Yay for milestones!!!

Miss Fiona would like to share a few firsts with you!!!   She's been quite a busy girl lately.  I should start by telling you that she now weighs 11 lbs 12oz and is 23.5 inches long.  She has gained another pound and grown almost another inch in the past month! 

She rolled over all by herself for the first time on July 16th.  Her Uncle Matt and myself were there to witness it.  Here is a video:  Fiona rolls over

We also went swimming with Fiona for the first time this past weekend with our friends Sarah and Justin Halulko and their little boy Liam.  Fiona loved it!!!  Her swim diaper was a bit too big, though, and I was just praying the entire time that she wasn't going to poop!!  How mortifying would that have been?! LOL!!  Thankfully, she held it in :)  We had a really fun time and we can't wait to do it again.  Here's a picture from that day:

Fiona also ate her first solid food today.....rice cereal!!!  She did really well! We were pretty amazed, and we also captured it on camera  :)  Take a look.... Fiona eats solid food

Another thing that's been new for us lately is Dave's change of employment.  He will be leaving EDMC soon, and will be going to work for Target in HR.  Because he's changing jobs, he's had some time off. Therefore, he's had the opportunity to use some of that time and stay home with us.  Bonus!!!  Here are some photos of he and Fiona spending some quality time together:

Dave also got some fresh ink this past week.  He decided to get Fiona's footprints and her date of birth in Roman numerals on his back.  Here's a picture of it that I took just today.  It looks a little distorted because he's holding up his shirt and it's stretched out a bit, but you get the idea :)  It turned out really great.  The footprints are really realistic!!  I love how you can see how her little left foot was so scrunched up when she was born.  Pretty cool!! 

Soooo, that's about all that's new with us!!  We'll keep you updated as more things happen, which is bound to start happening pretty rapidly now.  Thanks for checking in! 

XoXo

Fathers Day 2011

What a wonderful weekend the Rs had together this weekend!! It's the first weekend since we brought Fiona home that we haven't had any visitors and had no other obligations, which is VERY rare!!  I only had one client on Saturday morning and aside from that, we were free to just spend time together, which is so nice!!

On Saturday afternoon we decided to go to the Waterfront and have dinner at Bravo and then walk around and do some shopping.  We happened to get caught in a torrential downpour but we did not let that dampen our spirits!! ;)  It was quite funny, actually.  It was one of those trips where everything seems to be going wrong.  We got caught in major traffic (thank you construction and Taylor Swift) on the way there (did I mention that the air conditioning is broken in the Jeep?!) and then my husband may or may not have not stopped completely at a stop sign after waiting for a train and a crazy yinzer may or may not have gotten into a screaming match with him over it as we tried to drive peacefully away.  So, basically, the rain was just the perfect ending.  We joked that we had commented while melting in the traffic jam that we both could have used another shower and that the universe must have been listening.  :)

Sunday we just hung out and played with Fiona and vegged with eachother on the couch for most of the day, which we rarely do.  Dave got some nice Play Station time in, and all in all we just enjoyed each other's company.    We did dress Fiona up in a nice little outfit for all of her Grandfather figures to show some love.  You can see that below.  There is also a video of Dave and Fiona having a nice time together.

Chatting with Daddy on Fathers Day

I would just like to take this time to express my appreciation for all the wonderful Dads in my life, starting with my husband.  I'm so thankful that he's my baby daddy ;)   I'm also quite lucky to have as many Dads as I do, and I appreciate all of you for all of your unique qualities that make you the amazing men that you are.  I love you on Fathers Day and every day.   All my love.  Xoxo.  

Fifi Ona

Soooo,  things have been crazy around here lately!!  I feel like I'm running a part time bed and breakfast as well (if coffee constitutes breakfast) from all the visitors we've had lately.  Our friend Ann Vierkorn and her daughter Mia (who is a twin and will be 2 on August 14th) came for a little visit.  Ann is currently prego with baby #3 (Jon Jr- due Sept 9th) and since they will be done having little ones after him and they know he's a boy, she so graciously gave Fiona all of Mia's clothes that don't fit anymore!  This girl has got some clothes!!!!!! Let me tell ya!  It was amazing visiting with Annie, as she is one of my very best friends in the world and I LOVE HER and miss her dearly.  We didn't get any pictures of the girls together because Mia is quite shy these days and I didn't want to make her uncomfortable, but it was a very nice visit.  Here are some of the pictures of Fiona in her newly acquired wardrobe courtesy of Mia Grace.  First is a super cute bathrobe that everyone seems to think she looks like a prize fighter in.  Second is a little hippy outfit and contrary to the look on her face, we really like this outfit :)  Had to document the pouty face-- it's a classic. 

