Gaining weight

Monday Grace and mommy went to see a lactation consultant. She told us that Grace wasn't' getting enough to eat, and told us to supplement formula along with nursing. They have a system that feeds a little tube into her mouth as she nurses. In the appointment, Grace got 10 cc of formula down in a matter of seconds. We need to be sure to feed her 10 times a day and that she gets at least 18 oz in a 24 hr period. That means feeding her every 2 hrs during the day, and waking her every 3 hrs at night.

Wednesday, after 2 days of this, Grace gained 6.5 oz and was back up to her birth weight. They said to keep feeding her in the time schedule as before, but that we could give her less formula.

Thursday, at her wt. check up with the Dr., she had gained another 3 oz. We have another follow up at the clinic (lactation consultant) on Tuesday, and we will see what they say about feeding her and if we need to keep the formula going or if she can just nurse. We'll keep you all posted.

Dr.s Appointments

Grace with Dr. Guetzko. This is her 2nd week check up and weight follow up. She stayed the same in length as the week before, but her head grew another 1/4 cm, putting her at 14 cm, and her weight went up 4 oz, putting her at 6lbs 10 oz. She hasn't yet caught up to her birth weight of 6lbs 15 oz, so the Dr. wants us to feed her more often and wants to see her in a week to see if that goes up. She Mentioned we may want to consider supplementing with formula, but we can wait to see how she does this week first.

She's growing so fast.

Last week at her first check up Grace was only 6 days old. She grew 1 1/4 in, her head grew 3/4 cm, and her weight dropped to 6 lbs 6 oz. It's typical for babies to lose weight at first, so there's nothing to worry about here.

Grace's pediatrician, Dr. Lisa Guetzko.

Bath Time

Pics of her first couple baths.
She seemed to like the bath since the water was warm. She was just unhappy at this moment. I think we had put her back in and the netting was now cold.

Getting dried off with her Winnie the Pooh towel.

Awww, that's better isn't it!?

Visitors at home

Sunday Nov. 1st, 2 days old.

Grace with her aunt Stephanie.

Cousin Drew

Cousin Ellie

Uncle Jon

We had a great visit with Tracy's brother and family on Sunday the 1st. They each had a turn to hold the baby, and we all had a wonderful time.

Wednesday Nov. 4th

Our church arranged to bring dinners for us when we first returned from the hospital. Here's Grace with Elena and her daughter. They brought us meals for Wednesday and Thursday nights.

Sunday Nov. 8th

The Lillviks stopped by after a trip to Big Bear. Here's Abigail with Grace.

Abigail, Alice & Grace

We finally got a couple good shots with Alice and Grace. She kept getting fussy.


Hope and Grace
We're really glad you guys were able to come, we had a great visit.

At the hospital

Getting her 1st bath at the hospital.

Only a few hrs old, in the postpartum room with GramZ, and Grandma.

Grandma Holladay

Pop

Signing Grace's birth certificate.

Look at her tiny little feet.

Grace and mommy.

Daddy and Grace, after 4-5 hrs sleep on a hard hospital floor, just hrs after a rather intense labor.

Getting her footprints taken.

GrampZ, (Great) Grandma Pat, and GramZ

Three Generations, the fourth is still in bed.

D-day, A baby story

We were scheduled to be induced on Wednesday, Oct. 28th at 10pm, but the hospital said they were too busy and had to put us on hold. This is common here, we are told, that's why they wanted to get us on the schedule so badly. We were expecting to get a call sometime in the night or early morning hrs, but it never came. Thursday am we decided to take matters into our own hands, and Tracy took a dose of Castor oil. by 3pm she started having steady but light contractions, and the Dr.s office told us to go on to the hospital. We go there around 5pm, and finally got in a room for observation around 7pm.

(Tracy in the last available labor bed, in a post op room for recovering c-section patients. There was a lady in here waiting to transfer to a postpartum room when they brought us in.)

