A Lovely Lilly Day

Aww...we had a whole Lilly day today! Kim and Lilly came over today and we had such fun. First we went to get her prints done by my friend Barb Johnson. (http://www.preciousprintsbybarbara.com/) I have known Barb for many years. We used to work together in L&D and she does these great clay imprints. We wanted to get Lilly's done while she was still little. Lilly was none to happy with us! She did not think this was fun...

She was so glad when we told her she was finished.

Then we went to visit our favorite photographer Shannon. She did Kim's belly shots a while back and we wanted a few newborn shots too. You can link to her site to see more of her pictures...they are so cute that we are going to have trouble picking our favorites! We think Shannon is the best!

Finally - home to sleep. I think we must have wore Lilly out for she slept about 4 hours. We sure had fun though. Thanks Kim and Lilly for spending the day with me.

Finally...

I've been on a roll at work...I can't seem to stay out of the C/Section room! It seems I am in there every day that I do patient care. I am stealing the reign from Kari and she is the C/Section queen! I am very competant now at charting and counting and getting more sutures all at the same time...I can put on compression stockings and undo the scalp electrode in one full swope. My laps hang in the wall thingee and I occasionally get to see the baby too.
But, I must say that I am sick of the room! I love doing vaginal deliveries - there is just something about working with a family then getting to push with them, then seeing their new little baby be born and hearing its first cries. When I worked on Saturday I was so excited for I had a 2nd time mommy and I was stoked to finally be working in an LDR - anticipating a plain ole' delivery. So we get to know each other, labor her, get her an epidural, get her to complete and legs up in stirrups and pushing, but the baby doesn't like it...the heart rate won't come up... so bam...off we go to the OR. Again! I had to apologize to her - like it is my jinx - not her issue with not delivering. We laughed about it but I am seriously thinking I've got some cloud over me or something...
Yesterday - the curse was lifted!! :) I actually did two vaginal deliveries and one of them I almost had to do myself while waiting for the doctor. It was so very fun. One baby boy, one baby girl. My last patient of the day said that I couldn't leave until her baby was out...which was 10 minutes before shift change. But I don't think I would have left any ways. I so wanted to see it through until the end. She pushed like a trooper and had such a cute little girl. Thank you so much to my wonderful patients yesterday! For allowing me to be in with them during such a special event in their lives. But mostly - Thanks for breaking my C/Section reign!!!

PS - why does everyone want to deliver on Valentines day??? I was starting to think every pregnant woman in orange county visited us yesterday...wonder how many deliveries we actually did do.

Can't Get Enough

This little girl is taking over...we just can't seem to get enough of her - of her little eyes,her yummy smell,her little buns,her thin fingers,her precious little feet. I just want to hold her all day and never go to work again. I actually ditched a meeting today so that I could be with her and that is totally not like me. Funny how new life rearranges your priorites!
Sweet little Lilly...
With her Auntie Shel

Flat Stanley came to visit all the way from Oregon

Check out these feet, I've always loved baby feet.

I just want to kiss them!!

Do you blame me for wanting to spend every waking moment with her??

Beautiful Baby Girl - Lillian Victoria Perez

It is such a weird place to be...watching you first born have his first born...you wait, you wring your hands, you read but can't concentrate, you worry that things will go wrong, you pray, you text your friends, you bring food for the nurses, you get lunch for your son, you watch the FHR strip and try to be a mom not a nurse ("come on little baby -don't be dropping your little heart rate.."). Thank goodness you know the nurse and trust her to take care of your loved ones.
Then finally after 18 long hours and very little cervical change the doctor decides to do a C/Section. Thank God - we want a healthy mom and healthy baby...

