We give thanks

Thanksgiving was a time for us to reflect on how truly blessed we are. Aaron and I are both very thankful for the joy that Alyssa has brought to our lives and the fact that she's a healthy baby. We were so fortunate to have had a healthy pregnancy, safe labor and delivery, and now a beautiful little girl. We are also thankful for the continual love, support, and prayers of all our family and friends.

We spent Thanksgiving with Aaron's immediate family, the Krautkremer family, and Uncle Bob. It was a fun day spent eating, laughing and playing games. Alyssa was the center of attention during much of the day, making her entrance in her "little turkey" Thanksgiving outfit. Many thanks to Brian and Renee for hosting the gathering and for all the yummy food! We left a few pounds heavier than we arrived.

Alyssa had a check-up last Wednesday, almost 3 weeks after her birth. The doctor said she looked great, and he commented on how strong she is. In his words, she has good tone. She's able to pick her head up and turn it, and push herself up or forward if something solid is available to push off of. She's gaining weight - she was at 9 lbs, 15 oz at the appointment and she's also grown 1/4 inch. For both height and weight, she's in the 88th percentile. Her head has also grown, now over 15 inches, in the 97th percentile. We keep thinking that this means she'll be really smart :)

Alyssa and I are slowly getting into a routine during the day by ourselves. I find it hard to get too much done between all the feedings and diaper changes, but we're working on it. The objective for this week is to decorate for Christmas and call day care centers during the day. We'll see if I'm able to get these two tasks accomplished. She's generally sleeping pretty well at night, eating every four hours or so, which means we get to sleep for about 3 hour chunks of time. We're so thankful for every hour of sleep that we get.

Alyssa is generally a happy baby. She cries when she's wet or when she's hungry. We continue to supplement with formula as I still don't have enough milk to satiate her ever growing hunger, but Aaron continues to support me through the frustrating moments and we're hopeful that with continued pumping and some herbal supplements (More Milk Plus) my milk may fully come in. We'll stick with this another few weeks and see what happens. In the meantime, Aaron & I will continue to work together to care for and love our little angel, and we will all enjoy the excitement of the season.

Coming home

Home sweet home. It was exciting to bring Alyssa home a week ago today and have her begin to adjust to the place she'll be calling home. In the past week, it's be fun to see how much the house has been taken over be her - from the bassinet that moves from our bedroom to the living room and the swing and rocker recliner that required rearranging the living room slightly to the bottles and formula that are now sitting in our cupboards. And we know this is just the beginning.

Alyssa has done a great job of adjusting to life at home. We had a few trying days at first when it seemed that all she did was cry, but by Wednesday after an in-home visit from a nurse, we figured out why. It turns out that she wasn't getting enough to eat. So the nurse recommended that we give her 2 oz of formula after each feeding from me; since doing that, she's back to the happy baby we first met in the hospital. She weighed 9 lbs, 3 oz at birth, but by the time we left the hospital four days later, she was down to 8 lbs, 4 oz and 2 days after that, she was down to 8 lbs, 2 oz. Because of this, the pediatrician wanted to see her the next day; we were happy to see the scales tip 8 lbs, 8 oz at the pediatrician appointment, so the supplementing is working. She's happier, she's started peeing more and is now having one or two poopy diapers a day too. While she's still not pooping as much as she should be, she's moving in the right direction!

We've discovered in this first week at home just how tricky it can be to get much done. Alyssa is quite the hungry little baby (guess that's why she weighed 9 lbs - whose family does the appetite come from?!) and eats every 2 1/2 to 3 hours; since it takes anywhere from 30 to 60 minutes to feed her, it doesn't leave too much time for getting things done in between, especially after washing the bottles for the next feeding and cuddling with her! We certainly can't pass that up. Having Nana and Grandpap Fleming stay with us that first week was such a blessing; they helped keep the house in shape, everyone fed and provided a lot of love and moral support for all of us, especially during those few crying-filled days. Visits from Grandma and Grandpa Menke, Auntie Stacy, and friends also have been a lot of fun and provided us with some adult conversation. Aaron worked full days Wed-Fri last week, and will work half days this week while Alyssa and I try to establish our own daily routine.

We managed to make two family outings this weekend - one to the grocery store and Target and one to church. Much to our delight Alyssa didn't make a peep during church; we could sit in our normal spot and not have to go to the family room (AKA crying baby room). This was also our first chance to show Alyssa off. While we didn't take her out of the car seat at all - several people around us peeked in at her face and congratulated us. I think we're both proud parents.

