One Month Check-up

Katelyn's one month check up was February 5, 2010. Unfortunately, this was the day that one of the big snows began in Charlottesville. The pediatricians office tried to cancel her appointment, but due to a rash Katelyn had I was determined to go. We did not meet with her normal pediatrician, Dr. Nicki, but we did meet with Dr. H. (Both of these doctors have names that are difficult to announce and go by a nick name.) 


We were glad to learn that Katelyn was now 8lbs, 2ozs which puts her in the 25th percentile for infants her age. She also measures at 21 inches so she's gained a half inch since she was born. We aren't worried (and neither is Dr. H) that Katelyn has only gained 4ozs more than her birth weight because at one point she only weighed 7lbs 1oz. She has been gaining weight really well since then.


We asked lots of questions and then showed Dr. H Katelyn's rash. Unfortunately, it wasn't a typical diaper rash and we were told it was a yeast infection. Fortunately, we got a prescription that seems to be taking care of it.


The last thing we did before we left was give Katelyn her second Hepatitis B Vaccine shot. This shot is done in 3 stages and she has now completed two of them. When the nurse first came in and started getting things ready Katelyn just laid on the table calmly. When the needle went in, her eyes got HUGE. They were bigger than we'd ever seen them. Then she let out a huge scream of disapproval and that was it. She is a champ. I felt bad for laughing but I also wish we had a video of it. 


Hopefully her two month appointment goes just as well!

Rolling Over

This video was taken on January 30, 2010. She's a talented girl. According to the expected milestones, she shouldn't be able to do this at all until four months or so. She was less than a month old! Rolling from her tummy to her back isn't something she consistently does, but she still does it quite often. Fortunately, she only tries during tummy time. Hopefully she won't do it more than that for a while!

Loss of Umbilical Cord & First Bath

Baby Katelyn lost her umbilical cord when she was 11 days old. This little present was found in her diaper, but we were very excited! Not being able to bathe her and having to be super careful during diaper changes was starting to be stressful. Now we had one less sensitive spot & thing to worry about!


The loss of her umbilical cord = first bath!! After 11 days, Katelyn got to experience her first bath at home. They gave her a bath the day she was born, but I think she was too traumatized about being out of the womb to know what was going on.


She screamed the entire bath. We had been told to use only a couple of inches of water which probably made it a little uncomfortable. I cleaned her off while Dylan took pictures and tried to talk to soothe her by talking to her.

Her favorite part was being wrapped in the towel and cuddling with Dylan afterwards. She definitely finds him comforting which is really cute :) Dylan always gets to be the "good cop" parent with her since I do the things she hates the most aka burping, diaper changes and baths. 

So far, she still hates bath time. Hopefully she will grow out of this phase and start enjoying it soon!

First Nail Clipping

Believe it or not, this happened the afternoon she was born. Mom and Brandi ran errands to pick up some last minute things while Dylan and I were in the hospital with Kate. They bought the health care kit and came back to the hospital in the evening. Kate had already scratched herself several times. I was too nervous to cut her nails since her fingers & fingernails were so tiny. 


Here is a photo of how long her fingernails were when she was born:

I wish I had nails like that!! Her fingernails are still growing like crazy. In the last 6 weeks, I've cut them about 4 times. She's one lucky girl to have such nice & hard fingernails!

Our First Month

Katelyn's first month home has been full of craziness. All three of us have had to get to know one another. Katelyn seems to know who Dylan and I are and to recognize our voices. It's nice when I can talk to her and she seems to be calmed (at least momentarily) because she hears a familiar person.


Our first week was a little rocky. Katelyn did not want to breastfeed or sleep at night for her first few days. This resulted in cranky parents and Katelyn losing some weight. By Sunday, Katelyn was 7lbs and 2ozs. This was almost a pound less than she weighed when she was born. Luckily, she caught onto breastfeeding. In addition, Dylan and I have learned her patterns and been able to get her to sleep most of the time. We're lucky because she sleeps for six hours at a time at night :)


I've done more laundry than I would ever imagine. Using cloth diapers we have to do a load every other day. Kate is also a baby that spits up a lot. She typically goes through 3 outfits per day. Hopefully she outgrows this soon so we can stop doing as much laundry.


There has not been a "snow free" day since Katelyn was born. She is too small to take out into the snow this year so we did not invest in a snow suit. This also means that her first pictures in the snow will not be until next year. (Especially because we're hoping the snow is over with!) Due to all the snow, we have spent most of our time at home. When we do go out, Katelyn is a great sport. We've done several shopping trips and she has yet to throw a fit in the store!


At this point, she has met almost everyone in the family. It's nice to have so many people that love her. :I plan to write about each of her "firsts" in seperate posts. It's been difficult to keep up with the blog, but I promise it will be updated on a regular basis from now on.This first month has been busy, but wonderful and we expect things will only get better from here!

Jaundice

Thursday, January 7th:

Just before being discharged from the hospital, the pediatrician on duty, Dr. Trundle, came to inform Dylan and I that Katelyn was Jaundice. I had heard of this before and knew that lots of babies had this issue. Initially, I was not concerned because I know that many times babies are sent home with bilirubin blankets and incubation-type lights to assist with this issue, but Katelyn was not sent home with any equipment. In severe cases, they keep the baby in the hospital and discharge the parents. Instead, we were informed that we could take Katelyn home, but needed to see a nurse practitioner the following afternoon at the pediatrician's office.

Friday, January 8th:

We went to our pediatrician's office for the nurse practitioner appointment that afternoon. They took a blood sample from Katelyn's heel, and had us deliver it to the lab at the hospital to ensure we would get quick results. Katelyn was put on a scale and now weighed 7lbs, 1oz. Losing 13 ozs in 4 days was troubling. They recommended supplementing breast milk with formula due to the fact that Katelyn was having trouble nursing. However, we decided to rent a breast pump from the hospital as back-up but continue to try nursing. If supplementing was necessary, we would give Katelyn breast milk with a bottle. Formula is not something we had planned for.

