Home at Last!

Being able to come home with our baby was great. We were so excited to have her home. We had a lot of help those first few days though, dinners were brought in and my mom came while Dave had to go to work to help me.
We brought her home on a Saturday and by Sunday evening, she still hadn't had a bowel movement in the time we'd been home. While at the hospital, they told us that was something that was a problem so we called the pediatrician. We were told to make an appointment the next morning and bring her in so they could check her out and make sure everything was ok.
So the next morning I called the pediatrician's office and they said she didn't need to come in if she passed her billiruben at the hospital. I disagreed and made them give me an appointment. So we went in and when we got there and they weighed Savannah, she had lost 13 ozs of her body weight, weighing in at an even 7 lbs. While it's completely normal for a newborn to lose some of their body weight, Savannah had lost too much and the pediatrician was concerned about it, so she advised me to go see a lactation consultant.
We made an appointment to go see the lactation consultant and she definitely helped us get Savannah to start eating. It helped a lot to be able to know she was eating and we started adjusting even more.
The next visit with her pediatrician was at 2 weeks old. This visit was very reassuring for me, Savannah had gained weight and was sitting at 8 lbs even.
We've done a lot of fun things with Savannah since then, and just being with her is super fun.
She's just older than two months now and she's started smiling and playing with toys and watching her has become so much more fun. She's sleeping really well, almost through the night from around 11 until about 4:30.
We're definitely starting to get things into a routine and it's really nice. It's also nice that I'm not going to have to go back to work, I just have school and I get to spend the rest of my time with her and Dave. I love being a mommy and I wouldn't trade it for the world.
At this point, we've taken her for her two month visit, and she's not sitting at 12 lbs 3 ozs and 22 1/2 inches long. She's doing great! And the pediatrician says she's advanced for her age. She's holding her head up really well, smiling and she grabs onto things watches Dave and I when we walk across the room and she responds to our voice. It's amazing watching our little baby grow.
So, that's not everything that's happened, but it's what I'm posting now.
And for your viewing pleasure, pictures. Savannah's first day home from the hospitalSavannah - One monthSavannah getting a bath, she's not sure if she likes it.Savannah and I at Gardner Village checking out the witchesWhen she's really hungry anything works, even Daddy's nose pacifies her!

And a video of her playing with her toys

Mom and Baby

Ok, so Mom and Baby, finally...

After Savannah was delivered, and we fed her for the first time and she met grandparents and her uncle Daniel, we were taken to our room in Mom and Baby. We got to our room at about 2 in the morning. By the time we got there, Dave and I were exhausted, it had been a very long day. Because I had been induced due to high blood pressure, the nurses hooked me up to a blood pressure monitor and set it up to take my blood pressure through the night. After I was hooked up to the machine, they gave Savannah her first bath. She hated it, and she screamed nearly the whole time. The only thing she liked was when they washed her back with the sponge.
We finally were able to go to sleep at about 2:30. The sleep was greatly appreciated and needed, but made a bit more difficult by the blood pressure cuff measuring my blood pressure every half hour. Savannah slept really well, only waking up and fussing a tiny bit once, but when I rocked her crib a little she went right back to sleep.
At 6:00, an alarm woke me up. The blood pressure machine's battery was dying and it was beeping to let everyone know. I called the nurse and she came in and turned it off then checked on both me and the baby. We were both doing fine.
Around 11, we had our first visitors of the day, but definitely not the last. We had visitors in and out all day. Savannah met a ton of great people in her first day of life. I think we had a small break for about an hour with no visitors, but there were definitely people showing up to let Savannah know she was loved and welcome her into the world!
After the visitors, Dave and I both went to sleep. We crashed and I don't remember much about that night at all. The next morning we had a few visitors, but we had a lot more time to ourselves to get to know our baby and adjust to her. At about 3 that day, we left to come home. And that was fantastic!

The Birth Story

Savannah was due to be born on August 27th, but I was ready for her to come on approximately August 15th. I was not excited to still be pregnant at my doctor's appointment on August 19th, and my doctor knew it, so he looked for all sorts of reasons to induce. At that appointment, he hooked me up to a fetal monitor to monitor her heart rate and contractions that I was having (which were not happening at all at that point in time...) and we did an ultrasound to measure fluid and see if the placenta was pulling away from my uterus (which is wasn't...). After the fetal monitor and ultrasound, it was determined that there were no medical reasons to induce and to come back again on the 26th.

