We’re Baaaaack!

I’d be surprised if i still have anyone on my little blog. I can’t believe I haven’t updated since she was 12 weeks old. I blame the busyness of motherhood. That and sheer blogger laziness.

Rylie is now 7.5 months old and weighs 9.5kg. I love her chunky monkey rolls. She’s my squishy. She floats between size 0 and 1. Makes this mummy sad that she’s not staying little for as long as I want her to.

I don’t really know where else to begin this update, so I shall start with some things I love about Rylie.

• Her scrunchy face smiles and all her gumminess.
• The way she squawks and growls when she’s super excited.
• The way she explores everything with her index finger.
• Her army crawling over to scare play with the dogs.
• When we are sitting on the floor with her and she pulls herself up on us to give us cuddles.
• Our jibberish conversations.

And some things Rylie loves:

• Blowing raspberries.
• Boobie milk.
• Every bit of food we’ve tried her on!
• Playing in her ball pit.
• Cuddles from her favourite people.
• Drives in the car.
• Playing with the dogs.
• Watching other babies and kids.
• Looking at herself in the mirror.
• When mumma gives her bottles.
• When mummy sings songs.

We’ve recently started her in swimming classes and she loves being in the water. She’s not cried once except for when we take her out of the water. She splashes and squawks about in the water wetting everyone in her path. Her instructor is very smitten with her and always tells her how beautiful she is, Rylie loves the attention. We’re very glad she loves the water though because when summer time comes around again we will be spending 90% of the time at my mother in laws pool or at the beach.

We’re having a naming ceremony for Rylie on Saturday. We’re excited to have a day that is all about her and the love we have for her. We’ve finalised the ceremony script with the celebrant and it couldn’t be more perfect. I got teary just reading it. It’s going to be a real struggle gaining control of my mummy emotions.

And don’t mummy emotions suck! Its time for me to go back to work, cue stress just thinking about it.I called my employer to tell them I’d be ready to come back to work in July. They had called me about a month ago wanted to know when i was thinking about coming back so they could factor me into their budget. They now have no work to offer me and I’m left to find a job 2 months before I was due to return to work. Like going back to work wasn’t challenging enough I now have to worry about job interviews and fitting in to new workplaces who may not be so accomodating to a mother with a baby who isn’t as flexible/reliable as someone else without kids. I’m finding it hard to now enjoy the rest of my time off with Rylie with this hanging over my head. I’ve not had much luck in the career department these last couple of years with being made redundant from my previous job of 5 years.

Anyway I’m so thankful for such a happy, loveable babe. She truely is the best human I’ve ever met. I’m going to stalk a couple of my favourite blogger ladies to see what they’ve been up to.. here are some pics of the rambunctious Rylie.

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12 weeks old

Things Rylie loves:
•boobies
•cuddles
•talking\playing with mummy
•sleeping in her pram
•camping
•showers with mum
•her cousin Amelia
•watching television. (I know right, but legit she stares at the television all the freaking time!!

Things Rylie hates:
•when mummy is out of sight
•being tired
•being on her tummy longer than 5 minutes
•sleeping in her bassinet during the day
•the hours between 4-8pm. Witching hours

I’m getting lazy in my writing hence the likes/dislikes list. I could say that I don’t have time to write a fully detailed post but honestly I just cannot be bothered. Oops.
We are just cruising through life one week at a time. We went and camped out on jacs parents property in the new caravan last weekend for Jac and her dad’s birthday. That was super fun but also mega hot! I’m glad the caravan has air con because we had a 43*celcius day, and even being in the pool wasn’t enough.
I think rylie loved all the stimulation she got plus seeing lots of other people that weekend because she slept like a champion. Day and night. Now that we are home she is refusing to have her day sleeps in her bassinet. She will only sleep in her pram. But of a night she will sleep in the bassinet. Weird kid.

I’m very much looking forward to Christmas this year. It will be the cutest one yet. I can only hope that my love of this particular holiday will pass on down to my offspring. But for now I can dress her up as much as my heart contents.
Enough talk, time for baby spam. Sorry, not sorry!

7 weeks old

I feel like time is moving way too fast for me. These last few weeks have been a blur. I feel like I haven’t had a chance to do anything let alone get out of the house, except for taking Rylie to get her 6 week needles. She was a little champ and only cried during the injection and settled straight after. I felt so awful for her in that moment that I teared up too. I know, I’m a whimp. She’s weighing in a 5.3 kg now which is a 300 gram increase since last week. Good to know these boobies are doing their job.
This last week has been very tough. Rylie has been refusing to sleep during the afternoons for 6 hours straight and all she wants to do is feed. When she’s not feeding she’s crying. It’s very exhausting and stresses me out. I haven’t been able to eat dinner till 8:30 at night because Jac has been at work. The only thing that makes it better is when she gives me all her smiles.
Anyway, time for more baby spam.

