CaseyAndKelly.Com

These are a few of the many pics I took last Monday on Colby’s one week birthday!  I’m hoping to do another series of photos when she’s asleep next time!

dsc_0057

Image 1 of 8

It seems as if I’ve waited too long to write my birth story and everyone’s memories are a little hazy about the complete timeline and all of the details.  Especially mine.  Everything happened so fast and I was in such pain that I only remember bits and pieces of things once I got the narcotics.

2/27/12

Around 11:30, my contractions were still bothering me so Brady and I went to take a bath.  After getting out of the bath I was still contracting and so I laid down on the bed to see if that would calm things down.  It didn’t and my contractions were still close together so I asked my mom to start timing them with me to see if I was doing things correctly, apparently I was and my contractions were about 5 minutes apart and I was having to stop talking when a contraction happened.  Around 1:30 I made a call to my OB’s office to ask what I should do and they told me to come in.  Since we’d already been to the hospital once and had been sent home, my mom took me to the OB with only my pillow and Casey stayed home with Brady, the bags, and my cord blood kit.

My contractions continued and increased in intensity so by the time we got to the OB’s office (which is attached to the hospital) I was having to stop to breathe through contractions and close my eyes to stay focused because I just wanted to hold my breath.  We had to wait a little bit before the doctor came into the room but when he finally did he confirmed I was actually in labor and was now 100% effaced and 3cm dilated.  He told me it was time to head over to L&D.  At first I told the nurse I didn’t need a wheelchair but after another contraction, we requested one and it was a relief to not have to walk.  I can only imagine how long it would have taken to walk to L&D with my contractions coming like they were.

It was around 3-3:30 by the time I got over and put into a room (and gown) right away and requested my epidural.  I notified the nurses that I was banking the cord blood and tissue but that my husband would be bringing the kit with him so they would have to hold off on taking my blood for the kit until my husband arrived.  First I was hooked up to the monitors to watch my contractions and the baby’s heartbeat and then my blood was taken to see if I could receive the epidural.  Once they finished monitoring me, I was allowed into the shower (with the student nurse) to see if that would help relax me and help with my pain.  My pain wasn’t really decreasing much being in the shower so I decided to go back into the room.  The nurse asked if I was interested in receiving narcotics until I could receive my epidural and I happily agreed.  The Phentanyl helped me rest between contractions and provided a little relief but I awoke with each contraction in pain.  It took a long time (about 2 hours) before I received my epidural due to an emergency.

My doctor came to look at me around 6 before leaving to pick up his son from baseball practice since he wasn’t on call that night.  The nurse estimated I was 6-7cm, however, the doctor said I was 5-6cm and when he checked me (longer, larger fingers?) he broke my water and left with the estimation that it wouldn’t be long and I’d probably deliver around 10pm.  My mom told the nurse it wouldn’t be 10 and that it wouldn’t be any later than 8pm.  Then by 6:30pm I started feeling some pressure and the nurse checked me again and I was 7-8cm but by 6:45ish.

Not long after getting my epidural (the timeline is fuzzy but I’m estimating it was still working while my OB was in the room or he surely would have said something), my blood pressure got really low and Colby’s heart rate went down a lot (it’s called a brady and made the monitors go off) so the nurses came in and put me on oxygen and when Colby’s heart rate still wasn’t rebounding they gave me a shot of epinephrine which burned off my epidural.  My epidural probably only lasted maybe 15 minutes and I most definitely felt everything and it was natural childbirth.  I felt everything.

My dad was on his way up from San Antonio but wasn’t able to make it up in time, thankfully they let Casey, my mom, and Brady all stay in the room.  Kids under the age of 5 generally aren’t allowed in the delivery room when everything is going on but Brady was content to sit in Casey’s lap the entire time and just to check in on Mama from time to time.

