Author Archives: Chase & Britt

Can’t believe my baby turned 3 weeks on Wednesday, October 24th! We have survived our first week with out Gramzi… we missed her, but we survived even with changing more diapers than I had for her first 2 weeks of life!

Clothes: Size 1 diapers (we are flying through these!) and newborn clothes still. She seems to be filling out some of the newborn clothes more, but some of her pjs are still big on her. She is a petite little thing. I am glad we are getting good use out of her cute newborn clothes!

Sleep: This girl loves to sleep! What a blessing. She is still only waking up 1 maybe 2 times at night. Except for one night this week she woke up like 4 times! I told Chase that Lydia was finally deciding to be a newborn and wake up a bunch through out the night! ha She has good awake time in the mornings and then again in the afternoons. We are not totally on a schedule yet, except for waking up at either 9 or 10 after our 3:30 or 6:30 feeding. Not sure when we need to get on a “schedule” per say. I am getting better at knowing when she needs to nap and be swaddled during the day. Sometimes she will just sleep the way she is, but on occasion (like right now) she wants to be swaddled for her nap). She definitely doesn’t take after me when it comes to sleep at least for now… I would rather be awake and not miss anything… we will see what the future holds.

Food: This week she has been pushing the feedings to 2 1/2 – 3 hours apart! I try to feed her every 2 and she refuses. I think it is because she is eating more at each feeding now… she is nursing like 10-15 on one side and then 6-10 on the other for most feedings. I am ok with pushing the feedings further apart- it was feeling like all I did was pull down my shirt! Ha But I wouldn’t trade it for anything. It is such a special bonding time for us. I think she is getting some chubbier cheeks and filling out in her belly! Which makes me happy because with breast feeding I think it is hard to know if they are getting enough. We go to the doctor on the 29th so I will share her stats for the 1 month update.

Other:

*We have been doing some tummy time and she loves it. She like to stick her butt and back legs up in the air while laying on her belly and then her neck and arms as well- like a seahorse! (we used to do this in ballet when I was little- it’s so cute)

*Her favorite position to be held in is on my shoulder- its so sweet. She will lift her neck up and look around and then lay it down on me.

*She also loves when you hold her head with your hand and point her feet toward your belly away from your body… I think she likes to see our face.

*When she is upset she stretches her body out straight and stiff and just cries… is it sad that I love her cry? It is so sweet.

*She laughs in her sleep… I wish I knew what she was dreaming about.

Travel: This week we are at home!! What a wonderful feeling. We might go to Sohar tomorrow, but I kind of like just being home. I think Lydia does too. We have been enjoying visits from our friends here, we are blessed. However, I have cried several times (and I know there will be more tears about it) about the fact that I just want Lydia to meet her family & friends back home… it is so so tough being this far away. Thankful we get to go home in December…

I ended my labor story last time with…

When we returned to our cubicle to be monitored again they had taken away my monitor for someone else, so they decided to go ahead and move me to the L&D room! Yey, we had been upgraded!! This was around 11 pm. This room was much better. I was still not concerned to be in “active labor” as I was still only 1-2 cm! Ahhh… so we decided to just relax and wait for my body to do its thing…

So around 11:30- midnightish I starting having more painful contractions that progressively started getting closer together. I started to not be able to talk through my contractions, but was still able to have conversation in between them… strangest thing ever. After a while my “team” (mom, Chase, & Vic) was put to work by holding my hand, putting pressure on my back, and helping me breathe through the pain. I was mostly doing this on the birthing ball while leaning over the bed on some pillows. Finally around 3 am my water broke! Yey! Progress! It felt so great and Chase and I were so excited because we thought we could be meeting out little girl anytime… little did we know from our “newbeness” that we still had hours and hours to go…

After the water broke the contractions got WAY more intense and I was pretty much just working through the contractions without any extra conversations going on. They offered me a local shot that was supposed to take the edge off the contractions and help you “rest” in between, so I decided to accept. It lasted in my system for about two hours and helped me rest in between, but during the contractions (which were happening very often- felt like I never had a break!) it seemed like the same intenseness, but maybe not? We went on with the routine of working through the contractions in different positions till about 7:00 am when they checked to see my progress again… I was so excited to see how far along I was with all the work I had been doing… much to my disappointment and surprise I was only about 3-3.5 cm at this point!!! Agh, what a bummer that was to hear…. I was so overwhelmed with pain and frustration thinking there is NO way I can keep on like this for 7 more cm. So alas, I asked for the epidural. They got right on it- I had the epidural in me around 7:30 am.

