Tuesday, July 25, 2017

Not much happened on this day.  I will say that I love how Bella’s hair is just long enough now to stick straight up in certain places.  It is just so cute to me.

I have suddenly developed these small puss filled blisters in between some of my fingers that itch terribly.  I think it is eczema.  The only thing that has helped is the Copaiba essential oil.  It didn’t make it go away but it has helped relieve the intense itching that has accompanied the blisters which was amazing.

Wednesday, July 26, 2017

We were finally able to get out for a walk today for a brief period of time before Bella got too hot and fussy and we turned right around and went home.

Today we utilized the new chair and play gym that my husband bought for her.  She will sit in the chair for a short time before getting fussy but the gym with all the dangling toys really had her enthralled for a good stretch of time which is nice because when she is not eating or sleeping she wants us carrying her, pacing the floor, which gets exhausting after a while.

Today, I had some bleeding and I thought I was starting my period for the first time since having Bella but then it stopped again.

Thursday, July 27, 2017

We were able to get out for another walk before it got too hot.  We were kept company on the way home by a white crane that kept flying off and landing a few yards ahead of us.  Eventually, I stopped and sat on a bench and watched him hunt for a while before continuing the rest of the way home.  Bella slept during much of the walk.

We have a fairly nice routine down now.  She goes to bed around 9:30 or 10 (sometimes a little earlier or later) and she stirs a little around 4 am for a diaper change.  We change her place and she never really fully wakes up.  She wakes up around 7 am to eat and around 8:30 or 9:00 we leave for our walk.  She sleeps around this time in the stroller.  We get back and cool off and she eats again.  Naps are sporadic from here until bed time and usually only last about 20-30 minutes.  That is the basics of her schedule.

We also got Josh’s salary offer from the company he will be working for.  It was a fairly decent offer and more money than we have ever had as a married couple so we’re excited.  He’ll be starting no later than August 11th.

Friday, July 28, 2017

Today was a bit of a rougher day for me.  My cycle has officially arrived I believe.  It keeps taking several hours off at a time and then returning with a vengeance.  I’ve had quite a bit of cramping with it too.

I also think I finally figured out what the weird, itchy, puss filled blisters that suddenly showed up between my fingers this past week are.  I believe it is eczema.  Never really had eczema until around the time I gave birth to Bella.  Guess this is just a change I am going to have to deal with now.

Bella fell asleep before I could get her into the stroller so, since Josh has not started work yet, I went for a walk alone this morning and let her stay home with her Papa.  It turned out to be good call because when I left it was nice and cool and over cast but about halfway through the sun came out and it heated up quickly from then on.  On my way back home, I saw a turtle swimming in the water and then bumped into a mama duck with her duckling.  Her duckling was curious about me and was waddling towards me on the trail.  I decided to keep moving quickly by though because Mama duck was definitely not happy with me being so near her baby.  I completely understood her though!

The last couple of days Bella has been really fussy at my right breast when feeding and has been taking it less and less.  I am not sure why that is but I have received Moringa powder and two silicone breast pumps in the mail today so I hope that will help with my supply.  The silicone breast pumps are all one piece of silicone and you suction one on the opposite breast from the one your baby is feeding on and it catches and actually suctions out the let down on that side.  I seem to get 2-3 mL of let down on each side which is actually just about what my electric pump gets out of me so I would say it is doing a great job for a piece of silicone that is hands free and easy clean up.

Saturday, July 29, 2017

Today was the saddest day for me ever!  Today, Bella officially rejected my right breast.  She screamed and just would not take it.  She still will take the left one but she is being fussy on it now like she was with the right.  I know that if she rejects the left one also the breastfeeding is most likely over for us.  I am glad to have the silicone breast pump now to help me keep my supply up as much as possible in the right breast.

I was so upset and today was the first time in a while that I cried about the breastfeeding situation.  I was in great despair so since both of our two year wedding anniversary gifts had arrived we decided to open our gifts to each other early and start our celebration a little early.  I got him a vest he had been wanting and he got me some of the makeup I had been wanting.  It is called Savvy Minerals and it launched last  month and is the purest and best mineral makeup you can get I believe.  It is actually sold through Young Living so I can hardly wait to be distributing this makeup goodness to people.  I already love it from what I have seen of the blush and the lipstick that Josh bought me.