And this is what our afternoons have looked like.

4 weeks

Time really does fly. I can’t believe I’ve been a mother for 4 weeks. 1 whole month! Crazy!
We have gotten ourselves into a good nighttime routine and last night she slept from 9pm till 3am. I woke up and thought I was dreaming when I saw the time.
Our days are spent blissfully learning about each other. I could stare at her little chubby face all day everyday. I put an emphasis on chubby because our little porka has put on 360grams this week. What a relief! I’m so grateful for her medication working. No reflux = minimal vomiting.

In other news, yesterday we did something we’ve been wanting to do for years. We bought a caravan! We are very excited for our little family getaways, to explore Australia in a way I always imagined. I’m so happy that Rylie will get to grow up with this. Something I would have LOVED as a child.

I’ve got nothing else to report so I will leave you with some baby spam 😛

Reflux and vomits and thrush, OH MY!

This little girl likes to keep us on our toes.
We took Rylie to the pediatrician last week as the lack of weight gain (only put on 10 grams since we left the hospital), the projectile vomiting, her being constantly unsettled and distressed and a thick white coating on her tongue got too much for these mums to handle. We immediately thought reflux as you could hear the milk going up and down the back of her throat and she would make these high pitched squeaks. It really is heart breaking watching your child in pain.
The pediatrician confirmed it was reflux and could hear the noises and diagnosed her with laryngomalacia.

Laryngomalacia (literally, “soft larynx”) is the most common cause of stridor in infancy, in which the soft, immature cartilage of the upper larynx collapses inward during inhalation, causing airway obstruction. It also goes hand in hand with reflux. Lucky for us she hasn’t had any breathing issues but we are to keep a close eye on it.
She put her on a medication called losec to help with the burning of the reflux and she’s a different baby on it. She can now be awake after a feed without being unsettled and screaming. I hate that she is on medication being so young but I can’t stand to see her in pain like that.
The pediatrician also looked at her tongue and diagnosed her with thrush. At that time she hadn’t given it to me yet but a couple days later I had the itchiest burniest nipples EVER! Hello thrush.
I feel like after her crazy birth and these first few weeks of being born it’s just been a crazy roller coaster ride. Motherhood is much more intense then I ever imagined. But we are rolling with the punches and with time things will get better. She’s lucky she’s so damn cute.
Here are some pics to prove it 😛

Rylie’s birth story.

