The Gift of Life

Who would have thought that our precious little Erin would develop jaundice just because of dehydration? I really thought that jaundice is an infection or it is something that results from blood type incompatibilities. Period. It turns out that newborns can also get it if they are not getting enough milk for nourishment. (Trivia: Protein helps break down bilirubin. Milk is a good source of protein.)

A midwife visited us last Wednesday afternoon (21 March) as part of the hospital’s discharge program to check on us both. Unknown to us, Erin had lost a significant amount of weight (300 grams) since the day she was born. This only meant that she wasn’t getting enough milk from me. This also explained why she had been waking up every hour to feed and she had been crying incessantly the night before. In short, the poor thing was hungry! This prompted the midwife to take another blood sample from Erin’s heel to check on her bilirubin level. She advised us to do top-up feeding as well which required us to feed her an additional 40 ml of formula milk and expressed breast milk every three to four hours while we wait for my milk supply to increase.

That same night though, the midwife called us up to inform us that Erin should be readmitted to the hospital for phototherapy and rehydration because her bilirubin level was at 300 plus. J and I went back to the hospital that night and Erin was stripped down to her nappy. She was placed in a bassinet made of clear hard plastic which was placed directly under the phototherapy lamp to help break down the bilirubin at a faster rate. It was very difficult for us to get any sleep that night because we had to make sure she was settled in the bassinet and we had to get up every three to four hours to feed her.

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16 March 2007
At around 4:15 PM, J, my mom and I went to the hospital as instructed by the midwife I talked to on the phone earlier. We brought all the necessary things that we might need just in case the staff at the Delivery Suite decided to make us stay. We went to the DS on the third floor of the Maternity Building and was immediately entertained by one of the midwives there. She asked for my maternity record and for my Medicare card. After which, she led us to an examination room where we waited for a few minutes to be attended by another midwife named Sue.

Sue measured my vital signs first (temperature and BP) and then took a peek at the pad that I brought from home which had my ‘bloody show’ on it. She then asked me to lie down on the bed as she hooked me up to a fetal monitoring, strapping an ultrasound transducer head to my lower abdomen to check on the baby’s heart rate and a pressure gauge monitor to the middle of my belly to time and check the intensity of my contractions. This was done for about an hour.

Sue came back with my maternity record to say that for now there is no cause for worry as the baby is fine and ‘happy.’ And since contractions were far and wide apart and there was no more bleeding, the attending doctor advised us to just go home in the mean time and to just call back if there are any changes. We left the hospital at around 6:15 and had dinner at Westfield Woden. After which, we drove home.

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Welcome, Erin Chloe!

Erin Chloe at 5 days old

Erin Chloe was born at 3:23 AM on the 18th of March 2007, Sunday.
Weight: 2710 grams
Length: 45.5 centimeters
Gestational age: 39 weeks and 2 days

Birthing story and lots more to follow!

How your baby’s growing:
Your baby’s ready to greet the world! He continues to build a layer of fat to help control his body temperature after birth, but it’s likely he already measures about 20 inches and weighs a bit over 7 pounds. (Boys tend to be slightly heavier than girls.) Your baby’s organs are fully developed and in place, and the outer layers of skin are sloughing off as new skin forms underneath.

How your life’s changing:
At each visit, your midwife or doctor will do an abdominal exam to check your baby’s growth and position. She might also do an internal exam to see whether you’ve started effacing (when the cervix thins out) or dilating (when the cervix opens). If the week passes and your baby stays put, don’t panic. Only 5 percent of babies are born on their scheduled due date. And your baby can’t make you wait indefinitely for his arrival. If you go past your due date, your provider will schedule you for fetal testing (usually a sonogram) after 40 weeks to ensure that it’s safe to continue the pregnancy. If you don’t go into labor on your own, most practitioners will induce labor when you’re between one and two weeks overdue.

Pregnant women on television sitcoms always have their water break dramatically — in the middle of a crowded room, of course — just before going into labor. Don’t worry about a similar scenario happening to you. Membranes rupture before the beginning of labor in less than 15 percent of pregnancies, and it’s not normally an enormous gush — usually a small gush or a slow leak. In any case, if your water does break (or you even suspect you might have a leak), call your doctor or midwife right away, but stay calm — it may be hours before your first contraction. (If you’re a GBS carrier, you’ll be asked to go to the hospital so you can start getting IV antibiotics and will likely be induced at the same time if you don’t start contracting on your own.) Also call your practitioner right away if you notice that your baby’s movements have slowed, whether or not you’re leaking fluid.

There are more common signs of impending labor than water breaking. You may notice your mucus plug — the small amount of thick mucus that blocks your cervical canal — in your undies or in the toilet. It might be tinged with a small bit of brownish, pink, or red blood (which is why it’s called “bloody show”). (If you have vaginal spotting or bleeding other than mucus tinged with a tiny amount of blood, call your caregiver without delay.) Labor usually starts within a day or two of seeing the mucus plug. Another sign of labor is contractions at regular — but increasingly shorter — intervals. If you’ve been having Braxton Hicks contractions, you’ll now realize that these were just practice. Your doctor or midwife will tell you when to give her a call, but it will likely be once your contractions last about a minute each and arrive every five minutes for about an hour. (Time the contractions from the beginning of one to the beginning of the next one.) If you’re unsure about your progress, go ahead and give your practitioner a call.

Your practitioner may have you count fetal movements. Even if you aren’t asked to formally count movements, call her immediately if you notice a decrease in your baby’s activity. Your baby should remain as active as ever right up to delivery, and a decrease in activity could be a sign of a problem — meaning that you need to deliver now rather than later.

Source: BabyCenter

Fetal development in pregnancy week 38:
As you know full well, you’ve arrived at the final leg of the journey, and if you’re still carrying your little love around, they’ve just about reached their birth weight (somewhere between 6 to 8 pounds is average depending on whether they’re a boy or girl). There really isn’t a lot to report on baby this week, so lets do a quick recount of where we’re at: all internal organ systems are pretty much ready for the outside world, they’ve got their meconium stockpile building up (their first black baby poo), lots of healthy baby fat, a rapidly developing brain (that’ll keep growing with them for years to come), and they’ve more or less reached official baby status– all they need to do is “head out” and say hello to the rest of the world and especially their ready-to-pop momma.And how’s mom doing? Hang in there momma, it’s only a matter of time before the obnoxious and painful fake contractions you felt in your back, lower belly, and pelvic region will be replaced by real contractions… which are even more obnoxious and painful. You’ll know when the real ones kick in because they’re more intensely painful (woo!) and they spread over the entire uterus, through the lower back and into your pelvis.

If you’re having trouble sleeping (which about 100% of women in this phase of pregnancy are), try to take little catnaps during the day, get one of those neato full-body pregnancy pillows, or at least lots of pillows that you can shove between your legs and under your belly to support your awkward shape more comfortably. Also, if you’re feeling weird electrical tingles in your legs and inside your vagina — this would be none other than your not-so-little baby hitting various nerves as they settle into the pelvic area. If you’re feeling sharp shooting pains instead of tingles, this would be your extra evil-but-adorable baby pressing on your oh-so-very sensitive sciatic nerve. All we can recommend is some wincing, sitting down, and putting your feet up…OUCH!

Source: Baby-Gaga

Nothing much to report really. Just that baby’s getting more and more difficult to carry these days. I could give birth any day now and we tend to be a little more impatient as well. My mom’s already here so everything is set to go. It’s all up to EC now. Soon, I hope!