My little Glo Worm

The bili blanket isn’t really a blanket, it is more like a pad that attaches to her back and lights up with UV light. It’s pretty cool, it has all kinds of little fiber optic threads throughout it that glow really brightly. It attaches to her with a yellow disposable “vest” that goes around her tummy. We have to cut a notch out of it so it doesn’t rub on her cord. Jayden is a very wiggly baby! The nurse says it’s amazing how easily she is able to wiggle until the vest is down around her diaper and the light is only on half of her back. It’s supposed to go all the way to her shoulders. It’s a big time pain in the behind to change her diaper with it on. It’s hard to get the diaper up far enough on her with the darn hose (we call it her tail.) The hose which attaches her to the electrical unit is only about 3 feet long so it is a major pain. There is barely enough hose to maneuver from the bassinet to the bed when it is pulled right up to the bed. And switching sides while nursing is pretty difficult. I can’t wait until she is “cordless” again. I’m looking forward to being able to rub her back without having that pad there.

She pretty much looks like a little glo worm (remember those?) She lights up the room when you turn out the lights! What is ironic is that Thursday night when I was trying to nurse her without turning on the lights I told Travis that we need to get a night light or something so I can see what I’m doing. I guess this is a case of “be careful what you wish for.” The doctor says she's not in any danger as long as the bilirubin levels in her blood come down. So that is the picture of her glowing. We had thunderstorms so we had to unplug her from 4:30p to 7:15p.

The nurse came out today to do a draw this morning and the results were even higher then it was yesterday. Now her levels are at 19.1 :o( So Dr's orders are that I supplement her with formula. And said that if the don't start coming down very soon she might have to be admitted back into the hospital. The nurse came back again this evening to do yet another draw and it was still the same. Soooo she has to come back again tomorrow afternoon and draw again. The nurse says she is looking better... the redness is going away and she gained 2 1/2 ounces between 10 am this morning (7lb 5oz) and 7 pm this evening. (7lb 7.5oz) The nurse said she'll probably be pretty yellow in a few days once the redness is completely gone and she'll likely be yellowish for the next few weeks.

Trevor still has diarrhea and isn’t eating very well. He is in much better spirits today though so that makes the day go so much more smoothly.

First two days home

Our first day home was pretty uneventful until bedtime considering that Trevor was sick. I was able to take a nap before mom left in the afternoon and I’m soooo glad I did because it turned out to be a really long night! Trevor didn’t move from the couch (or when we laid him on the floor) until probably 7pm. We bought the “Cars” DVD thinking he might be interested in watching it while he wasn’t feeling good. He pretty much didn’t even pay attention to the movie.

Jayden nursed really well through the day and didn’t really fuss too much. She even slept for a stretch of a couple hours two times. That all changed when we decided to go to bed for the night. I got a total of about 4 hours sleep total last night. So this is a timeline of exactly how last night went down.

11:30pm: Nursed for 10 minutes. I went to bed but wasn’t able to fall asleep because I was hurting and waiting for meds to kick in
1am: Nursed 7 minutes, fell asleep, woke up 10 minutes after laying her down
2am: Nursed 5 minutes, fell asleep, woke up as soon as I put her down
2:40am: Nursed 10 minutes, fell asleep, woke up right away. I was beginning to get frustrated
3:30am: Nursed 5 minutes, fell asleep, woke up right away
4:15am: Nursed 10 minutes, fell asleep, woke up right away
4:45am: Nursed 7 minutes, fell asleep, woke up right away (seeing the trend here?) By this point I’m in tears and Travis has given up on sleep and is frustrated that he can’t do much because all she wants to do is nurse.
5am: Nursed 5 minutes, fell asleep, woke up right away
6am-7:30: Wide awake the whole time and nursed off and on for a total of about 20 minutes. She alternated from being quiet, content and looking at us to rooting and wanting to nurse. At 7:30 after nursing her I had given up on even attempting to lay her back in her bassinet so she slept on my chest and we all got about an hour sleep.
8:30-9:30am: Trevor and Jayden woke up. Jayden nursed and Trevor talked to her a bit. We cuddled together for awhile and Travis got up with Trevor.
9:45: Nursed for 8 minutes then fell asleep. I laid her on the bed with me and she slept until 11am and we got up.