So here is Jon and Kim getting ready to meet their baby: Waiting while Kim is moved to the OR:

Jon FINALLY brings out the prettiest little girl for all of us to meet! She had quite the crowd waiting to meet her, Buzz and Me, Granddaddy Randy, Nani and Poppi Wright, Uncle Trevor and his girlfriend, Uncle Josh and his wife plus cousins Griffin and Parker. Jon is crying, we all cry and the baby, with its eyes wide open, thinks she has the bestest family:

The happy, if not exhausted mommy Kim:

Announcing:

Lillian Victoria Perez

Born 1/29/08 @ 8:10pm

weighs 6-15 and is 19 inches long

Aww...she is pink, has all 10 toes, 10 fingers, a nice round head and is healthy!

Being held by her mommy in the recovery room prior to nursing:

She is just beautiful!

Welcome to the world baby Lilly!

We promise to love you and take care of you for a life time. And I can't wait to snuggle you again and kiss your little toes and rub nose to nose with you. I am so blessed to be your grammy!

And thanks Jon and Kim for the best gift you ever could have given me - your little girl is just adorable!

It's a Girl!!

SHE is here! After 18 long hours of labor she was born. Born tonight 1/29/08 at 8:10pm.
SHE weighs 6 lbs 15 oz and is 19 inches long.
Healthy and cute! No name yet.
Jon and Kim are tired but oh so in love...
More pictures and details to follow :)

Indoor Track Nationals

Erika ran the 800m portion of her teams distance medley relay...and they qualified for Nationals already! I haven't seen the official results yet but she informed me she is Tennessee bound. That girl sure gets around! You can follow her track happenings at http://www.biola.edu/ and click on athletics and track/field.

You go girl!

Baby in Her Belly

I just had to show off of few of Kim's belly pictures. We had a professional shoot done this past Sunday and I think Kim looks so cute - as does Jon :)
We are still waiting for the baby to make its appearance. It will be any day now! And I may be biased but I think their baby is going to be the prettiest one on the block!
Special thanks to Shannon Lott for spending the afternoon with us! She captured the best images and you can see how much Jon and Kim love each other in them. You can see some of her amazing shots on her blogsite... http://shannonlottphotography.blogspot.com/

This picture I stole from Shannon's site
I was trying to stay out of the way but captured a few shots of my own from a different angle.Can you believe that she is term? Due today!
The amazing Shannon in action!We made Kim climb up on this post - it was pretty funny and she was a tropper about it.I think Jon is in love with the baby already.We then asked some stranger to borrow her horse for a few pitcures.
Can't wait to meet you little baby!!!

Some Kind of Crazy Baby Boom

We have been so busy at work lately! Seems like all of Orange County is pregnant! I have worked four of the past five days and have barely gotten any breaks - have not gotten out on time and basically have just run around like a mad woman - all the while trying to smile and make sure my patients are having a good experience.
A snippet of today...You know it is going to be a bad day when:

• you walk on to the unit and look at the board and you are starting with 15 patients on the board, 4 scheduled C/S's to be done and induction patients waiting in the waiting room plus more scheduled to come in
• there are no empty LDR's so the induction patients complain about their room (hey -they are lucky to even get put to bed!)
• You are assigned to a patient and while you haven't even finished your morning "huddle" the call light goes off and you hear, "I need help in here!!"
• You go to your room - only to be met with a patient on the bathroom floor and a nurse trying to review her - great start to the day!
• You get the patient awake...and with help get her on a guerney only to find out that her head is at the foot part and her feet are at the head part - UGH! Now you can't evelvate her head. Oh well - just cope, get her stabilized and moved to the postpartum unit
• You transfer the patient to find there is no IV pole - oh well - cope again and hang it on a hook in the closet.
• Come back to your own unit and there still are no beds but you need to find somewhere to put the next patient.
• You assume a patient and get her an epidural - she goes to complete and the doctor says, "I have more patients to see in the office. Can she wait?"
• Finish that delivery and finally get lunch at 3pm

Then it finally started to slow down as we got all of the patients delivered. I think we did 14 deliveries again today. We left the night shift with only 5 patients on the board and what do we hear from the night shift..." oh what a nice board - did you guys have a good day? :) ! NO! We were crazy busy again. My only hope - they don't call me tomorrow on my day off!!!!