Sweet Pea's First Week

Fun Aunt Maysi taking The Bug for an adventure in our yard to look for bugs and then a picnic on the yard. You would never know she has 4 boys of her own. :)

I put my mom and sister to work. :) We got a load of dirt, picked, out flowers, and then they went to town getting all my pansies planted. Now I have a beautiful pansy garden. I love it!! I'm so glad they did this, b/c it would have been about a month before I could have done it, and then there wouldn't have been as many beautiful pansies.

I took these pics of our Sweet Pea as she was very awake and looking around. The sun was perfect too...however, the orange blanket cast a lot of orange on her skin.

You can't see it very well, but her shirt says, "Little Sister". It's super cute. The Bug has a shirt that says "Big Brother", so now I need to get pics of them in their shirts together.

Getting snuggled in for a nap. She's not the binky baby The Bug was, but she loves to suck and I'm positive if I don't force the binky on her she's gonna be a thumb sucker...like her mom was. :)

The Bug wanted to build a house, so Aunt Maysi got out his blocks...but he ended up building a train, and a house, and a boy, and a door...according to his narration as he built it. I was very impressed he built this all on his own...zero help from any grown ups. He stayed with it for a long time and knew exactly what he was doing. He built a train track first, and then built the train on top of it...he really did a good job. Had to get a pic of my smart boy entertaining himself. :)

My sister, Maysi, was kind enough to get some pics of my and our Sweet Pea just before I fed her. That's why she's eating my cheek in the last pic. :) These were taken on Friday the 27th, after a long day the day before in the ER/hospital. I didn't have a very good day Friday, so I'm looking a little pasty, but I loved the pics of my Sweet Pea.

Nana and Aunt Maysi wore this boy OUT!! He missed naps, ran around, had adventures, ate lots of sugar, and had zero time to just crash...so when we put in a movie for him Friday afternoon this was how he spent watching the first part.

Shayne got a paella pan from Spain and he and my mom made a seafood paella for dinner Friday night. My mom was loving it!

While Shayne & my mom made the paella, The Bug was watching his movie, and ended up wanting to sit w/ mom. So, he climbed up with me while I was nursing Sweet Pea. He fell asleep shortly after this pic was taken...seriously this boy was exhausted. :)

The seafood paella Shayne and my mom made. It was DELICIOUS!! It tasted as good as it looked...seriously delectable.

While we were eating the paella, The Bug (who doesn't eat that sort of stuff) proceeded to put his rain boots (extratuffs) on to go outside and play soccer with the new soccer ball his dad had gotten him that day. This was taken around 9:30 pm, hence the pj's with the boots.

Giving Nana smiles Saturday afternoon before she left.

My mom and Maysi had never had King Crab before, so we decided to treat them just before they flew out of Kenai. Yummy stuff! They both loved it, even Maysi who is not a big seafood fan...at least she didn't think she was until she came to visit us. :)

At the Kenai airport just before Nana and Maysi flew out. It was so bittersweet for me to see them go. I loved having them here, and it was a blessing they were both able to come. Wish we were closer so our kids could grow up closer to family.

Saying goodbye to Nana by the Brown Bear. He loved having his Nana here to play with. Can't wait to see them again.

Now that daddy didn't have to share his little girl, he promptly took her after I fed her and they fell asleep together.

We had a great week with our Sweet Pea...minus the little wrinkle on Thursday. My mom and Maysi did little projects for me around the house and outside.

On Monday afternoon we went to the Kenai Alternative High School graduation. It's the high school where I used to teach, and spent a lot of time at subbing this past school year. The kids had been asking if I was going to be there, and I promised them I would try. So...3 days after a c-section, we all went to the graduation. It was short, only an hour, so it wasn't too bad. I was tired afterwards, but I'm glad I was able to go.

Tuesday, we went out and bought flowers to plant in my flower garden after putting new dirt in it.

On Wednesday we took Sweet Pea in for her first appointment to make sure she hadn't lost too much weight and was doing ok. She only lost 3 oz, so weighed in at 6lbs 12oz at 5 days old. Not too shabby...which means she is definitely eating! She passed all the reflex tests, and even Carla (doc's wife who does all the developmental stuff), commented on her social smiles. Pretty early to be socially smiling, but she's doing it. :)

After the dr. appointment we went and got dirt to fill in my flower garden, and then planted the flowers we had purchased the day before. It was so nice outside, I even took the Sweet Pea out in a sling and sat in a chair while my mom and Maysi planted flowers. I wish I could've helped, b/c I love planting flowers, but I'm just glad the flowers got planted.

Thursday morning I got up around 2am b/c I was feeling uncomfortable, b/c I was engorged. I decided to get up to pump off some milk so I could sleep. Just as I finished pumping I started bleeding...a lot and it wasn't good. I was finally able to get Shayne up and after about 5 minutes the bleeding started to slow, but not stop and I started to go into shock. I was light headed, nauseous, and sweaty. At this point we knew I needed to get to the hospital, but I would pass out if I moved. So, Shayne got my mom up to stay with the baby and brought a chair to the bathroom door. He helped me to the chair, but I started to pass out, so I climbed off the chair and onto the floor in the hallway, immediately putting my feet up on the wall. Shayne & my mom decided at that point to pull me to the top of stairs on the floor rug runner I was laying on. I was able to slide down the stairs on my butt to the bottom of the stairs and then climbed back onto the runner where Shayne pulled me all the way to the front door. I was able to walk with help from my mom and Shayne to the car, and get in. He had pulled out The Bug's car seat and laid the seat all the way back, so when I got in I laid back and put my feet in the window. At this point it was about 3am and Shayne had already called the ER to let them know we'd be there in about 7 minutes. Shayne's good friend, Anderson, was working that night and was at the front entrance with a wheel chair when we pulled up. They got me out of the car, and as Anderson was wheeling me to a room, I started to pass out again. I was pretty much passed out, when they got to my room and put me on the bed. I couldn't see, but I could sorta hear what was going on, minus the ringing in my ears. They lowered the head of my bed, and immediately took my blood pressure which was 68/48...not so good. Anderson put an iv into each arm and started fluid as soon as he could. I started feeling better and could talk and communicate how I was feeling. Dr. Anderson showed up about 10 minutes after we got there and did an ultra sound on my uterus to find out what was going on. And, it wasn't so good.

