Tuesday, January 23, 2007

First real check-up.

Connor had a Dr appointment this morning, it didn't go very well. I totally didn't like the Dr at all! Connor was just circumcised yesterday, so it was still bleeding a bit, and it wouldn't stop bleeding when I was changing him, so the Dr made me try to breastfeed him while holding on to his little willy to try and stop the bleeding. So there I am in the little office trying to feed him one handed- I've only been doing this for 11 days, so I am not good at it yet, and my boobs still hurt like crazy, my other hand is trying to "apply pressure" to Connor's little thing, but I am terrified of hurting him, and he is pooping everywhere!

And while I am doing all of this, I can hear the nurses talking outside the room about how they think the circumcision should have been done differently! Grr!

The bleeding didn't stop so I was told to call the Dr that did the procedure, and if I couldn't get a hold of him, to head in to the hospital. I called Derek on the way home to tell him what happened, and then tried to call Dr Mayo's office, but no one was answering so I headed off to the Sturgeon Hospital. The Dr. appointment was in Fort Saskatchewan, but I wanted to go to the hospital where Connor was born, and then Derek could meet us there.

We must have waited in the ER for three hours or so before we saw someone, and by that time the bleeding had completely stopped, but it was nice to be reassured that all was well anyway. And during all of this commotion, Connor's umbilical stump fell off, which was great, because I didn't like looking at that yucky thing!

So after one completely stressful day, all is well, and we head back home! I think this was sort of my way of learning that from this point on, there will always be something for me to worry about!

Oh- and we are totally getting a new Doctor!!

Monday, January 22, 2007

Connor's first 'surgery'.

Connor is 10 days old, and he got the ol' snip snip today. It actually went quite well. The worst part was when they strapped him down to the little table that had a baby shaped divit in it. It was called a "circumstraint". Seriously, that's actually what it was called! Anyway, Connor was more upset by being held down than by the actual procedure. He stopped crying right after they undid his arms. All in all it was over pretty quickly.

Friday, January 19, 2007

My baby is yellow!

Connor got pretty jaundiced in his first week of life. We have had him to the Dr a couple of times, and we supplemented with formula for about a week.

He got so yellow that I felt bad putting him in any yellow or orange clothes. Which of course, was pretty much all I owned because we didn't know he was a boy!

Here's my little yellow man!

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Actually, he doesn't look as bad as I thought he did! That must be because he's in blue! ;)

Sunday, January 14, 2007

Home Time!

After three days in the hospital, we headed home when Connor was two days old! I actually felt really good after the first day, so I was happy to get out of the hospital, but a little nervous to be without the nurses!

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I got Connor all dressed up for his big trip home! I was absolutely terrified to shove a shirt over his head, but it went alright!

Friday, January 12, 2007

Welcome to the world Connor!

On the very early morning of January 11th, Derek and I headed in to the Sturgeon General Hospital in St. Albert to be induced. They got us set up in our room and then we got started! We were in pretty good spirits at first, it was still so surreal. Finally we were going to get to see our baby!

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Derek doesn't do mornings all that well!

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The induction was started with a gel application, Cervadil, at about 9:00am. Nothing was really happening, but they had to wait 6 hours before they could do another application. At about 3:30pm they gave me another dose of the Cervadil. I started feeling some minor contractions around suppertime, and around 9pm I thought that my water broke. I called the nurse in to check and sure enough it had!

They had me get into the shower and use the 'birthing ball' in the shower, which was nice! The contractions were getting to the point where I thought I would probably be heading to the hospital, if I had gone in to labor on my own. But I was feeling pretty good about getting through them, so Derek went home to check on the dogs.

By midnight I had still not dilated any more, I was only 1.5cm, so they decided to start the pitocin. After that things just went crazy! Despite the fact that my blood pressure was high, the nurses thought I should walk around to try to speed things up. So Derek and I headed out into the halls, but at this point the contractions were so bad that according to Derek I sounded like a cat giving birth... Yep, I had lost it!

After a painful and very loud walk back to my room, the nurse checked me again, and after all that pain I figured I had to be at least 8cm! Sadly, I was still at 1.5cm, but I was allowed to get an epidural anyway!

After the epidural was in, which took many jabs, Derek and I managed to get some sleep until morning. At about 8:00am on January 12, the OB checked me again and I was only 3cm dilated, but the baby had dropped and was trying to squish through my undilated cervix, which was causing a lot of stress on the baby, making his heart rate drop dangerously low.

So... they decided to get us in for a C-section immediately. Everything from this point went very quickly! At 10:01am on January 12, Connor David Mellott was born!

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Other than when they quickly showed him to me over the sheet, this was the first time I saw Connor. He was perfect!

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I still had to be stitched(and stapled!) back together, so Derek had Connor all to himself for the first half hour of his life.

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Connor weighed 7lb 10oz, and was 19 inches long!

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Here is our first family photo... I don't really remember this much, I was still very groggy, and had finally just stopped shaking! After this I threw up everywhere and then passed out. Oh, the joys of childbirth!

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Connor's lip was cut by the forceps they used to get him out. I had a contraction just as they were delivering him, and his head turned right into the forceps. He was a little bruised and battered, but he still looks beautiful!

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Despite the fact that absolutely nothing went as planned, it was an absolutely unforgettable experience! I am so happy to be a mom!