Audrey's Room

Over Labor Day weekend, a friend of Thom's came over to help rearrange some furniture. They moved our office desks and filing cabinet from the office/guest room down to the master bedroom, which had plenty of room. And they moved the crib and the glider into the "guest room" which is now the nursery.

I had some nesting urges, so I then hung up some cross stitch pictures my mom had made when I was a kid.

And then I created a sign with her name on it, using some photo paper, Microsoft Word clip art, and a green ribbon I found. I worked on this instead of working on my business on Labor Day and the day after. It's a good thing I did, even though I was thinking I had plenty of time to do it.

The nursery still has the guest bed, which is where Kim slept when she stayed over night with Aaron. When Aaron was a newborn, I had the bed in his room and used to sleep down there with him so Thom could get some rest in our room.

Our updated family

Aaron is only allowed to touch her toes. So he counted them. (She has 5 on each foot.)

So tiny!

Aaron was 8 lbs 9 oz at birth, so Audrey seems to incredibly tiny to us. We will feel better when she puts some weight on. At her first pediatric appointment on Wednesday, she was down to 5 lbs 2 oz. But on Thursday, we weighed her on a scale at a nursing store and she seemed to have gained a little weight, so hopefully we are on the way up.

The Arrival of Audrey Janine

We were surprised to welcome Audrey Janine into the world late last Thursday night. She was born at 11:58pm on September 10th. She weighed 5 lbs 10.5 oz and was 18.11" long. The full story follows the pictures below from our stay in the hospital.

Sleeping in the bassinet.

She opened her eyes most often when the lights were dimmed.


She wrapped her arms around my hand when I was trying to burp her.

Her first time in the car seat. She's almost too small for it.

On Thursday the 10th, when Kim arrived to watch Aaron in the morning, she commented that I seemed to be carrying low and said "Are you sure you aren't going into labor?" I laughed that my friend Heidi had commented the day before that I seemed to be carrying lower and wondered if the baby had "dropped". I myself didn't notice anything different.

By early afternoon, I noticed some Braxton-Hicks contractions. I jotted down the times I felt them and they were about 50 minutes apart. I tried to drink more water and didn't worry too much since I had had contractions at 12 minutes apart that hadn't been labor. But by the time Kim left around 1:15, I told her that she had me paranoid now since she was the second person in 2 days to comment on the baby's position and I was having some contractions. She said that she didn't have much going on over the weekend in case I needed her. I told her I hoped I wouldn't.

Close to 3pm, I noticed the contractions were more frequent, but still not painful. But they quickly went from 15 minutes apart to 7-8 minutes apart and by 3:15 they were only 3 minutes apart. I tried drinking more water since dehydration can cause BH contractions. They kept coming 3 minutes apart. After the 12 minute apart contractions that had sent us down to triage a few weeks ago, my OB said not to worry about contractions unless they were 3-5 minutes apart. I thought this qualified. I finally called Thom and said maybe he should come home early. I texted Kim that I might need her to come back. I hesitated to call my OB's office since I was sure I'd get sent down to triage and I was hoping that the water and some rest would calm the contractions down.

But when Thom came home around 4:30pm and they were still 3 minutes apart, I called the doctor's office. They sent us to triage. It was late enough I knew we wouldn't see my OB when we got down there. (If it had been earlier, we might have been able to get his opinion.) We waited for Kim to arrive while I packed a bag just in case (it was mostly packed after the last incident). Then I wrote down instructions for Kim for making Aaron's breakfast. Again, I hoped it would be "just in case", but I knew that if we were admitted, I didn't want to have to worry about not having given Kim any information she needed in case she spent the night.

Although I as consciously thinking that this would be another false alarm, like the last 2 trips to triage, I also had a strange feeling of calmness and excitement. I didn't want to deliver Audrey so early, but I just had this feeling that if I did, it was going to be OK and I was excited to meet her. The feeling didn't last. Once we were in triage, waiting around for hours not knowing what was going to happen, I was very anxious.

When we first got there, they hooked me up to the monitors and confirmed I was having contractions every 3 minutes or so. They still weren't painful (except for some here and there that were about a 2 on a scale of 1 to 10). The nurse was waiting for the OB on call to call back, but thought I'd probably get a shot of terbutaline and be sent home. But by the time the OB called back, the contractions had become painful. Almost all of them were about a 4. They gave me the terbutaline which calmed my contractions for about 30-40 minutes (I only had 3 or 4 contractions in that time and they weren't painful.) But the nurse wanted to watch me a little longer and soon the contractions came back stronger than before and still 3 minutes apart. By now, they were about a 5 on a scale of 1 to 10 and I couldn't finish a sentence once one hit.

Although the nurse had said they could give me up to 2 doses of terbutaline, the OB said she didn't want me given a second dose. Shortly before 10pm, the OB on call came by to see me. The nurse had checked my cervix earlier in the night (before I was given terbutaline) and found that it was closed. The OB confirmed when she arrived that it was still closed. But then she gave us 2 options. She said she could try to more aggressively stop the contractions, but that she'd want to do an amnio to make sure it was worthwhile (I guess to make sure everything was OK with the baby). Or she said she could go ahead and deliver the baby. Since we were planning a repeat c-section, she would just go ahead and do it that night.

