Multitasking Mama

Ambrosia has resumed her normal breastfeeding schedule thanks to her safe pain meds (the same ones they give to c-section mamas after birth), her very supportive family, and Ambrosia's unwavering determination. Only the 24 hours after surgery had to be thrown out due to pain meds. Now Gwen visits twice a day for direct breastfeeding, and receives breast milk in between at home (from a bottle). Her right arm has limited use and her left rib is still very sore, but Gwen and mama have found a position that works.

Here's Ambrosia breastfeeding while a continuous motion machine performs physical therapy on her left leg to speed recovery:

Happy Reunion!

Today Ambrosia was released from Oakland Kaiser and admitted to the Kaiser rehab center in San Leandro (510-481-8575). It is finally safe for visits from Gwen, here's the happy mommy + baby we all love:



Ambrosia is making a lot of progress in PT. It is safe for her to stand on her right leg and while her rib injury makes it a little difficult she hopes to be able to hold a crutch under her left arm soon. Here she is practicing standing with the left arm/right leg:

Surgery was a success! (and Merry Christmas!)

Ambrosia's knee and collarbone surgery was a complete success, and the surgeon is very optimistic about her recovery.







If you would like to help by providing a meal, please check out the online sign up sheet Alex made:

http://www.sstudley.com/wiki/index.php?title=Meals



User name: meals

Password: meals


If you'd like to call Ambrosia and wish her a Merry Christmas you can reach her on her cell or through the receptionist at Oakland Kaiser Hospital: (510) 251-0121

The Studleys Are ALIVE!

So this happened:

Spencer is fine. Gwen is fine. Ambrosia will be fine...soon*:

Ambrosia had surgery on her leg and clavicle today at Kaiser Hospital in Oakland (feel free to visit!). She was transferred there from Santa Clara yesterday so she could be seen by Kaiser's best Bay Area bone surgeon. Within a week or so she will be back home, but due to the extent of her injuries she will need A LOT of support caring for herself and Gwen.



Spencer is doing the best he can to take care of Gwen while mommy gets better with the help of family and friends (Grandma Sandee is there this week and next; Auntie Angelique arrives on the 4th). The next 4 - 6 weeks will be a very difficult time. Please check this blog frequently for updates on Ambrosia's schedule if you are interested in helping out--while Gwen and Ambrosia's caretaking will be covered we could use a lot of help with meals, shopping, errands, and babysitting as well as moral support. Ambrosia and Spencer are both available on their cell phones if you'd like to arrange a visit.

*UPDATE 12/26: Ambrosia and Spencer were concerned that my diagram of Ambrosia's broken bones would cause a panic because it might be interpreted as if she shattered entire leg bones, when in fact the injury to her femur and tibia were just where they meet the knee. The diagram is supposed to highlight each broken bone, not where it's broken, but whatever: I replaced the original image with a more conservative one. :)

'Tis the Season

Thank you everyone who was able to make it to our Holiday Open House today. It was so nice to spend time with friends and family. We have been working on daytime naps and Gwen took today to master the daytime nap by sleeping 3+ hours! She has never napped so long before (when she was a newborn we would wake her up to nurse after 3 hours). It is unfortunate that she napped almost the whole party; Spencer was really looking forward to carrying her around in her bjorn so she could visit with everyone. I have to admit though, it was nice to socialize without having to worry about the baby. Gwen loves the Christmas tree and all the little lights, so we will be leaving it up for a while. If you couldn't make it today (or didn't get the evite for some reason) and would like to stop by for a visit, pop us an email or give us a call we would love to see you!

*Kudos to Fark and Malia for helping us with setup and Keri for helping us with clean up- we really appreciate the help!

All I want for Christmas is SLEEP!!!

We have been working on the sleep thing- last week things went well and wen technically slept through the night (5-6 hours) Tuesday-Friday. She even took a 2 hour nap on Wednesday and I was amazed at the free time I had! Well then the weekend came... and any progress we made on her sleep was totally undone. I am back to being up every 2-3 hours to nurse :-( and can only get her to nap in her wrap or stroller, or in bed with me after I nurse her. I am reading The No Cry Sleep Solution and I am hopeful that this well be helpful. We hope to have her sleeping in her crib, in her own room, by the New Year (with a few daytime naps). This means we will have to be a lot more disciplined and develop a sleep routine (holidays probably aren't the best time to try and do this, but she can't wait- and I can't wait- we need some sleep!!!).

2 Month Check Up, What a Big Girl!

Gwen had her 2 month check up today- right on schedule as she is officially now 2 months old. She weighed in at 13 lbs 5 oz which is in the 97% percentile and is an increase of over a pound since I had her weighed 11/20. Needless to say I think I don't need to worry about a supply issue with my milk anymore!!!

Her pediatrician asked about what the hardest thing about being a parent was and I said the lack of sleep (and burst into tears)- which opened the door to talking about how much sleep the baby gets. Gwen cried almost the whole time during the appointment and hearing about her sleep schedule (or lack there of) and seeing her hysterical for no reason diagnosed her as overtired and gave us paperwork on how to sleep train her (not something you usually do until 3 or 4 months). Now that we have breastfeeding down, and are feeding on demand, we need to figure out how to coordinate that with a sleep schedule.... in the long run this will make everyone's life easier, but it is going to be a big challenge, and require a lot of discipline on my part especially (since I run the milk factory). I got to say, at 4am I am guilty of doing what is easiest (letting her fall asleep with me in bed after nursing). I have been going off the philosophy that you can't spoil a baby so little, but she is becoming such a big girl and rather than just caring for her and her needs, we are actually going to have to start parenting her. I didn't quite see the difference until today and it makes me a little sad realizing, already, that our little girl is growing up.

After our lecture on how to get the baby to sleep more, we had to get her shots. There is a separate department for this Pediatric Injections, and all these ladies do is shoot up babies all day long...I don't know how they sleep at night (I imagine to the sound of babies crying ringing in their ears). There is a lot of controversy around vaccinations, but we decided to go for it considering the diverse community we live in with people coming and going from all over the world. Gwen got her 2 month vaccines which include an oral vaccine for Rotavirus, a shot in one thigh for Hepatitus B part 2 (she had the first in the hospital), another shot in the thigh of Pneumococcal conjugate vaccine, and in the other thigh a combo of Diphtheria, tetanus and acellular pertussis (DTaP) (and possibly the polio one too- I would have to double check our notes). Needless to say this was a challenging trip to the doctors office and we are all glad we don't have to go back until she is 4 months!