Right after that, our friends Paul and Martha DeSante from MN came for a visit as well.  They were on their way to Erie and decided to stay the night with us for a night.  This was equally as amazing because they are also dear friends of ours that we rarely get to see these days.  Fiona was quite enamoured with both of them, which does not surprise me because they are two of the nicest people I've ever met in my life.  Truly good people!! 

We also recently took Fiona for her first shopping outing.  She slept through the majority of the trip, but we did buy her these amazing shades at Janie and Jack.  I could not resist them.  What I also could not resist were the teeny tiny bathing suits, but Dave R was the voice of reason and would not allow me to get one just yet.  Next summer......  but they were SOOOO CUTE!!!!   We settled for a nice sundress... pics to follow, as she hasn't worn it yet.    Here are some pics of her in her shades from that day.  The first is in her stroller, and the second was her totally passed out when I first took her out of the carseat when we got back home.  Too funny!!



As I said in the last post, Fiona is just really coming out of her shell.  We can see that  she's so much more vocal and alert these days.  You can see her interacting with her toys in a more alert and purposeful way.  Here's a video of her in her swing and you can see that she's totally enthralled with the mobile and the mirror above now.  She smiles and talks to herself in it all the time now, which is adorable. 

Here's a video of her during tummy time.  It's basically a small miracle that I got this video because let's just say Fiona is no longer a fan of tummy time.  We usually have a window of about oh 5-35 seconds before she completely loses her mind.  You can see that she's getting close to rolling over at times.

Well, that's the latest with the Rs!!!  :) 



Monkeying Around

:)  Thought I'd share this video and picture that I took of Fiona this morning.  Her personality is coming out more and more every day!!  I love it!!! Click on "A Chat with Fiona" to view the video, please :)

A Chat with Fiona

Fiona just had a very nice first time visit with Liam Halulko, the son of our friends Sarah and Justin.  We are hoping they will be friends :)  She also had a nice visit with her Aunt Mandy Mangano and is looking forward to visiting with Annie and Mia this weekend.  She's quite popular!!!! 

The Exorcism of Fiona Claire

I shouldn't joke about these things, but SERIOUSLY.... a miracle has occurred in the form of 1ml three times daily.

As many of you know our little Fiona has always struggled with her digestion.... we joke that she's her father's daughter because she can rip them louder than he can!! Seriously... sometimes it's literally mind blowing the sounds that come out of this miniscule little girl.  It's hysterical, and I love it.  :)  So, when I took Fiona for her 8 week check up at the pediatrician, I told him that she was still really struggling with digestion, because I had noticed an increase in how fussy she was and she seemed to be really uncomfortable with the gas and let's just say things were getting explosive.  I thought maybe she had colic.  Our doctor said that if she hadn't gained so much weight (without adjusting for her prematurity Fiona was in the 75th percentile for size) then it might be a concern, but she's obviously not having any failure to thrive issues, so it wasn't a concern and he said it would probably work itself out.

Well, the following week it just continued to get worse and worse until it reached the point where if she was awake, she was screaming and just plain inconsolable.  Now, Fiona has also inherited a bit of a temper (can't imagine from where..... oops) and so things were getting pretty ugly (read: I'm pretty sure this baby hates my guts).  As you can imagine, this was extremely upsetting to me for a variety of reasons.  First of all, I was just feeling upset because I felt like I waited SO long for this little girl and during my pregnancy I didn't allow myself to really bond to the fullest extent because to be completely honest, I didn't really believe that she would ever make it here and I've been down that road numerous times before.  So, now that she's finally here I just want to take every second I can to cherish her and bond with her and just love her to pieces.  Well, that's a little hard to do when her head is spinning in circles and she's vomiting pea soup (read: punching me in the face and trying her hardest to scratch my eyes out and make my eardrums bleed).  Secondly, I'm working full time from home, and that is EXTREMELY DIFFICULT when your baby is screaming 24/7.  Our corporate clients don't take kindly to screaming infants when trying to relay information about a crisis.....  Talk about stress and exhaustion... for both Fiona and myself. 

