Some firsts and a lesson learned

We've had quite an eventful couple weeks and some things we did together were things she got to do for the first time. Like today she wouldn't go down for a nap. At all. That was a first, and hopefully won't happen again for a while. She was a tornado by bedtime just running through the house a swiping things off tables, shelves and whatever else got in her path. I ended up putting her to bed a half hour early. She got out of bed almost immediately after I left the room, but after I put her back in bed she passed out quickly. That last canine is taking it's time coming in and is sure taking us all for a ride.

Our other firsts were more fun, we went to the petstore last week so she can see some real fishes. She wasn't sure what to make of them at first but did become quite interested, and kept waving hi at them. She is so funny, she waves at everyone and everything.




Another first, she had spaghetti. I know that most kids have it at a much younger age but it for some reason never occurred to me to give her any, but this time I was craving it and she seemed to enjoy it too. I also discovered that pasta sauce will camouflage things that baby won't usually eat, resulting in baby eating these things without knowing. I only sneaked a few meatballs in this time, but next time I'm putting veggies in it!

and as always waving hi


Against my mother's approval I gave her a chocolate sandwich cookie, I don't give her sugar often or much of it, but in moderation I don't think it's horrible. Plus most of it seems to land on her face anyways. And it makes for some cute pictures.


We got a new stroller, thanks to my awesome family who decided to get this as my VERY early (3 months to be exact) birthday present. Our old stroller is a full size that's pretty high off the ground, this one is an umbrella stroller and Penni is able to climb in and out on her own and she loves it!


She decided that trying on mom's shoes is the new cool thing to do, and it's just the cutest.



Her new favorite toy is this spinning top, she has no idea how to get it going but she tries. If someone else starts it for her she just grabs it haha, she doesn't care to watch it spin she wants to do it on her own.




And a lesson I learned this past week is that you can't press the "close the garage" button from inside and attempt to run out before the door hits the ground WHILE holding a child. It just doesn't work. p.s. no children were harmed in the attempt.
And I have to share my latest favorite thing is the big band station on the radio that doesn't have commercials. It's awesome!

Playing catch up

I never kept a baby book, perhaps I should have but I didn't want to set myself up for failure. I'm not good about keeping things like that up to date. So here is what I remember from her firsts before I forget them completely.
She was holding her head up pretty good at 7 weeks and at 2.5 months I was able to wear her in the sling up right, she had enough head control by then for that.


She started sitting on her own at 4.5 months and was sitting well for more than a few seconds at 5 months. Here is her sitting at 4 months, I think she was more surprised by this new development than I was :)


Rolling was a different story, she didn't want to roll I didn't think she ever would, but she did. At 6 months old! Stubborn baby, but we love her so.
She got her first tooth at 7.5 months, even though she was teething since 4 months old. But they came fast by her first birthday she had 8 teeth, and right now at 17.5 months she has 15! Only 1 more to go and then I heard that a break is due to us, the last 4 aren't suppose to come till she is closer to 2. I'm ready for that break! very ready indeed.

Crawling was another thing that she was stubborn about, she started belly crawling at 8 months and crawling on all 4s at 9 months.
She'd get very frustrated trying to get up on all 4s

at 8 months she was also trying to pull up


Finally crawling like a big girl at 9 months old

also first time at the beach at 9 months old


She didn't walk till 13 months, but from 11 months on she used everything as a push toy to help her get around

and also started to seriously bond with the dog haha


At 17 months old (now) she still doesnt say much, says "mama, hi, bye, nah (take in russian), doggy (when she feels like it)" She is a very determined little munchkin and loves to get into things she isn't suppose to. Regardless she is so much fun to be around and is such a blessing.

Ok now that we are caught up in the "baby book" department I can write about current goings ons which I will, soon. I promise.

The begining

I wanted to start this so I can keep a diary of sorts of my baby's life, something she can read when she is older. And since we are starting from the beginning it seems appropriate to start with her birth story. So here it goes, December 4th of 2008.

