Birth Story and 4 Weeks Old

Well Ollie is 4 weeks today, I can't believe it.  So I guess I should finally post the birth story, not that it is that exciting, but I want to remember it.  

So we went in Wednesday night as instructed.  The hospital is very small and cozy, I loved it.  There are 6 labor and delivery rooms and 8 recovery rooms.  It was me and one other lady there that night, so I had plenty of attention.  They inserted Cervidil around 9:30pm.  Usually they leave it on for 12 hours to let it soften and "ripen" the cervix, then they start you on pitocin.  Well mine began working right away and I contracted all night long.  Not really hard contractions, but noticeable enough that I pretty much didn't sleep a wink (which is even more depressing when your husband sleeps like a rock in a bed next to you)!  They checked on me the next morning, before 9:30, and decided I was contracting enough so they removed the cervidil and left me to see if I would continue to contract without needing the pitocin.  After a few hours my contractions began slowing down, so they put me on the minimum dose of pitocin.  Things picked up a little, but not too much.

Around 1:15pm my Dr came and broke my water.  That was pretty much the weirdest feeling EVER!!  Right away my contractions were harder and closer together.  I don't remember what I was dilated to at this point.  I suffered through those contractions for about an hour and a half and then decided to get my epidural.  I was doing ok (in fact Jason kept asking me if I was sure I needed it yet cause I was breathing through the contractions so well, I guess he expected screaming) but I knew I wanted an epidural so I figured why suffer anymore.  And I am so glad I did.  I honestly don't think I could have had a vaginal (sorry for the terminology) birth without the epidural, more on that later.  After that I was in heaven.  It was like I had to look at the monitor to see if I was having a contraction.  My family was in with me and we were hanging out and having a great time.  It was such a good experience, one I don't think I would have had otherwise. 

Finally around 8pm I was dilated to a 10.  My Dr came in and I started pushing...and pushing and pushing and pushing.  I pushed for an hour and forty minutes.  I was EXHAUSTED!!!  That is why I think I wouldn't have been able to do it without the epidural, if I had been contracting hard that whole time, I would have been too tired to push.  I was barely able to do it with the epidural.  His heart rate kept going up and so my Dr prepared me for that fact that she may need to use a vacuum to get him out.  Luckily she was so patient and I eventually was able to get him out on my own, no tearing, no episiotomy.  My Dr was awesome, so patient and calm and she explained everything so well, I knew I was in good hands.  And all who were in the room with me (Jason, Mom, Jan and Chrissy) were very impressed with her also.  Overall it was a great experience,  I think I will do it again someday :)

Now we have had our sweet little boy for 4 weeks.  I can't believe it, time has flown by.  I wanted to jot down some things about Oliver before I forget them.

-He loves to hold onto your shirt (or chest hair in Jason's case) while you hold him, it is so cute!

-When he makes one of his mad faces he has a dimple in his right cheek

-His left nipple is inverted (I'm sure someday he will really appreciate me telling everyone that)

-He still kicks his legs straight out all the time

- He can lift his head up, and has been since he was like a week old

-He is really good at self soothing, he will just lay in his crib wide awake and not cry

-He loves his binkie

-I think he is starting to recognize our voices

-He has lots of faces that he makes where he looks very concerned about things, they are so funny

-His little smiles make my day

-There isn't a day that goes by where I don't cry at least once just looking at the special little boy we have been blessed with, I love him so much!

And what is a post without pictures?  The theme today is sleeping, since that is what Ollie and I do a lot of during the day.

Ollie's Stats

I took Ollie to the pediatricians office Monday for his two week appt (our pediatrician was off last week so it was actually his 3 1/2 week appt).  Here are his stats:

Weight: 8 lbs 11 oz, up 2 lbs from the last time we were there

Length:  21 1/4 inches

So he is growing and gaining weight.  He already doesn't really look like a newborn anymore to me, to other people he is still really tiny.  He is so fun, we just love him.

Our Little Monster

Sorry for the lack of recent posts, life has been a little crazy. I just wanted to thank everyone for their kind words and prayers during the difficult times of these past weeks. We are so lucky to have so many amazing people in our lives. I want to especially thank our families for coming to help with Ollie while I was out of commission. Things have been great since I got home from the hospital, I'm feeling much better, and look forward to my Dr. appt in a couple of weeks, hopefully they tell me everything is better, and I can go back to my normal life. We have really be enjoying time with our sweet little boy.  We have hardly had a chance to just enjoy the three of us, and now we are enjoying getting to know Ollie better. We have continued to add new photos of Oliver on our website, they can be seen here (note that there are three pages worth of pics): Ollie Pics Below are some of our favorites.

What a cute monster...thanks for the towel Lori!

What are you guys doing to me?  He is enjoying bath time much more these days!

