Second week as a new mom

Leila had her 2 week appointment today. She's now 8 lbs 5 oz, up from her 3 day check up of 7 lbs 2 oz!! I'm so relieved. I've kind of been able to tell that she's been gaining as she has some little rolls on her legs now, but it's nice to know for sure. She's been sleeping for long stretches at night (one night up to 5 hours) and rather than enjoy it and rest, I've been worried. Now I'm hoping I can relax and catch up on some sleep.

This week has been pretty uneventful. Kolt's parents went home, :( that was really hard. His mother was such an amazing help to me, I hardly had to lift a finger the whole week other than to hold Leila. She cooked and cleaned and just made transitioning home that much easier. Besides all of that, I adore his parents and miss getting to be around them more. The only thing that made it easier was knowing we're coming home to visit at the end of October.

Even though Kolt's parents have gone, my mother is still here and that has been wonderful. She is also an amazing help with Leila and the upkeep of the house, but I am trying to do more than just sit around and hold my baby. We made banana bread yesterday, and I'm hoping to actually start making some meals. Mom also prompts me to go on a walk at least once a day which is good. I was so gung ho to start running, I failed to realize how hard it would be to get back into it. I have some sort of stupid injury to my heal/achilles tendon. It's hard to describe but basically if I put on a shoe that has a back to it, it HURTS. It's almost like it's bruised when pressure is put on it. Kolt thinks it may be because I've worn flip flops forever and my foot is in dire need of good support. I'm going to give it to my 6 week check up and then ask my doc for a referral to a podiatrist or orthopedist. I HAVE to be able to run to get this baby weight off! I'll keep everyone updated as to how that goes.

The weather here finally seems to be cooling down. Well, I say that and what I mean by cool down is highs in the low 90s lol. In fact today the high is 87! What a relief that is. I'm hoping soon to see the end of the 90's and welcome the 80's. It probably won't get down to 70's until October, but it gives me something to look forward to.

Leila continues to be such a great baby. I hope she stays this great, if she does then being a mom really won't be so hard. I always heard how difficult it was to have a new born and we have yet to see why. Hopefully we aren't jinxing it, but she only cries when she's hungry or has a tummy ache, and she never cries for very long. She's so snuggly and happy, we're so blessed!

Our first week home

I can't believe she's a week old already. Why is it that the end of pregnancy is endless but once the baby is here time speeds up at an exponential rate?? It's been a wonderful week home and I'm so happy with my life, I'll share a bit of it with you.

I've really struggled with how poorly I handled the pitocin and contractions while I was in labor. It seems like I know a lot of women who have been on it that didn't even need pain meds, or at least lasted longer than 3 hours. I felt like such a pansy for dealing with it how I did. However, I've realized some things that have helped me to feel better about it all. 1- My water had already broken BEFORE I got the pit. Any time I think about others who have talked about it usually their waters get broken farther along down the road, and at this point their contractions pick up. Because mine was already broken it made the whole experience much more intense right from the start. 2-Again because my water had broken they wouldn't let me move around. Being confined to the bed is about the worst position to labor in without meds I've decided and I had no choice. When they went to administer the epidural and had me turn to the side of the bed and hang my feet off and curl over, I felt MUCH better. After thinking about and understanding my situation a little bit more I've decided maybe I'm not such a wuss after all. But even if I am, so what. That epidural MADE my experience. I don't think I would ever go for a med free birth because it was so enjoyable with it.

Before I was discharged from the hospital I had a bit of a scare. The pediatrician had come in to assess Leila and I had been given my lunch tray, so I figured I'd hurry and eat. It was baked chicken and some sort of broccoli cheddar rice. I didn't think I was shoveling it in too quickly, but when I went to take a drink of water all of a sudden I felt like I was choking. At the base of my throat I could feel the food was stuck and I couldn't get it down. I felt like I was getting light headed and told Kolt's dad I thought I was going to choke. He yells over to Kolt, "she's choking!" but Kolt was staring at the baby and thought Terry was talking about her. Kolt replied, "she can't be choking, she's crying." At this point I'm starting to get really scared thinking that the Heimlich would REALLY hurt since I'd just had a baby. Thankfully at that point I started to cough and it came back up. Gross. Now I'm spitting up just like my baby. I was SO embarrassed, but glad to be ok. New mom lesson #1, take time to CHEW your food.