I guess that's the latest from here. I heard that some of you wanted to hear my version of the birth, but really Aaron really hit it right on. Great anticipation and anxiousness kept me up most of the night before, so I went into the whole process pretty tired. The early stage of labor wasn't too bad in fact Aaron couldn't even tell when I was having a contraction; the nurse was impressed as apparently my contractions were pretty strong and I wasn't complaining of pain. She thought I must have a high tolerance for pain - fooled her! The epidural was amazing for the first several hours until it caused my legs to swell and become unbearably heavy and they turned it off. I remember being thankful for the visitors as they kept us distracted and made the time pass quicker. When it finally became time to push, I was ready but I was also very uncomfortable and a little scared. Pushing was definitely hard work but Aaron was right by my side and kept encouraging me. He was so calm but yet so excited to finally get to that stage. The nurses who helped us through all of this were amazing; they did a great job of explaining everything and encouraging both of us. I don't remember at what point I shut down during pushing - I think the alternating between sweating and freezing, the uncontrollable shaking, the pain in my back, and my physical exhaustion all just got the better of me. When our doctor came in and made the decision to move to plan B, I was ok with that, a little disappointed but thankful that I could leave that stage behind. I remember trying to sign different consent forms while shaking and being amazed by how quickly everything took place once the decision was made. I was alert when I first got into the OR - talking to the doctor and other staff, but that's really about all I remember until Aaron had Alyssa right next to me; even then, I think he had to tell me a few times she was a girl before I caught onto what he was saying. I don't know whether fatigue got the better of me, whether I passed out from pain (I could feel the beginning of the surgery), or whether they drugged me to keep me quiet (apparently I was screaming). All this makes for our very own birth story and has given us the most perfect little girl. We are so thankful for her and amazed by her...

Here are a few things you may not know about Alyssa:

• She has very long fingers and toes (from me!).
• She sneezes a good bit and sometimes in twos and three (from Aaron!).
• She hasn't yet learned to burp like a lady; you can hear them in the next room.
• She has so many different expressions that make us laugh - from her furrowed brow look, to her raised brow that crinkles her forehead; to the pouty bottom lip; to the subtle smile and the "I'm about ready to let loose a cry" look!
• She's quite squirmy. She's really quite strong and can flail her arms and legs with a good bit of force. Her neck is also pretty strong for as young as she is.

Thanks for indulging me and letting me ramble about our little angel. And thanks to all of you for your prayers, thoughts, well wishes, visits, congratulatory notes, and overall love and support. It makes us so happy to know that Alyssa is already so well loved! We love you all and look forward to keeping the blog updated with milestones and photos-

And then the family was three.....

Allow me to introduce you to our new baby girl. Alyssa Nicole Menke was born at 12:33 am on Friday 11/7. She weighed 9 lbs 3 oz and was 21 and 1/2 inches long. It was a long day. Mandy had trouble sleeping the night before and was awake at 1am on Thrusday morning. We arrived at the hospital at 7am and they started the petocin around 8:45 (Mandy will correct any time errors I have in the next update). Our doctor broke her water around 11 and she hung in through the contractions through 2:30. She had an epidural and that really calmed her down and relieved most of her pains. She was dialated 2 cm most of the morning and they said is she didn't progress then we would go to plan b (c-section), but she moved to 3 cm at 3pm, so they we stuck with the plan to have her naturally. She then went to 7 cm at 5:30 and was moving right along. They turned her epidural off since her legs were getting really swollen and she couldn't move them. She gradually progressed to 9 then 10 cm around 9:45 when she started to push (13 hours into the process). They had turned her epidural back on to relieve some pain, but it wasn't even close to being as effective as it was before. Mandy was in some pain because the baby was face up (instead of down) making labor more difficult. Also, the baby was pushing on Mandy's back causing extreme pain whenever she was on her back pushing; so we did most of the pushing on her side. After about 2 hours of intense pushing the baby wasn't moving down, so we decided to have the c-section. I was able to be by Mandy's side during her surgery,but she really doesn't remember me being there much. She was exhausted and was actually napping in between contractions when she was pushing. In the operating room I heard that the baby was alomost out, so I stood up so I could see the birth. The doctor held the baby up to me and I told Mandy it was a GIRL!!

I couldn't be more proud of Mandy! She exceeded all my expectations and I couldn't believe she hung in there all day and night. We didn't get back to the room until 4am and she got about 1 hour of sleep after that since Alyssa wanted to feed.

Mom and Alyssa are doing great, and they are a pretty good team when it comes to feeding. I am pretty good at changing diapers and swaddling. It is just amazing that we have a little girl, and it is hard to explain the feeling I get when I am holding her and she just stares at me. We should be coming home Monday or Tuesday and will send out more updates then.

I wanted to give a big thanks to our friend Naomi for being with us all day, and our parents for all their love and support thoughout the day too.

Aaron

D-Day

Today is D-day, not doomsday but due day! Aaron swore that this baby would be born over the weekend or at the latest today because this baby has some of him and he's never late for anything, but I reminded him that this baby also has some of me and I can be late at times :)

We were both a little anxious going into the appointment, wanting to know if anything had happened since the last appointment and to see what the doctor would say. I think my anticipation kept me awake through part of the night, so I might have to take a nap this afternoon :) After we sat through our normal Biophysical Test (ultrasound) and Non-stress test, which baby passed with flying colors of course!, we finally met with the doctor. Things had progressed since last week (thank goodness!) and my cervix is now (finally) favorable for them to induce. So we scheduled the D-day (delivery day) for Thursday. We're scheduled to arrive at the hospital on Thursday morning at 6 am at which point they'll do a little bit of blood work, break my water and then get the pitosin going. So it sounds like the baby's B-day will be November 6...

There's still a chance that I could go into labor before then, but from the sounds of it, baby will be born on Thursday. So between now and then we'll try to enjoy our last few days of just us, the gorgeous fall weather we're having (72 is the forecasted high today), and continue to prepare ourselves for baby's arrival. Our next post on the blog will probably be sometime Thursday or Friday; we will finally reveal all the secrets - boy or girl, name, size, etc. We look forward to meeting this little one and for all of you to meet him/her as well!