We took 2 pictures of her while she's still at the hospital, but I'm sure there will be many more to come.

That's the story and the update! If you read it all, that's awesome!!! I know it was a lot. But I'm a mommy now!!!

<3>

37 Week Appointment

I woke up today in total ignorance of the fact that the time changed back to standard. It was quite funny, because I showed up to my doctor's appointment 1hr early!

My doctor's appointment today went unusually normal. My blood pressure is still up, but it didn't seem to concern them as much as before. I saw Dr. Luu, a different one than before, and he checked the baby's heartbeat (all good). Then he told me that I'll need to have blood taken, and do a 24hr urine sample to monitor protein. I was upset that I had to do more "tests", but I guess that's better than being induced. I'm under the impression that it's better that babies come when they want to. So this gives us more time, and now I can actually go to King City for the quinceañera. He said nothing about bedrest, so I think that means I can actually do stuff, but I'm not going to push myself. I plan to take it easy, because I want to go to the party on Saturday.

I talked to my friend on the phone today, and I got to hear her little baby over the phone. He's such a quiet and good one! She's a lucky mommy! I already know...mine is going to be a loud cranky princess! I get this idea from the "what goes around, comes around" theory, meaning: I was a cranky baby.

So tomorrow is the start of another week. We continue to wait some more.

Baby Stats this week:
My weight = 145lbs, down 1lb from last week (?!) *Total gained 26lbs during preggo*
My blood pressure = 152/79
Baby's heart beat = 140bpm
Fundal Height=37cm
Baby Movement = good & normal.
EDD = 11/22/07

Catch up!

So I've been kind of "out of it" as far as the blogging goes, and I should have kept the updating going, but I've been a little more busy than I anticipated.

On Tuesday, I went to the doctor again. They took my weight, and I was suprised to find out that I had gained 5lbs in only one week! This is especially strange because I've been having trouble gaining the "normal" 5lbs/month. I figured, "Well, baby's finally catching up at the last minute!". However, next I took my blood pressure again, hoping it would be much better than last week. Boy was I wrong. It was a rediculous 151/93. So as soon as I went in to see the doctor, they had me lie down for another few minutes, and came in to take it again. I was definitely worried. When the 2nd time around came, it had gone all the way down to 116/73, which is normal, but a drastic difference. The doctor was not happy to see that I had gained so much weight in one week, and that my BP keeps changing. I was given an information sheet about Pregnancy Induced Hypertention (PIH), and I was told that I have to be on bedrest until Monday. I also had the unfortunate lab results coming back from the previous week telling me that I'm anemic now...so I have to take more iron...great. The baby sounded good though, so luckily none of this has effected her as far as we know. At my next appointment, I have to go in and see a different doctor, who will tell me that I may have to be induced if my blood pressure conditions do not improve.

As you can imagine, all of this had me pretty worried, since everything up until this point has been normal and great. The good thing is, that if I do get induced, the doctor says that labors with high blood pressure usually go fast...so I'm looking forward to getting it overwith.

So it's been fun doing nothing in bed this week. =(. Luckily Halloween was Wednesday, and I did go and hand out candy to trick-or-treaters. There were definitely some cute costumes! We had planned on carving a pumpkin, but unfortunately waited until the day of to buy one...and they were all ready out of the stores by the time we got there. Oh well, next year, we'll be more prepared!

The rest of the week has been pretty quiet. We're going to buy a travel system (and maybe more stuff depending on what the doc says) on Monday.

So my next update should be Monday, unless something happens on or before that! Hopefully my BP will go down, and everything's going to be great! Baby Bella may be here sooner than we think! =)

Baby Stats this week:
My weight = 146lbs. (Up 27lbs since beginning of preggo).
My blood pressure = Changing all the time. 151/93, then 116/73.
Baby's heart beat = 140bpm.
Fundal Height 36cm.
Baby Movement = good and normal.
EDD = 11/22/07....unless induced.

~Steph

Baby Shower!

So yesterday, I was under the impression that family from King City was coming. There was a planned get-together at Dorian's aunt's house, and I was told it was another family member's birthday. But I was misinformed...by my own creative Dorian!

We had spent the morning out shopping for things we needed, and I got two new shirts, some new underclothes (thanks to baby, I'm getting bigger uptop), and Dorian got a new shirt. We also went out to lunch at Wendy's and enjoyed the 4th rainy day since I've been here. That's right 4th rainy day since we came in April! Anyway, it was a good distraction...because I was already happy I got some new things.

When we came home, we changed our clothes, and Dorian cut his hair. He even put on nice dress shoes, which I should have definitely noticed...seeing as the last time he put on dress shoes was like last year. I just thought he was actually listening to me and dressing all studly since he got a new shirt and took the time to cut his hair for the "birthday" party.

When we got to his aunt's house, I walked in and when they were all like "¡sorpresa!", I was confused. The whole front of the house was decorated in pink baby shower decorations, and people were everywhere. All of the women had little nametags and pins with little ribbons and bottle decorations on them. Almost as soon as I walked in, Dorian's mom put this huge bow on me, and the games began. The other women there were playing games, and won prizes for each game. There was a game where everyone had to guess how big I was around using toliet paper, a winner for the first person who came (which I wasn't there for), a game with clothespins where with one hand they had to pick up however many they could one at a time, and my personal favorite: the game where they had to bend over and stick bows of toliet paper on their butts as high as they could...!!! Yes, there are pictures of all these games on my myspace site.

