Visitors and random tid bits

It is sunday evening (1/30/2011) and my eyes are heavy and my body is sore.  We had a busy but good weekend with lots of visitors.  I think I need to slow down a bit because my body is reminding me today that I went thru a major surgery a week ago.  It's time to listen to the doc and let myself 'heal' without pushing it for a few days. I think the "drugs" that I came home with have masked the pain almost completely and work a little too well.  It probably didn't help that Mina decided to jump on my belly while I was laying in bed yesterday morning - OUCH! The boppy will be my new best friend in feeding and holding Chelsea for a few days.  It's just so hard for me not to bend over to pick her up, carry her everywhere with me and do lots of "normal" tasks that I'm not supposed to be doing for a few weeks. 

We brought Chelsea to Ridgedale Mall today.  It was the first time using her stroller and only the second time bringing her out of the house.  She slept the entire time in the car seat and in the stroller while we were at the mall.  I was so happy that our "outing" went smoothly.  It was really nice of Ben to drive us to the mall. He is not a fan of malls nor the stores I wanted to go to (Sephora and a couple baby stores) but brought me to Ridgedale without complaint knowing that I can't drive or carry her carseat by myself right now.  I personally think the attention he gets from all the random women cooing over Chelsea while he has her in the stroller didn't hurt either! :-)  Once Ben goes back to work I will most likely take Chelsea to the mall and walk around with her frequently to get some exercise since it's so cold outside!

Katie, Kjirsten, Jon (Ben's Brother) and Shanna came to visit Chelsea yesterday.  She slept almost the entire time for both visits.  It was nice to have friends over for some adult social interaction.  My parents and brother's family came to visit today.  She was wide awake for most of the time that they were here.  Jillian had premade us a dinner and brownies as well.  It was so nice to have a home cooked meal today!  I go from loving cooking to not going anywhere near my stovetop nor oven for the past week. 

Once again, time for the pictures :-)

Chelsea's first couple days at home!

It's 3:30 AM on Saturday the 29th and I have been looking at this blank blog page for a good fifteen minutes now.  How do I sum up all the "events" of Chelsea being at home for over two days now?  I will just have to do that:  Make it a summary!

Both Ben and Chelsea are sleeping and I'm taking advantage of these few hours (knock on wood!) of quiet to catch up on odds and ends.  We are both slowly learning how to be "productive" at all hours of the day.  I haven't EVER had a problem with napping during the day, but Ben is slowly learning how to nap.  Before Chelsea, the only way he would lay down for a nap would be if he was sick.  The random and short sleep we are getting right now is the biggest adjustment for the both of us.  As long as I get random stretches of 2-3 hours of sleep I feel good.  It must be the adrenaline and newness of everything getting me thru each day / night without much of a problem. 

The first night Chelsea was at home was a tough one.  She slept the entire day (minus diaper changes and feedings) and decided that she wanted to become a fuss bucket from 11PM on.  The second night was a dream.  She only woke up for feedings and diaper changes, it was pure heaven!  Tonight / this morning is the third night.  She was a fuss bucket until about 2AM and now seems to be settled down a bit.  Knock on wood!

We took Chelsea to Target and Babies R Us with us on Thursday.  We were both so nervous!  She slept the entire time and was not fussy at all.  We kept checking on her or poking her in the car seat to make sure she was still breathing. We were also nervous about the car seat on top of the carts and so mad at other drivers on the road!  we had precious cargo in our car, didn't they know that???? :-)  I can't imagine bringing her somewhere by myself.  I'm going to be such a wreck the first time I have to. 

The home care nurse from Methodist came for her visit yesterday (Friday) AM to check on both Chelsea and I.  She took out my staples from the C-Section incision and checked me over.  She said I am healing very well and quickly (well, as quickly as you can from a c-section that is).  In about a week's time I will be able to drive and hopefully not be quite as sore in the tummy as I am now. Hopefully in a couple days time I can get off the meds that I feel like I'm taking all day long.  Chelsea is a very healthy and alert girl.  She was born at 9lbs 8oz, left the hospital at 9lbs 2oz and weighed 9lbs 4oz yesterday morning.  The home care nurse said to expect about an ounce of weight gain a day so she is right on track.  Chelsea is also eating a full 2oz at each feeding! The home care visit was very helpful.  The nurse stayed for an hour and a half answering our questions, checking over Chelsea and I, giving us some hints and suggestions. 

