Peek A Boo

Ada's learning how to play Peek A Boo, and other ways to respond to us:



Kim also took tons of pics yesterday of Ada in a Christmas dress. We didn't get Christmas cards out this year, so this will have to do. Remember to check Youtube and Picasa for more.

So Tired

We're moving pretty slow lately. No pics, no videos, no stories...no sleep. After an amazing three months of 7-8 hour nights of sleep, Ada has completely changed at night. For the last week, we're all only getting an hour or two at a time all night. It's of course the hardest on Kim, but neither one of us function well on low sleep. It's tough on our bodies, tough on our minds, tough on our relationship.

We of course still love her like crazy, and are thankful for how well she has done so far. But we sure are longing for "the old days."

Back From The South

Kim, Ada, and I took our first big trip as a family last week. We made a trip through Louisiana and Mississippi to visit my mother and family in Bastrop, LA, Kim's grandmother and family in Columbus, MS, and then back through to see my dad and family in Benton, LA.

We are exhausted and have a lot to catch up with (work, cleaning, sleep, etc...), so this won't be a long post. Just wanted to let everyone know there are some pics up on our Picasa album from the first half of the trip. I haven't gotten to download any of the second half, or any of the videos we took. But soon, they will all be up. Since we're taking so many pics and videos now, I'm going to stop organizing them as I upload them or making captions. It's terribly complicated and time consuming. So from now on, just go to the Picasa or to the Youtube site to see everything that we don't post directly to here.

Finally

This is Kim and I'm finally able to blog about my baby. Sam has done a great job of writing and handling photos so that family and friends can stay updated, but I actually have some time now when I can write.

Ada will be two months old tomorrow. I can't believe it.

Whoever came up with the post-partum period lasting 6 weeks was right on in my case. It took about that long for me to feel like myself again. After the c-section, it took about 6 weeks for me to be able to use my stomach muscles to sit up, for me to drive, for me to feel more emotionally like myself, and for us to get the nursing thing down. As for Ada, it was around then that she started sleeping about 6 hours at night. Yeah, we got a good one! And I'm writing now because she's still asleep at 10am and we put her down around midnight. I woke her up to feed her about an hour ago, but then she feel right back asleep. I guess she's about to go through another growth spurt.

She is so much fun these days. She's seemed to develop so much in the past two weeks. She's awake a lot more during the days and she doesn't cry as much. She's able to focus on things and she's very interested in her mobile, in her bouncy chair with lights and music, and in her play mat that has stuffed animals hanging from it. But the best thing these days is her smile. She smiles now AT us and when she does, it makes us so happy that we laugh.

I've heard people say that you love your kids unlike anyone else in the world...and they are right. I can't even begin to say how much I love this little girl. We feel so blessed that she is healthy and happy and beautiful. She has these wonderfully chubby cheeks that beg to be kissed over and over again. Everyone comments on her eyes--how they are so big and alert. I love how she folds her legs up and throws her head back when she stretches her arms. I love what her little sock feet look like when I lift up her nightgown to change her diaper. I love her round little belly and chubby thighs. She's perfect, as far as I'm concerned.

I guess it sounds like I'm bragging, but I've never been so proud of anything in my life. I love to show her off. She gets her first round of immunizations tomorrow and then we will be able take her to church with us and we can travel with her. We're looking forward to visiting family at the beginning of November.

Ok, she's still asleep--in bed with Sam who is also asleep on his day off. I'm going to go wake up my lazy family cause I want to be with them. Sam is going to get some new photos and videos up soon, so look out for those.

Adventures in Bathing

We've started bathing Ada every night before bed now. Kim realized that it helps her sleep much longer and harder, and we're big fans of that. So most nights now, Ada will sleep 6-7 hours after a good warm bath. But the process isn't without its problems.

A few nights back, Kim took off Ada's dirty diaper pretty close to the sink we bathe her in and cleaned her off. But as she held Ada close to her to walk the 3 or 4 feet to the sink, Ada crapped all over Kim and the bathroom floor. We quickly got her to the sink, but then realized that we'd need to drain it and get new water because of the green excrement now floating around in it. Kim cleaned herself off and wiped up the floor, as I drained the sink and held Ada in a towel in case she decided to let loose with #1 or even #2 again. We collected ourselves and got the new bath ready, but as soon as we put Ada down into it she let loose a torrent of urine that shot up and fell back down into the water (it looked like a fountain).

