a little levi update...

Just a quick update for all of you....and another picture. :)

levi is doing well. yesterday was rough. his billirubin shot through the roof, and the drs started talking to me about how when it got to a certain level it could result in brain damage etc, nothing like that to scare the new mom. this as they also tell me they life flighted a baby out of here yesterday. anyway... they put us on a strict 2 hour feeding schedule. he did okay with it, but it was tiring. overnight they took him to the nursery and would just bring him back every 2 hours to feed, which was basically every hour, since it took him almost an hour to eat each time. thankfully this morning it is back down, and now he is only "low-intermediate" risk, yesterday he was "intermediate-high risk"....anyway, it's coming downn, so we're breathing a little easier with that.

I however, have managed to turn my cold into a respiratory infection , which they are concerned could turn into pneumonia especially with not breathing as deeply from the c-section. last night i started coughining up plegm and was running a fever....they started an antibiotic and this morning they did a chest-x-ray, and now i'm probably here until at least saturday, possibly sunday. as much as that stinks, i'd rather be here and get better than at home and then have to be readmitted without him. so that's where we are at.

I'm doing okay. I was kind of a mess last night and spent a good long while crying, feeling overwhelmed with everything, and was completely worried about Levi... a night of somewhat decent sleep has helped..

That's where we are at... Thanks to all of YOU for your prayers and love...

the birth story...

So the labor story....

We were induced Monday morning at 6:30 and we were off, slowly. The dr, broke my water around 10:30 hoping to speed things along. It didn't progress very quickly. It was a long hard day complete with jacuzzi baths, rocking on my hands and knees and sitting in a rocking chair. At midnight after a hard labor with lots of back pain, I was still only dialated to a 3. I requested an epidural at 2. I was exhausted and just needed to sleep for a while. Well, the epidural didn't take, and only numbed half of my body so I could feel the contractions on the other half. I was able to sleep for about an hour, and then it wore off completely. I somehow managed to sleep between the contractions which were coming about every 2 minutes at that point. At 5 am he came in to check me. I was still only dialated to a 3. And I did my best to not burst into tears. My dr. at that point said that there were 2 possibilities. My body was trying to tell us that the baby was too big for him to make his way through my pelvis, or that he was not quite in the right position, which we were suspicious of because of the back labor. At that point he offered a c-section. After 22 hours of labor, no sleep, and nothing to eat, I was ready. It all happened very quickly. Suddenly there were a zillion nurses in my room, and they were prepping me for surgery. We headed to the OR for the surgery. They had to do a spinal block, which also was not going well. Partly, because I am short, partly because I was shaking uncontrollably from being cold, and partly that I was still having intense contractions. For a few minutes they said they may have to put me totally under which meant Mike couldn't be in the room. I begged them to do anything they could to not put me under. Finally they had me lay on my side, an amazing anesthesiologist held me, and literally wrapped me up in a ball so they could get it in. And we were off. Mike came in, and in a very surreal experience, we were there, talking, and suddenly we heard him crying. I am doing well. My body is sore after 22 hours of labor, plus a c-section, but we are incredibly BLESSED to be holding our amazing son. And, I'm quite happy I didn't have to push out a 9 lb baby!

Here's a few more pictures...

Its a Boy!!!

Levi James
9 lbs
21"
born 6:26am
January 27, 2009

Heres our new little one, more about the labor and delivery to come.

Learning...

so in an effort to figure out the video thing before the baby comes AND partly to totally embarass my parents.. :) here is a video of my parents learning to box on christmas using the Wii at my sister's house.. ENJOY! :)

D-Day

Tomorrow is D-day, or more appropriately, L-Day!
We're ready.. more than ready... and as one point of annoyance... can I just say that it seems unfair to still be throwing up? Isn't being overdue enough?!?! Surely putting that in the baby book.... last time to throw up... 40 weeks and 5 days...

