Lily's Birth Story

On Thursday, January 24th I had to go to the hospital to get some blood work done. I noticed that the hospital had warning signs about enter at your own risk due to the Influenza A virus and that they had confirmed cases of it. I thought no big deal. Well Thursday night I was really tired and slept horribly. I ended up only going into work for a total of 2 hours on Friday because I was still tired and very achy sore (typical start of flu systems huh!). I slept off and on all day Friday and Friday night. Friday night I was very uncomfortable with achy legs.

Around 1am I started to notice that the contractions were involving my back and they were starting to hurt. I was up with Mikayla from 1am to about 3:30 and then I did not go back to bed until around 4am. From 4am to 7am I slept off and on waking to some contractions and probably sleeping though others.

All day on Saturday my contractions were anywhere from 5 to 10 minutes apart. I was able to get the house cleaned like I normally do on Saturday which made me feel better. I knew I would come home to a clean house after giving birth. I called my mom and she managed to get cheap airfare into Gunnison.


We picked up my mom at the airport at 6:30pm and my mom was surprised that I came into the airport as well. Mom was worried that I was not actually going to have the baby because my labor was still manageable at this point. We all headed to the hospital to get me checked in. While I checked into the hospital, Joe, Mikayla and mom headed home.


I was at the hospital about an hour by myself and at this point my contractions started to come every 5 minutes and become harder as well. The doctor came in and tried to break my water the first try was unsuccessfully but the second one worked. At the point my contractions increased to every 2 to 3 minutes. I asked for the epidural around 9ish and it took a while to get it going and stronger enough. Around 10:30pm I finally had relief. I am just not the type of person to give birth without drugs. I was also getting pretty tired by this time and was napping a bit.


I started pushing around 12:15pm and I pushed for 1 1/2 hours without getting anywhere. The doctor said she would be willing to use the manual vacuum if I wanted. I said let me try one more time. With each push I really was not getting anywhere. I had the doctor use the manual vacuum and Lily arrived two contractions later. She came out totally sideways and that is also why I was not not making any progress with each push. I did have one small tear this time and needed stitches.




Lily never left my room from the moment she was born and she is a great nurser. The family came to see her the next morning around 9am and Mikayla was soo excited to see her.

We left the hospital around 2:30pm. I was ready for my own comfy bed.

Update

So far Lily has turned into a great sleeper - I am waiting for the newborn sleep stage to wear off and her to start waking up every 2 hours. Her first night home she woke up 3 times and other than the first 2 they were spread pretty far out so I could sleep as well. Then last night she slept from 9pm to 2am! Then she woke up again at 6:30am. I would love for this scheduled to stick but I know it is not going to!

Mikayla absolutely loves her baby sister. She loves to watch her and let me know what she is doing. Mikayla has been great - even when I have to sit down and nurse Lily and I am not able to get up and do what ever Mikayla wants me to do.

Lily Has Arrived

As you know from Jen's post Lily Anne arrived on Saturday morning. I will finish her birth story can get that posted very soon. Briefly everything worked out great with Mikayla and my mom coming into town. I checked in the hospital at 7pm on Saturday night and she was born at 1:29am on Sunday morning. I checked out of the hospital at 2:30 - I wanted to get home! She is still on the great newborn sleeping schedule - she only had me up 3 times last night and she slept for a very long time in between feedings. Everyone is doing great and Mikayla is a wonderful big sister.

The Sneak Peek

This is Tiff's friend Jen posting to give all you in the blogosphere a sneak-peek of the newest member of the Colorado Mama's household. Tiff hopes to be up and out of the hospital by this evening.

Lily Anne was born at 1:29 this morning weighing 6 lbs 3 oz. Tiffany and Joe's precious second daughter is 19" and born with a head full of brown hair just like her big sister.

Isn't she the loveliest little creature? She slept the entire time we were there visiting Tiffany and her family.

Don't you love that perfect little mouth?

And just one more picture of little Lily in all her 10-hour old glory.

And here's Tiff looking as beautiful as ever. Can you believe she birthed her second child just 10 hours prior to this photo?

We are going to have a baby soon.

The contractions have started and they are coming about every 10 minutes.

They started last night in the middle of the night, some woke up me and some I slept through. Now that I am up they are coming about every 10 minute or so. I called my mom because she was going to drive out once I went into labor. Well she called the airlines and she is flying out on an emergence airfare today so we will see her at 6:30pm! Which means that probably by the time I am ready to head to the hospital she will be here! Mikayla is taken care of.


