Another Aylin video

Kristina brought home a play pad today from Walmart.

A couple of cute videos...

These are both from today. Teena shot the first one of Aylin right after she woke up from her nap this afternoon. I shot the other one this evening.

6 Weeks and counting

So sweet little Aylin is now 6 going on 7 weeks old. On Monday we made a trip to the pediatrician's office because of her upset tummy. She was diagnosed with mild to moderate GER or acid reflux. The dr. put her on infant zantac and told us to try it for a week to 10 days to see if it helps. If not, then I am to go on a no dairy diet for 2 weeks. We've had good and bad days since she's been on the zantac. But mostly good. We're going to see it through the weekend, and see where we are at on Monday. But I really hope to have this all worked out before I go back to work...

... Speaking of, that clock is quickly ticking away. And I find myself frustrated with the small amount of time I have left to spend at home with my sweet girl. Especially when a lot of those days here lately have been spent with an upset baby because of her acid reflux. I know that going back to work is going to absolutely kill me. How can I leave my sweet little girl with people that don't even know her or us for the majority of the day! Then I start thinking about all of the wonderful things I am going to miss while I am at work, and it makes me so SO sad! I took Aylin up to the office on Thursday. I had my 6 week check up (everything is great, and relatively back to "normal"), so I figured we'd drop in and see everyone. But that just left me feeling overwhelmed about what I am going to be walking back in to. And on top of that what I will be missing while I am being miserable at work. I guess I'm letting it swarm on me a bit, and I need to step back and take a breath. But that's just really hard for me to do right now. I just hope that the zantac does the trick and that I can have more sweet days then frustrating ones before I go back to work.

Back to happy things! Miss Aylin has been smiling at us for a few weeks now. She's been thinking about giving us a little laugh now and again. But not quite yet. Just a little caugh excited type noise mostly. It was pretty special the other evening: Jeff had come home from work and she was asleep in the swing. His recliner is directly across the living room from her swing. She started to wake up and he said "well hello little one" and suddenly her eyes were wide and she gave him the biggest smile I'd seen yet! It was awesome to see her recognize him like that and be so happy that daddy was home.

Has it really been a whole month?

Yes it has... a sweet, wonderful, happy, tearful, sleepless month with sweet little Aylin.

Grandma Jeanne came to help take care of the two redheads of the house for 2 weeks (for which we are immensely grateful) for Aylin's 2nd and 3rd weeks home. We found that Aylin loves baths, and before she was allowed a full bath we would wrap her in a towel and wash her hair. LOVED this! She also loves to sleep "frog style" on daddy's chest. She loves her swing and the neat lights and water sounds. She smiles, and coos and makes all kinds of fun happy sounds, and just melts mommy and daddy's hearts.

She has made the past week or so difficult by changing up her eating habits. Thanks to Grandma Jeanne we gave her a bottle of formula the last 2 nights in an effort to gain a little more sleep for everyone. This seems to have helped a lot. In addition I started pumping to try to build up my supply so we can be sure she's getting enough to eat. She has however taken to "topping off" every hour and throwing a screaming, inconsolable fit every hour to eat. Then when fed only eats about an ounce. So at the moment we are going through a very tearful day while we try to hold her off to at least 2 hours between feedings. Which is hard on everyone.
Below are some pictures from over the past month that you should enjoy. (-=

Aylin's Arrival

Aylin Marie Melton; born to Jeffrey & Kristina Melton at 11:12pm on Thursday February 19, 2009 at Northwest Medical Center, Bentonville Arkansas. Attending physician Amy Sarver M.D.

On Wednesday 2/18/09 we had our fun little episode where I had started labor, but because I had not yet dilated the hospital sent us home. Thursday however was a whole other story. After coming home Wednesday afternoon my contractions never completely stopped. They continued to stay on a 8 - 15 minute schedule. And only let up for about 3 hours from 9pm to Midnight and allowed me to sleep for that short period of time. I continued to have contractions all day Thursday varying between 4 minutes and 15 minutes. Jeff took me to my doctor's appointment at 3pm, and I had managed to dilate to a 3. With that the doctor decided she was sending us to the hospital and was going to have them start me on a pitocin drip to get my contractions more regular and progress the labor. We were hoping this would be the case, so we had packed the car with our hospital bags in hopes that we would end up at the hospital. 

On to the hospital; we checked in at 3:50pm. We were settled in a room and I had an IV, put in immediately. Since I had already been having contractions for over 36 hours I decided that an epidural didn't sound so bad after all. I was already exhausted from being in labor so long that it wasn't worth it to try to tough it out. So in went the epidural. Not a terribly fun process, felt like little electric shocks in my back. It's very hard to hold still and curve your back out towards the strange sensations when all that is going on. But I managed OK, and in the end it was the best thing I could have done. Once the epidural was working they put a catheter in, and started the pitocin drip. The pitocin started working immediately. They got my contractions between 2-3 minutes apart and they stayed that way. However when they tried to move me to lay on my left side little Aylin decided she didn't like that so much. Her heart rate started to slow down. So we tried my right side instead... she didn't like that either. So on my back it was. The more the labor progressed, the harder her little feets started pushing on my ribs. Making it harder and harder for me to breathe. I got to where I had to constantly push back with my left hand, else the discomfort become overwhelming. 