Coming home was wonderful, I got discharged after 24 hours. The normal policy is 48, but Leila and I were both doing so well there was no need to keep us :) The first thing Kolt did when we got home was introduce the dogs to the baby. It was very sweet and they are doing really well with her.

This week has been so relaxing and enjoyable. I'm getting a fair amount of sleep and what I'm not getting mommy power is making up for. I never would have been able to survive prior to having Leila on less than 5 hours a night, and now I thrive on it. She is such a good baby though. If I could relax enough to take advantage of it, she usually gives us at least one three hour stretch each night. If not four.

Having Kolt's parents and my mom here has been such a blessing. They seem to take care of everything for me from the meals to the cleaning. I try to help out when I can but it's nice to have to. They've helped to make this transition so much easier and I'll never be able to make it up to them.

Seeing Kolt with Leila has been something else. He's so rough and tough around the edges that seeing him melt for that little girl has been heart warming. He takes such good care of her and loves her so much, it makes me love him that much more. The other night he came to bed and hadn't gotten to hold her much that day thanks to all the grandparents. He looked at me and said, "Give me my baby, I haven't gotten to hold her all day. She needs some daddy snuggles." (sniff). He's a much better father than I had ever anticipated (not that I didn't think he would be, he's just SO much more than I ever hoped for) and has been an amazing help around the house. He's cleaned and organized and cooked and made sure to remind me to go nap even if I don't want to. He's incredible. And we just found out today that he doesn't have to go back to work until an on call shift of the 12th of September, and a real shift on the 13th. That gives him three full weeks off, and I don't think he's being charged for any of it other than his paternity leave.

We've taken Leila out quite a bit already. To the store, the Alamo, and just around to run errands. A few people have made comments about how young she is and their shock that we have her out of the house, but it's warm, we're careful, and I think getting out is a good thing for her and me as well. She does amazingly well in her car seat, even if she's awake. She also will take a bottle and breast feed perfectly. She is such an amazing child, we're so blessed.

I plan to try and blog about our little family once a week. My entire pregnancy I looked forward to Fridays because that meant I was another week closer to meeting my baby, so now I'll look forward to sharing our lives with our sweet child with you.

The birth of Leila Katherine

The Birth of Leila Katherine

We'll start off on Thursday August 19th. I had spent most of the week feeling pretty discouraged about my lack of labor and really even lack contractions at all. My sister Piper was coming to visit for a couple days and would be here that evening. I had resigned myself to think at that point that I would be going past my due date and should just enjoy the weekend with my sister and my in laws who would be arriving Friday.

We met up with my sister Thursday evening. We got some pizza and stayed up til about 1 am just talking and catching up. We figured a late night wouldn't hurt us since we could sleep in the next morning.

On Friday August 20th, my actual due date, I got up at about 4:20am to go to the bathroom. I waddled my way in there, finished up and came back to bed. I was trying to get comfortable and was attempting to roll from my left side to my back. When I plopped on to my back all of a sudden I felt this huge GUSH. I knew immediately my water had broken! It's the kind of thing you dream about and hope for but don't actually think will happen to you.

I got up and went to the bathroom to check the color (as green is an indicator that meconium has passed from the baby) and saw that it was clear. My heart was racing, this was too good to be true! I went back into the bed room and woke up Kolt. “Hey baby, my water just broke.” His grumbled reply, “What time is it?” So I told him and he moaned, and got him up out of bed. I called the labor and delivery unit since I wasn't having any contractions, thinking that maybe they would want me to labor at home a while but when I called they said to come in immediately since my water had broken and the risk of infection is very high. The next step was to wake up my sister.

I went to her room, “Piper, wake up. My water broke.” Her reply, “Are you serious?” It took some convincing. In fact, I think I had to reassure her about ten times that it really did break, that I wasn't coming into her room at 4:45 in the morning to play with her. Then she starts questioning me, “Are you really sure your water broke. Because a lot of women think that it's broken when it's not.” I told her that I knew I didn't just pee myself. That I had gone to the bathroom first and that I NEVER had any incontinence issues the whole pregnancy. So with that we finished packing up our stuff and headed off to the hospital.