The third time was a charm, but I shudder to think about what our water bill might be like these next few months.

Out & About

Kim and Ada are getting out a little more in the past week. Kim's finally feeling close to normal from her c-section and was cleared to start driving last week. Ada hates being put in her car seat, she cries and screams and kicks. But once she is in and we are moving she normally calms down or even falls asleep.

Ada's made trips now to her grandparents, the Dr's office, Rudy's BBQ, Kerby Lane and even the grocery store. We can't wait to get her to Mosaic on a Sunday night, but she hasn't been cleared yet to be around other small kids or groups that big.

Bath Time

Ada's umbilical cord fell off recently, so she had her first full bath in a tub tonight (so far we had just baby-wiped her a lot). She did great, and didn't even cry.

Wake Up Little Ada

The Dr. told us yesterday we didn't have to wake Ada up anymore for feedings at night. But this afternoon she slept for over six hours, and we started to get worried she wasn't going to sleep tonight. We also knew she'd be real hungry (which is bad for her mood) whenever she did wake up. So, I started trying to wake her with this impromptu song. Kim thought it was funny and started up the camera.

Two Weeks Old

Ada was two weeks old yesterday, and we had her two week check-up this morning. She now weighs 7 lbs 13 oz, which puts her in the 25th percentile for weight. And she is 20 inches tall, which is also in the 25th percentile. I asked if it was normal for the height to drop, since she was 21 inches at birth. Apparently it is, since babies come out kind of swollen most of the time. Her head is 36 centimeters, which is in the 50th percentile. So she's got an average size head, but her weight and height are below average. Her weight gain however is great, which means we can now start letting her sleep until she wakes up in the night hungry. This was the best news of the morning, as we were getting tired of having to wake her every 3 hours for a feeding at night.

She had to have more bloodwork today to check for a host of metabolic diseases and disorders, so she didn't like having her foot pricked. And the Dr. said we should start using a pacifier since she likes to put her hands in her mouth so much. We had hoped to avoid a pacifier as much as possible, but some babies just have strong sucking tendencies or oral fixations. And a pacifier is better than her hand or whatever else she could find. But all in all it was a good visit and everything is progressing as it should be.

How It All Went Down, Part 4

It felt like as soon as Dr. Cosentino left the room, 5 new people came flooding in to get us ready for the c-section. They pulled me away from Kim and instructed me to get into a pair of scrubs, complete with a mask a hat, and even booties to put over my shoes. In the mean time, they began prepping Kim for her trip to the O.R. Even with the good that came out of it all, I don't think I'll ever forget watching helplessly as they instructed her to drink something to settle her stomach that actually made her throw up immediately. She looked so scared, and so tired. And all I could do from the other side of the room was to fake a smile and to mouth the words "Everything's ok." The truth is I didn't know that for sure, I had never been so scared in my life - but there really was no time for fear (not yet anyway).

Once we were ready to leave the room, I finally got back to Kim's side. I put my hand on her arm and kissed her forehead. As the nurses began to wheel Kim's bed out into the hallway, it occurred to me that all of our family was out there waiting - and we weren't even sure if they knew what was going on. I made a quick decision that I wouldn't look at any of them, I was afraid I would totally break down. So we exited the room, made a hard right and proceeded down the hall to the O.R. I wanted to look back, but instead focused my attention on Kim. Soon we were at the double doors to the O.R. and the nurses told me I would have to have a seat and wait while they took Kim back and got her prepped.

Now there was time to fear. I spent the 10 longest minutes of my life on a loveseat outside one of the O.R.s at Seton Medical Center. If I had known that was coming, I would have asked my dad or my brother-in-law to sit with me. And to make matters worse, I could now see all of our family walking through a door down the hall and into a waiting area. I called out to them, but no one heard - and I wasn't going to leave my post right by that door in case Kim needed me. I began to cry uncontrollably, you know those big breathy weeps that make you feel like you are going to suffocate. I had never felt so alone. If a hospital janitor had sat down by me at that moment I would have buried my head in their chest and cried. I worried that one or both of the most important people in my life were about to die. I'm someone who prays fairly often, but I prayed more fervantly than I ever had before. And then, when I was exhausted from crying and didn't know what else to pray, I just sat. I sat and I waited peacefully and quitely, for there was nothing else that I could do.

