August Out of Towners!

We've had lots of visitors lately. Aunt Jenny made it all the way from Scotland! Tori especially likes the adorable red plaid booties Aunt Jenny brought for her. They'll certainly help keep her warm for her first winter.

From North Carolina, Uncle Jonathan, Aunt Diane and Cousin Casey stopped in for a few days. Tori was quite content to let any relative feed her. As long as you keep the bottles coming and make ga-ga faces while she eats, Tori doesn't seem to care who feeds her. Cousin Casey is going to be a senior in high school this year. So grown up, but not at all interested in changing baby diapers. That's good news!

Cousin Caitlin also came over to hang out with Casey and Tori to play some Nintendo Wii. I'm certain one day Tori will look back at the Wii and laugh at how old school her parents were. Much like the way we know look back on things like Atari, Space Invaders and Break Out.

Tori's cord finally fell off two days before she turned 5 weeks. Thanks Dr. Aliwalis for fiddling with it for us. Once the cord was off, we were able to switch from sponge baths to a regular bath. Tori loved it! Her favorite thing to do is kick her legs really hard really fast. With the added element of warm bubbly water, Tori discovered she could splash wonderfully while doing her kicking routine. She also discovered the bathroom mirrors and was memorized by her reflection.

At about 4 weeks, Tori also began smiling and showing actual interaction with people. She loves to look at different faces and hear funny noises. She's super cute and melts our hearts with every smile.

One Month Check Up

Tori had her one month check up on July 21st with Dr. Aliwalas, our family practitioner. So far everything looks really good. Tori has definitely been growing. She's now 8 pounds 11 ounces and is a long 22.5 inches. Dr. said she's "tall and thin, but healthy". She's in a good range, but the Dr. said if Tori wants to eat more, it would be ok. We're offering more with each feeding, sometimes she takes it, sometimes not. We'll just keep trying and keep an eye on things. One of our concerns was that Tori's cord still hasn't fallen off yet. Typically these fall off within the first two weeks and from what I read on line, if it hasn't fallen off by week 6, it could be a sign of a poor immune system. Dr. Aliwalas fiddled with it a bit and said that it was sunken in so deep that the part that needs to dry out isn't getting exposed. Just a few days after the Dr. poked it, it finally fell off. Yeah!

I'm personally doing much better physically now that I'm seeing a chiropractor. I was having back spasms, numbness and tingling down to my feet. Not fun when trying to bend over to change Tori, pick her up or carry her anywhere. I've never seen a chiropractor before and wasn't alltogether certain one could help, but so far so good!

First Few Weeks

We're starting to get settled into a routine. Probably the worst adjustment wasn't the baby at all, but my frustrations with physical limitations due to the C-section. It took 3 weeks before I really started to feel like myself again. Being able to drive myself around was a personal victory!

Tori has been wonderful. She sleeps a lot. The first night was the hardest, again, our fault not hers. She was awfully fussy when we tried to put her to bed. We couldn't figure out what was bothering her. She had been fed, we wrapped her in her blanket, was it too hot? cold? We rocked her, gave her the binky, turned the AC on, turned it off. After about two hours of our frustrating attempts to please her, it finally occurred to me, "when was the last time we changed her diaper?" Wow! That was the ticket. Kenny and I learned a lot that night and haven't forgotten to change a diaper since.

Tori's favorite item is her swing. She falls asleep quite peacefully in it and will stay asleep for as long as two hours straight! That makes for a great opportunity for me to try to keep up with paying bills, reading email, sending out thank you notes and doing the many loads of laundry Tori creates!

Unfortunately, things didn't work out as we had hoped with the breastfeeding. I'm only producing about a third of what Tori needs for each feeding. Thankfully we have a super cool pump that I have to use every 2-3 hours. So we have to suppliment each feeding with formula. Tori doesn't seem to mind, but I had to deal with feelings of inadequecy for a brief time. However, there was a good chance I wasn't going to produce any milk at all after my surgery a few years back, so on the bright side, 1/3 breastmilk is far better than none at all.

