Haley's Comets 2011

The 2nd annual Congenital Heart Walk was this past Sunday, October 2nd. Unfortunately Chad, Dylan, & I couldn't be there, but we were very proud that the rest of Team Haley's Comets turned out in force (both the Ohio & Wisconsin editions!) Haley's Comets raised $2,015 this year, and the Central Ohio walk raised $58,764, to fight congenital heart disease. Thank you so much to all our family & friends who made donations to support this cause that is so close to our hearts! (Literally & figuratively. :))

Team Haley's Comets (Ohio): Kelly Stevelt, Jim & Kathy Bowman, Linda & Kim Stevelt, Linda Carstensen, Kathy Crisler, Will Brantingham, Libby Carstensen, Jesse Cantrell, Sydney & Spencer Waugh, Katy Klingelhafer, & Greg Gallenstein. (Not pictured: Christian Cantrell, Chadmo, Dylan, & me.) It was a beautiful day for the walk and everyone said the park was gorgeous. Thank you, Ohio family & friends, for walking even though we couldn't be there with you! We would've been very sad to let our Haley-Bug go unrepresented at the walk, and it meant a lot to us that you were all there to honor her!

Team Haley's Comets (Wisconsin): Nancy Mitchell, Lexi Mitchell, Claire & Niki Schoenemann, Mandy Gibbons, John & Patty Meade, Emily Pertzborn, Jim Mitchell, Mason & Mitchell Lane, Nolan & Derek Pertzborn, Jessie & Marah Lane, Beau Lane, & Tessa Pertzborn (hiding :)) Our Wisconsin division walked with us long distance on the same day as the Ohio walk. They also had a beautiful day, and we were so grateful that they all took the time to get together in honor of Haley even if they couldn't make it to Ohio for the actual walk - thank you Wisconsin family! And thank you so much for organizing this, Jessie!

Though I don't have a picture (Becky - a picture??), I also want to acknowledge that one of our other Wisconsin cousins, Ella Thoreson, did 'Jump for Your Heart' at her school in honor of Haley and raised money in her memory. Thank you so much to you too, Ella! :)

One Fine Day

Our first outdoor photo shoot with Dylan-Roo - it was too gorgeous today not to spend some time outside!

Possibly my favorite picture of her yet... She is SO sweet!

Our first walk, and Dylan's first time in the Baby Bjorn! Grandma, Grandpoppy, Chadmo, Dylan, the dogs, and I all walked out to Haley's grave and soaked up some of the lovely sunshine. It was my first walk in almost 2 months, and it felt great to get outside & get moving.

Zonked out on our walk - she's still so tiny we get an awfully cute side view!

Relaxing on the porch swing after the walk - a little piece of Heaven.

This one's a little blurry, but I liked all our hands together, so I couldn't pass it up. :)

One Week Old

Falling asleep in Mommy's arms after a late night feeding - aren't her mittens cute? Also, we love our Halo Sleep Sacks, and Riverside gives each baby born there one embroidered with their logo. I think it'll be a pretty cool thing for her to have some day!

More snuggling on my chest - I think she would sleep forever if someone held her this way non-stop!

Napping with Grandma on the couch yesterday - so sweet. <3

This picture's from today - Dylan doing some modified tummy time with Grandpoppy while she was wide awake. She's such an alert little Roo during her awake times!

Chadmo & I took Dylan for her 1 week check up today with Dr. Scarmack, our pediatrician. We were thrilled that he once again said she looked just perfect! We had to take her in this past Thursday because the hospital said we left early (I'm still skeptical about this), but I was happy to comply as I'm a bit of a paranoid Mommy. :) At that point in time he also said she looked perfect, and just to watch her jaundice over the weekend - but that he didn't predict it would be a problem. Her weight on Thursday was 6 pounds 8 ounces, and he also said that was typical of a newborn & being breastfed. Over the weekend she did very well, and while her jaundice got a little worse, it started getting better quickly. And we were thrilled today when we went back in and she's back up to 7 pounds 1 ounce! Just one ounce under her birth weight, and 9 ounces of gain since Thursday! I guess in spite of our breastfeeding trials & tribulations, she's been eating like a champ. Go team! :)

Last night was so wonderful I'm afraid to even talk about it... I guess I will, since I know we can't expect any sort of schedule or regularity at this point in time! But last night Dylan ate at 10:00 pm, was asleep by 10:30, slept till 3:30 am, woke up and ate a couple times between 3:30-4:30, went back to sleep & slept till 8:00 am, ate & went back to sleep by 8:30, and then slept till 10:15 am - when we had to get up to get ready for the doctor's anyway! Even if it doesn't happen again for a long time, it was a great night & we've been feeling almost like normal human beings today! I'm not as optimistic for tonight, because Dylan was quite sleepy today, but we'll take it when we can get it!