So that was how our night went. The day continued to be an adventure. At noon we took Jayden to the hospital to have her bilirubin levels checked as her doctor requested due to jaundice. Trevor stayed home with my brother, Brian. When we got home I went into Trevor’s playroom and ~sniff sniff~ he was ~STINKY~ and I mean in a big way!!! Sorry for the detail. I’m just sharing so I will look back someday and hopefully laugh at the fun we’ve had in the first few days! I started to change his diaper as Travis went outside for a smoke and figured out it was a 2 man job. I was sooooo glad Travis didn’t go to school. I had to pretty much hold Trevor on his changing pad to wait for Travis to come inside. We carried him up to the bathroom and hosed him down. Yuck, it was the nastiest thing that ever came out of my little guy. It happened 2 more times, followed by 2 more hose downs. At least the vomiting had subsided.

At 5pm we got the results for the bili level check and it was 17 which is pretty high. The doctor ordered a home health nurse to come and hook her up to a bili blanket and do more blood draws. :o( The nurse came at 7pm and poked her and hooked her up to the bili blanket. More on that in the next post. The nurse’s name was Lynette and she was really nice. She will be our nurse through the weekend. As soon as the nurse left we turned out all the lights to see how bright she was. We joked that the nurse likes to do evening visits because she likes to laugh when the house goes dark as she pulls away.

First picture was taken on the car ride home from the hospital. 2nd and 3rd pictures were taken Thursday of my sick little guy.

Ok, one last preggo post

So I didn't sleep so good last night. Not that I'm all that suprised. My mind was filled with things I needed to grab before walking out the door this morning, freaked out a bit about the whole process of labor, and of course sad to be away from Trevor for the next few days. Mostly, way super duper excited to be meeting Jayden very soon. LOL, we still haven't decided for sure how we are going to spell her name yet! Jadyn, Jayden, Jaydyn, or Jaden. I guess we got to decide on that here very soon!!!

I was in bed by 12am, though tossed and turned for only a little bit. I sleep pretty good I think until about 3am. Then I was up a few times to go to the bathroom. Ugggg, I'm not going to miss the up 10 times a night to go to the bathroom! I woke up at 5am with a start, thinking I overslept (alarm was set for 7am!) And lay there for about a half hour trying to sleep. Since I couldn't sleep I decided to get up. I don't think I've been awake this early in a LOOOONNNNGGG time. Probably at least 4 or 5 years.

Anyway... it's time to wake up Trevor and cuddle my sweet boy before we have to leave.

40w2d Final Pregnancy update

Well this is officially my last post before we meet Jadyn. I had my 40 week doctor appointment today and I convinced her to induce me. :o) I’m officially on maternity leave now. Mom came tonight to stay with Trevor over the next few days. We scheduled to go in at 8am tomorrow morning.

I have been very uncomfortable the last few days especially with a lot of back pain and contractions off and on. She has definitely has dropped in the last few days and walking has become quite uncomfortable. Today I was dilated to about a 2 and the midwife said I have thinned out. So all is good and favorable for a successful induction.

I’m happy to know that this time tomorrow I’m likely to be holding my baby girl in my arms. The last week I’ve been very anxious, nervous, and excited. I keep wondering what she will look like, what color her hair will be, what her personality will be like.

Friends came over tonight and spent a few hours with Trevor so Travis and I could go out for dinner. We went to Texas Roadhouse and it was very yummy. I asked for a virgin daiquiri and the brought me a loaded one. Luckily the waitress realized she had ordered it incorrectly as she sat it down at the table. It would have been bad to get boozed up pregnant and the night before being induced as well!

My plan was to be in bed by 10:30 tonight. I’ll have a long day tomorrow that’s for sure. It’s now about 11:30 and my stretch goal is to be in bed by midnight. I probably won’t sleep to good tonight though as my mind is racing.

I tried to spend a lot of time with Trevor tonight. It’s bittersweet knowing that tonight is our last night as a family of three. I worry still about how Trevor is going to react to the events to come over the next few days. ~sniff sniff~ I’m really sad to be leaving him for a few days. I’m going to miss my little guy! We got a little present to keep him busy at the hospital. I got him some crayons and a few coloring books. So hopefully that will keep him out of trouble when he comes to visit.

