A visit from my sister

This past weekend, my sister, Kendra and my nephew, Hayden came to visit Natalie. They stayed for a long weekend. Hayden has gotten to be such a little man! Natalie (and Emile and I) enjoyed having her Auntie Kendra and cousin Hayden here!

One week already!

We can't believe Natalie is already one week old today! Time is already going fast! She had her second follow-up weight check appointment today. Dr. Bernstein said she looks great -- she's almost all the way back up to her birth weight. She's now at 7 lbs. 7 oz. My breast feeding must be doing the trick. He doesn't need to see her back again now until her 1 month appointment.

Natalie had a lot of visitors this week. Below are some photos of her first week with us - there may be a lot! :).

Nana and Grandpa visted us in the hospital.

Natalie getting ready for her trip home -- in her cute little "going home" lamb outfit

Oma visited us at home the day after we got out of the hospital

We got a few photos of Natalie with her Grandpa, Nana and Oma.

Opa will be visiting later this month!

Natalie hanging out with Papa and Mommy.

Natalie tested out her bouncer and swing.

Natalie got her first bath at home.

Our Darling Daughter

Emile and I are so excited to announce the birth of our daughter, Natalie Michelle! She arrived via c-section on May 30, 2008 at 3:18 p.m. She weighed 7 lbs. 9 oz and is 21 inches long. Her Apgar score was 8/9. Right now she has dark brown hair and black/blue eyes -- we expect both of these to change over the next few months. Emile was born with black/brown hair and now has blond. Her hair and eye color has already started lightening up. We're thinking she'll end up being a blondie with blue eyes. I ended up having a c-section so we weren't able to bring her home until Monday, June 2.

She is the most adorable, beautiful baby ever (if I say so myself! :). We are so blessed to have such a wonderful, healthy baby girl! Taking care of her has been going really well -- although she has her nights and days mixed up like most newborns, she doesn't wail at night. Getting up in the middle of the night with her, although tiring, is still pleasant -- she mostly coos and sucks on her hand to tell us she's hungry and wants to get up, with the occasional short-lived cry. I love holding her, resting my cheek on her cheek, kissing her, talking to her, and just looking at her!

I am solely breast feeding her right now. So far, so good. I was surprised at how easily her and I took to the task. We didn't have any latch on or other problems to contend with. When we left the hospital, she had dropped from 7 lb. 9 oz. to 6 lb. 15 oz (normal weight loss) and by her 2-day weight check appointment at Raleigh Pediatrics (this past Tuesday) she was back up to 7 lb. 1 oz! She goes in again tomorrow for another follow-up weight check appointment. On Tuesday, though, the doctor stated all looked good -- no jaundice, weight gain was good, coloring was good, etc.

Below is my birth story:

Around 10:30 p.m. on Wednesday, May 28th, I started getting contractions. They started off about 12-15 minutes apart and stayed that way through most of the night. By early morning they were about 7-8 minutes apart. I was hoping this was the start of my labor; however, by 10 a.m. the contractions had completely stopped. I had just gone through 12 hours of false labor! Very frustrating to say the least. So on Thursday, May 29th, I went for two hour and half long walks (and got sun burned as you can see in some of my birth photos) and sat on my exercise ball hoping to jump start contractions again. At around 7 p.m. on May 29th, my contractions started back up again and were about 7-8 minutes apart. By 11:30 p.m., they were finally 5 minutes apart, lasting for 1 minute, for an hour so Dr. Gunter (the dr. on-call at Rex Hospital) told me to come on into the hospital.

Emile and I grabbed the remaining items we needed for my hospital bag, fed the cats, and headed out the door. We live outside of the city and thus, at 12:30 a.m. the highways are pretty empty. We ended up behind a truck that was going pretty slow and on a part of the highway where there was no passing. So Emile decides at the next light, he would not only try to pass the truck in the turn lane but because the roads were so dead and there were no cars coming the other direction, he was going to go through the red light! And yes, of course, there turned out to be a police car sitting in the closed gas station on the corner. We got pulled over on the way to the hospital -- isn't this something you'd expect to happen only in the movies! I, of course, got worried that we were going to be stuck there for awhile but Emile was convinced we had a "get out of jail free card" given I was in labor. After he managed to flag down the cop to come up to the car sooner (thank goodness he didn't get out of the car to go talk to the cop -- I'm sure that wouldn't have gone well), he explained to the cop that I was in labor which was why he went through the red light after stopping. Luckily, I was actually having a contraction at this time. And wouldn't you know, the cop actually said ok, go on, just be careful! Who would have thought that our trip to L&D would resemble the movies!

