1-2 Months

• Still LOVES having her diaper changed
• Coos and sings - "ahh goo"
• Makes and holds eye contact for extended periods of time
• Puts everything else on hold to focus on pooping - eating, sucking, breathing all take a back seat to doing her business
• Follows people across her eyeline
• Loves her mummy and knows when she's holding her
• Knows that when we put her bib on it's time to eat - smacks her lips and open and shuts her mouth
  

TEAGAN TIDBIT:

Teagan was involved in her first car accident at 9 weeks of age. Brandon & I were on the last leg of our trip to Moscow, Idaho for Christmas. We drove 6 hours on Sunday and stayed with Mat & Mandi in Orem. We drove 6 more hours and stayed in Eagle (Boise) with the Bradshaws, parents of our friend, Burk, from Las Vegas. We were on our last leg of the trip on Tuesday, December 21, 2010, about an hour from Moscow when we hit a patch of black ice and spun at least 3 times. We ended up perpendicular to the road at the edge. We both held our breath, hoping that we would stay where we were, but we ended up sliding 20 feet down the bank. Buddy and I were shaken to say the least. But guess who slept through the whole ordeal? TEAGAN. She handled it like a champ and only cried once in the 3 hours it took to get towed and sorted. She and I hung out at a convenience store down the road, where Cookie, the manager, offered us anything on the menu and took great care of us. What an adventure!

0-1 Month

• LOVES having her diaper changed. She's never happier than when she's having her bum changed. All smiles and giggles when she's laying on the changing table and enjoys every minute of it. An exhibitionist perhaps?
• Making eye contact
• Starting to coo and make noises
• Noisy sleeper - Mum often wakes up in the middle of the night thinking she's wide awake and hungry, only to find her fast asleep, grunting away

TEAGAN TIDBIT:

Teagan’s umbilical cord dried up nicely and quite quickly! Mummy was changing her bum when she was just a few days old and realized that her umbilical cord wasn’t there anymore. So we double-checked the dirty diaper . It wasn’t there. We checked the bathtub. It wasn’t there. We checked what we thought were all of the places an umbilical cord could have been, but couldn’t find it! Three weeks later, we also lost the remote (we lose things a lot!) We took off the couch cushions, and what should we find next to the remote? Teagan’s dried up, crusty old umbilical cord! What do you know?

Teagan Elizabeth's Birth

TEAGAN ELIZABETH RICHARDS

GORY BIRTH DETAILS

As a first-time mother, we were worried that I might deliver early, and we were fortunate enough to be able to have my Mum come out to help us, so Grandma Gay arrived on October 18th, just in case. Teagan seemed quite comfortable where she was, and 5 days before she was due, showed no signs of coming any time soon. So, Dr. Pollock asked us to pick a day for me to be induced. We chose to go in Sunday night, October 24th, anticipating having the baby on Monday, October 25th. We wanted her to come as soon as possible so Grandma Gay could be the most help and we even recited the poem, starting “Monday’s child is fair of face.”

So Mum & Dad arrived at the hospital at 8:00 PM on Sunday, October 24th  (more than a few minutes early, we were so excited)...

Sunday, October 24^th, 2010

• 8:00 PM – checked in @ Southern Hills Hospital in Las Vegas, NV
• Introduced to Janelle, my first L & D nurse. Super bubbly and sweet.
• 9:15 PM - 1 cm dilated - given Cytotec. Didn't tickle.

Monday, October 25^th, 2010

• 1:15 AM – 1 cm dilated – given more Cytotec. Didn't feel any better the second time.
• 5:15 AM - 3 cm dilated
• 6:30 AM - failed attempt to break my water
• Introduced to Julie, my second L & D nurse. Genuine and kind.
• 7:45 AM - 2nd failed attempt to break my water, still 3 cm dilated, started on Petossin.
• 9:30 AM - Dr. Pollock breaks water, 3 cm dilated.
• 10:30 AM - Epidural and catheter - Aaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhh
• 11:30 AM - 4 cm dilated...I was reminded of Phoebe from an episode of Friends "The miracle of birth sure is a snoozefest."
• 12:45 PM - baby rolling onto cord and breathing erratic. Got extra fluids and oxygen mask
• 1:00 PM - injection to stop labour - baby not ready
• 1:30 PM - 5 cm dilated
• 1:55 PM - IUPC inserted to help monitor contractions
• 2:15 - restarted Petossin
• Hooked up to
• Blood pressure monitor
• Baby heart beat monitor
• IUPC
• Catheter
• Oxygen
• Oxygen Monitor
• IV
• Epidural
• Petossin
• Dex
  
