I guess since I haven't blogged in months I'll do a catch up!
Alice Violet Ladislas was born on Sept. 26th at 11:29 a.m. I was induced 2 weeks early because of the pre-eclampsia. I had been on bedrest for 4 weeks leading up to that, so I was very happy to be induced.
We went in to the hospital on Saturday night. The plan was for them to put cream on my cervix at 9 pm and 1 am which would soften it to help it dilate. Then at 5 am they would start the pitocin to get contractions to start. At 9 am my doctor would round and break my water.
The first dose was put on my cervix at 9 pm while I was dilated to 1 and effaced 75%. My family, JM and I hung out in the hospital room watching tv and just goofing off, trying to pass the time. Then at 1 am another dose was put on my cervix. I believe I was dilated to 2 and completely effaced...not the progress they were hoping to see.
I took advantage of the offer of Ambien to help me sleep and around 3 am I woke up with a weird feeling. I woke JM up and had him help me to the bathroom which is where my water broke on its own. We were both kind of shocked and not real sure what happened at first! Our nurse was very surprised and said in her experience, rarely does your water break on its own when you're induced.
As soon as my water broke the contractions started fast and hard. I was in a lot of pain and asked if it was too early to get the epidural. The nurse said if my contractions were strong enough to break my water on its own, then it was definitely an ok time! They came right in and placed the epidural which was a little difficult because my contractions were so close together he had to keep stopping to let me breathe for them.
After the epidural was placed I was given my first dose of pain meds which knocked me out. I woke up around 9 when my doctor came in for rounds. Just for the heck of it my doctor checked me herself while she was in there. I was completely dilated and effaced! Talk about a great labor, I went from 2 cm to 10 cm in my sleep! Of course that was the only easy part ;-)
I pushed for about 2 hours but Ali's little head (she really did have an incredibly small head) got stuck on my pelvic bone somehow. I pushed and pushed and pushed but I couldn't get her head to pop over the bone. The doctor came in and had to use forceps, which of course gave me a 4th degree tear (yes, for those of you who don't know, that's a COMPLETE tear). But Ali popped right out when she used the forceps and she was perfect! Quite the conehead at first but it fixed itself within a couple of days.
My mom was in the delivery room with us which worked out great because JM was able to go be with Ali while they stitched me up and my mom held my hand. Everything else is kind of a blur but I know it all worked out great. My dad, brother and Dara were at the hospital and got to come in after we were all cleaned up. They all (and my mom) pretty much lived at the hospital while we were there bringing in good food and such which was greatly appreciated.
Since then Ali has been the greatest thing to happen in my life. She amazes me more and more every day. I never knew you could feel a love like this. She holds her head up like a pro and smiles all the time. She cries maybe once a day and it's usually because she's too tired. She started sleeping through the night at 2 months old and hasn't woken up during the night since. Truly the perfect baby.
I went back to work at the beginning of December and we've been very blessed to not have to use daycare. My mom cares for her most of the time, with Dara and JM filling in other times. Since JM took this third job I don't have to work 3 days a week anymore. I scheduled myself for Tuesdays from here on out because Ali can go to work with Mom (Nani) in the morning and then my mom takes her home for the afternoon. To try to catch up on our bills I think I'm going to pick up Sunday nights because JM's off on Sundays so we can spend the day as a family, then he can put her to bed Sunday night and I'm home Monday morning when she wakes up. Her and I will take our naps together and she'll never even know I was gone.
We've done a lot in the last 3 months. Ali was dedicated at church on Dec. 12th, was a lamb for Halloween, went to her first pumpkin patch....lots of good stuff. Here's a link to our pictures so you can look through them all!
http://picasaweb.google.com/shannonmoliver
We also had our dear friend take her 3 month/Christmas pictures. I absolutely love her pictures and she has an amazing style. Ali absolutely loves her and the pictures turn out wonderful! Here's a link to the website, click 'client moments', then our name and the password is "Ali".
http://momentsphoto.biz/
What used to be known as The Wonderful World of Shan is now The Wonderful Life of Miss Ali Vi and family.
Monday, December 27, 2010
Let it out
Every so often, something happens and I just have to complain. My husband will probably tell you that it happens all the time ;-). But sometimes complaining to him isn't enough, I still feel like it's bottled up inside of me and I'll explode if I don't talk about it. So, here we are.
I occasionally am known to view others from my pedestal. Occasionally. But there are some things that I hope I will never ever do.
