One week ago today...

Well, it has been a week since Alyssa was born. I can't believe it has already been a week!! We have had many ups and downs to say the least, but I wouldn't change it for the world. We celebrated Josh's 28th birthday yesterday. Of course, we weren't able to actually do anything for it since I am still so sore from the c-section, but we had a good day none the less. My mom has been here with us all week helping out, and I could not have made it without her. I appreciate her so much for coming and staying with us this first week, especially since I haven't been able to move much until the last day or so. She leave tomorrow, and I will be lost without her here and will miss her tremendously. Josh's mom is flying in tomorrow, though, so we will still have help for another week. For those of you who haven't heard our labor and delivery story, I will share it now.

We got up at 3:00 am to get ready to go the hospital for my induction. We arrived a little after 4:15, got checked in, and had the pitocin started by 5:00.

the last picture of Grabowski Family of 2

Me in the hospital bed...just getting started

About thirty minutes later, an alarm started going off on one of the monitors. Our nurse came back in and stopped the pitocin. The alarm was Alyssa's heart rate getting too low. I was put on oxygen for about an hour, and then we tried again with the pitocin. My doctor came in around 7:00 am to check on me and break my water. We were doing pretty good, making a little progress (going from 2cm to 4cm) over the next 3-4 hours. I asked for my epidural around 10, and after getting it (on the third try) my blood pressure dropped. I also had two major contractions back-to-back, and Alyssa's heart rate again dropped dramatically. This time was worse than the first. We had three nurses in the room shaking my stomach and trying to find her heart beat with the external monitor. They again stopped the pitocin, and inserted an internal monitor to monitor Alyssa's heart beat better. After about another hour or so of having the pitocin stopped, they decided to start it back up. This was done around 12: 30 or so. About 30 minutes later, the same story repeated again...Alyssa's heart rate dropped. Again, I was put back on oxygen and the pitocin was stopped. We tried again, and again the same thing happened. This was around 2:00 pm. By now, I am ready to just get her out. I was scared to death, as was Josh and the rest of our family that was there. BUT...my doctor thought otherwise. She came in and checked me around 2:30; I had not progressed at all from the 4cm. She said Alyssa was stable and when she rubbed on her head it stimulated her in a good way, so she wanted to try one more time. So, we started back on the pitocin at the lowest dose for one hour. When the nurse came back in to turn it up, she noticed that Alyssa's heart rate went down slightly to going up by two units, so she only went up by one. About 30 minutes later, you guessed it, Alyssa's heart rate dropped again. Yes, this was the fifth time it had happened. Like before, I was put on oxygen and the pitocin was stopped. They came in to prep me for surgery around 5:30pm. I became very nauseous and threw up right before the gave me my extra medicine for surgery. I got wheeled into the operating room, and Alyssa was born at 6:31 pm. She weighed 7 pounds 9.5 (10) ounces, and was 20 1/4 inches long. It turns out that the umbilical cord was wrapped around her neck, so every time I would have a major contraction she would be strangled a little bit. It took a long time and a lot of scary moments to get her here, but I wouldn't trade it for the world. This little girl has brought so much joy into our lives.

and here she is

first picture of Grabowski Family of 3

Daddy giving Alyssa her first bottle

getting to hold my baby girl for the first time

Daddy changing the first diaper with the help of Grandmamma and Uncle Chris

a proud Grandaddy and his baby girl

Alyssa and her Grandmamma

three of Alyssa's great-grandmothers

ready to go home with our little angel

Alyssa in her car seat

So, as mentioned at the beginning of this post. This week has been full of ups and downs. I am trying to breast feed, which isn't going as well as we had hoped. My milk supply doesn't seem to be enough to fill up a Grabowski belly. So, we are supplementing as well. I think we are going to give up on the breast feeding after another week or so.

For all of you who are wondering, Bear has done amazing with Alyssa!! He is so protective of her already. If she cries while in her pack-n-play, he comes running in the room to see what is wrong with her. At night, he has been sleeping with Josh. When she wakes up for her feeding, he'll come in and make sure everything is okay and then go back to bed. He is too cute with her. Anyway, here are a few pictures from this week.

Alyssa taking a nap in her pack-n-play

Alyssa's first bath at home

(not a happy camper to say the least)

all done...and a lot happier

a protective big brother

(if you look closely, you can see Alyssa in the pack-n-play)

nightly life at our house

(again, notice the protective big brother in the floor)

Me and my babies

One week old!!