Tomorrow morning Mike and I will call up to labor and delivery between the lovely hours of 5 and 5:30. They will then give us a time that we can be to the hospital to start the induction. Normally between 7-8am according to my doctor. The nice thing about being induced is that my dr. is on call tomorrow. I really have liked him, and it would be nice to have him deliver. Not like he'll be in there until the last 3 minutes anyway, but it's a nice thought. :)

Everyone keeps asking what our "birth plan" is. Honestly? We have none. We're going to take it as it comes. We really like the idea of natural birth, but we're not turning our noses up at an epidural, that's for sure. ;) We have surely read up on everything there is to read, and at this point are just ready to meet our baby. I'm not excited about being induced as I've read that it's a lot rougher on your body that way, but we're just going to take it as it comes.
Healthy Mom, Healthy Baby.. that's our mantra. :)

So... that's the news for now. Hopefully within the next 48 hours or so we'll be able to update with a post that says.. It's a ____!!! :) The hospital does have Wi-fi, so we will be taking the computer with us for updates and what not...

stay-tuned to meet the newest member of the youngman family!

baby update...

well, we're still without a computer.... and a baby...

had an appointment today. my dr. will induce on monday if this little bambino has not come by then... so that's the news.... *some* news by monday evening hopefully...

and hopefully we'll be getting a computer soon...
this no computer business is for the pilgrims..
(that's what mike wanted me to say) :)

history...

did you relish in the history of today?

i will confess, i am a political junkie, i love it, i love every minute of it. when the election was over it was a bit sad to not have something to read about some candidate every day.

today, january 20th, 2009... is day that will go down in history. i suppose it's a good thing our kid didn't come today, because otherwise, someone would say, "oh that's the day history was made and they would say... oh i was thinking that it was my birthday" :)

regardless of your views on mr. obama or his politics, i hope you were able to in some way, in some fashion, enjoy the enormity of today, relish the moment of history, the history that WE lived...that WE lived to tell our kids and grandkids about someday.
i watched as a reporter interviewed person after person who said... i'm here for my great grandpa who was a slave. i'm here to be a witness for him, that a black man can become president of the united states!.... i listened as a 10 yr old boy said.. "it means that when people see black men on tv they won't think of them as thieves and criminals, but instead as doctors, lawyers, or presidents."

if that doesn't leave an impression, i don't know what does.

M.I.A.

missing in action...

so friday our computer died. yup. died. the hard drive crashed. thanks to my dad and his computer savy ways we were able to retrieve all of our files which we are extremely thankful for. however... we are computerless, and probably will be for at least another day or so. we've been researching and trying to figure out what we want... perfect time to lose our computer huh?

so this is a... we're here, but not really here because we have no computer post...

mostly this is a "there is no baby yet" post. :)

pictures

so i've been playing with our new camera...

I LOVE IT! :)
here are a couple pictures I love.... of people I love. :)

my hubby...


my sister...


my mama.....

tidbits from the nurse

one of my piano student's moms is a labor and delivery nurse here at our local hospital. it's been really nice to be able to ask her questions when i have them. at first i thought it but be strange knowing her, but it's been really great. she has been wonderful, and even though i know her, and teach her 14 yr old son, it would be nice to have her be my nurse.

anyway, tonight, i saw her, she looked at me and said... WOW! you've really dropped, the baby is definitely settling now. she put her hand on my stomach, felt and said, oh yea, definitely a full hand, between my ribs and the top of my uterus. i don't know exactly what that means, but she said it was a good thing.

so, while it probably means nothing, and i know this kid will decide to come when they are good and ready, it is nice to know my body is doing what it needs to do, and i'm at least headed in the right direction.

her prediction was within 10 days.. let's hope.... :)

and we wait....

So, I've been blessed with a cold. A nasty, awful, icky, cold. I can't breathe, I have icky stuff draining down my throat, and I have the worst headache in the world... and can't take anything which is more frustrating than anything.

1 week left, the nursery is done, the bag is as packed as it's going to get and we wait... and wait... and wait... and wait some more.
We're doing our darndest to really soak up the last days or weeks we have as just us, even though there are moments we're ready to be done. Maybe we'll try to squeeze in a date night this weekend. :)

It's not even "i'm tired of being pregnant" but more, "we're ready to meet them."
So, kid, if you're paying attention, mom and dad are more than ready to meet you and we'd appreciate you making your appearance anytime now. please?!?!

midnight ramblings

Last night I was up until midnight packing our hospital bag because suddenly I had this insatiable desire to be ready. Mike thought I was crazy. I was insistent we needed to have it done!!! :)

It's 4:30 in the morning and I"m wide awake. Not just I can't sleep awake, but feel like I could go clean the entire house, or go to the grocery store (it's probably not too busy right now) :)

of course later today when I should do the above noted items, I'll be so tired that I'll take a 2 hour nap instead.. :)

On a separate, more annoying, note..
Mike has been summoned to jury duty---the last week of January. yup. thats right, the last week of January. What's more annoying is a little over a year ago he was summoned and sat on a jury for 3 days. But, it's been more than a year, so we can do nothing about it. civil duty i suppose.
We may see about a postponement, but I don't know if they would grant us one for "newborn", or "could go into labor at any moment."
And a postponement just means he'll be summoned again in 3 months time.
Can't they bug someone else?!?!

to take or not to take?

