A Very Germy Christmas

Christmas actually wasn't too germy. The sickness hit the day after. And prevailed by Sunday. Monday was miserable. But now that it's Tuesday we are finally on the mend, and I can see that eventually we will be healthy again.

There is nothing as pitiful as a 2-month-old with a cold.

Fiona's first Christmas was very nice, the aforementioned cold notwithstanding. We started our Christmas vacation on Saturday the 20th, with a drive up to Pennsylvania to see some family- Fiona met her great-grandparents, along with some great-aunts and great-uncles, and whatever you call your parents' cousins...second cousins I guess? We stayed with them for a few days, and everyone was so excited to have a baby in the house that I pretty much only saw her when she needed to be fed. It was a very good visit and we look forward to visiting them again.

Fiona with Great-Grandma and Great-Grandpa Troutman

The day before Christmas Eve we continued our vacation with a drive further north, all the way to Massachusetts. We've had quite the busy week. Activities included-
- decorating the Christmas tree
- attending Midnight Mass
- opening presents on Christmas morning
- going ice skating
- having our 19th annual Christmas caroling party
- playing many board games

It's been a full, fun week. Despite the miserable cold.

Pictures to follow.

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Well that was exciting...

Fiona's cord stump fell off several weeks ago, just as it should have. Everything seemed normal.

Then began to notice that there was this extra little red blobby thing on the end of what should have been an extremely cute belly button. Of course, my first action was to google "belly button not healing right" and "weird blobby red belly button", and through that research, I deduced that it must be an umbilical granuloma. But since google didn't attend medical school, I thought I'd better bring Fiona in to see the pediatrician.

At her appointment last Monday, I just told them that the belly button didn't appear to be healing right. I did NOT mention my googling, because I didn't want to be THAT PATIENT. You know, the one that walks in but has already decided on a diagnosis and treatment? So anyways, the doc looks at it, tells me "Oh, that's a granuloma, I'll get you the number for the surgeon."

At this point, I should now be thinking- What??!!? Surgeon!?!?!? That means surgery!!!

Good thing I'd done that googling. I knew it wasn't a huge deal, and that it could be taken care of easily. So we call the surgeon, get an appointment. We went in last Friday to see him, and I really wouldn't even call what he did surgery. It was a treatment. He took a stick with silver nitrate on the tip and touched it to all the pink areas of the little extra blob of tissue that was hanging on the end of Fiona's belly button. He told us that the skin around it might turn a little grey or brownish-black, and that that was okay. Then he gave us a few of the silver nitrate sticks in case any of the pink tissue came back, and sent us on our merry way.

On Saturday morning, I saw that the little red blob (which turned into a little blackish-brown blob when he touched it with the silver nitrate stick) had fallen off and was sticking inside Fiona's onesie. I also noticed that the area around her belly button was a bit red, and that there was this area of skin that had kind of sloughed off and was now also all pink. It looked like a burn. But she didn't seem to be in any pain, and was in good spirits, so I assumed it was just part of the process of the whole thing healing up.

Sunday morning the area seemed to be a bit redder, but it still didn't really look infected or anything, and she wasn't super fussy or running a fever, so I figured we could wait it out till Monday and then call the doctor. Which is what I did this morning, called and told them what it looked like- they said to come in to the office so they could check it out. We did.

At the office, the pediatrician looked at it and said "Ooh. Let me get the other doctor and have her look at it."

And then the second doctor came in, and was just like "Yeah, I agree"

And then they both walked out of the room. Leaving me sitting there like "Ummm, hello? What?"
The first doctor came back in and told me that they wanted me to take Fiona to the hospital. She said to wait while she called the hospital to make sure they had a free bed. Which they didn't. And so she said I should go ahead and take Fiona in to the Emergency Room.

The doctor told me that her belly button looked infected, and that the red area looked like a 2nd degree burn. She said that they would probably hook Fiona up to an IV to give her antibiotics, and treat and dress the burn. She said we would probably be staying at least overnight, if not longer. She said not to worry, that Fiona would probably be fine, she just wanted to make sure that we got her in and taken care of before anything got really serious, like the infection getting into her bloodstream and traveling elsewhere in her body or anything like that. At this point I am totally playing it cool, like it doesn't phase me a bit to take my tiny little 6-week-old baby to the ER.Called Nate, he immediately left work to come meet me at the doctors office, and then we headed over to the hospital.

