Giada's Birth Story...Part Three

...And she was out. They placed her on my chest and at that moment time stopped and I fell in love. It all lasted about 30second before they snatched her away. You see, when they placed her on my chest, she wasn’t crying and was a bit cyanotic (blue), and all I could hear were her very wet lungs. I could tell that she was having a hard time breathing and that there was something wrong. They vigorously rubbed her while cleaning her. Still no cry. That’s when they took her away from my chest and placed an oxygen face mask on her. I asked what was wrong but they kept saying that everything is fine. Hello, I’m an RN! I know when something is NOT fine! She had an oxygen mask on and they were deep suctioning her but her lungs still sounded very wet. Beside, a couple minutes later they called the NICU team, and within minutes 4 other nurses were in the room trying to get her to breathe. I asked again what was wrong and they said “we can’t keep her pink without some oxygen help. She also has lots of mucus in her lungs and we can’t get it out. We’ll have to take her to NICU.” FREAKED ME THE HECK OUT! Brandon went with her right away while I was left to recover after my epidural.

After about 40 minutes, even though my legs were still not ready to walk, I asked my nurse to take me upstairs to NICU in a wheelchair. I got there just in time. They just got done putting an IV in her little foot. Brandon said it took them about 4 attempts before they got it. Her little hands and feet were purple from being poked so much. Broke.my.heart! Someone let the gates of flooding tears wide open and forgot to close them! Seeing your helpless baby girl so sick and not being able to do one darn thing about it just tears you to pieces. They started her on antibiotics right away and later on placed an NG tube to help her eat. Again, step on my wounded heart some more, won’t you?

That afternoon the neonatologist (NICU doc) talked to us, and after looking at her chest x-ray, he told us that she had Viral Pneumonia. I have never heard of any baby being born with viral pneumonia! He was going to put her on four doses of antibiotics, and if her condition improves, the earliest we would be able to leave was in 48 hrs.

God was SO wonderful that by late afternoon on Thursday (the day she was born), she didn’t need anymore oxygen and she was on room air! Also, we were finally able to hold her that night for the first time. I just couldn’t help myself from falling even more in love with this sweet little girl. I have never been so thankful in my life as I was at that moment when I was holding her and knew that everything will be ok. We are beyond blessed to have her as a precious gift in our lives.

Saturday was my birthday, and we had the ok to take her home! That was the best present I could ever ask for! Today, thank God, she is doing so much better and is such a happy little cutie!

Thank you all for keeping all of us in your thoughts and prayers. I really love this bloggy community : - )

My sick Little Bug in NICU when she was just a few hrs old

... and here is my happy and healthy snuggler just a couple of weeks later.

Picture Perfect Christmas

I hope ya'll had an awesome Christmas! Ours was fantabulous! Lots of family time, great food, laughter, and of course presents, equals pure joy for those young and old.

I, as well as our entire family absolutely LOVE Christmas, therefore I just HAVE to document all those new and joyous moments with lots and lots of pictures.

We started our Christmas celebration on Christmas Eve by going over to Brandon's older sister's house and opening a whole lot of presents there and enjoying some quality time with the in-laws. Giada got her first Christmas presents here. She totally slept through 90% of it though.

Christmas was spent at our house with my parents, brother, grandparents and Brandon's other sister's family. A full house and total madness! It was wonderful! It truly was! Brandon and his family like to go a bit overboard around Christmas time as you're about to see.

This is a picture of our tree and all the presents before my family and SIL brought their share...

...and this is our living room AFTER all the presents were brought in. Madness I tell you! It took us about 3 hrs to open them all!

The kids were in heaven with all the presents!

... well, most kids. Giada did a lot of this on her very first Christmas. She looked so stinkin cute doing it too! She had tons of presents given to her, but couldn't care less about them as you can only imagine. She may get a lot more into the whole Christmas spirit next year.

Once the presents were all opened, the food was devoured, and the boys (aka grown a&& men) were done running around and playing with their nerf guns, we took some family pictures.

Us with my SIL's fam.

... and us with my parents, little bro, and grandparents. Nothing beats Christmas with loved ones!

As much as I love Christmas, I'm quite glad all the craziness is done for now. I SO need a break! However, I know that as soon as July comes around, I'll be ready for Christmas to be here again. But till than, from our family to yours, Happy NEW YEAR!

