Anna Kathryn Teet: April 2011

Tuesday, April 26, 2011

4 Week Update

Wow, the past four weeks sure have flown by! But they have been great. When we left the hospital, Anna Kate had lost down to 6 pounds and 10 ounces. She was five days old at her first doctor's visit and she had gained back two ounces. She was still a little jaundiced but only in her face and the doctor said that it wasn't bad and just to keep an eye on it. Within the next few days it went away and she just had pretty pink skin. Usually at the two week checkup, they like for the baby to be back up to birth weight. Well, Anna Kate weighed 8 pounds 1 ounce at her two week checkup-a whole pound over her birth weight! That alleviated all my anxiety about thinking she wasn't getting enough to eat. She had to have her heel stuck for some routine labs, but otherwise her appointment went great and the doctor said that she looked perfect. I can definitely tell that she has grown more and I'm interested to see what she weighs at her one month checkup on Monday.

Anna Kate is such a good little baby. Luckily she sleeps through lots of noise, because with Tristan it is not always very quiet! He has been a great big brother though. He always checks on her and brings her pacifier to her if she starts crying. He likes to help burp her and he loves it when she has the hiccups. He doesn't quite understand why she can't sleep with him in his bed at night though. Speaking of nights.....they haven't been too bad for the most part. She eats about every two and a half to three hours during the day and then three to three and a half hours at night, with an occasional four hour stretch in there. There were a few nights where she was waking up every two hours, but I think her tummy was hurting her. The past two nights, however, have been great! It took a little while to get her to sleep but then she had four and five hour stretches between feeds. Hopefully she will keep this up!

Anna Kate seems to like riding in the car as long as we are moving. And she's already been on a few outings. She went to the grocery store with me one time and luckily she slept while we were there because I don't think I could have carried her and pushed the buggy. We took Tristan to the Gulf Shores Zoo and Anna Kate did great riding in the stroller or in the front carrier thing. And she went to her first Easter egg hunt this past weekend. Tristan found the eggs for her though :)

Anna Kate is starting to have longer stretches of awake time and likes looking at her mobile and the ceiling fan. And of course she loves looking at her big brother :) She usually smiles when she is dozing off after she eats. I know they say its because they have gas, but I like to think she is happy because her tummy is full! It's very hard to capture her smiles on camera though because they are so quick. She hasn't started cooing yet, but occasionally she will flash an intentional smile when you are talking to her.

I will try to update again before another four weeks have passed, but no promises!

These first 8 pics were taken by the hospital photographer

first night at home. the real fun begins....

all clean!

pretty girl

headed to the doctor

proud big brother

sweet little kiss

Tristan cooperating

not cooperating, but still cute!

beautiful baby girl

sweetest hands ever!

she usually smiles after she eats

keeping an eye on his little sister

cuddle time

nap time with Daddy

all snuggled up

story time

sticking her tongue out at her Daddy

going for a walk

3 weeks old

Tristan taking picture of Anna Kate with my phone

the family at an Easter egg hunt

Tristan insisted that she sit in his lap

swinging Anna Kate with his feet while he plays games

"Hmmm...."

more supervising

laying in her crib

chunky!

holding her head up like a big girl

striking a pose

sleepy time

happy to be 4 weeks old!

"Anybody need to borrow some chin? I've got plenty to spare!"

Monday, April 18, 2011

Anna Kate is here!!!

Our sweet baby girl has finally arrived! I never went into labor on my own, so on Monday, March 28, Justin and I arrived at the hospital at 7am to be induced. It was about 8am by the time I got to my room, got strapped to the monitor, and had my IV started. Once my pitocin was hung, I definitely started to feel some contractions, but it was mostly just tightness and not painful. Around 9am Dr. Cunningham came in and broke my water. I was still only dilated about 2cm and 75% effaced at that point. Then the painful contractions started and I was so happy to see the anesthesiologist! I got my epidural around 9:45. I could still feel a little tightness from the contractions, but that was nothing compared to what it had been. The nurse came in and checked me at 11:15 and I was 4cm. I was feeling itchy and the nurse said that it was from the narcotic in my epidural, so when I started feeling lightheaded and woozy, I figured it was from the medicine. The nurse came back at 12:15 to check me again and she asked if I was feeling nauseated. She told me that my blood pressure was 80/40 and she was going to give me some medicine to bring it back up. I was feeling nauseated after that, but I think it was all in my head! She checked me again and I was 5-6 cm. After the medicine, my blood pressure came back up and I wasn't feeling lightheaded anymore. Around 1:30, my contractions seemed to be a lot stronger and I was starting to feel some pressure. The nurse said I was 9cm. She came back at 2 and I was fully dilated, so we started doing some practice pushes. The Dr. came in and after a few more pushes, Anna Kate popped out! She was born at 2:15pm weighing 7 pounds and 1 ounce, and she was 21 inches long. She was face up but she definitely had a much smoother delivery than Tristan! The nurses got her all dried off and wrapped up and Justin and I got to spend a little quality time with our beautiful baby girl. Then it was time for her to meet her big brother. My sister picked Tristan up from school that day and they got to the hospital not too long after Anna Kate was born, so luckily he didn't have to hang out in the waiting room for too long. When Justin brought him in the room, he was really quiet at first. I think he was a little confused because he still pointed to my belly when we asked him where Anna Kate was. He seemed a little unsure of everything and he didn't like the IV in my arm. After a few minutes he had warmed up to the situation and he was ready to get down and run around. Then they had to take Anna Kate to the nursery to get checked out by the doctor and to have her first bath. After I was moved to my room on the postpartum hall, they brought her back so she could eat. It was a little difficult to get her to eat at first because she was having a trouble latching on and then she would just fall asleep. I was trying not to stress out about it, but because of the gestational diabetes, she was at risk for having low blood sugar levels. They were having to check her sugars before each feed, and if they got low, then we would have had to supplement with formula, or if they were really low then she would have had to get IV fluids. Luckily they were always above the cut off but her poor little heels looked like pin cushions after that. By the time we left the hospital, she had started getting the eating thing down pat. She also looked a little jaundiced but her billirubin levels were never high enough to need phototherapy. I didn't get hardly any sleep the two nights we were in the hospital but that was more because of the nurse coming in to check on me and take vital signs than because of Anna Kate. We were so eager to get home on Wednesday! We were dressed and all packed pretty early that morning, but it was almost lunch time when we finally got to leave. It sure was great when we did finally make it home, especially because our freezer was full of food! Thank you so much to everyone who cooked, and thank you Jennifer for getting it all together!