After 3 hours on the pitocin drip however, my dilation was not progressing past a 5, and Aylin still had not dropped down into the birth canal. Apparenly my pelvis was not only too small, but was more of a football shape rather than round, so Aylin's head wasn't getting through. So the nurse came to inform me that if in the next 30 minutes no progess was made, the doctor was going to do a c-section instead. Rather than risk the health of our little girl and continue to stress her out. 30 minutes came and no progress was made. The c-section was imminent. I was freaked out. I had never considered that a c-section would be necessary. So the thought of one at that point with no time to really think about it, really freaked me out. I started to get naucious. They brought in 3 different kinds of acid reflux medication (1 thru the IV, 1 in pill form, 1 in liquid form) so that while on the operating table laying flat on my back I wouldn't have any problems with being ill... Well my nerves caused me to throw up the liquid. But the other 2 seemed to do OK. As I was wheeled from the nice calm semi-dark labor and delivery room to the super bright operating room the panic started to set in. I didn't have Jeff, I was still having to push on Aylin's feet in order to breathe, and I was completely numb from my ribs down. It was scary for me when they transported me from the bed to the operating table because I was so numb, and they were rolling me from one side to another, and I could do nothing for myself. Once flat on my back in the room the lights were so bright it made it hard for me to keep my eyes open. Then my arms were brought away from my body and put on boards so that they were straight out from my shoulders. This caused huge discomfort because Aylin was still pushing on my ribs. Then Jeff was there. I was still scared to death, but at least I had my hubby to talk to me and try to calm me down. In all of this probably less than 5 minutes had passed since I had been wheeled into the surgery room. And it was only a few more before they were holding sweet little Aylin up over the screen for us to see. 

At that moment, there was nothing else in the world for me. Our sweet little daughter had arrived, and I could breathe again! For more reasons than just because her feet were no longer on my ribs! The moment they held her up over the screen I started bawling, and ooooh-ing and aaawwwee-ing. She was just the most beautiful thing I had ever seen. It didn't take them long to have her wraped up and brought over to Jeff to hold. He held her close to my face so I could kiss her, and say sweet things to her. Then they were both off to the nursery. They continued to work on me a bit longer, cleaning things up and stitching. Then I was wheeled down to recovery for about an hour while they watched me and waited for the epidural to start showing signs of wearing off. Immediately after surgery, probably because of all my nerves and adrenaline, I started to shiver tremendously. Down in recovery they put 3 warmed blankets on my body, and one around my head to keep my shaking to a minimum. Somewhere around 1pm I was brought back up to the maternity ward and settled in to a recovery room, and shortly there after my hubby and daughter joined. 

I was exhausted, and over joyed. Even though things hadn't gone as I had expected them to, the end result was still amazing. I wouldn't change the events for anything. We stayed in the hospital all day Friday, and were released shortly after noon on Saturday. Both Aylin and mommy had recovered sufficiently for release, and mommy for one was ready to be home where I could rest easier. 

Jeff has been an amazing support for me, and continues to encourage me every step of the way. He is such a wonderful husband, and takes such sweet wonderful care of me. God has truly blessed me with such a great little family. 

Since arriving home, Aylin has been breast feeding like a dream. It was a bit of a rough start, but things have settled down into a rhythm, and she eats and sleeps well. With Jeff's help I have been getting lots of rest and time to recover. Aylin had her first check up at the pediatrician's office Monday, and she is looking wonderful. She had only lost 9oz. She has continued to eat very well, and constantly amazes her daddy and I. Our hearts are over flowing with love for this little one. 

What now?

Kristina started having some mild, regular contractions at about 1:30 this morning. By 3:30 AM, the contractions were increasing in strength and frequency, down to about every 10 or 12 minutes. We rolled out of bed, showered, had some breakfast, and started gathering up our bags. All the while, contractions were getting closer together, something like 7 minutes apart.

We trekked in to Bentonville's Northwest Medical Center and checked in. They put her on a monitor for 30 or 40 minutes, and talked to her obstetrician, checked to see if/how much she was dilated (finger-tip, the nurse said). Then they came in and told us to go home. The nurse gave Kristina a Vicodin and an Ambien -- on an empty stomach, which would prove significant later -- to "help her rest". Her contractions were still occurring at about 5 minute intervals.

Kristina's friend April offered to let us hang out at her house for the day, so we could be closer to the hospital in case something else developed. Kristina remembers little of the drive from the hospital, and when we got to April's house, she started vomiting. She threw up what little was in her stomach (a bit of a Sonic Sunshine Smoothie), and kept dry-heaving off and on for another hour or two.

She's been sleeping in between contractions ever since. We took a short walk a little while ago; she's crashed out again now. We're not really sure what to do now. She's supposed to have a doctor's appointment tomorrow afternoon, but if contractions don't let up... Who knows? The contractions don't really fit what I know of the profile of "false labor" or Braxton-Hicks contractions, but I'm not a medical professional. We're talking about heading back home this afternoon, but... ?

A Finally Finished Nursery!

The nursery is finally complete! Whew! It's been mostly complete for some time now, just missing a few decorative touches. However now that the showers are done, and everything has been washed/folded/put away/assembled the nursery can now be declared FINISHED! And probably for the only time ever little miss Aylins entire wardrobe including bed clothes are clean and folded and in their proper place. (-=