Meal time blues

We went for our 1st check up yesterday and Lily lost a bit too much weight. She is sleepy all day and getting her to nurse for more than a few minutes at a time is difficult. I end up pestering her trying to get her to eat. Problem is that she doesn't end up with quality nursing time- meaning she does not get as much milk. Add to this that my milk has been slow to come in and you can see why it has resulted in weight loss. :/

So yesterday the doctor had us start supplementing Lily with formula. We feed her formula via a syringe. Its kind of a funny process. I squirt a drop or two of formula and she smacks and swallows. We are supposed to give her 15 cc after every feeding/nursing. She never makes the full 15ccs- falls asleep. She is such a sweet baby but she needs to wake up!

On a more positive note Lily is sleeping better at night- well maybe she just sleeps all the time now. hmmmm...

Brian has promised to post more pictures today. For the impatient (like me) here are a couple.

Lily has hiccups!

A few quick pictures

We're home. Everyone is doing well. Lily is adorable and perfect. She has her days and nights reversed but she is doing so well. We are making progress breast feeding and trying to rest when we can.
I wanted to share a couple quick pictures. More to follow.

Waiting at the hospital!

Well here we are waiting at the hospital. I can't believe how fast the 9 months has flown by (for me at least, I'm sure Sarah would say the opposite). Within hours our little Lily will be here to greet us. It's been such an amazing adventure, and I know it's only the beginning of a lifetime of many more adventures. Sarah has been great, during this whole process. I couldn't have asked for a better pregnant wife :) None of the horror stories I've heard have been true, and I know she will be a great mother.

We are currently sitting in the room watching TV. Sarah has had her Epidural and is feeling much better. I can't wait for this to happen so we can hold our little girl. Any minute.. (hour) now! Will keep you updated!

Here we go?

I went to the doctor this morning for my weekly check up. She checked me and I was 3 cm dialated. She said my cervix was thinning and that Lily has hair! She could feel her head! My doctor is on call tonight and so she suggested that I could go into labor today- I should go walk and be active etc today. She said if I have contractions AT ALL that I should go up to hospital and she will break my water and we will have a baby today. I had contraction right after she checked me- it hurts to be checked. And have been having them ever since. They are still kind of far apart- about 20 minutes now. But they are getting stronger. I am going to go for a walk as soon as Brian gets home- he's leaving work at 3. My doctor wants me to meet her at hospital at 5. So here we go... we're gonna have a baby!
I'll keep you guys posted.

13 days to go... still waiting on Lily.

I made it through my week on consults. Yay! I worked 10-11 hours most days and was pretty tired by the time I got home. I was going to bed early every night and rocking some pretty awesome cankles by the end of the day, but really it wasn't that bad. I did get worn out but the week was pretty tame by consult standards and I had an awesome and efficient attending. The weekend went well too and I was home about 3PM both days. Overall I am relieved to be done with it. It was my last week of hard work before Lily arrives. I have clinics the next 2 weeks but the schedule is much lighter.
I am begining to really like my new job. I am figuring out what I can handle on my own and what to ask the attendings about (before I just asked about everything). And I really like the people that I work with. I guess it's kind of a shame to just be getting comfortable and leave for 8 weeks of maternity leave but it will be worth it. I can't wait to have my little Lily here.
Lily is getting bigger by the day. And so is my stomach. It seems like everybody has something to say about my stomach too. It's not just the people I know at work but random people. Yesterday I was presenting a patient to my attending. I was in the middle of telling him what I wanted to recommend and this nurse interupted us to ask when I was due and what sex the baby was and then wanted to have a conversation about c-sections. I was a little surprised at first. I kept thinking... umm, hey I'm working here. But she just kept talking despite my one word answers and continued conversation with my attending. Another nurse this week was insisting that Lily could be breech because she is still so high in my abdomen. She told me at least 3 times that I needed an ultrasound. Mostly I just get comments about how big she is going to be or that I am going to go into labor early or late. Saturday I just wanted a sign to wear on my belly- yes I know it is big and no I don't want your oppinion about it. I was tired on Saturday.
BTW- Brian is on turkey timer watch. That is what he has been calling my belly button- the turkey timer. So far I am still an inny- he says Lily will be done when the belly button pops out. I'm not sure it's going to happen. I think my belly button is just going to disappear. It's almost non-existant now.

I thought it might be fun to see a kind of then and now set of pictures. I found a picture from Kelly's visit and I put on the same clothes again. :) The funny thing is that in the 1st picture I thought I had a baby bump. But I guess you can't call it a bump now- more like a mountain. Anyway I thought this might be fun.