The trans-abdominal cerclage (TAC) I had put in with The Bug, which is a permanent kevlar/teflon stitch wrapped around my cervix to prevent a miscarriage, had also prevented a large blood clot from passing out. My uterus had not contracted fast enough which allowed the blood clot to form which then prevented the uterus from contracting down to it's regular size, which then prevented the open blood vessels that fed the placenta from constricting down...so I continued to bleed, but the clot also prevented that blood from passing as well...so we had no idea for 5 days that I was still bleeding. It was all kind of a viscous cycle that all came to a head Thursday early morning.

Now here was the real problem...we needed to get rid of the large clot (when I say large it was about 10cm x 14cm or about the size of a very large grapefruit), but Doc was unsure how to get rid of it. He would have preferred to suction out the clot, but didn't know if he could get a suction catheter to pass through the cerclage. The other option was to go and re-open my c-section incision and take it out surgically, but the uterus is so soft and pliable at this point, there were a lot of risks of doing more damage than good in either process. I suggested to Doc to call Dr. Haney in Chicago who performed the TAC to find out the size of the cerclage and just to ask for suggestions, seeing how Dr. Haney is one of the top female reproductive surgeons in the country. It was about 5am at this point, which made it 8am in Chicago, so Doc decided to call him. He was able to talk to him and get some good information and a good plan of action.

Doc and Dr. Haney, and Shayne & I, all decided to let the clot take care of itself. It would leave me at risk of bleeding out again, but the risks of doing either surgery or trying to suction out the clot and damaging my uterus were greater. So, Doc admitted me to the hospital (OB), and I received 3 units of blood throughout the day to get me caught up on what I had lost and to get me ahead in case I continued to bleed. We all felt really good about this decision...and I was glad to not be going into surgery again.

So, my mom was able to stay with Sweet Pea and feed her at 4 am with the milk I was been able to pump off, and then she brought her into me while I was getting blood for her 8 am feeding, which made me feel so much better. Maysi stayed with The Bug while my mom stayed with me for a bit in the hospital. I was supposed to stay in the hospital for a couple of days to make sure I stopped bleeding, but by late afternoon the bleeding had all but stopped, so Doc decided I could go home, as long as there was someone to stay with me in case I bled out again.

I ended up passing a lot of the clot Thursday night and Friday morning and continued to bleed more than I would have liked through Friday, but by Friday evening it had slowed considerably. I felt pretty crappy on Friday, and I'm even more pasty white than I was before, if that's even possible. :) But, I'm feeling better now and just hoping I've been able to pass most of the clot so I don't have to worry about it anymore.

My poor Bug was a little thrown off when I wasn't there Thursday morning. He informed Maysi a little later in the day he wanted to go to the hospital and get his mom and Zaydri back. And on Friday he wouldn't let me out of his sight...he literally had to go to the bathroom with me, b/c he was worried if I left his sight I would disappear. Poor little boy.

So...that's why I was so glad to have both my mom and Maysi here...my mom helped with The Sweet Pea and Maysi was able to stay with The Bug. And...I guess it's pretty genetic the bleed out and both my mom and Maysi, and one other sister have had issues with bleeding after having kids. Maysi has had to have blood transfusions with two of her kids, so it was good to have them here understand what I was going through and how I was feeling.

Maybe this was too much information, but I'm putting it here for journaling, so if by some other miracle we get pregnant again, I will remember and hopefully we can prevent this from happening again. So, if anyone reading this is uncomfortable reading about cervix's, uterus's, blood clots and bleeding...I'm sorry. :)

My mom and Maysi were scheduled to fly out late Saturday night, and Shayne was planning on taking them with The Bug to Anchorage, but with this latest wrinkle he didn't want to leave me alone. So, we were able to get them tickets to fly out of Kenai right into Anchorage. Kaye & Jared picked them up and took them on a drive up to the Palmer/Wasilla area, which was nice, before they flew out late that night.

I was so sad to see them go. I LOVED having them here to talk to, to help out with The Bug, and offer encouragement when I wasn't feeling so great. They loved Sweet Pea and spent every moment they could holding and snuggling with her. It was so nice to have them here, and The Bug loved having them here too. We'll see how he does without having 3 "moms" here to entertain him.

Thankfully Shayne took next week off to help me out, and now we're especially glad he'll be home in case I decided to go all pasty white again. :)

So...now it's just the 4 of us, which is nice, but a definite change, that's for sure. :)

K--that's the run down of our cute little Sweet Pea's first week. Thankfully enough she hasn't been the cause of any drama. She sleeps 4-5 hours a night, she eats really well, she likes to be awake and be pleasant, she very seldom fusses, and over-all is a sweet little angle. And what a blessing. She is our sweet little blessing.

We are so glad she's part of our family!