The miracle of Life

This past weekend I was blessed to participate in the birth of Ethan James Copen. Ethan is the son of Robb's cousin Heather and her husband Dave. Heather wanted to have a natural birth so she asked me to be her coach since I had been through a natural birth. However nature was stacked against this plan. Heather developed high blood pressure and had to be put on pitocin to help the contractions. She did wonderfully for about 24 hours but then the pain of the augmented contractions became overwhelming. She had an epidural and felt much more comfortable. She progressed to 7-8 centimeters and then her body stopped. Since she had been in labor for 30 hours her doctor felt it was necessary to take the baby and not risk infection. So at 12:11am Ethan was born by c-section.

It was amazing to participate in this labor event. Being on the other side and being a coach is both up lifting and heart wrenching. There were times I wanted to beg her to get the epidural but I knew she wanted to try as long as she could. For the majority of the labor I felt very helpful and encouraging. The ultimate goal was to have a healthy baby and healthy mom and that is what happened. Ethan was 6lbs. 11oz.

I took a lot of pictures but I left my camera at the hospital so I will have to post them at a later date. I'm also a little upset I left our camera because now I have nothing to capture all the cute shots of Jenna. I feel like I'm missing out on a lot of potential cuteness.

YAY for Medela!

Medela is a wonderful company!!!!! I have been using a Medela Pump-In Style Advanced since the day we brought Jenna home from the hospital. Since she didn't want to latch on pumping was the only way to feed her breast milk and help me continue to try to get her to nurse. After a month she finally got the hang of nursing. As the weeks and now months have gone by she has gotten better and better at nursing. Towards the end of my maternity leave I was only pumping once a day or not at all. Now that I am back at work I am pumping 3 to 4 times a day again. I nurse Jenna when I am at home but must pump while at work to keep my milk supply up. And til this point in time that system has been working just fine.

Today I pumped at 7:30am and 10am like I normally do during the week. I waited a little longer this afternoon and decided to pump at 2pm. I got everything set up and plugged in the power cord. I turned on the knob ready to go and I heard "Suck...suck...click, click, click". I guess the motor just stopped working. This was not a fun sound to hear. I've only had this machine for 3 months and it cost $280. It should last longer than that.

I called Robb and he looked up some troubleshooting things online but those weren't our problem. So then I went on Medela customer service and saw they don't fix machines but they will replace them if you have your proof of purchase. Second freak out of the day. We bought this thing on our way home from the hospital. I'm not exactly sure where the receipt is or if we still have it at all. So I had to do a little work and then I decided I would call Medela to start this process.

Once on the phone I was connected with a very nice woman who walked me through several troubleshooting things. I cleaned a membrane. I plugged and unplugged the power source. I tried the battery pack to make sure there wasn't a short in the power cord. Nothing worked. Still the clicking. At that point she said ok we will send you a new one. What style did you have? What is your address? I was then put on hold. When she came back she told me that a new pump would be delivered to my house tomorrow. They were e-mailing me a prepaided return address label. Once I get the new pump I am to packing up my old pump and send it back to them. And that was it. No question about a receipt. No hassle. Just wonderful friendly customer service. I was so worried that I was going to have to go buy a new pump but Medela took care of it. Great company!

Us Open

On Thursday I came home and Jenna and Robb were "watching" the US Open. I thought it was so cute that I had to take a video.

Working Mom

Today I have joined the ranks of working moms. Last Friday was the last day of my maternity leave. Oh how I've enjoyed spending 3 months taking care of Jenna. She and I have had such a wonderful time. It breaks my heart thinking about not being with her everyday. But alas it is time for me to return to my job here at the state lab. There is some ease in knowing that Robb is caring for her this summer. I think today was a rough day but I'm sure they will find a nice routine and get to know each other.

I have my digital picture frame scrolling pictures of my little one all day. Today has gone by quickly. Since I haven't been here for 3 months I had to figure out everything that was going on. It didn't take me long to get back in the groove of the office. However, I am feeling tired. I haven't spent this much time of my feet in a long time.

I can't wait to get home and cuddle with my baby...and her daddy. Today wasn't as hard as I thought it would be but I'm already looking forward to the weekend!

CA vacation

This past week Jenna and I traveled to California for the Hoover family reunion. This reunion was planned to celebrate my cousin Vincents high school graduation and my grandpa's 95th birthday. My mother's whole family was in attendance. Only a few members couldn't make it. Robb was still in school so he couldn't attend. My uncle Carl was also still in school and his son Martin was not there. There were 20 people at the reunion.

Jenna was a perfect traveler. I was very worried that flying was going to be a problem for Jenna but it didn't phase her at all. Once we were in CA we spent 3 days in Modesto at my Aunt Peggy's house. My grandpa lives right next door to my aunt. All 20 of us were camped out in these two houses. Friday we went to Vincents graduation. Saturday we took a family rafting trip and then in the evening we had a gradation cook-out. Sunday we went to church as a family. We had brunch at church. After brunch we went swimming and relaxed all afternoon. After the pool will had dinner and a talent show to celebrate my grandpa's 95th birthday.

Monday we traveled to Watsonville which is near Santa Cruz. We had 2 cabins at a camp ground and Aunt Barbara brought her travel trailer to camp. That after we went to a Redwood State park and took a short mile walk in the forest. Tuesday we spent the day at the beach near the Santa Cruz boardwalk. The beach was fun but the water was too cold for Jenna to swim. Later in the afternoon we went on a few rides. The merry-go-round was Jenna's first ride. Wednesday was just a relaxing day. We had a family volleyball game and a lot of sitting around visiting. That night we left to come home.

Jenna was a huge hit at this reunion and she was a perfect little girl. Now we are trying to get back on VA time and enjoy our last weekend together before I go back to work. Yes it has been 3 months. My maternity leave is ending. It has been a wonderful time and I will greatly miss spending all day with my little girl.

Pool Party

Jenna went to her first pool party on Memorial day. Our friends Roger and Angie now have a pool in there back yard and they had us over for a cookout yesterday. Jenna got in the pool for 5 minutes before she got cold. She was very cute in her swim suit. This just prepared us for our trip to CA. We had a lovely time hanging by the pool.