Hopefully the last pregnancy pictures you will see of me. I am 38 weeks and 1 day.

Mikayla is ready to hold her baby sister.

Baby Sitter Anyone

Well we had a great plan for when the little one decides to come. Our friend Kelly would come over and watch Mikayla. Mikayla is comfortable around Kelly and has known her for awhile. On Monday night Kelly fell and broke her knee cap and tore some ligaments in her knee as well. Poor girl!! So she can no longer help out. Another backup was our friend Shawn. Mikayla has also known Shawn for awhile and she is pretty comfortable with him. She always has to give Shawn a hug and gets upset if she doesn't get the chance. Well Shawn's grandmother is not doing well and he is headed out of town today to Illinois to spend some time with grandma before she passes. Strike 2 for us! I have a friend, Jen, in Crested Butte that can help out but due to the distance (30 miles) it may or may not work out. If this was a perfect world I would go into labor at night (during the work week) then the next morning send Mikayla to daycare as normal and Joe and I would head to the hospital, have the baby and Joe could still pick up Mikayla at 5pm as usual. Joe and Mikayla would come to the hospital so Mikayla could meet her new sister and have dinner with me. Then Joe and Mikayla would head home for the night and pick me up the next day. I can dream can't I.

Pasty White

Normally at this time of the year I am over the cold and snow and ready to move to a warmer climate and in general just move someplace else. Try something new for a while. I have been in the Gunnison Valley for over 10 years and I would love to try something new. This year though I have not had the anxious feeling to leave because I am getting ready for a big change anyway with the arrival of a new baby due any day now. One thing though I have noticed is that I have lost all of my summer tan (and I had a good one this year due to all of my runs during lunch). My arms are so pasty white it is almost scary!! I know that pasty white is healthier than a nice summer than but I love the tan!! I could use a nice trip to a beach but I don't have a swimsuit to fit into!

What do you long for in the middle of winter??

Walking

For the last week or so I have been walking on the treadmill. It has been much to cold to walk outside. I started at 10 minutes and I have worked my way up to 20 minutes. I am doing this for a couple different reasons. The first is that I feel good enough to "workout" a little bit. I am "workout" because I am walking slow enough to read a book on the treadmill. Basically I am doing just enough to move my body. Also walking no longer hurts my back. The second reason is that they say walking is a good way to make the body go into labor - so far that is not working.

My goal is to walk for 15 minutes every day. Yesterday Mikayl and I walked about 4 blocks in the super cold weather. I did not time us but it took between 10 and 15 minutes. Today I did really good. I walked for 15 minutes (to the post office and back at work and I tried to keep a nice pace (not super slow, but slow). Then at lunch today I walked on the treadmill for 20 minutes. The most I have done in a while. It felt good because I took the pace up and I was also doing punches and arm exercises. If I feel good tomorrow I plan on doing another 20 minutes at lunch time as well. Hopefully I can keep this up until the little one is born.

-35 at 7am (Updated)

I think the title says it all.

-20 at 10:30 am

Am I crazy but -15 is not too bad outside. I put gas in my car at lunch time and I stood outside for the 5 minutes or so while it filled. Not too cold! I think I might take a short walk around the block today.

Bored at Work

I am sure you have heard me complain before but today I am super bored at work. On Monday and Tuesday this week my co-worker was sick so therefore all of the work came to me - which I loved it kept me busy (not stressed busy just busy). Well she is back and now I am bored. The attorneys don't give me enough work and I have asked too many times. I also have work for two attorneys to review sitting on their desks and with these guys who knows when I will see the work. This job is perfect one 1 1/2 persons not 2.

So I have been reading blogs and catching up but that can only take so much time during the day. These slow days really make me want to have the kiddo because that is all that I can think about.

Bored at work to - send me an email - oconnellhouse@msn.com

FYI - I spoke with hubby at lunch time and he said Mikayla only required 2 hugs and kisses this morning and of course the babysitter said that once Joe walks out the door she is fine.

Feeling Much Better

Yesterday and today I feel much better than Monday. On Monday I was sure I was going to have this little one on Tuesday. But by Monday evening the contractions slowed down BIG time and yesterday I noticed that I was having them less than normal.

