Thursday, July 26, 2007

Abigail's Temperment

Although mostly very good and in happy spirits, Abby has her moments. She spent a few fussy days very upset. Mom and Dad are new at this game and have been experimenting with what makes this girl settle down. The first experience was one where mom kept feeding her on demand, as many of the books say. After feeding every hour on the hour, mom had some tears at 2:00 a.m., and dad discovered the glorious pacifier. A minute with that in her mouth, she fell right to sleep for 4 1/2 hours. It's a learning experience, but this girl is a sucker, and we found the benefits of not waiting until the 4 week mark (as recommended) to stick that pacifier in her mouth. She is most content when in loud places and passed around to other people. She calms when mom or dad bounces her on the exercise ball. We think she's having some digestive problems which is causing the stomach aches and colic-like behavior. I have trouble saying it is colic because I've heard of other women's stories. We have a baby who goes days without a fuss and sleeps well, but will have a day or a couple days in a row of being inconsolable. Many of the books say to feed on demand, but after a second trial with that, we talked to our pediatrician, and he said that overfeeding is probably adding to the colic behavior because it's all related to digestive problems, and she would have a hard time processing all she was taking in. She also wasn't taking on the quality milk with the frequent feedings. So, we're learning. There's a lot to learn...patience is number one. Really, we have nothing to complain about. This girl is a sweetheart (no bias included), and I'm convinced the smiles aren't just gas (as the books say).



First Real Bath
















Abigail had her first real bath on July 19th, 2007, after her umbilical cord fell off. She likes the bath.

Wednesday, July 18, 2007

Narrows Bridge Opening




The new Narrows Bridge was open to walkers on Sunday, July 15th, 2007. At 13 days old, we were wondering if Abigail was the youngest to cross.

Boat Ride





Here's Abigail's first boat ride. Jen and Corey were there too. She slept the entire time.

Fourth of July





Here's Abby in her Fourth of July outfit given to us by the Clappers. We spent most of the evening at the Durrs house for a BBQ. At was a Durr/Kern get together. Everyone went to our house after dinner to check out fireworks on American Lake.

Monday, July 9, 2007

First Doctor Visit




Here's our pediatrician, Dr. John Clapper, giving Abby her first check-up at the hospital. We had our first appointment with him today. She has gained weight well and is above her birth weight at 7 lbs. 10 ozs. She is measuring 21 inches. That puts her at 25% for weight, 75% for height and 50% for head circumference. So far, she's got her dad's tall, lean body. Everything looks healthy with this girl. Praise the Lord!

Friday, July 6, 2007

They Say It Takes a Village...

Our Lil' Sleeper

This girl sleeps! She is 5 days old, and she is sleeping 5 hour segments in the night. She takes after her daddy with mouth agape and nothing waking her. She slept right through booming fireworks with not so much a flinch - except she didn't like the Whistling Pete's. It's 10:00 a.m. right now, and she's been sleeping since 6:00 this morning with loud construction going on next door. We even took her to the doctor because she wasn't pooping, and we couldn't wake her for feedings yesterday. All is fine - she's just a sleeper! Got her to poop with a suppository too...poor thing! What a blessing to be getting so much sleep during this transition.




Family's First Outing




Our first outing was on July 4, 2007 to none other than...Starbucks!

Marriage and Family


I took this picture of Jeremy in our room at the hospital. Later, we figured out that the tower framed in between father and daughter is the church where we were married. How cool is that? God really knows what he's doing!

Thursday, July 5, 2007

Abigail Faith Durr Abigail has been such an easy, wonderful baby so far. She is sleeping like her daddy. I can't seem to wake her, sometimes, for anything. She has a funny waking ritual of stretching, making funny faces, falling back asleep and doing it all over again. She is already sleeping five hour stints at night. She basically feeds and sleeps. She'll hang out for a bit with her eyes open, and we are excited for future times where we'll be able to interact with her more. Breastfeeding is a learning process, which I'm hoping to become better at. We both struggle at times, but it's still new to us, and I know it takes time. Overall, mom and dad are just loving this little baby and eating up every facial expression and time spent with her.

Elated Mommy!



Proud Daddy!

Tuesday, July 3, 2007

Labor

Here's our labor story:
5:05 We called the hospital. They said to be there within the hour to be induced.
6:15-6:30 Arrived at Hospital.
Got all settled in to our room but doctors were on a shift change and the next doctor needed to talk to us about induction options, so we didn’t see our doc, Dr. Lee, until about 9:30 – where she convinced us to take Cytotec, which is a labor inducing drug.
9:30ish – took the inducing drug. It took effect nicely, and I immediately fell into a routine of contractions. They came pretty close together. It all started out very manageable – although painful. It was back labor from the beginning, so Jeremy had a huge workout doing counter pressure every time I had a contraction. I couldn’t get up from a side lying position for two hours because they had to monitor me, so I did the first bits of labor in bed. Stacie and Emma were there for part of that.

