Friday, March 31, 2017
Thursday, March 30, 2017
Rowan Christine's Birth Story
On February 22, 2017 I gave birth to my daughter, Rowan Christine. It was literally the best day of my life. On this day I proved to myself that I am stronger than I ever thought, felt closer to God than I ever have and fell even more in love with my husband. On this day I held my daughter in my arms for the first time and knew then that God just gave us the most perfect gift we will ever receive.
On the morning of February 21st we woke up at 3:00 a.m. to begin getting ready to head to the hospital for my scheduled induction. We live an hour away from the hospital and with an induction scheduled for 6 a.m. and being highly anxious to finally get this show on the road we wanted to give ourselves an hour and a half to get there. We left the house around 4:30, filled the car up with gas and were off to Columbus. About halfway there I looked at my phone and saw I had a missed call from the hospital. Upon returning the call they informed me that Dr. Aurora was in the middle of delivering babies for 3 different women and that they needed to put my induction on hold. They said we should go home and wait for them to call, they would call between the hours of 6:00 and 7:00 to let us know the plan but if I had not heard from them by 8:00 that I should call. I was still not allowed to eat or drink but took it upon myself to eat half a banana and take a couple sips of water. We got back home, laid down in bed to get some more sleep. Dozed off around 6:00 and my phone rang at 6:15. The nurse told us to head that way so we hopped out of bed and were on the road again. At 40 weeks 5 days I was so nervous that they were going to push my induction out another day and I was just ready to finally meet our daughter.
We arrived at the hospital around 7:30, filled out some paperwork and the charge nurse walked us into our labor room. All my emotions finally hit me at once that this was really happening and I started crying. Anthony hugged me and assured me it was all going to be okay. I don't think I have ever seen him so excited in all the time we have been together. Once I had my gown on my nurse came in and started getting me all hooked up to the machines and started on my IV. I was nervous about getting this put in. While she was putting my IV bag of fluids up she got a phone call from the front desk and just as she was getting off the phone my Doctor along with two other doctors came rushing into the room. I asked him what was going on he said that I was actually already having contractions but Rowan's heartbeat was dropping really low after every contraction so they really wanted to observe me for a while. He ordered the nurse to observe for an hour or so before they put the foley catheter in. They went ahead and checked to see how dialated I was and I was still at a 2, I needed to be at a 3 to get induced so a foley was still in the future and I was not looking forward to it.
An hour or so went by, Rowan was kicking around like crazy and her heart rate was back to normal before, during and after contractions. My nurse called for the attending dr to come in and insert the foley. The dr ended up checking me again and I was dilated to a 4, so no foley! If I could have danced right there in my room I totally would have. So now that I was dilating on my own and having contractions I no longer needed to be induced I was doing this all naturally. At this point it was probably 9:30 or 10:00 a.m. My contractions were showing up on the monitor but they really weren't that noticeable to me. I kept laughing because I had no idea I was actually in labor.
Around 11:00 they broke my water and that was when the contractions really started coming on. I labored through the contractions until 1:30 p.m. and I called for my epidural. The contractions were getting pretty intense and I knew that it would make for a very long day if I was going to try to make it any further without the epidural. I was very nervous about getting it but the anesteologist who did it was amazing and it was seriously done in less than 3 minutes or so. Now I could relax and take a nap. I believe at this point I was dilated to a 4.
For most of the afternoon I tried to take a nap and just wait for updates on my progress. My Mom ended up stopping by my room before she had to go into work. She works in the ER at the same hospital I was delivering in. Since we requested that it just be Anthony in the room with me she ended up taking a shift for that night. Megan got there around 3:30 p.m. and I was dilated to a 5 at this point. The rest of the evening was kind of just a waiting game. The nurses switched shifts and my night nurse had me get into a sitting frog like position on my bed to try to get things moving along.
Around 9:30 I decided to take a nap before it was too late. I slept with a peanut ball between my legs to hopefully speed up the dilating. Around this time they also started me on pitocin just so that when it was time to start pushing my contractions would have enough umph behind them. Just before 11:00 p.m. I woke up and just had a feeling that my nurse was going to come in and tell me it was push time. Five minutes later she walked in the room checked my monitors and then checked me and sure enough it was push time.
