9.29.2007

:(

In the hospital...

I was admitted Wednesday after a check up at the Dr.s office. My blood pressure had not come down since delivery, so they wanted to run some labs and monitor it more closely. A few days later, I'm still here, waiting to find out exactly what is going on and what we can do about it. Apparentley my liver enzyme counts are up and there is something going on with my platelets, and I've got a massive headache now that no medication is touching. :( They've talked about HELLP syndrome as well as PIH (pregnancy induced hypertension), but no definite "diagnosis" yet.
Luckily, I've been able to keep Kailyn here with me (as long as someone else stays...thank you so much mom!). I would not have been able to come stay here without here. I guess i'm already attached. :) So for now, no new pics or cute stories, although, there are many accruing!

9.25.2007

first DR. appointment






Today was Kailyn's first appointment to check up after birth. I haven't given all the details about our hospital stay yet, but one thing that happened was that she decided she did not want to pee for the first 2 days of her life, so we had to get an early appointment this week to check up on her. She is absolutely perfectly healthy though and has just informed us in many ways that she will do things when she is good and ready- she is not gonna do it when she's supposed to. :)
Her she is getting in the car seat to go....she is really thrilled!
And a few other misc. pictures from the past few days. We've got bunches of pictures, but a great deal of them need to be processed before we can scan them to the computer...they are coming though!

9.24.2007

where to begin?






OK! So I am home! And I apologize for not getting to the computer any earlier...I haven't even seen my email yet and I just know it's going to be full...but I wanted to get up some more pictures and tell you a little bit of the "birth story" while she is snoozing.
When we got to the hospital Wed. we were not anticipating being admitted, we were just having some blood work done to rule out any major blood pressure problems. When we arrived, they had everything set for me to be admitted and handed me the gown and a pee cup! YIKES it was really going to start happening! So we were a bit thrown off, but excited nonetheless. The Dr. inserted the Cervidil at I think about 8 oclock and told us to kick back and relzx and we'd start the Pitocin in my IV at 8 in the morning. So Rob packed up to come home for the night and I settled in for what I thought would be my last night of sleep. I WAS WAY WRONG. The cervidil did its magic and I began having contractions (although, I didn't know they were contractions, I just thought I really had to use the bathroom) at about 1:30 AM. I kept getting up and going in the bathroom and unhooking all the monitors they had on me, making the nurses really love my stay. Then at about 5AM (I think...it's all kind of blurry) my water broke on its own...very very strange feeling, if you'd like to know more details, let me know. :) So the nurse came in and got me cleaned up, and called the DR. and midwife. They began the Pitocin right away, but I was already at 4 CMS!!! They could tell that the baby had passed her first bowel movement in side (again , lots of fabulous details for you all!) so they made arrangements with the special care nursery personnel to be on hand for the birth to get her all suctioned up and ensure there were no complications because of it. I started actually figuring out that I was indeed having contractions shortly after, and asked for the "big needle" right away. Let me tell you...I did not feel much after getting the epidural. It was very useful and I got to lay around waiting without feeling any pain. For awhile I didn't even realize I was still in labor, I thought it had all stopped. By about 1:00 I was completely dialated at 10 cms. and could have started pushing, but they wanted to wait to see if she would drop any further dow first, so we waited for about an hour and a half. Again, not feeling anything! It was great! It took about an hour and 45 minutes once I finally started pushing, and had I been able to feel my legs it probably would have been much quicker. :) But she arrived much smaller than they anticipated, in fact, they had brought in the DR. and some specialists because they thought her shoulders would be too large. But again, she was much smaller, thank goodness, and practically popped out. HAHAHA! They got her all checked out, and she was perfect! Then they spent about an hour stitching me up- I ended up with some pretty severe tears- and then we were able to breastfeed and meet the family!!!

SO...it has taken me 3 days to get all of that typed in and posted...it's gonna take me awhile to realize I am much slower and have to plan for EVERYTHING to be much longer than before she came!

9.22.2007

BABY PHOTOS!!!




Here are a couple pictures of our newest family member. I don't think they due her justice. We'll get you more pictures as soon as we can of our pretty little girl!

9.21.2007

The Baby is HERE!!!

Kailyn Brooke Eshbaugh was born at 4:26 pm on 9/20/07. She was 8 lbs 8 oz at the time of birth and 20.5" long. Both Rachel and the baby are doing great!!! If all goes well, they will be heading home on Saturday!

9.20.2007

In The Hospital

Rachel was admitted to the hospital on Wednesday evening. At her doctor visit, her blood pressure levels were a little high and she was sent to the hospital for monitoring. After several tests, everything was good on that end. They decided to keep her at the hospital and gave her a drug to prepare her for labor. They've scheduled her induction for Thursday at 8am. If all goes well, Little Eshbaugh will be born within 24 hrs. . Keep your prayers going.

9.18.2007

well..

Everyone keeps saying that I'm gonna end up sharing my BDAY with our little girl, and it just might happen. Who knows? Right now, nothing really going on, but she is moving around a lot, or at least I think that's what that feeling is. It oculd be contractions for all I know... And I have been pretty crampy lately. We'll keep ya updated!