We both enjoyed playing around with our gifts and being distracted for a little bit while Bella slept for a while.

Sunday, July 30, 2017

Bella once again refused the right breast today.  Otherwise, today was a fairly good day.  We all went for a walk together in the evening which was really nice.  The weather seems to be cooling down a bit now which is a nice reprieve for us.

Monday, July 31, 2017

We had a very successful day today.  Bella took the right breast again after two days of completely rejecting it.  The first time she reluctantly took it and I praised her, even though she didn’t stay on for very long.  For her evening meal though she stayed on and she fell asleep suckling and continued to eat in her sleep for several minutes.  I was just so happy and shocked that she took that breast again.  I thought we were nearing the end of the breastfeeding journey but not anymore.  We’re back in business again! 🙂

Shalom 🙂

Tuesday, July 18, 2017

We had a wonderful day today!  We took Bella for a walk down to the lake near our home in the morning before the heat got too oppressive.  When we got back I read to Bella about Ester in the Bible while she ate.  I want her to grow up hearing about strong and amazing women of the Bible who should be role models for us today.  I thought Ester was a good person to start with.

Later on we got news that my husband had gotten the job!  We are so excited!  It will be hard to have him gone during the day but we have been working on transitioning into this new chapter in our lives for a while now.  It has been a lovely luxury to have him home with us for this long though.

Another lovely thing that happened today was that our cat, Tzipporah (Zippi for short) decided to snuggle with Bella while she was in my husband’s lap.  Zippi seems to think of her as her own kitten and is very fond of Bella.  It is so sweet!  Our other cat Samson seems to have accepted Bella now as well which is a relief.   Zippi loved Bella almost since she came through the door but it took a little longer for Samson to get on board.  Now, he is extremely protective of her and checks on her frequently throughout the day when she is in the main living area with me.

So, as you can see, this is the new blog format.  I think it will be easier to write a little every day than one big blog post about the week.  I think I am less likely to forget things too and you will see more in depth about what is happening.  Obviously, some days will probably have more to them than other days.  The weeks worth of journalling will be posted weekly still, even though I am writing a little each day.  We’ll try this for a while and see how it goes.

Wednesday, July 19, 2017

Not a whole lot of interest happened today.  We didn’t get out for our morning walk this morning because it was too hot.  One thing I would like to know though, from the Mama’s reading this, when you had your first child did any of you have crazy scary dreams.  I have been plagued with nightmares lately.  If you did have crazy dreams, how did you deal with them?  Thanks in advance!

Thursday, July 20, 2017

It is another extremely hot day so we had to skip the walk again.  Looks like it will be same through Saturday.

Today, Bella was being changed and my husband said “mama” when she looked at me.  Eventually, she looked back at him and he said, “Papa.”. Then she looked back at me and he said, “mama” again.  Then she looked back at him and he said “papa” again.  At this point she started to look back and forth between the two of us and we could almost see the wheels turning and the connections being made in her little brain.  I bet it won’t be long before we hear a mama or papa from her.  So excited! 🙂

Friday, July 21, 2017

Today, Bella grasped a hold of the bottle with both hands during her feeding session.  She was not strong enough to hold it up by herself but she did attempt to keep it upright.  She also has grabbed the ribbons on her favorite toy “Mr. Owl,” for brief periods of time.  She often kisses him as well.

I am not sure if I mentioned this in a past blog but she was kissing me at 8 weeks I believe.  Mr. Owl will make her happy even when she is being fussy.  She is also getting close to being able to roll over during tummy time.  She will be there soon I think.

Saturday, July 22, 2017

Today, Bella once again grabbed Mr. Owl but this time she brought him up to her mouth herself (no help from me) and said, “mwah” and then repeated the action a couple more times.  Any doubt about it being kisses has been eliminated.  She is so amazing to me!  She is such a loving girl already!

She was once again very close to kicking herself over from her stomach to her back during tummy time.  She just needs a little more arm strength and coordination and she will be there.

