Herbs

Okay I know I am slacking in blogging, but I am just overwhelmed with all that I have on my plate right now. We survived the weekend, with all the wedding festivities- it was a beautiful wedding:) My daughter had a blast being the flower girl, and of course she was adorable! She really enjoyed getting her nails and hair done as well as all the pictures taken;) LOL! It was great seeing all my family especially some that we don't see very often.
Enough about the wedding, I want to talk about my milk supply or lack there of, well apparently it was conversation of my husband and a co-worker?! Anyhow she suggested- and uses herbals to help her with her milk supply. I was wondering if any of you all have heard of this, used them etc... Yes my husband has purchased them and I started taking them so we shall see. I'm taking blessed thistle and fenugreek, 9 capsules of each throughout the day. I really hope this helps! I am thinking if it doesn't help then I will probably be done with pumping etc.. Because I just don't produce enough, although the doctor said some is better than none.
Our little girl is doing fantastic:) she is growing and changing so much!!! We are out of newborn diapers and some newborn clothes. She finally likes/ tolerates bath time; becoming more expressive and starting to find her voice:) We are still dealing with some gas issues, but the changes we have made seem to help.
I went to the doctors once again- yes I have been going once a week for what seems like forever! Incision looks good, healing up slowly and it is still open (but closing up). I go back again next week for my 6 week post partum check as well as an incision check.
Hard to believe August is all but here! I am starting to gear up for the start of school for my two kiddos, I am so not ready for summer to be over/ school to start:( I also have my kiddos birthday parties to plan, so if I am not blogging much I apologize but I have a lot on my plate. I am reading and trying to stay up to date on everyone elses blogs!

One Month!!

Yes it is hard to believe our beautiful little girl is already one month old!!! She is growing up WAY to fast, this past month has flown by but I am loving every second with her, it is such a blessing. Today I took her for her one month check-up and she is perfect- but then we already knew that;)  She is gaining weight without any issues (unlike when she was first born when she was losing weight), she is now up to 9lbs 13oz and in the 70%!
While I was at the pediatrician's today I discussed our little one's gas issues, and they gave us a prescription. I am not thrilled about giving her medication but if it helps her than I guess we will do it. We have changed formulas that we are supplementing to the breast milk, we have also purchased different bottles- the dr.bro.wn one's and we have been using my.la.con drops and all those things have helped but she is still having issues. She seems to do better with breast milk and I wish I could produce more so that she didn't have to take formula at all but I need to be thankful that I can even produce milk etc..
Tomorrow is my "check-up" day I go to my endocrinologist for follow up as well as my ob for incision check- another busy day, hoping for all good news for me:)

Rough Weekend

Well the weekend started off good but went downhill fast! Friday night was good, we went out to dinner and dessert (for the kiddos), something low key etc... Then Saturday morning my mom attempted to take my son to his taekwondo class however he refused to go in:( So I wasn't going to push the issue and it was a good thing, turns out little man wasn't feeling good and ended up running a fever later in the day. Then that afternoon we had a girls outing, my mom, both girls and myself did a little shopping- I needed a dress for my cousin's wedding next weekend- ended up getting 2 dresses:)
Then after getting home we were getting ready for my niece and nephew to spend the night until we realized little man was running a fever, and a few hours later I started feeling like crap! I couldn't get warm for anything, I started running a fever and I think I have mastitis:( It was a rough nights sleep for all of us. Today- Sunday we are having a lazy quiet day, as I am still not feeling 100% and little man is still running a fever:(
On top of all this our little lady is having issues with gas- major gas!!! I feel horrible for her and wish there was something I could do to help her. I swear when she passes gas she sounds like an old man. Thankfully we go to the doctors this week for her 1 month check-up and I am going to talk to them about it. We have tried a different formula as well as my.la.con drops anybody with suggestions on how to help our little one would be greatly appreciated.
I just hope we all start feeling better, we have a CRAZY week ahead! The beginning of the week is a normal week however it gets crazy from there- we have 4 doctors appointments, the cleaning lady is coming at some point this week, my husband is going out of town for work most of the week and then next weekend is my cousin's wedding- Friday is the rehearsal and rehearsal dinner (my daughter is the flower girl so we have lots of wedding festivities next weekend); wedding on Sat which is an all day a fair with hair appointment in the morning, pictures at noon etc... then next Sunday they are having a post wedding brunch- WHEW I am worn out just thinking about everything we have going on this week. I will try to update, especially with our little girls one month check- up:)

Back to a new normal?!

