SuNsHiNe

Well hello to all, it's been a few days since I have had the ambition and energy to try to do anything other than hold my precious little girl and do my best to sleep while she does. I am so thankful for all of the support we have received these past few days. It's so nice to get phone calls, text messages, e-mails and gifts from all of our loved ones. These past few days have had their ups and downs but they are so worth every minute of it.

I decided that we would breast feed instead of formula but with having flat nipples, we have been needing to supplement with tiny amounts of formula from time to time. It seems lately however that she is hooked to mom's breast all the time. It's good that she is eating awesome, but at the same time...Mom would like a break. My newborn milk is coming in now and it's getting much easier to fulfill the needs of this little girl's appetite (which is just like her father's). Her billirubin has been high since her birth. On Saturday it was at 9.8 at 6 am and increased to 10.2. Then on Sunday Tyler and I took her in to get it checked again at the request of the doctor's, only to find it was 14. 2. She was asked to come in again today to get it checked at the clinic and after Mom's first experience with baby blood draw, we found that it was 15.8. So once again we will be going in to the clinic in tomorrow to test it again.

With only being three days old, she has captured our hearts completely. I will leave you today with more pictures for you to enjoy and will keep you all updated, once I get away from a latched baby or the breast pump.

Home at last

Hey there everyone we have spent a couple long days in the hospital but the whole family is now home. It was stressful and long but in the end things are going in our favor. We had some feeding issues but as soon as we got home Megan relaxed it started going really well. I am not much for these things but thank you to all of you who gave us support while we where there whether it was being concerned or staying away or the many other things you did for us. Megan will write later today. So with out further adieu here are some pictures of Ms. Angela Kaye Wold

Gramma Stays

Yeah!! I can't express how excited I am that Grandma Micki has decided to stay here in Fargo until after the birth of her first grandchild instead of heading back to Billings to work for a week. I was so worried that she would get back to Billings and go to work for a day only to have to RUSH RUSH RUSH back for the delivery. I didn't know when I should call her, do I call when contractions start up good...but then what if it's false labor? Do I call when I get admitted into the hospital and then just have her fly...but then with the cost of flying that would be too much to ask. I was so torn between this decision and I am so happy that she weighed the pro's and con's of missing work for a week to stay here and wait patiently with Tyler and I for the arrival of our little one.

I hope that we are able to greet her sooner rather than later but whenever she comes I just hope that she is healthy and that I am going to be able to provide her with all the love and care that she needs.

I have been having pretty good contractions today but none that are close enough to time and worry about. They are strong though, so I am hoping that they will slowly get closer together so that by tonight they are able to be timed close enough and that they are strong enough to admit me into Labor and Delivery. Who knows if all I'll be doing is hoping though.

Roots and Shoots

This weekend was kind of a blur needless to say. I was trying to figure out exactly what it is that we did over the weekend, and between my mother and I, we were loosing a few hours here and there. I know that a vast majority of my time was spent sleeping while Tyler and mom were reading their books that they were so consumed by. Tyler was reading Angels and Demons for a few days and was so intrigued by it that he finished it in less than a week. When he gets into a book, he just can't put it down. But thankfully that book had like 68 short chapters so he was able to put it down a little more often than normal.

Yesterday almost felt as though I was on a roller coaster. I wasn't sure what to expect out of my day other than Mom and I had decided that we were going to re-pot the plants in my house since it hadn't been done in over a year. We stopped at every home improvement store along with Gordman's, and Michael's. Needless to say we didn't find any kind of pot that I would have wanted to accent my home decor until we got to Michael's. After exploring their vast selection of pots, Mom and I returned home with our McDonald's Southern Tea and Iced Coffee in hand along with three bags of soil, a bag of peat moss, and three new potters. I must admit that even though I despise McDonald's a great deal, they do have a pretty good Southern Sweet Tea and Mom had nothing but compliments on their Iced Coffee.

While I sat with my feet propped up on the balcony, Mom instructed me on how to re-pot plants and the different ways that they'll grow. It's amazing how much information she has tucked away up there. We enjoyed our time getting messy on the balcony and decided that we should get a little walk in to the grocery store to pick up the necessities for dinner. Mom, the speed walker in the family was finding it a little hard to stay at such a slow pace with her daughter but managed to stroll with me while I waddled away.

We returned home from the grocery store a little over an hour later with Caribou Coffee in our tummies and a couple free bottles of water that the grocery store was apparently trying to rid themselves of. We enjoyed home made Calzones for dinner and after a little while, my periodic contractions started to even themselves out about 6:00. We decided to go for another little walk to try to get them to progress and turn into labor. I got so excited because it started working!!! We went through the neighborhood and I had a good number of contractions while I was walking. Mom and Tyler walking with smiles on their faces and I was going through pain. What great support huh. When we got home I labored for a few more hours and as they progressively got longer and stronger. Needless to say we were getting excited that the time was coming. After a little while of laboring in the living room. Mom informed me that if they were to stay the 2-4 minutes apart and over a minute long then we were going to make our way to Labor and Delivery. After hearing that I decided I wanted to take a bath to ease the pressure and clean up a bit before heading that way. What a bad bad bad idea.