My mom asked the nurse at one point if she had ever delivered a baby and the nurse said she hadn’t because it was too much extra paperwork.  Once things got to a certain point and the baby’s head was putting so much pressure on me and putting me in so much pain, the only option was to bare down and make it through the “ring of fire” so we could get things over with.  The nurse asked me to stop when we were at this point but I told her no and just kept going which meant she had to deliver the baby because the doctor didn’t return in time.  (The nurse also told me that I should tell people I delivered naturally since my epidural got cancelled out due to the epinephrine.)  Because of this (inexperienced nurse delivery and it apparently being against policy), instead of receiving an episiotomy and the baby sliding more easily into the world I tore along the episiotomy line I had from Brady and ended up with another 2nd degree with other lacerations I didn’t find out about until after I got home that hurt worse than the episiotomy (ouch!). I really wish that the hospitals here trained their nurses as well as my mom was trained (in emergency deliveries and episiotomies) because then I wouldn’t have minded that a nurse had delivered my baby.  I’m also quite certain I would have had a completely different birthing experience had I been delivered by my doctor instead of the on call doctor.

At 7:08pm on 2/27/12, Colby Jade Tomlinson came into the world at 19 inches, weighing 6 pounds 6 ounces.  Colby received an 8 and a 9 on her APGARS and while I was worried that she didn’t cry right away, she was doing ok and just checking things out.  After briefly checking her out I was allowed to hold her and nurse her.

My mom had to continually remind the doctors that I was banking the cord blood and it’s a good thing she did because they almost forgot.  That’s not something you get a do over on!  The on call doctor and my mom both commented on the appearance of the umbilical cord.  What should have had a gelatinous appearance was thinning and drying.  I guess the body really does know when it’s time to deliver the baby (once again).  The doctor (not even the on call OB but a male doctor who only came in and cut the cord – I’m wondering if he wasn’t just walking by or the closest doc that could be found) assured us that the cord blood looked good and there was plenty of blood for a sample.  I found out on 3/7 that the sample of the blood and tissue looked great.  The Cord Blood Registry considers at least 1 million cells a good sample and Colby’s had 979 million (almost a billion cells!).  I’m really excited about that especially since she was a preemie.

Because Brady had only slept briefly, my parents decided to take her back to the house and Casey went to get me dinner before Mighty Fine closed since I hadn’t had anything since breakfast.  (It’s a good thing I chose that day to indulge my cravings and eat four donuts for the first time, otherwise I don’t know how I would have lasted.)  While Casey was gone they came to take Colby to the nursery for her first bath and to be assessed.  Unfortunately no one was there to go with her and they didn’t offer to let me go or I would have.  Instead I spent the time texting everyone with the good news!

Colby was born at 36 weeks 4 days from my LMP or 36 weeks 2 days based on ovulation.  My doctor’s office only asked for LMP so according to them she was 36 weeks 4 days.  I’m just relieved I made it as long as I did and Colby avoided a NICU stay, although because she was born before 37 weeks (I think 37 completed weeks, so 38 weeks) she was given special attention and her blood sugar was monitored and her weight was more closely scrutinized.  I did have a brief scare when one of the pediatrician’s suggested she might have to stay in the hospital for an extra few days but she got to leave the hospital on Wednesday (two days after delivery) with me.  It was such a great feeling being able to leave the hospital WITH my baby this time!

February 26 and 27

Casey fell asleep right away but I started feeling my belly tightening pretty frequently. It was happening so often that at 10:30 I decided to start timing things.  I timed for about 30 minutes and the contractions were averaging every 5-8 minutes but then fell asleep.  I woke up and started timing again but since they weren’t hurting, I wasn’t sure if this was real labor or Braxton Hicks.  I went to the bathroom and noticed a little tinge of blood and the rest of my mucous plug that I had been passing since Friday.  I decided to call the on-call doctor and find out their thoughts before waking anyone up but when I called, the doctor suggested I head to L&D just to make sure it wasn’t real labor.

At this point, I went ahead and woke poor Casey up who was exhausted from all of the yard work he had done on Sunday and we quickly scrambled trying to get a bag together just in case.  My mom had asked me if I had a bag ready the previous week and I didn’t yet because I don’t have a ton of maternity clothes and would have to be constantly swapping things out as they were clean.  The only thing that I did have packed was toiletries and the cord blood kit.  Then we woke up Brady who woke right up and started talking and singing on the way to the hospital.

