One Month old today!

Emmalee is one month old today, and boy has it been a long month! I love being a mom, though it is definitely the hardest job I have ever had. When Emmalee was about 2 weeks old I said that I was amazed anyone would want a second child after having a first! I absolutely love our baby girl, but she has been a challenge for us. At about 2 weeks old I took Emmalee in to see our family practice doctor because she was refusing to eat. She would act like she was hungry (which she was) but then we would get to the breast and she would just scream and scream. We had also discovered around that time that anytime I had dairy products Emmalee would throw up and have green foul smelling mucusy stools. I brought these concerns up with the doctor and they pretty much blew them off and said it was most likely a stage and she was probably refusing to eat because she didn't like the taste of what I was eating. At the appointment she weighed 8 lbs 6 oz (1 oz above birth weight, 50%tile for her age) was 22 in long(99th %tile) and head circumference was 34 cm(50 %tile). That was a Thursday, the following Tuesday I brought her into the dr again because she was eating even less, and screaming all the time. Not just colicky baby or fussy baby screaming, but screaming like she was in pain every time she was awake. We could get her to take the bottle but she wouldn't stay at the breast for more than 5 minutes. Our family dr told us she just had colic and would grow out of it in 3-4 months and colic is neurological. He was not concerned that at three weeks she was only 8lbs 8 oz, only 3 oz above birth weight when she should be gaining 6-10 oz a week. Well, on Tuesday I went to a lactation consultant because I still just can't convince her to eat. She was weighed and still weighed 8lbs 8oz, she had gained nothing in a week. The lactation consultant observed us and noted that when Emmalee nursed she arches her back and fights against nursing. She said she thought it looked like she was in pain when she nursed. She is having us treat for a yeast infection as well as giving Emmalee a bottle every time she refuses the breast and stick at it to get her to eat. On Wednesday she started outright refusing the bottle. She would do the same thing with the bottle that she would the breast: arch her back, flail her arms and kick her legs, and SCREAM! I called the lactation consultant back and she said if we couldn't get her to eat we would have to tube feed her. She also said she couldn't diagnose but it sounded like reflux and suggested that I take her to a pediatrician not just our family dr. She told us when something is wrong with a big person, you take them to a dr who sees big people, when something is wrong with a little person, you take them to someone who sees only little people. So we took her to a pediatrician and we loved him. He took down all of her symtoms, family history, and examined her and asked lots of questions. As an afterthought I brought up her coughing and choking and asked if that was normal. Evidently it is not, and all of her symtoms are classic for reflux. He said she has reflux and likely has heartburn with her reflux. He also believes she has a milk allergy and possibly a few other food allergies. He told me to avoid ALL dairy products, even in small amounts. That is very hard for me because I love milk and dairy. He also prescribed a reflux medication that we have to give her twice a day, and said to supplement breast milk with soy formula because my milk production has gone way down because she hasn't been eating very much. He also advised using head & shoulders on her scalp face and upper body because what we thought was a bad case of infant acne is really some kind of dermatitis (he told us what kind but I forgot).
Well, after one night of medication and soy formula, she is a different baby! She threw up three times last night (not spit-up, though she does spit up after just about every time of nursing, but forceful large amounts of vomit) and Joel thought we should use mostly soy formula for now so that she doesn't throw up the medication. After the formula last night and this morning her rash on her upper body and scalp is virtually gone! And she isn't screaming nearly as much, though she is only sleeping except to eat.
Needless to say it has been a long, eventfull month for us, and very emotionally straining especially because we're a bit overly paranoid being new at thing whole parenting thing. It's difficult to see your baby scream and be in pain all the time and not be able to do anything about it. As sad as it is we would dread her wakefull times and were always relieved when she fell asleep. We've been staying with Joel's parents for the last couple of days to add extra hands to take care of her because this last week we were only getting a few hours of sleep because she was awake and screaming most of the time. Hopefully the medication will work and nursing will be more enjoyable for Emmalee and I. I'm excited to see what the next month brings! (hopefully not too many hours of screaming)
Oh, at the pediatricians office yesterday they checked Emmalee's height, head circumference and weight. She hasn't grown at all since her two week check up besides gaining a few ounces. Her head is now in the 10th %tile, weight in the 32 %tile, and height in the 70 %tile. We are seeing the pediatrician again on Monday for a follow-up appointment to make sure she is starting to gain weight.