Alright - someone is calling to be fed - time to wrap this up. Goodnight all!

Dylan-Roo has arrived!!!

Chad & I are proud to announce the much anticipated arrival of Miss Dylan Stevelt-Mitchell! She was born on September 27, 2011 at 6:11 pm, weighing 7 pounds 2 ounces and measuring 19.25 inches long. (Also, her noggin is 14 inches in circumference - but I don't feel like that's a statistic I hear much of so I have little for comparison...) She is absolutely perfect in every way, in our eyes :), and we are more in love & happier than words can describe.

A few hours old - I don't ever want to let her out of my arms!

A Stevelt-Mitchell Totem Pole - Dylan, 1/2 a day old.

Dylan's first time in her car seat - on the van ride home from the hospital! 9/28/11 - so happy to get to be headed home from the hospital so soon! She's just over 24 hours old.

And we're home! Dylan's first time in her Pack n' Play, snug as a Roo in a rug.

Spending quality time snuggled on Daddy's shoulder. Chadmo is such a wonderful husband & daddy - Dylan, Haley, & I are lucky girls. <3

Dylan all wrapped in a towel after her first sponge bath at home. I've never had a baby with hair to wash before! She was very good for her bath, and only protested a little bit.

It's hard to believe that a week ago we were making plans to be induced to have Dylan today, Monday October 3rd! Apparently reverse psychology works well on babies, because she must have decided she wasn't going to let us choose when she was going to make her big arrival, and decided to come the day after we made our 'plans'. :) Last Monday night I was pretty uncomfortable all night (imagine feeling like wild horses were dragging your hips in opposite directions...), but really wasn't having any more contractions than usual. The next morning I woke up at 9 am to pretty strong contractions that were consistently 10 minutes apart. After about an hour and a half of that, I decided we better head up to the hospital. Dad & Mom both managed to get out of work lickety split, and we all rode up together to Labor & Delivery at Riverside Hospital, arriving at noon. Chadmo also left work promptly, so he arrived about 1/2 an hour behind us since he had to come all the way from Athens.

The nurse in L&D decided to check me right away since I delivered Haley so quickly, and sure enough I was dilated to 5-6 cm. (I'd been at 4 cm for the past 3 weeks.) So we were officially checked in and knew that Miss Dylan would be arriving sometime that day! My labor from noon to 3 o'clock consisted of contractions about every 4 minutes apart that I didn't want to talk through, but that were mild enough that Chadmo, Mom, Dad, & I were playing Crazy 8's and I was sitting on the yoga ball. At 3 pm they started getting strong enough I decided I'd rather be sitting up in bed, and standing through contractions was very uncomfortable. Lamaze breathing & pirate novel birthing techniques were my saving grace through this time period. (Pirate technique: have someone squeeze your hand super hard through your contractions, that way you have something else to think about! It actually helped a lot, till about 8-9 cm anyway!) I did have one dose of nubane around 7 cm, and it helped take the edge off for about an hour and give me the boost I needed to get through the rest of the delivery.

When I was 8-9 cm, which was around 5:40 pm, we decided to go ahead and break my water to speed things up. Dr. Copeland left his office at 5:30, his office is about 15 minutes from the hospital, and he warned them not to break my water for 10 minutes or he was afraid he'd miss it. His warning was well founded, because I was immediately in excruciating labor and after about 2-3 more contractions I wanted to push. I wasn't allowed to for a couple contractions after that, but when I finally was - it was ~2 contractions worth of pushing and Dylan was here!

