Preeclampsia?

This week I spent a good deal of time reminiscing about being pregnant with Ella and her first few weeks. I looked through her baby pictures several times and was reminded of how swollen I got when I was pregnant (not that I had forgotten!) I know that some swelling is normal, but seriously my entire body was incredibly swollen, even my nose! I asked my doctor several times if I should be worried and she said that I should just elevate my feet often and drink water. However, I have been doing some research, mostly because I never want to look that gross again, and I think it might have been a little more serious than she thought. The three most prominent symptoms of mild preeclampsia are water retention, high blood pressure and protein in the urine. Well, I was obviously retaining water, but I also remember my urine tests coming back with extra protein towards the end and my blood pressure went up. My blood pressure is usually really low so even when it went up it was still in the healthy zone, but it did go up quite a bit.

I am not a medical expert by any means, but I think I might have been slightly preeclamptic. I certainly was not a serious case which entails headaches, nausea, vomiting and blurred vision. They probably wouldn't have done anything differently other than increasing my check ups to make sure I didn't get worse. But it does concern me that my doctor was so nonchalant about everything. What if it had gotten worse? Preeclampsia affects the amount of blood the baby gets, therefore they don't get enough oxygen or food, meaning lower birth weight. There are all sorts of problems with low birth weight babies. I try not to be an extremist and I think Ella and I were both fine, but I am a little disappointed with the quality of care I received. My doctor was great in lots of ways and she is still Ella's doctor, but I don't think I would have her be my doctor the next time I am pregnant. I did love the birth center in the hospital Ella was born at and would consider delivering there again if we lived close enough. It was brand new, the rooms were huge, the food was great and it was small enough to get plenty of quality care. I didn't want to leave! I had to go back and pick up something we forgot a few weeks after Ella was born and I stayed and talked to the nurses for a long time. Red Cedar Medical Center is a great place to have a baby, just maybe not with my doctor.

So I have a game plan for next time I am pregnant to avoid becoming a blimp:
1. Drink as much water as humanely possible
2. Avoid salt all together
3. Exercise regularly
4. No caffeine
5. No fried foods or junk food

These are all things you are supposed to do during pregnancy anyway and I tried to do them, but next time I will be extreme. I will try my best to not drink ANY Dr. Pepper (which I had maybe once a week last time), No salt (unless I don't have a choice; if we are eating at a friend's house I might not be able to avoid it) and I will avoid any candy or chocolate. When I was pregnant with Ella I worked at a chocolate shop and therefore ate a lot of chocolate. I actually did really well for most of my pregnancy with gaining weight slowly and healthfully, then BAM! I was huge. That is another sign of preeclampsia- sudden swelling in the face. My face was a little bit bigger throughout, but at the end it got crazy big. I have been a lot better about exercising lately because I take Ella for walks, so hopefully I will stay healthy. The hardest thing will be avoiding pop and chocolate. I really don't like salt very much and I never add it to my food, but so many recipes call for it that it might be an issue, but I will try.

Ella's First Birthday

Yesterday Ella had her 12 month check up and she is doing fabulous. Very healthy and growing well (even though everyone thinks she is such a peanut). Here are her current stats:

28 In. (30th Percentile)

20 lbs. 14 oz. (50th Percentile)

I don't remember what her head measurement was but it was 50th Percentile (who cares anyways?)

So she is a little short but doing great. She also got 4 shots, which she was not happy about. She screamed but as soon as I picked her up she stopped. Maybe next time I will ask if she can just sit in my lap while they poke her. After her doctor appointment, which took nearly 2 hours because they were so backed up, Ella took a nap (1 1/2 hours later than normal) and then we drove to Eau Claire for a birthday party our bible study through for her.

Have I mentioned before that our friends from church are the greatest? I am pretty sure I have, but I will say it again: we are blessed! I was not expecting a party for Ella but since we normally meet on Wednesdays for bible study my friend Julie said she wanted to throw Ella a party. I of course forgot my camera, but our friends Ben and Megan took tons of pictures with their awesome camera and I will post pictures when I get the cd from them. Here is a picture of Ella with the cake that I stole from Megan's facebook page, I hope she doesn't mind!

Isn't that cake the coolest cake you have ever seen? Megan spent 2 hours frosting it! Ella loved chocolate cake by the way! I cut off an ear for her and she picked it up and proceeded to eat the entire thing without ever taking it away from her face. She made a total mess of herself and had a great time doing it! So I gave her a quick bath before opening gifts, which I had to do for her because she was far more interested in a plastic cup that wrapping paper. Then right before we left, which was an hour past her bedtime already, she threw up most of her cake. Yuck. A lot of it got on my hand, her clothes and the floor. And she cried most of the 30 minute ride home. Poor kid was exhausted. In retrospect I probably shouldn't have scheduled her doctor appointment on her birthday. Oh well. She is doing fine today. It was a great day all around and we are looking forward to celebrating with our families this weekend!