Emmalee Joy Wenerstrom

Emmalee Joy Wenerstrom was born today June 23, 2009(on her due date) at 1:29 p.m. after 10.5 hours of labor. She weighed 8 lbs 5 oz and is 21" long. She has a full head of dark brown hair (with some blond streaks). I went into labor around 3 am this morning and my surges were about a minute long and 3-5 minutes apart. At 4:30 we decided to go to the hospital, by the time we got there my surges were almost constant. I had an epidural at about 7 am, which was wonderful! by 11 am I was fully dialated and I started pushing around 12:30. We were surpried to see her dark hair and brown eye, but she is the most precious baby I've ever seen! She has chubby cheeks and is a pretty calm little baby. She loves Joel's voice now just like she did in the womb. If she's crying we just have to let Joel talk to her or hold her and she calms down.

Emmalee

Phone blues

If anyone has tried calling me (Arielle) lately, and I haven't answered, it is because I currently don't have a phone. Tuesday morning Joel missed work partly because he was sick, but also because his alarm on his phone didn't go off, because his phone was dead! Not dead as in it wasn't charged and it died dead, but dead as in it just decided to stop working dead. It had charge but refused to turn on or recognize the charger when plugged in. So we decided to give Joel my phone since I'm always around a phone at work and my mom is staying with us and has her phone so I will never be far from a phone, but Joel travels up to Sandy every day so we thought it would be a good thing for him to have a phone. So he took my sim card out and put his in and "my phone" has been turned off since Tuesday. So don't be offended if I don't answer my phone or call you back. You could always call Joel's number after 7 pm.

She'll be coming soon

I had another OB appointment yesterday, and I was really dreading it. The last couple of weeks it seems like nothing is really happening. I'm huge and getting a bit tired of being pregnant. And tired in general. Don't get me wrong, I totally wanted this, it's just that my attention span really isn't this long and I figured it would be over by now. My sisters both had their babies early and I thought I would follow suit and baby would be here at latest by 38 weeks. I am now just 5 days away from my due date and no baby. So, I settled in for going over, after all it really does seem as if nothing is happening. My "practice surges", or braxton hicks,have completely stopped. Like non-existent. That was actually kind of stressing me out because every appointment for the last four weeks my doctor has been asking "are you having contractions that are coming more frequently? are they harder" and I feel like there's some sort of end-of-pregnancy test that I'm failing, because I have to think really hard then say "well, I think I had one a couple days ago, but I'm not really sure, and nothing uncomfortable". So, I was dreading this appointment. I told Joel I would probably leave crying because he would say the same thing he's said for the last four weeks, "nothing really happening, see you next week". And my appointments fall on Wednesday, so next week would be a day after my due date. I really don't want to still be pregnant on my birthday (next Thursday)! But this time my regular doctor was out of town (he'd in Ireland until Saturday night), and the other doctor checked me and told me that he wouldn't say nothing is happening, I'm 80% effaced, which means my cervix is basically gone. I'm not dialated at all, which was a bit sad, but at least something is different! Maybe it won't be an eternity! He also took pity on me being sick and gave me drugs to clear up my cough and congestion. Yay! So pregnancy is hopefully coming to an end soon. He told me if he doesn't see me this weekend I'll see my normal doctor on Monday. Which is at least better than Wednesday.