On the drive eight minute drive I probably had at least two contractions. I was thinking this was probably good and hopefully my body would just take over. Once I got up to triage they hooked me up to the monitors. Baby's heart rate was good but I wasn't having any contractions. The doctor came in to do an exam to make sure my water had broken and I gushed even more when she went to look. She said “Yea you're definitely ruptured. Let's get you to a room.” I asked her how dilated I was and she said because I was group B strep positive AND my water had broken that they wouldn't be checking me very often at all. She tried to see my cervix during the exam but couldn't. So we were going blind.

They got me to a room and I got into a gown and got in bed. It was at this point they told me because my water had broken that I was no longer allowed to get out of bed because there was a risk of the cord descending below the baby's head and getting pinched off. That was a bit of a punch to the stomach. That meant I couldn't use my birthing ball, that meant that I couldn't walk or do anything but lay reclined and maybe on my side. What this also meant was that I couldn't use the rest room. I ended up having to use a bed pan to pee, twice. Talk about humbling and embarrassing. I asked what happened if I needed to go poop, she said “in the bed pan.” I was mortified! I hadn't been yet that morning and was hoping to go before it was time to push so that I wouldn't poop during delivery....now I couldn't decide what was worse, the bed pan or during delivery.

It was shift change and so it took quite a while to get hooked up to an IV. I got into a room at about 5:45am and it was 8:30 before they started ATTEMPTING to insert my IV. I'm not sure what we did during that three hour wait....but it seems like it went by really quickly. Anesthesia came in and did their schpiel about the risks and I signed the paper work as I was pretty sure I'd be wanting an epidural at some point. Then the med tech came in to insert my IV and I wasn't too stressed. I don't mind needles but I'd never had one in my hand before. She goes to stick me and starts to thread it, and it blew. So she went to try my other hand, she stuck me and it started to thread and then my my vein went from straight to an “S” shape. Even Kolt said he'd never seen anything like it. So my med tech apologized profusely and said she was going to get the nurse to try.

The nurse comes in and sticks me, and it blows. Then she goes to the other hand and sticks me again, and it blows. FOUR attempts and nothing. She said she saw one more vein that looked good and could she try, but when anesthesia had come in earlier and said that if they couldn't get a vein to have them page them. I told the nurse to have anesthesia do it.

The anesthesiologist came in and saw that they'd tried four times and was pretty upset. He said they should only try twice before they page them. Well, he got it in the first try but MAN it hurt. He got it in deep and it ached badly, but it was in. Which means we could finally start pitocin since I wasn't contracting regularly on my own. We could also start the antibiotics which was so important. They said they wanted at least fours hours on antibiotics before they wanted me to deliver.

Pitocin ranges from on a scale from 0-42 units. They started me out on 6 to see how it would go. After an hour the contractions were starting to get painful but I could still handle it. The nurse asked if I wanted the epidural yet. I told her I could still handle it but if it got much worse I'd want it soon. She told me “well you don't want to get it too soon because then it may run out.” This is NOT what anesthesia told me. They said because my water had broken I could have it any time I wanted and it was a continuous infusion so it would last as long as it needed to. But because she said this is scared me from asking for it so soon. BIG mistake.