The birth story of Penelope Ada

Well I had an appt. and an NST on Dec. 2nd. I was closed but 80% efaced and no contractions on the NST. I also had some bloody mucous discharge that morning. The day went by uneventfully, I had some more bloody discharge before going to sleep and that was it. I woke up a little past 2am with cramps in my lower belly and back. They were coming less than 10 mins apart, sometimes as frequently as 4 or 5 mins apart. I started getting nervous and realized that this is probably the start of something. Stayed awake for an hour or so and then decided that if this is the real deal I should probably get some rest. I tried to go back to sleep and even though I was very tired I could not sleep through the "cramps" they were tolerable but quite intense. I started worrying that it's back labor, I've had U/S's every 2 weeks and she's been face up for the last 6 or so weeks. So after a night of no sleep and constant contractions (by this point I figured that's what it must be lol) I told my husband in the morning that he can't go to work that day because I may be in labor and we should go get me checked. He was skeptical, said I didn't seem like I was in that much pain, which I told him it was tolerable but definitely there. We cleaned a bit that morning, took the dog for a walk and headed out to the hospital around 11am. They monitored me for a few hours, my contractions were very irregular and registering as very mild, even though laying on my back while being monitored sucked, it put that much more pressure where it already hurt. They checked me and I was 2-3cms so at least I knew it was the real deal and something was happening. Then they did an U/S to check fluid levels which were fine, I asked if she was still face up and yes of course she was lol. So we got sent home, they said I was in "very early labor" (didn't seem that early to me lol since I went from close to 2-3cms in 24hrs, that seemed like steady progress to me)

Home we went, stopped by a mexican restaurant and I made sure to eat some of that spicy salsalol, it also turned out ot be my last meal for many many hours. Contractions were getting a bit more intense, still tolerable but I had to pause and wait them out when they came on. Sitting in the car through them sucked. I tried to keep myself occupied at home, I kept contraction master open all day but they seemed to be consistently 7-9 mins apart and refused to get closer. I got frustrated and closed the site. By 6pm or so the contractions were pretty intense I had to breathe through them and walking through them helped too. But I was definitely feeling the back labor and it was not fun. I got in the tub for a few hours, it didn't help much but it spaced out the contractions a bit more so it gave me more of a break in between. I knew that it could slow down labor, but by this point after a night of no sleep and a whole of contractions I just wanted a break. When I got out of the tub I started timing them again and they were 5-7mins apart, and pretty painful. My husband wasn't making any more comments about not noticing that I was not in pain lol, but he did rub my back when I had the contractions which helped a bit. I remember coming on JM for a while and some girls gave me links to a site that gave suggestions on how to turn a face up baby, so I tried that for a few hours, tried being on all fours during contractions, they still were quite painful, I was quite positive she was still face up. By midnight they were steadily 4-5 mins apart and very painful, my husband wanted to wait for a little while longer to make sure they don't space out and I don't get sent home again. I told him if they try to send me home I'm going to throw a fit 'cause I was pretty miserable by now. At 3am we finally headed back to the hospital. I noticed that when I was up and moving the contractions would come every 3 mins but laying down or being on all fours they were about 5 mins apart.

We got to the hospital I got hooked up again, the contractions were barely registering as mild on the monitor which pissed me off. The nurse saw the pain I was in and offered me epidural right away lol, even though I wasn't even admitted yet. I told her I wanted to be checked first and if I was pretty far along I'd try it natural. It took the doctor what seemed like an eternity to come check me, when she did I was only 3.5-4cms. That frustrated me, she did an U/S fluid levels were still fine and she was still face up. Argh, they sent me walking for an hour. The contractions were coming every 2-3 mins and lasting almost 2 mins, they were excruciating by now. At one point I broke down crying and told my husband all I wanted to do was sleep a little (this was my second night in a row of no sleep) I told him I can't push the baby out being this exhausted, but if I took the epi I felt like I was incapable of doing what should be so natural to me. He reassured me that it's alright, I need to do what I had to get her here safely and if I needed help that's ok too. I felt like I wasn't dilating because i would tense up so much with every contraction just trying to survive them. We finally went back and they hooked me up again, contractions were still not registering very well, the doctor came back and said that she believes me and sometimes the monitors fail, at least that was comforting. She checked me and I was 4-5cms and being admitted. That was a relief, if they tried to send me home at this point I would have probably threatened someone's life. They offered me epidural again and I caved, I just could take it anymore. It was 6am by now and I was exhausted, with each contraction tehre was a lot of pressure in my back the belly would cramp up and it was very painful, and my hips felt like someone was tearing them apart.