So for a week I tried everything I could think of to induce other than consuming anything that I thought could potentially harm my baby like mineral oil, caster oil or anything like that. I wanted to have my baby so badly, but I didn't want to cause her or me any harm in doing so.

On the 25th, I was pretty much resigned that I was not going to have this baby any time soon and that I should just deal with it. I was very uncomfortable, and my feet were ridiculously swollen. My mom came over and we sat together and watched a movie ("Better off Dead" Awesome...) while I soaked my feet in epsom salts. After the movie was over and the swelling in my feet still hadn't gone down any, Dave got a blood pressure cuff from his parents and took my blood pressure. My blood pressure reading came back normal on it, I don't remember exactly what it was, but somewhere in normal ranges. Daniel had come back with him and they were outside playing ball, so after a while I went out with them and started talking with my neighbors Mary and Andrea.

After a while, my mother-in-law Michelle came over to get Daniel and take him home, and Dave and I spent the rest of the evening talking with Mary and Andrea. We stayed out literally until 2 AM with them (well Andrea went to bed earlier than that but her husband Jim came out). After going inside, I remember praying that I would be patient for my baby to come and that the doctor would know when it was time for her to come.

Well, it was time for her to come apparently.

I had an appointment at 8:50 AM on Thursday August 26th. We woke up and got ready for the appointment making sure that the hospital bag went with us, just in case. We also loaded up the laptop to make sure we'd be able to put updates on Facebook throughout the day. The big mistake was only having a string cheese to eat and throwing some granola bars in my bag.

Dave has recently switched jobs and wasn't sure he'd be able to stay with me the whole appointment, so my mom and Dave and I all went to the doctor's office for that appointment. We got into the exam room at about 9:30 and they took my weight and my blood pressure. Well, everything was not normal this time. The blood pressure came out as 178/128! Explains why my feet were so swollen and I was so super uncomfortable. The nurse told me to lay down on my left side and she would be back to check it in a while because my blood pressure was WAY too high. So I laid down and we all waited for them to come back and take it again.

The nurse practitioner came in this time and took my blood pressure while I was still laying down. The reading came out still high 148/97 so it was determined that they were going to induce labor, but the doctor needed to see me and check where I was at. So while we waited for the doctor, my mom attempted to french braid my hair while I was still sitting on the exam table (the picture rocks) and I ate two granola bars that I had thrown in my bag that morning. So the doctor came in and checked me, I was 3 centimeters dilated and 70% effaced. After checking me he told me to "Go to the hospital, go directly to the hospital, do NOT pass GO, do NOT stop and In-n-Out Burger", so after getting a copy of my charts to take to the hospital, we went directly to the hospital.

After checking in at Labor and Delivery around 10, we waited in the hall for them to finish cleaning out my delivery suite and my mom did my hair in a french braid to keep it out of my face for the delivery. As soon as we were in the room, a nurse started an IV, and started me on pitocin. At this point we just sat around and waited. They checked my blood pressure which amazingly had gone down quite a bit and just monitored it.

At about 2:30, the doctor came by to break my water, which hadn't happened on it's own. Well, after my water broke contractions started coming. They started coming harder and faster, and by about 3:30, they were coming about a minute apart and were lasting anywhere between 60 and 90 seconds. They hurt, and I wanted and epidural, but I was afraid that if I got it too early it would wear off and I would end up going through the actual delivery feeling everything, and I didn't want that. After talking with the nurse about the concern and her assuring me that it was continuous flow and I wouldn't feel any pain, we ordered the epidural.

The anesthesiologist came in to do the epidural at about 4.Now let me say that I am deathly afraid of needles. They terrify me and the epidural needle I have heard is big, and I knew that if I moved there could be all sorts of complications and side effects from the epidural which I definitely didn't want. So this process was infinitely more scary for me. After having everyone in the room sit down the anesthesiologist started while Dave held my hand and I squeezed my eyes closed as tight as I could and waited for it to be over.

