Mia's First Week Pictures

We made it successfully through the first week with Mia! We are all still doing really well. Bree is having a few issues but we're helping her get through them. She just needs lots of cuddles and attention. Here are a few pictures of Mia's first week...

Dressed in green for Earth day...

This one was taken yesterday at her one week checkup. Doesn't she look thrilled?

This one I took just this morning because I love this outfit!

Mia's Birth Story....finally...

Sorry its taken me so long to get this up. We've been so busy with Mia as well as with getting all our little ones adjusted and settled in...anyways....



Mia's Birth Story:



For a couple of weeks we'd had the plan set with our midwife, Tammy that we would induce on Saturday, the 17th of April by breaking my water. We didn't want to use pitocin because I have had a prior C-section. I felt strongly that I didn't want to up my chances of uterine rupture nor did I want to jeopardize the hospital's policy on allowing VBAC's by taking un-necessary chances. Thus, the plan was going to be to go to my 39 week appointment on Friday the 16th and if Mia's head was low enough, we'd go ahead and break my water on Saturday morning.



At the appointment, Mia's head was indeed not down far enough and so Tammy told me that she couldn't break my water with her head still able to be pushed out of my pelvis....we were a bit disappointed but knew that if her head wasn't engaged, breaking my water just wasn't safe and that we should wait it out. We were talking about returning the next week and seeing where she was then, when Tammy told me that since I'd be 40 weeks on Tuesday, I'd need to start coming in two to three times a week for non stress testing and biophysical profiles. This was not good news....childcare, school schedules and driving distance made that not an optimal scenario...so, Tammy then offered to sweep my membranes and have us go walking around Walmart of Target for a couple hours, then return to see if baby's head was down any lower. I agreed to this and as she swept the membranes, I dilated to from three to four centimeters right then and there. At four centimeters with my tenth child, Tammy no longer felt comfortable with me walking around at home. She told me that perhaps I should reconsider using a very small amount of pitocin, to help start contractions and bring baby's head down. She consulted with the OB who agreed that a very small amount of pitocin was probably better than going home at four centimeters, with a tenth baby, living a distance from the hospital...



We considered our options for a moment. I wasn't wild about the pitocin for the reasons I already mentioned plus the fact that using it would significantly change several of the things that were important to me during labor. Still, I couldn't see coming back to the hospital every couple days for extra testing, so we agreed to the induction. We left to go out to lunch with the plan to head to the hospital after we ate.

We got to Labor and Delivery and started the pitocin for a while it did nothing. The strange thing was, that the very thing I thought I wouldn't want- continuous monitoring, ended up being my favorite part of her birth. I was worried about the effect of the pit on Mia, and I wanted to watch her heartbeat with my own two eyes...I pulled the monitor over towards me so that I could watch her heart beating. I loved talking to her and following all of her movements and activities on the monitor. She did fabulously. Not one single time did her heartbeat ever become irregular or was she stressed at all. She did wonderfully the entire time.



While we waited for contractions to start, Albert and I played cards- Uno and Blackjack, I bounced on the birthing ball beside my bed and finally we progressed from mild cramps to recognizable contractions. Albert helped me breathe through them, and rubbed my back and my feet. The thing about the pitocin was that it made the contractions pretty close together and again I worried that Mia would be stressed by not having enough time to re-oxygenate between contractions. She was totally fine though.

While the contractions intensified, we watched television-and hung our with our midwife and her daughter Ashley. I updated my blog and facebook and my due date club. The contractions intensified and became painful but I did pretty good with breathing and working through them. Albert was a huge help. Tammy checked me again and the baby was finally low enough for her to rupture my water.