I recieved so many gifts, and many of them were helpful. They were all so pretty. I have quite an array of sizes of clothes, an entire crib set, baby bottle cleaners, wipes, baby oil, baby powder, baby shampoo & bath stuff, soft hairbrush & comb, shoes, recieving blankets, bibs, and I'm sure I'm forgetting some stuff! Tia Martha made my cake, and it was sooo good...peach flavored! I'm not a cake person, as most of you know, but this was definitely tastey! The men & rest of the guys were outside while all of this was going on, on the patio, so I made sure to stop by and thank them for bringing their wives and everything. Thank-you to everyone that came, and especially to Dorian's mom, Tia Martha, and Gabby for putting so much effort and time into setting up, cooking, decorating and hosting the shower. And as always, a huge thank-you to my Bebi, Dorian, for distracting me and coming along to something I know wasn't a guy's "cup-of-tea". Thank-you cards will be sent out ASAP.

Baby is going to have so many comfy clothes and goodies when she comes into the world!

Pictures from the shower are in an album on my myspace page: www.myspace.com/sing_skate_dance_live2

~Steph

Appointment Today!

So I had my doctor's appointment today at 2:30. I got there on time, and drank that horrible orange stuff that you have to drink after not eating for a while. Ugh..it always takes me a few minutes to drink the whole thing. Then they told me to come back to the lab after an hour as usual to draw blood. Great...bleh.

So then I went to get my blood pressure & weight taken. My weight was good and up at 141lbs, which is 22lbs total gained since the start of my pregnancy. When I went to get my blood pressure taken, everything seemed normal during the test, so I went to wait for the doctor.

When the doctor got into the room, I had a strep B test done, then she measured me, felt for where the baby's head and rest of her body was, and then took her heartbeat. Everything normal. However, near the end of the appointment, the doctor told me that my blood pressure was 145/83 which is high. This has never happened in my life, and seemed weird and suprised me, so they took it again and had me lay on my left side. This time it was much better at 121/73. The doctor told me to make sure I lay down on my left side a few times a day to keep it down just in case the reason my BP was up was not just because of nervousness.

The best part about taking my blood today was that my nurse this time was super nice. I SERIOUSLY think that when nurses/doctors talk to you and just poke you without saying anything that it's better. I was having a conversation, and before I knew it, it was over. Unlike the last time, where my nurse (a different one) was all like "ready?" and I flinched, and blood went in all directions, which made things hurt more, and just made everything harder. This time, I declare, was much better!

So everything was great, and I'm going back tomorrow for some kind of evaluation of my care or something like that, but not seeing the doctor. I'm so happy everything is going as well as it is.

The stats again in numeric form:
My weight 141lbs, up 22lbs from start of preggo.
My blood pressure= 121/73
Baby's heart beat = 136bpm
Fundal Height= 34cm (13.39in)
Baby Movement= good and normal.
EDD=11/22/07

In other news, I got back home, and after telling Dorian about my Dr.'s App., I logged onto MySpace, to find out that my friend had her baby! Candice had her little baby, a boy, named William on Thursday! Congrats!!! I can't wait to hear your story!!!

~Steph

30 days to go!

So today has been a really slow day. I especially hate Mondays because when Dorian leaves to go to work, I feel those little separation anxiety butterflies in my stomach of waking up without him here. I watched TV to keep myself company until about 6 when I couldn't take anymore of the horrible early-morning talk shows and fell back asleep, to wake up again around 10. I ate some pancakes for breakfast in the morning, and then cleaned the room and finished doing other little chores around the house.

Later I decided to call the doctor's office to schedule an alternate appointment at a better time for Dorian. I asked them if I was going to get another ultrasound, because nobody had mentioned it, and a lot of soon-to-be mommies on the CafeMom site said they had had 2-3 ultrasounds by now. I guess everyone's doctor or clinic is different, because they told me that unless the doctor sees anything wrong, there is no need for another one, and insurance doesn't cover it. To this, I have to say "grr!!". We were both really looking forward to seeing the baby one more time before she is born. You would think that THIS would be the most critical time to get one...but who knows. Maybe tomorrow, I'll be able to talk to the doctor myself and see if she can let me have another one or "find a reason" to let me have another one...such as checking on her growth, etc.

Oh, and another thing...I have to take yet another blood test tomorrow. I think I also posted some "hate" about this on myspace, because I'm seriously sick of all the blood tests. This "routine" one is another glucose one to check for diabetes yet again. You would think that if I haven't developed diabetes or gestational diabetes by now, that I won't...but NOOOO, they just have to check again, and put another bruise on my arm!

So I'll put the "stats" up tomorrow when I know them about my weight, the baby's estimated weight & size, heart beats per min, etc. Only 30 more days to go until due date!!!

Hello Blogspot!

Hello everyone, and welcome to what we hope will be an updated blog page. Here's the place where you can always keep up and keep in touch with what's happening with us! There will be further blogs in the future, along with photos and other stories that we think you, the reader, will be interested in. Hope to hear from you soon!

-Dorian, Steph, & baby-to-come