I'm making a list of things to take to the hospital.
Anyone have any must-haves, or I had this and didn't need it advice for me?

For baby:
An outfit
Burp Cloth
Pacifier
A couple of diapers
Hat for coming home

For me:
PJ's\Robe
Toiletries
Hard Candy
Tennis Balls
Movies
Boppy (should I bring this)
Slippers
Socks (for delivery)

For Mike:
Clothes
Robe
Toiletries
$$ for snacks
Books
List of phone numbers :)
Camera and Video Camera

That's what I've got at the moment. Anything I'm missing?

on your mark...

14 days...

I feel like we are waiting at the starting gate for the gun to fire and to race down the track. Just waiting....waiting, and more waiting... We have things done and in place, just a few odds and ends that hopefully will get done this weekend. The car seat is installed. The nursery is painted and ready. This little peanut just needs to make their grand appearance. I find myself sitting and rocking in the nursery quite often. Often when we go to bed at night, we both look at each other and talk about whether or not this was our last day as just us.
We're excited, nervous, and looking forward to all of it. Most exciting?? I'm ready to be done puking. I'm so tired of it.
Mike has been a real trooper lately, rubbing my back and feet when I ask without a word of complaint. He is such a blessing, and I know he is going to be an incredible father.

Yesterday I spent part of the day researching pediatricians. Trying to decide who to go with, looking at reviews and recommendations. Reading up on vaccinations. So much to think about! I think at the moment we'll just go with the normal vaccine schedule, maybe the delayed, but we aren't so sure we really want to worry ourselves with one more thing to think about.

Tomorrow I have to play for a Christmas concert. yup... christmas. Their concert was cancelled because of a snow day, so we're making it up now... 3 weeks after christmas... never too late to sing Jingle Bells! :)

Soup

Just a couple of soup recipes I've tried recently. Both are excellent for using up leftover chicken or turkey. ENJOY!


Spinach Florentine Soup

10 oz alfredo sauce
2 cans chicken stock
1 jar sliced sun-dried tomatoes or you can buy the dehydrated ones and rehydrate them.
1 9oz package of refrigerated cheese filled tortellini
2 C cooked chicken or turkey
6 cups of spinach
parmesan cheese


Cook tortellini according to package directions, set aside.
Combine 10 oz alfredo and 2 cans of chicken stock. Wisk until blended, bring to a boil, add tomatoes and chicken, simmer on medium heat for 5 minutes. Wilt in 6 C of spinach, add cooked tortellini.
Sprinkle parmesan on top to serve.

***I've used cooked chicken, turkey and even rotissere chicken and all of it tastes great! A jar of alfredo is more than 10 oz, so just watch that, but you can just put the whole jar in if you want***



Turkey and Wild Rice Soup

1 C sliced or grated carrots
1 C sliced mushrooms
1\2 C celery
1\2 C chopped onion
1 TB butter or margarine
1\2 C flour
2 cans chicken broth
1 can (12 oz) evaporated milk
1 1\2 C cooked rice
1 C diced cooked turkey
1\4 C slivered almonds

Melt butter in saucepan over medium heat. Add carrots, mushrooms, celery, and onion. Cook and stir until tender. Stir in flour. Gradually add broth and milk until blended. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat, simmer, uncovered 5 minutes. Stir in turkey and rice.

Meanwhile place almonds in pan, heat over med. heat until they begin to turn brown, stir almonds into soup just before serving.

***I didn't use the almonds and it was fine without them. It's faster to use minute rice, but make sure you have it ready before you start the soup! I threw in some frozen veggies because I didn't have all the fresh ones and it was fine. ***

new years

Happy New Year!

So our poll is done, and now you'll just have to wait and see if you were right. :) We'll have a baby a month from now.. CRAZY!