With my water now broken, I asked Tammy if we could turn off the pitocin. It had done its job and I didn't want to use it un-necessarily. She agreed and turned it off. I also asked for my bag of fluids so that I could get my epidural. After the fluids ran, the anesthesiologist came by, and just as he walked towards the door of my room, he was paged away for an emergency code somewhere else in the hospital. No one knew how long he'd be gone. Obviously, emergencies can't be predicted. Tammy informed me that he was indeed the only anesthesiologist in the hospital. And that I might have to go naturally. I was unhappy about it but was doing well just taking each contraction at a time and reminding myself to relax and not tense up. Albert was helping me and just as I started to put the epidural out of my mind, and accept the fact that it just wasn't going to be available this time, the anesthesiologist magically reappeared in my room. Part of me was tempted to just tell him never mind, because I was working though the contractions pretty well but knowing that the delivery stage was coming, I went ahead and got the epi....and it was wonderful. I noticed that I only felt one contraction during the placement of the epidural and thought that it was odd....then I noticed that I was only feeling one contraction every fifteen minutes or so (they didn't hurt any longer but I could still feel them...this epidural was perfect). I realized then that since we'd turned off the pitocin, the contractions had spaced wayyy out. I was seven centimeters and didn't want to stall...so I asked Tammy to turn it back on the lowest setting. We did, and the contractions picked back up.

Around that time, my mom arrived from Tennessee and now she was going to be able to be part of the baby's birth. We talked and hung out until I felt the contractions become painful again and asked for more medicine in my epidural. As each contraction got increasingly more painful, I feared that this would be a repeat of Bree's birth where the epi didn't quite cover the delivery...
Fortunately pretty soon after that, I was complete and it was time to push.

Because I don't like to have my bed broken down or push in stirrups, it took several minutes for me to find a position to push in that was comfortable and effective. We went through a few different scenarios, including Albert standing at the foot of the bed holding a towel that we played tug of war with. Finally, Tammy suggested that I lay the bed back and curl around the baby more. That worked. The baby moved down, down, down. Just minutes before she crowned, our pediatrician came through the door and asked if she could stay for the delivery. She was at the hospital for another reason and wanted to attend Mia's birth. It was kind of cool to have her there.

The epidural ended up working perfectly. It didn't cover all the pain, but it covered enough that this time I didnt need to yell and scream. It hurt enough for me to feel exactly what was going on and to be fully present in the moment, but it wasn't soooo painful that I couldn't even focus on anything except getting it out! It was perfect. I pushed her out silently even though I wanted to yell because it was burning and stretching. After her head and shoulders were out, Tammy guided my hands so that I grabbed Mia under her arms and pulled her out myself and brought her up to my chest. That was amazing. I said "hello, honey girl!" to her and let the nurse wipe her off. She had swallowed some fluid on her way out so she did need to go to the warmer to get suctioned out really well and then needed to be percussed due to all the excess fluid, but our pediatrician was there and told us she'd be fine and that she was perfect...just had a little fluid that needed to be worked out. The nursery nurse finally brought her over to me to hold and told me that it'd be best if I could get her to cry...she hadn't done much of that yet....she was just looking around, really alert but really calm and quiet.

I held her for quite a while. The nurse left her in my room and brought the supplies for her bath to us. After my epidural wore off, I got up and bathed her myself in our room and then we waited to be transferred to our postpartum room.

we came home on Sunday morning and things have been really wonderful since. That's her birth story. It was a perfect birth. And a perfect way to complete (hopefully) our family.

We are home!!!

Me giving Mia her first bath shortly after she was born...

Getting ready to transfer to our postpartum room...about 1:30 a.m.

about 3 hours old...

about three hours old...

The next morning...

Playing dress up with her...

Drew holding Mia for the first time...

Brandon and Mia

Daddy & Mia....

Mommy & Mia getting ready to go home...

Mia all ready to come home...

Getting her foot stamped on the wall...

Her footprint....notice Sydney and Kambree's in the picture too from when they were born...

Notice Alex, Isaiah, Kambree and Mia's footprints all together...

Getting in her car seat ready to go home!!!

Mommy & Mia

The reaction coming in the front door...

The little ones were so excited to meet thier new sister...

Brice holding Mia for the first time...