I think I am slowly coming to a new normal for me?! I am starting to feel more like myself and the past two days I have ventured out on errands with all three kiddos in tow. Now granted it seems to take us forever to get moving in the morning and I haven't been waking up too early but it is the summer so I figured we can be a little relaxed right?! Yesterdays venture out was a little rough and had some drama involved! I had to get lab work done, so I thought it would be a quick trip in etc... Well the lab place I go, is very tiny- the size of a closet. Well when we got there, there were already several people in the waiting room, and then you add my crew it was bad news from the beginning. My older two kiddos wouldn't sit still and were misbehaving. Finally get my lab work done, leave the building, get out in the parking lot to realize blood is pouring down my arm! So needless to say I get the kids in the car and deal with the blood- it took a good 5 minutes or more to get it stopped. Never a dull moment:)
Sorry I have been slacking on the blogging, I have tried to keep up reading and commenting (finally figured out what was wrong/ why I couldn't comment on everyone's blogs- this made me happy happy to figure it out!).
I go back to the doctors tomorrow for an incision check- hopefully all is healing up:)  Next week is CRAZY for me, as of right now we have 3 doctors appointments and possibly a 4th; plus next weekend is wedding craziness. My daughter is in my cousins wedding as a flower girl, so Friday night we have rehearsal and rehearsal dinner, Saturday is the wedding (so we have hair appointments in the morning and have to be at the church by noon for pictures) and Sunday is a post wedding brunch- I am looking forward to seeing lots of family and showing off our newest little one:) but also know it will be a tiring weekend.
Speaking of our newest little one, she is just perfect, I am LOVING every second with her and I think we are all adjusting. As far as breast feeding goes, I am strictly pumping. She wasn't too fond of the breast, it hurt when I would breast feed (I really believe it was do to the breast reduction) when she would bf it would be like 40+ minutes and still want a bottle afterwards. My milk supply is still not great even after the medication that made me feel all funny (I did finish the medicine!). I am not sure how much longer I will continue to pump, it's a hard decision. I cannot pump like they suggested- every 2-3 hours; it is just not doable with a newborn, a VERY active 3 year old little boy and a 5 year old little girl; I was losing my mind.
Well that's all I have right now, hope to keep the blog more updated:)

Some good news!!!

I went to the doctor yesterday fully anticipating that they were going to have to re-open my incision up. However we got some great news!!! The left side that re-opened on it's own is healing up very nicely and home health is no longer needed:) yah!!! The right side still has the blood clot but it no longer appears to be infected:) so they are hoping my body will just absorb the blood clot. So now I go back next Friday for a follow up to see how everything is looking. I'm so relieved that things seem to finally be healing up.
This weekend I'm going to venture out to the local park. The adoption agency is having there annual picnic this Saturday and we are going to go for a little while, hoping the weather cooperates and it's not too steamy hot! Our plans are to go first thing when it's not too hot. Hope everyone has a great weekend!

Update

Well I had every intention of updating early but one thing lead to another etc... So here I am sitting with no electricity on the middle of the summer for no apparent reason- gotta love it!! So I'm writing this using my phone once again. So this no electricity deal is really messing up my plans for the night!!! I need to pump but obviously can't because it's electric, kiddos need bathes but too dark in the bathroom , so at least for now I'm catching up on my blogging some (till my phone battery does and I can't recharge it).
So I went to the doctors yesterday and they did an ultrasound on my incision, turns out that yes I do have a blood clot however the doctor got called to an emergency c-section. So they said to put heat on it at least 3 times a day for 15 minutes ( as if I didn't have enough to build into a routine already! But I figured while I pump this is a good time!); continue taking my antibiotic; and come back on Thursday. So I'm going back tomorrow and if there is no change or it has gotten bigger than they are going to reopen me up to take the blood clot out-ugh! When it rains it pours!!! I just want to heal up and get better!!!! So please say a pray or two for me tomorrow- THANK YOU!!!