On the way to the hospital, the contractions started getting painful.  When we got to L&D, we were given a room while they monitored my contractions.  I was checked when we first got there by the nurse and she said I was 1cm dilated and 80% effaced.  Not much different than my appointment on Tuesday when I was a fingertip dilated and 70% effaced.  The nurse monitored my contractions for an hour and I was indeed having them at regular intervals of about 6 minutes but when the hospitalist (doctor on call for the hospital – not from my OB’s office) stopped by and looked at things and what the nurse had reported he said that it sounded like false labor which could go on for the duration of my pregnancy.  He didn’t want to check me again but he did want to stop the contractions so he gave me a shot of Terbutaline and then monitored me for another hour before discharging me with an Ambien and telling me what to look for in order to know if it’s real labor or not (the exact same guidelines I was using to go to L&D in the first place – confused).

Since we ended up waiting around a lot we were at the hospital from 1-5a and they had just dosed me with Ambien, I called my mom to see if she could head up to Austin (she watches Brady during my appointments) earlier than usual and watch Brady since I’d likely be knocked out for awhile and Casey had to work.  Brady managed to stay awake through all of this and we all passed out in our bed when we got home.  Casey and I woke up around 9:45a and Brady woke up 15-20 minutes later.  When I woke up I was still having contractions that I could feel but they weren’t too uncomfortable…yet.

Once again time has managed to get away from me and I have tons that I need to post updates on.  Casey and I were both surprised to find out that’s one of the holidays he gets off from work so we enjoyed our nice, long weekend together.  On Monday the weather was nice and since Brady has started pedaling on her tricycle, we took her up to the middle school to ride it around in the parking lot.  Unfortunately once we got up there she did very little riding but had lots of fun jumping and skipping with her daddy and alternated between pretending to be a flamingo and a kangaroo.

Brady riding her tricycle

Jumping like a kangaroo

Doing the pink flamingo

High Fives with Daddy

Daddy and Dudey are spectators

Daddy riding the tricycle

Daddy and Brady pushing Care Bears on the tricycle

On February 21st I had my 36 week appointment (I was 35w5d) and another ultrasound.  Casey had a manager’s meeting in San Antonio that day, so my mom and Brady came with me to my appointment.  Once Brady realized we weren’t there for her, she was excited to be able to see her baby sister on the TV and it’s all she talked about when we came home.

Because the baby was pretty far down in my pelvis with her head down, we weren’t able to get any pictures from the appointment.  I had my first cervical check and was a fingertip dilated (opening of my cervix) and about 70% effaced (thinning of my cervix).  He didn’t mention anything about station but said this was a good start and not to expect anything to happen because women can go around like this for weeks before delivering at term.

Playing in Nana's hat before bed

On Wednesday, my mom and I took Brady to her class at Rolly Pollies before heading to the Austin Children’s Museum.  Brady had a lot of fun with the train set, the blocks, and the fake food in the kitchen.  It was so hard to get her to move from one section to the next because she was having such a great time.  I’m glad that we made time to do these extra little trips with Brady prior to the baby being born and that she got that undivided attention from Mama and Nana.

Self portrait

Making food in the play kitchen

Offering a hamburger bun

Placing her order

Playing with the balls

Playing in the hen house

Nana taking a rest

Belly Shot 36 weeks

I usually do our taxes with Turbo Tax but this year with my job as an independent contractor (search engine evaluator – I was doing this 22 hours a week since June) AND my blogging income and all of the 1099s and expenses that that entailed, I wasn’t feeling too confident about doing our taxes this year.  I plugged in our information to Turbo Tax and my preliminary estimates showed us owing $6,000.  My gut was right and it was time to consult a professional – I emailed several of them the weekend before and got quotes and more information about the CPAs before scheduling an appointment.  So Friday the three of us met with the CPA who seemed quite confident she’d be able to do our taxes and minimize our payment.  That night we went to Tony C’s for some pizza so I could do a review of the restaurant for my other blog.  We’d been before and the food was consistently good again this time and was a fun meal out together.  Little did we know it’d be one of our last just the three of us.

