Makenna Unplugged

Eleven days after the two of us checked in to Hotel UCSD Med Center the THREE of us finally checked out! After spending many hours in the NICU at her bedside we were so happy to finally be taking our little goose home and finally get to show her the room that's been waiting for her and to hold and snuggle her minus the plethora of cords we had to be mindful of since she was born. We are so thankful for the exceptional care we received while we were there and the countless number of nurses and doctors we got to know very well throughout this time. By the end of the week they were all rooting for her to gain weight and promising to fill her diaper with rocks before weigh in so we could  get the thumbs up for discharge. Throughout our entire experience we were so amazed at the kindness we were shown by everyone there. The only information we gave when we checked in was that our name was 'Mohnacky', from there on out we never had to explain ourselves or give more information, it was never 'who are you?' but 'we've been waiting for you' which made a difficult experience much more bearable. 

Makenna Rose

Proud Daddy

The going home suit

Not sure about this place

Thanks 801!

Life in the NICU

Makenna must have known she was having her Uncle Scooby and Auntie Tara come in for round two, and honorary Aunties Stacy and Lish fly in from San Jose and Montana (yup - MONTANA!) to see her because when we showed up in the NICU on Friday morning we were surprised to see that her arch nemesis, a suction tube down her throat, had been removed between the time we had left the night before and that morning. When we asked the doctor when they took it out, she responded 'we didn't - she did!' Pretty proud of our girl for taking things into her own small hands, we really felt like we had turned a corner and were so happy to see her awake and alert again.

Godparents!

Stacy Greenwood Photography in the flesh

Sneaking in Nonna AND Lish - shhh!

And perfect timing too. Our amazing friend Stace who was down for the shower and took our maternity pics, flew in for a 24 hour visit with our little one and to document this time in her life. Although being in the hospital was the most trying 11 days of our lives, we did experience many of our 'firsts' with our little girl there and met many people who took care of her and have had such a profound impact on us. We are so grateful to Stace (once again!) for this gift of documenting this time for us.

UCSD Medical Center

We are so grateful for such great friends and family who were by our side throughout these crazy days and for all of the effort it took for them to be here with us. We love you guys!

Oh the Places You'll Go!

Makenna's first day of life consisted of a bunch of tests with as many visits as we could sneak in (Mark and I could only escort people in one at a time) to meet her throughout the day. In addition to the grandparents, Michael and Tara drove down for the night and got a little meet and greet of their own.  The following morning we learned that her surgery would take place that day at 12:30 which we were very excited about so we could get the healing process moving. At only 28 hours old we watched our little girl get poked and prodded as they prepared her for surgery and followed her little caravan down the hall to the OR.

We spent an anxious 2.5 hours up in our room with our family awaiting the news of when it was over and we could come see her.  We finally got the call and raced downstairs (I use this term loosely as I was a pretty slow-moving being for the first couple days) to be by her side. They said the surgery had actually gone better than planned as they did not have to do much manipulation of her digestive tract which meant that recovery could potentially be much quicker than they had anticipated and that she had a new designer beach-ready belly button beneath all of the bandages.

It is crazy to think that in just one day all of the things that had happened and how much she had already been through in her short little life. We spent the better part of the next two days sitting by her bedside stroking her face and telling her about all of the people who love her. To see our baby girl lying there unconscious with a machine doing the breathing for her is something I will never forget - and that's ok, because that image will always remind me of how brave she is and what an amazing gift she has been to us already.  We know this little person is special and that this and her new found challenges are only minor speed bumps in what is going to be a pretty incredible life. That night we sat by her bedside, and with tears in my eyes read her the first of many bedtime stories, Dr. Seuss's 'Oh the Places You'll Go!' to let her know just how much there is to look forward to, despite the situation we were in at that very moment. We're going to use this as her special book and have people sign it throughout her life, starting with the gifted surgeon, Dr. Bickler, who we can never thank enough for what he did for her.

ice. . .ice. . BABY!

Everyone says that you forget about the pain and discomfort associated with labor and delivery or that you'll back on it and laugh someday, and while almost two weeks out I don't know if that day has officially come quite yet, I thought it best not to wait until 2017 before documenting our little girl's arrival. So here we go!