I have a love/hate relationship with the epidural… I loved it because it allowed me to sleep, rest and not worry about Lydia’s heartbeat (for some reason at that point I was really worried about how she was doing during contractions) for the next 10 ish hours before I got to meet our baby girl, I also believe it allowed me the strength (besides the Lord of course) to push her out in the end, and I was able to enjoy the rest of my labor process with Chase, my mom, Vic & Jord (yes Jord showed up around 9 am in order to capture the birth of Lydia for us!) and enjoy the entrance of Lydia with less pain. I hated (maybe hate is a strong word- didn’t like) it because of the way it made me feel… I got the chills, then felt ichy, had a “hot spot” that extremely hurt during contractions still, I had to keep the monitors on the entire time, I couldn’t get up, I couldn’t pee, so they had to put in a catheter, and in the end I had to sometimes feel my stomach to see when I was having contractions in order to know when to push.

So all this to say, I am undecided, but leaning toward not wanting to do the epidural for baby number 2… we will see. I guess it would depend if I have to be induced again and how long the process was taking. I actually enjoyed and am thankful for the part that I was able to “labor though”… I had such a great support team and I feel like Chase and I have become even closer through this whole process.

So anyway, about 5:00 pm they checked me to see how far I had gotten and I was about 9.5 cm! Music to my ears! This was really happening, we were going to really meet this little girl that had been moving around and growing inside of me for 9 + months… could it really be time?! At this point the contractions were getting more intense again (I could feel them more as the epidural was waring off) so Chase prayed for the entrance and life of Lydia as we prepared to finish strong. Vic had encouraged me to try and “labor down” before I started pushing right away because this would help the pushing process be shorter. So thankfully the midwife that was with me allowed this and allowed Vic to coach me through the pushing- what a blessing. This normally doesn’t happen and I got to have 4 of my people in the room when everywhere it says only 2 people are allowed!

After 20 minutes of pushing… Lydia May McGough made her entrance into the world at 5:56 pm on October 3, 2012. She weighed 6 lbs 12 oz and was just under 19 in long.

What an amazing feeling and high it was to hold and see our daughter for the first time! There is nothing like it. A love I never knew before. She was perfect in every way. Chase and I were head over heels and knew from that moment on our lives would never be the same… it would be better! Praise be to our God from whom all blessings flow!

A few funny things that I said/did during labor: (some of them I was told later by my team- ha)

• At one point I hit my mom during contractions and then immediately said, “Oh, I am sorry.”
• I tried to bite my moms hand at one point- she just pulled it away and tired not to laugh
• Chase & my mom said that they had to keep from laughing a few times because I guess I was saying funny things & reacting funny to the pain. I guess I had no problem hitting Chase!
• I kept saying, “I hate this… this pain.”
• During the pushing process: they told me she had hair and I said, “I knew she would!” and they allowed me to touch her head and I said, “Oh I just love her!”

if you want to read the beginning of the story go here.

Lydia turned 2 weeks on Wednesday, October 17th! CRAZY…. feels like time is flying by.

Warning: There will be lots of random information in these weekly posts, mostly because I don’t want to forget all these little stages, but also for the grandmas and such, so don’t feel like you have to read all the little details… 

Clothes: Lydia is still in newborn clothes and size 1 diaper folded over. She is just so tiny! I put newborn pants on her this morning and they fit in the length, but around the waist were a little big! It is amazing how many clothes we go though for such a tiny thing. I know understand why my mom always had laundry going- its a never ending job. But praise the Lord my in-laws gave us some cash to buy a used dryer!! Yes, thats right my baby girl will now have soft fresh smelling clothes and my husband will not have wrinkly shirts. What a blessing. 

Food: Little miss is such a good eater! I am in awe of the way God created women to be able to not only grow and nourish their babies in the whom, but continue to outside! What a great God we serve. What a blessing it is to be able to provide food for my little girl. I know that this is not something to take for granted as it is not always possible to do. We are still nursing about every 2 hours during the day. She has about 1-2 feedings a day where she just cries instead of latching on… I give her a few minutes to calm down and then she will eventually latch on. It breaks my heart, but I think I am realizing it is when she is over-hungry… generally happens when we are “on the road” or “out and about” which seems to be quite often these days. But overall she has done so well with all the travel eating. I have pumped twice now and have 4 oz frozen! Once we are home more I hope to continue pumping to have a nice storage built up.

Sleep: She is continues to be a champ at this. Now that we don’t have to set an alarm in the middle of the night, she has been sleeping for about 5- 6 hours stretches! She usually eats around 10- 10:30 or 11- 11:30 depending and sleeps till either 3:30 or 5:30am! And then is back down till 9 am! We feel so spoiled. I am trying to at least nap with her once a day, I think once we are home for a more consistent period I will be able to do this.

