Our First Few Days

Hannah with her eyes open!

Here we are at home, being parents! Our first few days have really been enjoyable. Sure, sleeping is a little more difficult than before (Hannah is most alert around 4am), but it's been very cool. I'm recovering well, Daniel's doing an amazing job as a dad and with helping me out with making sure that I rest and am not overwhelmed, and Gypsy seems to be enjoying her new sister. We also have some amazing friends who've brought/cooked some amazing food for us--thank you guys!!!!!!!

As far as breastfeeding goes, my milk has come in, no doubt about it! Hannah has been eating well and peeing/pooping a lot, which is good! Because she was so small when she was born, there isn't much room for error as far as her weight is concerned, so I'm really glad that she's eating so well. Before my milk came in, we had to supplement with formula to make sure she didn't lose too much weight. But now that the milk is here, it's all systems go! Also, because she is so small, she has a hard time with proper latch, so we're using a silicone nipple shield that goes over the nipple to help her latch on there and eat well. Within a few weeks, we should have her off of the shield. I've also been pumping with a hospital grade pump to make sure that the milk is coming in well--it makes them feel much better afterwards. :) Engorgement hurts!

Hannah is a sweet, sweet baby. I can't tell much about her personality, but I can tell you that she's only upset when she's hungry and has a dirty diaper--or is about to have a dirty diaper. We can always tell when she's about to poop/pass gas... she gets squirmy and sometimes will whine, like her tummy hurts. We're going to start giving her Mylicon when we feed her for now... I think the nipple shield may contribute to gas. She also doesn't like to be by herself. At night, we're having to keep her in bed with us for now because she won't sleep alone in the pack n play. Daniel and I alternate who gets to sleep/who gets to stay up with her if she's alert. If she's ready to sleep at night, she sleeps in the crook of Daniel's arm. Very cute. :)

Here's a video of her with the hiccups. I think it's cute. Enjoy!

Welcome to Our World

Hannah Meredith Garrett made her grand entrance into this world early Friday morning at 1:40am. She weighed 5 lbs, 9 oz. and is 18 3/4" long. She's a beauty :)

Here's the basic birth story. If you want a more humorous and detailed one, you'll have to chat with Daniel, haha.


I had been having mild contractions every evening starting on Sunday. They were usually about 7 minutes apart, and nothing serious. I went to the doctor on Tuesday, as you probably read, and he did an internal exam. He told me that I was 2 cm dilated, 80-90% effaced, and Hannah was at 0 station, so she was about ready to come out! He also told me that he anticipated that labor would be quick--and he was right!

Thursday morning I lost my mucous plug. But usually mucous plugs are just mucous with an occasional streak of blood... mine was like a big, large, nasty blood clot (sorry if that's too much information for you). Basically what that meant was that I was continuing to dilate. Once I saw that, I knew labor was coming soon. I was scheduled to get a reflexology pedicure to help bring on labor a little soon on Friday morning, but I rescheduled that to Thursday around lunch time because I was afraid I wasn't going to make it on Friday. So I got the pedicure, and the lady pushed on a few pressure points that can help your pituitary gland release oxytocin. Maybe it worked.... or at least helped. :)

Thursday afternoon, starting around 5 or 6, I started to having contractions every 5 minutes apart or so. They weren't horrible. I mean, they were intense enough that I couldn't ignore them, but it didn't stop me from doing anything. Believing that labor might be imminent, Daniel and I went to Ruby Tuesday's for dinner, while still having contractions every 4 or 5 minutes. Then, we went to Kroger to get some groceries, because we didn't have hardly any food in our house and I didn't want to come home from the hospital with nothing in my fridge to eat. Contractions were still 4 - 5 minutes apart and relatively strong, but again, not enough to keep me from doin my thang. :)

After we got home, the contractions slowed down to about 6 or 7 minutes apart, but were getting slowly stronger. Around 11:10pm, I was having another contraction but was uncomfortable in the position I was in, and while trying to get comfortable, my water broke. It felt like a water balloon popped inside my body! It is quite possibly one of the weirdest sensations I have ever experienced! We called my doctor, and when he called us back, he asked me how I was feeling--whether or not I really wanted to go to the hospital. I told him I was fine, happy at home for now. So he told us to wait until contractions were 3 minutes apart, and then to call him and head to the hospital.

Well, the contractions started kicking up again about 15-20 minutes later. This time, though, they were 2 1/2 minutes apart and were very uncomfortable. Because my water had broken, I was kinda leaky (and by kinda, I mean extremely), so I went upstairs and sat in the bathtub. No, there wasn't any water in it. :) I just wanted somewhere to sit that I could leak and not have to worry about it. It was also nice because the angle of the bathtub put plenty of pressure on my lower back during contractions, which helped relieve some of the discomfort. After about 6 or 7 contractions like that, I told Daniel that we needed to go to the hospital... I couldn't sit at home any longer. It took probably 10 minutes to get out of the door and into the car because the contractions kept coming closer and closer together, and I would have to stop wherever I was during them and have Daniel drill his fist into my lower back (he did a wonderful job!). Daniel had the car all ready to go, including putting plastic bags down on the seat so that the amniotic fluid wouldn't ruin the seats.

We arrived at the hospital in about 5 minutes, and I got wheeled up to Labor and Delivery while Daniel parked the car. Once here, at 12:40am, the contractions would start about 30 seconds after the preceding one, and they were almost unbearable. They got me in the bed and had to take my blood pressure and put on a fetal monitor and some other things to see how everything was going. That was SOOOOOOOOO uncomfortable because I had to lay down on my back, which made every contraction worse. Finally, about 25 minutes after we arrived, Dr. Wolanski came in there and did an internal exam to see how far dilated I was. Guess what--10 cm! Time to push! I was like, "WHAT?!" So, when the next contraction came, he explained to me how he wanted me to push.

