More unexpected moments

We had a bit of a rough start to our day.  Annie's bilirubin numbers were too high, so we're spending another day here at the hospital so she can spend some time in the tanning bed.   I had high hopes of going home today and starting normal life with my little family.  Not long after those hopes were dashed because of numbers that were too high, we found out that Annie's blood sugar numbers were too low!  Needless to say, I spent some time in tears this morning.  Things are just not going as planned.  I was able to nurse Rosie with no problems and was so proud of myself for not having to use formula (not that there is anything wrong with that, but I had a goal and was proud to have accomplished it) and I am disappointed that I won't be able to say the same thing about Annie.  We've been battling this blood sugar issue since we were in recovery, where she got her first taste of formula to get bring her critically low numbers up.  Since she is so tiny, she has had to have her heel poked every so often and until this morning the  numbers had been "normal".  The hope now is that the little bit of formula, plus what she's getting from me and the tanning bed will fix all the problems and we'll go home tomorrow morning.  Until then, I've been told to relax and let the hospital staff wait on me.   Several friends have told me to enjoy the extra time of rest, and I'm trying my best.  


However, my mind has been racing.  I've had so many "what if" moments and of course I've been worrying about the health of my baby.  In the midst of all of this I keep replaying the conversations I had with my OB yesterday.  She mentioned that Annie's blood oxygen levels were in the critical range at the time of her birth and that it was a good thing that we came in and had her when we did or things could have been "pretty bad".  It wasn't until a while after this conversation took place that I realized just what that meant.  We are so very blessed to have a healthy baby girl!  Circumstances could have been much different.  When I look at things from that perspective, bilirubin and blood sugar numbers or staying another day in the hospital, just really doesn't matter so much!  

Ready or not here she comes

Friday morning, I woke up in the mood to clean!  I was annoyed by the mess in my house.  I cleaned the floors throughout the house, dusted, and scrubbed my kitchen counters.  My mom called as I was finishing and pointed out that I had the burst of energy women talk about before they go into labor.  I chuckled and continued on with my day.  Rosie and I had a good afternoon together.  I enjoyed getting to spend some special one-on-one time with her.  Throughout the day, I kept having "cramps" but nothing real regular and at varying intensities.  I chocked it up to the fact that my body was getting ready to have a baby...on Tuesday :)  Bobby had a softball game so he didn't get home until after 6.  He brought Rosie and I gifts and a stack of super sweet cards (that I will treasure for a long time and will help me remember why I do what I do) from my students.  After dinner, we had a laid back evening as a family of 3...and those "cramps" were still hanging around.  

A blanket signed by all my students for Annie

And one for Rosie's baby doll too

We all went to bed pretty early (I was worn out from a hard day of cleaning) and at about 3 a.m. I woke up with some horrible heartburn.  Of course, this meant I couldn't fall back to sleep so I turned on the T.V. and tried hard to find a comfortable position to fall back to sleep. After about 20 minutes or so I realized that those "cramps" I'd been having were really starting to get annoying and hurt!  I decided I should start paying better attention.  I grabbed my laptop a top and found a website that had a contraction calculator (I know some of you think that's silly...but I don't have a stop watch) and started tracking them.  It wasn't long before I realized that they were happening about every 5 minutes or so and were lasting 30-45 seconds.  However, I wasn't convinced this was labor so I kept watching T.V. and playing on the computer.  By this time Bobby is awake and asking if I should call the doctor.  We both decided to get up and shower and at about 5:15, I made the call.  The doctor on call said I should head to the hospital, so we started calling the grandparents, grabbed our stuff and got ready to go.  Bobby's parents came over to stay with Rosie and we were off! 

 Of course we were stopped by every light on the way to the hospital and at one point I was convinced it had moved farther away...it took forever to get there.  Even though I now was pretty sure I was in labor, I wasn't convinced I was having a baby anytime soon and was worried about being sent home.  By 7 a.m. I was hooked up to monitors in triage and a short time later, was being wheeled into the OR for my second c-section in 20 months!!  My doctor was concerned that the baby's heart rate was dropping during my contractions (and she had a 10 o'clock baseball game to get to) so she wasn't wasting anytime.  At 8:55 a.m.,  Annie Rene Kiger was born!!  She's a little peanut, weighing in at 5 lbs 13 oz and 19 1/2 in long, with a head full of dark hair.  For those of you who read my last entry...all my apprehensions went out the window the second I saw her!

Just a few minutes old

It was so fun introducing Annie to her big sister too! Rosie wasn't so sure about things at first, and I'm not sure its really sunk in that this baby is ours , but eventually she warmed up to her and wanted to hug and kiss her over and over.  My favorite moment was when she got to hold Annie.  She loved it and tried to convince everyone in the room to let her hold her again.  She was very dramatic and too cute!

So sweet

Best friends in the making

Preparing for #2

I started this post two weeks ago, after a sleepless night:


"It's 7 a.m. on Sunday morning, just over two weeks away from #2's scheduled arrival (yep, that's right folks, I'm scheduled for a repeat c-section on May 1st. My doctor gave me a 15% chance of being able to have this baby naturally.) and I've pretty much been awake since 3 a.m. Now I don't know if this has ever happened to you, but what do you do when you can't sleep?! I spent a long time just laying here hoping I'd fall asleep, that didn't work. I read for a while, but my Kindle battery died. I've watched a couple episodes of Parenthood on Netflix. Mostly though, I've just been thinking. Thinking about how nervous I really am to be a mom of two! I've spent the last couple weeks washing clothes, fixing up the room my girls will share, setting up a makeshift nursery on the first floor so Rosie won't be bothered when her sister is hungry in the middle of the night, and doing all sort of other things people do when they're about to have a baby. I'm pretty much ready for this baby's arrival...physically. However, I'm just not sure I'm ready emotionally. Will Rosie feel like I'm giving all my attention to her little sister? Will she even like her? It's been hard enough being a working mom of one, how can I balance two? How am I possibly going to love both of these girls equally? In reality, I know this is ridiculous, and probably totally normal. I also know that as soon as she arrives all of this apprehension will melt away. I really am excited to meet this little one, we all are. Rosie gives her sister hugs and kisses every night before she goes to bed. I don't know how much she really understands it all but we're trying to talk it up as much as possible. I guess we will know in two weeks..."


Today, is April 26th, I'm just a few days away from the big day!  The last two weeks have been busy and I can't believe just how close we are to the reality of being a family of four.  Bobby, Rosie and I are so very excited!  Just yesterday, Rosie started saying the her sister was her best friend (this means I may have been replaced, but I'm ok with that!).    This week hasn't gone the way I had planned.  I was supposed to work until tomorrow but my doctor told me at my appointment on Tuesday that I needed to be done.  My blood pressure was up a little and with my history of preeclampsia with Rosie, she wants to be safe.  So now, we wait for Tuesday, or sooner if baby decides to change our plans again :)