rough road of recovery

Like I said in my previous post everything was going smoothly with my recovery, I was released from the hospital on Thursday afternoon after they took my staples out. I was home resting and trying to breast feed, recovery and get into some type of routine. I was very weak because I had lost a lot of blood during the c-section so I am no anemic and on a high dose of iron 2 times a day. Things were going smoothly until Thursday night when we were getting ready for bed that is when we noticed my incision was bleeding quite a bit and after further inspection found that my incision had opened up. Well needless to say I was FREAKED out!!! I just knew I was going to have to go back to the hospital and would once again be separated from our little girl. Thankfully we called the on call doctor and she said that from what we were saying as long as we bandaged it good that we could wait to be see in the office the next day so that is what we did.
The next day- Friday we headed to my doctors where they cleaned out he incision, packed it and bandaged it up and ordered home health to come in a do the same thing twice a day. That is what I have been dealing with and continue to deal with since June 23rd. I am hoping and praying that it heals up very soon! At one point because I was running a fever they thought it was getting infected but thankfully it turned out that it was not:)
On top of all this I was severely constipated! I could not believe they let me leave the hospital without having a bowel movement but they did. I ended up having a bm the day that I came home from the hospital and the next day but then I didn't have one for very LONG time- 7 days!!!! They started me on medicine (Co.lac.e) and that didn't do anything and I was getting really really uncomfortable. Then finally on the following Thursday they said I would have to do an enema so hubby ran to the store to get one for me. Well as it turns out that is all I would need to see the enema box with the instructions to scare the "poo" out of me! LOL!!! Thankfully things have been running more smoothly lately in that department.
Breast feeding has been a slow, painful, and heartbreaking process. Yes I am thankful that I am able to breast feed because I know that there was a good chance that I was not going to be able to due to breast augmentation some years ago. However my milk production has been slow and low, but thankfully after talking with my doctor he prescribe something that would help with production and has seemed to help some. Our little one however has issues with latching (I have tried nipple guards however she won't breast feed when I use those and I have heard that they can decrease your milk production too) which is painful for me and causes sores on my nipples. So we are working through all of this( I am pumping and encouraging breast feeding too but she prefers the bottle because it is quicker and easier) while I am still trying to heal.
Once the kiddos came home from my parents house it was a re-adjustment for everyone especially for our son who is the youngest. We had a lot of jealousy issues, misbehavior and attitude issues from both of them which is all to be expected but we are trying to work through all them and help them as much as possible. This past weekend my parents took them to the lake for a couple of days and then when they came back my hubby made a special day and took them to the movies etc... So we are slowly all adjusting.
Today is my first day at home with all 3 kiddos by myself, hubby had to go back to work. Things are going pretty smoothly so far, hopefully we will all continue to adjust.Also say a few prayers for me today I have a doctors appointment to check an area of my incision that has healed up and stayed closed however it is hard, red and starting to hurt which could mean a blood clot and they would have to re-open me:(