On another note Mikayla is giving Joe a very hard time when he drops her off at daycare. Mikayla's two best buddies have moved into a preschool in town. I would love to have her go to the same preschool but right now the preschool is full and Mikayla is holding Lily's spot for the next few months. But it breaks my heart and Joe's heart when she cries when he drops her off. It use to be that Joe would drop her off and she would run off to go play but lately she needs a ton of hugs and kisses and still cries when he leaves. Then he has to go to work with a bad feeling. Oh well, what are you going to do? In the next month or two I hope to have her in a the new school.

Other than that not much is going on in our house lately we are just trying to stay warm. A few weeks ago it was nice to see another Colorado town, Alamosa, with colder temperatures than Gunnison. But now we are back to being the coldest town in Gunnison. Yesterday we woke up to -30 and it did not get past -6 all day. We did not even hit 0 yesterday!! Today it was a little warmer, I woke up to -20. It was trying to snow a little bit this morning but not much would fall due to how cold it was. When it is -30 outside it is hard to warm the house no matter what kind of heating system you have.

It made me think, what were Joe and doing trying to have a baby last spring??? We should have waited a couple of months so that when the baby was born it would not be so cold in the middle of the night when I get up for midnight feedings. Too late to worry about that now.

Good Days and Bad Days

This title says it all. These last few weeks I will have some good days and some bad days. It does seem as if the bad days happen on a Monday after I have relaxed all weekend. I am also understanding why some women choose to take the last week or so off of work. At this point I might consider that too, especially if I do not come back to work after my maternity leave is over.

Yesterday I was experiencing a lot of main in my lower belly and back. The nurse said it was probably round ligament pain. Then yesterday evening I was having contractions about every 10 minutes, while laying down relaxing. I was good last night and I took it easy, it took too much effort to straighten up the house so I let it go. Around 7:30ish last night the contractions slowed down a lot and I am not having nearly as many as I normally do.

So far today I feel much better but I have had trouble sleeping the last couple of nights - let the games of being super uncomfortable begin!!

Daycare

Cost the daycare is something many families have to live with. Very few families can afford to live on one income and if that is you, you are very lucky. I would love to be able to stay home with Mikayla, not full time but at least 2 or 3 days a week. Instead she goes to daycare 4.5 days a week and it kills me because someone else is raising my baby. But if I were to quit my job and stay at home that loss in income is too much and we would be in bankruptcy court before I could count to 10. I am luckily in the fact that I only pay $25 per day for her. I got into a home daycare shortly after they first opened. Now they have raised their rates to $35 per day which is about average for Gunnison.

But after baby number 2 is born I will be paying at least $70 per day for 2 kids in daycare. That means I am only taking home $50 per day. Is it really worth it?? I have given some thought to finding a waitress job in the evenings. I figure if I can make $400 - $600 per week by working 3 or 4 nights a week we will be much better off than me bringing home $250 with my regular job and I will be raising my kids as well.

I am going to have to make a decision in the next couple of months but first I would have to find that waitress job - they can be hard to find in Gunnison.

After all of that here is an article that makes me thankful for where I live. This article addresses the cost of childcare in other cities. I could not image paying $10,000 - $17,000 for one child in daycare.

http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/Investing/HomeMortgageSavings/ChildcareCrisis.aspx?GT1=10826#pageTopAchor

Delurking Day

Yesterday was National Delurking Day. So I am a day late but who cares!!! Post those comments and let me know who all is reading this blog. Let's see how many comments I can get.

(FYI - I stole this picture from my friend the Green Mommy - so check her blog out to.)

36 Weeks - 9 Months

I am now 36 weeks or 9 months. If I am luckily (because I am over being pregnant and I am gettig very ansty to have this little one) I will have this baby anywhere from 1 1/2 to 4 weeks.

Here are some pictures of my big belly!

Good Morning America Comes to Crested Butte

Around Christmas Good Morning America came to Crested Butte and we had a special parade just for them. I finally found a link to the segment they aired on TV. Here it is:

http://abcnews.go.com/search?searchtext=Crested%20Butte&type

I moved to Gunnison 10 years ago and I lived in Crested Butte from 2000 to 2004 and I would love to be living there now but the cost of living up there is too expensive for us. Crested Butte is only 30 minutes away so we head up there to see friends, have lunch and ski at least a couple times a month.

Antsy.