They used a numbing agent to numb my back where they were inserting the needle, and the anesthesiologist told me to let him know if I felt any sharp pains on either side of my back. He let me know I would feel some pressure, and put the needle in. After he started threading in the catheter that would put the Phentanyl directly into my spine to block the pain, I felt a sharp pain on the right side of my back, so he put some more numbing agent in me. After threading it a little more, I felt another pain - this one hurt so bad I started to cry - so again he put some more numbing agent there so I wouldn't feel it.

After the catheter was fully threaded, he let me know that I would feel a shock go down my leg, the nurse said it would feel like a charlie horse. Well let me tell you what, I've never had a charlie horse like that before! I thought it felt more like someone hooked up some jumper cables to me and tried to jump start my leg.

After the epidural was in, I felt infinitely better, no more contractions! They were still coming, only I couldn't feel them. At this point in time I would no longer be able to get up and walk around so they put a catheter in so I could still use the bathroom. Also at this point they put in internal monitors for her heart and my contractions because it was very difficult to find her heart beat using the external monitor, and the contractions it was measuring weren't measuring correctly.

At this point, we just had to sit around and wait. We had to wait while my cervix got fully ready to deliver a baby. They had me on oxygen off and on to help lower my blood pressure and regulate the babies heart beat. While we waited, we watched the food network, and then we watched "Mrs. Doubtfire". I dozed off and on trying to get some rest. After the movie was over, I was measuring at 10 centimeters and I was 99% effaced. It was almost time to start pushing. My mom, Dave's mom and my dad were all there and I was getting nervous. Dave was ready though to help me through it and to become a dad.

After having everyone leave the room at about 9:45 it was time to start practice pushing! The nurse helped us practice push, then we started to really push for about 45 minutes while trying to get the baby into position for the doctor to come. When the doctor arrived, we were pushing on every contraction, which I was feeling at that point as pressure. So the doctor got there and we pushed and pushed and pushed! After pushing for about 15 minutes (I think, time was a little distorted at that point and Dave isn't home for me to verify...) the baby's heart rate dropped drastically so they took her monitors off took the contraction monitors out and the decision was made to do a vacuum extraction.

The doctor got everything ready and told me that instead of doing a series of three pushes like we had been we were going to push push push push until she was out. So we pushed 4 times and the head was out! After telling me the head was out, he pulled the rest of her little body out. She had the cord wrapped around her neck and one of her arms, so after unwrapping them, the doctor asked Dave if he was going to cut the cord or if Dave was. Dave said he was, so he cut the cord and the put Savannah on my belly, and I got to see my little baby for the first time. She had so much hair, but I seriously remember thinking that she looked a little gross, she had all this white stuff covering her, I remember asking what it was but I don't remember the answer so look it up if you're curious. And then they took her away from me to do her check ups.

Dave went with Savannah while the doctor finished with me. He got all of the placenta and afterbirthing taken care of while they checked up on my baby and weighed her and measured her.

She weighed 7 lbs 13 ozs and was 19 1/2 inches long. Born at 10:54 PM on August 26th.

After they were done checking on her, it was determined that her core temperature was too low, so they put her under a heating lamp for about 20 minutes to get her temperature up. Then they gave her back to me and I really got to hold my baby for the first time - and I fell in love. Again. There is nothing like the joy of holding your baby. I got to nurse her and cuddle her for a little while.

Then the family came in and got to meet their grand daughter (remember only my mom, dad and Dave's mom were in the waiting room). Daniel was there too, I don't know how he got there, or when, but he came and got to hold her as well.

It was very exciting for all of us. After the family left and they did a final check on me in labor and delivery to make sure I wasn't hemorrhaging, we went to Mom and baby.

So there it is. The story.

Sometime, I'll get to telling you about Mom and Baby and the following days.

Savannah Lynne Higham

We are super excited to announce the birth of our Daughter Savannah Lynne Higham!

She was born Thursday August 26th, 2010 at 10:54 PM. She weighed 7 lbs 13 ozs and was 19 1/2 inches long.

18 Weeks - IT'S A GIRL!!!

So, I obviously suck at this updating on what's going on in our lives on a weekly basis, but, two times in a month I figure works well enough.

