Modern Medicine

It's been an interesting day which all ties back to the day that McKenna was born. McKenna tested Coombs Positive when she was born. That means my blood mixed with her born at some point and my blood started attacking her blood. The major concern with Coombs is that the infant will become jaundiced. Luckily, over our two day stay at Northside, McKenna never developed jaundice and was doing well despite the Coombs Positive test.

The first visit to the pediatrician went well. McKenna gained a couple ounces and no sign of jaundice. The second visit for a weight check proved that she was not gaining enough weigh. Therefore I had to re-think my methods of feeding. Breastfeeding was clearly not enough for her alone. Our third visit was to diagnosed the acid reflux and start medicine for it. Our fourth visit (which was today), the pediatrician notice that the color inside her eyelids was really pale. It should be bright pink or red. She tested her hemoglobin (iron) and the results were really low. They should be above 10 and McKenna's was 7. That gave us a ticket to go to Scottish Rite to have her blood drawn for a more extensive test. The tech that drew her blood was great. He pulled it from her heel instead of having to stick a needle in her arm. I still almost cried.

I came home and tried to feed McKenna this afternoon which led to fussiness for over 2 hours. Her acid reflux was making it hard for her to eat and settle down. I finally got her soothed when the pediatrician called with the results of the blood test. Her hemoglobin was still low and we needed to supplement iron in her bottles. We are going to get it retested on Monday and if it goes any lower then she will need a blood transfusion. The pediatrician says there's a 1% chance of this happening so that's good news. This all stems back to the Coombs.

There's a bunch a medical stuff that I'm leaving now mainly because I'm too tired to process it all. Needless to say, after I hung up with the pediatrician I just started crying. Coombs positive, acid reflux, kidney reflux and now anemia. My poor little McKenna. We've gone to the pediatrician office 4 times now, been to Scottish Rite 3 times and seen a urologist. I pray that all this stuff works it self out over time and that I have the strength as a mom to pull through it as well. Right now, I'm tired and overwhelmed with information. My little girl fusses through feedings and have to give her 3 different medicines throughout the day. Please keep us in your thoughts!

Newborn Cries

My vacation time, sorry - my maternity leave is flying by. A month has passed and I've been keeping busy with taking care of a newborn, doctor's visits, visits with friends, trips with the family. I'm looking forward to our "actual" vacation to Cape San Blas the first of August. It's been a whole year since I've seen the ocean. I cannot wait to feel the sand between my toes.

I had a funny incident happen to me the other day. Actually, it wasn't the least bit funny at the time. I was at the grocery store picking up some essentials and something for dinner. By the time I got in the checkout line, McKenna had started to cry. I tried the pacifier and she kept spitting it out. I got the groceries unloaded for checkout. The clerk rung them up but I guess didn't feel like bagging them that day. By this time, McKenna was full on crying! So here I am in the front of the grocery store with my newborn screaming, bagging my own groceries, barking at the clerk, all the while ladies walking up to McKenna saying how pretty she was. My thoughts to them were " how can she be that pretty when she turning red from the crying?" Luckily, another clerk came to my rescue and helped me out to the car. I could have hugged her and I should have. By the time I got into the car, I was sweating and McKenna was still crying. About 2 minutes later, she was out - cried herself to sleep. This was the first time since she was born that I was all "panicky" from her crying. I'm blaming it all on the stupid male clerk at Kroger. Yet another reason why I hate to go grocery shopping.

Time Flies!

McKenna will be a month old on Friday. It's hard to be believe that a month has passed already. We still trying to figure this all out again. McKenna has been a very good baby despite the acid reflux (both tummy & kidney). Sometimes she has a hard time eating because of the reflux than it's hard to get her to settle down. I can't imagine how bad it must hurt. I have been fortunate to have never have experience reflux.

We are definitely enjoying her. I love having her curl up on my chest and sleep. She's so tiny! She likes to nuzzle under my neck. Big brother, Jonah, gives her kisses when he leaves in the morning and when he comes home in the afternoons. He hasn't mastered the art of being "gentle" yet. So there have been times where McKenna is prefectly content in her bouncy chair and Jonah smacks her on the head. Then she's all about crying. I imagine this is just the first of many "picking on each other" that I will experience.