Otherwise, not much else happened today.  Just a really good rest day for our Sabbath.

Sunday, July 23, 2017

So, today I was down for the count most of the day.  I had horrible cramping most of the day.  I have been having this occasionally off and on since I gave birth to her.  I think it has something to do with the breastfeeding since it always begins directly after I feed her.  There is not a whole lot to report since my husband took care of her most of the day.  She did very well for him though.

We do believe she is teething right now as well since she is always wanting to chew on things and drooling A LOT!  Otherwise, nothing new to report.

Monday, July 24, 2017

When Bella woke up this morning she was all smiles and happy.  She slept through the night except for a diaper change at 4:00 am and I thought she would have be screaming for food but that was not the case.  She let us know she was up and then patiently waited for us to get set up to feed her, smiling at us the whole time.

Today we spent a good part of the day at a birthday party for a friend of our family at my parents house.  Many people there were meeting Bella for the first time and she made quite the impression on them.  She was so well behaved the entire time and everyone loved her.

After all the party guests left we stayed behind to visit with my parents for a while.  Eventually, she got a bit fussy and then I got a migraine so we had to leave but it was a good day for us all and we all had fun and got to fellowship with people which was really nice!

So that ends this week’s blog.  I hope you all had a wonderful week!

Shalom 🙂

 

 

So, life has been so chaotic here the last few weeks but here is an update on everything that has been happening in the last few weeks.

Week 9 was by far among the most exciting!  It started off with her suddenly saying her first verbal word, “hello” followed quickly by “hi,” “okay” and “wow.”. She also is immitating a lot of sounds.

We also had her doctors appointment during this week.  She weighed in at 9 lbs 3 oz and she measured 22 inches long.  She is in the 9th percentile for weight, 33 percentile for length and 67th percentile for head size.  She also had her first round of vaccinations which made her cranky and she ran a temp for a while as well, just in time for the 4th of July celebration.  Even so, I think she had a good first Independence Day celebration.

In week 10 there was not a whole lot that happened but she has officially outgrown her newborn clothes.  We are now dressing her in 0-3 month size and 3 month.  Amazingly enough, 3 month fits her better than 0-3 month.

This week my husband also had an interview for a job so he spent a lot of time preparing for that.  This has been good though, because it has helped to start to figure out how I will do things while he is back at work and I am home alone with Bella.

This past week (week 11) was again, more transitioning towards being alone with Bella and setting up new routines to compensate for Josh going back to work.  Josh also had his final interviews with the company and they seemed to go quite well.

This week Bella suddenly went from eating 4 to 6 oz of formula, after being on me first of course, to 10-12 oz overnight.  We think she must be going through a growth spurt because she never eat more than what she needs and will often stop herself when she is full.  It was amazing to see her downing that much formula in such a small body.  We are now using bigger bottles that hold more and the nipples that came with them.  She seems to be doing quite well with these nipples and bottles.  She hasn’t been as gassy and hasn’t been spitting up as much anymore either.

Also, this week we had a lovely visit from Bella’s Grandma and Grandpa who were passing through.  It was lovely to get to see them again and have Bella be around them.  I hope that they will be around frequently so Bella can grow up knowing them well.

So, there will be some changes happening with the blog in the next few posts but I will explain more about that in my next post.  There will still be weekly updates but I will be doing it in a different way that will hopefully make it more manageable so that the updates get posted on time.  So be checking back next week for the new blog format and explanation.

I hope you are all doing well and as always, Shalom! 🙂

 

Hello to all of my dear readers!  I can hardly believe that Bella is almost two months old now.  She has grown so much.  She can basically sit up on her own now for several seconds before losing her balance again.  She holds her head remarkably still when she does this and we are always right there to catch her.  Our hands never leave her completely of course.  She also holds up her own weight when we hold her in the standing position and she stomps her little feet like she’s try to walk which is the cutest thing ever, in my opinion lol.

She also has used her first word “milk”.  We have been using some sign language with her and the biggest word we have been focusing on is milk.  She does use this sign now, from time to time, however, not always accurately.   She definitely has made the sign though and in reference to actually wanting milk.  I think she is just experiementing to figure out what it really means still.

