Resting Easy

Things have become a little more relaxed in the last week. Not only have we managed to get Ella on a routine and sleep schedule but, we received the last bit of results from her blood work and all is well. Looks like she just had a really stubborn umbilical cord. Now if we could magically get the plumbing fixed without paying an arm and a leg I think we might even start to see some smiles again :)

Getting Better

This morning I went to change Ella's diaper and when I went to pull the diaper down so it didn't touch her cord, I noticed that it was gone!! Her cord finally fell off!! We still haven't received her lab work back yet to see if she has L.A.D but this is really promising news!! Things may be looking up at the Riley house!

Cut The Cord

Let me first start by saying that the past 6 weeks have been some of the hardest and most trying of my life. Not only did I have an extremely difficult delivery and recovery with Ella, but I have also had to deal with the general frustrations of being a first time mom all while the plumbing in my darling yet extremely old house decided to completely break. (we had the pipe that connects to the main line under the house break) Just when I seriously thought that things couldn't possibly get any more difficult for us I got a scary call from Ella's pediatrician. So here is what is going on...

Last Monday I took Ella in to the pediatrician because she was 6 weeks old and her umbilical cord still had not fallen off. No big deal really. The Dr. put some stuff on it to freeze it off and we were on our way. The cord would fall off in a couple of days and all would be good. Or so I thought. On Wednesday the pediatrician called me back and said that when she saw Ella's cord something wasn't sitting right with her. She said that the cord didn't look like anything that she had ever seen before. Not wanting to freak me out at the time she decided to do a little research. After looking into it further she contacted a pediatric immunologist at Primary Children's. The immunologist recommended seeing Ella as soon as possible because she thought that Ella may have what is called Leukocyte Adhesion Deficiency. I had never heard of this before so the pediatrician recommended that I look it up online to get more familiar with it. When I looked it up my heart just sank. Basically this condition is an extremely rare condition where the body is unable to fight off bacteria. This could be why her cord isn't falling off. There have only been 400 reported cases in the world. But the part that scared me the most was that all of the infants who have had this were normal healthy babies. They were not born premature, they were on track developmentally, and had no problems with weight gain or eating. But, more than 75% of those babies died before they reached their first birthday. There is no medication for the condition and the only treatments are stem cell and bone marrow transplants. I know that we still have to do the blood work to know for sure but just the thought is making me sick. It's all I can think about. The immunologist office said that they couldn't get Ella in until May 4th but we are doing everything that we can to get her in sooner. I can't wait a month to know if this is what she has or not.

I know that we all have our trials but I honestly feel like I'm going to have a complete meltdown. I know that many of you think that I may have some postpartum depression and at this point I would say that you are probably right. With everything that is going on right now I don't see how I couldn't. We were finally able to get Ella on some what of a sleep schedule and now I'm not sleeping because I'm so worried about everything else. It's just been so much at once.

Calling All Mom's

Ok all you mom's out there, I am in need of some help. How in the world do you get your babies on a sleep schedule? Ella is a great sleeper in that she will sleep for a good 6 hours straight. The problem is that she doesn't like to fall asleep until about 3:00 in the morning! Up until this point we have just kind of worked around it hoping that we would be able to get her on some kind of a schedule. I just figured that she was a newborn and in time she would get on better sleeping terms. So for the past 4 weeks I would go to bed around 11:00 pm and then around 5:00 am I would wake up and Taylor would then come to bed and sleep until around 11:00 am. This as you can imagine, is not a good sleep schedule for anyone including Taylor and myself. Now I'm starting to freak out because he is going back to work next Monday and I can't be up all night and then be home alone with her all day too! I don't know what I'm going to do. I've tried to keep her up during the day so that she will be tired at night but have you ever tried to force a 5 week old baby to stay awake? It's impossible!! So we decided that we were going to start a routine where we would feed her, change her bum, turn on some lullaby music and just leave her in her crib to fall asleep on her own. We started at 10:30 tonight and she literally spent the last two and a half hours in her crib screaming! I changed her twice during that time so that she would be dry. Each time putting her right back into her crib and turning her music on. Now granted she is asleep now which is two hours earlier than normal however, she is almost ready to have a bottle again so I'm afraid the sleeping silence is not going to last long. This went on last night as well. At this point I'm discouraged to say the least and completely exhausted. I don't know how to fix it! If any of you have some advise for this stressed out first time mommy it would be greatly welcomed!

Cutie Patootie!

Here are some new pics of our little cutie! I can't believe how fast she is growing. She is getting so big so fast. Moxley absolutely loves Ella. She is very protective and always is so concerned when she cries. I'm truly so blessed to have such a great little family!

Just Kickin Back

Taylor went to check on Ella while she was sleeping and found her like this with her arms behind her head. Too cute!

Amazing

This man is AMAZING!! I can not even begin to imagine what I would do without him. Not that I didn't think that he would be a great dad but, I have to say that he is the most amazing daddy to Ella. He is always willing to take on diaper duty, make bottles, give baths, feed her, get up with her in the middle of the night, anything that she needs. All of this is done on top of helping me recover from a major surgery and dealing with my crazy post pregnancy hormones. I'm completely weepy and cry all the time and all the while he just sticks by me and tells me everyday that he loves me and thinks that I'm beautiful.

Babe - Thank you so much for being the most amazingly wonderful husband and dad!! I'm so grateful that you have been able to spend this time at home with me and Ella. I could never get through this without you. You are my best friend and I love you more than I could ever tell you. I know that Ella does too!