Fiona isn't scheduled to go back to the pediatrician until her 4 month checkup in July, so I finally broke down and just called the office and told them after a week straight of this nonstop screaming that I needed someone to exorcize the demon from my child.  Actually, I told them that I thought she had colic or possibly reflux (because my mommy friends had suggested that this might be the issue).  They told me I could bring her in the very next morning, which I was very grateful for.  She is still gaining weight, she weighed in at 9lbs 11oz that morning, and all else looks good.  The doctor said that she doesn't think it's colic because the crying is day and night, and started so late (she was 11 weeks at the time).  So, the doc asked me some questions about symptoms and we came to the conclusion that Fiona has reflux, and they put her on Zantac and told me it might take a week to work. Over the weekend we really started to notice a difference, and it's honestly like she's an entirely different baby!!!  It's amazing!!!  She remains quiet and alert when awake, she's smiling and laughing more and has more interest in interacting with us and playing with toys, etc.  I'm extremely grateful that we found a solution, and I'm loving how much she is changing and developing every day!!! 

She's growing so quickly that I'm trying to put all of her outfits on her that she still fits in because I feel like next week she'll be grown out of them.  Right now she's wearing 0-3m in most things, but some of her outfits/sleepers are 3mo and fitting.  Crazy!!!!  I hold up her preemie sleepers and cannot believe she was ever that size.  I'm proud of her and a tinge sad at the same time!!!!!  :) 

Here are some recent pictures of the fashionista:

This outfit was given to me by my hairdresser, Jenn.  Love her. 

In these next couple, she's channeling her inner flower child.  You know that being my daughter, she's going to be a hippie, there's really no getting around it.  :)  She's lucky I didn't just name her Scarlett Begonia or Rhiannon......

 And finally, here's a little morning snuggle.....  post-Zantac, obviously ;)

So, in closing, I'd like to send a big THANK YOU out to all of my mommy friends who suggested I talk to the pediatrician about reflux, and who provided me with many suggestions for relief! :D  I appreciate all of your advice and support!  It's so great to have the support of so many great people!!!  You are a wealth of information, and it's always good to know that someone else has gone through what you are going through, and for that, I thank you!   :)

I'll try to get a video of her sometime soon, now that she's back to herself and you can see what a silly little goofball she is.  I just love what I've seen of her personality so far.  I really think she's going to be silly.  I can just feel it, and I see it in her eyes... I'm sure she will be providing us with years of entertainment ;) 

Love to everyone!!xoxo <3

Mothers Day 2011

What can I say?  BEST. DAY. EVER!!!!!  I cannot express how grateful I am to have been blessed with this sweet little girl. 

For the past 8 years Mothers Day has been a painful day for me, and to have it once again be joyful was inexplicably wonderful!!!  Dave's parents came to visit and his dad helped him with some projects around the house and Gail did my gardening, which is AMAZING because I hate doing it, but love the finished product!  We have a lovely little flower garden in the front and she also planted me a lovely herb garden.  Dave and I really enjoy cooking so we're really excited about that!  All in all it was a great day spent with loved ones which I'll never forget.   I started the day snuggling in bed with my favorite boy and my favorite girl. 

Now that's a happy mama!!!  :D :D 

Here's a photo of Fiona who was representing well on Mothers Day.

For my first joyous Mothers Day, Dave created a really delightful and sentimental gift.  He took Fiona to a place in Squirrel Hill called Color Me Mine where you can decorate your own pottery and he made me a giant coffee mug with Fiona's hand and footprints all over it.  I LOVE it!!!! 

Looking forward to all of the Mothers Days to come....   :) 

Fiona's "un-birthday"

Today is Fiona's "un-birthday".... AKA my original due date :)  I'm celebrating by eating copious amounts of Easter cut out cookies and chocolate, naturally.  ;)  I can't believe she's already been here for almost 7 weeks!!  I'm so glad we got to spend all this extra time with her!!

Life at home has been great! Dave and I took two weeks off together to just bond and spend with Fiona when she came home from the hospital.  We didn't take any visitors and we just spent some real quality time together as a family.  It was truly amazing and I feel blessed to have had the ability to do so. 