Jonah loves his "mommy time". When I'm not holding McKenna, he wants to be held. I have the rare opportunity this passed weekend to cuddle with Jonah after his afternoon nap. He has never done that before and I'm not complaining. It's sweet to have my 22 month old nuzzle up to me as well. I'm very fortunate to have two wonderful children. Now, I need to work on getting some consective hours of sleep!

McKenna is here!

Well McKenna Mai Willard has arrived!

McKenna was born on June 12th, 2009 at 11:17 AM. She weighed in at 7 pounds and 4 ounces. She was 19 inches long. I little bigger than Jonah.

McKenna's Name

McKenna's name was a difficult one for us. We had a list of names selected when we got to the hospital, but none of them really stood out to us while we were there. We had the middle name picked out and that was not an issue. The middle name is a combination of Mary (Carrie's mom) and Hai (my mom). So we ended up with Mai. In Vietnamese, this means beautiful flower... there are some other meanings, but this suited our little girl. Finally after much deliberation, we decided on McKenna... and we love it.

Our First Week Home

So we get back home from Northside on SUN the 14th. It was nice having an early delivery and being able to get home in the early afternoon. After arriving home with Jonah near midnight, getting home and having time to adjust to each other was nice. When we brough Jonah home, we all went straight to bed! Our first couple of nights were good. I knew there would be some adjustment period and really completely forgot how hard it was to keep up with a newborn. The first night was especially tough as I had conveniently forgotten the attention required... But the next couple of nights got easier as we were getting in the groove. I made the comment to Carrie that we were extremely fortunate because McKenna seemed to be easier than Jonah! McKenna's personality was just as sweet and mild mannered as Jonah. She was easy and we didn't have any of the breathing issues to deal with... And then came the crying!

We took McKenna to the pediatrician the following THU (less than a week after birth) and she was diagnosised with acid reflux (fairly common). Go figure... Jonah had acid reflux as well. But Dr. Meckleberg told us that she "couldn't remember putting a week old baby on prescription medication". OUCH. To presume that I knew my little girl... :)

For the next three nights, McKenna had to be held in just the right position at all times or she was crying. I honestly don't know how parents of colicy kids do it. Not only did we not sleep the entire weekend, but it was mentally draining to see your child in such pain. Thanks to Mary for coming over on FRI and staying until SUN to help us. I don't know how we could have done it without her! It wasn't until about SUN afternoon that the medication actually started to excercise the acid demons from McKenna. And now we have our sweet and perfect little girl back.... and here is our proof.

When will she arrive?

OK so the full moon didn't work out for this pregnancy like it did the first one. I told James today that I don't remember waiting around like this for Jonah to come. Not knowing what to expect is a good thing - makes the time fly by. 

I went to the doctor today and I'm 3cm dilated and "everything is favorable". I didn't ask for a lengthy explanation of what favorable means. I'm going to assume it's a good thing. I went to work and hung out in a meeting for a couple hours, catch up with my co-workers and jetted out. 

I resume my position on the couch this afternoon to watch the last 3 episode of "True Blood" on HBO onDemand. Boy, I got addicted to that show. I'm not sure what my fascination is with sci-fi/fantasy but I do get lost in it. It was good to vegetate on the couch for a few hours. 

DILEMMA - James and I had came up with a list of girl's name that we like. James announced to my family on Sunday that he wasn't crazy about any of them. Therefore I have challenged him to come up with new suggestions. Will baby girl have a name upon arrival or we will discussing it in the days after.? Anyone who is reading this blog knows that this is out of character for me. I usually have everything prepared, listed, and checked off. I think my age and experience has mellowed me out a bit. I don't even have my hospital bag packed yet. I've been laying on the couch and don't have a to-do list in sight. And you know what - it's feels good not checking items off a list. 

The full moon

Tonight is a full moon. My water broke with Jonah on a full moon. I think I have my hopes set too high that it will happen the same way again with baby girl. We are definitely ready to welcome her into the world. Her room is completed and I can't think I one thing we are missing except for her.

We've been enjoying lazy days with Jonah. "Taking it easy" has been my motto lately. I took a long nap yesterday. Today, I fell asleep in my mom's hammock. I have noticed that Jonah has been more clingy with me then normal. He say's "Mama, up" a lot. Saturday morning he called out "Mama" from the crib in the morning. Of course, it was the cutest thing ever and I rushed right in to scoop him up. Probably a big mistake but you really don't get heart melting moments like that all the time.