:)
No matter what, I am totally ok with the fact that she is coming Friday!! Tomorrow is the Dr's office, Thursday we go to the hospital for Cervidil and Fri. it happens, so everyday until she arrives we will be busy! YEA!!!!

9.17.2007

she's here...

In my belly, in my belly,
She's here in my belly, in my belly,
She's here in my belly,
And she doesn't feel like telly (ing)
What day she is going to leave my belly.
(Imagine, "If you're happy and you know it")
OK, so this is what I think up in the middle of the night when I am awake. You can probably tell I have a background of pre-K and Kindergarten training!
Just hanging out at home now trying not to wait, but not really finding much else to do...

I had a phone call from Bevan this morning from France, and he sounds WONDERFUL! He is truly enjoying the entire cultural experience, and talked mostly about his host family and the very fresh food! I can't imagine how exhausting it must be to try and understand French all day, but he seems to be really enjoying himself!

9.15.2007

no news

Absolutely nothing to report....no new pains or aches (bummer)
She could be waiting so that I win the guessing game....hahaha. I just had to pick a day that was overdue. :)

9.13.2007

Happy Due Date to us!!

Yea we made it!!! So now what??
Went to Dr. yesterday instead of tomorrow and there has been 0 progress despite the pains and cramps I've been feeling. So... if nothing happens by next Thursday the 20th, they will begin the induction process by inserting Cervadil at night and then beginning an IV of Pitocin on Friday morning. By next Friday night we should be meeting our little girl!
It's kinda nice to have an end in sight, but still wish this would happen on its own. I'm getting a bit miserable, more in my mind than body, I guess, but still. Tomorrow is going to be my last day at school.
We'll keep this updated as best as we can!!!

9.10.2007

joy and peace

I feel amazingly peaceful right now and quite a bit joyful just knowing that within the next 2 weeks we will have our new little one "here" with us! I've been concentrating so much on the "when" and the "I can't take it anymore" tha tI've forgotten to be thankful and thrilled with the entire notion of having an actual baby.Duh! You would think it would be easy to remember those things. :)

9.09.2007

Well...

I thought for sure that early this morning it was all beginning. I had really bad cramps and some contractions starting at 3:50. So I got up and emailed all of my school plans, just to make sure, and then sat with the dog for awhile, looked out the window listening to the rain, and remembered that they told us to try to go back to sleep if it started so we could get as much rest as possible. When I woke up and hour later, nothing was happening. :( How frustrating!
I don't know how I will handle people at school tomorrow saying, "Oh my gosh, I can't believe you are here! I thought for sure you'd have that baby this weekend!" I will really try to smile.

9.06.2007

He "got the big picture" :)

This is copied from an email sent out from Rob's insurance company.
He got the big picture! Congratulations to our overall winner Rob Eshbaugh!



Rob led the branch with 68 chances earned. Equally or more impressive, Rob's 8 week production total was 98 P&C applications- ranking him 2nd in the branch for the eight week period! Rob also currently ranks 7th in the branch in year-to-date P&C application production with 276 applications! Rob also just recently celebrated his 1 year anniversary as an Erie agent this past July. Congratulations to Eshbaugh Insurance Agency!

WOW! I am so proud of Rob and his hard work! Not only did he win the district 42 inch flat screen plasma HD V, he was then upgraded to the 52 inch one because he won in the entire region, which is a 4 state area!! Lucky dog, because he knew we weren't going to buy one! :)

Doc says....

See you next Friday for your next appointment. What?! Next Friday is the 14th and that is past when I'm supposed to have this baby! What happened to "Big baby...will come early?" Oh well...
Now it's just a matter or being positive and knowing that at least she's still safe and healthy!

9.02.2007

I cleaned?!?!

So you know how they say that women start to "nest" all of the sudden right before they start going into labor? Well I HATE cleaning and while I like to have a clean house, would much rather let there be some dust than have to get down and clean. I decided today that I would clean! I got on my hands and knees (which must have been a pretty funny sight) and scrubbed the kitchen floor; and then I completed doused down the bathroom too. But I think I made myself do it more because I know that's what is supposed to happen rather than me having this fierce need and energy to do it. Does that count? Can I have the baby now??

and oh, Rob and I went to eat at Rockne's and I made our waiter bring me a side of basil to put on my fettucine. Who knows if that even works but I am doing wahtever I can at this point to pretend I have control over the situation. Let's say my white pasta turned green!!! Basil doesn't taste so bad...even in super large quantities.

9.01.2007

Happy September!!

I can't believe that it is September!
I don't think I ever really thought we'd get this far.
but we're here now and are getting a little anxious!
Bevan is off to France tomorrow (via Chicago-he's already there) so little Eshbaugh didn't make it in time to meet him :( But he'll be back at Christmas!~
I've been getting some on and off cramping and possible contractions (but I have no clue what they should feel like), but nothing consistent or hostpital worthy. I took the day off from school yesterday...I was so exhausted after 4 days of extreme heat in the classroom and trying to get my kiddos trained for the year. It was actually easier to leave them than I thought...
Today kicks off college football! So we will be busy cheering on Notre Dame this afternoon (and Ohio State too :) ) And hopefully she will get a kick out of that and decide to come out and see it herself!
:)