Our First Few Days

Since I delivered a little earlier than expected, Kaiser has decided to keep Alex in the nursery for a little longer. Routine procedure with all premature babies. He isn't in the NICU or anything, just the regular extra care nursery where they can keep a watchful eye and monitor his stats. I got discharged on Tuesday but they let me keep my room until today since it wasn't so busy. I just got home this afternoon. Alex is still technically a patient and they think he'll be home within the next few days. I'll be visiting him at least 3-5 times a day until he comes home.



I was hoping to exclusively breastfeed but since I'm not expressing milk quite yet we're still practicing the latching on and then sticking a syringe/tube of formula. He thinks he's feeding from me though. I have been pumping/feeding every 3 hours which has been tiring of course but again not as bad as I expected. I just started getting colostrum today so he is moving to that now and the milk should be coming very soon. I've been working with a really good lactation consultant and also have kept an open mind about it all. I know some moms get really depressed and disappointed because they wanted the post-partum to go to plan. But I think these kinds of things have to just be played by ear. He's making progress little by little which is great and Matt and I have faith in Kaiser. Everyone we've interacted with has been wonderful and accommodating. We've been bringing treats in here and there for the nurses as much as we can to show our thanks.

Alex has been great general and in my opinion a pretty big baby for a preemie. Some of the babies in the nursery are 2lbs, 3lbs etc. Alex was 5 lbs 6oz. He was showing symptoms for neonatal jaundice yesterday so they put him under those photo therapy lights. Matt and I were joking with the nurses saying it looked like a mini-spa treatment. The jaundice is very common in 35 weekers. His bilrubin level went from 12.9 to 6.9 after the phototherapy light. They've decided to just use the Bili blanket now.



My mom delivered me exactly around a similar time frame and says everything they're doing with the baby is the same thing they did with me. It's kind of nice having him there because Matt and I feel like we're getting extra training from all the nurses and some bonus time to transition into parenthood.

Matt has been over the moon about it all and loving every second, not to mention a really great support. He has gotten really good at swaddling! We cannot wait to have Alex home with us and get our routines going!

I have to give a big shout out to my cousin Samir because we didn't have our co-sleeper in our bedroom assembled quite yet (it was the last item on our to do list) and he came over and put it all together for us on Monday! So good to have family around :)

So yep, labor and delivery - not bad as I thought. Parenthood- so far so good!

It's 230am and I should be asleep but I have so much on my mind. I'm off of work for the next 12 weeks and Matt's put 12 weeks off for now too but we may adjust our schedules down the line. 5 more hours until we go to the hospital to see Alex again. Can't wait!!

We're Parents!

Alexander Ashok Willis - Born March 14, 2010 at 9:33am. Came out at 5lbs and 6oz and 18.5 inches long!!

With his first name we both thought of the same name months and months ago and didn't know we had the same name in mind until we discussed it back then. Great minds think alike? The middle name is after my dad obviously. Matt picked it. We had Robert (after Matt's dad) and James (after Matt's brother) as runner ups too. If we have another boy we'll go with Robert as a middle.

I did need about 5-7 stitches but again, mostly painless since I still had a tiny bit of epidural numbness in my system. I know my pain threshold is pretty high too so I didn't feel very bothered by any of it.

The worst part of the whole night was this penicillin IV they had to give me because I never made it to my Strep B test. They tried to give me one last dose while I was pushing and I was complaining more about the IV and totally fine about the pushing lol. The penicillin made my arm get really cramped, cold and tense. My dad get's the same thing with that treatment. So really from the moment my water broke to the time of delivery it only took 11 hours total.

I feel like I've made an excellent recovery. The first day I felt a little sore but after my first full night in the hospital I woke up feeling almost normal. I have no swelling and am able to walk around and function more similarly to my pre-pregnancy phase. I missed sleeping on my tummy and back! And it's nice to be able to pick up something off the floor or bend over without any pain! My new challenge is just trying to keep up with the calorie intake. So happy Spring is approaching and my favorite fruits are coming back in season.

Visiting Labor and Delivery

Matt and I got to the hospital around 10pm. They confirmed my water had broken and that Id probably be delivering within the next day. Matt and I were shocked. Of course I knew my water broke but in the back of our minds, we were thinking MAYBE the whole water thing was a false alarm.

We called Bob and Dot to let them know since it was nearly 7am in England and updated my parents and Beej as well. I must have been about 3-4cm dilated when I went in. The doctor refrained from checking too much since she didn't want to introduce any bacteria.

My contractions were about 5 minutes apart but I had no idea. I couldn't feel anything and only knew I was having them because the nurse told me that's what the report said. I had the anesthesiologist come in who explained the epidural. I started feeling more intense contractions around midnight. They were right on top of each other and I felt that I could bear them but the fact that the baby was pushing down on my bladder and making me feel like I had to use the bathroom constantly was wearing me out. I had to keep attempting to use the bathroom and every time had to unplug the monitor, drag that wheely IV thing with me and then sit through contractions before I could go! So I asked for the epidural just to get relief from that. I was 6cm dilated by the time I got the epi. They said it was the absolute perfect timing. Really I only had about 20 minutes of uncomfortable contractions. Epidural didn't hurt and once I got it I didn't feel anything again. Matt watched the whole process and was really supportive through it all.

I slept through most of the night and the time changed as well. So from about 1-6am I was mostly asleep. However I reacted to the epidural a little too well. I couldn't feel my legs or toes and they felt way too heavy which was a little unsettling. Also the numbing went up really high, right below my breastbone. So we agreed to turn the epi off around 7am because I'd need energy to push as well. At 8am they did a check and said I was dilated 10cm and they just wanted to wait for the baby to labor down. They were pleased that I didn't need any Picotin or anything to help and said I was very lucky for it to happen so easily and naturally. By 845am I felt ready to push and after 45 minutes of pushing, which didn't really hurt, we had baby Alex!