Happy Birthday Collins

She's here!

Collins Elise Mitchell

April 29, 2013

7:51am

6lbs 7oz

18 1/2 inches 

She's doing amazing and is absolutely perfect! We are so in love and I am resting kind of comfortably :) 

I will update with our birth story when I can. For now we are just on cloud nine :) 

Xoxo, 

Marty, Ashley, & Collins 

"I can feel her head"

So I wanted to wait until Thursday to give everyone some type of update, besides everything looks good. However I didn't anticipate what I am about to share.



As if anyone cares to see my IV however I wanted to "spice" up this update haha

Thursday morning at 7:30am I had an appointment with Dr. Font, and then at 1pm an appointment with Dr Khater. So we knew it would be quite a busy day. My mom would be bringing me to both since Marty was working all day. Dr. Font appointment started with a NST which went great. Collins was super active and cooperative. With all the rain and flooding that we have had Dr. Font was fashionably late coming in at 9:15am. I've had braxton hicks for a long time now, contractions that come and go, nothing regular. During the ultrasound (which might I add, Collins looks great, plenty of fluid, and still breech) my stomach started to have a contraction. He wasn't too happy with how hard my belly got and instructed us that we would be heading over to labor and delivery. Once in L&D I was told to change into a gown and start an IV full of fluids. They also hooked me up to the monitors to monitor the contractions as well as Collins heartbeat to see how she reacted to them. Contractions were about 7-9 minutes apart and sometimes 3-4 minutes apart. I could tolerate them at this point and refused pain medication in the form of an injection. Number 1 I wasn't in much pain and Number 2 I am over injections. They also wanted to take an urine culture to make sure I had nothing going on infection wise. It was basically a waiting game, waiting on Dr. Khater's orders on what he wanted done, and working through these contractions drinking a gallon of water and on top of that getting pumped of fluids. He did want the nurse to also check and see how my cerclage was holding up. She did and at 11am it was fine as expected. After a few hours of the same contractions Dr. Khater wanted to do 3 rounds of Terbutaline (anti-contraction medication) to delay preterm labor for up to 48 hours. I received these when I went into labor with Sloane and at this point (35weeks3days) we had spoken with both doctors and made the decision that we wouldn't interfere past 34weeks. So I also refused these injections (with the OK from Dr. Khater of course). At this point we had also learned that I had a pretty bad UTI. What? UGH! You've got to be kidding me. How did I get this, how did I not have any pain from it and we are practically at the end, why?! Then came the dreaded words from the nurse, "Dr. Khater is prescribing you antibiotics for the UTI." If anyone knows me, you know I am not a fan of any type of antibiotic during pregnancy since loosing Sloane and this medication he was prescribing was not my favorite. Insert water works. After speaking with Dr. Khater and Marty (who now has made it to the hospital) we decided the possible outcome of not taking the medication for the UTI outweighed the concerns we had for taking it.

At this point it is now 9 hours later on the monitor, having contractions, and IV fluid. At 4:15pm Dr. Khater ordered for me to be checked one more time vaginally and if the cerclage wasn't in danger of pressure then we were free to go. This is where it gets crazy, nurse checks me and says, "Well you are dilated to 1+ and oh I can feel her head!" I think Marty and I looked at one another and at the same time said, "HER HEAD!?" Ugh we don't think so, she's been breech for 10+ weeks and we just saw her this morning and she was breech. Dr. Khater was immediately called and he was on his way. Once he came we did a quick ultrasound to in fact find out that she is still breech which means my daughter has a nice firm butt Haha yes I just described my unborn daughter's butt as firm :). He then wanted to check me himself. He said if there was any pressure on this cerclage it would be cut out then and there and we would be on our way for a C-section. Fact was, yes I am dilated with the cerclage still in tact, however there is no pressure on top of it and I wasn't bleeding. Collins was also doing amazingly during the contractions, she could have cared less so stitch remains in and we were sent home. Which is a great thing for Collins. We want her to stay in until 37 weeks so she is full term. He did say that we shouldn't be surprised if that when the cerclage comes out I don't dilate more, which is fine by me.

So I am back at home, with crazy back labor but I am feeling good. I see Dr. Font Monday to go over taking the cerclage out and then we see Dr. Khater on Thursday, to discuss the C-section. AHH one more week on bed rest! I cannot believe it, and Collins will be here shortly. We are SO ready to meet her :).

Two side notes:
1: We only have 10 days left to donate to the March of Dimes for Sloane, and we are almost to our goal! Please help us and Susan get PAST our goal before she and her team walk in memory of our sweet little girl. xoxo

Sloane March of Dimes   <----click here

2: Since being on bed rest I have become obsessed with General Hospital, thanks to Taryn and when I came home exhausted from the hospital and just about to head to bed I had a package that was sent to me that day. Most of you won't even think this is funny let alone get it, but those of you that do watch GH take a look at how special I am, and what I'll be eating for a snack for now on...

Pickle-Lila Relish baby!!!