Other: 

* She gets the hiccups all the time and hates them. Poor girl. She is fine for a little while and when they keep lasting she gets upset.

* She is a pacci using baby… we were holding off on giving it to her because I read somewhere that it is important to make sure they get a good latch while nursing before introducing the pacci and honestly we haven’t really needed it. However, on her 2 week birthday we were in the car and her hiccups were bugging her and we couldn’t do anything to console her so we busted out the pacci and she loved it! So we have officially entered the pacci world… she doesn’t need it all the time and spits it out when she is done, but I am thankful for it esp for how much driving we have been doing.

* She loves to sleep during the day with her arms out of the swaddle and her neck and back arched. My mom said this is how I slept as a baby and continue to now, often I wake up with headaches because of the way I sleep on on neck… hope she doesn’t develop these same sleeping habits.

*She can be wide awake looking around, smiling and as soon as her daddy picks her up she falls asleep- she just feels so comfy and warm in his arms- which I love except for at 4 in the morning when she stays wide awake with me… I don’t have “the magic sleep hold”. 

*Her demeanor is so sweet and chill – Chase’s parents say we have it lucky this time and better watch out for the second! Ha We are truly blessed with her.

*Some nicknames we have been calling her: liddy, “liddy bug”, pumpkin, peanut, Sugar, “liddy lady”, “liddy bear”… I am sure there will be more and maybe one day we will pick just one, but for now she gets all of them!

Travels: This week she got to spend most of it in Buramai in her house! We got to bring her home the day after she turned one week- what a blessing. It has been so fun to have her at home with all her stuff and my awesome rocking chair. On her 2 week birthday she got to travel to Dubai for the first time where she rode slept through her first dhow boat cruise, hung out at her second hotel, went to IKEA for the first of many trips and now we are in Muscat working on Visa and passport stuff. Whoa! that makes me tired just typing it out…

Up next… the conclusion to my labor story! Sorry it has taken so long to complete… a lot harder now to sit down and finish a blog post- I took it for granted before!

I am already behind on posting about her weekly developments! I know that I am not going to be able to keep up with her weekly stats, but at least for the first month I want to and then maybe do a monthly update (plus lots of in between posts of cuteness of course)… we shall see!

I cannot believe that our baby girl is over a week old! (almost 2!) She turned one week on Wednesday, October 10. We were still stuck on the “other side” and in fact we celebrated her one week in Abu Dhabi at a fancy tea room in the Emirates Palace (pics to come). She is already a world traveler.

There are so many sweet things I could write about our baby girl at one week. She is truly a joy and I am blessed beyond belief to be her momma. It feels like she had always been apart of us… I know people always say they can’t remember a time without their kids, and now I understand.

Clothes: She is in size one diapers- folded over cuz they are still big on her. She is wearing newborn clothes and looks quite adorable in them if I do say so myself. They fit her pretty good- some are big, but I am loving that she can wear them. My favorite thing to dress her in is short sleeve oneies with her ruffle pants from Auntie Aubs with socks over them- looks like little boots! I am loving dressing her up- yes I am one of those moms… but when you have such a great model- who could resist?

Food: She is doing well a breastfeeding. I am so proud of her. We had a stressful night our first night away from the hospital which ended in tears for me because I was worried we were never going to get it, but I think we are getting the hang of it. We have already had to nurse in the US embassy, in the car like 4 times, at two restaurants, and in the line at the border! I would say she is pretty adaptable… what a blessing with our life style. We had a nurse come visit us when she was a few days over a week and she had gained 75 grams since we left the hospital, they want to weigh her again on Wednesday to make sure she is gaining enough weight. I feel like she is. We are nursing every 2 hours (sometimes 2 1/2) during the day and I was waking her up in the night to eat every 3 hours, but I got the ok to just let her sleep till she wakes up! Which has been great.

Sleep: She is a champ at this! She can sleep swaddled or un-swaddled during the day- in her bed or in someones arms or chest (my favorite) or even on the couch. At night we swaddle her up and there has already been a few times that she pops one of her little arms out… she loves to put her hands against her cheeks. She has a few hours of awake time in the mornings and again in the evenings.

Other: 

*She was a little Jaundice so we have been doing some sunbathing.

* She is really happy and smiles (I know they say babies don’t smile this early, but I am pretty sure ours does..).

*I feel super spoiled by Lydia- I know she is still little, but so far she has been such a sweet, easy baby.

*She is easy to calm down when she is upset- either change her diaper, feed her, or swaddle her and hold her close while patting her bottom and she is a happier camper.