When we got to 10:30 the contractions were coming about every 90 seconds and were extremely painful. I asked for the epidural but they told me they were in the next room working on that patient and it would be a bit before they could get to me. The contractions were almost not letting up at all in between each other and I was writhing in pain. I couldn't breathe through them, and I couldn't change position because I was confined to the bed. It is the worst thing I've ever felt in my life. I guess I started to hyperventilate because I started feeling really light headed. My lips tingled, my fingers tingled, and my legs were almost numb. Kolt hit the call light and tells the lady to get my nurse, I can't breathe and I'm about to pass out. We wait a few minutes, mean while my eyes are rolling back and I'm fighting for consciousness. Kolt hits the button again, “We need her nurse NOW.” The lady said she'd paged her. We wait a few more minutes and Kolt hits the button again, “We need her nurse NOW. DON”T MAKE ME GO FIND HER MYSELF!!” She replied “Yes sir.” But still another minute and no one comes. I'm fighting to stay awake because I keep almost passing out and I'm in so much pain I can't speak. Finally Kolt says “if they won't come with the call light then I'll hit the emergency button. If they won't come then I'll hit the code blue button.” I begged him not to hit the code blue button but he did hit the emergency button. It was like MAGIC. All of a sudden about 10 people run in and are asking what's wrong. Kolt starts to yell at them and say I've been passing out for 10 minutes. They all automatically assumed it was because I'd had an epidural and my blood pressure was bottoming out. I yelled “I haven't HAD my epidural yet. At least two people tried to say that was why and we had to tell them I hadn't had an epidural. I started to panic thinking that if I was already passing out that they wouldn't give me the epi. They put an oxygen mask on my face but didn't bother to inflate the bag on it, so if Kolt hadn't fixed it, it never would have helped. I couldn't have been more grateful for his nursing expertise and his fierce protective instincts. He made sure things got done.

Anesthesia also came in with this flood of people and asked if I was ready and where my pain scale was. 10/10 I told them. They told me to start breathing slowly and to try and stay awake. They got their stuff ready and had me turn to the side and hang my feet off the bed and roll forward. THAT helped immensely with my pain. It still hurt like hell but at least I could deal with it then. It made me realize that maybe if I weren't confined to the bed I might have been able to handle the pitocin with more grace. I felt like such a wimp, 3 hours on the pit at 6/42....I just felt like I should have been able to do better. BUT I knew all along I'd be asking for the epi. He had me lean forward and I was able to stay perfectly still even during the contractions and he stuck me with the lidocaine. That stung a bit but wasn't bad at all. After that, I didn't feel him stick me with the giant needle or anything! It was a piece of cake. Thank goodness.

After a few minutes the contractions became bearable but I could still feel it a bit on my left side, but again, it was so much better. Anesthesia left and after a few more minutes all I could feel was pressure, no pain at all. I could also still move my legs and toes and everything! God bless the inventor of the epidural and my amazing anesthesiologist. It made my experience.

They checked me right before I got the epi, I was only a 3, mostly effaced and still at -1 station. I was pretty discouraged by that. After all the pain of the pit and I'd barely progressed. I'd kind of geared up for a long day. But at least it would be a pain free day!! I was on the phone after that and texting and face booking. All the while feeling some pressure but no pain. I got the epi at 11:30.

The next few hours were spent with me on my phone, watching a movie and just talking with Kolt and my sister. I told Piper that it was all happening so fast that I was worried about how I'd feel about the baby. What if I didn't love her right away? What if there was this disconnect? She said it was normal to worry about that but she was sure I'd be fine.

Piper and Rich had wanted to go run some errands and she kept asking me if I had any clue where I was. All this time I've only been checked once the whole day and so I had no clue, I couldn't feel much of anything. I told her to go on and if anything changed we'd call. I told her I could feel the pressure in my bum a bit, so I knew the baby was dropping but I didn't feel the need to push. So she and Rich left a little after 3 pm.

At about 3:15 they came in to check me. The doc says. “Um yea she's complete and a +2. Time to start pushing.” Holy crap, I went from 3cm and -1 to a 10 and +2 in four hours! They had turned my pit up to 14 but that's all. Kolt called Piper and told her to come back, so she furiously ran back up to the unit. She came in all red faced and sweaty, it was pretty funny.
At 3:35 I started to push. I had been worried about this part because I know a lot of first time moms don't know how to push, add that to the fact that I had an epi and I was worried this part was going to take forever.

Doctor was all ready, contraction came, and I pushed like they told me to, and to my surprise they were all impressed and thrilled! I kept at it and was told I was a “very effective pusher” and she'd be here in no time. She was coming down at a good rate, not too fast not too slow, so the doctor left and I kept at it. Kolt was on my left leg, Piper on my right which left the nurse available to coach. I told everyone I didn't want everyone counting, I didn't want it loud, and I didn't want a man to count, I just thought it might irritate me. So either the nurse or Piper counted the whole time.

