Don't move or I'll shoot!

Please welcome Samara Elena Lynch

I am Samara (Suh-mar-uh) Elena (Uh-lane-uh), and I am very happy to have a name. :-)

I was very concerned that my name would officially be "Baby Girl", and I am relieved to know that's not the case. Daddy is calling the hospital now to let them know what my name is. I hope you all like my name.

I think I will go by Sammie, but I kind of like Sam and Mara too, so I will need to think about it. If I'm bad I think that Momy and Daddy will probably call me SAMARA... I hope I don't hear that too often :-)

Grandmother Love

Grandma & Grandma (Omi) hanging out at the beach with baby

The visiting nurse jus came by and weighed baby: she's gaind 2 ouncs over yesterday which is awesome! The nurse did a great (no screams) blood draw too.

Life on the UV beach

She's doing much better - no more fussing on the tanning bed.

Daddy had his first baby-saftey dream last night - some about baby being in the laundry bin...?? He ws happy to realize it as a dream.

The visiting nurse is stopping by soon to do a blood draw and see if the jaundice is resolving OK; jaundice is supposd to peak on day 4 (today) so we may need the tanning bd one more day. TBD

She hates the taning bed :-(

Tanning Bed

Baby's got a bit of jaundice, so id dpending her spare time zippered into this UV bed for photo-therpy :-(

Pretty routine stuff, but dad is gonna miss his baby-holding time for a few days.

Mexicn for mama, milk for baby

Baby showing some tongue :-)

Off for a dctors visit

Omi & Lucy keeping an eye on baby.

Awww..

Great Aunt Phyllis takes a turn

Great Uncle Wayne is snugglin

Grandpa and Mom

Quality time with Omi :-)

Home Sweet Home!

Time to go home - yay!

Time to go home - yay!

The car seat we brought apparently is not for infants - who knew? Conveniently Baby-saurus was willing to take my money in exchange for a new (3rd) car seat.

Good news! We get to go home after her next feed, so maybe out the door around 10:30 - that maks us very happy.

My Little Girl

Our nurse says baby's bilirubin levels have plateaued, and now we need to mega-feed her to get past this early stage of jaundice. We'r hoping to go early today, but daddy thinks we may be here another day. Hope not, as we really want to go home.

Doctor says high isk of jaundice, so 1 more night in the hospital for the three of us.

Let sleeping babies lie

Aunt Dana sharing the love

Aunt Dana and Mommy dressing me

Christi changed a really nasty diaper- THANK YOU

4 Generations

Great-grandma meets her great-grandaughter

Kirsten stopped by after her bike ride

Uncle Jim, and Sue, and cousin DJ came by to visit

Laura stopped by to visit

Visiting Hours

We know a bunch of you want to stop by and meet our daughter, and we'd like to introduce you. Suz thinks she'll be up for short visits between 11 and 4 today. C'mon by! We're at Overlake in Bellevue, and have been moved to Room West 305, in the Mother-Baby unit.

She can't wait to meet you.

Sleeping comfortably

She fed twice last night and is doing great. The hospital staff has her swaddled in 3 blankets- like she's in giant cocoon. She likes being held, but is just fine with sleeping in her bassinet. Her cry is very 'petite' and she does very little crying. They tell me her cone shaped head will turn into a normal human head within the next 24 hours or so (yay).

We're planning to use this blog for daily updates to share with you as she grows up - stay tuned :-)

Suz is sleeping and is completely beat. She needs about 3 more uninterupted days of sleep... Ain't gonna happen.

Good Night Everyone

Eric's Mom arrives

And she brought artwork from my nieces Sedona and Sarah, and my nephew Joseph - Thanks guys!

Movie of baby being cute

Me and baby

Here she is!

Just the right size!

Getting dressed

We have a daughter!

Doc says next push we have a baby - about 3 minutes or so to go.

The doc is prepping to use the vacuum deally if Suz can't push baby out on the next contraction - we are so close!

About 1 inch until her head is to the surface - I see brown hair :-)

I can almost see the top of the head! A couple more conractions might do it.

We are at Plus 2 - things are looking up.

Doc just came in and said she is making progress, but it's just slow. Keeps sending the good vibes this way - if she can keep pushing we can avoid a c-section

Nurse emptied the bladder - we hope that makes the extra space baby needs to move down - cross all your fingers!

Suz is enjoying hearing me read your comments - thanks!

Doctor repositioned baby to the proper face-down position. Baby has dropped between zero and plus 1 - good news! Still progessing slowly

Suz says to tell that over the last 26 hours she's puked 3 times too many. She is contnuing to be tired of pushing.

Hey Classmates - remember what Sheila didn't want to have happen? Well guess what... yup.

Suz reminded me to say that the doctor grabbed baby's head and turned it - the head is still at the zero position.

Baby is not gonna be here by 3:00 :-( Doctor said she is not entirely face down, so it might take longer; he also broke the amniotic sac. Suz is pretty tired

Grandma says by 3 p.m., but daddy thinks later. What's your guess?

Water has not yet broke, nurse can't believe it's still intact. Looks like another hour maybe..??

Nurse says about an hour to go before we introduce baby to the world. Mom's doing great, but is super tired and amaze she can still push.

Suz says she no longer has any modesty. Still a few hours to go...

Geting close now

Suz just had a nap, but the nurse is in now to do some prep stuff before the doctor comes in to she if she's ready to start pushing. It's been 23+ hour.