Giada's Birth Story...Part Two

We left off with me just getting admitted into L&D at 6am, and measuring 6cm and 100%. My contractions were less then 2 minutes apart, and I was asked if I wanted an epidural. I told the nurse that I was really considering it at that point. She started my first dose of antibiotics, and left to call my midwife. Since I was GBS positive (a bacteria that is harmless to moms but can be life threatening for the baby), I needed two doses of antibiotics, 4hrs apart, with the last one at least 4hrs before she was born.

The nurse came back 15 minutes later and I told her that I REALLY wanted the epidural. They started my IV fluids needed prior to getting an epidural, and around 7am my midwife walked in. At that point I could hardly breathe, and even though I was pretty calm, I was getting annoyed with the smallest things such as being touched or talked to during a contraction. As I was having one of my contractions, my midwife asked me “Are you sure you want an epidural? Wouldn’t you like to try the shower or Jacuzzi first?” I love my midwife to death! She is just plain awesome, but I was ready to punch the lights out of her when she asked that. However, I calmly responded “No, I would really want the epidural please.” So the nurse called the anesthetist, while my midwife checked me. It was 7am and I was 71/2 -8cm! I progressed almost 2cm in one hr! I was moving FAST! She said that if I didn’t need the second dose of antibiotics, she would break my water and we would be done by 8am! However, I had to hold on until 10am for my second dose. I was actually fine with waiting, since I was just so, so exhausted, and really wanted to sleep.

Five minutes later the nurse anesthetist was in, and even though it was quite uncomfortable, it was the best decision I made that day! I was even able to take a one hr nap, since I knew I would need all the strength I could get for pushing later on. However, it only lasted about 1hr before I started to feel my contractions in full force, and needed a little extra med adjustment.

At 9am I was checked again and I was at 9 1/2cm. Brandon was just begging me to hold on until 10am so I could get my antibiotics. I was thinking “yeah, let me have a talk to my cervix and see how that fits in her schedule.” He really wanted me to wait because if I wasn’t going to get my antibiotics, we had to stay 48hrs instead of 24… Little did we know we were going to stay the 48 hrs anyway.

Amazingly enough, at 10am when I was checked, I was at 10cm, however my water was still not broken. I got my antibiotics, and at 10:15 she broke my water and we started pushing right away. Let me tell you, that is HARD work yo! My midwife was really impressed with how well I was pushing. She even though I would be done in about 40minutes. Oh, did I mention that half an hr into my pushing, I was able to feel every.single.contraction AGAIN! I knew exactly when to push, because when that urge comes, you just can’t help it and push like your life depends on it! If I had the strength and didn’t need to breathe, I would have pushed, and pushed, and pushed, because pushing was the only relief I would get from all those contractions. Thank heaven above for the fact that my “business area” was almost completely numb and I couldn’t feel her coming out! I made it all the way to her head being out when my midwife said “I think we might have to cut because she may not fit.” I was thinking “The hell you will! I just pushed the biggest part of her out, you better get her out!” But I didn’t say anything because I just wanted her OUT. What I didn’t know, was that her cord was around her neck, and they weren’t sure if they could free her of it without cutting me. Finally, at 11:09, I was done pushing and she was out without me being cut!

Our Little Family

Part Three, and the last one coming up soon : - )

Confessions and Conclusions

After one week of motherhood, I’ve got some confessions to make and some conclusions that I came to:

• Motherhood can bring you to tears, and make your heart jump with joy all within the same breath.
• I strongly hope that one of those days I will be able to pee again without crying and screaming in agonizing pain (hey, they said you lose your modesty once you give birth, so you get to hear it all)
• God was not kidding around when He punished Eve and all women (way to screw it up for the rest of us Eve) with the whole labor pain! That stuff hurts yo!
• Nipples and breasts should be made out of steel. I mean, they already feel like rocks, so at least if they were made out of metal I wouldn’t feel all this horrible, almost deathly pain that has made me walk around looking like a fool with ice packs made out of dippers in my bra! Sorry if it may take a while to burn that image out of your head.
• For breastfeeding to be such a “natural” process, it sure as heck is a WHOLE LOT OF HARD WORK!!! We still haven’t gotten the hang of it! Giada wants nothing to do with my “ladies”! She would rather scream bloody murder and starve to death rather than breastfeed. For crying out loud, cats can figure it out! So for now I’m just an insane milk-pumping machine!
• Brandon may or may not have walked in on Giada and I at 4am just to find her screaming her head off and me balling unstoppably because she wouldn’t breastfeed... and because I’m just freaking exhausted and very much hormonal nowadays.