At 4:20 the doc came back in to check on me and decided it was time to gear up. A few more pushes and Leila Katherine was born. Her head came out and the doc immediately asked if Kolt would cut the cord. It was wrapped around her neck and when I tried to push our her shoulders it tugged on her and her face turned blue. So the doc is telling Kolt to hurry and cut and he's thinking “well give me a minute it's around her neck!” She wasn't in distress though, it only tightened up right at the end when the rest of her came out. I wouldn't find out about the cord until later. She also had a bowel movement on the way out so after she was born the pediatrician took her immediately to make sure she was ok. But I heard her scream, that glorious, wonderful sound. I made the comment that it was even prettier in person than on a baby story. My next thought was she's beautiful! Truly. I know everyone thinks their babies are gorgeous but she truly is a beautiful baby.

It took about 15 minutes before she was all assessed and ready to be placed in my arms. I'm sure there are pics of this but I actually haven't seen them yet. It's a moment I'll never forget. My baby, my perfect baby was finally here. And the whole doubt about if I'll love her, not a problem. My heart was SO full. In fact, once she was out and they had her on the table and I really got a look at her, I just started bawling. Kolt was close by her the whole time and you could see the amazement in his face as well.

It was an incredible experience, and aside from that awful hour waiting for the epidural, it was perfect. My water broke ON MY DUE DATE. Who does that happen to? I've been meaning to look up statistics but haven't bothered yet. My sister, who was only here for about 2 days total was able to be there for the whole thing. My epidural worked perfectly, I could still move my legs, feel to push, but had no pain so it was an enjoyable experience. Labor was 12 hours from start to finish and 45 minutes of pushing. She was 7lbs 13 oz of miracle. Everything about this pregnancy, from the timing (which was unplanned) to the lack of complications, to her delivery, were perfect. Now I'm terrified of something else going wrong because it has all been so ideal. All I can do is hope and pray and count my blessings. My life will never be the same because of that precious child, and I love her more than I ever thought possible.

A letter for our sweet baby girl

It's August 17th, three days away from your due date. Your daddy and I have been waiting anxiously for your arrival for nine months, but more recently about two weeks. Everyday I wake up and wonder if it's the day you'll finally make your way into this world. I've sat and thought for hours at night what you might look like (I'm guessing like your daddy), who you'll be like (I'm guessing like your daddy) and can't wait to see if that's true. I've spent years waiting for you, to hold you, snuggle you, kiss your little cheeks and feet and here it is, ALMOST time for you to be here.

This last little wait is brutal. Not because I'm miserable, not because you're getting awfully big in there and taking up all the room, but because I'm so in love with you already and I can't wait to be your mommy. Looking back on it now it does seem like this last nine months has gone by quickly, but these last few days will not END! I've come to the conclusion that, like your daddy, you're stubborn already and will be here when YOU decide you're ready. That's ok, but if you could....could you try to be here in the next few days? There are so many people coming that love you, that want to meet you, that we don't get to see very often. So if you could hurry it up just a bit, we would appreciate it.

That being said, please know that whenever you DO come, you are loved, and adored, and treasured more than you will ever understand. We will give you the best possible life that we can, and will do our best to never let you down. If you would just GET here....we'd start trying to prove it :)

We love you darling, hope to see you soon.

-Mommy and Daddy

One is the loneliest number

I am 39 weeks pregnant today. I belong to an online forum of other women who are (or were) pregnant and due in August. I've made some really good friends on that site and last night/today the last friend that I had that was still pregnant is about to deliver her son. Don't get me wrong, I am so happy for all of my friends that have had their babies, but it really does suck being the last one. My friend that's in labor right now was due the same day as me, August 20th. All the others were due much sooner, so of course I expected them to go before me, but I was really hoping that we'd go at the same time or me first, haha.

My last few weeks have been spent chatting with Stephanie (my last pregnant friend) on facebook, talking to each other about our symptoms and guessing as to who would go into labor first. She's been a life saver in helping me not feel so lonely when Kolt's at work and I'm home alone all day, and now..... she's about to have her son. I'm trying not to freak out figuring out what I'm supposed to do with myself for this last week until my family gets here while she's busy taking care of her new baby.

