First few months of motherhood

We got home from the hospital on June 15th. While at the hospital everything was going great. Karlie was latching to my breast without any problems. As soon as we got home, I could not get her to latch for anything. I wanted to exclusively breastfeed so I resisted the suggestion to give her some formula. Thank goodness my mom and husband were there to support me. I was exhausted and frustated and Karlie was screaming. Finally, after a few hours I agreed to give her a bottle of formula. I ended up supplementing her for 3 more days until my milk came in.

Once my milk came in, 5 days after delivery, I had no need for formula. All I had to do was think about feeding her and milk started pouring out of my breast! Needless to say, I have a freezer full of breast milk. Still to this day, Karlie has only had breast milk with the exception of the first couple to days. It is so amazing to know that my body provides everything she needs. And the bonding experience is wonderful. At her 2 month appointment she weighed 11 lbs 15oz and was in the 91st precentile for weight.

I have gotten used to feeding her every 2-4 hours. I was had the first couple of weeks, especially at night. And my nipples were so sore! Lanolin made it bareable. Now at 2 1/2 months she sleeps at least 5 hours at night. One night she slept for 7 hours straight! I woke up in a panic and had to make sure she was ok. She was fine. I am finding that she sleeps best in her crib and in her room. When she wakes up at 3:00 am to eat, I usually keep her in bed with me to snuggle until daddy gets up for work.

For the first 2 months poor Karlie was so gassy. She would scream at the top of her lungs with tears running down her face. It broke my heart beacuse I felt so helpless. We gave her gas drops and put some pressure on her belly. But nothing could take away her pain right away. Now we give her gas drops to prevent these epidsodes. The doctor thinks she has colic but in the last week we haven't had another episode.

We are finally settling into a routine. If she doesn't have her 3 hour nap during the day, she is one crabby patty. I am lucky at the timing of everything. My maternity leave ended and the next day I started the 10 day clearing process to get out of the Army. Which, for those who have cleared before know, is really only about 2 days of clearing and chilling out the rest. My best friend, Chelsie babysat Karlie the first day. I cried as I drove off, not because I was worried but because I missed her already. The next day daddy had Karlie duty. As soon as my 10 days were done, I got my DD214 and started transitional leave. I currently have one day left in the Army and hope I get started as a civilian on my floor by October. I did join the reserves and get to wear the uniform one weekend a month for the next two years. I think it will be a good transition into civilian life.

Karlie has grown so much in the last 2 months. She smiles all the time, especially when she wakes up. And she loves to coo at us. Its like she is telling us what is on her mind. She scrunches her eyebrows and tells us what she thinks. I love it and could listen to her beautiful voice all day long. She doesn't like tummy time but is getting good at holding up her head. I'm sure she'll be crawling all over the place before I know it.

                                                     Our first family photo

                                              My beautiful baby girl

                                             about 1 month old here

The delivery

On the evening of Sunday June 12 me, Kevin, my mom and Mike headed to WBAMC. When we got there it started getting busy so they let me eat dinner and walk around until they could start my induction. Finally at 9:30 pm the midwife came in to place my foley bulb and give me cytotec. By about midnight I was pretty uncomfortable. For those who know me know my pain tolerance is very, very low. It was too busy for me to get up and walk so I asked for my epidural. Finally at 3:30 am I got my epidural/spinal. It was awesome! I kept thinking, why did I want to do this natural?! Kevin decided to video tape the entire process. A few minutes later they started the pitocin.

                                                       Ready to meet our baby!

At 8:00 am on June 13th, Dr. Brown ( the best ob/gyn EVER!) came in to see me and notify me that the foley bulb wasn't placed right and I was still only 1 cm. My pitocin was at 20mU already and we were going on 12 hours with NO progress. I broke down and cried. I was thinking of the nurse curse again and how my chances of getting a c-section were pretty high. After 2 abdominal surgeries, I did not want a third. So Dr. Brown placed another foley bulb. Finally at about 4:30pm it came out and I was what we on L&D refer to as a "foley bulb 5." Meaning I was 5 cm but not in active labor. The midwife talked with Dr. Brown and we decided to turn off the pitocin and try cytotec again. At 8:00 the new midwife came in and told me I was still 5cm and wanted to break my water. At this point my epidural was becoming less and less effective. The CRNA had to keep redosing me every 3 hours. I started crying. I was hungry, nauseous from not eating, uncomfortable and felt like I would never get into active labor.

At about 11:00 pm I was checked again with no change in dilation but my contractions indicated I might be starting active labor. I was in a lot of pain and told the CRNA I was ready for him to redo my epidrual. He told me he figured I would probably end up with a c-section and wanted to wait to do a spinal when we got back to the OR. I was starting to give up hope. I finally got a few hours of sleep and at 3:00 am on June 14th, the midwife checked me and I was 7 cm! Yes! No c-section for this gal. I was so happy but then my epidural wore off again.