We checked in to what would be our home away from home for the next two weeks on Sunday, February 24th for our scheduled induction. No less than 10 minutes in they started the party with some drugs that were supposed to get things kick started over night.  Over night turned in to 10 minutes and we were rocking and rolling with some contractions right away that lasted until around noon the next day at which point they decided to step it up notch and administer Pitocin.  For some reason they couldn't get the drugs for a couple hours so we spent an uneventful, but no less comfortable, afternoon just playing the waiting game and cruising the halls in my ever so stylish hospital gown and polka dot robe. Once the Pitocin came the contractions stepped up a notch, and things really started to go down when my water broke around 9:30 Monday night.  Although I knew this was coming I was still freaked out and grossed out by this new turn of events and Mark tried to comfort me be reminding me that this was 'natural', to which I raised my arms with all of the monitors, IVs and tubes - the vessels of this artificial torture, and responded 'what about this is natural?!' After 28 hours of pain-inflicting drugs I made the call for the epidural guy aka 'the candy man' to make a stop by our room just after midnight Tuesday morning  Had I known the relief this would bring me I would have opted to have the valet guy hook me up with one on the way in had it been an option.  Around 6AM Tuesday morning just as Mark was heading out to get coffee the doc stopped by to check me and said it was 'go time' and that the coffee would have to wait.  They immediately wheeled me down the hall to the operating room where we had to deliver due to the Goose's special circumstances. The room felt like a cross between a scene from Grey's Anatomy but in a bad dream sort of way where I'm on display on a table with  an audience of no less than 8 doctors and nurses inside, and another slew of people outside the door (the room was small) waiting to whisk the Goose away after arrival, but times that by two as there was a shift change half way through so you can imagine we became intimately acquainted with a third of the L&D staff rather quickly.  The whole thing felt pretty surreal and very laid back, making small talk and cracking jokes with the nurses and enjoying my new found appreciation for ice chips in between contractions.

'North of the border' ice chip dispenser

After 34 hours of labor and almost two hours of putting my prenatal yoga and pilates to the test, she made her arrival at 8:30 AM, Tuesday February 26 weighing in at 7lbs 11oz. Moments after she was delivered the doctor exclaimed 'she's looking at me!' and our blue-eyed baby girl with daddy's eyelashes flashed us a look before they whisked her away.

In recovery we were happy to share the news with the anxious grandparents who were eagerly awaiting her arrival down the hall. As they came in to the recovery room I directed their attention to the white board on the wall that read 'Welcome Makenna Rose!' They'd come to tell us later that they had already discussed having a fake immediate response to the name regardless of what is was just in case they didn't like it, that it would buy them time to come up with something nice to say about it. Luckily we didn't get the pleasure of enjoying this charade as they assured us the really did like it - or so they say. As many people have asked, I don't really have a good story about where the name came from, except that its the only name on my long list that Mark didn't veto.  But we made up for it with her middle name which is after my Mom Rosanne, Mark's Mom Rose, and my grandma Concetta Rose - the trifecta!

After a few hours of being assessed in the NICU and some recovery on my end, Mark wheeled me over to visit our beautiful baby girl. Just steps before we made it to her crib side, we were intercepted by one of the doctors with the recap of her status.  The verdict - the exact contents of the omphalocele were still unclear and that they wouldn't really know what they were dealing with until she was actually in surgery, which is kind of what we had anticipated all along. What we had not anticipated was that she had been diagnosed with an incredibly rare (1 in 100,000) and completely unrelated vascular condition called Klippel-Trenaunay Syndrome.  We'd come to find out later that there are no documented cases of any person having both these rare conditions and that she will be the subject of a case study in the months to come.  To say I was shell shocked by this news would not even come close. The fact that the omphalocele could be fixed immediately and that she would have no lasting effects (or recollection) of any of it is what kept my sane-ish throughout the second half of the pregnancy, but the news that this little person who had already been dealt more than her fair share of struggles so early on had even more to deal with, with a much less clear course of treatment or resolution (the prognosis is it will get better or it will get worse) was hard to comprehend.

Makenna Rose Mohnacky - she's new here

But all of this would have to wait as moments later we rolled up next to what was the most beautiful little girl we had ever seen (ok, we're biased) and we fell completely in love with her. We even got to hold her later that day which was something we didn't expect to be able to do and it was just the most beautiful experience getting to hold her in my arms, and to see the way that Mark looked at her with so much love. We hadn't known her for long but we could already tell she was pretty awesome. We've decided she doesn't look exactly like either one of us, but that she is a combination of both of our features - Mark's eye lashes and dimples, my eyes and nose (sorry about the sloop!)  And because I have a penchant for nonsensical nicknames, even though we still refer to her as 'Goose' 95% of the time, we added on a new one calling her 'Hedgehog' after her Sonic-style shaped head and hair cut.