Ella's Journey

Now that our little one has finally arrived, and many have wanted to know the story, I thought I would document her rough journey to get here.

It started Sunday Feb, 13th. I had been having some crampy feelings and lower back pain all day. I thought that they were contractions but since the pain was pretty much constant I was having trouble timing them. At around 5:00 I told Taylor that I was packing the bag and we needed to head to the hospital. We packed the bag and headed to Jordan Valley. When we got there, I got hooked up to all of the machines so they could properly monitor my contractions. After 2 hours of being monitored I was sent home because I was not dilated and my contractions were just not close enough together. I was frustrated to say the least. We made it home and I was in labor all night long. I couldn't sleep and the pain was crazy. When I woke up the next morning I went to the bathroom and noticed that I was bleeding. I looked at Taylor and said "I think we are going to have to go back." After a quick call to the hospital to confirm that I should really go back in, after all I didn't want to get sent back home again, we were off. When we got to the hospital I was checked in again and once again hooked up to all of the machines. This time my contractions were much more consistent. This was it!! It had to be!! Then two nurses walked in the room. I was confused as to why there were two nurses but quickly found out that one was still in training and the other one was there to supervise. So the nurse in training checked me and said that I wasn't dilated at all. How could that be?? I mean my Dr. had at least been giving me a 1/2 a centimeter for over a month now. I couldn't have closed up. So they agreed to monitor me for an hour and then check me again. After an hour the same nurse checked a and said that I was 1 centimeter dilated. I was so upset. I couldn't be sent home again. This had to be the real deal. I was in a ton of pain and had been since the day before. Before they could send me home the supervising nurse had to check me and when she did she said I was dilated to 5 centimeters!! Are you kidding me?? How could the other nurse not tell that I was a 5!! This seems like it should be a pretty standard thing right? The nurse in training then looked at me and said "is it possible that you have a second cervix?" Um what?? don't you think that after being pregnant for 9 months that if I had a second cervix my Dr. would have noticed that?? All I could do was stare at her with a completely irritated look on my face. Obviously she needs a lot more training. Anyway, at that point I asked if I could please have my epideral. This was it after all. We were going to have a Valentines baby. I got my epideral and things were good but I was progressing slowly. It took me from 9:30 in the morning until about 6:00 at night to go from a 5 to a 9.5. Even though I was not quite a 10 they decided to have me start pushing. At this point I was physically exhausted. I had been up for over 24 hours and had been in labor for most of that time. I hadn't eaten anything since 10:00 the night before I was just done. I had a fever of 102 and Ella's heart rate had started jumping. At this point the decision was made to do a C-section. They wheeled me into the operating room and got started. I was told I would feel pressure but I was feeling something more. It was painful. I don't know if the drugs didn't kick in properly or if I am a wuss but it was really painful. The next thing I heard was my Dr. saying "put her under." Two hours later I woke up to find an extremely worried family. After they got Ella out my uterus would not contract back down and therefore I wouldn't stop bleeding. I lost a ton of blood. I found out later that they almost had to do a complete hysterectomy to get the bleeding to stop. I can't even imagine how I would have felt if I had to wake up to that news. While they were able to get the bleeding to stop, I had to be monitored very closely. Of course my mom and dad were freaking out! I'm just glad I was knocked out and don't remember any of it. Once I woke up I was still pretty out of it and didn't have enough strength to hold Ella until she was about 12 hours old. I didn't get to see her first bath, hear her first cries, I didn't even know what she looked like. All I knew was that she was here and she was completely happy and healthy. That was enough for me! I've had a rough recovery and I'm still in it. Before I could even leave the hospital I had to have a blood transfusion due to the amount of blood I lost. My Dr. told me that this was the worst possible situation that could have ever happened but I made it through. For the first time in my life I feel tough!! Maybe I'm not as big of a wuss as I thought I was! I will say this... She is totally worth it and I would do it all again in a heartbeat. Here are some pics of our crazy experience.

Our Finished Product!

Holding Daddy's Hands

Seeing Ella for the First Time

After My C-Section. Still Out of it! Lookin Hot!

Ella has arrived

Jessica is fast asleep and I took a lucky guess at what her password was for her blog. I am happy to report that Ella Darlene Riley was born at 7:30 pm on Monday, February 14th, 2011. She is very healthy and weighed in at 7 pounds and 6 ounces. She was 19 and one half inches long. Jessica had some complications but is in high spirits. She had to wait 12+ hours to hold Ella for the first time.
The funniest moment of the evening was bringing Ella into the nursery. The blinds were drawn so I was able to take Ella to her station without the family watching. The nurse asked me if I was ready and then opened the shades. Our family came running like a pack of puppies at meal time. They were all bouncing like prairie dogs in excitement. It was a moment I will never forget.

Update

Just a little update. Last Friday I went to the Dr. for my regular 2 week appointment. I've been feeling pressure from this little one since the beginning of the third trimester but it had gotten worse since the new year. My dr. decided to check me and we found out that this little girl has already dropped, I'm 50% thinned out and dilated 1/2 a centimeter. I was not expecting to get checked and have my dr. say "Yep! There's her head right there." The good/bad news is that the dr. doesn't think that she will come early. The really bad news is that I'm really feeling the pain. I'm going to have to cut back my hours at work which totally bums me out. I wanted to work as long as I possibly could but we have to do what we have to do. In the mean time I'm staying off my feet as much as possible and taking the pain meds the dr. prescribed me.