It has been quite a while since our last posting. We have been so busy lately. Livia is always crazy busy at work, and I have had summer classes, an internship, my marketing job, a masters thesis to work on, etc.
Last month we moved, which was incredibly onerous and time-consuming in itself. We are enjoying our new pad, but it has taken us quite a while to settle in.
Then last Wednesday everything came to a standstill. I had picked up my mom the night before from the airport after my night classes. Wed morning I made us some pancakes. I worked lethargically around the house a little bit and then headed off to the store. I got home right around 1pm. And my mom was in the doorway of my room and she said "ok, now you'll need to get a paper and pen and begin recording when the contractions begin and when they end and...". Wait a second mom, there's an app for that. Thank goodness for the iPhone once again.
So that was the beginning. Her contractions were mild in intensity, but very frequent with little latency between contractions. I had her up a nice warm bath and we continued in there for some time. Eventually I moved her out to the bed.
The contractions were so often that I couldn't get anything done. I needed to print out some maps for mom and get a couple of little items ready. But I just never had enough time. Eventually my mom said that she just wanted to wait at the hospital in the waiting room, though the original plan was maybe to just drop us off. Actually we didn't really have an original plan as livia wasn't supposed to be due until Saturday.
The contractions were gettng a little bit more intense and I requested that mo take our Lamaze bags out to the car. It was time to go to the hospital. By this time we're at about 2:30pm. I check the analysis of the contractions on the iPhone app and it looks like livia is in phase 2. We call the hospital. Actually livia called because she wanted them to hear how frantic her voice was so that they would take her seriously.
Triaje (sp?) ended up being an extended stay. All of the labor and delivery roomswere being occupied, so we had to wait for the next available room. Livia's water broke in triaje and she began do develop a fever, so we held ice packs to her. Eventually a room opened up and we wheeled her to the room. Labor intensified and the contractions were in the final stages.
After about 10 minutes the midwife instructed Livia to begin pushing. I couldn't believe that labor was almost over and that she was going tobegin delivery. Nothing was really going according to plan. I had a playlist of Lamaze music ready on my computer and on my phone. She wanted silence. I printed off about a dozen high quality focal points of flowers, and she just closed her eyes. All that Lamaze breathing? It just translated into groans and screams. I found that the breathing that would work the best is that I would tell her that my hand it about 6" from her mouth and that I wanted her to blow bursts of air so that I could feel it on my hand.
Pushing is something that had practiced. Inthe prior months, I would periodically email her or call her to remind her to do the kegel exercises. The pushing was going well and the squating really helped. After about 30 minutes or so of pushing, a multitude of people entered the room. We had pediatritions, nurses, I think some residents, there may have been an electrician and a city bus driver... It was quite a crowd. This actually motivated Livia as she saw the urgency and realized that this was it! A few pushes and little baby was out!
She did not cry for quite a while, and the pediatricians cleaned her up and took her vitals. I letthem do their thing and calmed Livia down a bit. She had just delivered naturally and without any epidural or pain meds! That's a greater accomoshment than anything I've ever done. After the remaining solids and liquids of childbirth were introduced into the world, I made my way over to little baby girl. She was not fussy at all, but she sure didn't look very content either.
That's the little one. We didn't yet have a name for her. It took us two days to finally settle on a name. Lily Sophia Nufer was introduced to the world at 5:39pm on Tuesday, July 22. She weighed in at 7lbs 1ounce.
Livia is like a she hulk. Maybe a shulk. Her labor was around 5 hours long and she did it without the drugs. At the final stage she started asking what could be done about the pain. It was then that the word epidural came up, but we requested that she be checked first. So the midwife checked the progress, and livia was already 8.5 cm. Shortly after the anesthesiologist strutted in with a smile, introduced herself and stated "I'd like to just ask you a few questions...". Nobody in the room even acknowledged her presence aswe began the preparing for the pushing. She departed and for me that was one of the highlights of the labor.
See, the midwife helps with the delivery, the nurse helps the midwife. I am the coach, the pediatrician attends to the baby once she's born. The residents observe and learn, and the anesthesiologist is there in case all the doctors agree that the delivery is not going to cost enough. We are against the epidural in most instances. It was satisfying to see the look of disappointment on her face. That's like a lost boat payment for her.
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Livia tested positive for group b strep, and she needed an IV during labor. Her fever of 100.4 was not a good sign, and the external fetal monitoring indicated that at one point the baby's heart rate was very high. This meant that the baby would be born with some complications. They wisked her down to nicu and began drawing blood for lab work. She contracted an infection during the delivery and would need 7-10 days on antibiotics. She also had some air pockets in her lungs that could cause lung problems. They did a spinal tap to test for meningitis and were worried about her blood sugar level and her sodium.
Long story short, she was negative for meningitis, the air bubbles were absolved by her body, sodium and sugar is good, but the infection got worse. The result is 10 days in the nicu. I gave her a priesthood blessing and we have spent the majority of the last 5-6 days down with baby girl.
Anyway, that's the story of Lily Sophia Nufer. She is so happy and rarely cries. When she does cry it's very cute. We will keep everyone posted in the coming days about her progress and life as a new parent, so stay tuned. Also, check out little videos of her on YouTube. My account name is sxn3731.
-- Post From My iPhone
first bath
Two-and-a-half weeks
defying gravity (oops)
This is around the one month mark
The boxing gloves help her to not scratch her face
Practicing the tummy time
One of the first baths in the tub
These next pics were taken on the day of her baby blessing.
Here she is with grandma and grandpa
And her aunt Amanda
This one is perhaps our favorite thus far. Taken on a beautiful day at the Botanical Gardens. We were covering her head with a thin blanket to protect her from the sun. She ended up peeking out over my shoulder and Livia captured the moment.
At this point (almost 6 weeks), holding her head up became very natural, to the point that if she was on her tummy she wouldn't allow her head to rest, but would rather be looking all around at her surroundings. Perhaps planning, plotting.
And that wraps up the first couple of months with little baby girl. We were fortunate to spend all our time with her during that first little while, but eventually life started catching up to us and work, school, etc., began occupying more of our time. She really is a great baby. She has a wonderful personality and is extremely affectionate. She loves getting kisses all the time and rarely ceases to smile.