She fussed for about 2 hours after she was born, and earned herself the nickname Crab Cake -which has been totally unfounded since then, but I still find too cute to let go. :) Ever since then, she has been an incredibly pleasant and laid back baby who just seems to go with the flow and be a lovely little snuggle-pot. We can't get enough of her! In fact sometimes I find myself thinking, "I should go to bed, but she's too cute - I don't want to lay her down!" We are thoroughly enjoying how happy & easy-going she is, but also trying not to count on it lasting! We're keeping our fingers crossed though. :)

We've had lots and lots of visitors: Grandma, Grandpoppy, Aunt Kelly, Mimi, Katy, Greg, & Kamil Cak all made it to the hospital, and almost all of them have been to our house since then too! Christy Walker, Great Grandmom Stevelt, Soon-to-be Uncle Jesse, Susie & Fred Klingelhafer, Tom & Jess Steinbrink, Kathy Crisler, and Heather, Greg, & Greta Dickerson have all been to visit since we've been home. :) Everyone has been being most wonderful, bringing us dinners and holding Dylan so we can sneak in some naps. (So appreciated!) We're thoroughly enjoying showing her off to everyone, and feel very blessed to have such wonderful family & friends! I truly believe the saying that it "takes a village to raise a child", and am eternally grateful for all the love & support we've received from family & friends that have helped make this such a wonderful time for us. THANK YOU!

37 Weeks (& 2 days!) - Officially Full Term!!

We had our 37 week check-up on Monday and we're quite thrilled to have made it to full-term! Dylan's still a happy camper, but now the tables have turned and we are anxious for her to decide to arrive ASAP. :)

Dylan did excellent on her NST, which we are always grateful for. She is a busy girl and I think every week the NST tech, the Ultrasound tech, and the doctor all comment on how active she is - we might have a wild child on our hands! The ultrasonographer put her weight at 7 pounds 8 ounces this week, she's growing like a weed! (Too much tasty fair food for me this week, I guess!) That means she's already a pound and a half bigger than Haley was at birth, which is making me less and less confident that my second delivery will be easier than my first, though that's what most everyone claims... Hmmm.....

During the ultrasound, they also noted that my amniotic fluid is now down to 7.5 from 9 last week. We're still above that 5 mark (less than 5 and they induce right away), but getting lower again. So, during my exam, the doctor also checked to see if I might be leaking fluid. (If I was, that would also mean induction right away.) I'm not leaking fluid, and I'm still only dilated to 4 cm, so we were sent on home with the plan that we'll now go in twice a week to have my amniotic fluid levels checked and a NST performed to make sure Dylan's still happy in there. Also, I'm now supposed to do fetal kick counts twice a day, just to keep a close eye on her. So Thursday I'll be heading back up for that, and we'll just be playing it all by ear. If my fluid level ever gets below 5, if Dylan ever seems less than happy in her environment, or if I would ever be leaking fluid - they would induce right away. Any time she decides to come on her own is A-OK with them, especially now that she's officially full term. Otherwise, as long as she's happy, and my fluid stays at a safe level, they'll let us go till 39 weeks or so and then they might just induce me by breaking my water. I think at that point I'll probably be up for it, it's rather stressful being so far away from the hospital with our doctors and feeling like we'd never make it there if we actually went into true labor in Logan, and running to Columbus twice a week will get old very quickly too. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that she just decides to come on her own between now and then, but otherwise hopefully we'll have a sweet Dylan-Roo in our arms within the next 2 weeks!! We can't wait to hold her and smooch those sweet feeties that keep trying to poke out of my right side! I told the doctor that I think she would already be here if she knew she was supposed to come down & out, not just straight out through my belly button! :)

36 week check-up

Yesterday was my 36 week & 1 day check-up for Dylan, and Chadmo managed to come along with us this week. :) Once again, Dylan did excellent on her Non-Stress Test. She's an active baby and she's still loving her environment - her heart accelerates when she moves just like it's supposed to, and it doesn't decelerate when I have contractions which is very important! (I was having contractions about every 5 minutes on the monitor again this week, like I was last week, but certainly not strong ones.)

We had an ultrasound again this week, and they estimate her weight at 6 pounds 15 ounces! Her head still measures a couple of weeks ahead of her body, but the ultrasound tech was reassuring that it doesn't look like she has a ridiculously large head, just a big one. (Which is to be expected between Chadmo & myself!) She even commented that you could see some hair, not a ton of hair mind you, but some! This came as a complete shock to me as I never expected to have anything but babies who were bald till they were 2. We'll see how much is there when she's born and if she can hang on to it over time or not. :) My amniotic fluid was a little lower this week, down to 9 again, so they're going to resume doing ultrasounds every week to check my fluid level.