We went to our first ultrasound last night and IT'S A GIRL! We are so ecstatic for her to come. We're going to name her Savannah Lynne, and she's already beautiful. Stubborn as ever and beautiful! The ultrasound took a long time because she was so wiggly and squirmy! It's amazing to see that baby on the screen and see it moving.

Last night as we were sitting there I seriously started pondering abortion. Something the doctor has brought up is that they can do an amniocentesis to see if there will be any genetic defects or anything wrong with the baby. I refuse to do needles any more than I have to, so obviously that was a no for me, but I was talking with my mom about it and we were just kind of saying what would I do about it if I knew something was wrong with my baby anyway? I'm not the type of person that would have an abortion. I believe life begins at the moment of conception, and I've never thought of this baby as an embryo, or something not living.

But last night as I was watching my baby on that television screen and seeing her heart beat and her wiggle and squirm around, I seriously contemplated how someone could have an abortion at this point and not think they're murdering their baby? Seriously, you can see their heart beating, and you can see them move their limbs and you can see the blood flowing to all the various parts of their body... I can't even imagine...

Anyway, I didn't mean to get quite so deep, but being pregnant that's kind of a touchy topic for me I guess. Back to the ultrasound.

We got to see her brain, and we could see both temporal lobes and the cerebellum, we got to see her profile, her feet and toes, her arms. It was great, when we were looking at her brain, at one point you saw her arm just woosh across the screen! My baby girl moves! Hopefully I'll be able to start feeling her move shortly... That will be so exciting!!!

We also got to see her kidneys, and her stomach, and her diaphragm, all those parts that are developing. The coolest though was her heart. You can seriously see that sucker pumping blood and beating. Last night she was at 150 bpm, which is a very healthy heart beat apparently.

And then we found out gender. Dave was really hoping for a boy, but after he found out it was a girl, he seriously could not stop smiling. Our little Savannah already has daddy wrapped around his finger. It was so cute this morning when he woke up kissed my belly and said good morning to her.

I love my husband, I love my Savannah, and I can't wait for her to come!

Hopefully I'll get around to getting ultrasound picture put up. I'll work on that in the next week or so...

15 weeks and change

So, I've officially decided I absolutely need to blog more to document my pregnancy and our lives... so here goes, we'll see how this actually works out.

I am 16 weeks pregnant on Friday, which means approximately 4 months. Only another 4 weeks and I'm half way there! And then we'll get to find out if we're having a Baby Girl Higham, or a Baby Boy Higham. I'm sure you all know what Dave is rooting for... He wants a boy so bad his teeth hurt, but he'd love our little girl just as much... He'd be wrapped around that little girlies finger so quickly it'd make you dizzy!

Pregnancy has been no picnic. I've told quite a few people there's nothing good about it. I'm nauseous a freaking LOT! But, it's getting better. And, I haven't thrown up since I think Friday... So that's like... 4 whole days! My record is 6 since finding out I was pregnant, so cross your fingers for me, ok? Also, on top of the nausea and vomiting, being pregnant has made places I didn't know exist on my body hurt like crazy! For example, did you know you can feel your tailbone? Well I didn't until I could. It hurts. Like crazy. My doctor says it's because my ligaments are loosening so my pelvis moves around. Well, that sucks and it hurts.

But Dave is super sweet through all of it, my crazy hormones that make me cry when I'm watching a hilarious movie, my insane mood swings, waking up bawling in the middle of the night because of insane dreams I'm having... Have I mentioned lately how much I love my husband? I don't think I shout that to the world enough. He seriously is the best, sweetest guy I could ask to be my husband and I am grateful every single day for him. (He even paints my toe nails for me! Who could ask for more???)

We're getting anxious for those 4 weeks to pass though, I'll tell you what. I want to know if I get my girly or my little boy! Dave has already determined that it's a boy, and he always talks to my belly using our boy names. You should see how cute he is! When he kisses me goodbye in the mornings, he kisses my belly too and tells our baby goodbye. That's really sweet gentleman, take that one down in your book of lessons.

Anyway, I'm running out of things for this post, so we'll see how well I do at keeping up on this. We'll try for like, one a week at least... but we'll see. I've never been really great at this blogging thing.