The little monster is 12 days old today. Time really does fly. But while she’s in her milk coma I suppose I better write her birth story whilst it’s still somewhat fresh in my memory. Some parts I don’t even remember but I will try my best 🙂
Tuesday September 1st
We had our last obstetrician appointment. She checked my cervix and I hadn’t changed any since the week before. I was still 1cm dilated and cervix hadn’t yet softened or shortened. We decided then to get induced on Friday as I had already experienced the decreased movements. The plan was to have cervidil tape put in on Thursday night and get induced on Friday.
Thursday September 3rd
I had cervidil tape put in at approx 9pm. This tape is used to help soften the cervix. They usually will send you home for the night after putting tape in but because we live 50 mins from hospital they wanted me to stay. We had to stay in the birthing suites while they monitored me. A couple of hours later they sent me upstairs to the maternity ward to spend the night. We were lucky to get a private room with a double bed so Jac could stay. (Originally we didn’t have a private room and the thought of Jac going home broke my heart.)
Friday September 4th
Woke up with mild contractions that were very sporadic. We waited in the maternity ward until they had a room ready again down in birthing suites. My obstetrician came and saw me that morning and said that it was likely to be after lunch that they will have a room available. Boo. She advised me to take out the cervidil tape and that she will see me down there when the time comes to break my waters and start the syntocin (labour inducing drug).
After waiting what felt like forever they come and got me at about 2:30 pm to go down to delivery suites.
I was still having mild sporadic contractions at this point.
Our obstetrician greeted us and didn’t waste any time getting down to business. She did a cervical check again to make sure the tape had worked….. It hadn’t. I hadn’t even progressed any to what I was on the Tuesday. I was disheartened and impatient. I told her about the contractions I’d been having and she said all that was caused by the tape but wasn’t actually changing my cervix.
So she decided to put the gel on my cervix. They monitored me again for a couple of hours, we had dinner down there and was again moved back up to our room upstairs to wait for the gel to work.
*this is where things start to get hazy*
I woke up sometime that friday night/early Saturday morning with awful contractions that were about 1-2 mins apart and lasting for about 40 seconds. I couldn’t handle them. We buzzed the midwife and I think she may have given me some panadeine forte and told me she couldn’t really send me down to birthing suites yet as they like the contractions to last longer than 40 seconds.
I don’t know how much longer I waited but the contractions were getting more intense but still lasting around the same amount of time. Jac was trying to help me breathe through it but I felt the room go dark whenever a contraction came on. I couldn’t handle it. I wanted an epidural then and there!
We buzzed the midwife yet again as I was just not handling the pain. The next thing I remember is walking down to birthing suites and having to stop every minute or 2 to let the contraction happen. We got settled into our room in the delivery suite and I think the first thing I asked for was an epidural. Lol.
They did a check on my cervix and I STILL hadn’t progressed much. I think I was 2 cm dilated but my cervix was still rather firm and long. I couldn’t believe it. I felt like crying. I felt like giving up. I felt like that damn baby was never going to get out of me! The gel was only working very slowly but still making me have the awful contractions. It was hell. To top it off the midwife said that it’s not advisable to have the epidural just yet as I’m not progressed enough. I then asked for everything else that was possible to have. She gave me a pethadine injection some tamazapam and started me on the gas. She said it should help me sleep but if it hasn’t in an hour or so to let her know.
I think I slept for about 20-30 mins.
Jac held her hand out to me everytime I had a contraction and helped me focus on breathing the gas in. The gas helped for a little while. Although made me extremely thirsty. Once the gas was starting to take affect I felt like I was a little drunk. I even offered the gas to Jac when I squeezed her hand too hard during a contraction. She declined my offer saying that she’d be on the floor if she had any as it was turned up the highest it could. My response was “are you shitting me???!!”
A while later (I don’t know what time it was, but the sun was up) they checked my cervix again and hooray I had progressed enough to get an epidural!
The hard part was trying to stay still/curl in a ball whilst having contractions. The epidural was finished in about 15 mins. The anesthetist who did it then informs me that he punctured my dura while trying to get the needle in and I was leaking cerebral spinal fluid. He said this happens to 1 in 300 women. And that it can cause a very severe migraine and neck ache if it’s not fixed. My options were to leave the epidural in for longer after I have baby and give pain relief that way in hopes to fill in the space, or go back down to delivery suites after I have baby and get a blood patch. Which is pretty much re doing the epidural but putting my own blood back into my spine.
I chose the first option simply because I was scared to have yet another epidural and increase the risk of infection even more.
Anyways after the epidural was in my obstetrician came in and broke my waters. The nurses would come in and turn me every hour but other then that left us alone to progress further into labour. I think I managed to get some sleep but I had an awful pain in my neck and it kept spasming due to the dura puncture.
It got to late in the afternoon on Saturday September 5th, they had been monitoring my contractions on the ctg machine and they still weren’t happy with how long they were lasting. My obstetrician came back to check on me again. I was only at 5cm which I had been for a while but my cervix was starting to harden up. I spiked a temperature and had blood in my urine. The OB said that was because my body was doing everything it could to get this baby out but my cervix wasn’t playing the game. She highly recommended a c section. I was at the point where I was so over it that I said yes straight away. It was decided at 6pm and rylie was born at 7:14pm. The actual c section went as well as it could. Everyone was suprised at how big she was (9pound 14oz).
We only got skin on skin time for about 15 mins as it was so cold in theatre. Jac got to dress her while they were stitching me up and lots of photos were taken. Got some awesome action shots of her half out of my stomach.
Jac and rylie then went off to wait for me when I got taken to recovery. Longest 10-15 mins of my life! As soon as we were all reunited again we put her on the boob and she fed like a champion.
I only had to spend a half hour in recovery then we got taken back up to our room and settled in for the rest of the night.
I spent the next day and a bit bed bound because of the epidural which was absolutely awful because I couldn’t get up to rylie through the night. Poor Jac had to do everything including helping me get her on the boob.
Come day 3, the spasms in my neck were unbearable and the only way I was somewhat comfortable was laying flat on my side (we soon learnt different positions to breast feed). We called the anesthetist to do the blood patch. Rylie had to go to the nursery while we went back down, yet again, to the birthing suites for the blood patch. It was done successfully and I had to stay down there for 3 hours for monitoring. It was bittersweet as we were able to get some sleep yet at the same time I hated being away from my newborn baby. Just thinking of that makes me all emotional again. I know it was the right thing to do however as I woke up the next morning good as new. And that was when I was able to change my daughters nappy for the first time.
I hate that I had such a traumatic birth but at the same time I’m so happy with what it gave me. I may be biased but I have the most perfect baby ever!

Rylie Anne Lester is here.

Birth story is long and traumatic so therefore I will write it when I’m not in a hospital bed with a newborn attached to my breast.
But here is my girl, born 5th September weighing a very healthy 9pound 14 oz.

When due dates come and go..