She is also sleeping less during the day and interacting more with us now.  She has her adorable social smile down pat and she babbles back at us when we talk to her.

Also, this past week I accomplished filling my first storage bag of milk to begin my milk stash.  It takes several pumping sessions to fill a bag, but at least I am able to fill them now.

I also finished my Reglan medication this week which was prescribed to increase my milk supply.  I believe it did help.  It wasn’t necessarily the miracle I was hoping for but it does appear to have made a difference.  We are now only giving her about 6 oz of formula three times a day instead of after every nursing session like we had been until now.  This is an improvement!

One thing I had noticed though this past week, is that when I use the Basil essential oil (2 drops neat on each breast) about 20-30 minutes before pumping, I will pump about a half ounce of milk.  When I don’t use the oil I literally only get drops, if that much, when pumping.  So glad I have these oils! :-).  If you’re interested you can learn more about essential oils here.

Also, this past week, the business my husband has been working on for the last six months has finally launched and is open for customers and also looking for affiliates to spread the word.  It is a program designed specifically to help children who are struggling with math.  We are very excited to be a part of this program that is helping these children increase and develop their math skills.  You can find out more here, in my blog post about it.  They are called BetterMathGrades.com

Life is good here!  I hope you all are doing well also!

Shalom:-)

It is amazing that it’s been 7 weeks since Bella first entered the world.  Since then it has been an interesting and exciting journey.  Bella is growing but still as cute as ever!  She went to Grandma’s and Grandpa’s for a couple hours on Thursday while my husband and I went to my 6 week’s postpartum doctors appointment.

The appointment itself went well.  I felt a little discouraged when I stepped on the scale and weighed 159 lbs.  That means I have lost a grand total of one pound since the last time I stepped on the scale a month ago.  Oh well!  After the examination we started discussing the breastfeeding issues.  She listened to my concerns, asked questions and then immediately prescribed Reglan.  She said if the Reglan didn’t work to increase my supply in 10 days that nothing would.  However, she did not say whether this was a one and done event or if I should could continue after the 10 days if my milk did increase.  Do any of you know the answer to this?

Meanwhile, back at my parents house, Bella was hard at work charming them.  My dad was playing her and had to leave the room for a few minutes.  My mom took over holding her over her shoulder.  When my dad reentered the room and started talking she twisted herself around and searched for him.  She has been able to hold her head up for several weeks now but this is the exact same thing I did as an infant with my dad.  She is her mother’s daughter! 🙂

After we picked her up from there and took her home, I immediately took my first dose of the medicine.  (Btw, yes we looked it up and it is safe for Bella).  An hour and a half later I also put my usual blend of 3 drops Fennel oil and 2 drops Basil oil neat per breast.  Within 5 minutes I let down in dramatic fashion, causing us to scramble to get me into the pump.  The remarkable thing wasn’t so much the let down, that happened consistently on application of the oils, the thing that made it so different was how much let down and how much I pumped.  I was able to pump 14 mL on one side.  Now, considering that, that very morning I had pumped 15 mL from both sides together, this was a vast improvement.  And might I add that the 15 mL in the morning was also double what I had been producing thanks to tbe essential oils.  All this was the first dose of medication to even out my hormones which tells me that there was a hormone issue there that needed to be corrected before production could really begin.

 

Before and after (at the moment) of milk production

Currently, what I am doing to boost my supply even with the medication is continuing to drink 3-4 liters of water a day, eating oats and lots of protein, 2-3 drops neat of Basil oil per breast (the Fennel oil should only be used for 10 days at a time and yesterday was my 10th day), and power pumping again.  I am currently doing the power pumping boot camp which is 8 sessions of power pumping in 48 hours.  I have seen improvements using all of these now.  Overall, I am feeling encouraged about breastfeeding again and hopeful that I can make it work now.

