Newborn Portraits

Knocked flat

What a week! Last Tuesday, Josh left for California and my mom arrived to help out with the baby. In between those two events, however, I had a bad case of the chills. I thought it was back spasms from my lower back still having issues, plus I was still on prescription strength Motrin from the delivery, so the shaking went away after my next dose. 

Unfortunately, it wasn't back spasms, but a fever being partially masked by the Motrin. Wednesday morning I woke up freezing and shaking. It's a good thing my mom was here to take care of me. I laid on the couch all day, and as each dose of ibuprofen wore off, the fever would spike, and then I'd have about two miserable hours before I could take another dose. By late evening, even the meds weren't bringing any relief, and my fever was at 104. Of course, the nurse on duty at my OB's office insisted that I go to the ER, if only to rule out any postpartum infection. 

So at 9:30 p.m., mom and I dropped the kids off at Mimi and Papa's house and headed to the hospital. As with any good ER visit, we had to wait about an hour and a half before I was admitted. As we waited, we were both reminded of the last time we both ended up at the ER together, and that was with my Grandma a few weeks before she died in May 2010. So we sat in the waiting room and talked about Grandma and cried together...a brief moment of beauty and grief in the hospital hallway. 

And wouldn't you know it: while I waited to be admitted, I felt my fever break. Sure enough, by the time they wheeled me back, it had dropped by 3 degrees. Still, they swabbed me for everything imaginable and did an ultrasound to make sure I wasn't having complications from delivery. In the end, they diagnosed me with a nasty virus, charged me $9 for a dose of Tylenol (gotta love inflated hospital prices), gave me a bag of fluids via IV and sent me home. It has taken a whole week to recover. That is not how I was hoping to spend a week of my already-too-short maternity leave. Did I mention how glad I was to have my mommy here to take care of me? 

Daddy's Traveling

So, while we were in the labor and delivery room, Josh got a text message from one of his colleagues inviting him to travel to California for a shoot just one week after Josiah's birth. Neither one of us wanted him to be traveling this soon but the opportunity is such a good one, and at this point in starting a new business, you kind of have to say yes to everything. So he left for California this morning.

And here was my lunchtime conversation with Lorien:

Lorien: Where's Daddy?
Me: He's in California.
Lorien: That's all the way to Michigan!

She may get her sense of hearing from her Daddy, but apparently she gets her sense of direction from me.

More Josiah Photos

With Mimi and Papa

Lorien looks into the nursery

She was skeptical for a while, but when she got to hold him, she became a believer. :) 

Another bath pic, 'cause they're just so cute!

Josiah Lee

He is here!

Josiah Lee was born at 2:33 p.m. on September 14, 2011. 

We went to the hospital at 7:30 that morning to begin induction. It took about an hour before the Pitocin actually got started, and by 9:15, I was having some contractions. I got a fabulous epidural at around 11:00. (I am 2 for 2 on epidurals ... perhaps I should quit while I'm ahead.) By 1:45, I was ready to push, but.... my doctor was not!

Of course, there's no way we could have known this when we scheduled the induction, but a huge weather front moved in on the morning of the 14th. There was record rainfall that day—the most in 12 years. Apparently, that kind of shift in barometric pressure causes people to go into labor. TEN babies were born on the same shift as Josiah! My doctor delivered four of them, and at the point when I reached 10 cm., he was delivering another baby and scheduled to appear in surgery right after. So we waited about half an hour after I was ready to begin pushing. The epidural made that bearable, but eventually, we couldn't really wait any longer. 

I pushed through 2 contractions with the delivery nurse, and then she said, "Stop!" She pressed the call button and called for Dr. Stark to come immediately. I waited through one contraction for him to arrive, then pushed through two more and Josiah was out! 8 lbs. 3 oz., 20 inches. And hair!

OK, enough words. Here are the pictures!

Ready to go to the hospital, one day short of
39 weeks. I had to include the cane in the picture,
since it's part of the story of this pregnancy. Really
hoping that offloading a baby will fix my back!

Just born!

Lorien wasn't sure what to think of him at first.
She was very concerned about my IV, though. 

First bath

Welcome...

...to the Fall 2011 Class of the Focus Leadership Institute. I had such a great time spending the weekend with them at La Foret retreat center in Monument, Co. Granted, I don't move very fast right now, and walking causes a good bit of pain, so I wasn't able to participate in the kickoff retreat the way I usually do, but they have been wonderful—carrying my things and helping me to take it easy whenever possible.

It's strange that I will only have a week with them, and then I'll be out for at least 6 weeks on maternity leave, but it has been really fun getting to know them so far!

Ouch!

I mentioned back in July that my lower back had gone out. Fortunately, at that time, a couple of visits to the physical therapist worked miracles, and I have been pain-free ever since. Until this weekend. When we took belly pics on Sunday, I could feel my sacrum starting to slide out again. Over the past few days, it has only gotten worse, and this time, getting adjusted didn't help. It's so late in my pregnancy that my ligaments are too loose to hold things in place once I've been adjusted.

So, this morning I stopped at Walgreens on the way to work and bought a cane. I'm not kidding. I am soooo glad we have scheduled induction for a week from now, because this is not a fun way to get around!

Belly Pics

I swore that I wouldn't be that mom, who takes millions of photos of kid #1 and none of kid #2, but I kind of am. When I was pregnant with Lorien, we took a profile pic every month of the pregnancy. This time we have taken ... zero profile pics. Until today. Here they are! (37 weeks.)

The End is in Sight

It's official. Baby boy Keffer will make his appearance on September 14, if not before. Last week's (36 week) ultrasound put him at 7.5 lbs, which means he's right on target to match Lorien's birth weight of 9 lbs. 6 oz. As my recovery from her delivery was a little rough, we have decided to kick him out before he gets quite so large. 

This sounds kind of ridiculous, but I have to be at work until the 12th, and my OB doesn't work on the 13th, so the 14th it is. 

With Lorien, I felt really strongly about waiting to go into labor naturally, and I'm glad I did. But I am pretty concerned about having another baby that big, and I would much rather be induced than have to have a C-section. Plus, there's that whole thing about a smaller baby and easier recovery. Still, the idea of having a set end-date to this pregnancy is so weird to me. And I have no point of reference for what induction will be like. Looks like I'm going to find out!