On Saturday, Casey worked outside trying to repair/replace some of the tiles on the upstairs balcony that have fallen off with the high winds.  We had one tile fall last year or the year before that we never replaced but last week a couple more fell off with several more appearing they were ready to drop at any minute, so Casey went to work trying to repair those.  Unfortunately the wind was gusting and getting on the ladder wasn’t very safe and the tiles weren’t adhering as planned, so he called it quits.  Kevin (who has been staying in our guest room for the last three months) also stopped by to pick up his stuff and move out.

Sketching up landscaping plans

Then on Sunday, we went to lunch at P. Terry’s before going to Home Depot and the Natural Gardener to pick up supplies and brambles to start planting blackberry bushes in the backyard and redoing the landscaping in the front yard.  This was a lot of work but Casey managed to get it all done by himself (since I wasn’t in any condition to help him) and I worked on cleaning the guest room, putting clean baby clothes away, and rearranging things.  Casey and I were both exhausted after all of the work and were in bed by 10.

(to be continued with the birth story)

Yesterday my mom and I took Brady to zoo.  She’s already been to the Austin and San Antonio Zoos twice each, so this time we took her to the Capital of Texas Zoo.     The weather was great yesterday and was even warmer by the afternoon when we finally made the hour drive out there.  It’s not your typical zoo and was even more rural than the Austin Zoo but they did have some animals that the Austin Zoo didn’t have like kangaroos, wallabies, and zebras.  I had taken a look at the website before getting into the car and had told Brady about the zebras so that’s all she wanted to talk about the entire way out.

 We ended up having a great time and Brady enjoyed seeing all of the animals.  Even with the excitement of seeing the zebras and petting some of the animals (goats and horse), the highlight of our visit for her was the mud puddle she found.  Brady didn’t even see the last little bit of the zoo because she did not want to leave the mud puddle.  I’d say we stood there for a good 20 minutes watching Brady play.  This from the girl that doesn’t like to get dirty.  She had a great time while it lasted but being stripped down to her panties in the parking lot was not her idea of fun and she threw a fit that tired her out enough that she was asleep right after we got back on the main road home.

After her mud bath, Brady needed a real bath to get clean.  Amazingly enough she equally enjoyed this bath.

Brady’s still been talking about the zebras and the zoo today.  I hope next week when we try to take her some place else, she’ll be just as excited!

I’m 34 weeks pregnant this week!  Yay the shots have worked at prolonging pregnancy several weeks longer than I was with Brady.  My mom gave me my last shot yesterday and it’s a relief to be finished.  Once she started giving me the shots in my butt instead of my leg, they hurt a lot less but the last couple have been hurting more.  At this point my OB is no longer worried if the baby comes and won’t do anything to stop her from coming.

I had my 34 week appointment on Tuesday and everything is still looking good.  The appointment was pretty uneventful – I’m up 22 pounds and the OB thinks the baby is in a head down position.  I had an HIV test yesterday which is required by the state at this stage.  Why they don’t just draw the blood at 28 weeks during the glucose test is beyond me.

For the last two weeks my mom and I have been taking Brady to Rolly Pollies for open gym/play time.  Today we took her to audit the 3 year old class.  As expected Brady didn’t take too kindly to being told what to do by a stranger.  The class is comprised of two other 3 year old girls that have been going there for at least 6 months and they also said that there’s an adjustment period and kids take awhile to warm up to the new routine and surroundings.  Brady did start doing some of the activities after the class had moved on so that’s a step in the right direction.  I’m hopeful that these classes will help with her social and other skills so I’m going to sign her up for the 9 week session next week!

My heart is aching and broken into a million pieces right now.  We had to put Stoli (Kitty) to sleep a month ago (1/2/12) today and it still kills me.  My mind is still reeling at the reality of it all and that the world continues to turn without Stoli in it.  My sadness and grief have lessened over the last month but still takes my breath away.