Dr. Copeland is on vacation this week and next, so I saw Dr. Sayat this Monday & I'll be seeing him again next Monday. I saw him once while I was pregnant with Haley, and I'm a big fan so that's just fine with me. I've now progressed to being 4 cm dilated - only 1 more cm to go and we're half way there! Dr. Sayat said any time I go into labor now is fine, and that they wouldn't even try to stop labor at this point. For now we'll just keep on keeping on with the appointments, but he said if my fluid ever gets too low or Dylan seems unhappy with the fluid level, they would just induce me by breaking my water. (Yay for NO pitocin - hopefully!) Hopefully that won't happen and I'll just go in to labor on my own when Dylan decides it's the right time, but that's still good to know. I'm voting she comes on about the 24th, if only we could choose! ;)

One last note, the final lab results are in from the hematologist and my bloodwork still looked good, so we are good to go! And to correct a statement from my previous post - vonWillebrand's is the most common bleeding disorder, affecting 1-2% of women AND men. (It's just less commonly diagnosed in men, because they don't have periods.) vWD is an autosomal dominant trait, meaning you only need to have one gene for it and you will be symptomatic - not just a carrier. I must only have 1 gene for it, because Haley did not have vWD (thank goodness!) If I had 2 genes for it, all of our children would have vWD. But that still means 50% of our children will have vWD, so there were a lot of instructions from Dr. Cataland to the hospital on things they can & can't do to Dylan during & after delivery. I'm certainly glad I went to him, it's good to have all our ducks in a row.

Haley-Bug's 2nd Birthday

Here's a picture! Haley's 2nd Birthday cake!

It was Miss Buglette's 2nd birthday this past Saturday, September 10th. I was waiting to post until I had pictures of her birthday cake, but we have misplaced Mom's camera and for now the pictures are hiding from us. When we find the camera, I'll post pictures retroactively. :)

Saturday was a beautiful day, 70's and sunshine-y. It was a beautiful day last year for her first birthday too, and while I suppose that some year on September 10th the weather will be crummy, these last 2 years it makes it feel like Haley's smiling down on us.

Last year we started a tradition for Haley's birthday that was suggested to us by a friend who also had a daughter who passed away. Each year on her birthday, we go to the cemetery and release one balloon for every year old she would be. Katy & Greg are awesome enough to pick up balloons at Children's Hospital for us on their way down to Logan. (Children's Hospital is the pinnacle of fancy balloon selection, Logan's balloon selection leaves something to be desired.) This year Haley had a GIANT dragonfly balloon, and then an iridescent "Happy Birthday" balloon to go with it. Mom, Dad, Katy, Greg, Chadmo, & I headed out to visit Haley's gravesite, and then we released the balloons with little notes tied to them. We watch them until they get so far away that you can't see them anymore, which takes a surprisingly long time, especially with the big ones. The winds were blowing a different direction this year than they were last year, in fact pretty much the exact opposite direction, and I'm sure my superstitious self could construe that to mean all sorts of different things. ;) In any case, it's nice to visit her grave when the weather is beautiful, the grass has all grown in where she is buried, the landscaping we planted is doing well, and the birds are chirping - it makes it all seem extra peaceful.

After the cemetery, we all headed back to Mom & Dad's for Haley's birthday dinner & her traditional birthday cake with pink frosting. We're making this part of the tradition too, there's some 'Mommy' part of me that just needs to bake my baby a cake on her birthday. No singing "Happy Birthday", that's too weird for us, but it's good to eat dinner & cake & celebrate Haley & laugh & smile while we think about her. To quote from the back of her gravestone:

& for me, it will always be this way,

walking in the light,

remembering being alive together

(Living Memory, by Brian Andreas)

To complete the evening (though I doubt this will become part of the birthday tradition, but I guess you never know), we played a fun new game called BezzerWizzer. It's a trivia game of sorts, but much more fun than Trivial Pursuit in my opinion, and we're big fans. Dad won, but it was a close game and everyone played well which is always more fun that just having someone annihilate you. I imagine next year that Dylan won't be quite old enough to play yet, so she might convince us to do something more to her taste. :) All in all, it was as good of a day as we could've hoped for. Also, we sincerely appreciate all the sweet thoughts, prayers, phone calls, notes, cards, and messages from people who thought about Haley & us on her birthday. We are beyond lucky to have such caring and thoughtful family and friends. <3