Birth Story

Okay I am going to attempt to post our little one's birth story. I had a scheduled c-section for June 20th at 9:30am. We of course had to get to the hospital by 7:30 so the kiddos spent the night at my parents house (where they would be staying for the rest of the week) to make things more smoothly. Thankfully my brother took the day off from work and he took our kiddos to their Vacation Bible school Monday morning (my brother and sister-in-law took care of our kiddos that day for us- thankfully so that my parents could be at the hospital).
Check-in and pre-op "stuff" went smoothly, my parents arrived early so they were able to hang out in the room with us before the c-section. I met the anesteciologist, it was not the same one I had met with to discuss my history but I ended up liking this anesticaologist as well if not better he was very comforting and talked me through everything.
We of course got bumped by an emergency c-section so it ended up being later than anticipated but not too much later. When it was time I was walked in the OR while hubby waited (for 45 minutes!) outside while they prepped me-  I had to have an atrial line (that is an IV put into an artery in your wrist), a regular IV, central line (that is an IV in your neck- it is sewen in! OUCH!), a catheter, and the spinal/ epidural combo all administered or put in prior to hubby entering the OR. The worst of all that was the central line put into my neck- no fun at all:(
Then once hubby entered the OR things went pretty fast, and everything went smoothly.  I felt some tugging and pulling but other than that nothing. Then our sweet little girl entered the world at 11:13am weighting 8.6 lbs and 20inches long and a nice set of lungs. As soon as I heard her cry and saw her sweet face the tears were flowing, our healthy little girl had arrived!!!! Hubby went over and took pictures and watched as they assessed and cleaned up our little one; and the doctors finished up on me. We got some great first pictures including pictures of hubby, myself and our little one.
Then came the upsetting news for me- our little one would be going to the nursery and I would be going to ICU for monitoring for at least 24 hours. Thankfully the let me hold our daughter all the way to the nursery, so our plans (of one hour of bonding just the 3 of us followed by the kiddos meeting their new sister first before anyone else) went out the window and then my parents and hubby's parents were out in the hallway so when they wheeled us out they were the first to see her and all her hair! (She has reddish blond hair that was in a Mohawk! LOL!)
I was devastated that they weren't going to let our daughter in my room, so that meant I would not be able to see her until I was transferred to a regular room in a minimum of 24 hours:( So needless to say I was quite upset and emotional. Thankfully hubby got to the bottom of things, turns out nursery was saying ICU wouldn't let the baby down there and ICU was saying nursery wouldn't let the baby down in ICU. So after a little bit of convincing hubby got them to allow our little one in my room for feeding since I had plans of attempting to breast feed (even though unbeknown st to us she had already been give 2 bottles in the nursery at some point in the first day while I was in ICU). So I was happy to see our little one and for our kiddos to be able to meet their little sister.
After 24 hours in ICU I was moved to a regular room and really for the rest of my visit (I had the c-section on a Monday and was released on Thursday afternoon) things went smoothly. Our little stayed in our room the entire time (unless she had testing or nurses were switching shifts etc...) and it was nice to be able to take care of her myself.
Our little one was losing weight which is quite normal in newborns however she was very close/ right at the 10% mark so we were going to really have to watch her wet/ dirty diapers and bring her to the peds office on Saturday morning for a weight check. I really think this was all due to my milk production or lack there of, it took some time for my milk to actually come in and when it did it wasn't that much:( I will update on this in my next post.
Things went smoothly coming home and things were going well until my first night home and that is where I will write my next post.

I'm still here

I promise I'm still here, it has just been one thing after another around here! I'm hoping to get our little girl's birth story posted this weekend or early next week:) Like I've said I've been dealing with a lot and trying to get adjusted. Hubby goes back to work on Tuesday so reality will really set in, then.
I'm having issues with breast feeding, I'm very thankful that I'm even producing milk since as I've said before I had breast reduction/ lift some time ago. But I wasn't producing much milk, thankfully I mentioned it to my OB and he gave me a prescription that should help- fingers crossed. The other issues are that the little one isn't much on breast feeding, and she doesn't latch properly:( I'm not sure what to do there. In the mean time I'm pumping, and still offering the breast hoping she will breast feed.
Another issue that I've been dealing with is the night that I came home from the hospital my c-section incision opened up! Freaked me out!!! They had used staples, and took those out right before I left the hospital. Anyhow I've been going back and forth to the doctors to have it looked at/ re-checked; as well as having home health come every day to pack it, clean it and bandage it. My mom has been coming in the evenings to do the same thing because it has to be done twice a day. I'm just hoping it heals ups quickly! Anyhoo this is a little of what I've been dealing with:( I figured while I was pumping I could try and type up a post in my phone- first time I've done this hope it works!
I'm still trying to read and comment on everyone's posts. Hope you all have a Happy and Safe fourth of July!!