Two Weeks Down, 17 Years and 50 Weeks To Go

The New Torres Family

Wowee, it's been a long two weeks. How can it be that at the same time it feels like an incredibly short two weeks too? It seems like we've had Alessandra forever already and yet we are still trying to figure her out. Well, I suppose I should tell my side of the story to document the whole thing. A story I'll undoubtedly relay to little Ali every September 7th just like my mom does to me every January 3rd (my birthday)..."Do you know that x amount of years ago I was in labor for THREE DAYS with you???" Anyway, buckle up since this will most likely be a novel of a post.

Let us go back to Saturday morning, September the 6th. While lying in bed I thought I felt a little "trickle". At that point I was pretty doubtful that anything exciting would happen between then and my induction scheduled for Monday morning, but without going into too much detail it just felt a little different than anything else that had been happening for the last ten months. That in conjunction with Doctor West telling me that she thought there might be a good chance that I could go before Monday prompted me to err on the side of caution and give the on call doctor a jingle. After a brief Q&A session, Doctor Frisch thought I should make a trip into the MAC (Maternal Assessment Center) at the hospital to see if my water had indeed broken. Statistics will tell you that only 10-15% of women experience their water breaking before contractions begin and once it does break, you should head to the hospital as soon as possible since that bag of waters protects the baby from all sorts of bacteria and other squirmy germies. So, I made the call that Ricardo had been waiting for for 41 weeks..."Honey, It's time!" Of course, his ideal scenario would NOT be my having pulled him out of the middle of a basketball game, but such is life. :) Off we went to the hospital knowing that the next time we head home we could very well not be alone any longer. After a brief check in and a few tests done at the MAC, however, it was determined that I had not ruptured and we were subsequently sent home. Darn.

Fast forward to around 9:30 Saturday evening when I was doing a load of laundry that I would most assuredly not be able to get accomplished following Monday's induction. I bent over to grab a pile of towels to throw in and I felt a "pop". Upon straightening up to full posture I felt a very definitive gush...Lovely. Glad I was already doing a load of laundry, I guess. What I learned from that morning's adventure is that if my water had broken, then I should lay down with a towel underneath and it should continue to flow out. So I did. And it didn't. Either way, at this point I'm going bonkers. So, I called Doctor Frisch again who told me that she would hate for me to go all the way into the MAC again only to get sent home, so I ought to sit tight and see if anything else Earth-shattering occurs. Great. All of a sudden I'm not only paranoid about every little thing that happens, but now I'm very quickly earning the reputation of the hypochondriac pregnant lady that is ruining the good Doctor's Saturday night.

Lesson learned, I decide to retire for the evening. Or so I think. About an hour later I started having some contractions. I resolve to not call in since the infamous Braxton Hicks contractions are known to be some pretty good fakeouts. Then the Braxton Hicks started coming closer and closer together and were more painful than well...ANYTHING I've ever felt before (and I hope to ever feel again.) I thought I had a pretty good tolerance for pain too. Little did I know that upon feeling these mamma jammas, I'd literally shake like a leaf and sweat like a Gladiator in the middle of a death match. If this wasn't real labor, then I decided right then and there that I don't ever want to go through real labor, because any pain worse than that just might kill me. Time to call my new stalking interest, Doctor Frisch. Either because she was tired of me calling her or else she really did believe me this time, she advised me to go ahead and go into the MAC again.

Never before have I gotten such VIP treatment! Ricardo dropped me off at the front door of the Emergency Room where my very own wheelchair escort was summoned. As nice as the lady was that was pushing me from the ER to the MAC, I sure hope she was used to pushing ladies in labor. I just couldn't seem to engage in a productive conversation with her like she wanted to. Sorry Super Nice Wheelchair-Pusher Lady! (She told me her name, but she couldn't expect me to remember it, could she?!?) At the MAC, the same tests were administered with very different results this time. I was dilated to a 4 and was 100% effaced...WELL on my way into labor. Admit One, please! I officially had earned my ticket into the Having a Baby show! Wardrobe! Grab this fine young lady her costume...The very sexy hospital gown and robe! Get her into her labor and delivery room! While all of this was happening, all I could think of at this point was the Epidural and how long it would be before I met Saint Anesthesiologist. (Has he been canonized yet? If not, then he should be!)