I will post a full birth story as soon as I have time! Things are crazy busy and the little ones are having a bit of an adjustment time....they are keeping me busy, plus I'm dead tired!

Mia is wonderful, but very needy!!! I'll be back to post more as soon as I can! Thank you everyone for all the prayers and well wishes!!!! We are so happy with our new little girl!

Our Princess Is Here...

Our little girl, Mia, was born late last night at 10:44 p.m. She weighed 8 pounds, 3 ounces and was 18 3/4 inches long. Her birth was beautiful and perfect even though it was so different than I'd anticipated in so many ways. She is absolutely healthy and wonderful. She swallowed a bit of fluid during delivery so I didn't get to hold her as long as I'd have liked too, but it was okay. I can't wait for her brothers and sisters to meet her. They are very excited! We will be uploading more pictures very soon and I'll post them as soon as I can. We have a few up of the moments following her delivery...so here's a sneak peak until we get the rest of them posted. Thank you everyone for all the well wishes and prayers yesterday!

MARIA HAILEY FONTENOT "MIA"
APRIL 16, 2010
10:44 P.M.
8 POUNDS, 3 OUNCES
18 3/4 INCHES LONG

got my epidural

and things are still moving slow! I asked Tammy to turn off the pit after she broke my water but now it appears that might have slowed things down too much. So we just turned it back on...hoping things pick back up!

not much happening...

yet. Contractions are just starting to pick up. Hope some things start to happen soon!

All checked in!

We are at the hospital to begin our induction! I am four centimeters which is what got us the ticket over to labor & delivery. Albert has gone to run a few necessary errands, including procuring our children something to have for dinner tonight and our friend Jenny is on her way to our house as we speak to hang out with our little ones! This post seems crazily familiar....sort of like the one I wrote 16 months ago, which sounded just like it!
We are very excited. The only not so great part of it all is that we did consent, hesitantly, to a very small dose of pitocin. Baby was just still very high (-3 station, wow!) and I was already at a 4 so my choices were to do the small amount of pit OR to go home and let baby come when she's ready but starting Tuesday have to come in frequently for NST's, Ultrasounds and Biophysical profiles. We live a good deal away and the OB and midwife didn't feel super comfortable with me going home at 4 centimeters....I didn't feel super comfortable with having to return every couple days for more testing (childcare is an major issue under that scenario). So we decided on the VERY low dose of pitocin. Hoping we made the right choice....I'll keep everyone updated here and on facebook...and maybe twitter if I can remember my login!!!

Update on Brandon...

We heard back from the pediatrician yesterday and it looks like everything is pretty much okay. His 24 hour urine test came back pretty good, his kidney ultrasound is clear. They did note that his left kidney is a bit larger than his right but since both of them look healthy and seem to have healthy function, they are not worried at this point. His blood work came back basically good with the exception of a couple of immunology functions that were high. The renal specialist said that at this point he's not too worried though, as these findings are not uncommon and could indicate a wide variety of things. So the plan is that in 2 weeks we take him back to his pediatrician for another urine test/culture. And then depending on what they find, we may have an appointment with the nephrologist.
I can't even describe how relieved we are that there is nothing more serious going on. Kidney issues down the road have been a big fear that we've had since he started that cyclosporine 5 years ago. And even though he's been off of it for quite some time, the threat of possible damage still makes us worry. It looks like everything is fine though and so we are breathing a big sigh of relief and focusing on the new baby who might arrive today or tomorrow! We'll keep you posted!

Tomorrow....

I go for my 39 week appointment. If baby is low enough (she was head down at my last visit, but still pretty high) then on Saturday morning, I'll go to the hospital to have my water broken. If she's still too high though, then we just wait patiently a bit longer...
Of course if I get there tomorrow for my appointment and Tammy finds that I'm significantly dilated, then I may go on over to the hospital right then...pending various circumstances....
I'll keep you all updated!!!

Do you think she'll be a good big sister????

I sure hope so!!!! We'll find out soon- maybe before the end of the week!