I have exactly one month to go until my due date and as you know I am hoping for an early arrival. I am getting soooo antsy!! Not in a nesting type of way but ready to have this little one. Her room is pretty much ready, I am waiting on 2 things to arrive my mail and then I am set. My mom is still working on her crib sheets and dust ruffle but if they don't come in time it is no big deal. Wow - I have really calmed down with the nesting instincts. It is getting so much harder to do things I am not worrying about how dirty my kitchen cabinets are.

I am also VERY tired of all of these Braxton Hixs contractions. I get them all of the time and especially when I am laying down on the couch relaxing in the evening. Isn't that suppose to make them stop. They don't hurt like a real contraction but they are getting stronger and sometimes they take my breath away.

Right now I am 35 weeks and 4 days.

I think if I was busier at work it would really help the days pass. My job does not keep my busy enough. I have been cleaning my desk and organizing old files for the attorneys in order to stay somewhat busy. The weekends pass quickly because I do stay busy.

What do you do to stay busy at work when you are slow? What did you did during your last pregnancy to pass the last month?

Lots of Snow

We had a snow storm yesterday where we received a foot or more. I thought the storm was done until I woke up this morning. We woke up to another foot that fell overnight. Right now Joe is up on the roof shoveling it and then he has to shovel the driveway. Our neighbor has a friend that plows our long shared driveway for free. Well the plow driver got stuck and could not finish the job! Here are some pictures of our winter wonderland!

Welcome to our home!

This snow right here is really deep due to Joe shoveling the roof off from an earlier storm. You can just barely see in the lower right corner the tunnel he and Mikayla are working on

This is a picture of our backyard. The dogs have their paths and if they try to do a new path they have to swim.

Another picture of the backyard.

On Friday Joe cleaned off a section our bridge's railing. You can see where the new snow is.

Mikayla and I went for a short walk.

The best thing about this storm is that we warmed up a lot. Last week we waking up to -20 and lucky if we saw 5 or 10 outside. But today it is almost 40!! I would go outside in short sleeves if it were not so windy.

Post of Nothing Much

I have not blogged in a while because there has been nothing too exciting to tell everyone about.

On December 31st we had one couple over for dinner. I was planning on staying up later than normal, maybe not midnight but at least 11pm. Well they ended up leaving at 9pm!! The girl was saying she was not feeling well (hey we had been dealing with colds all weekend long) but this is also someone who is ALWAYS sick - in fact she called into work sick today. After they left I stayed up until 10pm and Joe did make it to midnight. He is much more of a night owl than I am.

It is a good think I did not stay up late because Mikayla woke us up at 6:30am. She has been fighting a cold and it is causing her to wake up earlier than normal and play in her room. But we hear everything from her room.

We decided to head up to Crested Butte on the 1st. We saw some friends, had lunch, Mikayla got to watch the skiers and climb a mountain. (In the base area of the ski resort they had a huge pile of snow and her and Joe climbed the mountain and then ran down!).

I started the work year off with a bang on the second. First Mikayla woke us up at 5am. Joe dealt with her until 6am when I took over and he went back to bed for an hour. We also woke up to about -30. My truck would not start because we left the Sirus plugged in from our trip to CB. We finally got my truck started at 8am and I went inside to to dry my hair really quick. As I was leaving my driveway my neighbor needed a jump start. So I started the new year off 20 minutes late to work but I helped my neighbor so I think that is a great way to start the new year.

I am now 35 weeks pregnant and only 1 week left until I hit 9 months. Lily's room is almost ready to go. Mom is working on the sheets for her bed but Mom's sewing machine broke. Joe does need to lift up the mattress on the crib but I have not had him do that yet. Honey do for this weekend. I need to order the Sleep Incline and I have already ordered the Snuggle to Sleep blanket. So if this little one were to arrive tomorrow we would be pretty darn set.

Mikayla has been a bear the past few days and it is wearing on Mom and Dad. She has been extra fussy, whiny and just bad the last couple of nights. We want to pull our hair out and get the happy little one back. She did burn herself pretty bad two nights ago on the gas fireplace. She put her hand on the glass to warm them up and instead on getting close she touched the glass. She now has a second degree burn on the back on her hand and it looks awful. She also won't let me put any antibacterial cream on it. I am going to try and do that this weekend because I don't want it to get infected.

Nothing else exciting is going on in the O'Connell house but I am counting down the days until I have this little one. I keep saying anywhere from 2 to 5 weeks left and boy would I love to be closer to the 2 week window than the 5 week window. I already have plans to visit story time at the library and the tumble room at the rec center while I am on maternity leave.