Shalom 🙂

 

 

 

Can you believe six weeks have past already since our little Bella was born?!  Time is flying and she has grown.  She is now 8 lbs 3 oz and we were told by a lactation consultant that we are over feeding her now with the formula  We took her to see this lactation consultant about the breastfeeding and I feel like every time I go and see anyone about this I lay out my concerns and they never get addressed or they get brushes aside.  I will tell them that when I pump I only extract about 5-10 mL from both sides; not even from each side.  The response I ALWAYS get is that some women do not respond well to the pump.  Even if I am not responding​ well to the pump, my understanding is I should be pumping at least half of what I am actually producing in the worst case scenario.  So, this automated, brush it under the rug, response has really started to bother me.  When I mention that there was trouble with birthing the placenta and that it basically shattered inside me and the doctor had to manually extract it, the basic response I get is that that was an unfortunate way to start the breastfeeding journey.  There is no mention of the fact that if even a small piece was left behind it could be hindering my milk production and that I should talk to my doctor about it.  I think I have seen 4 or 5 different lactation consultants since Bella was born and the best information I have gotten was from my husband’s family, my family and friends.  So, thank you to all you ladies who have pitched in to give advice and counsel​ through this whole journey so far and those of you who will in the future.

I went to visit my sister today and we talked for a few hours about this breastfeeding topic.  It turns out the reason she did not breastfeed her children exclusively and sometimes at all was because she had medically diagnosed low milk supply.  This is different from just low milk supply in that when she got a blood test to check if she was producing milk her numbers were extremely below the average range they expect for this test.  Regular low milk supply would be if your numbers fell at the bottom of this average range.  By the way, this is the first I am hearing about a test to see if you are able to produce enough milk.  Why was this never mentioned by any of the consultants​ I went to see?!

Anyway, now I know there is a family history, more than what I already knew, of women having low milk supply in my family.  I already knew my mom never got her milk in with her first child and now my sister had low supply with ALL of hers.  Knowing these facts gives me a stronger case to have my actual milk supply tested tomorrow at my 6 weeks doctors appointment.  I feel that this test can only have a positive effect on me.  If it comes back normal, I can have confidence that I can provide milk for my child.  But if it comes back abnormal, I’ll finally have an answer and we can look at options from there.

So now to the fun part of this blog.  Now, that Bella’s hair is starting to grow in more we are trying to determine her hair color.   There are times I am sure she is brunette and then there are times I absolutely convinced she has red hair growing in.  What is your vote?

Shalom! 🙂

 

 

So, Bella is now a month old and doing really well.  We had a weight check for her and she had gained 11 oz since the last appointment which had been 14 days before that.  They said they like to see babies gain a 1/2 ounce to a full ounce a day so she is right on track.  We are still having to feed her from both the breast and formula from the bottle.  This still gets me seriously down but we are trying some natural remedies to help with my supply.  I have been drinking at least 3 cups of Mother’s Milk tea a day which seems to have helped a little bit, power pumping for an hour a day a long with pumping after each feeding but the one I am most excited to try is Fennel essential oil from Young Living which I am currently starting my own business under because their products have really worked for me and for people around me.

So this leads me into our exciting news.  Both my husband and I are starting businesses this month.  My husband has been working with his father to start a business that will help children who are struggling with math in school.  My husband has been working on the back end for several months now, creating the complex programming​ to make this online business work while my father-in-law has been working the front end that everyone will see and the details of how the business will run.  They both have been working so hard to make this something that will really be beneficial for children, parents and teachers a like.  Honestly, as a teacher myself and someone who has struggled with math my entire life, after I saw how this will assess students and help them to focus on their areas of need in this subject area I became very excited about it and wish there had been something like that for me when I was growing up.  When they launch I will put up a specific post about it for any of you that might have a child who is struggling in math and might be interested.