Suz is fully dilated, and the doc says she may be ready to start pushing in an hour when he re-checks her!

Looking Good

The top chart is baby's heart rate, and it's just right.

The bottom chart i Suz's contractions, and thos two little bump are 3 minutes apart, and if not for the epidural she would be in immense pain - I now agree with Jenny that epidurals are the &+-# !

She reached 6 cm at 9:45

Our nurse thinks it'll be about 3 more hours to get to the required 10 cm, and then we're in the pushing business :-)

Thnaks to the epidural, Suz may get to nap a bit now... we'll see.

20 hours in: the pain level got really intense, and the doc opted for an epidural. She still feels the contractions, but they are now manageable - whew!

Sometimes the rocker helps.

Contractions are no fun at all :-( Suz says they are harder than any interval sh's ever done.

Napping between contractions

Suz is at 4 centimeters! Wahoo! And even a bit rested (well sort of).

16 hours in and mom needs a break - she's taking a small dose of nubain to get an hour of sleep... Hasn't kicked in yet though.

5 a.m. and still contracting - really hard on Suz.

3 a.m. and still working hard. Fully efaced, and at 1.5 - a long ways to go, but we are getting there.

Tub time is better for the rest period, buit the contractions are still as painful.

More contractions

Between contractions. 1 cm and 95 percent effaced - making progress.

Between contractions... Ouch!

Mom & Dick just got here. Contractions are now at about 6 on a 10 scale. The doc assures us there mau hours left to go. Induction = no breaks :-(

oh, they fixed the thermostat. feels nice in here now, almost a bit chilly. better than 90...

Contractions are now 4 on a scale of 1-10. The nurse still says many hours to go.

I just picked up Suz's car to move to the pregger folks no-cost parking area - the attendant at the pay garage heard my story and waived the parking fees $$ :-)

contractions getting a little stronger now. still mild i'm sure, compared to what's coming. but it's progress. wonder if i'll be able to sneak in a last child-free nap...
-suz

good news. the doc was just here, and said baby is doing great, handling the stress of contractions very well. (meaning there is a good chance we will make it through normal delivery, assuming everything else goes okay). i'm going to go ahead and take credit for that one- they say exercising throughout pregnancy makes the babies better able to handle the stress of delivery, so this little one has been stressed plenty! (in a good way, of course...) thanks for sending those "no c-section" thoughts our way, seems to be helping.
-suz

okay, so wandering the halls wasn't so entertaining. i can only go about 100 feet before the monitor stops working. oh well, at least i'm not tethered to the bed.
-suz

Things are moving pretty slowly, so Eric is going to head out for a short run

Suz is nstarving and they're only giving her yummy broth and jello. Yum. Still waiting for more contractions. The nurse is gettign her a cordless (Bluetooth?) monitor so we can wander the halls.

hello to eric's & my family in arizona. thanks for checking in!
-suz

Gotta get those facebook posts in

It occurred to me that most of you still have no idea what is going on, or why we are here being induced 6 days early. Here's the story thus far:

I went for my routine OB visit this morning. Maybe the last one before labor. Usually Eric goes with me to my appts. but since we weren't even seeing my regular doc, he figured it best that he not miss most of the day's work, since he will be off for 3 weeks after baby is born. So anyway, we put the whole visit on speaker phone, and he listened in.

Everything looked pretty good. Baby's heartbeat sounded fine, and movement was normal. But was measuring a bit small, which concerned the doc. So she sent me downstairs for an ultrasound. They got me in pretty quick, within 45 minutes. Everything looked okay, so far as I could tell- baby was measuring a bit on the small side, 35th-ish percentile, but we knew that already. But the tech sent me back upstairs talk to the doc, who told me the amniotic fluid was low. Very low. (Maybe the reason my weight was down this week, though weight loss in the last week can be a normal sign that labor is imminent.) So she said "you're having this baby today" and sent me straight over to L&D to get hooked up to the fetal monitors. Good news is, the baby is doing great, despite not having enough fluid. But regardless, they have me started on the great labor inducer Pitocin, and here I sit, waiting for something to happen. They say it can take awhile- 8-24 hours. AND it could still end in a c-section, so please send all your "no c-section" thoughts our way...

O, and being hooked up to a bunch of monitors and an IV really sucks for a restless gal like myself. My back is already sore. But I'll do whatever I need to to keep this little one safe. :-)

Will try to keep everyone updated as things happen. Thanks for reading.
suz

The nurse just said that the pitocin-induced births can take up to 24 hours - Duoh! Two contractions so far...

Suz is showing the nurse picures of our dog Lucy.

Waiting for the petocin to take affect...

oh lucky me- i get the room with the broken thermostat. i'm usually too hot anyway, and it's like 90 in here. totally miserable. :-(

Just cut off a Bellevue cop, but no issues. Gonna grab Suz some Vitamin water at Whole Paycheck (and lunch for me) then across the street to the hospital.

I'm 10 minutes away, and excited, nervous, and hungry.

oh, and doc says the baby is doing great. :-)

pitocin drip started. we're on our way!

Talked to Suz - dx says 70 pct ffaced, which is a good start. No news on when induction might start.

All packed up n heading to the hospital. Suz says she is now wearing a baby monitor.

Made it home... Packing all the stuff...

Heading home to get clothes, baby bag, and other stuff for Suz. Had great ferry karma/timing.

First test - getting off the ferry, off to house to gt Suz's stuff..