• 2:30 PM - upped dosage of Petossin
• 3:00 PM - STILL 5 cm dilated!!!
• 3:15 PM - upped dosage of Petossin
• 3:40 PM - baby's breathing erratic again - stopped Petossin & back on oxygen
• 3:50 PM - checked, 5. cm. dilated.
• called Dr. Pollock, concerned about baby and scheduled C-section for 4:20
• Nurses said he was "calling it". I told them they should find another phrase to use - it scared me half to death! 
• 4:05 PM - prepped for C-section (cap, gown, same for Buddy + booties!)
• 4:20 PM - Caesarean Section with Dr. Pollock
• Rolled in, team was listening to the radio. "My Girl" came on, the song we played to tell our families we were having a girl!
• Madonna comes on and Dr. says he'll wait so it isn't the first sound she hears :)
• "Play That Funky Music White Boy" on while she was emerging from the womb
• 4:43 PM - Teagan Elizabeth Richards is born - 8 lbs. 15 oz. 19 in.
• Drs. gasped - freaked me right out! They were amazed at her thick head of blond hair.
• Counted 1,2,3,4. 1,2,3,4,5. 1,2,3,4,5,6. I panicked and asked if they were counting digits. Just a sound check. Phew!
• Asked Buddy if she was beautiful - he hesitated. We both saw her as the peeked her head over the curtain and she looked like a squished alien. I'm told that she was absolutely gorgeous within minutes (Phew again!) but I didn't get to see her for hours.
• Dr. Pollock said not only was she large (for someone my size) but she was asynclytic, meaning her head was tilted and no longer in line with the birth canal, which would have present a problem on its own even if she hadn't been messing with her cord. Trouble already!

My father-in-law (the ob-gyn) gave me great advice while I was pregnant. He told me to have a plan, but that the most important thing is to be flexible. I didn't think much of it at the time, as I didn't anticipate any problems. But as soon as the nurses got worried looks on their faces and began to call the doctor multiple times, I knew that I would do whatever it took to get my baby here safely. While I'd wanted to deliver conventionally (with an epidural) I went into to mama bear mode (before actually becoming a mother) and threw my plan out the window in favour of what the medical professionals recommended.

I will admit that my C-section was the strangest feeling I've ever felt. The epidural felt strange - not having control over the lower half of my body and watching as nurses moved my legs but not being able to feel it. Exponentially more disconcerting was the fact that I couldn't feel anything from the neck down during the procedure. It was almost an out of body experience - although actually being outside my body might have felt more comfortable. I felt like I couldn't breathe at times and it was terrifying. But the moment they pulled her out, I couldn't think about anything other than the fact that I was finally a mother. It wasn't real to me until that very second - even the 9 months leading up to it. I'm thankful for modern medicine and so grateful that my baby was and is perfectly healthy.

So far. So good. So girl!

We're having a girl! We found out at our ultrasound that we currently have a healthy (and probably happy) baby girl cooking. Being our first, we both wanted to find out the gender so we could be prepared. As it turns out, we'll probably get gender neutral stuff anyway so we can use it for future babies, but it's fun to know.

We had a nice ultrasound tech, despite the fact that casual Friday was taken to the extreme and her attire and gum chewing didn't inspire the greatest of confidence. There's a huge screen at the front of the room that displays what the tech is seeing, so Brandon actually figured out that it was a girl before she said anything to us. I should have paid more attention in biology :)

So many emotions were coursing through me at that point. I'd be cornered a few times and forced to speculate whether I was having a girl or a boy and while I didn't like to guess and didn't have strong feelings one way or the other, I always felt deep down that I was having a boy. I have awesome maternal instincts. At first I was thrilled! A little girl! Destined to be blond, blue eyed and chubby, I was so excited for pink and dolls and dress up. Then I was swept with a strange sadness - like I had lost my boy. To that point, I had imagined with equal excitement a boy or a girl, but now I only had one. I know it may sound silly, but the idea of my bouncing baby boy was whisked away and I felt a sense of loss. It's hard to describe, but rest assured it didn't last long and I couldn't be more excited! To see HER moving and breathing was indescribable. There were some minor concerns about fluid that we'll need to clear up with Dr. Pollock, but overall she's fit as a fiddle and cute as punch...that's a stretch of the truth since she looks a lot like an alien, but I'm sure she'll be cute sooner than later. (fingers crossed)