Now that I'm a parent, there is nothing in this world I wouldn't give or do for my child. As a matter of fact, I'm writing this while working a night shift. Most of you know that before Ali there was no way I would've EVER even considered doing this. But we could use the money for me so I needed to pick up more shifts but I hate being away from her. This way the only thing I miss out on is putting her to bed. It sucks, but she doesn't even know I'm gone. Then tomorrow her and I get to take our naps together! And she's worth every second of it.
This is how I was raised. My parents would have and still would move heaven and earth for me if I needed them. This is how all my friends and the rest of my family was raised. This is the only way I know. My relationships with others, my work, and my marriage will always remain important to me and I will continue to work on them, but Ali takes presidence.
So how in the world could a parent not speak to their child on Christmas. No, there was no argument or anything like that. The parent just didn't have time I guess. The child even called the parent and left a message. But the parent couldn't take 30 seconds out of their day to call and just say Merry Christmas.
I'm making a vow to myself that no one, including myself, will ever be more important than my child. I truly believe this is how you raise confident children. By making sure they know they are loved and cared about. Not just assuming they know. But by showing them, even when they're adults.
I occasionally am known to view others from my pedestal. Occasionally. But there are some things that I hope I will never ever do.
Now that I'm a parent, there is nothing in this world I wouldn't give or do for my child. As a matter of fact, I'm writing this while working a night shift. Most of you know that before Ali there was no way I would've EVER even considered doing this. But we could use the money for me so I needed to pick up more shifts but I hate being away from her. This way the only thing I miss out on is putting her to bed. It sucks, but she doesn't even know I'm gone. Then tomorrow her and I get to take our naps together! And she's worth every second of it.
This is how I was raised. My parents would have and still would move heaven and earth for me if I needed them. This is how all my friends and the rest of my family was raised. This is the only way I know. My relationships with others, my work, and my marriage will always remain important to me and I will continue to work on them, but Ali takes presidence.
So how in the world could a parent not speak to their child on Christmas. No, there was no argument or anything like that. The parent just didn't have time I guess. The child even called the parent and left a message. But the parent couldn't take 30 seconds out of their day to call and just say Merry Christmas.
I'm making a vow to myself that no one, including myself, will ever be more important than my child. I truly believe this is how you raise confident children. By making sure they know they are loved and cared about. Not just assuming they know. But by showing them, even when they're adults.
Sunday, December 26, 2010
Updated!
Wow...having a child takes up a lot of your time!!! I just logged onto this and realized how long it's been since I've blogged. There were still polls of how long Ali would be and how much she would weigh. There was even a tracker at the top for how big she was in my belly!!! I've deleted all that stuff and updated the site, although I did keep the color scheme of her room because let's face it, it's pretty. But I will make an effort to keep this updated now that Ali's here so everyone can know her latest happenings. I probably should change the name of the blog from Shan's Life to something more fitting!
Tuesday, September 7, 2010
Where you stand
Every so often (luckily not very often), someone does or says something that lets you know just where you stand in their life. With these types of people, you should know to expect it, but I guess you still hold onto that hope that maybe they'll be different with this situation or that. It's always just a bit disappointing.
Wednesday, September 1, 2010
Update time
I realized that a lot has happened since I last updated! You would think I'd be blogging nonstop with nothing else to do on bedrest, but it's really uncomfortable to sit at the computer. My belly is too big to reach the keyboard!
A week after the last appointment we blogged about I went in for another doctor's appointment and my bi-weekly NST. JM had to work that morning so Mom took me...although the doctor has never actually said it, I don't technically think I'm supposed to do any driving. The doctor's appointment went alright, Ali sounded great but my blood pressure was still climbing. Afterwards we headed over to the NST and during that, my blood pressure increased a little more. The nurse called my doctor who wanted to keep me at the hospital overnight to monitor the blood pressure as it was getting dangerously (as in, let's get the baby out) high. JM got there after work and we spent the afternoon with dimmed lights and low sounds, trying to get my blood pressure to drop. Somehow, it ended up increasing even more. At one point in the afternoon it was 191/99. Yea, not good. I did get the opportunity to do another urine test (which we all know I love) but at least this time someone else had to keep it on ice and it wasn't in my fridge or in a cooler in my bathroom.
