2 Week Appointment

Nana Time

Snug as a Bug

All Clean

We went to the doctor yesterday for a checkup. All is well however, we didn't make it back up to our birth weight. She's at 6.5 and birth was 6.10 so we have to go back again next week for another check up. Hopefully we'll have gained at least 4-6 ozs by then. If not I'm going to have to supplement. There is a possibility that my body produces low calorie breast milk (who knew there was such a thing). If we don't gain I'll be feeding her formula after I breastfeed her for a period of time. Lets all pray she gains all week!

Other than that everything looks good. He checked her eyes, nose, ears, hips and everything else. They poked her heal again for blood work to be done for the PKU test (they poked once in the hospital and then again now). If no abnormalities exist we won't know the results for several months, no news is good news!

Next appointment after next week is 2 months were we'll get shots! Thank God Nana will be here to help keep mom calm :)

A Little Bit of Time...

It seems as if time is flying by..she survived her first week and will be two weeks on Sunday. We went to the lactation nurse on Thursday to ensure everything was going okay and that she was gaining weight. Were were great on both accounts. She was born 6lbs 10oz, went home at 6lbs 4 oz, saw the doctor two days later at 5lbs 14oz, and on Thursday was 6lbs, 4oz so we're almost back to birth weight. Our/the doctor's goal is to be there by Monday's two week appointment.

Two funny stories from that day.... What's the first thing they do when you walk into the room to wait for the doctor? Take your temperature of course! Well for babies the most accurate temperature is in the behind, unfortunately. During the process Astoria let the nurse know what she thought about this procedure... I however got to clean up the mess. 5 diapers later, yes, I said 5 we were cleaned up and ready to roll.

Next, the lactation nurse came and got us and said we'd be heading to another room so that she could watch Astoria latch on and such. We entered the room and the nurse said "Okay mom can sit in the glider and get comfortable". I thought to myself well okay I guess my mom can sit in the glider and I'll sit in one of these office chairs to nurse, no big deal. About that time I looked up and my mom and the nurse were looking at me and a light went off "Oh yeah, I'm the mom"! They both laughed at me. I'm not sure how long it will take to realize I'm a mom now. Definitely a great experience.

The nurse said I'm doing everything beautifully as far as feeding. Now Astoria just has to meet me halfway by staying awake to get longer feedings in. I have to basically make her mad to do this but if it will help her gain weight I'm going to be the meanest mom ever :)

She's Here!

So here's the story:

Sunday, April 5, 2009, 2:00am I woke up thinking I had just wet the bed (I wouldn't have put it past me, my pregnant bladder was not friendly). As I gout out of bed I realized liquid was running down my legs. I was mortified. I went to the bathroom and a gush of water appeared, by this point I'd kind of figured out what it was. I yelled at Rex to come and I don't think he believed it either, after all we kept hearing "most all first babies will late". We were 6 days out from our due date of April 11th. Thank goodness the bags were packed and all Rex had to do was finish up the loose ends I hadn't yet packed. I immediately called my mom to let her know my water had broke (once again disbelief seeped through the phone) and she needed to get in the car and head to Texas. Next, I called Meredith, I think she was the biggest disbeliever. She kept asking me if I was sure. I told her if not my bladder had exploded, I was pretty sure. I told her to pack herself and her kid up, pick up mom and get in the car! After talking with the two of them I decided to call the doctor. Kind of important I suppose. The doctor told me to head to Labor and Delivery. I mentioned I didn't have everything quite packed and it might be about 30 minutes, she was okay with it. After a few more phone calls with Meredith still confirming that yes, my water had broke we got in the car (with trash bags and towels on the seat) and headed to the hospital. By this time Rex had contacted all of his crew and we managed to convince everyone to stay at home until we knew what all was going on.

Turns out my water had indeed broke but I was still considered closed and had not dilated at all. Amazing if you ask me, everything I had read said I should have been at least somewhat dilated for my water to break. Oh well, who's playing by the rules here (remember we're 6 days early).

Shortly after arriving at 2:30 am the doctor decided to start the pitocin to get me moving. I was terribly worried about all of my family getting her in time but no worry, Mom, Mere and Olivia made a 3 1/2 hour trip in 2 1/2 hours. My poor dad was at the lake house (a 5 hour drive) and managed to make it in 4. I'll never ask just how fast they were all driving. I was just happy they all made it in plenty of time.

The time seemed to fly by pretty quickly once the pitocin started working. My contractions never did get regulated but did get increasingly more painful. I made it to a 3 before I called in the drugs (about 4 hours after I started). Once the drugs were in, life was good. I'll never understand those who decided to go natural. I think I actually got to enjoy labor because I was comfortable. I even had the opportunity to watch the entire process via a mirror at the end of the bed. We started pushing around 1pm and Astoria Annette graced us with her presence at 2:30pm. She measured in at pounds 10 ounces, 19 3/4 inches long. I think everyone was surprised with how small she was (even the doctor). She came out screaming and a beautiful pink color. I cried. How could something so precious grow inside of me?

The next two days in the hospital flew by. Lots of visitors and lots of nurses in and out of the room. She took to breastfeeding very quickly and slept in pretty regular intervals. Tuesday morning mom and I woke to a phone call from my Grandmother's assisted living center informing us she had passed away during the night. Although her death wasn't a surprise it wasn't expected. We all came to the conclusion this must have been the reason Astoria came early, Grandma needed a space in heaven. She joined my Papa (her husband) and more recently my Grandpa. I'm sure they let her know what a beautiful baby Astoria was before they sent her down to greet us.

Later that morning we were discharged and I was all too ready to get home!

A few pictures from it all:

Rex trying to get her out quicker...

Feeling like a house
Dad trying to comfort me as we watch the contractions getting stronger and stronger..pre epidural.
Handed straight to me after birth, an amazing experience.

Finally getting a good look at her.

Look at that blonde hair and boy does she have some lungs.

Rex already trying to console her.

A long morning.....
Nana

Nana

Daddy, notice how small she is.

Pops

Aunt Meredith and Cousin Olivia

Nonnie

Currently wearing preemie clothes.

Headed home

39 Weeks!

Only 4 days left to go! I won't say it seems like just yesterday I learned I was pregnant but it doesn't seem like it's been 39 weeks. The past three weeks have been really tough. I'm not sleeping very well at night, I'm hot a lot, my limbs are swelling, and even the maternity clothes are starting to get tight. I'm ready to be done!

This past Wednesday I even had the opportunity to spend the day in Labor and Delivery (L&D) at the hospital. My blood pressure jumped up to 140/90 at school. The school nurse made me call the doctor who had me come into the office. The non stress test came back fine (i.e. Astoria wasn't affected) but my pressure didn't drop low enough for their comfort. So off they sent me to L&D. Once there they took blood, urine and watched the monitors. I had trace amounts of protein in my urine but the blood work didn't show signs of preeclampsia (i.e. high blood pressure during pregnancy) so after about 4 hours they cleared us to go home. Rex was pretty disappointed but I was good. None of my family was here yet and I still needed to work a few more days. So I have to say, sorry family in Iowa we didn't have an April Fools Baby!

Last night however was really special here at the Kleckner household. Rex and I had our last official no kid date night. After polling the people at school I decided to go out to dinner and then to a place called Paint Yer Pottery. At first Rex wasn't real excited when we pulled into the pottery shop but once inside his creative juices started flowing. He came up with the design all on his own. I chose the colors and off we went. Our masterpiece (above) will be fired for us this week and should be available come Friday. We will forever treasure it and remember the nice evening we shared together.