Finally the door swung open. "Mr. Myrick, you can come back now. Please put on your mask." I followed the nurse back into one of several small rooms where I saw Kim laid out on an operating table with 8-10 people all around her. The anesthesiologist and her assistant were right behind her head. Dr. Cosentino and another surgeon were standing near her stomach. 3 nurses or pediatricians (I'm still not sure) were huddled in one corner waiting for the baby that would soon come out. Nurses scurried back and forth between the 3 groups, calling out numbers and words that we didn't understand. I was focused on Kim, I had no desire to look over the sheet at what was going on. Her arms were pulled out to her sides and tied down, like Jesus on the cross or Mel Gibson at the end of Braveheart. I sat down right behind her head and kissed it again. I think we were both so relieved to see each other again that a lot of the fear we had worked up individualy gave way to peace.

Everything happened pretty quickly once I got in there. Kim had been medicated enough to not feel any pain, but she still felt the pressure and the movements. And that was a weird thing for me to see, her facial expressions as they cut through her 7 layers and began to move things around from the places that the good Lord had always meant for them to be. Kim says she felt someone push down on her abdomen and force the baby up and out, and then we heard the most wonderful sound in our lives - Ada screaming at the top of her lungs. We looked at each other just like they do in every tv show or movie you've ever seen about birth and just totally lost it. We began crying tears of joy, we began giggling, and kissing each other. We could tell that they moved her over to the corner to check on her, and that they were running different tests and trying to get all of the fluid out that would normally be pushed out during labor. So we spent several minutes just waiting to meet her, while hearing her scream and cry. A nurse finally brought her around to us, where we touched and kissed her head. Little bits of blood and other goo were still on her, but we could not have cared less.

The nurse told us I would need to go with Ada to the nursery while they finished up with Kim. It was hard to leave her again, but we knew the hardest part was over. I walked in with Ada to the nursery, where all of our family was waiting on the other side of the glass. We all watched as they weighed her, measured her height, cleaned her off, and gave her the Vitamin K shot. Dr. Cosentino came in to tell me congratulations and to explain to me what the problems had been. Once he got in and found Ada, he discovered that her umbilical cord had been wrapped twice around her neck and that it was a very thin and weak one. Each time Kim had a contraction or pushed the cord was simultaneusly choking Ada more and giving her less blood and oxygen. We would have done it all exactly the same over again, but it felt good to know the c-section had been necessary.

The 2 weeks since have been a blur of sleepless nights, crying, breastfeeding, dirty diapers, smiles, burps, family visits, friends' visits. And we'll do our best to keep you updated on all the changes a exciting things that occur. But we felt like a good start would be for us to let you know... how it all went down.

The end (which is really the beginning).

How It All Went Down - Part 3

We arrived at the hospital around 12:30, and were checked into our labor room by 1:00 or so. As nurses got Kim situated and into her bed, I stayed busy plugging cell phones and camera batteries into wall sockets. After a round of questions from the nurses, Dr. Cosentino came by. He was skinny, middle-aged balding man with a shortly trimed goatee. He introduced himself to both of us, and came across as witty, humorous, and even a little sarcastic - he was just what we needed. And it certainly didn't hurt anything in Kim's eyes that he was wearing a UT Longhorns watch. He checked Kim as we told him all that had happened so far - that Kim was past her due date and that her water had broken about two hours before.

Most women's water doesn't break first naturally, we had known that already. Usually contractions start first, then the water breaks later or it gets ruptured by the Dr. to speed things up. But however it happens, once the water breaks most people say the baby needs to be out within 24 hours. So, we were 3 hours into that timeline and Kim was still not having any contractions. She was also only 60% effaced and dilated one and a half inches. So, Dr. Cosentino told us we needed to get things going a little quicker and put Kim on an IV drip of Pitocin. And from that point on through the next several hours, things got pretty boring (from my perspective only, of course).

Kim's parents showed up and brought me some lunch (Kim was already on an ice chips only diet). Then in the early evening all of my parents and my brother showed up. Kim's friend Dey, and my brother and sister in-law showed up too. People would take shifts coming in to check on us, then go back to the waiting room. Some of us made phone calls here and there to let others know how things were progressing. Somewhere in there, someone brought me a hamburger for dinner. But mainly, we all just waited. Kim began having mild contractions a few hours in, then in a few hours more they really started hurting her. We all took turns having our hands squeezed as she tried to breathe through the pain. She decided to get an Epidural once the pain got to be too much, and there was a night and day difference then. In fact, she had one of her worst contractions right before the Epidural; and within a few minutes after it she looked at her mother with a smile on her face and said "I'm having a contraction right now."

