well that was unexpected, part two

So where was I?  Oh yeah, collecting my pee.

So the next day was Friday and we had signed Emma up for a Sibling Preparation Class at the hospital.  It's just a little class for kids where they watch a video about babies and learn how to hold babies and change their diapers.  Then they color a picture for the baby.  It was really cute.  We dropped off the lovely jug of pee and headed home.

Things were going peachy.  With the blood pressure thing I'm supposed to check once a day, preferably in the morning.  But I'm a curious creature so around 10 o'clock Friday night I checked my blood pressure again just to see where I was at.  I was at 160/101.  Just to give you an idea, normal readings should be below 120/80.  I called the perinatal nurse and they said COME IN NOW.

So for the second time in a week we were off to labor & delivery.  We called my parents and they met us there so they could take Emma home with them and let her get some sleep.  We fully expected just to be sent home in a few hours because when we were in the day before the doctors talked about how even though at 37 weeks the baby is considered full term they still prefer not to deliver if it's not necessary.

To rule out pre-eclampsia they take another urine sample and a blood sample to check for proteins.  From what I understand the placenta is releasing these proteins that can cause damage to your liver and kidneys.  Pre-eclampsia is the beginning stages, eclampsia can result in seizures and the only cure for it is to deliver the placenta.  Generally, eclampsia can occur from 32 weeks on.  The bright side for us was that I was at 37 weeks.  Olivia had a much better chance if we had to deliver right then.

When the results came back they determined that my protein levels were climbing and they would need to deliver the baby.  So deliver her we did.  She was born at 6:23 in the morning and she was sooooooo tiny.  More than 2 pounds and 2 inches smaller than Emma was!  The c-section was much more relaxed and a lot less painful than the first one I had.  Because there wasn't a time issue they took things much slower to make sure everything went very smoothly.  They went over the previous section scar and looking at it now it actually looks better than it did before!  Everyone, nurses, the doctors & anesthesiologist were so nice and personable.  It was a completely different experience.  I was scared going in, but I didn't feel a thing this time and that was awesome.

Because of the pre-eclampsia I had to take magnesium sulfate for 24 hours after delivery.  That meant I had to stay in bed for those 24 hours.  Not really a bad deal, right?

But Olivia is perfect.  Teeny tiny, but perfect.  She had a little bit of jaundice, but that worked itself out and now she's just trying to pack on some weight.  It's surreal to have her here and at the same time pass by the calendar to see this:

Not that I'm complaining that she's here!  I'm enjoying every minute with her, especially knowing this is the last time we'll have a baby in the house.  And we're lucky so far, she only wakes up around 4 or 5 in the morning, eats and then goes back to sleep...we'll see how long that lasts!  Emma started sleeping through the night at 2 weeks.  I don't think we'll be that lucky again, but it's okay.

For now we're just enjoying this.

well that was unexpected

It's crazy to say since I now have two little girls, but I don't think this body was built for having babies!

My pregnancy and delivery with Emma was difficult.  The pregnancy was hard, but I chalked it up to being the first time and going from 86 pounds to 166 pounds.  My body was not happy stretching out and making room for the baby.  Mostly my rib cage disliked me.  The delivery was difficult because they really wanted me to deliver naturally and Emma just wasn't going to come out that way.  She hung out in the birth canal for a few days, they broke my water and gave me an infection.  Finally, they decided she had to come out via c-section and because I had the epidural in for so many days during the surgery I started regaining feeling very quickly and they ended up just knocking me out.  I got to see her quickly before they did that.  I was pretty worn out and I still had the infection, but once she was out and all that stress was finished things weren't so bad.

This time I'm five years older and let me tell you, that does make a difference.  I started out not being able to stomach eating any kinds of food at all.  I gained barely any weight for about half the pregnancy, but so far nothing too bad.  Then I was diagnosed with gestational diabetes and that sucked.  It's not the end of the world and it ended up not being all that bad, but it was definitely disappointing.  I got used to poking my fingers and checking my blood glucose levels and I stayed well within my limits.  It bummed me out not being able to pig out on ice cream or Reese's Fast Break bars, but I guess that was probably for the best!

I was worried about the baby getting too big, but our ultrasound we had on the 4th showed she was just right and the tech estimated she weighed around 6 pounds, 11 ounces.  Then two days later on the 6th I woke up really early in the morning with contractions.  I didn't really think they were anything, but they were pretty strong and pretty regular.  Then they were about 2 minutes apart so I figured it was time to wake up Ray and call in to Labor & Delivery.  They wanted me to come in.

So we woke up our friends (thank you JeNae!) and dropped Emma off at their house and our other friends (thanks Kim!) volunteered to pick her up and keep her until we got home or my sister came to get her.  We headed over to the hospital and they determined that I am a wuss when it comes to contractions.  Yes, I was having them.  No, they weren't very strong and were doing nothing in terms of getting me ready for delivery.  However, my blood pressure was ridiculously high so they wanted me to hang out until it went down.