I got taken to a nice LDR room (which I was happy about) and was told the anesthesiologist should be there shortly. By now I was almost in tears with every contraction. We were in the room for maybe 20 mins when the nurse came back and said taht because teh baby has an anomaly I have to be moved to a labor room in the front where the nurse's station is. That sucked I went from a big room to a tiny labor room that was freezing. I chose to walk each time they moved me, it took forever to walk those 100 feet of hallway lol. Once I was in the labor room they promised me epidural as soon as possible. I was hysterical by now with every contraction, I didn't scream just a whole lot of moaning groaning and some tears. Oh I also got the shakes, so I've been shaking since about 3 am and it was really getting on my nerves. When the anesthesiologist got there I was in the middle of a horrible contraction, he walked in and said "well someone is ready". It only took him about 5 mins to get the epi in and it kicked in pretty much right away and I felt like a different person. Except just like he said the shakes got worse. It was 8am by now and I wanted to try and nap before I had to start pushing, I was very nervous about not having the energy to push her out. They checked me right after the epi and I was 5cms. I was very amused that my butt felt completely numb, I never thought of that, and it was quite funny to me, also I kept farting and not realizing it 'cause my butt was numb lol, my husband found it quite funny too. I also got a catheter and felt pretty good (except those darn shakes) contractions were still not registering very high, but by this point I didn't care 'cause I knew that I was definitely in labor. I lost track of time at this point too, I was dozing in and out of sleep, some hours later I got checked and I was 8-9cms! I was very excited that my labor didn't slow down with the epi, but seemed to speed up actually. I figured it's because I was actually relaxed and my body was doing what it needed to.

I was check around 1pm and was complete but the cervix had a "lip" they said I can try to push through it but it's better to wait it out to go away on it's own, it'll make pushing faster and easier too. By this point I was starting to feel the contractions again, they did warn me that once she is very low and "in the bones" the epi won't be too effective anymore. It only took about 15 mins for them to come back full force, my mom and sister arrived sometime around then and got to watch me enjoy the last hour of my back labor, it seemed like forever till they came back to check me and I was ready to push, I asked if she was still face up and the doctor said "seems like it" and she was at zero station. I started pushing with the nurse in the labor room and after a few pushes she said the baby's head was right there.

I got moved yet again to a delivery room, only 1 person was allowed, so my mom and sister had to sit in the waiting room, by this time I was very nervous, but it felt good to push because I felt like I was able to do something against the pain of the contractions, and all this was going to lead somewhere. The only thing that still felt sort of numb was the opening of the vagina. Every time I pushed the nurse kept saying "harder harder harder" I thought I wasn't doing a good enough job and considered asking them to turn off the epi so I can feel better when I push, but the I didn't want to feel "the ring of fire". I asked if I'm going to be able to hold her right away and they said no because of the "condition" I was quite upset about that. There were about 15 people in the room. Several doctors, NICU staff for Penni and it's a teaching hospital so a lot of interns standing around staring at me . She was born after 38 hours of back labor and about 30 mins of pushing, on Dec. 4th at 3:59pm, 7lbs 12ozs 20.5" long. When she came out it was so surreal I couldn't believe it. The first thing that struck me was how cute she was and how tiny. They took her away under the warmer and were working on her for a good few mins and I couldn't see her at all. Finally they were ready to take her to the NICU and one of the nurses brought her by to show me and I grabbed my baby out of her arms, as soon as she heard my voice she calmed down and just layed on my chest staring at me. They let me hold her for maybe a min. and took her away and I sat there crying while everything else happened. My husband followed her to the NICU came back a bit later 'cause they kicked him out, said she already scratched up her whole face (her nails were insanely long). I decided that I prefer delivery to labor lol, but either way the end result was very worth it.

First time really holding my baby, the day after her birth