I have been really impressed by Dave! He never had much exposure to babies, or any real interest in holding anyone else's baby, so he was a little apprehensive about Fiona but I have to say that he really is a natural.  Fatherhood looks very good on him, and I feel lucky that our little girl will have such a great male presence in her life.  He changes a diaper like a champ, and he survived his first time being a victim of a projectile spit-up quite well :)  I love seeing them snuggle together and how she recognizes the sound of his voice as well.  It has made me appreciate Dave on an even deeper level and I'm so looking forward to raising her together!!

Today is my first day back to my full time job, and I'm working from home.  I can't even begin to express how grateful I am that I was afforded that option.  Every time I thought about taking her to daycare somewhere I was literally sick over it. I'm not knocking daycare, trust me.  I was a nanny for a few VERY young infants myself, and I know that you have to do what you have to do to pay the bills.   I have just always had a very strong desire to be at home with my children, at least until they were school age, and this is a nice compromise.  Thank you, Universe!! Much gratitude!!

So, what's a day like in the Reszkowski household?? Let me fill you in.  Fiona is still feeding every 2.5-3 hours day and night.  She usually stays awake after one of her feedings for sure, sometimes after two of them, but which feeding that might be is always a surprise to us.  When it's after the 2AM feeding like last night, it's not always a pleasant surprise ;)  Our poor little one has been really struggling with her digestion.  They say it's normal, and that her digestive system just isn't fully matured yet, but we feel so bad for her sometimes.  To begin with, our little girl is not very ladylike :)  She farts more than any human I've ever met, and you wouldn't believe that sound came out of such a teeny little peanut.  SERIOUSLY.  There's been times when I would have SWORN it was Dave, just blaming it on Fiona, but, nope, that's our girl!!  Anywhooo, I digress...  Sometimes when she's trying to sleep after a feeding she just struggles.... squirming all around and pulling her knees up, grunting like crazy, etc. etc.  She's pretty miserable and sometimes inconsolable so we're hoping that clears up sometime soon, being that she was supposed to be born today.  Other than that, she's aces!!  We have a person from the Alliance for infants and toddlers come to the house monthly to track her development, since she's a preemie, and at her first visit Fiona did very well and even exceeded some expectations.  She's a rockstar, so we weren't suprised ;) ;)  She can focus very well on objects and our faces, and she's even tracking them back and forth.  Her muscle tone looks good and we're doing some stretches with her legs and feet to help them straighten out a bit from being so squished up in utero.  We spend at least 15 minutes a day when she's quiet and alert doing "tummy time" so that she can work on lifting her head.  She's getting pretty good and turning it back and forth, and she actually seems to enjoy being on her tummy.  She is very alert when she's awake and you can see her just taking everything in.  She always looks like she's just about to say something profound.  :)  I think she's going to be a chatterbox (I know I was)!! 

We have been taking some video of her with our flip video and sometimes posting them to Facebook and YouTube. The link to my YouTube channel is: http://www.youtube.com/user/MsScarlettBegonia?feature=mhum if you'd like to follow those. 

We had her photos taken and they turned out really wonderfully. Some of the pictures are on Facebook.  We were just thrilled with how well they turned out!!  She's just so darn cute that we can't believe we made her!!! 

All in all, we are crazy in love with her and just taking everything day by day, trying to stay fully present and savor each moment we have as a family.  Thanks for following!! 

xoxo 

Settling in...

Fiona had her first pediatrician appointment yesterday, and it went quite well. At discharge from the hospital on Monday she weighed 5lbs 9oz, and she weighed in at 5lbs 14.5oz at the doctor's office yesterday. Our little piglet is almost 6lbs already!!!! She measured 18.5 inches in length. She's getting so big I can hardly believe it. (Meanwhile, everyone else in the world thinks she's miniscule, and a boy, apparently, but I WILL NOT start dressing her all in pink and  constantly put twenty bows in her hair... I digress...) I also cannot believe that she is nearly a month old. It seems so crazy since we've only had her home for less than a week now!!

She's adjusting well to being home. Brady is still her little guard dog. Any time either Dave or I check on her in her bassinet, he RACES over and looks in on her as well. He also sits under her swing when she's in there, and still does a bit of crying when she really gets to fussing. It's pretty cute.