That evening, around 5pm, we get a call from the pediatrician's office. Katelyn's bilirubin levels had elevated. She would need to receive photo therapy via a bilirubin blanket. A company delivered the machine to our house that night. The light made her back glow blue and she had a 3 foot long hose that was similar to a tail for her. Luckily, it didn't seem to phase her. We were to keep her on this machine 24 hours a day until our next appointment on Sunday morning.

Sunday, January 10th:

We woke up early to take Katelyn to her doctor's appointment. After 36 hours of photo therapy, I was skeptical that her condition had improved enough to warrant the doctor discontinuing the therapy. Instead of going directly to the pediatrician's office, they asked us to take Katelyn to the hospital for blood testing. The bilirubin blood test was a fast process and the results were at the pediatrician's office in 15 minutes. 

Thankfully, our pediatrician had good news. Katelyn's bilirubin levels had decreased. Once the levels start declining, they do not increase. Therefore, the photo therapy was discontinued. Dr. Reynolds did let us know that it would take several weeks for the coloring to completely turn to normal, especially in the whites of Kate's eyes. Although she was a little orange, it was great to know that she was not in danger of being hospitalized or having brain damage. It was a little inconvenient with the blanket, but a simple fix. In addition, she had gained an ounce over the past 2 days. She now weighed 7 lbs, 2oz. All and all we couldn't ask for a better result that day :)

Katelyn's Birth Story

Monday, January 4th felt like any other day. It was completely packed. I had to work from 6:30am - 2:30pm, clean out the car, go to my weekly OB appointment, meet my mom at the elementary school, deliver the Subaru to the guy who bought it (in Dillwyn, VA) and then go home to cook dinner and do more baby preparations. Little did I know that Katelyn had other plans...


I went to work, took care of cleaning the car, and drove to my OB appointment which was at 4pm. The appointment seemed to be as normal. I had gained 5 lbs in the last 2 weeks (no big deal - the total was now up to 20lbs). Other than that it seemed like it was going to be a dull appointment. Finally, they checked for dilation. Dr. Culver gave me a really strange look. Next he says, "do you feel any contractions?" I was already at 6cm and felt nothing. He had never seen anyone in his office that dilated that didn't feel anything. Therefore, he sent us right to Martha Jefferson Hospital for monitoring. I called my mom to let her know the plans had changed for the evening. Although they sent me to the Labor & Delivery floor, I expected to be going home in the next couple of hours. I told Dylan to stay at work (since he is paid hourly and it was the first day back after a 2 week Christmas Break). So, my mom and sister came and hung out with me in the birthing room.


Dr. Wamhoff said that if I lived closer to the hospital, she would send me home. However, I live about 30 minutes away. Since I wasn't feeling anything at 6cm they were worried I might deliver at home. The choice now was to weigh the risk of delivering at home against the possibility that the baby was going to be small and born too early. At 7pm, Dr. Arnold took over the shift. He made the decision to keep me at the hospital and informed me that sometime in the next 24 hours Baby Silverman would be born.

I called Dylan. Naturally he left work and went home to pack our bags (I had planned on doing my packing the following day since I didn't have to work and we still had 3 weeks until our due date). Thankfully, I had made a list of what I wanted and Dylan was patient with finding my things located all over the house. He got to MJH around 9pm. This all still felt surreal since my water hadn't broke and I wasn't feeling contractions. Essentially I didn't feel like my body was in labor.


Around this time, Brandi and her boyfriend, James, went and delivered my car to the guy who bought it. Luckily, he was really nice about the whole thing even though he thought I had stood him up earlier in the evening. Thank goodness there are still trusting and friendly people in this world :)


Dr. Arnold broke my water at 11:30pm. I had expected to feel contractions shortly after, but that was not the case. The nurse encouraged me to get in the bathtub because it would help me relax and help my skin become more elastic. I was hesitant, but decided that I would give it a try. 


After many phone updates, Dylan's mom could not take the suspense of waiting at home any longer. She came up to the hospital. So, the four of us (my mom, Dylan's mom, Dylan, and myself) all waiting for little Katelyn to decide to join us. 


I didn't feel anything uncomfortable until about 4:30am. Around 4:45 I asked for a dose of fentanyl. Altogether I had two doses of fentanyl, but they were very short lasting and worse off way before the hard labor began. I took the fentanyl mainly for the purpose of relieving my frustrations with the nurse. She continued to tell me to let her know when things felt "different". Clearly, I would let her know and each time she would look at me, nod her head, and say she would be back. This was really frustrating. I had no idea what kind of "different" she was looking for.  Finally, I gave her the correct answer for her secret "different" question. Now it was time to push. 


Dylan's mom and my mom left the room to wait in the family waiting room. Dylan was my support person throughout the rest of labor. He brought water and let me squeeze his hand until I cut of the circulation. When I was ready to quit - literally I told him I wanted to quit and go home - he was encouraging and helped me to stop whining and crying. The hard part of labor lasted about 1.5 hours. 


Dr. Montgomery came on duty at 7am and was barely able to get scrubbed in before Katelyn was born. He was giving me guidance and telling me when to push and when not to push, but at some point I stopped hearing him. Due to being overwhelmed and having a temporary lapse of hearing, I had to get quite a few stitches. Thankfully, I was mesmerized by Katelyn and didn't feel (or see) any of the needles and such. 


Katelyn Ann was born healthy on January 5th at 7:33am. She weighed 7 lbs, 14 ozs and was 20.5 inches long!