Tyler started up an awesome bath for me, even plugging off the drain at the top of the bath that water runs out off when it gets too high. However, once I got into the bath tub, the contractions slowed and tapered off. At about 11:00 when the contractions had slowed enough, Tyler finally went to bed as we decided that it was probably not going to happen now. What a disappointing night. These false labor contractions really are annoying as I get my hopes up so much and they are chopped in half in the matter of minutes. Who knew I would want so much to put myself in pain. So again today I will try everything in my power to get her to come out and greet the world.

Smooshy

Over the past few nights, my sleep pattern has made me a little hostile. However, last night was a good night. I don't know if it was the fact that I was so tired from not sleeping the past three nights, or if it was the warm bath that I took earlier in the night, or if it was that I was bored the whole day, or if it was the "tickles" that I asked Tyler to give to me on my arm before I rolled over to go to sleep. Maybe a combination of them all, but I slept hard last night. No dreams, only getting up a few times to use the restroom and take my Thyroid medication. It was blissful to be able to wake up this morning and feel like I was refreshed.

Tyler and I turned on our Wii console again for the first time in months this morning to play a little bowling and golf, then decided we would take a little stroll down the "train park's" bike path. We walked for a quite some time, but had to turn around before we got too far, because I had to pee like crazy. It was a pretty busy morning for that little bike path too. Along side the path there are sporadically little playgrounds and while all those were full, there were also a good fifteen bikers that passed us. It was nice to see so many people utilizing the Fargo Parks.

After our little stroll we came home to frantically search for Tyler's wallet that he's apparently been missing since Tuesday. We tore the house apart and still have yet to find it. We've completely run out of places to look now, as we've begun searching in shoes, cupboards and even contemplating searching in the fridge/freezer. I've been praying to Saint Anthony that he help us find it, but I don't think he's listening to me now.

After mom arrived in town around 12:30 or so, we meandered over to Qudoba and had a tasty lunch, that was followed up by TCBY's white chocolate mousse -- oh how I love that stuff. After stuffing my face with goodies, it was time for our doctor's appointment.

Mom and Tyler accompanied me, knowing that there wasn't going to be enough room in the exam room for all of us, Mom was kind enough to wait out in the waiting room and catch up on a little "Parenting" magazine. My weight went down 3/10 of a pound so I am now at 202.6. Which to me is A LOT! But apparently it isn't that big of a deal to Terri. My Group B Strep test came back negative. My thyroid is looking a little low but they are going to keep me at the prescription amount that I am currently at. Terri did an internal exam and my cervix is still closed, but I am soft and mushy which he said is a good thing. The baby apparently has not settled into my pelvis though so he was unable to do anything to help the labor progress. He told me I am measuring at 40 weeks, which is two weeks ahead of schedule. That sounds hopeful and since the little one is still just floating around up there, he said that if next Friday, she hasn't progressed down then he's going to look into "doing something a little sooner than they normally would." I don't really know what that means, but Tyler and I think he means induction. I think he may also do an ultrasound then to see what size the baby is 'cause he asked us about when our last U.S. was and looked a little concerned. Baby's heart rate was good, it started at 136 and progressed to 140 right away.

Now all we can do is hope that I have more contractions and that this little one settles down sometime soon. I've given up hope that she may come before July 1 for financial aid purposes. I am now thinking with the way things have been going she may be a late baby. We just might have an Independence Day baby after all. We are headed to Eddie and Megan's tonight for dinner and then who knows what from there. We'll see how the week progresses I suppose.

What a tease

My night last night was one of the worse so far. I thought it was going to go great as I was beginning to relax after taking a short bath, and Tyler gave me an upper back/neck massage. During the massage I was nodding off, so I thought when he finished I was going to zonk out and sleep all night with just a few potty breaks. I thought wrong.

Not more than two minutes after he was done massaging, he rolled over and fell asleep pronto, I on the other hand had to pee right away and then began having contractions. I was getting excited thinking that I was going to have contractions all night that would progress into labor. And it seemed as though that was the case, they were pretty good in strength and they were lasting about a minute or sometimes two, they were four minutes apart which got my hopes up. In our birth class though they told us not to notify the hospital that you were coming until your contractions were 2-3 minutes apart. So instead of going to sleep, I stayed up timing my contractions. They never got any closer though. So when I was ready to go to be at about 11:45 (that's two hours after Tyler passed out), my allergies kicked in and kicked hard.