Once we got there and checked in and did all that nonsense, the doctor came in to check Fiona out.

Babygirl was grinning away the whole time we were waiting.

The first ER doctor came in, looked at it, said she didn't think it looked infected. She said she wanted the other doctor to take a look at it and see what she thought. ER doc number 2 comes in, she agrees with ER doc number one. She said it looked like the belly button was NOT infected, and the burn looked only superficial, just a 1st degree. She just wanted to call the pediatrician to talk to her and hear her concerns, make sure all the doctors were all on the same page.

Came back awhile later. Told us that they were going to clean up the burned areas, dress them with bacitracin, and send us home.

I guess they normally take extra precautions with the little little babies, which is why the pediatrician thought they would admit her. But they told me that she really looked fine. Plus, they had no free private rooms in pediatrics, and that meant that if they did admit us that we'd end up either on a bed in the hallway or sharing a room with some sick kid...neither option is exactly ideal for a newborn's immune system.

So, they sent us home with a prescription for bacitracin and instructions to bring her to the pediatrician in a few days to make sure everything is healing up alright.

What. a. night.

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Absolutely in LOVE

Well, we're home from Thanksgiving vacation. Had a great time. Fiona did remarkably well on the drive up, and had a fantastic time meeting all the family. The drive home, however, was during her several hours of fussy time in the evening. That, combined with more traffic, made for a much longer ride south.

But honestly, we didn't even care. Because at our first stop to feed and change Fiona, she smiled.

Like, really smiled. Not because of gas. I'm talking real, at us, smiling with her eyes smiled. It was the most adorable thing I have ever seen. We seriously sat there in the McDonald's parking lot for a half hour just looking at her. And we did the same thing when we stopped again 2 hours later. Just sat, staring, making funny noises and talking to her to try and get some more of those smiles. And again at the next stop.

It's no wonder our drive home took so much longer.

But oh. my. goodness. I just fell in love with that smile. I cannot even begin to describe it. I had no idea that I would be so proud of her for just SMILING! And I apologize for sounding so new-parenty in this entry. It's just- she smiled! At me! And she is the most adorable thing EVER!!!!

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Back to real life. Sort of.

Well, we have gone back to semi-real life. Hopefully things will continue to normalize, because at this point I am still staying up waaaaay too late, and staying in bed in the mornings till an embarrassingly late hour. Nate's been back to work for a week, and he is much missed here at home.

Fiona and I are still adjusting to each other. Sometimes I feel like I am babysitting, and then I have to remind myself that no, she is actually mine for good. I can't believe how much bigger she is already. She's almost a month old already! Hard to believe, especially when you compare it to how friggin LONG the final month of being pregnant seemed.

Today babygirl is being a clingy little koala baby. Every time I try to set her down in her cradle she wakes up INSTANTLY. Which is not cool, cause I've been trying to get this place straightened up and finish folding all the laundry and get packed. We leave first thing tomorrow morning for Massachusetts. We are going up for Thanksgiving, and also for Emily's baptism.

And of course, a few new pictures.

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First Bath and Couch Potatoes.

Fiona is nearly 2 and a half weeks old. She already looks so different than she did when we were in the hospital. Her cord fell off yesterday, so she's finally got a belly button...which is insanely cute. Since she has lost the cord, we were able to give her her first real bath last night-

It was adorable. She was pretty mad when we first took off her bathrobe (which is way too friggin cute, thanks for that, Jada) but once we got her down into the water she seemed to like it.

We've had a busy first couple of weeks. Fiona has already done a ton of things and been a bunch of places, including-
- going to Mass with both grandmas and Aunt Emily when they were all visiting
- coming with us to vote on election day
- going out for coffee (woot finally can have my double tall latte guilt-free!)
- shopping at the outlet mall
- attending a tupperware party
- going to the ice rink to watch Daddy play hockey (ok, so she slept in her carseat underneath her Pittsburgh Penguins cover the entire time- but she went!)
- getting checked out at the pediatricians office twice already (she's growing well and doing great. By her 2-week checkup she was already weighing in at 7lb10oz, and was measuring above-average length-wise. So she's gaining weight which is excellent. But we already told her to enjoy that above-average height while she can, cause with a 5ft1in mother and a 5ft8in father there is no way she stays above-average height for long...)