Dr. Cosentino would come in every hour and a half or two and check Kim again, look over all of the monitors, and ask her how she was doing. Later in the night, the nurses picked up on Ada's heartrate dropping when Kim was laying on her left side or when stronger contractions would come. Dr. Cosentino and the nurses told us that might become a factor during the pushing stage, but that it was too soon to worry yet. Around 12:30 am, Dr. Cosentino said Kim was getting real close, and that he expected her to be ready to push around 1:30. But he also told us that Ada was far enough down for him to be able to feel her head and realize that she was face up instead of face down. That isn't necessarily a dangerous position, but it normally means a lot harder time pushing on the mom. We didn't let it bother us much, because he said he could probably turn her as Kim was pushing later on.

Around 1:30, our family told us bye and cleared out for us to start the pushing phase. But Dr. Cosentino and the nurses soon discovered that Ada's heart rate was now falling dangerously low during every contraction and push. She always rebounded during the breaks, but with every contraction Dr. Cosentino shook his head and looked a little more perturbed. He told us that she just didn't want to turn, even though he had tried it to the left and to the right. He also told us that he could only keep watching her heart beat dip so many times before he'd want to do a c-section. That thought was tough on us at first, we had never even really thought much about c-sections. Kim just knew she wanted to avoid one at all costs, and we both had heard about how often OB's do unnessecery c-sections. But Kim had been pushing for around 30 minutes, with no progress at all. And everyone in the room who knew about birth could tell that something just wasn't right. Dr. Cosentino said he was going to step out for a few minutes to take a phone call and to give Kim and Ada a break. He told us when he got back we'd push a little more, but that if there was no change a c-section would be necessary.

After about 10 minutes that felt like hours, he came in and got Kim to push through one more contraction. After looking at the monitors and sharing a silent look with the nurse that spoke volumes to us, he turned to us and told us Kim would need a c-section. We knew things were about to get much tougher on us all, but we trusted our Dr. and couldn't imagine doing any harm to Ada just so we could spend less money or be able to say that Kim had her vaginally. We nodded our approval and Dr. Cosentino said "Ok then, let's go get your daughter out."

How It All Went Down - Part 2

Here's my perspective:

Ada's due date (August 12) had come and gone. Since we knew most first babies come late and there was no way to know when Ada would make her appearance, I had been working like normal last week at Mosaic. I had worked some on emails and returning phone calls, and had coordinated with Don on all the things that needed to happen that day to keep getting ready for the weekend's grand opening of Mosaic's new building.

I was walking into Home Depot to rent a jam saw so that Tim Brosnan and I could work on some flooring when my phone began to vibrate in my pocket. I saw that it was Kim, and I tried to not get too excited. I had been excited every time she had called me for a week thinking that was the call, and it never was. "Hello," I answered. "Hey baby, I think my water just broke and they want to see me at the Dr's office right away." Somehow I navigated out of the Home Depot and the Home Depot parking lot, and was home in 2 or 3 minutes. I was still trying to keep my excitement in check, since we weren't sure whether Kim's water had broke or not and since we had started to think the baby would never come.

Once we arrived at the Dr's office, it felt like forever before they called us back. I remember thinking it was weird to make a couple who might be having a baby wait while other women there for routine checkups or in earlier stages of pregnancy kept getting called back. But I'd soon discover that nothing happens too fast with labor or delivery, and that everyone but us knew we had plenty of time. Once we made it back to see Dr. Hooi she quickly ascertained that yes, Kim's water had broken, and that she was one and a half centimeters dilated. She told us that she would call the hospital to let them know that we were coming, and that Kim would be treated by Dr. Cosentino - a man from her group that was on call for that day and night. Dr. Hooi told us that we would love him and that he was a great Dr. to have.

We'd find out real soon just how right she was.

How It All Went Down - Part 1

This is video of Kim's stomach the night before her water broke. It was her last big party in the womb, and maybe even when she wrapped her umbilical cord around her neck twice. We'll write about what happened the next day real soon.

We're Home

Ada was born on August 16th at 2:33 am. She weighed 7 lbs, 4 oz and was 21 inches long.

We're home now and have done a little work while on the interweb. Check out Ada's Picasa Picture Album on the sidebar. Soon, there will be updates on this blog on Ada including our versions of her birth story and what she's up to now. But for now, we need a lot of rest.

Love,
Sam