I am also starting up my own business under my mother-in-law using Young Living Essential Oils.  These are some of the purest and best oils you can find in the United States which makes them more effective than the ones you might find in the store which claim to be 100% pure but really aren’t.  The standards for being able to put 100% pure on your label in the US is 5% oil and the way they destill their products damages the product and makes it less effective, if not actually toxic for us.  Young Living is dedicated to being the purest essential oil possible from seed to seal.  They have their own farms and hold themselves to strict standards.  So this is a product I feel I can get behind and support.  My mother-in-law and father-in-law came down to visit us this week and she brought her oils with her from her starter kit.  We defused an oil blend called Stress Away and at Bella’s next feeding I had my first really good let down EVER!  She didn’t​ need the bottle afterwards and slept for several hours afterwards.  Then the next day she was fussy all day and wouldn’t go down to sleep even that night.  Finally we pulled out the Lavender essential oil and defused that and within 10 minutes she was sleeping soundly.  After these successes I am looking forward to my starter kit and the extra Fennel and Basil oils I ordered to come in either tomorrow or Tuesday.  The Fennel especially but also the Basil are supposed to be really good for increasing milk production.  I will let you know how it goes.  I am also excited to share these products and opportunity with anyone who is interested.  If you are interested in learning more I am more than happy to tell you all about it so feel free to ask me.  This is more of an education business than a selling business.  Sales are just a perk for me, as I really believe that true and pure essential oils are natural remedies for just about anything; which G-d put on this Earth for our use and health.

This also has given me a new focus which has helped me with any remaining Baby Blues.  My mother-in-law got me out of the house for a while too this past week which helped to give me something of a break and a change of scenery which has helped.  It was a very nice visit with them both!

So I know this post is late for week 4 and a little early for week 5 but I wanted to get them done while I had the opportunity.  I hope everyone is doing well!  Shalom! 🙂

Well, I decided to put weeks 2 & 3 together since things became so hectic around here.

Week two was an interesting week as we continued to try and adjust and baby blues began to set in, mostly centered around the struggles with breastfeeding.  My husband’s mother came to visit and stayed with us for several days to help us which was so amazing!  My parents also have dropped by almost every day with meals which has also been a big help.

We celebrated mother’s day this week as well which was lovely.  My family had a big get together for the mother’s and my brother’s birthday combined.  It was nice to get out of the house for a bit and spend time with loved ones.

At Bella’s two week doctors appointment we got the all clear to stop supplementing since she was now 4 oz over her birth weight which is better than they usually hope for and they were very pleased.  At the appointment, her umbilical cord stump fell off so the doctor was able to look in and inspect it also.

Week three was full of firsts too.  We took her for her first walk and gave her first bath (which was nerve wracking to say the least).  I also have begun to feel myself coming out of the baby blues.  I feel that my mood has improved over all and I am not quite so teary eyed this past week.  I had another doctor’s appointment for me, the last one with my doctor, as he is moving to another state.  I was his second to last delivery.  My score on the baby blues evaluation was still not great but he said it would probably improve in the next few days and it did.  Also, everything else looks great healing wise for me.  I am dropping the pounds I had gained rapidly (155 lbs I believe on their scale).  

We finally broke down this week and bought a nipple shield.  Because of being introduced to the bottle in the first few days of her life, she has learned some very bad habits which were leading to some major damage to my nipples.  I got to the point I couldn’t even wear clothing against my nipples because of the constant pain and it was affecting how well I was able to connect with her.  With the nipple shield I have been able to continue breastfeeding and even so, it is still painful but better.  I am now able to enjoy it more and continue to build that bond with her during nursing.

We also bought a special Medela bottle which is teaching her to suckle properly we hope.  It seems to have made a difference from what I can tell.  I think I will know better once I take off the shield this week and go back to feeding her as I had been previously.  So, she is still on the formula but we are gradually reducing the amount we give her.

We give her a little more formula at night because she will sleep 4-6 hours straight at night this way.  Also, by the end of the day I have basically very little left to give her.  A normal feeding for her right now takes about 2 hours which is exhausting and makes me wonder why that is happening as that does not seem like an appropriate amount of time.  It seems excessively long to me to be occuring at every nursing session.  I hope that once I remove the shield this will also improve.

I will try to be better about updates but we’re still struggling to figure this all out so there may be joined weeks here and there but I will do my best to keep them weekly whenever​ possible.

Thank you for your patience.  Shalom!

 

So, I have decided to do a weekly update on how we are all doing post birth.  Sorry, this post is late but we’ve been working on adjusting to our new life.  We have made the decision to not show pictures of Bella’s face at this time for privacy reasons and we hope you all will be understanding of this.  I will try however to post a Postpartum picture of me each week.