So yesterday was my due date. It felt weird to have this day finally come and have nothing to show for it. Not that I didn’t expect it but it’s just such a tease.
Last week I had the scare of my life when I noticed baby hadn’t moved much all day. I rang the labour ward and they got me to come in for a NST (non stress test). Well when I got there and they put the monitors on me she started moving and kicking around. I felt like they were going to think I was a lying, paranoid first time mum. They were very reassuring and said that this is the outcome they prefer rather then have something be wrong and have to quickly get her out.

I’d been feeling a lot of pains and pressure down there since being in hospital on and off until my appointment yesterday with the OB. I had convinced myself something was happening. So when she did a cervix check and said that I hadn’t changed at all since last week I was a bit disheartened. She even seemed to be a bit shocked that I hadn’t softened at all. Boo!
So then came the talk of inducing me. We have decided to now do it on Friday rather then the Monday/Tuesday after. After having the episode of baby not moving and then me stressing every other day the OB agreed it would be best to get her out sooner rather then later.
So a Friday Arvo/night baby or maybe even Saturday morning. Can’t wait to meet our little princess!
X

39+1

Still no baby *sad face*

My OB did a cervical examination this week. I’m only 1cm dilated. My cervix is still 3 cm long and only just beginning to soften. She did a stretch and sweep while she was there. Holy hell that hurt! Lol. (In other news, Jac thought a stretch and sweep was some kind of yoga move. Hehe).
Since having it done we went for a walk, drove on some bumpy roads, I expressed colostrum and had the big O.
Still nothing. Not even one measly cramp lol. Not one show of mucus.
After the OB performed her cervical torture she booked me in for an induction on the 7th sept. A week after my due date. It’s less than two weeks away and I somewhat feel better knowing there WILL be an end date.
Until then I guess I will just keep sitting here twiddling my thumbs….

D-Day is coming.

My due date is 12 days away. Wow. I never thought I’d get this far. This time last year I was struggling as a person who wanted to be a mother. I was desperate. This time last year I was anxiously awaiting AF to come so we could start our first IVF after failing our IUI’s. So much can change in a year. Fast forward to now and I’m anxiously waiting to go into labour to meet our little girl. I’m excited, impatient, sore and the fear of the unknown is taking it’s toll on me. Besides having horrendous morning sickness for the first few months I have enjoyed every minute of being pregnant (until now) It’s made me so happy that sometimes I woke up of a morning thinking it was all a dream.
Now I’m feeling like I’m bursting at the seams. I can’t sleep. I’m sore nearly everywhere. My carpel tunnel has turned up a few notches, I feel like I’m walking around with a bowling ball bouncing on my cervix.
I hate to complain and I feel awful because of everything I’ve done to get here but I just want her out. I’ve been trying to enjoy my “alone” time but mostly I just get bored. I do enjoy when Jac is home and our time alone together before the baby gets here but I think we are both ready to add another member to our two-some.
Jac has been the best partner a cranky pregnant woman could ask for though. She shaves my legs. Helps me bathe (yes I need help) *eyeroll*
She cooks me dinner most nights even if she has to work/is going to work. She always stops off at hungry jacks on her way home to get me my jumbo creaming soda slushee that I crave every second of every day. I could name 10 million other things that I appreciate about her but then this post would never end 😛
At our 38 week obstetrician appointment on Tuesday she said baby’s head was well and truly engaged and her heart beat was perfect as usual. They still hadn’t checked my cervix yet so I mentioned about it and she said they don’t usually check until 39-40 weeks. I guess they don’t want fingers up there unnecessarily.
TMI warning *****

I’ve also had loose bowels for the last few days now which I’ve read could mean the start of labour is approaching but I think I’m just getting my hopes up as it is not accompanied by any cramps and very few Braxton hicks. Which I’m not even sure are Braxton hicks?? How is one to tell?
I’ve also been watching closely to see if I’m losing any part of my mucus plug but it doesn’t seem to be anywhere in sight either.
I feel like she’s too warm and comfortable inside my uterus that she doesn’t want to come into the world. My main fear at the moment is being induced. I’ve read too many PAINFUL stories about women who have been induced. I shudder at the thought. I’m already plenty scared of childbirth as it is.
I’ve been expressing my colostrum as a way of trying to kick start labour/having extra boobie juice in the freezer just incase we need it. But still I feel nothing after expressing.
I know, I know she’ll come when she’s ready but I’m ready for her now!

Excuse my ramblings and the negative nature of this post. I honestly don’t like whinging and wining but I feel Jac is fed up with it and what better way to get it out then to write it down in my blog. Where in the near future I can read back on it and remember what it was like.

I’ll be surprised if anyone actually made it to the end of this post but here is a bump pic anyways. Excuse the extreme tiredness you may see on my face.