Aunt Becky and Charlie come!

Cousin Charlie and Caroline . . . what a difference 2 months makes!!
Eva, Charlie and Caroline
Last night with Becky, Charlie and my mom . . . I started sobbing and ruined this pic. I miss you so much!!

Chris and his mom (Mimi) with Caroline. Mimi is an amazing cook and was in the middle of making a yummy dinner!

My sister Becky and her adorable baby boy Charlie (12 weeks) came to visit for the weekend. Becky decided Ella (2 1/2) should stay home this time with her dad Mark and his parents, but Caroline can't wait to meet her at Thanksgiving. Gigi originally planned to leave before Becky and Charlie arrive, but couldn't pass up a chance to see my sister and her two new grand-babies meet for the first time. We were so excited she extended our stay. Charlie has already grown and changed so much since I saw him at my shower in Kansas City. He smiles a ton and is rolling over on his own. He seems so huge to me now . . . he is double the size of Caroline! During our weekend we went to Chris's brother John's house. John, his wife Holly and their 3 kids (Keely, Kelsey and Johnnie) had so much fun with the babies. We also got to see our good friends Chad and Susanne and see their little girl Eva, 10 weeks. We know Eva and Caroline will be great playmates when they get older!

We were so sad for my mom (Gigi), Becky and Charlie to leave Tuesday. The silver lining was that Chris's mom Terri (Mimi) came in Tuesday afternoon. Then, Chris's dad John (Poppy) will be joining us this weekend. They are staying in town until October 16th, so I'm sure we'll have lots of pictures to show of the visit!

Caroline Fighting Sleep

Sigh of Relief!!!

When we were still in the hospital we had many different screens and tests for Caroline, especially because she was 4 weeks early. She passed everything with flying colors, except when it came to her hearing screen. She failed three times in a row, and we were deflated. The audiology tech. told us this was common with c-section babies, as they sometimes took a little longer to clear any amniotic fluid from their ears. We set up an appointment to get her re-screened within 2 weeks. Even though we were told this was common, we constantly worried about the possibility of her having hearing loss. Both Chris and I analyzed every time she did or didn't respond to noise. Thank God, when we went back to get Caroline screened today she passed the screen immediately. I was on the edge of my seat the whole time, and cried like a baby when we got the good news. We love her so much no matter what, but we were so relieved that her hearing finally checked out okay!

FIrst Week Home

Caroline with "Gigi" (Patti's mom)
Snuggling with Grandaddy (Patti's dad)
Caroline with our good friend Colleen Luke, "Aunt Leeny"
We had a great first week! Every day has gotten easier with feeding and Caroline is nursing like a pro. We were having to supplement with formula when we left from the hospital on Saturday 9/11, but Caroline was already taking full feedings by Monday 9/13, and we were able to change to just nursing. They told us it could take her about a month to be an efficient nurser (because she is a month premature), but she already had it down in under a week.

Caroline loved having my mom, her Gigi, stay with us this week and my dad, Grandaddy, came to meet her over the weekend. It has been great having them. Gigi has done so much laundry and cleaning that we've gotten to focus solely on Caroline. It has been so nice to have her, especially while I'm recovering from the c-section. I still am not allowed to drive or do much lifting or bending, but my pain has decreased every day. Gigi decided to stay through next Tuesday and will be here when my sister and nephew Charlie, 2 1/2 months, come to meet Caroline this coming weekend. Caroline's other cousin Ella, 2 1/2 years, is staying home this time, but Caroline will get to meet her at Thanksgiving.

Welcome Home Caroline!!!

We were discharged Saturday night 9/11/10 and Caroline, Chris and Patti headed home with Gigi (Patti's mom- Grandma Godsey.) We have been exhausted and elated so far. Feeding has been our main challenge as Caroline is still working on getting down her suck/swallow reflex (because she was born at 36 weeks, this is a little weaker than a full-term baby.) Because of this, Caroline has had a difficult time nursing and we have needed to use formula in addition to nursing attempts and pumping to make sure she is getting all the nutrition she needs. She lost a little weight at the hospital (losing 10% of her birth weight is normal) and she is a tiny 5 lbs 12 ounces! The whole feeding routine takes about 45 minutes to an hour and we are having to wake her to repeat every 2 1/2 hours around the clock . . . needless to say there is not time for much especially sleep and mommy is wiped. Thank god she has Chris and Gigi to help with the feedings!

