3.22.2009

Ordering Pictures

If anyone had planned on purchasing pictures from the website, please contact us first. We want to buy a digital package so we can have copies to print on our own. It's much cheaper this way and if you planned on purchasing prints we can all pitch in an buy the digital package instead and save a whole lot a money! 

3.19.2009

Access Code For Pics

Sorry ya'll. The access code is 'tara' for the pics. I thought the link took you directly to it but I guess not. Let us know what you all think!

3.18.2009

Abigail's First Photo Shoot

We had Abby's pictures taken last thursday. They turned out wonderful. They are available online to view and order if you wish. They are very expensive so it will be hard for us to choose the ones we like the most.  Just click on the link below to see all the proofs. Hope you enjoy! 


In the meantime, enjoy some FREE photos below of Abigail after her first bath and her 1 week old picture :)


3.09.2009

Family Love



Here is a picture of Abby and her cousin AJ and her Auntie Chantea

The First Week

So we have survived our first week home with Abigail. I wouldn't change it for the world. The hardest part so far is getting her on an eating schedule. My milk supply just came in and we are trying to make sure she is getting enough to eat. Sometimes she eats 10 times a day and other times she only eats 5 or 6 times a day. 

She sleeps constantly through out the day. The lactation consultant calls it "milk drunk" because she seems to pass out for hours and hours after getting a good feed. The nights have not been that bad. I expected worse, but hey, we are only a week into this so what do I know. She slept for 6 hours strait on Saturday nite! I debated waking her to feed her but decided not to. I figured she will wake when she is hungry. 

We've had a lot of visitors this week too. Everyone lov
es her. She is so beautiful! We had our first doctor's appt. on Saturday. All they did was weight her and look into her ears and eyes. She weighed 7lbs 12oz at birth, left the hospital at 7lbs 1oz and now weighs 7lbs 4oz. So she is gaining her weight back. 

Im starting to finally feel better from the surgery. I can get up and down a lot better now than when we first came home. Im still taking the pain meds the doctor gave me, but other than that, I'm doing great. Can't wait to loose this water weight from the IV and start exercising again! 

Enjoy some more pictures below :)

3.06.2009

Birth Story

Baby Abigail was finally born on March 2, 2009 at 11:39pm
Weigth: 7 lbs. 12 oz.
Height: 21 inches

My story:
We went in on the 2nd at 7am for an induction. Started induction medicine around 9am. After 9 hours, I was check and stuck at 3cm and 60% effaced at best. The doc decided to strip my membranes. After that, I was given Pitocin via my IV to really get things moving. At 6pm I asked for an Epidural because the pain was getting intense to handle. At around 7pm, with still no progress, the doctors broke my water with no success. Apparently, little Abby's head was acting as a plug and did not want to water to be released.

At around 8pm, the doctors noticed her heartbeat was irregular. Her heart rate would dip every time I had a contraction. They decided to stop the Pitocin for about an hour and see if her heart rate stays steady, which it does. At this point, I needed to have a catheter put in because of the Epidural.

At 9pm, they decided to restart the Pitocin one more time. After 10 minutes, her heart rate began to decelerate again with every contraction. She was in too much stress and the doctors could not figure out why. They assumed that either the umbilical cord was wrapped around her neck or she was lodged in my pelvic and was not descending.

They checked tuned off the Pitocin again and decided to give me another hour to progress on my own or I will have to have a Cesarean section. Well, after 1 1/2 hours, no progress. I was stuck at 4cm after 14 hours of labor and still had a thick cervix.

At this point, I was so tired and don't think I was really with it. The doctors were not willing to try anymore induction methods because Abby was too stressed over the intense contractions. So the decision was made that I would have to have an emergency Cesarean section.

At 11pm, I was rolled into the operating room and prepped. Anesthesia put the numbing meds in through my Epidural and started to numb me. However, it took the max dosage to get me to the point where I could not feel anything. Finally, Marshall was able to come in and sit with me. They our precious little bundle was born. Marshall followed her to the nursery while they cleaned and checked her as they were finishing me.

At some point in the middle of stitching me up, I realized that I started to feel the pressure from tugging and pulling more and more. It got to the point where I was screaming from the pain. The anesthesia man had to knock me out for the rest of the procedure. This meant a longer recovery time and more time in between me being able to see Abby.

FINALLY, at around 2am, I was able to be taken from recovery back to the room and my dear sweet Abigail was brought into me. The family support was amazing. I couldn't not have done this with out Marshall or anyone else that was there to support me.

Turns out Abby was stuck in my pelvic wall with umbilical cord wrapped around her stomach twice. The reason I was not progressing through labor was due to her head being stuck inside my pelvic wall and unable to descend any further. So this meant that the doctor had to cut through my stomach muscles to reach her and pull her out.

If, it wasn't for the fact that they had to cut my muscles, I would be feeling great right now because the incision is healing very well. Marshall has been an amazing support and has taken on the mommy role most of the time because it takes me almost 5 minutes to get up if she happens to cry etc.

Well, I don't want to get into other details about that right now. We were released from the hospital on Thursday afternoon. We are all home and healthy.

It has taken me almost 3 hours to finish this post due to 'new' responsibilities :)
 
Below are some pics. Keep checking back because there will more man more to come!



Abigail Mackenzie is finally here!