Track Season...

Track season is under way and Emanuel is enjoying it quite a bit! Here's a quick picture of him taken with his relay team. They broke a school record yesterday in their relay race...Congratulations to all of them!!!

Playing with scissors...

Last week, I came home from Brandon's pediatric appointment to learn that Brice had cut his hand...with scissors. Why he was allowed to play with scissors was an issue we explored later, but for the immediate time being, it was obvious that it would need a couple stitches. I packed him up and ran him up to Urgicare where the doctor there confirmed he'd need....2 stitches. OR...we could use the Dermabond which is basically skin glue. It goes on in a minute and a half and no shots/no pain. Pretty easy choice. The sore spot came at the end of the visit when the nurse told us to keep the hand STILL for a day. Lots of books and movies she told us. Um, does she KNOW Brice?

True to Brice's personality...he had ripped off the Dermabond within 16 hours of its application (and that includes mostly sleeping time). They told us not to worry. A kid like him would probably bust stitches too, and that we should just keep Neosporine on it. We did, but he's a boy and had that hand constantly in the dirt, mud and filth. It's a miracle that infection has not set in. The above photo of him was taken at Emanuel's track meet last week.

Daughters

All of the sudden, I have become very excited to meet my new daughter. Even though I don' think she's especially eager to come out any time soon, my heart is getting more and more eager to see her and hold her. It started yesterday when I had a few contractions...not the kind that produce a baby, as they were not close together and did not follow any pattern...they were just randomly there every now and again. But while those contractions may not have ripened my cervix any further, they did ripen my heart and as I watched my three daughters playing in the living room and outside, I became very eager to have our fourth daughter here with us as soon as she's ready. Come out baby! Whenever you want. We are all waiting for you!

My Birthday...

My birthday was yesterday and it was the very best one of my whole life! And not for the reasons I'd expect! I had been feeling, not badly, but sort of "blah", not really wanting to go anywhere or do anything just because its not super comfortable anymore to do things like go shopping, or sit in a movie theater, or other things of that nature. So basically I didn't have any big plans, we were just going to spend the evening together.

By the time Albert came home from work, I was sort of feeling like going out somewhere, but then, by the time we got all our little ducklings in the house and home from various activities, it was 5:30...wayyyy too late to start getting kids ready to go out to eat on a Friday night (unless you want to wait over an hour for a table...no thanks). We started to go by ourselves (and Bree) out to Olive Garden but quickly scrapped that plan..the wait was long and the kids were bummed. So we just turned around and came back home...

Sooooo, the kids and Albert set about creating the perfect "stay home and do nothing" birthday that turned out absolutely perfect! The kids organized a spa in the living room. Brice and Jackson gave me a foot massage and Brandon and Daddy gave me a back massage! That was the best! Daddy and the boys made a birthday cheesecake and we played Taboo with the oldest five, after the little ones went to bed...so much fun. I love that game. Even the kids that were not so great at playing still had fun. Finally, we left the kids with a movie for them to watch, while we snuck upstairs to bed and watched a movie together in our room. It was absolutely perfect...

This is my favorite picture of the night. Albert just realized he'd read the directions wrong and added the milk to the crust mix instead of the pie filling. Oops. A quick trip to the grocery store for extra graham crackers to mix in fixed the problem...

Brice was my foot massager for the night (he and Jackson). He was so into his task. He was really proud of himself and he did a great job! It felt really good!

Here is Drew mixing the cheese cake filling. An argument briefly broke out between Brandon and Drew regarding who was going to mix.

Here is the game we played with the five older kids...we really love this game and had so much fun!

Here is the finished cheesecake....it was yummy, and Daddy & the boys made it themselves....

Here is Mommy during the birthday song....sorry the pic is so hard to see...

In "Brandon" news...we turned in his 24 hour urine collection today and hopefully early next week we'll have the results of his chemistry panel. Also, Monday is his kidney ultrasound...We'll keep everyone updated!