My nurse was amazing and after getting everything set up in the room she worked with me on my pushing and trying to find what would be most effective and assisted me with my breathing techniques. After maybe 12-15 pushes she had me hold off and called Dr. Arora. At this point it was 11:55 p.m. and he lives ten minutes from the hospital. He was headed his way to deliver as soon as she called him. He walked in the door around 12:05, I asked if I could push because I just had this urge while the nurse was still helping him get his gown on and he said "I am in the room, go ahead". At this point I noticed the speed of everything in the room increase and he was at tht foot of my bed. He encouraged me to have them drop this mirror from the ceiling so I could watch her while I was pushing her out. I was a little reluctant but in the end agreed because he said it would be great motivation for me and it really was! After six pushes with the doctor in there her head was locked into place and three more pushes and she was out. 12:23 a.m.
They immediately put her on my chest. Everything after that was a blur because I had my baby girl in my arms and nothing else really mattered. Anthony cut the cord at some point, she latched on immediately which was the most amazing feeling. They gave us an hour and half for skin to skin and then it was time to weigh our little lady.
The guess was that she was around 7 lbs. so we were slightly shocked when she weighed in at a whopping 9 lbs and 20 inches long!!! I was shocked that I had just delivered a 9lb baby.
The nurse unhooked my epidural and helped me transfer to the wheelchair so we could move to my postpartum room. Anthony carried our bags and the nurse pushed me while I was holding Rowan in my arms.
Once they got us all adjusted in my room, my Dad, my brother and Shalene and Anthony's Dad were practically busting down the door to finally meet this little lady. At this point it was nearing 2:30 a.m. and my Mom was off at 3:00. She came straight upstairs after changing her clothes from working in the ER. Everyone else, except Mom, ended up leaving and Mom stayed with us and held Rowan. My blood pressure was extremely low and I nearly passed out when they got me up to go to the bathroom. By 5:30 a.m. I was able to get into the bathroom and went for the first time.
Wednesday we took it slow and relaxed all morning with our precious angel. Wednesday evening we had lots of visitors and we were so excited for everyone to meet Rowan. Later on Wednesday night I decided to walk the halls so I would be confident enough to get discharged on Thursday morning. We ran into the lactation consultant while walking and she came in my room to work with us on breastfeeding. She was so so helpful and spent nearly an hour and a half helping us out.
Thursday morning our nurse started the discharge process and we were ready to leave the hospital by 12:45 p.m. It was kind of an unreal feeling that we were getting set loose into the real world with this tiny human being. I ended up walking myself out of the hospital and when we got down stairs there were a handful of other moms heading home and they were all seated in wheelchairs waiting for their Daddies to come pick them up and here I stood walking myself out. I was feeling great though and didn't want to have myself laying down all the time and take longer to feel really good.
We took our baby straight home where she met her furbaby Tyson and he was more excited to see me than Anthony or Rowan. He loves his Momma. We ended up falling asleep once we got home and just relaxed. Anthony sat outside on the porch with his brother Travis because the weather was an amazing 80 degrees and sunny. Our new adventure was just beginning and we would not trade parenthood for anything else in this world.
Birth Photography by Anchor Images Photography
On the morning of February 21st we woke up at 3:00 a.m. to begin getting ready to head to the hospital for my scheduled induction. We live an hour away from the hospital and with an induction scheduled for 6 a.m. and being highly anxious to finally get this show on the road we wanted to give ourselves an hour and a half to get there. We left the house around 4:30, filled the car up with gas and were off to Columbus. About halfway there I looked at my phone and saw I had a missed call from the hospital. Upon returning the call they informed me that Dr. Aurora was in the middle of delivering babies for 3 different women and that they needed to put my induction on hold. They said we should go home and wait for them to call, they would call between the hours of 6:00 and 7:00 to let us know the plan but if I had not heard from them by 8:00 that I should call. I was still not allowed to eat or drink but took it upon myself to eat half a banana and take a couple sips of water. We got back home, laid down in bed to get some more sleep. Dozed off around 6:00 and my phone rang at 6:15. The nurse told us to head that way so we hopped out of bed and were on the road again. At 40 weeks 5 days I was so nervous that they were going to push my induction out another day and I was just ready to finally meet our daughter.