Around 6 pm or so my blood pressure started to even out and they ok'd JM going out to get us food and turning my lights up. During this whole time I had no symptoms of preeclampsia (I actually haven't had ANY symptoms the whole time other than swelling) so they're trying to be cautious with me, but it's hard when I feel fine! JM came back with dinner and I started having contractions. They started just as one every 45 minutes or so, but they were much more severe than any others I had felt. Ali was only on the monitor every 4 hours so I was the only one noticing these for the time being. JM was writing the contractions down for me and all of the sudden they were lasting 45 seconds to a minute and happening every minute or two. I scarfed down my food before we called the nurse (I knew if I was in labor I wouldn't be able to eat and I needed something in me! I do have priorities!!!). Luckily, I had the absolute sweetest nurse that night who hooked me up to the monitors and I was indeed in labor. I was only dilated to 1 but I was 75% effaced and the contractions were increasing in strength and length.
My doctor's partner was on call and she made the decision to try stopping the contractions. We were not thrilled. I was a couple of days from being considered term, Ali was a healthy size and I was expected to have her premature anyways because of the preeclampsia. First the nurse gave me Nubain, which was a lot of fun at first. It has the same effect as being drunk and I don't think it even took a minute to hit. I suddenly found the overhead lights HILARIOUS and was laughing so hard I was crying. But once the 'fun' part wore off I vomited...not fun. Even with the meds, my contractions kept increasing. JM and I were cheering Ali on, telling her to fight the meds :-) The nurse had told us that if I was in true labor and my body was ready, no meds would stop her.
Next up was Terbutaline. It made my heartrate increase and I had the shakes...on top of being nauseous and having contractions. Ali was a little fighter and I kept increasing in strength of contractions. I thought at that point they'd let me deliver, but I guess my doctor's partner was determined to NOT let that happen. After that didn't work they were going to start giving combinations of meds. Nubain and phenergan were next and within minutes I passed out. This was probably close to 11pm. I was in and out of consciousness for the next few hours and was still having strong contractions, but by 2 am they had dropped to 4 an hour and the nurse unhooked me from monitors and I was officially done laboring.
It took until about mid-morning the next day to get to the point that I could keep my eyes open to have a conversation, and by then I was having small contractions a couple of times an hour, which happens daily for me. JM and I were really disappointed. We had gotten so excited when the meds weren't working and we thought we were having her. But I guess either her or my body wasn't totally ready so they both get some more time to prepare.
My urine test while we were in the hospital showed that the protein was less than the preeclampsia level. It also turns out my doctor's partner didn't know I was preeclamptic to begin with. I have to wonder if she would've let me deliver had she known that...but oh well. When I discussed the low protein count with my doctor yesterday she said that I am still preeclamptic (you aren't suddenly NOT preeclamptic) but it's being controlled with bedrest. She also has absolutely no desire to get Ali out any earlier so it's up to Ali to make an earlier appearance.
Side note, not sure if I've mentioned this but we have been scheduled for induction. We will be admitted to the hospital Saturday, Sept. 11th at 7 pm. At that time they'll put the tablet cream on my cervix to thin and dilate it, then they'll start the pitocin on Sunday morning with expected delivery that day, the 12th.
We also had an ultrasound yesterday. Again, we got a little excited because the tech couldn't find much amniotic fluid. While this isn't a good thing, it means they'll induce you right away. Of course, she finally found a big pocket under my left ribcage. This now explains why her movement has been giving me so much pain...there's very very little amniotic fluid anywhere else so everytime she moves there's no buffer between her and I. She has what she needs in that pocket, but I don't! She's in position and all of that, but that's never been a problem. She is, however, kind of out of room! Her head is so far into my pelvis that on the ultrasound we were only able to see her lips and bit of her nose. Her butt is just under my right ribcage and her little feet are in my left ribs. They think she's weighing about 7 pounds 7 ounces, which is an appropriate gain from our last ultrasound. Her bladder is incredibly full, too, which was hilarious. Poor little thing is going to come out with her legs crossed if she keeps trying to hold it in!
After we had the ultrasound we met with the doctor for our weekly appointment. Not a whole lot to note there except my blood pressure was 154/108. You can tell she's getting frustrated (as are we) because if I was having ANY symptoms, they could induce me. But I'm not having anything...at all. She said yesterday she thinks that the high blood pressure isn't being caused by preeclampsia so she went ahead and started me on blood pressure medicine for the rest of the pregnancy. And before everyone starts telling me to relax and all of that...this high blood pressure isn't being caused continuously by anything I'm doing or feeling. This is just my body's reaction to the baby. Bedrest is meant to help take the pressure off my vena cava and increase blood flow, therefore decreasing blood pressure, but the bedrest is obviously not helping with my blood pressure, just the preeclampsia.