Our neighbors Rob and Trisha came to visit Chelsea last night.  They have four kids of their own, so we will definitely be using them as a resource.  They've offered to bring us dinner next Monday and we are taking them up on that very generous offer.  Our friends Katie and Kjirsten will be visiting Chelsea this AM and Chelsea's uncle Jon and Shanna will be visiting her this afternoon!  We are excited to finally get to start showing her off :-) 

Having our baby girl at home is a dream come true.  We are both smiling from ear to ear and are so in love with this precious little being.  It seems as if in the few short days that we've had her we've both softened and slowed down.  Ben and I have also realized that we are a REALLY good team!  Having a baby is a true test in regards to respect and consideration in a relationship.  Chelsea has really brought us together and has really made us appreciate the other person so much.  Nothing in this world is more important to me than my little three person (and two dog!) family at this time. 

Time for the pics :-)

Hospital Stay with Chelsea 1/23/2011 - 1/26/2011

We are home now, but this is the first time I have had a chance to sit down and finish the "hospital blog."  We will update our "at home blogs" as soon as we can pry ourselves away from our beautiful baby girl for a little longer :-)

I want to say that our entire "stay" at Methodist Hospital was a good one.  We are very happy with all the doctors and nurses.  Everyone did what they could to make our stay as comfortable as possible.  I told Ben it almost felt like a little mini vacation because of how helpful and attentive everyone was!  It was also nice that our good friend Stephanie's mom works in methodist as a lactation specialist / nurse.  It was nice to see a familiar face walking around in the hallways...  Nancy (steph's mom) bought us a very cute outfit for Chelsea as well!  She is such a thoughtful person. 

We / Chelsea didn't have too many visitors at the hospital, but we had a few!  It was so nice to see family and friends during our stay to give us some sort of comfort away from home.  Grandma and Grandpa Loveland stayed at our house while we were in the hospital to watch Mina and Molly for us.  They came to the hospital to visit both Monday and Tuesday afternoons.  My brother, Jillian and my nieces came to visit Tuesday evening.  I am so floored that they would drive all the way from and back to Alexandria on a work / school night to visit us!  It meant a lot to see them.  Our friends Andi, Cari and Scott all came to visit Tuesday evening as well.  Andi is currently 38 weeks pregnant herself and Ben and I are very excited to meet her and Chuck's little girl once she enters this world.  Cari and Scott have two little boys of their own.  Their youngest Steven is about 5/6 months and Chelsea's future husband :-)

Ben's mother (Jane) will be flying in from CA on Tuesday to stay with us until the following Sunday.  We are excited for her to come stay with us and be able to spend a good amount of time with her granddaughter! 

We ended up being discharged from the hospital Wed around 11AM.  We were both happy to be going home, but also VERY nervous about taking this new little delicate being home away from the doctors and nurses!  It was so nice to have constant help around the hospital and someone who is always there to answer any question we may have. 

I will post some pictures from the last two days at the hospital below.  I will try and catch up with another blog and some at home pictures soon! I feel a little "behind," but I think you all understand :-)

Introducing Chelsea Leigh Fisher!!!

Baby Girl Fisher - or I should say Chelsea Leigh Fisher entered this world at 5:31PM on January 23rd, 2011!!  Mom and dad are both so so so very very happy!  She is a big girl weighing 9 lbs 8 ozs and measuring 20 1/2 inches long with her head measuring at 14 inches around!  Chelsea is both healthy and strong!

Chelsea's birthday was a long, exhausting day.  This may be a long blog because there is so much to share, and I'll post several pics at the end :-)

Thanks to ben taking some "notes" we have a "timeline" of the first part of the day.  I woke up at 2AM on Sunday with horrible lower back pain.  Not realizing it was contractions I took some tylenol and tried laying back down again.  Within minutes I realized that was a mistake.  OUCH!  I called the nurse line and it turned out I was in back labor.  We started timing the contractions at 2:30 and they were already lasting 50 seconds each and 5 minutes apart.  We took off for the hospital by 3:45AM.  So much for having time at home once labor starts!  We checked in to methodist at 4:30 and by this time the contractions were so bad they stopped me in my tracks when they hit.  I could not walk, talk or do anything for that matter.  I don't think there is anything more physically painful to me than back labor along with the regular contactions.  I was already dialated to 3 at this time.  I was in more and more pain so they decided it was "drug" time immediately.  I received my epidural at 5AM and it felt like heaven!  I was already dialated to 7 by this time...  so a very fast moving labor.

Fast forward to it's time for baby fisher to enter the world!  The docs decided that we were ready to deliver  (start pushing) at 1:15PM.  SO - thinking Baby Fisher's arrival to this world was right around the corner we were all smiles.  Well - 3 hours and 15 minutes of pushing later Baby Fisher was still in the womb, Mama Fisher was beyond exhasted, Daddy Fisher felt helpless and the docs decided our only option was to deliver via C Section. 

