Friday, April 30

Friday, April 30, 2010

Veronika's hand and foot prints @ 1 week old

Roni in her crib

Roni's room:

Still hard to believe we’ve already been home for a week (well tomorrow)!! So far I love being a new mom and I don’t know why people say be ready to get no sleep, I’ve been sleeping pretty good! Roni has been being a great lil girl and sleeping thru the night! I actually have to wake her for feedings or she’d sleep all night with us! I really love having her in our lives and I really love being her momma! Her daddy is just as excited, we both can’t believe how much she’s grown in the past month!!

The day we got home we got to opening all our mail and boxes that we sent home and started to put all the nursery furniture together, we didn’t finish putting everything together until around midnight (we started at 3PM when we got home). We were both happy with how everything looks in her room!! Now to just get her clothes washed up and hang it all in her closet! Lots of pink in her room – hopefully she likes it when she gets older, but for now she doesn’t seem to have a problem with it!

I’ve been bringing her to work with me all week so far, my mom has been loving all the time she gets to spend with her and my mother-in-law makes sure to come up and spend lots of time with her too! She can’t go far from me since I’m breastfeeding and no one else can feed her. I’ve been trying to pump and store milk, but she doesn’t want to take any milk from any bottles and I’ve tried at least 5 different brands of bottles on her! That’s ok with me though, as long as she takes a bottle later on when her teeth start to come in or I don’t know how I’m going to deal with her chewing me up! I’m hoping hard that a plane will come in and bring mail. I only packed a box of newborn diapers in my suitcase and mailed 4 boxes home… which still haven’t arrived since we only had one plane since the one that brought us home! So I’m hoping and praying hard that our weather lets up and lets the planes fly!

Labor and delivery went pretty smoothly, I’d say. I didn’t take any pain meds and delivered her naturally! I’m proud of myself for that! I went into labor around 4:30AM, at 5:30 I woke up my hubby, we went to the hospital at 10:45AM and was admitted into L&D around 1PM. I tried the whirlpool for about an hour but I couldn’t see how anyone can deal with the pain of contractions while trying to sit in a tub! I felt better sitting up out of the water. I didn’t really yell at all at my hubby but I did yell and cry about the pain I was feeling. Mostly saying “Oh my f-ing god, what was I thinking?” and “Holy s**t” and trying to convince myself that I can do this naturally and that it was my plan from the beginning not to get any pain meds! My sister Ivy and hubby were really great supporters reminding me that I can do it and I was doing a great job! I tried the whirlpool, the birthing ball and all the positions they were instructing me to try and be comfortable. Contractions are no fun, especially when they get stronger and closer together!!!

The nurses told me that I needed to empty my bladder and I screamed that I couldn’t get up and move… so with the help of my hubby and a nurse they took me to the bathroom, where I still felt like I couldn’t pee… I dropped to the ground, crawled to the door frame and started to yell that I needed to push! The Dr. came and checked me and told me she was right there and I needed to get on the delivery bed. Which my response was “I can’t stand up!” So with help once again I was lifted to the bed and was instructed to start pushing when I felt a contraction. Within less than 11 mins I got her out!! I was proud of how I took the pain and how quickly I got her out! I can admit that when I saw her head pop out I stopped pushing and yelled “OH MY GOD.. A HEAD!!” then had to be told to concentrate and keep pushing to deliver the rest of her! I started to laugh and kept pushing. I also let the Drs break my water for me instead of waiting for it to pop on its own. I’ve read that it helps labor progress faster, plus it let them know whether or not she used the bathroom inside, which she did. So pediatricians were there for her delivery to check her out and make sure she didn’t breathe any of it in, which luckily she did not! Since there was poop in the “bag of waters” my hubby wasn’t able to cut her cord since she was rushed to be checked by the Drs, but he was able to trim the cord once they were done evaluating her! Then she was finally handed over to me!