We arrived at the hospital around 7:30, filled out some paperwork and the charge nurse walked us into our labor room. All my emotions finally hit me at once that this was really happening and I started crying. Anthony hugged me and assured me it was all going to be okay. I don't think I have ever seen him so excited in all the time we have been together. Once I had my gown on my nurse came in and started getting me all hooked up to the machines and started on my IV. I was nervous about getting this put in. While she was putting my IV bag of fluids up she got a phone call from the front desk and just as she was getting off the phone my Doctor along with two other doctors came rushing into the room. I asked him what was going on he said that I was actually already having contractions but Rowan's heartbeat was dropping really low after every contraction so they really wanted to observe me for a while. He ordered the nurse to observe for an hour or so before they put the foley catheter in. They went ahead and checked to see how dialated I was and I was still at a 2, I needed to be at a 3 to get induced so a foley was still in the future and I was not looking forward to it.
An hour or so went by, Rowan was kicking around like crazy and her heart rate was back to normal before, during and after contractions. My nurse called for the attending dr to come in and insert the foley. The dr ended up checking me again and I was dilated to a 4, so no foley! If I could have danced right there in my room I totally would have. So now that I was dilating on my own and having contractions I no longer needed to be induced I was doing this all naturally. At this point it was probably 9:30 or 10:00 a.m. My contractions were showing up on the monitor but they really weren't that noticeable to me. I kept laughing because I had no idea I was actually in labor.
Around 11:00 they broke my water and that was when the contractions really started coming on. I labored through the contractions until 1:30 p.m. and I called for my epidural. The contractions were getting pretty intense and I knew that it would make for a very long day if I was going to try to make it any further without the epidural. I was very nervous about getting it but the anesteologist who did it was amazing and it was seriously done in less than 3 minutes or so. Now I could relax and take a nap. I believe at this point I was dilated to a 4.
For most of the afternoon I tried to take a nap and just wait for updates on my progress. My Mom ended up stopping by my room before she had to go into work. She works in the ER at the same hospital I was delivering in. Since we requested that it just be Anthony in the room with me she ended up taking a shift for that night. Megan got there around 3:30 p.m. and I was dilated to a 5 at this point. The rest of the evening was kind of just a waiting game. The nurses switched shifts and my night nurse had me get into a sitting frog like position on my bed to try to get things moving along.
Around 9:30 I decided to take a nap before it was too late. I slept with a peanut ball between my legs to hopefully speed up the dilating. Around this time they also started me on pitocin just so that when it was time to start pushing my contractions would have enough umph behind them. Just before 11:00 p.m. I woke up and just had a feeling that my nurse was going to come in and tell me it was push time. Five minutes later she walked in the room checked my monitors and then checked me and sure enough it was push time.
My nurse was amazing and after getting everything set up in the room she worked with me on my pushing and trying to find what would be most effective and assisted me with my breathing techniques. After maybe 12-15 pushes she had me hold off and called Dr. Arora. At this point it was 11:55 p.m. and he lives ten minutes from the hospital. He was headed his way to deliver as soon as she called him. He walked in the door around 12:05, I asked if I could push because I just had this urge while the nurse was still helping him get his gown on and he said "I am in the room, go ahead". At this point I noticed the speed of everything in the room increase and he was at tht foot of my bed. He encouraged me to have them drop this mirror from the ceiling so I could watch her while I was pushing her out. I was a little reluctant but in the end agreed because he said it would be great motivation for me and it really was! After six pushes with the doctor in there her head was locked into place and three more pushes and she was out. 12:23 a.m.
They immediately put her on my chest. Everything after that was a blur because I had my baby girl in my arms and nothing else really mattered. Anthony cut the cord at some point, she latched on immediately which was the most amazing feeling. They gave us an hour and half for skin to skin and then it was time to weigh our little lady.
The guess was that she was around 7 lbs. so we were slightly shocked when she weighed in at a whopping 9 lbs and 20 inches long!!! I was shocked that I had just delivered a 9lb baby.
The nurse unhooked my epidural and helped me transfer to the wheelchair so we could move to my postpartum room. Anthony carried our bags and the nurse pushed me while I was holding Rowan in my arms.