Nursery Sneak Peek

With the end beginning in sight, I thought it would be nice to bring everyone into a sneak peek of Collins nursery. We finally have it completed with all the bells and whistles ribbons and bows :) We had already painted and purchased the furniture for Sloane and when we found out we were pregnant again we knew we would with out a doubt keep it the same. Marty did an amazing job painting, I will say I did paint the green wall but opted out of the stripes. I left that up to the professional :)

 

 

 

 

 

We choose to have her main crib wall a different color than the rest of the room. We choose the paint color Jalapeno Jelly from Valspar her accent wall with black and beige stripes that you will see in the rest of the photos. The frame above her crib was actually a mirror from IKEA. Ikea Mirror I took the mirror out and purchased her initial from Hobby Lobby and spray painted it black. Similar lettering here

 

 

 

Every girl needs a million bows even before shes born...right? I actually made her one bow holder on the right from a frame from Hobby Lobby. I used scrapbook paper for the middle and scrapbook lettering to say BOWS. I attached ribbon and hooks to the bottom of the frame to hang head bands and bows. I am not that crafty and it actually came pretty good, however with all her hair accessories we of course needed another option. The green frame is also from Hobby Lobby. Just as every little girl needs bows, my little girl also needs her own chandelier :) Black Chandelier

 

 

We actually found the bedding first and based the painting around it. Both Collins' Nana and Nonna bought her bedding together. Harlow CoCalo Couture 

 

 

 



Like I mentioned before we had already had the furniture Davenport Collection by Baby Appleseed and of course my favorite piece in the room our rocker. Marty and I searched for a couple weeks at different stores searching for this exact chair. We knew what we wanted in our heads but didn't know for sure if it existed. Lucky us it did! Similar Here  Most of the accessories in her room are also part of the Harlow bedding collection, the window valence, three large frames, and hamper. Oh, that cute little bag sitting on the rocker is my diaper bag, obsessed! If you haven't heard of Petunia Pickle Bottom bags you need to investigate. Every bag they have I fell in love with, thanks to my good friend Taryn :)

 

 

 

 

Anyone who has been around during my bed rest days knows that I am constantly on Etsy. I worked with a woman for Sloane's lettering and she did an amazing job matching the letters to the room exactly. So as soon as we decided on Collins I went straight to her Etsy shop and had her do the new lettering. She was wonderful to work with and nailed it a second time. MiaEileen The black mirror we found at Target. Threshold Flat Mirror

 

 



 

 

 

Changing pad cover again from Etsy but from a different shop. Again amazing to work with. I haven't really had any shops where I have had any problems! LittleOwlsNest If you can see my cute little wipe holder that my friend Angelica made in the corner. Adorable, we told her she needs to get herself on Etsy and start selling these!

 

 

 

We needed a little something on the corner part of her wall. Something cute but also something that would be beneficial for we needed to put her video monitor somewhere. Whats better than shelves! Again we found the three at Target. Wall Ledge Set 

 

Well there it is, our sweet, spoiled little girls nursery. I will say we had a lot of fun putting it all together. Now all it needs is Collins!

Crushing Mini Goals

Can I just say that in 3 days I am going to be 34 weeks! We have started with mini goals at 20 weeks and with some tiny bumps in the road we are practically at the BIGGEST mini goal :). I have officially been on bed rest for 5 months, or 20 weeks, or 140 days, or 3,360 hours! Yes I used a calculator to figure those out. This means I have 3 weeks left of bed rest. 21 days. I sound positive but I'll be honest, I'm done. It seems like this last month is taking forever and I think I've "lost" it more in this last month than I have in the past 5 months. However only 21 days left! :) 

So a quick update from this past week. Monday we finally saw Dr. Font after a long 3 1/2 week hiatus. We had an ultrasound done measuring her weight, checking her fluid, and if she's moved. Great fluid, 4lbs 10oz, and little Miss is still breech. I found a neat picture that shows what Collins looks like all comfy in my belly. I mean do you blame her?  

After looking at my cervix and going over what had happened at 32 weeks Dr. Font thought it would be best to get the final dose "rescue" injection of steroids. They won't give it after 34 weeks and since I was still 33 weeks and it wouldn't hurt we all decided to go ahead with one more. I was so EXCITED for another injection :). He also wanted us to come back on Thursday for a NST and another check of my cervix. 

On Thursday I was placed on the monitors and Collins seemed pretty active and I had only felt maybe 1 or 2 contractions. Well I didn't get the memo that you should eat before a NST and apparently I was having way more contractions than what I was feeling. So Marty had to run and get me breakfast and back on the monitors I went for another hour. This time was better, she was more active and I didn't have as many contractions. He also checked my cervix again and we are holding up. The cerclage is doing its job so at this point it's a waiting game. We did schedule our potential last 4 appointments with him. The next 4 Monday's at 7:45am we will see Dr. Font for NST and cervical/baby check. As long as my stitch doesn't start ripping and my contractions don't begin to become constant she can keep cooking! The week of April 29th we will take the cerclage out and if I am dilated and contracting and she is still breech we will do a C-section that day! It is amazing to know she could be here in less than a month. It's also amazing to see a light at the end of this long long tunnel. 

Collins, mommy and daddy cannot wait to meet you. We have waited for what seems like eternity to finally get to hold you and see your sweet face. Please stay in for 3 more weeks but as soon as mommy's stitch comes out lets get the show on the road! 

Xoxo