Just knowing his paci is there is enough :)

Look at that belly, I think he had just eaten

All cuddled up after bath time

Hanging out with Great Grandpa Wursten

Being squirmy for cousin Alyssa

We have no love for Luvs.  We mistakenly bought some Luv brand diapers and have had two blow outs of this caliber.  For those who aren't parents these are some of the things you have to look forward to!

Look at that sweet little face

Pulling Dad's chest hair

One of my best friends Stacie came and visited us on Saturday, Ollie had a few issues that day but it was still fun and we love hanging out with Stac, she is the best.

Gins goes home, more pics of Baby Oliver

We are back home and Gin is doing great. I updated the "Back to the Hospital" post to include all the details of her stay, and release from the hospital. She is doing great and wants to thank everyone for their support, prayers, and comments on the blog. I updated our web gallery with new pics of Ollie they can be seen here: Ollie Album.

Ups and Downs

Well this last week has been quite the roller coaster. Last night we were watching the news before bed and they reported that there was a fire in one of the buildings at Apple's headquarters. I thought wow that is crazy but likely not my building (Apple has over 20 buildings in Cupertino). Then they said that the fire was related to an air conditioner upgrade and I recalled getting an email the day before talking about an A/C upgrade in our building. Then they showed live footage from a news chopper and I suddenly realized that it was my building bellowing flames into the sky. So basically my building at Apple burned down last night (I told you it has been a crazy week). Unfortunately, my laptop, iPod, running shoes, and cycling clothes were inside the building, I understand they may be salvageable, but I'm not holding my breath. So I am now off work until further notice, and at least the timing was good.  My uncle mentioned that if I had wanted to spend more time with Gin in the hospital I could have just asked for more time off, rather than burn down my work building, he thought it was a little extreme.
Now onto the good news, tonight Gin was released from the ICU and allowed to return to the ante-partum unit. Her health is back to normal and if all goes well she may be released this Saturday, plus Ollie and I can now stay with her at the hospital during the night.
And now for the final "good news moment." Gin got her dental board results today and she passed her clinical boards, now she just needs to apply for a California dental hygiene license and she can start working a day or two each week.

Back to the Hospital

If you have been wondering why Gin hasn’t been posting to the blog or returning calls it is because she is back in the hospital again:-( It is a long story but I will try to summarize everything since it is late and I need to get some sleep.
Thursday 8/7/08 - Gin complained of a massive headache and thought she was suffering from a migraine.
Friday 8/8/08 - The headache continued on Friday and her vision got somewhat blurry around noon but then stayed about the same the rest of the day. At about 7:40pm we (Jan, Jason, Gin, and Ollie) were watching the opening ceremonies of the Olympics when Gin says to me, “Jason I can’t see anything!” When I turned over to look at her she was convulsing on the couch and experiencing a grand mal seizure. I laid her down on the couch and called 911 while trying to keep her from flailing herself onto the floor. Once connected to 911 I passed the phone to my mom but she has a really weak stomach for medical emergencies and was going into shock as well. She laid down and talked to the paramedic while I kept Gin from choking. After about 2 minutes the seizure subsided but Gin was still unconscious, the paramedics arrived within minutes and Gin started to regain conciseness after about 10 minutes. As the paramedics started to carry her to the ambulance she had a second seizure which lasted another couple of minutes. I went with Gin in the ambulance to the hospital where they rushed her into the ER. It is a little unclear if she had a third seizure once she got into the ER but she started to regain consciousness after about 30 minutes in the ER. She spent the night in the ICU with the doctors keeping her stable through the night.
Saturday 8/9/08 - Saturday morning Gin was transfered to the antepartum unit and they told us she had likely suffered from Pre-Eclampsia (what we thought was the migraine) which then, being unchecked, escalated to full Eclampsia. They did a CT scan in the morning and did not see anything abnormal with her brain, so they then did an MRI later that afternoon. She was placed on Magnesium Sulfate to keep her from having another seizure and they continued to run blood tests through the rest of the day.
Sunday 8/10/08 - Sunday was a lot of the same with additional blood work, we were told that afternoon that she might be ready for release on Monday afternoon if all went well the next day.
Monday 8/11/08 - At about 1am Monday morning they took Gin off of the Magnesium and just monitored her through the night and morning. By the afternoon her blood pressure was up to 170/108 and the headache was returning so they took her back down to the ICU and started her on an IV drip to lower her blood pressure again (I can’t remember the name of the drug). This continued through the night and they scheduled her for a cerebral angiogram in the morning.
Tuesday 8/12/08 - After the angiogram in the morning they took her off the IV’s and started giving her Nimodipine pills to control her blood pressure. Her blood pressure remained very good through the evening and on Wednesday she is scheduled to return to the ante-pardium unit. We are hoping that she will be released sometime this week but the neurologist is still investigating the possibility that she suffered from vaso-spasms in the vertibal arteries, rather than Eclampsia, so we will see. I will keep everyone posted as things develop. Please keep Gin in your prayers, we are confident everything will work out.
Wednesday 8/13/08 - Nothing much to report other than a small spike in Gin’s blood pressure that landed her another night in the ICU. We have been told that if she is stable through the night she will be released to antepartum.
Thursday 8/14/08 - Gin was finally released from the ICU and is now much more comfortable. We have Ollie here with us and we are in a very large comfortable room. She has a few tests tomorrow morning and if all goes well she might be discharged on Friday, but I think Saturday is more likely.
Friday 8/15/08 - Today was just another waiting day. However the neurologist came by around 7pm and said that if all goes good tonight Gin will be released on Saturday, I hope he is right because Gin is about ready to just sneak out of here.
Saturday 8/16/08 - We returned home tonight at around 7pm and Gin is doing great. She is still  taking Nimodipine which is a blood pressure/vasospasm medication. In a few weeks she will have her 4th MRI to see if the vasospams have fully ceased; this will tell us if the vasospams were caused by the pregnancy, or if there are ongoing abnormalities in the blood vessels of her brain. Currently her diagnosis is Cerebral Angiopathy caused by postpartum hormonal imbalances. The doctors all said that this was likely a one time occurrence, however we must closely monitor Gin's blood pressure during her next pregnancy. We want to thank everyone for their support, prayers, and comments, we will update this posting if we have any new information.

