Santa Barbara

The ladies in the family took a weekend trip to Santa Barbara to have a late celebration of my mom's March birthday. It was Liz, Samantha, Jenna, Tanya, Briana, grandma Marge, my mom, and Amber. We stayed at the Peppertree hotel, it was a very cute hotel! We all had so much fun eating out and shopping. Levi was a little angel, except for getting a little upset on the way home. What a fun weekend!

Happy 1st Mothers Day

I had my first mothers day as a new mommy. Troy got me a massage at the athletic club, how nice! I just love being a new mom, Levi is so sweet! Here are some pictures Auntie Amber took.

Two Week Appointment

Levi had his two week appointment and we found out that he has gained weight since we left the hospital. He weighed nine pounds when he was born, lost a little in the NICU, and now weighs nine pounds one ounce! Most babies lose a little weight when they go home, but not Levi.

Bath time

Levi had his first sponge bath a day after we got home from the hospital. He got very upset and even peed a little.

Visitors in the NICU and at home!

Labor and Delivery

We arrived at Kaiser Riverside at 2am and my parents and sister were already there waiting for us. They hooked me up to the monitor and said checked me, I was 2 centimeters dialated. Since the contractions were coming regular they decided to break my water. They started an IV and the long process of labor started. Around 6am I received an epidural because I was throwing up and having back labor. I finally got to seven centimeters but the baby was not active, no longer dropping, was facing the wrong direction, and I had a fever. They knew that something was wrong so around noon they started prepping me for a c-section. The c-section was a huge disappointment.

At 12:22pm, Levi Dieder was born at a gigantic 9lbs! So it turns out the reason he was not coming was because of his size, even though none of the doctors predicted that he was a big baby. While laying on the table I could hear the hospital staff say "oh my gosh, what a huge baby!" The c-section was very scary and I shook the whole time. I awoke a hour later in recovery and they told me that Levi was in the NICU because he had respiratory problems when he was born. So they wheeled me into the NICU and I got to see him and touch his feet.

The next few days were spent in the NICU trying to get him to eat enough so that he could be discharged. It was sad to hear all the babies in the next rooms crying, while mine was in the NICU. Finally, on the 10th we got to bring little Levi home!

Due Date

I had a appointment with my nurse practitioner on my due date- April 5th. She told me that she didn't think it would be too long before I went into labor but said that the baby is doing good and seems to be around 7 pounds. On the way home I started to feel contractions. Around eight at night I called labor and delivery and told them they were 6 to 10 minutes apart and they told me to go to sleep. So I woke around eleven and they were five minutes apart and so we started to get ready to head to the hospital.