With the high blood pressure, I had to do another 24 hour urine. There's really nothing new to find on it, it's more routine now than anything just to make sure bedrest is still keeping the preeclampsia under control.
Today I had another NST which took FOREVER. I am incredibly tired and I think Ali is, too. Her heartrate was steady and she was moving, but they want to see increases and decreases in her heartrate and she was not cooperating. After an hour (yes, an hour), the triage nurse gave me some apple juice to try to get Ali to react more. Another 20 minutes later, no change (since I don't drink juice with the gestational diabetes, it usually makes her jump up and run around in there). They decided to do a biophysical profile and put all the orders in. About 10 minutes later I hear the the high risk delivery team get to the triage desk and suddenly Ali is partying hard. I heard Dr. Dungy ask the nurse if it's bed 2 that they're there for, then they all laughed at seeing her monitor and they cancelled the test. Silly little Ali. At least she acted up before they got in the room and I was charged!
So now we're back to waiting. JM and I did go out for lunch yesterday at Tijuana Flats (yum!!!) and both tried some of their 'death notice' hot sauce. No contractions, but some very sick bellies. Another side note, if you live in Indy, check out Sullivan Hardware's mums. They're only 6.99 for an 8 inch pot but they are HUGE and beautiful. We went there after the doctor's visit to get a bush to plant in our back bed...it was the anniversary of the miscarriage and we wanted to do something for it. The mums were an exciting surprise.
We have another NST Saturday morning, doctor's appointment Tuesday, NST Wednesday, then induction on Saturday! Yay!!!
A week after the last appointment we blogged about I went in for another doctor's appointment and my bi-weekly NST. JM had to work that morning so Mom took me...although the doctor has never actually said it, I don't technically think I'm supposed to do any driving. The doctor's appointment went alright, Ali sounded great but my blood pressure was still climbing. Afterwards we headed over to the NST and during that, my blood pressure increased a little more. The nurse called my doctor who wanted to keep me at the hospital overnight to monitor the blood pressure as it was getting dangerously (as in, let's get the baby out) high. JM got there after work and we spent the afternoon with dimmed lights and low sounds, trying to get my blood pressure to drop. Somehow, it ended up increasing even more. At one point in the afternoon it was 191/99. Yea, not good. I did get the opportunity to do another urine test (which we all know I love) but at least this time someone else had to keep it on ice and it wasn't in my fridge or in a cooler in my bathroom.
Around 6 pm or so my blood pressure started to even out and they ok'd JM going out to get us food and turning my lights up. During this whole time I had no symptoms of preeclampsia (I actually haven't had ANY symptoms the whole time other than swelling) so they're trying to be cautious with me, but it's hard when I feel fine! JM came back with dinner and I started having contractions. They started just as one every 45 minutes or so, but they were much more severe than any others I had felt. Ali was only on the monitor every 4 hours so I was the only one noticing these for the time being. JM was writing the contractions down for me and all of the sudden they were lasting 45 seconds to a minute and happening every minute or two. I scarfed down my food before we called the nurse (I knew if I was in labor I wouldn't be able to eat and I needed something in me! I do have priorities!!!). Luckily, I had the absolute sweetest nurse that night who hooked me up to the monitors and I was indeed in labor. I was only dilated to 1 but I was 75% effaced and the contractions were increasing in strength and length.
My doctor's partner was on call and she made the decision to try stopping the contractions. We were not thrilled. I was a couple of days from being considered term, Ali was a healthy size and I was expected to have her premature anyways because of the preeclampsia. First the nurse gave me Nubain, which was a lot of fun at first. It has the same effect as being drunk and I don't think it even took a minute to hit. I suddenly found the overhead lights HILARIOUS and was laughing so hard I was crying. But once the 'fun' part wore off I vomited...not fun. Even with the meds, my contractions kept increasing. JM and I were cheering Ali on, telling her to fight the meds :-) The nurse had told us that if I was in true labor and my body was ready, no meds would stop her.
Next up was Terbutaline. It made my heartrate increase and I had the shakes...on top of being nauseous and having contractions. Ali was a little fighter and I kept increasing in strength of contractions. I thought at that point they'd let me deliver, but I guess my doctor's partner was determined to NOT let that happen. After that didn't work they were going to start giving combinations of meds. Nubain and phenergan were next and within minutes I passed out. This was probably close to 11pm. I was in and out of consciousness for the next few hours and was still having strong contractions, but by 2 am they had dropped to 4 an hour and the nurse unhooked me from monitors and I was officially done laboring.