We arrived and were checked into Triage at Rex Hospital at 1:15 a.m. After the 12 hours of false labor and contractions from 7 p.m. till 1 a.m., the nurse confirmed I still had made hardly any progress as of my last dr. appointment -- finger tip dilated and 50% effaced. I was so disappointed. The nurse checked with Dr. Gunter to see if he wanted to send me home or keep me and try to get labor going. Because I was already overdue (41w6d), Dr. Gunter decided I should be admitted and thus, I was going to be having our little girl sometime today (May 30th). After being admitted, I walked around for about 45 minutes and the nurse re-checked me in our room. Still no progress! And on top of it, contractions started slowing down again. The nurse hooked up my IV. We then decided to see how things went throughout the night. I slept a little to try to gather more strength for the long day to come. I then started alternating between sitting on the birthing ball and walking around. The nurse checked me again at 6 a.m. and I was still only finger tip dilated!

Dr. Gunter was concerned that my labor was not picking up on its own and thus, suggested starting pitocin. I was less than thrilled to start pitocin. This was item #1 on my list of things I didn't want to do during my labor out of concern for being stuck in bed, contractions being significantly more intense than without, and thus, feeling the need for an epidural. My concern with an epidural was I would further be stuck in bed (as with pitocin) and then my labor would stall because I didn't have gravity etc. working with me and ultimately end up with a c-section. So I was pretty reluctant. But pitocin was started at 6:45 a.m. As expected, my contractions got significantly more intense right away to the point that I was uncontrollably shaking during each contraction. I was determined to make it till 9 a.m. before deciding on an epidural even though the nurses and Emile were encouraging me to get one due to the shaking. At 9 a.m. the nurse checked me again and I was only at 3 cm. They had expected me to have made significantly more progress by then (14 hours of labor). I was still shaking as if I was in transition, but yet so far from that point. And on top of it, my water still wasn't broke. Once it was broke and I actually reached transition, contractions would get worse. Given the shaking, I was concerned about handling it and thus, I eventually gave into the epidural. They had a hard time getting it in because I kept tightening up and sobbing because I didn't really want to go this route -- item #2 on list of things I didn't want to do during labor.

After getting the epidural, of course, I could no longer feel the contractions. The shaking slowed down but didn't completely go away. Dr. Homeister (now on duty) came to check me at 10:30 a.m. I was still only 3 cm and -2 station but now 80% effaced. She broke my water which would hopefully speed up progress. She also added an internal fetal monitor (item #3 of my list of don'ts) because they were having problems tracking her heart rate well. Dr. Homeister checked me at 12:45 p.m. -- I had only progressed to 4.5 cm. By this point, however, Natalie's heart rate kept dropping after each contraction. Dr. Homeister was concerned that she was under some sort of distress. Over the next 2 hours, they monitored how well Natalie responded to different levels of pitocin. Her heart rate stopped dropping only when they stopped the pitocin. However, when they did this, my body didn't pick up the slack and my contraction frequency and intensity dropped off -- i.e. I was making no progress. I had stalled at 4.5 cm. Because of the concerns over Natalie's heart rate and my body not kicking in on its own to go through labor, Dr. Homeister recommended a c-section -- item #4 of things I definitely wanted to avoid! Without it, I was most likely going to spend hours at the same place waiting for my body to progress on its own and ultimately possibly end up in an emergency c-section. At this point, it wasn't an emergency but highly recommended.

At 2:45 p.m. I agreed to the c-section. They moved so quickly after that. It was such a whirlwind. Luckily, I didn't have to get a general anesthetic and thus, was awake to see her when she first came out. Emile was in the OR room with me holding my hand. I was pretty scared. Although I couldn't feel the cuts etc., I could definitely feel them pushing hard on my belly to get her out. Natalie Michelle was born at 3:18 p.m. -- her first cry was the best sound in the world! Emile went out of the room with her to make sure all was well while they finished stitching me up. I apparently had a panic attack after Natalie and Emile left the room -- I started to getting nauseous and a weird tingly feeling throughout my body. I panicked thinking something was happening to me and started freaking out on the OR table -- wanting to be let up, telling them they were hurting me, etc. I was pretty much out of it! They ended up giving me something to knock me out. When I came too, they were just finishing sewing me up. I didn't get to see Natalie again until I was back in the recovery room and I didn't get to hold her until my shaking had calmed down. She was so perfect! My L&D experience was all worth it to have her with us!