She is just 5 days old today, but already becoming much more alert. She is staying awake after her bottle and keeping her eyes open up to 15 minutes or so before she is ready for bed. We are obsessed with her little expressions when she sleeps- grimaces, smiles, sticking out her tongue- everything she does is cute! She has been such a joy already in such a short time!

We are so excited for Patti's dad (Grandaddy) to come in town this weekend and meet her. Caroline is also so excited to meet Chris's parents (Mimi and Poppy) who will hopefully be coming soon!

The Delivery Days!

On Monday 9/6 (Aunt Becky's 30th birthday), we were called into the hospital around 7:30pm to start inducing labor. First, I was put on cervix softening gels for about 18 hours before they started petocin at around 2pm Wednesday (with not much progress.) The petocin began contractions, but unfortunately none were consistent enough to progress the labor. After about 10 hours of petocin I was still only dilated 1cm and Dr. Langer decided to take an hour or two break and then start again. Throughout this time, Dr. Langer let me know if the induction became too much I could elect to have a c-section, but I wanted to continue trying. On the second round of petocin I finally began progressing and my contractions became strong and regular. It was now 9/8 Wednesday morning, and Dr. Langer decided it was time to break my water! I continued to progress and finally began an epidural around 2pm when the pain became a little too much (I was also exhausted from the previous two nights of contractions!) Unfortunately around this time when I finally was progressing, Caroline's heart rate began to dip a little more than we were comfortable with strong contractions. Eventually, I had to stop petocin for her safety, and along with that my contractions stopped being regular- we were so deflated! Dr. Langer called and let me know we could see what happens if we tried to start petocin again, but if Caroline looked like she wasn't tolerating it, we would need to do a c-section for her safety and mine. I decided to try it, but the second her heart rate dipped again, we all decided it was time to get her out. Both Chris and I were relieved to be near the end, but both were pretty scared walking (or wheeling) into that operating room. I was shaking like a leaf throughout the surgery and Chris was amazing and right by my side. In no time our precious Caroline Reese was out and we were overcome with emotion. It was definitely the happiest moment of our lives.

Because was born premature at 36 weeks we were worried about her having to go to the neonatal intensive care unit, but she did amazing and scored an 8/10 and 9/10 on her APGAR scales! Here are her stats:

Caroline Reese Walker
6 pounds 5 ounces
20 inches
born with a head of strawberry blond hair!

Shower Pics!

Patti and her niece Ella (2 1/2)
Patti's dear friend Ashley did all the amazing decor!


Here's some pics from my KC shower! Ashley Harms did all of the decor (and invites too!)- she's so talented and it looked so cute. Lindsey made some yummy cupcakes and everyone was asking what bakery they were from. Thanks Becky, Ashley, Lindsey, Katie and Mom for putting on such a special day!

Change in Schedule

I haven't updated in awhile, which is surprising because I've had PLENTY of downtime on my hands. Sometime in July, Dr. Langer started being concerned about my blood pressure and rapid weight fluctuations and told me she thought she was seeing signs of preeclampsia. This is something about 10% of pregnant women get, it usually is characterized by high blood pressure, protein in urine, and rapid swelling and/or weight gain caused by the pregnancy. My doctor said it was like my body having an allergic reaction to the pregnancy and I should be back to normal once I wasn't pregnant. Until then, the best thing I could do was limit my activity (no more working out and I needed to be couch bound the rest of the night on days I worked.) In addition, she wanted me to cut back my work week to 4 days and not work more than two days in a row. I seemed to do a little better for a few weeks, but by the beginning of August my protein levels had increased and my blood pressure had continued to climb. On August 17, I was put on bedrest and started going to a perinatal specialist 1x per week in addition to my doctor. I was disappointed but was thankful my doctor decided I could fly back to Kansas City for my baby shower as long as I stayed sitting/laying down as much as possible.

The shower was amazing and I feel so blessed that my sister, Ashley, Lindsey, Katie and my mom put on such a beautiful day for me. I was also so excited to meet my adorable nephew Charlie for the first time at 6 weeks and play with my always entertaining niece, Ella (2 1/2.)

Soon after I came back it was decided the risks outweighed the benefits of staying pregnant after 36 weeks. We are scheduled to be induced Tuesday 9/7/10. Baby Caroline will be here before we know it!!