Well, Since my last post a lot has happened. Things went well for the majority of the thrid trimester until about 30 weeks when I started gaining weight too quickly according to my midwives. By 32 weeks I started having fairly regular Braxton-Hicks contractions (at least 2 dozen a day, sometimes more) and was diagnosed with an "Irritable uterus" basically meaning I was having contractions, but they weren't anything to worry too much about. At 36 weeks they diagnosed me with Pre-ecclampsia due to borderline high blood pressure and some protein in my urine. So they scheduled my induction for May 13 (37 weeks).
We called that morning at 5:30am to see when to come in, but no beds were available. Same at 8am, but they said they would call us. Around 1, we call them again, and still nothing available so we called the midwife, who pulled some strings and got us in around 3:30. The induction didn't go very well. Becuase of my Pre-ecclampsia, they wanted me on Magnesium to prevent seizures, but it also prevents the uterus from contracting. They had me on the highest dose of pitocin they felt comfortable with and I still wasn't into a good labor pattern. I would get contractions every 90 seconds, lasting 60, all in my back, about 5 or 6 in a row then they would stop for about 5 minutes. Because I wasn't getting any rest between contractions, the pain just kept escalating and around 4am I asked for some pain meds which allowed me to sleep for a couple hours.
At 7 the midwife came in to check my progress and noticed I was still at 5 cm (and had been for hours) so we decided the best course of action would be to break my water. Unfortunately, the worst case scenario happened: part of the cord was starting to come out before the baby also known as cord prolapse. There is nothing they can do at that point except rush me in for an emergency c-section.
The next day or so was a complete blur as I slept a lot due to the pain meds they had me on. When I was awake, I tried to bond with our beautiful little girl, Amaya Ruth (7lbs 2.6oz, 19 inches). All I could really do at that point was hold her and try to breastfeed her. It was too painful to try to stand long enough to change her diaper.
Because I had lost so much blood during the surgery, I ended up needing a blood transfusion. All the while we were trying to get to know this little angel. The day before I was supposed to be released, however, the pediatrition came in and told us Amaya was losing too much weight to be discharged, so we had to wake her every 3 hours to try and feed her. The only problem was she wouldn't latch on for longer than a couple minutes. So we started supplementing with formula and trying to pump anything I could. That still wasn't enough and she lost more weight, bringing her to 15% down from her birthweight. By that point, Michael and I were spent and literally broke down in front of dr's, nurses and a midwife. They suggested that we allow the nurses to take Amaya down to the nurses' station and watch her for a few hours while we get some rest and reconnect. That was the best thing for us at that point. Michael and I got a chance to talk now that I wasn't completely doped up and we both got a decent nap. After our nap we went downstairs to Subway for lunch. It was one of the first times I had left my room since we got into the mom & baby wing.
While we were napping, the charge nurse did some research for us (on her own) She had found out that I had PCOS and discovered that PCOS can interfere with milk production. That little tidbit of information did help, but it also hurt at the same time. I was so bent on breastfeeding Amaya, that it ended up hurting her. For the next few weeks I really struggled with my "failure" of not being able to feed my own child and the fact my body was conspiring against me. I am pretty much over it now and I am glad we found out before leaving the hospital so we could fix the problem quickly. She is now formula fed and is doing very well.
We took her home when she was 5 days old and things really started to improve. My incision was healing nicely and it was getting easier and easier to do things. Michael was (and still is) really great helping with Amaya and around the house. By her 2 week check up, Amaya was back up to her birthweight and thriving. At 2 weeks, we no longer had to wake her to feed her, she was finally telling us she was hungry.
At 5 weeks, she met her grandparents (Michael's parents) for the first time as they came to visit from the mainland for 10 days. We all had a lot of fun playing tourist and showing Michael's family around the island. We went to a Luau, the USS Arizona memorial, North Shore, the Dole Plantation, and Waikiki. Amaya didn't really care what we were doing as long as she got fed.
Shortly after they left, we finally were able to start cloth diapering. The diapers I made didn't work out well, so we ended up purchasing some BumGenious Flip diapers. We loved them, but with just the one package of 6, we weren't able to do cloth full time, so I went on the hunt on craigslist and found a mom selling some Flip covers, inserts, and prefold diapers. After that we haven't bought a single disposable diaper. We have had to invest in 2 dozen more prefolds because I was sick of doing diaper laundry every other day. Now we do diapers about twice a week (every 3-4 days). The nice thing about these diapers is they grow with baby so we don't have to keep buying diapers everytime she grows out of one size.
When Amaya was 2.5 months old, my friend Desi came to visit for a week and Amaya had her first dr visit and shots. Amaya is 12lbs 1oz and 23" long and in the 70% for both height and weight. While Desi was here, we went to another Luau, and to Dole Plantation, but we also did some things we didn't do with Michael's family. Desi and I went to Sealife Park where she swam with the dolphins and Amaya got to touch a turtle and a hermit crab. We also put amaya's feet in the ocean for the first time. She wasn't too sure about that.
Amaya is now 3 months old and is a very happy baby, most of the time. She smiles a lot and loves her bathtime. She loves to "talk" and is now wanting to sit up (with support) and look around. I am so blessed to have her!