New Camera

Joel and I decided that for our anniversary this year we would buy a nice camera. But, we wanted to buy it early even though our anniversary isn't until July 28, so that we could have it for when the baby comes. So we started researching cameras in January, and decided that we really liked the features of the Sony DSC-H50. So, we started saving money and almost 2 weeks ago had saved up enough money for our price range for a new camera, and we re-researched. Well, I had been looking and found the Sony DSC-H20 and thought it was the same one we originally wanted so we decided on that one, and purchased it from Dell, because I get an employee discount. About 2 hours after we purchased it I realized it was the wrong camera and that we really wanted the H50. So after some talking we decided to try to cancel that order, and we did--though we still haven't received our refund. Then we looked everywhere for the H50 and found a site that had it fairly cheap (oh, we buy just about everything on the internet), so we decided to buy it. At the confirmation screen a message pops up that says something like "though your order is final the price may not be, depending on location insurance may be added on later". What?! Then they send us an e-mail saying they need further verification to complete our order. Joel calls them, and it turns out the camera we were trying to buy didn't come with a battery (about an extra $60-$80) and the insurance would be an extra $26. So we decided maybe we should try to find a cheaper site. In my research we found out that the DSC H50 was discontinued. Well, we didn't really want to buy a discontinued camera, so we thought maybe we'd go with our second choice, a Nikon Coolpix L100. While I was looking for a good deal on that I found a higher model Nikon (Nikon Coolpix P90) on sale for not very much more. So we finally bought it from Best Buy and picked it up at the store. Yay! So this is our new camera:


We have only used it a few times to play around with it, but I'll try to post pictures soon. So far the ones we've taken have turned out pretty well.

Trip to Labor and Delivery

So after my craft fair last Saturday I started noticing this weird discomfort in my lower abdomen, kind of like a pressure and cramping sensation. I decided it was probably from sitting all day at the craft fair on an uncomfortable metal chair and decided to just ignore it. Well, the cramping sensation kept happening on and off for the next couple days, but I just chalked it up to being tired and getting bigger. Well, on Tuesday around two in the afternoon, the cramping sensation got much worse, and now it actually hurt. So after about an hour of these tightening cramps coming and going I decided to call my doctors office. Afterall, I have no idea what's normal and they're the ones that deal with pregnancy all day everyday. Well the nurse told me that she couldn't tell me that I wasn't going into pre-term labor. So I asked, what does that mean? And she said "that means you have to go to labor and delivery right now, how close are you?" Well, I work at the hospital so not very far actually. Okay, so I leave work a bit stressed. As of Tuesday I was barely 31 weeks (I turned 31 weeks on Tuesday) so preterm labor would mean 9 weeks early. So on my way over I call Joel, me: "Hi Honey, how are you?" Joel: "I'm okay, I'm getting ready to go take my final soon. How are you?" me: "I'm okay. I'm actually headed over to labor and delivery right now." Joel: "Why?" me: "I might be having surges." (Surges is what we call contractions, we're taking a natural childbirth class and they don't call them contractions, they call them surges, and braxton hicks are practice surges). Joel: "Do you want me to come?" me: "No, I'm okay, just go take your test, I'm hoping to be back to work by 4:30" (At this point it was around 3:30). Well, by the time I got to Labor and delivery the "surges" had stopped completely, now I just feel like a silly pregnant lady with moniters on my belly. So they checked me out and it turned out that the pressure was because the baby is really low and pushing on my pelvis and sitting was causing the pressure. The "surges" were likely from being dehydrated (I had drank like 5 glasses of water right before going to L&D which is probably why they stopped). So they let me go home about 5:30 that night, but said I couldn't go back to work that night (I asked). All in all it was a very exciting trip. Poor Joel was pretty stressed out during his final and showed up at labor and delivery as I was walking out. The labor and delivery floor at Utah Valley is really quite impressive. The room I was in was huge, though I was a bit discontcerted about being covered only in a hospital gown with the windows facing 500 W wide open, and the nurses were very nice. Baby's heartbeat was nice and strong, fluctuating between about 145 bpm and 179 bpm. Hopefully we don't have anymore scares for at least 7 weeks.