The First 2 Weeks

The first two weeks....wow, where do I start? The first two weeks were seriously some of the most challenging, yet rewarding, days of my life. No one can quite prepare you for how life with your newborn is going to be. But the first days, and weeks, were hard, frustrating, eye opening, stressful, and amazing all at once. It was wonderful having Taylor home with me and I was instantly amazed at how well he jumped into the daddy role and it made me so proud of him. Taylor has been such a huge help and calming influence through this whole thing...it has made me so proud and happy that he is my husband!

Zoe made it through a little jaundice scare her first week. We had to put her in the window and supplement with formula for a few days and she put on a whopping 5 ounces in one day and got back up to 8 pounds, 1 ounce so the doctor put us in the clear and said not to worry about the jaundice anymore. So that was our first hurdle.

After that it's been basically a trial and error of feeding and sleeping schedules. She's had a few rough nights and days and I'm still trying to figure out if she's getting enough breastfeeding, but around 2 weeks she started to get better and actually the past 3 nights she's slept almost 5 hours in a row and we've had to wake her up. So hopefully this won't jinx it but I think we've got a good sleeper on our hands...the key is just figuring out what it takes to get her to FALL asleep...that we're still working on. She definitely likes the car seat and Taylor can swing her in out and that works like a charm, she's also a fan of car rides and we even ventured out and had 2 lunch dates with Daddy that were big successes that she slept straight through.

Mommy's hormones have been a bit out of whack...they weren't kidding when people told me to expect random bouts of crying...but I guess that's not really out of the norm for me let's be honest! I'm a crier :) But Zoe will be 3 weeks old tomorrow, we go to the pediatrician finally and will hopefully get a lot of our questions answered, and each day is completely different so who knows but I do feel like it is getting easier!

Here's some pics to commemorate all the sweet visitors we had those first few weeks. We are so blessed to have so many friends and family to help out!




9 days old...and Mommy's beginning to feel normal again!


Papa C and Mamie


Aunt Dayna and Dee Dee with Parker


Whitley and Meagan Eppes

Zoe's Birth Story

So here's the first official documentation of Zoe's life! On January 10th, we went to the doctor one last time to see if we had any progress, and surprise, no go- doc said I was "maybe 1 cm" so needless to say, I was a little nervous and frustrated about the induction. But we went home, got the car all packed up, and basically twiddled our thumbs until it was 5 pm and time to go to the hospital.

So we show up at Baylor All Saints, and I walk up to the front desk and am like "Hi, I'm here to have a baby" and they set me up in a delivery room. By 7 pm, the cervidil was hooked up and the induction had officially started. Evidently the drug worked perfectly because an hour later, the nurse asked if I could feel those contractions and I was like "no, not yet!" and Taylor and I just kept on watching tv. After we watched The Bachelor (we couldn't watch the national championship game b/c the hospital didn't get ESPN!), Taylor went home to get some shuteye because we both thought it was going to be a long while. The doctor had repeatedly told us that cervidil takes a long time on most people, and only 5% actually got into labor the night of. So she gave me an Ambien and told me to try and get some rest. Well, guess what, I was part of the 5% anomaly who jumpstarts into labor because little did I know that by midnight, those "little" contractions were full blown, 2 1/2 minutes apart, kill me now I want my epidural contractions. So they give me this pain pill to help with the pain before I could get the epidural and it made me pretty loopy. By 4 am, I called Taylor in almost tears and told him to get up here. I think I was pretty drugged out because when he got there 20 minutes later, I could barely talk to him and had to just focus on the contractions that were now 1-2 minutes apart. They started the Pitocin and before I knew it the nurse came to check on me and I was already at 4 cm so I said bring on the epidural- this was at 6 am. Couldn't tell you if that needle looked scary or what, all I cared about was making the pain stop, and let me tell you, that thing was miraculous. Within minutes basically all the pain had stopped and I suddenly sobered up and could carry on a conversation again and felt like my old self. Taylor said it was like night and day how I changed.

Well by 8 am, the nurse came and checked on me I was 9 cm. We got all excited thinking that we had it easy and I mistakenly thought I was going to be one of those lucky ones that had an "easy labor." Dr. Hardt came in at 11 am and told us to get the family up here because this baby was a rockstar and was coming soon. We were pumped!!! We started looking at the clock....11:11 am came and went, and then 2 hours later it was close to 1:11 pm and we were still pushing. Well 2.5 hours later at 1:38 pm, Zoe finally came out. I remember the doctor asking me if it was ok to do an episiotomy and I was like ok, whatever, just get her out (sorry if this is TMI!) I remember when they put her on my chest she was completely blue and it was kinda freaky, but she sooned gained her color and was just perfect! It was quite the experience...Taylor and I were both crying through the whole thing....I think the nurses thought I was in a lot of pain when really I was just frustrated and tired from all the pushing. (the pain came later when I could actually feel what happened down there if you know what I mean!)

So Zoe was 8 pounds, 6 oz, 20 inches long born at 1:38 PM on Tuesday, January 11, 2011....we had lots of visitors at the hospital and then were able to go home on Thursday. It was an experience we will never forget...so amazing what the body can do. She is truly a blessing!

Eviction Date!

So this landlord has had enough of her tenant. She was a great tenant for 10 months but I've had about all I can take. Zoe's rent is overdue!!! As you can see, January 4th came and went. It is now January 6th and still no baby. So much for hoping for a 2010 tax deduction, so much for hoping for a New Years baby, pretty much everything we were worried/excited about (aka...her being born too close to Xmas, her being born before our new insurance kicked in, etc.) has gone out the window.

We went to the doctor on the 4th and still no progress. No dilation, no thinning, no nothing. The only thing that has changed is that my weight continues to climb, however, fortunately, the doc is still very pleased with Zoe's weight and progress. She estimates her to be about 7.5 lbs and everything looks good. She did one more sonogram to check on her and said she was just perfect so we're going to wait and see if anything happens between now and the weekend. If not, I'll go in on Monday the 10th, and if I'm still not dilated any, I'll check into the hospital Monday evening to start cervidil (a drug that will jumpstart my cervix and get me ready to induce). Then on Tuesday the 11th they'll start Pitocin and the induction. So good news is, we have an end in sight. Another cool thing: Zoe's birthday could be 1-11-11 which is kinda fun. Bad news is I have to wait patiently and see if anything happens between now and then, which is easier said than done. There's also the potential that I could be in the hospital all next week which kinda sucks but I'm trying to stay positive and not get stressed out about the induction not working. (There's an increased risk of Csection with induction b/c the pitocin can sometimes not work but let's not think about that either)

So that's where we are....I've been coming into work all week and I have to admit it's pretty funny to see defense attorneys reactions when they ask when I'm due and I say "yesterday" or "2 days ago". The "woah, let me back up and give you space" look is pretty classic. And I think I should start charging people for when they ask about the baby or why I'm still here....I'd be rich!

While I never thought for some reason that I'd be late (don't know why, I guess with the holidays and all the excitement I just expected to have a holiday baby!) I'm trying to be "Zen" with it as Taylor likes to say. I'll keep you posted!