I feel like there were two different parts of my labor. Pre- and Post-Epidural. Pre = Terrible. Post = Not so awful. An hour after the MAC assessment, I was checked again and was dilated to an 8. Little Ali was still pretty far up there though, so they thought I should take a little snooze and relax before I had to start pushing while we waited for my body to work her down a little more. Cardo unfolded the cot that would be his for the next three days and I did the best I could to take a catnap while nurses occasionally came in and poked and prodded at me. We slept until around 8:00 Sunday morning when Doctor Frisch thought we should give it another hour before we started pushing since Alessandra was "sunny side up"...Meaning she was face up, where all the little bumps of her facial features would make it more difficult to get out from under the pelvic bone. I laid in a "corkscrew" position to try and get her to turn to which she did not comply. Already being stubborn...Boy am I in for it. At 9:00, the pushing thus commenced.

I was completely numb from the waist down and well-rested. Cardo was an awesome counter. The nurse and Doctor F. were great about telling me where to focus. It should come as no surprise with all of these factors then that evidently, I am a "good pusher"! Sort of equally frustrating and encouraging at the same time is that Dr. F. told me that had Ali been face down like she should have been, I would have had her out in 15 minutes! Instead, almost 4 hours later, we were all scratching our heads. Dr. F. decided that our last resort before I got booked for a C-Section was to bust out the Hoover...That's right, we were attempting to vacuum my little one out! At that point I was willing to try anything, so it sounded like a great idea to me! I have no idea how it even works since I was just concentrating on getting her out, but however it operates, it did the trick! Hooray!! Alessandra to this day has a little tripod of scabs on her head, and for her first few days had a giant hickey where it suctioned her out, poor peanut. Because of this minor trauma to her head, they had to watch her for jaundice for the first few days, but she turned out just fine.

Alessandra's First Few Minutes

After 12 Hours in Labor, I am Exhausted

Since that moment, the last 16 days have been a whirlwind. As much as it seems like I am living the same day over and over again (changing diapers, nursing, babbling baby talk, then repeat a minimum of 12 times a day), at the risk of sounding too cliche, being a parent is so rewarding too. I sometimes catch myself just staring at her tiny fingers and toes and can't believe that we made those little digits. Her facial expressions are so cute and she has no idea what she's even doing just yet. Here is this little human being that we are entirely responsible for and how can we be so sure that we are doing the right thing in order to make her a good citizen? Only time will tell, I guess. Until then, I'll just continue to obsess over the fact that I shall now become a mother from Good Housekeeping. Would anyone care for a souffle? No? Okey Doke. Mickey D's it is.

Through all of this we have had nothing short of an amazing support system amongst friends, relatives, and neighbors. I can't get over how folks come out of the woodwork to show such generosity and well wishes. We have been showered with so many gifts, cards, meals, flowers, and visits that my list of thank you cards to go out is impossibly long! I promise I will be sending something out (as well as birth announcements) very soon! I'm finally getting this routine down and will soon be able to figure out some extra time to write them out. For now, please know that we are so incredibly grateful and realize that we are one of the luckiest families on Earth!

And now a brief (and nowhere complete) history of the past two weeks in a montage of photos:

Angie Pays a Visit

Angel and Isabella

Daddy Takes a Break from the MSU Game?!? Amazing!

Cousins Isabella, Alexis, and Aunt Dawn

Taking a Rest After a Long Day!

Grandma Jo (who has an amazing ability to calm Ali down)

Nancy, Gabriella and Carlos

Jessica

Cousin Katie

Liza

Grandma Jo, Sawyer and My Engorged Breasts (I feel like they deserve their own recognition since by all rights they were an entire separate entity that day)

Christine, Serena, and Steve

Also, under the Great News Umbrella to those of my constant readers, Jen from the office had her gorgous boy as well! Congrats to the Uecker family and please welcome Ethan John to the baby boom!

Shane, Jen, new big brother Noah and baby Ethan

Ethan was another big boy: Born at 9 lbs, 10 ounces and 22 inches long!



Daddy-to-Be (at the time) Ricardo Practicing with Ethan

Sorry about the long gap in posting. Hopefully I'll continue the updates weekly as I have been doing, but who can say with my new career in motherhood taking up most of my time??? I want to keep you all updated on Ali Mae's progress and this seems to be a viable method of doing so, so I fully intend on making an effort! That being said, I'll talk to you next week! (I hope.)

Hugs!