When they hooked her up to the monitors, they said the contractions weren't strong enough to dilate, but they were still coming steadily. Since we were already there and scheduled for induction, they decided to keep us, and told us we would get the next available labor room, and they would start the induction when we got there.

(Tracy with our focal point. We bought this little cheetah for baby Grace when we were at the Wild Animal Park in San Diego this summer.)

We finally got in the room around 11pm, and they started the pitocin around 1pm, and told us to try to get some sleep. There were no comfy chairs, like it showed in the picture when we had our virtual tour of this facility, so Peter had to sleep on the floor. He was given a couple blankets, and several pillows, but he didn't have a very good night's sleep.

Around 6am the contractions were strong enough to keep her awake, so we decided to get up. Both our mothers were able to be there during labor, and delivery. The proud grandfathers were also there in the beginning, but as the contractions got stronger, they had to wait in the lobby.

After a while, the cheetah didn't work as the focal point any more, so Peter just got real close, and the love I saw in his face was more precious than I can even describe. It got me though like nothing else could have. Thanks Honey!

Early on I had nubane(?), an IV pain killer that really made me loopy. As it began to wear off, I thought there was no way I could do this without an epidural. After a while, as we read over the possible side effects, the pain seemed to be bearable. I asked the nurse if it was gonna get much worse, and she said I was pretty much at the peak, there would just be more pressure, and the epi wouldn't relieve that anyway, so we decided NOT to get it.

There were a couple times when the baby was in distress, but the nurse said there was nothing to worry about. the first time she had me lean to one side, and that seemed to help. The second time, she had to start me on oxygen. I had to breath that between contractions. When I was 9.5 cm dilated, and in transition labor, she said not to push. A but later, she said I could "half" push (which neither mother had heard of before.) after an hour and a half of that, the Dr. finally came in at 4:10, and 2 minutes, and 2 contractions later, Baby Grace was born

Baby Grace was born.
Grace Jacqueline Holladay was born at 4:12pm on Friday Oct. 30, 2009, weighing 6lbs 150z, and was 18.5 in long. Here she is getting cleaned off right after birth.

Peter was disappointed not to be able to cut the cord. He asked, but it was done before any of us knew what happened. The cord was wrapped around her neck, so the Dr. acted quickly. Once she was out, the Dr. said they could start taking pictures. He didn't let us take any of the delivery itself. He was in the room no more than five minutes, it seemed.

Grace on the scale. Doesn't look like she likes that.

I'm really glad they let all the grandparents in right after she was born. First of all, only 2 maybe 3 visitors are aloud at a time and secondly, they give the baby and her parents a golden hour, before they transfer us to a postpartum room, so this was a real treat for everyone to come in and see her so soon, and not making them wait a whole hr.

Before they left, Pop (Peter's dad) had everyone gather around my bed, and we all held hands as he prayed over us. It was really great to have them all there to share in this special time.

A lot of hospitals now encourage skin to skin contact with mammy and baby for an hour as soon after birth as possible. This allows bonding to happen and, I must say, is such a special time.

In class, we learned that if baby's body temperature is too hot or cold, mommy's adjusts to help baby out. Not sure if this happened, I just know it was really special to have her right there.

After, an hr with mommy, daddy got to hold her too. They brought in some blankets to cover him up, and daddy held her on his chest. It was a very special moment!

Our little burrito girl.

Getting ready to take her first bath. That's daddy holding her down.

Peter got to go with Grace and take pictures and video of her first bath in the hospital, as they got me ready to transfer to my postpartum room. The grandparents all went out for a bite to eat and got back just in time to catch the tail end of her bath.

That's better. All cleaned up. They said it looked like she would have curly hair. When it gets wet, it sort of looks like it, but it's totally straight when it drys.

Getting dressed.

Getting her little hat put on. They cut out a little piece of a hat, and made a little bow for her. It was very cute!