Disappearing sections of posts

In case anyone is wondering, the reason my posts are sometimes missing lines and whatnot is because I made the font bigger. It seems that if I am allowed to make the font bigger it shouldn't be a problem, but it still gets messed up with every post. However, the font I chose is incredibly small if I use the normal size. I have been trying to figure this problem out for quite some time and I just tried making the last post font size smaller and it was all entirely there, but so small it was annoying to try to read. Alas, I will stay with the bigger font. FYI- if you highlight the entire post all of it will be readable. Maybe I should just pick a new font that isn't so troublesome?

One Year Ago Today

It is unbelievable that it has been a year since Ella was born. Ella is obviously not aware that today is a special day, but Kyle and I are pretty excited about it. Today Ella has her one year check up, then tonight we are having a party for her with our wonderful bible study friends. Then on Saturday we are having a party with our families. I am kind of sad that we aren't having a big party with all of our extended family, but that would be over 100 people, and that is just a little out of control for Ella. I thought in honor of her first birthday I would tell her birth story. Most of you probably know it already, but today is a day for reminiscing, so bear with me!

The night before Ella was born Kyle and I went for a really long walk. My stomach was hard as a rock the whole time, it felt like a prolonged Braxton Hicks Contraction. About an hour after we got home I started having contractions, but they didn't hurt and were somewhat sporadic, so I didn't think anything of it. We went to bed around midnight (bad idea so close to due date!) and at 1 am I woke up. I was thirsty so I reached for my water next to the bed and I felt a little trickle. Did I pee my pants? Nope, now it is gushing and my water has definitely broken! All I had to do was say Kyle's name in a somewhat panicked tone and he was awake and jumping into action! He ran to the bathroom and got me a towel, although I had already made quite a mess of our bed. I didn't think my water would break on its own, so I didn't even ask my doctor what to do if it broke. That usually happens after the woman is already at the hospital. So I called the hospital and asked what I should do. They told me to keep track of my contractions for an hour and call back. My contractions were consistently 5 minutes apart, so they told me to come in. We got there at about 3 am and I was already 3 centimeters. They hooked me up to monitors and let us rest for a few hours.

I actually dozed decently until about 7:30. The nurse checked me and thought I was at 9 centimeters. All of a sudden there was a flurry of activity as they started preparing the room for the birth. Kyle called our families and told them it was time and they could come and wait if they wanted. Then the doctor came in and checked me and said I was only at 8 centimeters. So they unhooked me from the monitors and had me get up and move around. The contractions were pretty manageable at this point and we actually slowing down. I took a bath, sat on the big ball and walked the halls for hours and hours. I was stuck. They kept checking me and I was not dilated anymore. So we tried Pitocin to speed up the contractions. It sure made them hurt more, but I still wasn't dilated. Up until then I was doing fine managing the pain without any medication. But man that dang Pitocin kicked my butt! I was basically yelling through the contractions at this point (although I was still breathing very well, thank you very much!) Since I already had an IV in they gave me an IV pain med called Nubain. That helped the pain, but it made me incredibly groggy. About the time the Nubain was wearing off they were checking me for dilation constantly and several different people we doing it. Needless to say, I was in a lot of pain!

At that point my doctor called in a consult from an obstetrician and they came to the conclusion that Ella's head was wedged in the wrong way and would no longer descend into my birth canal. So we decided to do a C-section. The anesthesiologist came in and prepped me, and they made Kyle read all these papers to me. It was kind of ridiculous. I could barely keep my eyes open and I was in tons of pain. Who cares, just get this kid out of me! Then they wheeled me off the the OR, gave me the spinal, Kyle came in and sat with me, and Ella was born at 8:31 PM, 6 pounds 11 ounces, 19 3/4 inches long! We got some really cool pictures of her coming out that the anesthesiologist took. He was a frequent customer at Legacy where I worked, and he was great!

There is no way to know if Ella's head was descending incorrectly because of my bone structure or if it was a fluke. So I will have to go through labor all over again and possibly still have to have a C-section. I would rather not choose to have a C-section because the recovery was very painful and the medication they gave me made me really tired and seemed to affect Ella. She would not wake up to eat in the hospital. She screamed really hard every time we tried and maybe only ate twice a day in the hospital. Then we got home, I stopped taking the meds and she woke up hungry and wanting to eat! It would obviously be less work for me if I just did another c-section, but I can't imagine being in that much pain and that groggy when I have a newborn and a toddler at a home to take care of. I won't have 2 weeks to just sit and try not to use my ab muscles at all.

I think posts without pictures are kind of boring, so here are some of her birth and shortly after. I hope you don't have a week stomach!

Ella's head coming out

The rest of her coming out (Notice she is holding onto the tube!)

The first picture of the 3 of us

All cleaned up and beautiful beyond words!

Its funny because I didn't cry when I found out I was pregnant, or when Ella was born, but right now as I write this and look at the pictures, I am struggling to hold back tears!