All in all I’d have to say the contractions were worse than pushing her out! I really want to thank my sister Ivy and my hubby for all the loving support they gave me!! I don’t know how I would have gotten thru the whole L&D without taking meds if it wasn’t for them reassuring me! We spent 48 hrs in the hospital before being discharged! I received lots of flowers and balloons while “recovering”. I’m kind of happy that I had a roommate because she gave me lots of great info that I never knew, but it also sucked because my hubby wasn’t able to stay the night with us. Roni was with me the whole time sleeping in the room with me, I was happy she got to stay with me at least! I really want to thank my sister for letting us stay with her and for her putting up with my 3 lil pups for the 2 months that we were in Anchorage!! I miss being around her and she misses us being around her, but we had to come back home, 2 months was long enough up there for us! We’re so happy to have made it home all in one day! :D

I still can’t believe it’s been 33 days since I was going into labor!! I still can’t believe how fast my pregnancy seemed to go by! At her 2 weeks checkup she was 7lb 14 oz and grew 1/4”. I tried to weigh myself then with me holding her and subtracted and came up with just over 12lbs. So I’m guessing that’s how heavy she is. Roni is just starting to grow out of her newborn clothes, but still fitting her newborn diapers. (Hopefully she gets her 4 boxes I sent down and burns thru those before moving to the next size…. Hopefully!). At one week old the rest of her umbilical cord stub fell off and I was able to give her a real bath and not just a sponge bath!! Flying home on the Saab to Dutch Harbor was her first plane ride, which she did really great – sleeping the whole way! And she did just as great on the goose flt to Akutan!!

Soon I have to get her baptized, I want to get her a cute keepsake dress but not sure how long it would take for that to get here… both her godparents (krusnas) are excited to have her home and can’t wait to get her baptized. We are of the Russian Orthodox faith, just to let everyone know.

Life with my new baby couldn’t be any better than we’ve experienced so far!! She makes the future seem that much more worth it and I hope I am able to give her everything she needs and more!!! Right now I’m just enjoying watching how her personality is and listening to all the cute girly sounds she makes, even her cries are cute (at least I think so right now!)! I couldn’t have asked for anything better! She makes my life light up and I love waking up to her beautiful face every day!!

I still can’t believe that there hasn’t been a plane since Sunday morning!!! And that winter is still holding its grip here!! Where is our spring/summer at this year???

Well until sometime, TTFN!!

Thursday, April 29

Thrusday - April 29, 2010

Getting a bath in the tub that my parents got her!

Roni and her cousin Yaya (Aaliyah)

Roni and Me at the APICDA
Community Conference dinner

Eating at Bennihana's for my 27th bday!

Our feet! :D
Hey everyone! So we finally made it back home, which feels really great! I'm so happy to be back home and back at work once again!! Veronika was welcomed by all her family and new friends with big open arms and lots of love! Her grandparents were happy to finally meet their new grandchild (my parents 4th and my in-law's first).
We are not happy about coming back to winter weather though... it's in the 50F+ in Anchorage and around freezing here in Akutan! But other than that it's been great to be home. We fixed up Roni's room, almost all her furniture has been put together and placed where we think we want it. I still can't believe she's already a month old!! All 4 of our dogs have been accepting her pretty well, which makes me super happy! We had the 3 little ones with us the whole time while Tug stayed with my parents, he's wondering what she is but I know he'll be a great companion to her when she gets older!
Tomorrow I will try to get a good size post done up with some pix of Roni's room! Take care everyone, until tomorrow TTFN!

Sunday, April 18

Veronika Raelene Tcheripanoff


Chillin in her car seat!
Daddy's first time holding her, only mins old!
Proud mommy and daddy in the delivery room!

Miss Veronika Raelene! <3

Just a quick note to everyone!


Miss Veronika Raelene Tcheripanoff was born on Sunday March 28th 2010 @ 8:44PM!!! After 16 hrs of labor (about 6 hrs of screaming labor) and 11 min of pushing... my lil baby girl made her arrival!!! She was 7lbs 10.8 oz and 20.5 inchs long!!! She looks just like her daddy!! :D

Today she's already 3 weeks old!! Time goes by way too fast!! I can't wait to get her home (we're still hanging out in Anchorage) and introduce her to her grandparents, who have been patiently waiting for us to get home!! I miss being at work, but I can say I don't miss all the snow they still have down there! Been pretty slack here in Anchorage... we usually just sit around and watch TV then go out and find something to eat.... I'm going to go into Taco Bell withdrawls when we go home but at least I loaded up on TB Fire sauce!!!


Hope everything has been going great with everyone out there in the world!!! Take care and until next time, TTFN :D