We also like to chill out at home. When Dad's lying on the couch with Fiona they usually play X-box. When I'm on the couch with her we watch as much Law&Order as TNT, USA, and NBC will give me. Since this week has been pretty miserable weather-wise, we've been hardcore couch potatoes.

Sometimes I fall asleep mid-episode. As happened here.

Nate goes back to work tomorrow (boo), so I'm planning and hoping to make a list of things I need to get done, and get back into a more normal schedule. Maybe I'll even get dressed and go somewhere exciting like the grocery store. Or maybe we'll even venture as far as Target! Wouldn't that be an accomplishment.

All things considered, we are are doing pretty well thus far, with minimal hysterical hormonal crying breakdowns on my part. Which is always good.

(amanda)

One more photo to close it out-

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Update for Auntie Kelsie

Fiona is sleeping at the moment, so I'm hoping I can get this thing updated a bit... Kelsie's really been getting on me about it. Sorry Kel. I've been a little busy.

I can't believe it's already been a week. Time is flying by in a ridiculous manner, especially when you compare to how EXCRUCIATINGLY long the week before that was.

I'm not gonna write out the entire birth story right now... I've actually got it started, in draft form, but it's going to be harder to write than I had originally expected. I will, however, give you a brief overview.

Wednesday, October 29th- Woke up to some mild, regular-ish contractions, and just felt kind of weird and different. Told Nate that I didn't want to get his hopes up, but to keep his phone with him just in case. I continued with my plans for the day, which included making a big pot of chili in the slowcooker, and baking some oatmeal chocolate chip craisin cookies, and taking a looooong (just over 3 miles) walk... things picked up, contraction-wise, a little before midnight. We called the doctor, he said to call him back when the contractions were 5 minutes apart for 2 hours. Around 3:00am we called, and headed to the hospital. Long story short- they sent us home. However, the nurse said she was pretty sure we'd be back within a day.

Thursday, October 30th- Came home from the hospital, feeling kind of stupid for going in at only 1cm with contractions that slowed up once they hooked me to the monitors. Everyone assured me that I shouldn't feel stupid. It didn't really make me feel better.
I had a doctor appointment scheduled for Thursday at 10:15, they wanted to hook me up to the monitors for a non-stress test and check the baby's movement to make sure she was still doing ok in there even though I was, at this point, 9 days overdue by their count.

By the time I got to the doctors office, I had been having increasingly strong contractions, at fairly regular intervals, since about 8:00am. I got all hooked up to the monitors, had to lie there on the table, and press a little button every time I felt the baby move. She was pretty quiet, but the contractions were not. Eventually the doctor came in and checked me- I was at 4cm, the baby's head was at zero station, and I was definitely in active labor at this point. So he sent us off to the hospital.

We got to the hospital around noon, got me up to the room and all situated, annnnd fast forward about 5 and a half hours of crazy, intense, pain that I won't go into now...and they're putting this baby on my chest and telling me that "It's a girl!"

It's a what? A girl? Really? A girl?!?! I was so sure it was gonna be a boy! A girl? Ohmygod Nate, we have a girl! It's a girl!

And so Fiona Jeanne entered the world. Nate cut the cord, and went over and watched as they cleaned her up and weighed her and put that goop in her eyes and all that good stuff.

And now its a week later. It's also now about 6 hours, a billion feedings, bout 5 diaper changes, 2 naps, and 1 momma meltdown after I started writing this entry. I think I'll quit while I'm ahead and post what I've got, rather than try and get into the amazing cuteness that has been the past week. I'll just throw a few pictures up here and call it a day.

(amanda)

41 weeks pregnant and on the way out the door to the hospital-

And introducing...
Fiona Jeanne LaMartina!
born at 5:25pm on October 30th, 2008
weighing in at 7lb2oz, and 19.5 inches long

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Touchdown

Amanda is in bed right now resting up some more, but I wanted to take a moment to share the news. Fiona Jeanne LaMartina was born at 5:25pm, on this October 30th. She is 7 pounds, 2 ounces, and 19.5 inches long.

Fiona is also resting, and not hiccuping for once. She definitely gets that from me...

(Nate/Dad)

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