With each contraction, I would get 3 - 4 good pushes in. The only thing that kinda stunk was that the contractions were so strong and were so close together that I felt like my "break" in between them was rather small.... not much time to relax. But Daniel was very good at reminding me to relax even when I felt like I couldn't. About 30 minutes later, Hannah was born!!! That was the best feeling in the world, I tell ya. Aaahhhhhh she was out. :) And it's amazing, because once the baby is born, it's all over. So, she was out and she was beautiful!! Here are a few more pictures.

Goodbye Mucous Plug

Welp, lost the mucous plug this morning (don't worry, I won't post any pictures, cuz it's pretty nasty...). We'll see what Daniel has to say about it.. I took a picture of it with my phone and sent it to him in a text message. :-D Hehehehehehehe....

So in the evenings, my contractions are about 7 minutes apart and last around 50 seconds. I have them for a few hours and then they go away. Hopefully we'll have some real labor soon so that baby can make her grand debut!

I was supposed to go get a reflexology pedicure tomorrow afternoon, but I suspect that I might not be able to make it to that, so I rescheduled it for today at 12:15. I'm very much looking forward to that. :)

If anything happens, I'll let you know!

Doctor's Appt. Update

Here are my stats from today's appointment:

2 cm dilated

80-90% effaced

Baby is at 0 station

Guess she'll be coming soon!  Dr. Wolanski said that based on what my body is doing and how she's positioned in my pelvis, he anticipates that we're going to have a "great delivery"--he anticipates labor will last about 12 hours and that I shouldn't have to push for very long.  He said that she is sitting very nicely in my pelvis and was very pleased with the whole thing today.  So that's exciting!

The only stinky thing is that I've been retaining a lot of fluid, and that has made my blood pressure go up.  It's not high enough to be concerned, but definitely something to keep our eyes on.  So I guess I shall go douse some more water and hope that the retention diminishes some. 

there's the update!  Yay!

Bathroom Break

I just wanted to say...








That I got out of bed and went to the bathroom 5 times last night. FIVE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!





That's all. If I have anything spectacular to write after my appointment today, I will do that.

Labor Day

So... I experienced my first bout of "real" contractions last night! Clearly nothing productive came of them, but it was at least good to get a glimpse of what the sensation will be. It was weird because I started off just feeling bad... I don't know if I was dehydrated or what, but I got really nauseous. I felt like I needed to eat but the thought of food made me want to puke. I was pretty gassy too. Later, my stomach would tighten and I'd have what felt like a menstrual cramp in my lower back and lower abdomen. It would last for about 30 - 45 seconds or so, increasing in intensity until about the half-way point, then it would die down. I had a few episodes of that, but again, nothing productive and it only lasted about 30 - 45 minutes.

Daniel made the joke that it would be really funny if I went into labor on Labor Day--It would be a real Labor Day for me! But, so far, no laboring on Labor Day (and no shared birthdays either... Keagan's birthday is today).

I go back to the doctor tomorrow and I can ask him about my little episode when I'm there... I'm sure he'll just say it's my body gearing up for the real thing. I also get tested for Group B Strep tomorrow. I really hope it's a negative test, because if it's positive, it means they'll have to give me an IV during labor so they can give me antibiotics.... and I was kind of banking on not having an IV at all... actually, I was kind of banking on not getting to the hospital until about an hour or two before Hannah's born. We'll see. Pray that if I do have it, that it'll disappear within the next 24 hours. :) Does anyone know if there's another treatment for it besides antibiotics through an IV during labor?

Alrighty, well, today is my big return day from a bunch of stuff I've received from all my showers. I had my final shower yesterday afternoon, so I figured I would wait until that one was over to return the things that I need to return. The unfortunate thing is that a lot of people don't understand the concept of gift receipts, so I'm going to have to beg and plead for some of these stores to take their merchandise back... Hopefully they'll be gracious to a girl who's 9 months pregnant!

Continuous Expansion

Okay people.... I am HUGE. My belly is officially in the way. It's amazing how much you take your abdominal muscles for granted.... but mine are basically out of commission until this baby squeezes her way out of the birth canal. It's definitely strange. Getting out of bed and especially out of chairs that sit low is quite a chore these days.

Now, I'm not uncomfortable, not miserable, not any of those things. Just...... odd. :) Also, I have slight stomach acne on the top half of my stomach. I read somewhere that it might be heat rash. They're definitely not stretch marks or anything connected with that. Just some little red dots on the top of my stomach. Again, not uncomfortable or miserable... just odd.

I get up 2 or 3 times each night to go to the bathroom now. There are a few things that are really funny to me about that. The first thing is that I can barely remember doing it the next day. So I guess that's good? Means I don't wake myself up too much? The second thing is that when I wake up, I just kinda lay there for a few minutes, thinking, wondering why I'm awake... and then I think to myself, "Maybe I have to go to the bathroom. I guess I should get up and go." Because, you see, I don't really feel the urge to go when I'm laying down. But, oh baby, when I stand up..... God forbid there be any obstacles in the way between the bed and the toilet, cuz I just might not make it. It's amazing how much pressure isn't there when I'm laying down, and how it magically appears, in full force, once gravity pulls Hannah down into my pelvis.

Also, I don't really sleep with the covers on anymore. I feel bad for Daniel because he gets cold really easily, and I'm always sweating and saying things like, "Is it hot in here or what?!"... and he just looks at me and shakes his head (as he's wrapped up in a blanket). Go figure. But it's workable. I'm still able to sleep, exercise, eat, get up and down, etc., so things are going well. Can't wait to have my little bundle of beauty in my arms!!