And this little ONE WEEK OLD snuggle bug

is the reason why I would do it all over again in a heartbeat!

She has completely stolen my heart!

I have such a hard time not kissing her every second she's awake

{Next up, part two of Giada's Birth Story}

Giada's birth story... Part one

First of all, thank you guys for all your prayers and sweet comments. We were able to go home after only 48 hrs, and my little snuggle bug is doing pretty well.

So I guess it all started last Wednesday afternoon when I went in to see my midwife. I was going to have her strip my membranes if at all possible. She said that she can do that only if I was at all effaced and dilated. As you can imagine, my fingers were tightly crossed. I was scared to death that I hadn’t progressed at all, but she checked me and I was almost 5cm dilated and 80%! God is amazing!!! So them membranes got totally stripped! That was around 3pm on Wednesday, Dec 8^th. I was also asked if I wanted to be induced in case the things were not progressing. I said “Yes Please,” and we were out with an induction scheduled for 7am the next morning.

Right after, we went to WallMart to grab some things for the next day, and my BH were getting quite strong. And from then on, I was having them pretty much all evening. We went to sleep around 11pm, but I was so excited and anxious, that I couldn’t fall asleep until 1am. Around 3am, as I was dreaming of making cookie packages with Paula Deen (I watched food network that evening right before going to sleep), I felt this sharp pain that almost made me curse in my sleep! Right away I was thinking “Ok, that was no Braxton Hick!” I tried to wait and see if I was going to get another one soon before waking Brandon up. And sure enough, I felt a couple more very soon after. I decided to count them on my I-phone app (yes, there’s an app for that!), and somehow managed to knock everything off the nightstand. Of course I startled and woke up Brandon in the process. I told him that I think I was in labor, and the first think he said was “Ok, let’s go to the hospital, now!” The man was really scared of having this kid at home, considering that I was 5cm dilated the day before and walking around like nothing was wrong. I told him to slow down, and wait a little while. When we counted the contractions, I was having them every 3 min, and after only about 20 min, they were as often as 2 min apart. I kind of realized that I was moving quite fast, so I jumped in the shower. I spent about 1hr in there. Being in the hot shower felt really great! I would totally recommend it! Once I got out of the shower, I got ready, called the hospital and told them we were on our way, and were out the door by 5:50am. We got there by 6am, got checked and was 6cm and 100%.

Stay tuned for the labor and deliver part, and the scariest day of my life as our baby girl was taken to the NICU within minutes after her delivery…

And of course I have to leave you with a picture of the best Birthday (which was on Saturday) and Christmas present I could ever receive

Our Little Love is finally here!

Please meet our long awaited for Little Love,

Giada Joliet was born on Thursday, December 9 at 11:09 am

at 7lb 19in. I'm completely in love!

She is doing well right now, even though she had to spend her hospital stay in NICU. I will update you more on that later, but please pray for her. If everything goes well, we're supposed to go home tomorrow. Thanks for all your prayers and comments. I will come up with more updates soon : -)

39 week miracle... and very much STILL pregnant

I feel like I'm going to be pregnant FOR EVER!

But for real now, can we make this the last pregnancy post?

Total weight gain: Not sure, but I’m sure more than last week… I’ll find out this afternoon when I have my appointment.

Maternity clothes: Yep, and honestly, I can’t wait until I get to wear normal clothes again!!! Skin jeans, come to momma! Please?

Best moment this week: Looking at my “count down” and seeing that I’m in the single digits… not that this means much to this little lady apparently.

Foods: Nothing new here, I love them all. However, this week I had to make an EXTRA HUGE effort to stay away from sweets. Good grief, I didn’t know I can pack away the ice cream, cookies, and anything sweet I laid eyes on, like that!!! Sticky fingers over here was behaving like the world was going to run out on sugar tomorrow!

Movement: Yes, and it’s a bit sad to think that very soon I won’t be able to feel her wiggle her little feet in there. But still, I’m very ready to SEE her little feet kicking away.