I was wheeled into the surgical room and prepped for surgery.  They admitted Ben into the room once I was prepped and they were ready to go.  What a weird feeling it was for me.  Most of my body was numb, but I was wide awake during the operation.   As the doctors were "pulling her out" of me I heard several "amazed voices" exclaiming how big she was and how big her head was.  And then I heard the best sound EVER - My baby girls screaming loudly.  SHE WAS FINALLY WITH US!  They took her immediately out of the room (I did not get to see her) and Ben followed her out. 

As the docs were finishing up with me the nurses were cleaning up Chelsea.  Ben was able to be with our daughter while this was going on.  All i remember about the immediate moment was seeing ben look back in the surgical room thru the window to me with a double thumbs up.  I was still laying there on the surgical bed and just burst out in tears.  It was such a long day but was all worth it - our baby girl is HEALTHY!

Rewind to while I was pushing... my temp spiked to a fever and her heart rate spiked a bit during hour two of pushing.  They put an antibiotic thru my IV and took blood to test assuming an infection caused these spikes.  The infection could have been caused by a number of "things" thru out the labor and is not entirely uncommon.  Because of the quick treatment the infection left my body as soon as she was delivered.  BUT- because of this (as a precaution only) she was admitted to the level two nursery from the time she was born to this morning (Tuesday) for monitoring. We were able to visit, feed, hold her at any time of day / night while she was in there.  She is now finally in room with us for the last day / night of our stay!  Since she was just brought in I will wrap up this blog, post a couple pictures and write some more a little bit later.

***Pictures are from Sunday and Monday.  Grandma and Grandpa Loveland came to visit her Monday Afternoon***

odds and ends

Nope, this isn't the baby is here announcement blog - sorry :(  We are now 4 days past our due date and patiently (well - as patient as we can be!) waiting for her to join us.  I had a little discussion with my tummy today and told Baby Fisher how antsy not only her parents are but our friends and family are to meet her.  I should have known that she would be stubborn - she IS my daughter! 

I had a doctor's appointment on Monday.  She is willing to induce me, but not any day soon.  There are some concerns with induction with first time moms that she is hoping nature will take it's course before induction will be necessary.  My doctor scheduled me for another appointment this Friday to conduct a non stress test to make sure that everything is "looking" good. 

I have been very uncomfortable the past couple weeks but made myself go walk the track at the health club today.  I was so active thru my second trimester that it's weird to me that walking a mile and a half today was such a struggle.  It was a struggle, but felt very good afterwards.  I am definitely looking forward to getting the go ahead (post delivery) to work out again. Who knew how much I would miss it! 

Here is a new type of "belly" shot:  I thought I would show you all what my view of my feet are!  I'm wondering if I can convince Ben to give me a pedicure tonight, hmmmmm.....

Trisha's Due Date!

I have now entered the ten month stretch (no pun intended!) of my pregnancy.  Today is baby Fisher's due date and the start of week 40 of the pregnancy.  We were hoping to have our baby girl in our arms by this time, but have to keep reminding ourselves that not all babies enter this world earlier than expected. 

To keep my mind off of Baby Fisher's late arrival Ben actually agreed to get out of the house with me and go to the Mall of America!  Anyone who knows Ben knows that he stays far far away from the MOA.  We had a lot of fun and it was very nice to get out of the house... the past few weekends have been fairly boring for the both of us.  We walked around all the levels, browsed in a few stores and ate a very tasty late lunch at Cadillac Ranch.  It was the first time in a couple "outings" that total strangers have NOT come up to me asking questions or making comments about my pregnant belly.  It's no fun to be constantly reminded about how big you look, the fact that you look like you are about to pop and so on. 

We have a doctor appointment tomorrow and I am hoping for some guidance on what to expect this next week or if she is planning on inducing me sooner than later if needed.  We are both trying to work on our patience!

Ben took some 40 week pictures of me this morning and I have been debating on whether to post one or not.  I can not believe how much my belly can stretch and how big I look to myself.  I will put all vanity aside and post one :)  Don't say I didn't warn you!  Pictures have been updated to 40 weeks and 5 days!

Ben's New Camera!

Ben finally broke down and bought a very nice camera in anticipation for Baby Girl Fisher's arrival.  Since his almost 10 month pregnant wife doesn't appriciate being a test subject at this time he has turned his attention on our two fur babies.  He has to have taken at least 100 pictures of Mina and Molly.  Ben is such a great "doggy daddy" and I can not wait to see him with our human baby!  I'm expecting Mina and Molly to be a tad bit jealous of baby Fisher, but hopefully they will learn to love her ASAP.