Around 5:30 am I felt lots of pressure down there. I call my nurse, Pat, and with a huge smile she told me I was completely dilated!!! She took care of me both nights so this was an accomplishment for us both. At about 6:00 am I started pushing. After an hour of pushing, I needed a break. I was in pain and wanted my epidural redosed. 45mins after the redose, the pain was back. I guess I was going to get my nautral childbirth expereice afterall. I pushed and pushed until I threw up, several times, but she just didn't want to come out. I begged Dr. Brown to use a vacuum but she said I could do it on my one. I wanted to give up so many times but I knew from what I had told my patients, there is only one way out and one way to get there.

Finally, after 39 hours of induction and 2 1/2 hours of pushing, Kevin placed Karlie in my arms at 8:22 am on June 14. I remember dreaming a few hours before her birth that he handed me a girl. And it was!
It was so amazing to meet this little person who had been putting her foot in my side and doing flips for the last several weeks of pregnancy. I was too tired to cry at that point. I got her to latch to my breast and looked down at her and lost it. I finally had my baby. We were all so tired. Kevin, Mike and my mom had stayed by my bedside the entire 39 hours. I remember wanting pancakes, french toast and hashbrowns, all the stuff I couldn't eat when I was pregnant due to the GDM. But when I finally got my tray I was too nauseous to eat! It was dissappointing, especially since I wasn't able to eat for the last 2 days.

                                                       Karlie Elizabeth Copley 7lbs 1oz

                                            Dr. Brown holding Karlie

After a day in postpartum we got to go home. I'll have to write about that tomorrow. I need to get some sleep before Karlie wakes up to eat in a few hours.

My first pregnancy

We found out we were pregnant on Oct 17, 2010. It was a shock to say the least as we had been trying for almost a year. I had an accupuncture appointment scheduled for the following week for infertility. (Needless to say I had to call and cancel) My boobs had been hurting for a few days now and I thought, what is going on with my body? I decided to take a pregnancy test, expecting to be disappointed yet again. When I picked up the test, I started screaming. Kevin was downstairs and asked my what was wrong. I shoved the test in his face and said, "I'm pregnant!" First words out of his mouth were, "no freaking way." I was so excited I was shaking. The very next thing I did was call my mom. She was so happy!

                                                      Our little peanut at 8 weeks

We decided not to tell anyone until we had an appointment and saw a heartbeat. Then we only wanted to tell a few people until I was in my second trimester. Working in the ob/gyn area makes you aware of all the bad things that can happen. We finally told everyone at the end of November. By that point I was feeling pretty confident. We had decided not to find out the sex of the baby. It was difficult to do but so worth it in the end. I felt like we were going to have a boy the entire pregnancy until right before I delivered Karlie.

We knew what we wanted the name to be if it was a girl but could not agree on a name for a boy. Kevin liked Colton and I liked Carson and Ethan. It was an ongoing battle since I was convinced we would have a boy. Well I sure was wrong! At 20 weeks I felt Karlie kick me for the first time and thought I just had a muscle twitch. By 21 weeks she was moving like crazy. At my ultrasound the tech said he could easily tell us the sex because she was moving so much, but we remained strong.

At 27 weeks I had my gestational diabetes (GDM) test and it was positive :( I started checking my blood sugar 4 times a day. I got 2 weeks to try and control my sugars with diet but I ended needing glyburide. I then knew, working labor and delivery, that I would be induced at 39 weeks. I had my heart set on a natural delivery where I did most of my laboring at home. At this point I was still determined not to get an epidural.

The pregnancy was going along as well as it could with GDM. I had weekly ultrasounds and bi-weekly NST's in the ADC. Then another growth scan to see how big the baby was getting. I was scared we would accidently find out the baby's sex with all the ultrasounds, but everyone was great about not telling us what they saw. At the end of May I went home for my baby shower. It was so much fun! When we got home, I noticed I had quite and bit of swelling. At my dr appointment my blood pressure was a little elevated so Dr. Brown ordered pre-e labs. Thanks to the nurse curse I did in fact develop pre-eclampsia at 35 weeks :( The new plan was bed rest for the rest of the pregnancy and an induction at 37 weeks.

                                                         34 weeks pregnant

I was really bummed out and knew my natural child birth dreams were over. It was a huge risk to not have an epidural with GDM and Pre-e. And on top of that to be induced at 37 weeks. So for then next to weeks I sat on the couch, ponding if the little one inside me was a boy or a girl.

Let's get this started

So since everyone else and their mom has started a blog, why not me? Not sure if many will follow this but I think I will appreciate my thoughts down the road. So as of today Kevin and I have been married for 2 years and we have a beautiful baby girl, Karlie who is 2 months and 2 weeks old. I wish I would have started this when I was pregnant, but I wrote everything in a journal :( So I am planning on giving an overview of my pregnancy and motherhood thus far. I hope you find this entertaining!