Stoli was my first child.  An only child for three years until Dudey came along and with us for four years before I had Brady.  So losing her isn’t just losing a dog – it’s losing a best friend and member of the family.  She was a constant in my life, there every day (except when she was with Nana and Papa) and meant so much to me.

I feel so overwhelmed I just want to turn back time and change things.  I wish this was one of those things you could just undo.  I want violently push off the grief and sadness and have my Kitty back.  I want control.  I want to be able to fix this.  I want things back to how they were.  No matter how rough things got, we still had each other and that included Kitty.

The whole thing still seems so unexpected to me.  Stoli had a couple of episodes with her breathing this year (the first in May, the second after coming out of surgery in August, and another in late December) but every time she had an issue, it proved to be okay and resolved with steroids and medication.  I was really concerned and thought she might die after the first episode but the others weren’t as worrisome because the vet said Stoli was in great health except for these blips.  After the one on December 20th, the vet suggested I should consult with a surgeon and consider having Stoli’s elongated soft palate shortened and checking for (and removing if needed) everted laryngeal saccules.

Since we were going to San Antonio for Brady’s birthday and Christmas, we put off making an appointment with the surgeon until the following week.  As luck would have it with other appointments or meetings that Casey and I had scheduled, we had to schedule Stoli’s surgery for Casey’s birthday.  The surgeon told us she that if she sedated Stoli and deemed she needed her elongated soft palate shortened and her laryngeal saccules removed that she would do the surgery right then and call us to let us know how it went.  According to the surgeon, the surgery went smoothly and she was able to trim back her soft palate and remove the saccules that had turned gristly and were occluding 80% of her airway.

I was so relieved that I was able to pick her up and take her home on Friday.  She was so happy to see me and seemed (mostly) like herself (she sometimes has a hard time shaking off the anethesia).  It was a relief when she showed an interest in food and water as soon as she got home on Friday.  She was still breathing kind of heavily and sounded congested but the surgeon said she thought it was just the after effects of the surgery.

When she stopped drinking water and showing an interest in food on Saturday, I thought she was having a hard time shaking off the anethesia again and would be back to her usual self in no time.  When Sunday rolled around I got hopeful because she was eating more and voluntarily drank a few laps of water.  I started worrying some as I drove her to the vet and she vomited again and then again when I left her at the emergency clinic overnight.  I’m grateful I thought to take pictures of her while I was in the room with her before leaving but even driving home I wasn’t too concerned.  The vet didn’t think she was dehydrated but that there was a possible case of pneumonia that would need to be treated.

I was relieved when I was woken up this morning and the surgeon (not the other vet there over the weekend) said Stoli looked good and her oxygen saturation was  stable and at a good level and there was no pneumonia.  I started worrying when the vet called back two hours later to say Stoli had an episode where she started turning purple and they had to put oxygen on her.  My world started spinning out of control less than 30 minutes after that when the doctor confirmed that Stoli had laryngeal collapse and wasn’t getting very limited air on her own and that the two options were to place a permanent trach tube (which she didn’t recommend and had seen poor outcomes on and said she wouldn’t do it to her own dog) or put her to sleep while she was still under anesthesia since she doubted she’d be able to breath again on her own without the tube (I asked if we could wake her up to say goodbye).

So again, I’m not okay with this.  I don’t feel at peace, feel completely blindsided, and don’t feel closure.  I feel an emptiness and a sadness in everything I do.  I just love and miss her so much.

I wrote this as the short tribute on my mommy blog and it’s the short, sweet tribute I wrote.

“My sweet baby, I’ll always be your mama and am so lucky and forever grateful that we had 7 wonderful years together. I only wish we had more time together but I’ll look forward to seeing you again in heaven one day. My heart is broken and a piece of it will forever belong to you. I love and miss you so much. Goodnight, sweet angel. You’ll never be forgotten. RIP 9/19/04 – 1/2/12”

Here’s a quick video of Brady on the trampoline at Rolly Pollie’s (like Gymboree or Little Gym) on Wednesday. I’ll do a longer post soon.

Here’s a quick video from last week of Brady singing the Itsy Bitsy Spider and her ABCs with a little help from Papa and myself.