*She loves her daddy and her daddy loves her.

*She is really enjoying having her Gramzi here to hold her and kiss her and change her diapers and do her laundry. We sure are going to miss her.

Travels: The first week of Lydia’s life she lived in Al Ain, UAE for a week, traveled up to Abu Dhabi and hung out in a hotel room for two nights and did some sightseeing- the mosque, Emirates Palace Tea Room, Marina Mall… She does really well in her carseat unless she is hungry or has a dirty diaper. So far she has been a champ at traveling.

“i love getting to see the world” ~ L

at Oasis Hospital

Happy one week “liddy bug”! We couldn’t love you more. Thanks for bringing such joy into our lives. ~ mom & dad 

today I was sitting at the doctor’s office with tears in my eyes because at 40 weeks 5 days I was sill only barely 1 cm dilated, my cervix was still back and barely soft… not what you want to hear when you are 5 days overdue… We had the great task of deciding if we wanted to induce or just wait it out. I was so torn, because I was so done being pregnant, didn’t want to mess with crossing the border again, unpacking the car again, and wanted as much time with Gramzi and Lydia as possible, but I also didn’t want to induce when my body didn’t seem ready at.all. and not to mention the induction could take up to 3 days to take effect… sigh.

last pic with Gramzi and the bump…

Our doctor sent us to do an NST (non-stress test) to check how Lydia’s heartbeat was and to make the decision. So we headed to the monitor and discussed what we should do. Within about 15 minutes they started to see some decelerations in Lydia’s heartbeat with contractions, so the doctor looked at her charts and decided to go ahead and order the induction- he said better safe than sorry and that he would like to keep an eye on her heartbeat as contractions got more intense- I was so relieved that we didn’t have to make the decision, overwhelmed because we were going to get to meet our baby girl within the next 3 days, and worried because of the declarations… but was ready to get the process started- resting in the fact that she was in good hands.

yes I had my “guns up”- just felt appropriate! 

So next thing I knew they got me a wheelchair (a little much, since I wasn’t in labor and was perfectly capable of walking) and took me to the labor and delivery ward! We were set up in the “pre-labor” cubical- think triage in the ER with 3 other women behind curtains waiting to go into active labor right next to me. This is where we hung out for the next 10 hours!

hanging out in the cubicle 

They gave me a suppository of pitocin at 1:45pm to help ripen my cervix- which they said could be done 3 times within 24 hours of each other before they would start the drip pitocin! Meaning I could have still been sitting in that tiny cubical of a room for 3 days before my body was ready to go into labor- holy moly I did not want to do that… but there was absolutely nothing I could do about it… so after being hooked up to the monitor for 2 hours- her heart showed no signs of decelerations this time- praise the Lord- we went for a walk for an hour or so to try and move her down. In the meantime my dear nurse midwife friend Vic showed up to be my doula and help communicate between the nurses for me- what a blessing she was! I am so thankful she was able to be part of my labor process, it really gave me a peace of mind to know that she was an extra set of knowledgeable eyes making sure Lydia’s heart was good and things were progressing the way they should.

I requested a birthing (exercise) ball to sit on while we waited because I was starting to feel more uncomfortable- funny thing was the nurses were super concerned that I would fall off the ball- so they kept telling me to hold on to Chase or a chair…they would have preferred that I stay in the room with the ball, but I assured them I would be fine and had been taught how to use it… they were like “oh yeah she is American- they know how to use them!” ha so funny what reputations different cultures have- I am pretty sure a local would never request to sit on a ball. But let me tell you I highly recommend the birthing ball for labor- it was my favorite position to labor in.

my new best friend… the birthing ball

Around 9:30pm we decided to have Chili’s delivered to the hospital for dinner (yes they have Chili’s here!) I wanted to eat something spicy to see if it would help move things along… so for the first time I think ever, I order hot wings from Chili’s! They tasted super good and low and behold after we got done eating I starting having 3-4 contractions within 10 minutes! Those wings had to have done something 🙂

When we returned to our cubicle to be monitored again they had taken away my monitor for someone else, so they decided to go ahead and move me to the L&D room! Yey, we had been upgraded!! This was around 11 pm. This room was much better. I was still not concerned to be in “active labor” as I was still only 1-2 cm! Ahhh… so we decided to just relax and wait for my body to do its thing…

finally in L&D with two of my nurses 

Labor story to be continued…

(it was a 30 hour process, therefore it needs more than one post!)

“The LORD is my strength and my shield; my heart trusts in him, and he helps me. My heart leaps for joy, and with my song I praise him.” Psalm 28:7