The pediatrician told us to get her off the hospital scheduled feedings (at 10,1,4,7, repeat) and start feeding her on demand. We started that yesterday afternoon. I think it's more of an adjustment for us!! (Because we now have to learn to decipher her different cries,but that's all part of parenthood) She did well last night, sleeping for about 3.5-4 hrs between feedings, and we're quite happy with that.

We are also going to enroll in the Alliance program for Infants and Toddlers/Early Intervention at the suggestion of both the NICU nurses and our pediatrician.  They will assist us with anything we need with her being a preemie and help us to better understand the developmental progress we can expect to see.  It can be a little tough to decipher those with a preemie.  I don't really anticipate her having a ton of developmental delays, but one never can tell.  We are doing tummy time with her when she is alert and awake daily, and I'm not gonna lie, I think sometimes that she has freakish infant strength.  She can already lift her head when she's on her stomach.  She's not holding it up for very long, but I was surprised she could lift it!!  I'm also fairly certain that she could beat me in an arm wrestling match.  She's a tough cookie. 

All in all, we're really enjoying having her home and spending this time together as a family.

Thanks again for all of your love for our little girl!!

Tomorrow, tomorrow, I love you tomorrow.... You're only a day away!!!!

Ok folks, we heard from the doctor this morning that as long as Fiona behaves herself today, she will be released TOMORROW!!!!   We are super duper psyched, and obviously not telling her.  Clearly, she is a baby genius that understands every word we say and if she so much as catches wind of this plan, we are sure that she will work her magic once again and we will just be moving straight in to the back room of the NICU because we refuse to be separated from her any longer. 

I cannot even begin to imagine what life will be like now.  I know that new parents are tired and are woken up multiple times in the middle of the night, blah blah blah.  Get serious.  MY BABY IS GOING TO BE IN THE SAME ROOM AS ME.  This is the most amazing concept ever imagined, and I swear if they change their mind I'm going black ops and busting her up out of that piece, and don't get in my way.

What I will not miss:
-Scrubbing in and gowning up just to touch my daughter

-The 70 million cords and wires that are constantly attached to Fiona

-The sound of her alarms when she desats or just gets angry.... Yes, she has what we like to call a "temper alarm".... her heart rate immediately shoots up over 200 and her alarm goes off when she gets mad  (I can't imagine where she gets that from....)

-Her isolette

-Someone else feeding my daughter before I arrive, even though I show up for EVERY FEEDING precisely on time

-The thought of her waking up and no one being there to love on her

-The drive to and from UPMC Mercy 10 times a day

-The parking ramp and the most annoying woman EVER that they got to record the message for when you push the button to get your parking ticket. 

What I will miss:

-Some of the nurses in the NICU that were just plain amazing and allowed me to sleep soundly at night knowing that my daughter was receiving the BEST care possible. 

Um yeah.... that's it.  :) 

We're just so grateful that this truly is about to become a reality and that we'll FINALLY get to spend some time together as a family.  We've been waiting for this for a very long time, and it's amazing that it's finally upon us. 

Thanks so much for all of your love and support throughout both past and present difficult times.  It's meant the world to us and we are so blessed to share this with all of you. 

xoxo

Ok, you can take her home! Just kidding, just kidding, just kidding, just kidding....

So, as many of you may know, Fiona was born at 4lbs 9oz at 33 weeks and although they had prepared us for her to be on some respiratory support (nasal cannula/CPAP/ventilator) and/or could need some support for feedings, she came out and was like,  "Child PLEASE, I got this"  (Note the Chad Ochocinco reference.  You're welcome, Dave.)  She was feeding and breathing fantastically on her own.  They prepared us for her to stay in the NICU for approximately 10 days or so depending on her progress, but most likely until she would have been at 35 weeks.  She was right on schedule and really her most pressing issue was her body temperature, which wasn't shocking because she was such a teeny peanut.  She lost some weight after she was born, which was expected, and had gotten down to 4lbs 5oz, and slowly creeped back up to 4lbs 8oz.  She finally passed her cold stress test, and they put her in an open bed, and took her out of the isolette, we watched all of the lovely going home videos-- car seat and sleep safety, shaken baby/SIDS, infant CPR (thanks for the panic attack, NICU).  She passed her car seat test, and they set us up to "nest" with her overnight in a postpartum room.  This just means that we could spend the night with her and have the support of the nurses if we should need it throughout the night, before they discharged her and we took her home.  So, Saturday the 19th we did just that. 