The biggest kick in the pants is that I thought I might have actually been in labor yesterday. It started out the night before last with some pretty intense lower back pain and lower abdominal cramping. Usually when this happens once I get up and get moving it goes away, this was not the case yesterday.

I went to lunch with two of my friends and I started having contractions during lunch. They hurt, but were manageable. I didn't start timing them because normally what seems to happen is I have one or two and then they go away. Well after my fourth one in about thirty minutes I was really starting to think maybe this was it. I had a couple of other errands to run after lunch and managed to walk my way through two stores and drive twenty miles home. Once I got home I got online and Stephanie started talking me through them and gave me tips on what to do. I finally asked her to time them....and that was the last one. OF COURSE. I was so frustrated. I was still feeling very tight in my abdomen, but no start and stop to it. I also felt a lot of pressure and pain that wasn't letting up, so it really was just very frustrating.

At around six o'clock I began to realize that I really hadn't felt the baby move much yesterday. She's been SO active, beating me up constantly and trying to get out it seems, and now I'd felt her move maybe a few times ALL day. I was talking to another one of my August mom friends, Danielle, and she convinced me that I needed to call or go up to the hospital to get checked out. Chances are everything was fine, but better to be safe than sorry if I even kind of thought baby was in distress. I took her advice, loaded the car up with all of the stuff I plan on having up there in case I'm admitted, and walk (waddle) up to the labor and delivery unit.

I've never been there before, well except for my tour, I mean to say I've never been a patient up there before. I walk in, apologize for not calling first but the number I have for them seems to be incorrect. I tell them I haven't felt my baby move almost all day and I'm concerned. I sign in on the computer (which seems to ask an insanely LARGE number of questions....if I was in labor that would have been awful!) and am immediately taken back to a room and hooked up to a contraction and fetal heart rate monitor.

I'm watching the monitors like a hawk. Once I figure out how they work I immediately realize I'm not having any contractions, boo. I'm also staring at her heart rate which seems to be holding steady in the 130's, which is her norm. Then I notice that I'm finally having some small contractions. The monitor rates them up to 100, 100 being the most intense, I was having some around 30. Better than nothing I suppose. I also notice that I see her heart rate dropping, as low as 105 at one point. No one is in the room with me to explain if this is bad or not, so I'm texting several friends and Kolt trying to figure it out. Then I finally have a GOOD contraction, almost 80 on their monitor. I figure at this point that the contractions are about 5-7 minutes apart. They then come in, disconnect me and say things look good and a doctor will be in shortly.

The doctor was REALLY nice. She said that they'd do an ultra sound to make sure baby's fluid levels were good in there and also check me for dilation since I was having some contractions. I got to see her on the ultra sound, but she's so big at this point all I can see are organs. They did confirm she's still a girl (thank GOODNESS, I've had a few moments of panic about this) and that everything looks good. She's even in the right position-head down, facing backwards- for birth. Next they check me for dilation....she says I'm AAAAALLLLMMMOOOSSTTT a two, and she doesn't do 1/2 so she'd say one. WELL, I'm calling it a two haha. She also said I'm 50% effaced, which is an improvement from 25% last week. And also that the baby is at -2 station. So over all I am making progress. They let me go home after that and here I sit today, Friday the 13th, waiting for the day to pass so Kolt can come home and we can enjoy a 3 day weekend, and hopefully go into labor.

At this point I truly have no clue when she's coming. I'm really glad I'm making progress, slowly but surely. I hope for Monday, but who knows at this point? She's coming when she wants, hopefully, unless she makes it to the 24th at which point I'm hoping to induce.

Next week will be great, my sister and in laws are finally coming to visit and if all goes well, I'm having a baby next week. I just have to get through this ONE last week, let's hope it doesn't drag too badly!