I had my “last supper” at 12:00 – boring turkey on a slice of bread – and then got up to walk the halls. I had a window of opportunity to walk before they had to monitor me for a bit. My mom and dad showed up during the walking sometime. Contractions got more intense and were spaced about a minute apart. Again, Jer was my counter pressure king, chair and support in the halls.

I don’t know the time frame now, but they checked me after these few hours of labor, and I had progressed from 40% effaced to 90%, which was huge change. However, I had only dilated to 1 cm. The Durrs showed up at sometime – as did Shannon. After more walking, more intense contractions and more time, I got to 2 cm. I labored in the bath for a while, and it felt good, but everything just got more intense, and I was wailing and crying. I tried all the relaxation techniques and tried to conserve my energy during contractions, but it seemed impossible to relax amidst the pain. I don’t know how long I had labored for until this point, but when they checked me again, I was only 3+ cm dilated. I’m estimating the time to be around 5 or 6 at night.

Before Epideral

At this point, knowing I wasn’t even half way there and experiencing the most miserable back labor, I decided to cave and take the drugs. Best decision of my life. They initially could give a shot in my IV to ease the pain. It relaxed me almost immediately and lessened the contractions to make things bearable again. The anesthesiologist was in an emergency C section and there were four women waiting for the epidural. My nurse fought to get me 2nd on the list. I was able to take 3 of the original pain killing shot an hour apart before the anesthesiologist came.
Wes, our anesthesiologist, came in, and he was great – good sense of humor. The insertion of the IV into my back really didn’t hurt at all, and I was quickly numb (not completely but couldn’t feel the contractions) from the waist down. When I was checked at this point, I was 5 cm dilated.

After Epidural


So, then things settled in for the evening. My favorite nurse, Joanne, came for the evening. My contractions were happening about every 2 minutes, and although the process was long, I was progressing in dilation. Our families left the hospital at various times, the last crew leaving around 11:00. An exam showed I was 6-8 cm dilated (debate over which one), which was good, so everyone thought they could received a phone call at any moment throughout the night.

Jeremy fell asleep, and I just tried to relax through the night – maybe nodding off now and again but remember thinking, as I watched the clock, that time never moved so slowly. I was also thinking that drugs were a great invention. I had the constant hum of the heartbeat lulling the room and a blood pressure device tightening around my arm every 30 minutes or so. Around about 4:00 in the morning the doctor and nurse came in with some hard news. The baby had shown signs of distress. She had pooped in the womb. Her heart rate had fallen into a flatter rate, where they usually want to and had seen high and low points. They wanted to hook me up to oxygen to try and fix that. They did an exam, and my cervix had digressed, which I didn’t even know could happen. I was at 5 cm again but with a malleable cervix. The doctor asked me if my other doctor had informed me that I have a small pelvic bone. They weren’t sure the baby’s head could get through and that could be the reason for my lack of progress. My contractions had virtually gone away also. So, we had a baby in distress and the threat of a C section.

We got people praying right away. It’s amazing to find out how many people were praying for us during this process. We called our families around 6:00 after all these exams to update them on everything. The doctors said they wanted to try to do the Pitocin now to see if they could get my contractions and therefore my labor back on track. They administered the Pitocin, I think, around 7:00 and would monitor me for two hours. If I didn’t progress, a C section would be inevitable.

So, the Pitocin set in – as did the contractions. After a bit over an hour, I began to feel pressure in my pelvis. I didn’t want to get too excited so I just let the pressure happen during my contractions and eventually told my nurse that I was feeling this pressure. She said she’d get a doctor to check me, and when they checked (around 9:00 am) I was fully dilated and fully effaced – ready to go. She could feel the head at a 2, which meant the baby’s head, had dropped halfway through the pelvis – meaning she could fit through. Jer was crying, which really touched me, and said he had never been praying more in his life. We were ecstatic and called families right away to tell them to get to the hospital because it was time to push.

So, immediately, our nurse came in and talked us through the process of pushing. I started pushing around 9:30 am. I was exhausted, as it had been 24 hours of labor with very little sleep and food. I just willed myself to push as hard I could despite the exhaustion, heat and pain. It was just Jeremy and our nurses for a bit, but the doctor (Dr. Lee) and NICU team were shortly there for the last hurrah. Because the baby had pooped in the womb, the NICU team had to whisk her away immediately to suck her out and make sure she was breathing. Therefore, although Jer really wanted, they weren’t going to let him cut the cord. The totally pushing time was 45 minutes. I didn’t know my last push was my final push, but everyone was just urging me on to keep going, and it felt so different this time, that I did. I felt the “ring of fire” and eventually the head slip free. The doctor must have had sudden change of heart because she quickly had Jeremy the scissors and urged him to quickly cut the cord. There in front of me was our beautiful baby girl who had no problems. They took care of their business quickly and Jer brought her over to me. She was on my chest and breast feeding shortly.


Abigail Faith Durr was born on June 30th, 2007 at 10:18 in the morning. She was 7 pounds 6.6 ounce and 19 inches long. She has no indications of any problems – just a fully healthy blessing!

Pregnancy

Growing....

Growing...
Gone!