1 Week Old

So today (well tonight) Ollie is one week old.  I can't believe it.  The days fly by and the nights drag on.  But we are figuring it all out and we just love the little guy so much.  He is a REALLY mellow, well-behaved little baby who rarely cries (he is like his daddy).  He had his second appt with the pediatrician to see if he gained weight and sure enough he did.  On Monday he was 6 lbs 5 oz (down 10 oz from his birth weight), on Wednesday he was 6 lbs 11 oz, so he gained 6 oz.  I was so relieved.  Although I cheated a little, we have been feeding on both sides, then feeding him what I pump in between feedings (1/2-1 oz) and if he still seemed hungry I would give him some formula.  So that could be the reason for the weight gain.  The first time I gave him an ounce of formula he gobbled it down, which made me feel like a horrible mother who had been starving her child.  But I think I have more milk now so we are supplementing a lot less.  I really don't mind supplementing as long as he is healthy.  He is just such a joy, we could stare at him forever.  He is so strong, he can already hold his head up (for short periods of time) and he still loves kicking his legs straight out.  He makes the funniest faces and I swear sometimes he smiles at me, on purpose ( I know it is probably gas or whatever but I like to tell myself that he knows me).  Here are some newer pictures.

Thanks for not starving me anymore mom!
Getting burped by dad
Isn't this precious, we love to pull him in bed with us in the morning
What a sweet little bundle, I love his little bum and how it is always sticking out
Changing his diaper last night his legs were straight out, it is seriously so funny.  Oh and last night we gave him another bath and he still did not like it, he was so upset he started peeing everywhere, it was so funny, Jason had to block it with his hand.

Ollie's First Days of Life

Here are some pictures for now.  I will post the birth story soon.  Things take so much longer with a newborn, but I will get around to it.  Oh and if anyone has breast-feeding tips I could use them, our little guy had his Dr appt yesterday and he has lost lots of weight.  If we don't fatten him up a little more by tomorrow we will have to start supplementing.  I just don't think the little guy can suck hard enough and he gets sleepy and falls asleep.  I think these are pretty normal issues but any advice would be appreciated.

Leaving for the hospital Wednesday night
I only slept for like a 1/2 an hour Wednesday night, it was not cool, by morning I was starving 
Dilated to a 10 and loving life (after my epidural)
Right after he came out they gave him to me, it was such a special moment

The Miller Family
Grandma and Grandpa Miller
Grandma and Grandpa Wursten
Aunt Chrissy and cousin Alyssa
Alyssa loves her new cousin, she kept saying "Awww he is so little"


Hanging out with the grandparents
He loves to stick his legs straight out, he did it in the womb as well, now I know what I was feeling
Chillin with dad
Jason is so cute with him
Right before we left the hospital
He didn't like being put in his car seat but after he was in he stayed awake and was very content
First family picture at home
Grandma has been staying with us and helping us out, we just love her

So precious
He DID NOT like his first bath (sorry for the graphic picture)
Great grandma and grandpa Wursten
He loves to stick his legs out, it is so funny cause they are so long and skinny
I sucked my arm as a kid and he is continuing the tradition, pretty much he will suck on anything
Us with Aunt Letty
Four generation picture
Ollie's first walk

All curled up and adorable
Napping with Papa
He sleeps with his mouth open sometimes
Going to his first doctors appointment.  He is so little his newborn clothes drown him, we are trying to fatten him up
How cute is he, I am seriously in love with this little guy!!!