I will have a dedicated post for my labor and delivery story but in order to understand some of this past week you need to know that I had a very serious complication when it came to birthing the placenta.  Bella’s birth though was relatively uncomplicated​ and went smoothly.

Because of this complication with the placenta I was held an extra night to monitor my bleeding and other vital signs.  It was during this extra time that Bella started to have problems with keeping her blood sugar levels up.  The nurses even had to whisk her away to the nursery and give her glucose drops a couple of times.  We eventually figured out that the energy it was taking for her to breastfeed was causing her sugar levels to drop.  We therefore were forced to supplement with formula which was rather heartbreaking but it was best for Bella.  Even so, she continued to struggle and one night they had me not feed her at all and took her to the nursery the entire night to feed her formula and get her sugar levels to where they needed to be.  It was at this point that I was discharged from the hospital and she was admitted.  They allowed us to sleep in with her that night and then it looked like they weren’t going to let us stay with her if she had to stay another night.  However, they talked about it and decided to let us stay in that eventuality but we were able to establish a routine that kept her sugar levels where they needed to be and she was discharged that night.

We were admitted into the hospital on Tuesday in the afternoon and left on Friday night around 10 pm.  It was an ordeal with much stress and tears from both mom and dad.  Bringing her home from the hospital felt like a huge relief and victory.  We had gotten her stable but now she is more dependent on the bottle than me for her food.  I have struggled to get my milk supply up and it feels like we’re more supplementing with my milk than with the formula.  However, she is still latching really well as she has been from day one and I am pumping every two hours day and night.  As you can imagine there really isn’t a whole lot of sleep happening right now.

Saturday morning we took Bella to a doctors appointment.  They weighed her and she had only lost 6% of her birth weight which was good and her sugar levels were perfect.  She was given a clean bill of health at this appointment and now we will see the doctor again in two weeks.

As for me, I am still experiencing quite a bit of soreness and after birth pains.  I am currently on two strong painkillers because of the severity of my pain because of the difficult after birth.  I also have this awful postpartum rash on my thighs that is itching like crazy.  My feet have also been extremely swollen this week.  They are swollen way worse than they ever were through the entire pregnancy.

Emotionally, I am loving being a mama but I am also struggling with the fact that breastfeeding is not going as well as I had hoped it would.  We went and spoke to a nurse about the situation today and she said that the trauma of having had the life threatening complication after the birth as well as the stress of having Bella be on the cusp of being in the NICU and taken away for a whole night for medical intervention and everything else that went along with that situation could be affecting how well my milk is coming in.  It definitely is having an affect on my emotional health as I scored a 10 on their baby blues evaluation and a 12 is where they have the mama talk to a counselor but most of my answers were focused around how I am feeling about the breastfeeding​ situation.

On the bright side though, we got Bella weighed and she is back to her birth weight already.  I also was weighed and I am now down to 162 lbs myself since giving birth.  I had been at 171 before giving birth.  I gained a total of 36 lbs during this pregnancy and I managed to get away with no stretch marks, yay!

I hope everyone is doing well!  Shalom!

Well, we did it!  We have made it to the due date and 40 weeks.  I have just a little more than a week to go at most.  Next Monday I will be induced if I haven’t gone into labor at that point.  I have been showing some signs that labor is about to start so we are just waiting now.  I actually thought that maybe I was going into labor earlier today but it all got quiet after a while.  I am still not feeling very well though.

At my last doctors visit I weighed about 171 pounds (started at 134 lbs.) and, according to my app, Bella should be creeping up close to 8 lbs. at this point.  Of course there is no way to know for sure until she is born.  I, unfortunately, had not progressed any further from the previous week but that was to be expected.

We talked to our doctor about the itching which has only gotten worse over time.  He ordered a bile salts test be done, as, for some reason, the hospital did not run that test on me while I was there.  My doctor said that often times the bile salts can come back abnormal before the liver function ones do but he reassured us that it was just a precaution and most people don’t test positive for Colestasis as it is very rare.  However, if the results do come back abnormal they’ll induce me this week rather than waiting until next week.