Love.

I have some updating to do here, and I will get to that. Life has changed so much, and so many times over the past five days I want to do it justice which will most likely require my sleep hours for the week needing two hands to count.  We have been dealt with even more of the unexpected than we expected and felt a wide range of emotions, but even as we drove away from the hospital for the first time tonight with an empty car seat all we could really feel was love. Love for our amazing little girl who endured more in her first 48 hours than she should ever have to in a lifetime and love for our family and friends who have amazed us and lightened our hearts more than you will ever know. I told Mark I don't know the words to say to show how grateful I am for everything you have done and in true Mark fashion he said "why don't you just say 'thank you'? So here it goes...


THANK YOU.


We will get to the details later:)

Game Time

After nine months of the pregnancy roller coaster we've been on we're finally in the final days (hours?) before we hop on a different roller coaster called 'parenthood.'  And what a roller coaster it has been! My routine appointment on Tuesday went quickly from, well, routine, to 'we need to induce you asap - do you have anyone you need to call?' to some discussion and wheeling and dealing and more tests before we finally (3 hours later) settled on an induction date of Sunday.  Feeling a bit relieved I wouldn't have to give Mark the call of his life at work, I waddled happily down the hall to my next test before heading out. Unfortunately, we failed the no stress test for the first time and earned ourselves a reservation in labor and delivery that afternoon and the days following anyways. Go figure. Luckily the rest of the tests over the next couple days came out ok and here we are waiting for our time to head in this evening.

Yesterday I went for my regular walk on the beach with my friend Jamie in the morning, and then Mark and I spent our last afternoon just enjoying some porch time together relaxing in the sun. We went out for a nice sunset dinner by the water and just enjoyed some quiet time around the house knowing that may be hard to come by soon.

Last Day

It's hard going into this knowing its going to be hard, but we're excited to meet her and can't wait for when we can eventually bring her home. We'll try to keep everyone posted as much as possible, but we know a lot needs to happen quickly after she's born so we'll do our best to communicate with everyone.

Thanks for all of your calls, texts, prayers and love - here we go!!

ABC Cribs

I have some kind of weird crafting complex where I like to come up with ideas for decorating, find exactly what I'm looking for online, and then decide that I can do it better/cuter/cheaper myself.  A dozen trips to the store, a few miles on the sewing machine and some more gray hairs for Mark later they usually end up being none of the above. And what's worse is no one was safe from being recruited into this tangled web of craftiness (who can say no to a needy pregnant woman?) which is why this Goose's room was nothing short of a labor of love. So, on to the labor. . .

As the third Mohnacky to inhabit this room, and the first of the pink persuasion, we were lucky the two previous tenants were game to do the dirty work of painting, furniture assembly and a general de-'boy'ing of the room.

The prep work

It's so hard to find good help these days

The third person to fall victim to my evil plan was my Uncle Jerry, a modern day Gepetto who I enlisted to make some cloud shelves I had seen online. Needless to say we were so impressed we had to throw some books on them asap just to make sure they didn't float away.

Special note to the Goose

After utilizing every form of technology to virtually work on these projects 'together', we decided it would be easier if my parents came down for a few days to help and to keep me company while Mark was away on travel.  The upstairs loft soon became known as the 'sweatshop' where we holed up to get some serious work done as my project list had grown exponentially since the last time we talked (you thought we were going to buy bedding?!?)  The conditions may have not been that bad, but the wages definitely were. Luckily my mom has a thing for Chick-fil-A down the street so it was easy to keep her happy.

Working for chicken.

When I tried to explain the colors and general idea I had for the room I must have not done a good job  because it came out sounding more like a cross between Punky's Play House and Villa Villekula which drew some pretty funny looks and probably some sympathy for the Goose.  All in all the loosely San Diego themed room turned out just like we wanted - with a little Punky and Pippi thrown in for good measure.

Flowers for the Carlsbad Flower fields

Late night crash pad

Shark collage of family and friends from the shower

Missing the name on the wall:)

Del Mar hot air balloons

Carlsbad beaches

My rocking chair from back in the day

There are still a *few* more items to be added (including one small person), and according to Mark I'll never be done decorating the room, but for now, I don't think the Goose will really mind.  I'm just glad she won't have to sleep in a shoe box when she gets home.