It took until about mid-morning the next day to get to the point that I could keep my eyes open to have a conversation, and by then I was having small contractions a couple of times an hour, which happens daily for me. JM and I were really disappointed. We had gotten so excited when the meds weren't working and we thought we were having her. But I guess either her or my body wasn't totally ready so they both get some more time to prepare.
My urine test while we were in the hospital showed that the protein was less than the preeclampsia level. It also turns out my doctor's partner didn't know I was preeclamptic to begin with. I have to wonder if she would've let me deliver had she known that...but oh well. When I discussed the low protein count with my doctor yesterday she said that I am still preeclamptic (you aren't suddenly NOT preeclamptic) but it's being controlled with bedrest. She also has absolutely no desire to get Ali out any earlier so it's up to Ali to make an earlier appearance.
Side note, not sure if I've mentioned this but we have been scheduled for induction. We will be admitted to the hospital Saturday, Sept. 11th at 7 pm. At that time they'll put the tablet cream on my cervix to thin and dilate it, then they'll start the pitocin on Sunday morning with expected delivery that day, the 12th.
We also had an ultrasound yesterday. Again, we got a little excited because the tech couldn't find much amniotic fluid. While this isn't a good thing, it means they'll induce you right away. Of course, she finally found a big pocket under my left ribcage. This now explains why her movement has been giving me so much pain...there's very very little amniotic fluid anywhere else so everytime she moves there's no buffer between her and I. She has what she needs in that pocket, but I don't! She's in position and all of that, but that's never been a problem. She is, however, kind of out of room! Her head is so far into my pelvis that on the ultrasound we were only able to see her lips and bit of her nose. Her butt is just under my right ribcage and her little feet are in my left ribs. They think she's weighing about 7 pounds 7 ounces, which is an appropriate gain from our last ultrasound. Her bladder is incredibly full, too, which was hilarious. Poor little thing is going to come out with her legs crossed if she keeps trying to hold it in!
After we had the ultrasound we met with the doctor for our weekly appointment. Not a whole lot to note there except my blood pressure was 154/108. You can tell she's getting frustrated (as are we) because if I was having ANY symptoms, they could induce me. But I'm not having anything...at all. She said yesterday she thinks that the high blood pressure isn't being caused by preeclampsia so she went ahead and started me on blood pressure medicine for the rest of the pregnancy. And before everyone starts telling me to relax and all of that...this high blood pressure isn't being caused continuously by anything I'm doing or feeling. This is just my body's reaction to the baby. Bedrest is meant to help take the pressure off my vena cava and increase blood flow, therefore decreasing blood pressure, but the bedrest is obviously not helping with my blood pressure, just the preeclampsia.
With the high blood pressure, I had to do another 24 hour urine. There's really nothing new to find on it, it's more routine now than anything just to make sure bedrest is still keeping the preeclampsia under control.
Today I had another NST which took FOREVER. I am incredibly tired and I think Ali is, too. Her heartrate was steady and she was moving, but they want to see increases and decreases in her heartrate and she was not cooperating. After an hour (yes, an hour), the triage nurse gave me some apple juice to try to get Ali to react more. Another 20 minutes later, no change (since I don't drink juice with the gestational diabetes, it usually makes her jump up and run around in there). They decided to do a biophysical profile and put all the orders in. About 10 minutes later I hear the the high risk delivery team get to the triage desk and suddenly Ali is partying hard. I heard Dr. Dungy ask the nurse if it's bed 2 that they're there for, then they all laughed at seeing her monitor and they cancelled the test. Silly little Ali. At least she acted up before they got in the room and I was charged!
So now we're back to waiting. JM and I did go out for lunch yesterday at Tijuana Flats (yum!!!) and both tried some of their 'death notice' hot sauce. No contractions, but some very sick bellies. Another side note, if you live in Indy, check out Sullivan Hardware's mums. They're only 6.99 for an 8 inch pot but they are HUGE and beautiful. We went there after the doctor's visit to get a bush to plant in our back bed...it was the anniversary of the miscarriage and we wanted to do something for it. The mums were an exciting surprise.
We have another NST Saturday morning, doctor's appointment Tuesday, NST Wednesday, then induction on Saturday! Yay!!!
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