It didn't go down so they sent me home with a blood pressure monitor and instructions on HOW TO COLLECT MY PEE for 24 hours.  Yes, you read that right.  Sounds fun, right?  It wasn't.  Grossed me out.  But they wanted to test to see if I was developing pre-eclampsia.

But before we could find that out...I'll get back to you on that tomorrow!

six and counting

Today is our 6th wedding anniversary!

Doesn't seem like six years ago!

But boy has it been a great 6 years.  I'm the luckiest girl in the whole world.  Tonight we drop the kiddos off at my parents' house and gorge ourselves at La Fondue. (*psssst* don't tell Emma - she'll be so jealous!)  It'll be the first time we leave Olivia!  Though it's only for a few hours.  And it is for cheese and chocolate so think we can safely say it's worth it, right??

Happy Anniversary to the one perfect for me man in this world.  I love you more than I could ever tell you, more than I could ever show you.  You make me happy every single day of my life and I can't believe that I get to spend those days with you.

i guess early is better than later!

The pregnancy ticker at the top of the page says 'about 12 days to go'.  Not quite accurate anymore since Olivia arrived a week ago today!

Yep, you read that right!  Olivia Francisca Yukie Ramirez was delivered via c-section on October 8, 2011 at 6:23 a.m.  She weighed in at 5 pounds, 11 ounces and 19 inches long.  Tall, but teeny tiny!

She is super amazing and we love her tons!  It's been a crazy pregnancy but having her here sweet and healthy is well worth it.

I've restarted my 365 Project.  I'll be doing two, a picture of Emma everyday and a picture of Olivia everyday.  I've added tabs at the top of the page where you can see both projects.

In the meantime, I'm going to get some sleep!  I'll tell you the whole story soon!

lego crazy

Last weekend we took a quick trip down South to Carlsbad, just a bit north of San Diego to go to LEGOLand.  We figured we would take one last trip before the baby gets here.  We had come across an episode of Sand Masters where they did a giant Star Wars LEGO sand sculpture for the grand opening of the Star Wars mini land and it really made up want to see it in person.

So we picked Emma up from school on Friday and told her we were going on a special trip, but didn't tell her where.  When we finally did she was very excited, but still managed to pass out thanks to the long car ride and late hour!

We got there a little too early the next morning and had our picture taken in front of the park.  Emma was dying to get inside and ride some rides.

When we picked up the picture on the way out the guy at the counter commented on how we lucked out with our timing and got a picture with no one behind us.  Uh, yeah, lucked out as in got to the park and hour before it opened.  So yeah, that worked out nicely.

We headed out to the mini worlds first because that's really what I came to see.  It was cool because they had buttons everywhere that the kids could push that did something interactive with the scene.  It kept Emma from getting bored since she couldn't play with anything over there.

Washington, D.C.  They even had the Vietnam Memorial.

Las Vegas!

30 Rock!

This is harder to see because it's so small, but it was crypts in New Orleans.  The zombies are attacking!

Hollywood, CA

Pier 39 in San Francisco with the sea lions and all!

I loved it, but my favorite was this little scene:

SO AWESOME!  Even Emma, who has never watched an episode said 'Mama, I think that's Buffy!'  I'm not sure if this scene is here all the time or if it's just an addition for Halloween, but I'm glad we caught it!

Then there was the Star Wars Mini World, LEGOLand's newest edition.  I took at least a hundred pictures there, but I'll just post a few...

It really is amazing when you think about how much work went into these scenes.  It takes me awhile to do one building.  To do all this is mind blowing!  This would probably be my dream job!!

Halloween was getting started so we got to see some of the decorations that would be more prevalent in October.

Not a Halloween decoration, but we thought the bathroom signs were funny.

This dragon was huge!

We ended up getting an ECV for me because I was having some pretty bad cramping after the walking around the mini worlds. Instead of pressing our luck we got this instead and it helped immensely.  I was terrified of running over people.

I wish I had a video of Emma walking off this water ride.  It was hilarious!  They were soaked, but she loved it!  She just didn't love wet jeans afterwards.

The next day we spent the morning at the Sea Life Aquarium that is semi-attached to the park.  Took about an hour.  Nothing too special, but it was nice and fun to see all the LEGO aspects.  I didn't take too many pictures in there because I suck at fish pictures.

All in all it was a great trip.  I definitely would recommend LEGOLand if you've got kids between the ages of 4 and 12 though 12 might be pushing it.  Emma loved it and there was tons of stuff for her to do there.  There's lots of healthy options for the kids for food too which was nice.  They even had baby food in case you forgot!  We didn't go into the water park while we were there because it was chilly and we didn't want to get Emma's hopes up, but from what we did see it looked lots of fun!