Unfortunately, throughout the night I noticed that she was struggling with a terrible cough, especially between the 1am and 4am feedings.  I didn't sleep at all because I felt just awful for her and I knew something wasn't right.  The nurse/doctor came in at 6am to get her for when the doctor's do rounds in the NICU, and I told the nurse about the cough.  When the nurse came back after rounds at 10, she said that she hadn't heard her cough at all, but she mentioned it to the doctor. The doc then came to talk to us, and said that she was going to keep her for another day at least so that she was at least 48hrs in her open bed before discharge.  I again said something about the cough, and she said she would keep an eye on it, but that she might just have a cold. 

The next day it was apparent that she was coughing repeatedly and was becoming really pokey with her feedings and struggling with her body temp again.  They decided to keep her longer.  It wasn't for a couple of days that they decided to actually culture the snot they were repeatedly having to suction out of her nose, and when they did they discovered she has RSV. 

This put the entire NICU into a tizzy... it's a very serious respiratory virus for preemies, and it's highly contagious, so they had to put her in isolation and the nurses have to gown and glove to handle her and everyone has to wash their hands a bazillion times.  YUP, we're THOSE people. 

This was obviously very upsetting to us, and the literature they gave us was terrifying.  They also told us they haven't had a case of RSV in the NICU at Mercy for DECADES.  Fabulous.  Of course it's OUR child that has it.  It couldn't just be EASY, after all. 

This RSV has kicked our poor little Fiona's butt, but she has proven to be a real fighter.  She's been back and forth on various levels of respiratory support and feeding tubes, but she's stayed strong and is now looking like the worst is behind us and is on the mend, and we are more grateful than words can express.

As many of you know, Fiona is our miracle baby.  She was our fourth pregnancy, and decidedly our last attempt to have a baby.  Our first daughter, Kalista, was stillborn at 22 weeks.  We then had an early miscarriage at 8.5 weeks during our second pregnancy.  We waited 5 years and our third pregnancy was a molar pregnancy that resulted in uterine cancer. I had to undergo chemotherapy and then wait at least one year after my final treatment to even try getting pregnant again.  We waited over two just to be safe.  We had decided that we would try one more time, and if it didn't work, we would accept that it wasn't meant to be because we had been through enough.  

Thank goodness we made that decision, because that fourth pregnancy gave us our Fiona Claire, and she was determined to come out and meet us as early as she possibly could.  She has a fighting spirit and she's a survivor, and we are totally in love with her.  She's the best thing that ever happened to us.  Grateful does not even begin to express it..... Now if we could just take her home...  :)

A Child is Born

Not just any child.... our little jokester!!  She broke my water at 8:15pm on Monday March 7th and was born on Thursday March 10th.  That's right.... three days of labor.  She's stubborn, what can I say?  (I'm not surprised!!)  Let me tell you the story....

I'm lying on the couch in the perfectly textbook prego position on my left side, pillow between legs, watching an episode of "Deliver Me" (sweet irony) when my water breaks.  I panic, look at Dave and say "Ummm... I'm leaking and I'm pretty sure I'm not peeing my pants right now!!!!"  I run to the toilet in our basement (don't get me started on that...) and yup, for sure, I'm not peeing--definite water breakage.  Small heartattack ensues and Dave and I just stare at each other like "Holy crap, this is it, at 33 weeks!!!"  Repeat heartattack.  I call my doctor's office and they tell me to come straight to the hospital.  Guess we really should have packed that damn bag...