Once they got us all adjusted in my room, my Dad, my brother and Shalene and Anthony's Dad were practically busting down the door to finally meet this little lady. At this point it was nearing 2:30 a.m. and my Mom was off at 3:00. She came straight upstairs after changing her clothes from working in the ER. Everyone else, except Mom, ended up leaving and Mom stayed with us and held Rowan. My blood pressure was extremely low and I nearly passed out when they got me up to go to the bathroom. By 5:30 a.m. I was able to get into the bathroom and went for the first time.
Wednesday we took it slow and relaxed all morning with our precious angel. Wednesday evening we had lots of visitors and we were so excited for everyone to meet Rowan. Later on Wednesday night I decided to walk the halls so I would be confident enough to get discharged on Thursday morning. We ran into the lactation consultant while walking and she came in my room to work with us on breastfeeding. She was so so helpful and spent nearly an hour and a half helping us out.
Thursday morning our nurse started the discharge process and we were ready to leave the hospital by 12:45 p.m. It was kind of an unreal feeling that we were getting set loose into the real world with this tiny human being. I ended up walking myself out of the hospital and when we got down stairs there were a handful of other moms heading home and they were all seated in wheelchairs waiting for their Daddies to come pick them up and here I stood walking myself out. I was feeling great though and didn't want to have myself laying down all the time and take longer to feel really good.
We took our baby straight home where she met her furbaby Tyson and he was more excited to see me than Anthony or Rowan. He loves his Momma. We ended up falling asleep once we got home and just relaxed. Anthony sat outside on the porch with his brother Travis because the weather was an amazing 80 degrees and sunny. Our new adventure was just beginning and we would not trade parenthood for anything else in this world.
Birth Photography by Anchor Images Photography
Monday, March 27, 2017
Great-Grandpa Fry
Heaven gained another angel yesterday (Sunday March 26th)
Anthony's Grandpa Fry passed away unexpectedly yesterday morning. In an effort to document our life more since Rowan has been born I felt it was necessary to do a blog post today.
Two weeks ago we made it up to see his Grandma and Grandpa. They live about 2 hours away so our visits are far and few in between. Unfortunately at times like now you realize how precious those visits really are. We are so grateful that we got Rowan up there to meet her Great Grandparents, especially Great-Grandpa Fry, who was very proud. I don't think he stopped smiling the whole time we were there.
Thursday, March 23, 2017
Newborn Pictures with Anchor Images Photography
It is crazy to think that these were taken three weeks ago. Time really needs to slow down; before we know it we will be getting Rowan's senior pictures done. My good friend Megan that I also shoot weddings with did these pictures for us right here in our own house which was great. Even though I have been very go-go-go since her arrival, leaving the house with a newborn is still a huge chore. Megan did an amazing job and we will cherish these pictures forever. Now to just get them printed and put in all the frames but the hard part is picking our favorites.
Wednesday, March 22, 2017
One Month of Rowan Christine
And just like that we have a one month old, Happy One Month Rowan Christine!
As cliche as it may be we cannot believe how fast this first month has gone. Life has sped up so much and it needs to slow down any time now. Even though it has only been a month since we welcomed Rowan into our lives it is hard to remember what life was life like pre-baby. We could not imagine life without her and cannot wait to see what this adventure is going to be like.
Here are Rowan's Month 1 Photos and Updates…
As cliche as it may be we cannot believe how fast this first month has gone. Life has sped up so much and it needs to slow down any time now. Even though it has only been a month since we welcomed Rowan into our lives it is hard to remember what life was life like pre-baby. We could not imagine life without her and cannot wait to see what this adventure is going to be like.
Here are Rowan's Month 1 Photos and Updates…
CHANGES + MILESTONES :
- She has gained almost two lbs since she was born and is now 21.5″ long! She is in the 88th percentile for height and the same percentle for weight! We got some use out of a couple of her newborn outfits in the first week but quickly outgrew them and now she is wearing 0-3 month clothes.
- She rocks over to her side to sleep but doesn't actually roll over. She also prefers sleeping on her belly during naps and after she has burped. As long as one of us is holding her we allow her to do so but make sure she is a back sleeper during the night.
- She is sleeping during the night in the bassinet and napping during the day in her Rock n Play Sleeper.