Thom and I both wanted a third option. I guess we kind of had another option of getting another shot of terbutaline. The OB would have let us try that option, but she didn't think it would help. And after seeing how little effect the first shot had (compared to when it stopped my contractions completely the last time), I figured it would just delay the c-section until early morning. I was already tired and hungry and didn't see that a delay was going to help. I had hoped that one option would be to just wait and see, since my cervix wasn't dilating. I really wanted to make it until morning to talk to my OB and to have him do the surgery if we had no other options.

But the OB explained that she didn't want me to continue contracting on the scar from the last c-section since that poses some risks. I was surprised since some people opt to do a VBAC (vaginal birth after cesarean) but the nurse said they are moving away from that and some doctors won't do them at all.

Neither of the options appealed to us. We were worried about her lung development since we were at 35 weeks and 3 days. But I also knew from talking to my OB the week before that he wouldn't stop labor after 34 weeks. I asked why not, since prior to 37 weeks is considered pre-term. He said that it is all about balancing risks. After 34 weeks, the baby has a very good chance of being born healthy and that the most common reason for preterm labor is infection. If I went into labor before 34 weeks, he'd want to do some testing to rule out infection before trying to stop labor, but after 34 weeks, he felt it was just safer to deliver. He'd never opt to deliver before 37 weeks, but if I went into labor on my own, he said that's what he'd do.

So that conversation with my OB helped us rule out the one option, which only left doing a c-section. It was obvious I wouldn't be able to wait until morning, and Thom and I thought the OB on call seemed competent. It was shortly after 10pm when we had to make a decision. Thom had been going outside repeatedly to call Kim with updates as well as to cancel 2 play dates I had scheduled for Friday, and to call my parents. When the OB came by a second time to answer any questions and to see if we had made a decision, I asked her if we could deliver before midnight. As long as we were going to deliver anyway, I wanted to do it earlier rather than later, while people were hopefully not too tired. But I also wanted to avoid a 9/11 birthday if possible. She said she would try. She had an emergency c-section to perform first, but that if I was prepped while she did that, she could probably deliver before midnight.

So we decided to go for it. I was nervous and worried about the baby. But they were going to have the NICU team there ready to evaluate her when she was born. They had said she might need to spend some time in the NICU.

They took me to a room to get ready for the surgery. I had to fill out forms and have an IV put in. The anesthesiologist, Dr. B, came in to introduce himself. Once they took me to the OR, Thom had to wait outside until I was prepped. I had mentioned how painful the spinal was last time to the OB and she said it was only for a few seconds. I said, no, it had been several minutes, so she assured me that the anesthesiologist on call that night was very good. And she was right. It was a little painful when he put the topical anesthetic in, but it only lasted a few seconds. I then braced myself for more pain, but it never came. Then I felt my feet starting to get warm and realized he was done. I mentioned the painful experience before and the fact that there were two people and Dr. B agreed that a resident had probably done it and said he'd give the other anesthesiologist a hard time about it.

After the spinal was in, they finished prepping me and put up a blue sheet so I couldn't see anything. I felt nauseous at one point, which the doctor had warned me about. He put something in my IV and it passed. This happened a couple more times before I was done, but he managed to keep me from getting sick. I also didn't have to wear an oxygen mask this time and I never felt like I had trouble breathing like I did last time. I think he did a better job.

Shortly before Thom came in, the clock said 11:45pm. I didn't think about it again until after Audrey was born. I was listening for her cry. Aaron cried as soon as they pulled him out. But I didn't know if she would since she was so early. So when I heard her little cry, I cried in relief. Then someone mentioned that they just managed to deliver her before midnight.

The NICU nurse looked her over and found she was fine. She had great apgar scores and seemed healthy, but small. I got to see her briefly before Thom and she went to finish getting her cleaned up and weighed.

We spent about 1.5 hours in recovery, until I could lift my knees up (although my legs were still pretty numb). I was so tired and thought the night would never end. A nurse kept coming to check on Audrey every 30 minutes or so, but she continued to be fine. Finally around 2am we were taken to a room. After that it was kind of a blur.

I was disappointed that we didn't have our camera. We didn't get pictures in the delivery room like we did with Aaron. And I regret that I didn't get any really pregnant pictures of myself like we did at the end of the last pregnancy. I was disappointed my own OB didn't deliver Audrey. My one fear was of going into labor late at night and having some OB I never met perform surgery in the middle of the night. But overall, it worked out.

We came home on Monday. Things were a little easier this time. Audrey cries less and I was more relaxed. In fact, Thom only stayed the first 2 nights. The second 2 nights, I took care of Audrey by myself while Thom stayed with Aaron and got some rest. Unlike last time, I felt ready to come home when I was discharged.