We get to the hospital and they hook me up to the monitors and check me.  Yup.  3cms dilated and having contractions about 4 min apart.  Fantastic!  They take a swab to make sure that my water has, in fact, broken and it's confirmed.  This lunatic is in labor, and also in total denial.  LOL.  I was completely resisting it and if they would have let me stand up, I would have thrown a full on temper tantrum over it.  The doctor decides to put me on IV fluids to see if it will slow down my contractions a bit, but anticipates that I will deliver the next day sometime.  I'm admitted to a labor and delivery suite and told I'm just supposed to wait.  They won't do anything to accelerate my labor because I'm so early, but they won't do anything to stop it since my water already broke.  The IV fluids did their job to slow my labor and my contractions changed to about 10 min apart.   Over the next two days, they kept me on IV antibiotics and each doc said the same thing... My body will decide when it's ready.  I would either go into active labor or develop an infection in which case they would accelerate the labor and help me deliver.   At least I had a few days to come to terms with the fact that my vagina would never be the same.... 

After two full days of my labor just hanging out in the early stages and not quite ever getting and staying in "active" labor, the docs then prepared me for the extended visit.  They decided that since I was so early, they were going to just try to hold me out as long as they possibly could as long as I wasn't showing any signs of infection.  Dave, who had been sleeping at the hospital with me the previous two nights, decided to go home and sleep with Brady and go to work the next day, if I wasn't going to deliver.  The nurses decided to let me get a good night's sleep for once and since I was done receiving fluids via IV, they unhooked me from the IV tower and also from both the contraction and fetal heart monitor.  Ahhhh... freedom!! :)

Naturally, Fiona took this as her cue to shake things up a bit.  I woke up at 4am and went to the bathroom and when I got back into bed at 4:04 I had a major contraction.  Oooh... that was not pleasant.  Hmm, I should probably write that down and keep track of these bad boys since I'm not on the monitor anymore....  4:10- another one.  Recorded.  4:16-  this kind of sucks.  I better text Dave and ring the nurse, just in case cuz these HURT LIKE HELL.  4:21- These are pretty regular, no text back from Dave.. I better call him.   I said to him that I was having contractions and they weren't the same and could he please come and be with me...  I also might have mentioned that he could take a shower and grab some work clothes because I wasn't sure if this was actually going to happen. 

The nurse came in and I told her I was having contractions regularly that were very uncomfortable.  I showed her the styrofoam cup I had diligently recorded them on, and then promptly asked if I could take a shower.  She laughed right in my face, and said, "Ummm, no.  You need hooked up to the monitor immediately. I'm going to let Dr. Rapkin know you're contracting."  Oh great, so I can't take a shower, it's been three days since I shaved, and the young male doctor is going to deliver my baby... fantastic.  >:/   OMG this hurts like no other, who cares about the shower. I'm over it.  I tell the nurse that if these keep up, I'm going to need drugs.  STAT.  OMG, they are coming harder and faster as I am hooked up to the monitor.  She asks if I'm having the urge to push.  I say no.  I have another contraction that makes a liar out of me. The doc shows upand checks me.  I'm 9 and 3/4cms dilated.  Umm hi.  Where the F*#@ is DAVE?!  The doctor then becomes concerned because Fiona's heartrate is not responding well to the intensity of my contractions.  It becomes crystal clear to me that there are going to be no drugs involved in this delivery, and I am now clinging to the rails of the hospital bed as if my life depended on it and trying to breathe.  (This is the point where I literally want to punch that stupid woman who taught the Preparing for Childbirth class in the face because there is NO FORM OF BREATHING that would even begin to help) The nurses and doctor are trying to put me in different positions to help the baby's heartrate. They put me on oxygen.  Nothing is working.  They give me a turbo shot to slow the contractions down, and I'm trying to "blow off" the urge to push.  They are now calling Dave because getting this baby out is now an urgent matter and it's time for me to push.  He's at home, letting Brady out, taking his sweet time (because I sort of told him he could).  They tell him I'm 9cms and I'm pretty sure he probably had a heart attack.  Did I mention that the Liberty Tunnel is closed nightly from 10pm - 6am?  FAIL.  Needless to say, Dave walked in the room when her head was 3/4 of the way out, and I pushed two more times and she was here at 5:25am.  (Note the time:  first contraction to delivery = 1 hr 20 min.  She wasn't messing around) 

Notice that I skipped all of the gory gory traumatic details about the pushing, stitching, and me begging for it to be over and swearing like the worst cliche that I couldn't do it.  You can thank me later. I was seriously traumatized after the fact, given that we held her for about 20 seconds before they whisked her away.  The next time we got to see her wasn't until after 11am, but it was so worth the wait.  :)  She's so amazing in every possible way.