- She has some really strong neck muscles and can hold her head up for quite some time. We still have to be there to catch it because when she gets tired her head is falling like a ton of bricks. Everyone comments on how strong she is.
- While nursing she has started holding onto my breast and Anthony said she does the same with her morning bottle.
- She has started making little sounds here and there like she is trying to talk to us. I figure in the second month she will really start making more coos and being a little more interactive.
- She loves getting a bath and barely makes a peep.
- She has met a lot of our family and friends so lots of pictures have been taken that I need to get developed and put into an album for memory purposes because we will soon forget since time has officially started flying by.
PEDIATRICIAN CHECK-UP & GROWTH:
We went to her two week appointment with the pediatrician last Monday and Rowan is a healthy, growing little girl. She has surpassed her birth weight which we kind of knew because Daddy has been weighing her on the bathroom scales. She was up to 10.5 lbs from her 9 lb birth weight and 21.5 inches long from 20 inches long at birth. That progress makes this Momma extremely proud!
EYE COLOR, HAIR & BABY GIGGLES:
Miss Rowan's hair is starting to lighten up and her eyes are this grayish but turning much bluer every day, just like Mommy and Daddy's eyes. They are so big and bright. Rowan also has the biggest smile which she flashes around pretty often! Every time she does so I try to grab the camera so I can capture it. There have been a couple times that she has giggled but it was following a gas bubble so I don't think it was necessarily a real laugh just yet.
SLEEP:There is no sleep schedule going on around here just yet. Other than we can count on her to be awake every 2-3 hours throughout the night to nurse. In the first couple of weeks we were really thrown off track with the constant getting up throughout the night. She was up to nurse, needing a diaper change or we were jumping at every little noise she made. Those first nights at home really were kind of scary and looking back I am not sure how we were even coping during the day... Naps, lots and lots of naps were going on.
Last week we kind of started getting into the groove of things and kept everything bedside so that diapers could be changed while laying in bed and nursing could be done right there as well. A few nights we slept on the couch, okay maybe for a week straight we were sleeping on the couch. Rowan was sleeping in her Rock n Play Sleeper and since our bed sits so high up it made for a real struggle getting to her in the middle of the night so the couch put us right at that level. This week we decided to get back to our bedroom in hopes of getting back to some normalcy and switching her to sleeping in the bassinet so there will be an easier transition to her crib once the day comes for that. We are doing a little bit better in there now and we actually had two amazing nights in a row (Sunday & Monday night this week) that our lovely little lady slept for 4 hours straight. Talk about amazing and a wonderful little treat!
SCHEDULE:
Little Miss is still not sticking to a consistent schedule other than I can tell you that she eats every 2 to 3 hours, has a wet diaper every time she wakes up and even sometimes in between and has a poopy diaper 2-3 times a day and sometimes has one in the middle of the night. She has slowly started to be awake more than she was in those first few weeks. During this time I love to walk her around the house and let her look at everything (even though I know she can't recognize it yet I see her focusing on certain objects like door frames and picture frames hanging on the wall)
FEEDINGS:
In my opinion Rowan has been a fantastic eater. She latched right on when we were doing skin to skin right after delivery and after some tips with the lactation consultant nursing has somewhat been a breeze. Other than in those first two days at home when I was waiting on my milk to come in and I was scared she was not getting enough nourishment and that we were going to get scolded at the 1 week check up that she was not gaining and that we would need to supplement. Throughout the day I nurse her and then Anthony will give her a bottle of breast milk in the early morning (5 a.m. or so) when he is awake and he wants to give me some time to sleep. We have been using the Dr. Brown's natural flow bottles in the 5 oz. size and have no complaints. She has upped her drinking amount to almost 6 oz. so here soon I think we are going to opt for some bigger bottles.
Thursday, March 9, 2017
Monday, March 6, 2017
Introducing Rowan Christine
We welcomed our bundle of joy into our arms on Wednesday February 22, 2017 at 12:32 a.m.
Rowan Christine || 9 lbs. 20 in.
I will be posting her birth story and catching up whenever I get the chance. We are currently taking in every single moment with our little lady. If you are want to stay current be sure to follow me over on Instagram (@mrsfry26)
Labor photography by: Anchor Images Photography
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