Wednesday, April 3, 2013

Aurelia's first 4 weeks

We got this idea from our friend, Amy.  We'll take a picture of Aurie every week to show how much she is growing!

Three days old (onesie from Whitney, mouse from Kathy Rubin)
One week old (Mom didn't remember to sit her up with the mouse...oops!)

Two weeks old

Three weeks old (she put that arm around herself somehow!)


Four weeks old!


This little one is just beautiful.  Another from today's 4-week-old shoot:
And Easter!
We love her a lot!!


Aurelia's Arrival

Today is Aurie's four-week birthday!  I just wanted to jot down her story so far.

Aurelia was due on Saturday, March 2.  I was SURE she would come early, since she had been 'dropped' for a long while, and would grind on my poor pelvis.  It was so painful to move around- and she was really heavy- so I just knew she would come early.  Saturday came and went, but...nothing.  We tried a lot of things to induce labor- but mostly I couldn't do anything because I was in so much pain when I tried to move!  For the last month or so, I watched a lot of TV and didn't do much else. 

Well, Sunday passed, and I had a doctor appointment on Monday.  She was healthy and ready according to the tests.  My doctor told me she wanted to induce by Friday if nothing had happened, and also said we could do Wednesday.  Since Whitney was coming on Thursday night, I decided that Wednesday was a much better choice, so we got it scheduled- 6 am Wednesday.  Monday night we went over to help our friends Aaron and Stephanie move in to their new apartment in Burbank.  I wanted this baby out.  I grabbed boxes and walked up and down the stairs.  We got it done fairly quickly and then went to get some Yogurtland frozen yogurt.  Yum!

Tuesday morning around 3 am I was awakened with some MASSIVE pain.  I kind of thought I was going to die, and couldn't get comfortable.  For about an hour, I just hurt, but was eventually able to go back to sleep.  The rest of the day, I was having contractions, but they weren't frequent or regular.  Tuesday night, though, they started getting more frequent and closer together.  We got everything together to leave on Wednesday morning.  I wanted to get a few hours of sleep before we left, but I was in pain.  And trying to be quiet for the people in the apartments around us.  I laid down around 12:30, though...and got up 5 seconds later.  It hurt too badly, so we got everything together, took the dog out, and got in the car to drive to the Huntington Memorial Hospital in Pasadena.  It is about a 20 minute drive, and we arrived around 1:30 am.

I was taken right into triage, and the pain was unbearable.  I was there for two hours, with the pain just getting worse and worse, which was almost unfathomable.  We heard little hems and haws from the other women in triage...and I was screaming.  Not joking.  Movies don't exaggerate- I could not stand the pain.  I was screaming and shaking uncontrollably, and poor Alex was trying to make me keep breathing.  They FINALLY decided to give me some pain medication through an IV.  The nurse stuck my right arm and it didn't take.  Then my left arm.  Didn't take.  Boy, it hurt.  So they had to call in the anesthesiologist to stick it in my hand, which hurt as well.

Someone realized that the anesthesiologist had to be in surgery at 4, so they had to do the epidural now or never.  Thankfully, they took me to my room around 3:30 and I got shot up with that crazy stuff.  After that, my poor body stopped shaking and I was able to relax a little bit.  I got some oxygen and the nurse asked me questions as she filled out paperwork.  Alex had to be out of the room when they put in the epidural, so he went to the waiting area and promptly fell asleep.  He came back in around 5 am and we were able to sleep a little more.

I look so awesome.
We got about an hour of sleep, which was pretty amazing.  The nurse came in and was such a chatter- she was really, really excited that we were LDS because she had been raised LDS, and had requested she be assigned to us.  I thought it was funny that she was so excited even though she was inactive, but she was great and we loved her.  At one point she got 'something' all over her while I was pushing, and she went to change.  When she came back, she jokingly said, "I know, you think I got what I deserved for breaking my baptismal covenant!" (Probably not a direct quote, but I was on drugs!) We thought she was hilarious.

Well, I pushed for about 2 1/2 hours, and the worst part was having to hold my legs up because of the IV in my hand and my now-bruised arms from the failed IVs and the blood pressure cuff that was so tight, but would get even tighter when you moved!  The doctor said she probably would have come an hour earlier, but my contractions started spreading out.  They put Alex to work, eventually holding one of my legs and also counting for me while I pushed.  They thought he was hilarious because he got really into counting, and sounding like he was pushing as well!  (Not dramatic at all...)  His sighs of relief after getting to 10 were even bigger than mine!

Aurie made her debut at 10:23 am.
Getting weighed- 8 pounds 4.8 ounces!
She got all cleaned and wrapped up and got put in Dad's arms.

While Alex was holding her, I finally had had too much of the blood pressure cuff.  It seriously hurt!  I whimpered out an "It hurts!" and the nurse asked what was wrong.  When I told her the cuff was hurting me, she laughed, and said, "You didn't complain one bit during the labor, and now that cuff is what you complain about?"  (I could actually feel the silly cuff!  The epidural makes things feel kinda strange down there.)  Then she said how impressed she was with me, and said I must come from pioneer stock!  I told her I actually was, and she said, "I knew it!  I knew it!  I could tell."  We marveled at pioneer women and their ability to have children without hospitals.  She was good at building up my self esteem!

Then it was Mom's turn to hold her.  I had been so nervous and, let's face it, terrified beyond belief at the prospect of being a mom, but they put her in my arms and I thought, OK.  Here we go, this seems pretty natural.  

We got all wrapped up and taken to our recovery room, where we would spend the next three days. She didn't know what to make of being a baby burrito.

The second day, this photographer came in and took pictures of her little one-day-old self.  I made this hat for Emily's baby, but Alex liked it so much he wanted to take it to the hospital.  It matched the outfit he brought for her.  (He'll be much better at dressing her than I will...at least his outfits will match!)

After much sleep deprivation, a lot of pain, hospital food, and nurses in and out, we took her home on Friday morning, where Whitney and Annabelle were anxiously awaiting our arrival!

We had our first pediatrician appointment on Tuesday morning.  Dr. Shulman saw Aurie and said, "She is a cute baby, and I know cute babies!" We think she's pretty cute, too!