Week 40 -- My Due Date

It's my due date! I've made it all the way to 40 weeks! Wow! I had hoped she'd arrive early but it looks like my body and our daughter have other plans. I am so ready to be done being pregnant and to hold our little girl! Time feels like it has come to a stand still. The waiting is so difficult.

I had another doctor's appointment yesterday with Dr. Anya. She stated I've made no progress since last week and that I'm still finger tip dilated -- given that I was told no progress at all last week, Dr. Anderson either wrote down I was finger tip dilated previously and didn't tell me, or finger tip dilated still equals no progress. Either way I'm less than 0 cm dilated and 0% effaced. Plus, she still has not dropped. Dr. Anya was really great though -- very patient woman. She's one of my favorite doctors in the practice so far. I've now seen them all. She has me scheduled to come in this Friday if I haven't delivered by then. I will then have an ultrasound to check how big she is and make sure my amniotic fluid levels are ok. I'll also have a non-stress test in which they monitor the baby's heart rate for an hour to make sure all is well. After all that, we'll discuss induction for the following week, probably around June 4 or 5. I'm really hoping to avoid an induction. With induction, the chances of needing an epidural and ultimately a c-section go up -- both of which I'm trying to avoid. So hopefully, she comes on her own this week!

Today, to celebrate my due date, I got a wonderful prenatal massage!! So relaxing. Emile and I also went to see the Indiana Jones movie and went out for dinner -- really spicy Thai food! On the way home, I bought an exercise ball which I'm sitting on now and rotating my hips around to help open up my pelvis for labor. I'm willing to try any of the Old Wives Tales in hopes of jump starting labor. I've tried walking, pineapple, spicy food, and now the exercise/birthing ball. Tomorrow I'm going to go get raspberry leaf tea. Something has got to get this show on the road. The waiters at the Thai restaurant at first suggested I not get a spicy dish when they saw I was pregnant so I didn't start labor. I told them it was my due date and that was exactly what I wanted -- they then suggested a spicier option :) Our little girl has been moving around a lot since eating dinner but that might not be related.

I have officially started maternity leave. My last day was yesterday and wow, was this week long. I decided to not wait till she was born given how uncomfortable and tired I've been feeling. So I'll have off until she arrives and then I'll be taking another 12 weeks off after she's born. That will probably put me at returning to work around the end of August/beginning of September. I'm so looking forward to this time away from work -- and more importantly, the time with our daughter.

We thought it would be fun to take a movie of me at 40 weeks and to show you our nursery. This is the first time using the video camera so let's see if this works:

Also, because we love our cats so much, we thought we'd add another video of Picus sleeping. He's always in the strangest, non-cat like positions.

Week 39

One week before my due date and still no progress according to Dr. Anderson at my 38 week appointment this last Wednesday (38w4d). I was still 0 cm, 0% effaced and she hasn't dropped. It was pretty disappointing! I thought for sure these menstrual-type cramps and pelvic floor pain were doing something. But no, it looks like she's comfortable where she is for now. Given that I was two weeks late and my nephew was over a week late, I'm guessing I'm going to go to about 41 weeks which means she may be a June baby instead of a May baby! I'm so ready for her to arrive though!

Dr. Anderson said my weight gain, blood pressure and iron levels looked good. She's still head down and I was measuring about 39 weeks so right on target. He estimated her to be about 7-7.5 lbs. I'm not putting to much stock in these "estimates" though. We'll see when she arrives.

I've started walking more again in hopes of kick starting labor. So far, it's not working. Next step, spicy food! And then of course, there is the full moon on Tuesday! Keep your fingers crossed for me.

I've decided to start my maternity leave after this coming Friday, assuming she doesn't arrive before then. ENVIRON offers 4 weeks in addition to the 12 weeks from FMLA so if she doesn't arrive until after 41 weeks, I'll be taking about a week off beforehand and then spending 12 weeks with her before returning to the office in our house :). I'm looking forward to starting leave.

Emile and I celebrated our 1st wedding anniversary this past Tuesday (May 13, 2007). Emile and I went to this really nice restaurant in downtown Raleigh, Second Empire. The food was fabulous! And they did such a great job of making sure we enjoyed our anniversary -- they printed out a menu for us that said "Happy Anniversary Rachel and Emile, May 13, 2008" for us to keep and wrote in chocolate "Happy Anniversary" on our desert plate. We had a wonderful time! It's great to find wonderful restaurants here after being so spoiled in NYC. We also decided to do the traditional anniversary gifts -- 1st anniversary is paper. I got Emile two magazine subscriptions he'd been wanting and he got me a pinata filled with all my favorite sour candy. It was awesome! Very original and memorable!