I was up literally all night blowing my nose and coughing up Flem, scratching my throat and being miserable. All of this plus having contractions that weren't progressing like I wanted them to. So after Tyler woke up and went to work this morning and I was still awake at 5:30, I decided that I should try again to go back to bed, even if it was only for an hour or so. I woke up this morning after a little nap at about 9. I didn't get a ton of sleep but it must have been enough for me to want to get things done. As of now, I have already baked homemade chocolate chip cookies, thrown in a load of laundry and begun inputting my handwritten notes from the past few years of history into the computer. That last chore has been a goal of mine for a while and it will take some time to get it done, but at least I am starting it.

Grandma Micki isn't coming to stay with us tonight, she is on her way though!!! She's planning on stopping in Bismarck to stay with her sister Cindy for the night at the hotel and then finish her travel in the morning. Tonight I will be going to watch Tyler play roller hockey again, that's if I can't get a hold of someone to go to Olive Garden and get some eggplant Parmesan 'cause I have been craving it like crazy!! Then I'll come home and pick up the house some more probably, but right now I am planning on taking a nap and then finally taking a shower. Hopefully the little contractions that I have been having throughout the day is doing something to my cervix so that I can have Terri (my midwife) strip my membranes tomorrow to get things going. We'll have to see what happens though.

Full Moon

I must admit that there had been a reason for my absence. O.K. not really, I'm just lazy and don't ever want to do anything other than lay on the couch and eat packages of Kool-Aid Icee Pops. But hey what else can you expect from me when I'm about to explode?
Here's the update:
The baby has dropped further into my pelvis, which is evident with the most recent photos that I took yesterday. It almost seems as though I haven't been growing, 'cause to me it seems like the belly is smaller, but really it's getting bigger just dropping further down.

Baby does her best to move in my belly the best that she can, it's begun to creep Tyler out when he places his hand on my belly and she presses a limb out to push against the palm of his hand. It's almost like she's saying "Hey Dad! I'll be there to hold your hand soon!"
Soon, how soon is that going to be? I really hope that it's sooner rather than later 'cause the comfortability has completely subsided and it's now gotten really annoying rather than precious. I understand that I'm supposed to love being pregnant and carrying this miracle is a blessing, but I want every person that tells me that to be put in my situation with this weather and the frustrations that I have going on in life. I wish I was back to my old body and I wish that I was able to work and move about like a normal person. I want to sleep more than three hours at a time and I want go through a roll of toilet paper once every other week instead of once every other day. I'm getting frustrated that I can't clean the house as much as I want to, but what frustrates me the most is that when I am stuck here with only my thoughts, I constantly think about how she might look, whether I will be able to teach her accurately all the information that this world has to offer, and how it's going to feel when I can finally hold her in my hands. I want her here more than anything right now just so I can get started showing her exactly how much I love her.
I have heard a ton of ladies say that the full moon usually brings women into their final days, because of the pull of gravity that helps the baby come out. I so hope that works for me tonight!
Babies room is completely done now, we were given so many awesome things to help us with completing what we need to support and raise our little one.




As you can see, she is stocked with clothes, but I know we are getting more thanks to a wonderful little girl that was spoiled rotten and her Grandma Gorgeous (my Aunt Cindy) wants to get rid of them. I am so excited to see what else is going to stock her closet.
We have chosen a take-home/pictures outfit that is a new born size and it's so precious. We were originally going to go with a 701 Crew onesie that our friends Mike and Angie gave us, but it's a 3 month onesie and I think she'll be swimming in it before she comes home.

Lately I feel as though our little baby is teasing us like crazy. I have been having contractions that feel like they will progress into actual labor, and it looks promising for a while, but then they die off and stop. It's just mean 'cause I get my hopes up that I am going to have my little girl with us, and then I get frustrated. It makes it even harder when I get phone calls and e-mails asking if our little one is here or not. I wish I could respond to them with "Yeah she was 8 pounds 3oz and 20 inches long" but I can't so I honestly just get irate. I guess that's where the hormones kick in...or so I'll just blame it on that.
Grandma Micki comes tomorrow to be here just in case since she has the week off. I'm getting excited about her coming, even though I know that I'll get frustrated 'cause she won't let me do anything around the house and she'll want to do it all. Even though our home is always her home, I feel like she should be treated as a guest, with a mint on a pillow that is on a real bed in her own room. But instead she gets a blow up mattress that is on the floor in baby's room. Not much but it's better than the couch I guess. Friday I have my doctors appointment so I'll see how things go there. If I am dilated at all then Terri said that he would strip my membranes to try to get things going. We should also be having an ultrasound to tell us an estimated size of our precious little one. I'm having a debate with myself though, 'cause I want both my mother and Tyler to be there for this appointment. Tyler 'cause he'll be seeing his baby on the screen, hear her little heartbeat go pitter-patter and also be there for moral support. However I also want my mom there with me 'cause she'll know what my midwife is talking about and be able to interpret it for me into language that I can understand, she can see her first grandchild on the screen and also be there for moral support. She's already told me that she doesn't mind missing the appointment but I know deep down inside that she would be disappointed if she did miss it. I think I'll just see where things go.