19 weeks pregnant


38 weeks pregnant



A bump no more- now a mountain

Waiting on Lily

Boards are done. Thank goodness!! It's always so hard to know how those standardized tests went until you get the results. I won't get my results for a couple months so for now I am going to assume it went okay. I am really just glad that it's over.

Everything else is going well. I am trying to catch up on paperwork and get ready for maternity leave. I am applying for my full license. I have been eligible for it for over 2 years but just kept renewing my training license. The training license is cheaper and easier to renew. But by getting my full license will allow me to moonlight outside of Baptist hospital. This is essential to the child care plan- we are planning to share a nanny with my friend who had her baby last week. In order to afford this we will need some extra income now and then.
We finished our birthing classes last night. We did a series of classes called birth and beginings. The last night we got to tour the labor and delivery suites and the post-partum wing. Overall the facilities are pretty nice at Forsyth (all babies are born at Forsyth- Baptist(my hospital) does not deliver babies). We are pretty much ready for Lily now. The car seat is in the car, baby and mommy bags are packed and the crib is waiting. I have also been filling in Lily's baby book- that is kind of fun.

I start going to the OB every week now. My next appointment is tomorrow. I would like to say that Lily could come at any time but really it is not likely. First babies get comfy in the womb and like to take a long time. I am hoping for sonner rather than later. In fact I would love to welcome her to the world tonight but it's not going to happen. She is still riding high- generally the uterus/baby "drops" a week or two before labor. So as I said we are waiting on Lily... Come on Lily!

Oh by the way- Lily has a new "trick." She has decided that she is too cramped. So she tries to stretch out. She pushes her little baby butt against one side of my belly (you can see it bulge out) and she pushes with her arms/legs against the other side. It feels like she is trying to separate my ribs or break out of there or something... She is definitely getting bigger.

Guess Lily's Birthday

At the request of Aunt Kelly we are starting a baby pool. Please let us know when you think Lily will arrive and what she will look like. This should be fun!

http://bebepool.com/sarah_n_brian

35 weeks- lots to do

I finished my two weeks out at the VA on Friday. I liked it out there more than I thought that I would, but I won't miss the 50 minute drive. The next couple weeks I will have a better schedule. Just clinics this week and next with ABIM boards next Monday. I will be SO glad when that's over. I just hope that I am ready for it. I have been distracted from studying a lot lately. Between working, trying to get some sleep and getting ready for Lily, studying has gotten pushed back a little too often. This week I plan to cram, cram, cram!
Speaking of getting ready for Lily... This weekend I packed her hospital bag. I also installed her car seat and put the little window clings up in my car. We are planning to install the car base in Brian's car this afternoon. It's nice for us that we have 2 bases- we won't have to transfer the base back and forth. I still need to pack my bag for the hospital- something you are supposed to have done by 36 weeks and we need to finish organizing the nursey. Other than those couple little things we are pretty much ready for her arrival. We have 5 more weeks to wait... though my OB keeps telling me I'm going to deliver early. Maybe she has a crystal ball that I don't know about. Her current theory is that when I do a week of the busy counsult service (2 weeks from now) that it is going to push me into labor. Seven days in a row of running around Baptist for 10-12 hour days will be pretty good challenge for Lily and for me. She may be right.. we'll see.

Funny story... you may have heard me say that I am an easy bake oven. I am hot 90% of the time. I literally radiate heat. I am warm to the touch- even more warm than Brian. As you can imagine summer is not my friend. Last week with the heat index it felt like 105 degrees a couple days. Our poor little NC air conditioning could not keep up. The AC was running from the time we got home until the time we went to bed and never got below 78. Which for me felt really hot. (This is the only time in the 10 years we have lived together that Brian and I agree on the thermostat settings.) So thinking that the AC was broken I left work early last Friday to meet the AC guy. He finally showed up and checked the pressures and function of the unit. Only to tell us that it's working fine. I was actually disappointed that the AC wasn't broken. Poor guy, I questioned him for like 15 minutes about the AC. He was really nice about it but I think I badgered him a little.
He ended up recharging it and giving us some advice. Apparently you waste more energy/money by turning up your AC when you leave than by leaving it- especially when it's really hot. The AC has to work so much harder to make the house cooler when you get home than it would have to keep it cool during the day. So much for the genius of our programable thermostat.

Belly pictures below- 35 weeks today.