39w Update

Woo Hoo! My due date is only 1 week from today! Today we went to Travis’ Uncle’s wedding. It was nice to have a Saturday off for once. I don’t remember the last time I didn’t have to work on Saturday. It was a challenge keeping Trevor quiet during the ceremony. We kept shoveling cheerios into his mouth and trying different things to captivate his attention. Luckily the ceremony was short and he hardly made a peep. Everyone commented on how wonderful he was. There were 2 other little ones there that weren’t quite so quiet.

There were some older kids there that entertained Trevor with their antics. One girl especially kept Trevor occupied awhile by standing on the other side of the glass door and making faces at him and when he would put his hands on the glass she would jump back like he pushed her. He laughed so hard, I think he would have played this game all afternoon.

Gosh it was difficult to get some lunch in his tummy! I had him sitting on my lap and tried to get him to eat some chips and ham sandwich and he was doing so so. Daddy decided to add some potato salad to the plate. I had already tried a spoonful of it and he spit it out onto the table and pushed it away. Trevor doesn’t do so well with the spoon yet. He proceeded to pick the salad up with his fingers and deposit it on the table then smeared me with his potato salad hands. So he ate a little bun, spit out the ham, shoveled in the chips, and of course devoured the cake. And of course while I was trying to get lunch in his tummy, I was pretty unsuccessful in getting food in my very hungry tummy! I was happy when Trav brought in his stroller and strapped him in. Finally, I was able to get a little to eat!

During the reception I had a few contractions but it wasn’t anything different than what I’ve been feeling for the last month. The car ride home was another story. I had a few strong contractions. I lay down on the couch once we got home and timed them. They were coming every 9 minutes like clockwork. I’m thinking, tonight might be the night and that it would be pretty cool to have a baby on St. Patty’s day. :o) I called the midwife and put her on alert and she said to go to Labor and delivery if they got to be 5 minutes apart for about an hour. She told me to rest and take some Tylenol.

Contractions weren’t terribly strong or painful, just very uncomfortable. I finished packing my bag (yeah I’m a procrastinator) packed up my bathroom essentials just in case, uploaded pics off my camera so I’d have an empty memory card, charged the batteries in the cam corder and camera, charged our phones, and a bunch of other piddly stuff. All the while contractions stayed at 9 minutes.

Around 7:30pm I laid down to try take a nap, sure that we’d be heading to the hospital in a few hours as that’s about how long it took for the contractions to speed up with Trevor. I tossed and turned for awhile and finally fell asleep. When I woke up at 11pm I laid there for awhile waiting for a contraction to time. ~Sniff sniff~ they had stopped. Travis said maybe I shouldn’t have lain down and then they wouldn’t have stopped. My thinking is that it’s better if they are going to stop then stopping AFTER we got to the hospital.

So I’m a little sad that we aren’t heading to the hospital tonight but hopeful that these contractions have done something for dilating me. I have an appointment Monday afternoon so we’ll see. Last week I was dilated to 1 ½, the 2 weeks before that I was at a 1cm. I’m hoping for a 3 at least!

Hopefully tomorrow will be my last day of work for awhile. :o) Monday and Tuesday is my “weekend” So hopefully things will happen before I have to go back to work on Wednesday. I especially want it to happen next week as my Regional Manager is supposed to be visiting sometime next and I’d really like to have an excuse to not be there.

A big part of me is really nervous about leaving Trevor for a few days. ~sniff sniff~ He’s only been away from me overnight 1 time and that was long ago and daddy was home with him. He’s been really cranky and throwing a lot of tantrums lately. I wonder if he knows that things are changing or if he’s just entering his terrible two’s a little early. I’m not only nervous about leaving him but how he’ll deal with things. I know it will probably be a small period of adjustment for him and that he’ll grow to not remember life without her. But in the meantime she’s going to rock his little world big time and it makes me a little bit sad for him. :o(

On a lighter note… I typed up a “day in the life of Trevor” schedule type thing to assist Grandma and any other’s who will end up caring for him while I’m in the hospital and it’s nearly 3 pages long. LOL, I guess I went into a lot of detail! I just want there to be as much consistency in his life as humanly possible in the days that follow.

Anyway… that’s enough for me tonight. My fingers hurt from typing this and the schedule and it’s way past my bed time. Think happy thoughts for us!