Gender: momma’s girl all the way!

Labor signs: maybe after we go in today and have my membrane’s stripped! Fingers crossed!

Belly Button in or out: Way out there!

What I miss: My abs, my just my old body! Gosh I miss it! I cannot wait to get back into shape.

Milestones: having only one week left until the due date, and getting ready to meet our daughter!!!!

My best birthday/Christmas present ever is just around the corner,

and I'm dying to hold her!

I will let you know how the entire "stripping" goes and hopefully we can get a baby by the end of this week! Happy Middle of the Week!

Little going-home outfit and counting down to our grand meeting

Have you looked to the left of my screen? No? Well take a good look at my "pregnancy tracker!" Can you believe my days are in the single digits???? Because I sure have a hard time believing that I'm going to meet my sweet little daughter in under 10 days (fingers crossed)!!!

So yeah, I'm still round and very much pregnant. Wednesday I'm going to see my midwife and I'll also get checked to see how well my cervix is cooperating. (Dear cervix, please cooperate! Sincerely, your very frustrated and anxious owner) I'm also going to see if she'll be willing to sweep my membranes and maybe get things moving. I think it's about time to get this party started, don't cha think?

Hopefully she'll come before the weekend, and definitely not ON Saturday. You see, my birthday is on Saturday, and I really, REALLY, would like us to have different birthdays. Just a little weird thing I have, I guess. Brandon keeps saying that she'll probably be born on Saturday just because I want her to come any other day. We shall see I guess...

Anyhow...So shall we get to the actual point of this post? I've had such a hard time picking her coming home outfit! And really, it's not that big of a deal, but I just kept on looking for the perfect outfit for months! Finally, at the end of last week I have packed our hospital bag including her little cute outfit that I'm just in love with.

Isn't it adorable????

I also have warm stockings for her to wear, no worries.

And those little shoes... oh they just melt my heart! I probably won't have her wear them, but I just really liked the way they looked with her outfit.

I added a second outfit for her as well just in case I feel that this won't keep her warm enough, but I think that she'll be ok with all the blankets covering her. It's unbelievable how ready (at least mentally, and emotionally) I am to meet this little girl! Every muscle of my body is just aching to hold her tightly in my arms. I really appreciate all your thoughts, kind comments and prayers. Please keep them coming as we are getting so much closer to greet this little one. I can't wait to introduce her to all of you ladies! I promise to keep you updated, but till then, have a Beautiful Monday!

38 Week Miracle... and maybe our last post on it?

I cannot believe how big this belly has gotten!

Hopefully this is the last week you get to see me pregnant!

How far along: 38 weeks and 2 days!

Total weight gain: exactly 30 pounds. A little bit more than I planed on, but it could be worse, right? Right.

Maternity clothes: Same ones I’ve been wearing for the past couple of months.

Best moment this week: hearing our Little Love’s heart beat yesterday, and enjoying my last moments of not sharing her with anyone else.

Foods: LOVE it! After our thanksgiving week, I was expecting to put on another 6 pounds, but God has had mercy on my thighs, and I actually lost a couple of pounds. It’s a Thanksgiving miracle I tell ya!

Movement: She still stays pretty active and bouncy. And I still love it!

Gender: Daddy’s little girl.

Labor signs: I WISH!!! Seriously, can we get things moving already! I think I’ve waited enough, no? I walked up and down the stairs and all around the house for about 2 hrs last night, and nada! My legs were sure ready to go into labor, but this girl, not a chance!

Belly Button in or out: It’s still so weird seeing it all out! WEIRD!

What I miss: Really, this is going to sound strange, but I miss my BABY GIRL! I just ache to hug and kiss and hold her! It’s crazy how anxious and terrified I am of the whole entire process, and how badly I want for it to just happen at the same time. Such bipolar feeling, I tell ya!

Milestones: Full term, and ready to meet this Little Love! Now if only she’ll cooperate. If she doesn’t show up this week, I’m getting an internal exam next week to see where I am at that point. So fingers crossed that all that won’t be necessary and that this is the last time you get to read my “Weekly Miracles” post!

Wouldn't it be wonderful if next week I could show you a picture of me holding a sweet little girl instead of this big ol' belly? Yes. Yes, I think it would!