Nap time battle of wills (and other challenges of a big boy bed)

Today, for the first time since transitioning to his big boy bed, Aaron got up before going to sleep. I thought it might be only a matter of time before he used his new found freedom to get out of bed when he didn't want to sleep, but he's been so good the last 12 days that I hoped we wouldn't have to deal with it.

When Kim put him down before leaving, he as a little amped up, but that's not completely unusual when he's tired. But after his music box turned off, he was still awake (not usual at nap time). He was making some noise, but not much. Then after a couple of minutes, he came out of his room. I had a slight sense of dread at that moment, realizing I was going to have to deal with this for the first time and I had no backup.

I checked to make sure he hadn't pooped (something that will keep him from going to sleep) and told him it was nap time. He began running around his room and started grabbing dirty clothes from his hamper and throwing them on the floor. Since I'm 8 months pregnant, I'm hesitant to just grab him when he's like that for fear he'll thrash around and hurt the baby. But after a moment, realizing I couldn't let the situation escalate, I picked him up (he fortunately didn't fight me), and took him to the bathroom to check his diaper. I was pretty sure it was still clean, but sometimes going through the pre-nap motions again can help "reboot" him. Then I carried him back to bed and gave him his pacifiers. He was protesting the whole time.

Predictably, he continued to leave his room. After the first incident, I called Kim for advice. He came out of the room and was crying while I was trying to talk to her, but I did manage to hear the essence of her advice (which I already knew, but I needed a pep talk in the heat of the moment). She said to keep putting him down. Not to answer his questions or make eye contact. Just put him back down matter-of-factly and tell him good night. She said it might take 5 times or it might take 10. And he'd probably pitch a fit.

So I put him down, over and over. He was crying and protesting, but fortunately not physically fighting me too much. It took about 5-10 times. I stood in the hall outside his room or across the hall and he was pretty much getting up right away. He'd come out and run right to me, letting me pick him up, but also letting me put him back to bed, despite crying. Each time I told him it was nap time, covered him with his blanket, and said "good night".

Eventually he stopped coming out of his room. After a few minutes, I began to hope he was going to stay down, but then I heard coughing. It sounded like it does sometimes when he's throwing up, so I peeked in on him, worried he'd try to get out of bed again. But he didn't even raise his head when I went in. And he helpfully explained by saying "Coughing." I said "OK. Have a good nap." and closed the door. By the time the music ended again, he was asleep.

Even though the whole episode lasted less than 30 minutes, maybe less than 20, I can see how easy it would be to give up. It was hard to put him back down with him crying and trying to talk to me. And each time he got up, I thought he'd never stay in bed. I even considered going to our afternoon play date early and just giving up on his nap. But then I realized I'd be setting a very bad precedent. By being firm, I have hopefully convinced him that he's not going to get out of taking his nap. At the very least, I avoided rewarding undesirable behavior which never leads to any good. I'd say I miss the crib, but the fact is we'd have this battle at some point. I'm not sure it would be easier when he's older.

Although this is the first time he's gotten up on his own without going to sleep, after only about a week in his new bed, he started getting himself up on his own in the morning. And around 6 - 6:15am which was early for us. Although we don't like getting up that early, it's not so early that we felt it was necessary to get him to sleep later. But we hoped to at least convince him to stay in bed until we come get him. The first time it happened, we let him be awake for 15 - 20 minutes before going to get him. He got impatient and came out on his own. The next time, he was only awake a few minutes before coming out and the third time he had barely woken up before we heard his little toddler feet hit the hardwood floor of the hallway.

Each time, one of us went down there and told him he should wait for Mama or Dada to come get him. We took him back in his room, and sometimes even back in his bed telling him that next time he should call out to us and we'd come get him. This morning, though, he slept in until almost 7am. We were already up (having now gotten used to waking up closer to 6am) and when we heard him wake up, we went to get him pretty quickly. We said "Good morning! Thank you for waiting for us to come get you. Good job!" Not sure it will work, but we'll see.

Our next plan would be to allow him to play in his room until we come get him, if not stay in his bed. But since most of his toys are now stored in his closet and we lock the closet doors at night (they are bi-fold doors which are good for pinching fingers), there's not much to play with besides the animals in his bed and the dollhouse.

We'll let you know if we have any success.

BTW, over the weekend we accomplished a lot of nesting. We moved our computer desks down to the master bedroom, turned the office into the nursery, and finally moved the crib out of Aaron's room. I hope to post pictures of the changes soon. Only a few big ticket items remain to be done before Audrey arrives, such as getting the infant car seat installed (which means moving Aaron's car seat from the center seat) and setting up the port-a-crib in our room, where hopefully Audrey will spend her nights the first couple of months if she's not as noisy a sleeper as Aaron was. Sometimes I think that Aaron's good sleep habits (today notwithstanding) are so good because he pretty much always slept in his crib in his room so he never had to deal with transitioning from one room to another or from a bassinet to a crib. But even if Audrey sleeps in our room at night, I plan to put her down in her crib during the day so she is used to that space as well.