38 week appointment update

I went in to my doctor for a 38 week check up. Over all it went very well. My blood pressure and other vital signs were normal, 120/70 which was a HUGE relief. The other day we were at the BX and I used the BP machine they had there and it was 145/80, yikes! Must have been wrong or random. My belly measured spot on at 38 weeks, which is awesome. Baby girl's heart rate was in the 130's which is her norm. I was 1.5 cm dilated (up from 1 cm at 36 weeks) and 25% effaced "and thinning" he said, which is up from NONE at 36 weeks. :D So while it is slow progress, at least it IS progress, and I'm happy with that.

Only down sides were I'm group B strep positive, which basically means I have to have IV antibiotics during labor. Since I was planning on IV fluids anyways, truly it's no big deal. The other negative was in order to see my doctor again I have to wait until August 16th to go in....TEN whole days away, rather than a week. I'm really hoping I don't make it that long and she's here before then, but who knows.

Kolt is a little worse off today than the previous two days, which his doctor told him to expect. He said it feels like someone is "squeezing" his eyeballs, so he has spent most of the day asleep, where as yesterday he was awake a bit more. Hopefully this fades quickly and tomorrow he's doing better. I was kind of hoping to get out of the house this weekend!

So now my plan is to get up and get things going. Well, maybe after today since I'm still sick. Any time I'm actually up on my feet I can really feel the heaviness and it usually will give me contractions. I would like to be well before I go into labor, so hopefully this cold goes away soon. My doctor gave me some medicine to manage the symptoms which is very much appreciated.

We've decided on a name for our precious baby, only problem is we can't agree on how to spell it. It will either be Layla Olivia Harris, or Leila Olivia Harris. I'm a fan of Layla because that's the easy common way to spell it, and I worry about people pronouncing Leila "Lee-lah" or "Lye-lah". Kolt loves Leila because he thinks it looks prettier and his dad loves it because it's the Hawaiian way to spell it (his dad grew up in Hawaii). So....we're still working on that. But at least she has a name. When I heard Kolt tell our friend yesterday that we had decided and said it all out loud, it made me cry. Our baby FINALLY has a name!!!

We really are getting so close now. Two weeks to go, give or take. Come on baby girl...come out!!

Kolt's Recovery

Yesterday Kolt had PRK eye surgery. It's similar to the LASIK procedure but is the preferred method of the military, so that's what he had done. It was about a 4 hour wait for about a minute of procedure, but he can SEE now!!! So far his recovery has been relatively pain free, aside from the headache he gets from taking the percocet. The doctors recommend sleeping for the first 72 hours (as much as you can) so he's on percocet and phenergan and let me tell you, it knocks him out cold! He's been awake very little which has been great for him. He went in for a follow up today and they said his eyes look great. He goes in for one more follow up on Monday and then he can go back to work. The doctor did tell him to expect to feel worse tomorrow, so we'll see how that plays out, but over all it's been a relatively easy experience for him.

Today is Kolt's 30th birthday, holy cow! I can hardly believe it and when I think too much about it I freak out just a smidge. I mean, he's 30, we're about to have a baby....doesn't that make us officially "old'? Kolt doesn't seem to care about his age which is good. I've felt awful that I haven't planned anything for his big day but with surgery yesterday it made it kind of hard. And being the forgetful pregnant woman that I am, when we went to the store the other day I didn't even get anything to make him a cake :( LUCKILY we have a very good friend who asked me yesterday if I wanted her to make him a cake! It's like she knew how awful I felt and came to my rescue without even being asked. She made a triple layer chocolate cake with raspberry mousse and will be here shortly to deliver it :) BLESS HER! The good thing is Kolt does a pretty good job of spoiling himself with presents on a regular basis....so I don't feel bad about not buying him a gift. I'm hoping in September he and a friend or two can go deep sea fishing on the coast.

So now that his surgery is over with, I need to somehow let my baby girl know that she's free to come out! I've been sick the last few days with a cold or allergies (coughing, sneezing, congested, etc) and so I've been taking it easy. I need to get my behind off the couch and get working on getting her out! I'm not beyond comfortable yet but she moves a ton and there's just no more room and it hurts. I keep trying to tell her that the exit is NOT through my belly button, but she hasn't gotten it yet.

I think we have a name :) Not going to announce it yet, but I'm about 90% certain that we've decided on a name and spelling, yay!