Kenny has taken to life as daddy so well. He's great at changing diapers, getting her to sleep and calming her when she fusses using the "Happiest Baby" techniques by Dr. Harvey Karp.

Victoria Mariella Vega is Born June 20th!

After 31 hours of labor, and four days past her due date, Tori finally arrived. After only sleeping for about an hour Wednesday night, the 18th, I woke at about 1 am having started contractions. They weren't so bad, lasting about 30 seconds every 10-15 minutes. I knew it could be quite some time before the baby would arrive, so I decided to let Kenny sleep, his final 8 uninterrupted hours, while I went down to my office and spent the rest of the night finishing my work so that I could start my maternity leave the next day. I was fairly relaxed at this point, feeling very prepared and knowing what to expect. I had two hospital bags already packed and in the car, the car seat was set up and had been inspected by the Manlius Police Dept, the cats had plenty of food and we had taken just about every baby class we could find. Tori's room was ready. We were ready.

We saw Dr. Marotta on Thursday afternoon and he confirmed, I was progressing nicely and should have the baby around midnight that night. We were sent home to relax and "get some sleep". Yeah right. By this time, the contractions were getting much more painful and I was having a hard time relaxing. With each contraction, I would brace myself to fight the pain, however, you're SUPPOSED to relax through the contraction to allow the baby to progress downward. Not so easy to relax when you're in pain. Thank goodness Kenny remembered our breathing techniques!

By midnight Thursday, I was beyond the pain. Contractions were coming every couple of minutes. It was very clear I was in back labor, ALL the pain was in my lower back and worse than anything I could imagine. I thought the pain would be in my stomach and pelvis, I never felt anything in those areas. I begged the Dr. to let us check into the hospital, I know this sounds cliche, but I thought something had to be wrong. I actually thought I was going to die. I was throwing up from the pain. It wasn't anything at all like what I imagined. We got to the hospital around 1 am, our Doula Chris met us there right away along with Doula in training - Michelle. At this point, I could barely talk and wasn't even coherent. Kenny, Chris and Michelle were wonderful. They gave me massages, rubbed oils on my forehead, wrapped me in warm blankets, helped me in the hot tub, they did everything to make it easier for me including praying with me. Kenny was my hero. He apparently memorized everything we learned in the classes because he was like a text book with all the different exercises. By 4 am, I was only dilated at 4 centimeters. I was exhausted from not sleeping for two days and the sheer pain in my back. I knew I couldn't last much longer. They finally gave me an epidural which was wonderful. I slept for almost an hour while Kenny and the Doulas napped in their chairs. Dr. Marotta showed up at about 5:30 am and announced that I was now progressing nicely. Yeah!

Between 5:30 and 8:00 Friday morning, Dr. M stayed in the room with us, checking me about every 30 minutes and in between we all tried to relax. At about 8 am, I was at 9 centimeters and Dr. M announced it was about time to start pushing. Finally, Tori was going to arrive! Then at about 8:15, things went in the wrong direction. Tori's heart rate dropped significantly. After changing my position to get her off my spine, her heart rate continued to drop. Dr. M told me we had to get her out right away. I said "great, I'm ready to push". He told me we had to do a C-section and we had to do it now. Next thing I knew I heard a "Code C" announcement over the intercom and a dozen people came rushing into my room, and took over. I've never been so scared in my life. I knew something hadn't been right, but everyone said it was normal. Now they told me something was wrong, but they didn't know what. 20 minutes later, several tears and countless prayers, I finally heard Tori cry for the first time and the Dr. announce that she was perfectly fine. Apparently Tori had gotten herself so entangled in the cord that she wouldn't have been able to get out the normal way. Thank you Dr. M!!!!

Tori was born Friday morning at 8:35. She weighed 7 pounds 2 ounces and was 20.5 inches long.
She was beautiful and healthy and finally here.

39 Weeks

We've now passed the 39th week of pregnancy, and Tori still hasn't made her appearance.
Once she does, this will be her site for family and friends to visit and keep up with her as she grows. We're very excited!

-Kristi and Kenny