The Sweetest Thing

You know what my favorite part of the day is? Right before Ella goes down for a nap or to bed for the night. And NOT because I am getting a break from her! I love it because it is the only time the entire day that Ella wants to cuddle with me. After she has her bottle and I carry her into her room, she lays her head on my shoulder and hugs me. It is the sweetest thing in the entire world! She has her head on one side for a minute, then switches to the next, as if she is finding the most comfortable spot. I think she would stay there as long as I let her.

On an unrelated note, I wanted to draw your attention to a family whose story I have been following on the blog the mom created. Her son, Stellan, has a very serious heart condition and needs to have surgery, tomorrow morning, if not sooner. http://www.mycharmingkids.net/ This is a link to the blog Stellan's mom created. This woman is truly amazing to me. She has so much faith in God through these tough times. If you could, take some time to pray for this boy. He was supposed to be stillborn, but he was totally healthy for the first 5 months of his life. At this point it sounds like he needs this surgery to live, but the surgery is very risky and could kill him.

Ella's First Easter

I think it is sad that Easter is not nearly as celebrated as Christmas. I understand in some ways because Christmas is such a joyous holiday and Easter has a lot of sadness before the joy. But the important thing to remember about Easter is that there is so much joy to be found in the remembrance of what Jesus did for us. It breaks my heart to think about all the pain and shame Jesus endured to save us all from our sins, but then I think about the fact that he didn't stay dead. Jesus is Risen! And he knows each and everyone one of us completely and loves us. He longs for a deep and personal relationship with us. I will live the rest of my life to know him and glorify him, and I pray that you will too.

On a lighter note, Ella looked incredibly cute this Easter in her little dress. She was great all day and it was a lot of fun to see her playing with her Easter gifts and "looking" for eggs at my grandparents. I put quotes around looking because really my cousins just put eggs on the ground right in front of her so she could pick them up. I don't have any pictures of that yet (my mom does) but if I get some from her, I will post them. Here are some pictures of Ella all dressed up:

Big Girl Carseat!

Recently we got Ella a new front facing carseat. She was getting way too big for her infant carseat and cried every time she was in it lately. I did a lot of research and debated a lot and decided on a Graco Cargo Booster Seat. It fits kids 20-100 pounds. It will be the only other carseat she needs. I had to order it online and wait for a long time. I think I was more excited than she was when it came! Here she is trying it out in our living room:

The first time she was in it she seemed to really like it because she could see me and I could play with her a bit. She quickly got bored and annoyed that she couldn't move. That had us a little worried that she wasn't going to sleep in the car anymore. We are in the car a lot and we kind of depend on Ella sleeping. Turns out she just needed to learn to fall asleep sitting up. By learning I mean we had to just let her cry herself to sleep, which she did after a hectic Easter. Then today when we dropped Kyle off at work she just fell asleep without any crying! Here she is fast asleep:

Isn't she precious?

Ella's Crazy Dance Moves

Last night we swapped our exersaucer with our friends play thing (I don't know what it is called) which Ella can stand next to when she plays with it. She loves it! She was sick of her exersaucer because she couldn't get out of it. She has been playing with this new toy all day. The best part is the music it plays. It took many tries but I actually got a video of her dancing to the music. It is pretty much the cutest thing she has done to date. Enjoy!

Ella's Funny Faces

Look at all those teeth!

Talk about attitude!

Ella The Brute

Ella is the funniest little thing. Lately she loves to pick things up. I swear she is going to be a body builder someday! The heaviest thing she has successfully picked up is a 5 pound sack of potatoes! She picks up her diaper bag, her toy barn and she even tried to pick up her friend Nora on Monday at our play date. Ella was standing next to Nora and she started pulling on Nora's shirt as if she was trying to get Nora to stand up as well. I think Ella needs a little brother to beat on, because she was kind of a bully to the other babies at our play date. Ella was the oldest one there and I felt bad for the other babies because she was stealing their toys, smacking them (not to hurt them, just playing) and sitting on them. It is good when Ella gets to play with her friend Hurshle because he is older than her and she can get out her baby aggression on him instead of the 7, 6 and 4 month old babies who were there on Monday. I don't worry about her beating on a boy who is older than her, but those poor little girls! It didn't really help that I was doing my taxes instead of helping control my child. Our friends bought a turbo tax cd and we used it to do our taxes. Boy does it help having a baby when doing taxes! When I told Kyle how much money we were getting back because of Ella he didn't believe me! We didn't know that babies were such a huge tax deduction. Of course the money we are getting back is basically spent already because we have so much college debt. We are also paying off our credit card and cancelling it. We can not be trusted with credit cards. Kyle and I made some bad financial decisions when we were young and dumb (does that mean we are old and wise now?) and we are working hard to make up for those bad decisions. It would be much more fun to use that money to go on vacation or something, but unfortunately we are adults now who have to be responsible and take care of our family. Bummer....