Week 38

Two weeks until my estimated due date (EDD) -- that's 14 days! I'm in the teens now. Crazy! This week we got our camcorder that we ordered on-line so I can officially give birth :). I told her she can go ahead and come out but she doesn't seem to be taking my advice (it's already started!). I'm am so ready to be done being pregnant and to meet our daughter!

I've been pretty tired this week. I still have the menstrual-type cramps but nothing else. The swelling in my hands and feet has been more significant followed by the skin rash and itching. We got our new couch in our bonus room yesterday so I can finally relax at night with me feet up -- hopefully this will help. This morning I woke up to see Emile with a pillow over his head. I asked him if the sunlight was bothering him -- nope, it was my snoring! :) Opps.

I had an appointment with Dr. Gunter on Monday (37w2d). He's a pretty nice guy, answered all my questions and made me feel comfortable. I didn't have an internal exam done so I'm not sure if I've made any progress yet. He confirmed she's still head down, her heartrate was around 150 bpm, and all looked good. I was measuring about 38 weeks. I'm negative for Group B Strep which of course is good -- one less thing to worry about during labor. I asked at one point they typically start recommending induction (not that I want to be induced, I just wanted to know where he stood) and it sounds like the practice doesn't start worry about that until around 41 week 5 days -- this would make me a June mom.

I've started looking into board books in Dutch. We found a website on-line that we're going to order about 5-6 from so Emile can start right away reading to her in Dutch! We're hoping she'll learn it from him and his parents and then at some point, we'll probably have her take lessons. This is something we feel is important to pass on to her!

She's been moving a lot this week. A lot of punches in the hip and heel or feet sticking out of my side. Someone please pass her the memo that she can come out now! :)

Week 37 - Full Term

The time has finally arrived -- I am full term now! She can arrive any day now! It's already May -- my due date month. It seems like yesterday that we just found out I was pregnant. Very exciting and a little scary! We can't wait though. Emile and I went to a street fair in "downtown" Wake Forest today. We both commented on how fun it's going to be to have children soon so we take them to those types of events. Soon!

I had my 36 week doctor's appointment on Tuesday (36w3d) with Dr. Gaines again (he's still not my favorite doctor at the practice). This time Emile came with! I had told him previously he didn't need to come after the 25 week or so appointment because all they were doing was weighing me, taking my blood pressure, measuring my belly and checking her with the doppler. This time, however, he did the Group B Strep test (I find out the results next week) and did my first internal exam. I wanted Emile there in case they told me I'd started to make progress. Not surprisingly, I haven't made any -- 0% effaced, 0 cm dilated! I had thought that the recent menstrual type cramps that had started might have been helping with progress so I was slightly disappointed to hear that wasn't the case -- although not surprised. On average, a first time pregnancy usually last till 41 weeks 1 day. If that turns out to be the case for me, I'll be having a June 1 baby! We'll soon find out!

Dr. Gaines also confirmed that she's still head down (good news) and estimated her to be about 5.5 lbs. According to what I've read, our baby is now surrounded by a peak volume of 1,000 mL of amniotic fluid which is approximately equal to 4 cups. From this point on this amount will decrease gradually. Her nervous system is maturing now, almost ready to be on her own. The lanugo on our baby's skin is wearing off. In addition, the cortisone that is being produced by her endocrine system will help her lungs to take over the job of delivering oxygen to her blood stream after birth. She's also started punching me in the hips daily now -- it doesn't really hurt but it definitely gets my attention! :)

The biggest change for me has been the added menstrual type cramp feelings I've been having frequently accompanied by increased Braxton Hicks contractions. The menstrual cramps have actually been waking me up at night. All this activity is supposed to be helping my uterus prepare for the big day! Dr. Gaines also stated the pelvic floor pain I've been having (still going on) is related to ligaments moving/stretching and the only thing I can do is to avoid activities that aggravate it -- which is walking! Pretty hard to avoid but this means I've cut out my walks around the neighborhood. I've also found that my pilates DVD workouts also aggravate it (as does rolling over while sleeping -- hard to avoid though) so I've switched now to only doing prenatal yoga.

This week we've also put the car seat in and I finished packing my bag except for the last minute items we'll need to throw in (I have a list on the refrigerator for that). We ordered our camcorder today. Emile and I have also narrowed down the names we like to the top three -- we'll be making our final decision when we meet her.