Danielle

Alessandra Mae Torres

Family and Friends,

A quick update from dad since Mom is so busy feeding the baby. :) It has been an amazing past 5 days since our little addition into our family. Alessandra was born on Sunday at 12:49 pm. She weighed 7 lbs and 6 ounces and was over 21 inches in length.

Danielle was amazing during birth and only told me to quit touching her only once, it was amazing. :) The dr's and nurses were terrific and were quick to fall in love with Danielle as she used her charm to win the whole hospital staff over. It seemed as though the nurses just liked to come in our room to talk to us.

We had a handful of visitors at the hospital on day 2. Dawn and my nieces, Jess and Liza. Thank you for your visit, it is greatly appreciated. We also had a dinner sent to use from my sister from Michigan at the hospital. Thanks landa! The cafeteria had closed at 7 and I was getting sick and tired of eating McDonalds. Seriously, do the hospitals want us to have a heart attack on the spot.

Alessandra is doing fine and we will have an update from Momma Torres here in a few days. We have Grandma Jo coming in today from Fort Myers and then next week Grandma Torres. Then we have Kristy Tolley coming in for 5 days during the first week of October, so we will be filled with family the next month or so.

It feels good to be home and have our baby girl back at our house. I will sign off for now but would like to thank everybody for their calls, emails and prayers.

here are a few more photos:

And Yes, she is a Daddy's girl. I now know the true meaning of life. :)

Ricardo, Danielle and Alessandra

Our Day[s?] Are Numbered

Still building castles in the sky! (Just...the...twooo of us, just the two of us, yooouuu and Iiiiiiiiii....)

Not much activity throughout the weekend and I actually felt markedly better this weekend and first part of the week as compared to the week before. It's definitely an interesting conundrum when you actually find yourself HOPING to feel yucky under the assumption that feeling yucky is the precursor to going into labor. You can imagine my surprise then, when upon getting my cervix checked on Wednesday I was dilated to a 3! All this time my body was working on getting this baby out while I was feeling halfway decent!

Also out of yesterdays' appointment, for the first time ever I had high blood pressure! Blood pressure numbers have never made sense to me because it's always been so good (or so they've told me), so when they told me that I was 140 over 100 I wasn't immediately aware that it was something to be concerned about until Doc came in and asked "What's up with your blood pressure?!?" Of course, I sound like an idiot..."Why, is it not good??" Apparently, not so much. So late in my pregnancy, it could indicate preeclampsia which in conjunction with a few other symptoms would have made them want to deliver ASAP. She immediately summoned me to the "monitoring room" where I was strapped to a couple of belts and a machine that keeps track of Baby's heart rate as well as my contractions. They also gave me a little button that I had to push each time I felt movement that was not unlike what I imagine the button looks like when you get to administer your own Morphine in more dire circumstances. Only in our case, instead of getting a hot dose of mind-numbing narcotics, we got a happy little music note stamped onto her charts! The method to the madness was first and foremost, to check on Baby and make sure that she's feeling good, and second, to sit, read, and relax in hopes to get my blood pressure down a bit. As indicated by the charts, the weather is just peachy in Uterus Universe and Baby is a happy camper...No wonder she doesn't want to come out! My blood pressure did drop ever-so-slightly which made her feel a bit more comfortable with sending me home with no immediate delivery plans. My prescription for the week was to immediately stop going into the office and come back on Friday morning for a follow up blood pressure check.

Probably the most exciting development coming out of yesterday's appointment was the definitive birthdate of our girl should I not go before then. (Which Doc thought there still is a very good chance I could given my move from 1-3 in one week!) We officially have an appointment scheduled for an induction Monday, September 8th at 7:30am. From what I understand after talking with other friends and family who were induced, this puts us at having a baby just around suppertime. Which will be fine because I have a feeling I'll be starving by then! Hooray for hospital food!

Here's a blast from the past...A bona fide 51 pounds later, I can't even imagine anymore...

Now:


Then, at 13 weeks, when I had written that I had just started "showing". Ha! This little grasshopper had so much to learn about "showing", no?!?:



So, as I've been telling everyone since yesterday, as pregnant and uncomfortable as I've been, it took yesterday's appointment full of new developments and actual, concrete dates to make this whole experience seem very, very REAL all of a sudden. I can't believe that in 4 days AT THE MOST, I'm going to be a mom. How bizarre. I can also tell you with utter certainity that next week's post will be very different than the last few since March.

Here's signing off for the last time as "Just Me",

Danielle