This past week my biggest symptom has been this itch.  It has spread to my knees and hips as well as my feet.  My feet are still the worst though.  Although, I have scratched my hips until they bled recently and I have rug burns on my feet from grinding them into the carpet and small cuts on them from scratching them on sharp edges.  I just can reach my hips easier with my fingers than my feet currently.  It is an horrendous itch.  The worst itch I have ever experienced in my life.  Think 1,000 misquote bites in one small area but deep inside where you can’t really reach it to relieve it no matter how hard you try.  It is miserable but I can handle it as long as I know it is not being caused by something that can harm my child.

I feel incredibly blessed that this only showed up at the very end of this pregnancy and I haven’t had to live with this for weeks or even months like some other Mama’s have to because they’re still too early to induce.  I am truly blessed and very soon I will be holding my baby girl in my arms!

Shalom everyone! 🙂

This week has been something of an interesting week.  I have been having Braxton Hicks contractions for some time but I found out at my last doctors appointment that my contractions are now actually dialating my cervix and I have begun to progress.  At my last check I had dialated to about 1 cm and my cervix was also softening (also known as effacement) and her head is engaged but he said it wasn’t great but there is still time.  From my understanding when a woman’s contractions are changing the cervix but it is changing very slowly and contractions start and stop and don’t lead to actual birth, this is called Prodromal labor or pre-labor.  It is actually a form of true labor because the cervix is dialating but it is not active labor.  Currently, I am having contractions every 15 to 30 minutes.  Sometimes they are closer together (like every 5 minutes) and sometimes they slow down to almost non-existent.  At my last appointment my doctor also scheduled an induction date for May 8th in case I don’t go into labor naturally but none of us think it will come to that.

As for today’s events and why I ended up in the hospital in Labor and Delivery.  The last few days I have had a terrible itch on my feet, mostly on the bottoms of them.  There is no rash, just a deep, awful itch that seemed to be getting worse and spreading to other parts of my body.  I have been constantly scratching the bottoms of my feet especially on anything that has texture like carpet or a hard edge like chair legs and the edges of table tops.  The sharper the better but there was really no relief.  I didn’t think anything of it though since I am pregnant and itching happens in pregnancy, until last night when I couldn’t sleep at all because of the itching.  I finally got on Google to see if any other pregnant Mama’s had dealt with this and what remedies they used for it.  However, my search immediately popped up with a condition called Obstetric Cholestasis which is a problem with the mother’s liver which causes her not to process bile correctly and can lead to stillbirth.  Needless to say I became alarmed and immediately woke my husband up and told him my concern.  We called the on-call nurse about it and she said we should go into the hospital and get it checked out, just in case.  The concern was that Bella would need to be emergently delivered, whatever that looked like, today!

I will say that the experience was not the best I have had at that hospital.  The nurse was almost condescending and at first was acting like we were bothering her because we came in because my feet were itching and then when I told her it had been going on for a number of days she suddenly wanted to know why we waited so long to come in if it was so bad even though we had just explained that it had been progressively getting worse.  I have to say I was really frustrated with her attitude and struggled not to show it and remain nice to her.  As soon as she left I signed to my husband how I felt about her.  He helped me to calm down and reminded me to give her grace since we do not know what has been happening in her life that could be causing her to act this way.  He is such a good man!!! :-D.

She actually did warm up to us after a while and seemed to become more compassionate to our situation as time went on.  I was put on monitors to measure her and my contractions.  Bella kept squirming away from the monitor though and making it hard on the nurse but after a time it was determined that she was doing just fine in there.  In the end, my blood work came back fine also and we were allowed to leave with our minds more at peace and the recommendation to put my feet in cold water and the reassurance that once Bella is born the itching will end.  While there though and hooked up to my contraction monitor I had two big contractions and lots of little ones too.

The contractions I have been having aren’t painful, just uncomfortable.  In fact, I didn’t know I was progressing at all and thought I was just having Braxton Hicks.  I know that a lot of mom’s who have this Prodromal labor say that they thought they were in real labor (even not first time mom’s) and that their contractions were just like their real labor contractions.  So, I feel blessed that I am having a pain free experience thus far.  :-D.

I hope everyone is doing well.  Shalom! 🙂