Welcome Sloane Louisa Ybarra

Sloane Louisa Ybarra

January 28, 2016

8 lbs  7 oz 

20.5 inches long

Born at 3:51pm

Happy two week birthday little Sloane Louisa!  The past two weeks have been a blur especially since a wild delivery.  I was induced on January 28th as my MD was on call that day and since I was Group B Strep positive it gave me a little piece of mind that I would have time for my antibiotics that was needed before Sloane was delivered.  We went in that morning and got things started and waited and waited with little progress.  At around 3:00 I had friends come visit and started feeling really uncomfortable.  During this time Mason went to tell the nurse I was ready for my epidural.  By the time the anesthesiologist got the message, came and and was set up I was already 8cm and realllllly uncomfortable.  The epidural went in with ease, however I quickly realized it did.not.work!!!!  By this time I felt the need to push and in 2 pushes she was out, with a failing epidural!  Yep, I won't be doing that again!!!  Mason likes to say "I tried to tell you to get it a hour earlier!"  Oh well I've had one kid with a fabulous epidural and now one that just didn't work like it was supposed to!  

As many of you know I had some CRAZY oversupply with my breast milk with Hadley and ended up donating over 700 ounces to the milk bank.  This time I was beyond determined to breast feed as exclusively pumping is just a pain in the butt.  I spent several sessions with the lactation consultant in the hospital and we've visited our outpatient lactation consultant several more times since being discharged.  Again, I started with outrageous oversupply, saturating through newborn diapers because I had so much milk and I developed mastitis, with high fever, body aches and pain just 5 days postpartum.  At this time we are pumping and bottle feeding breast milk until the infection resolves and everything else calms down.  

Hadley has been very cute with her little interactions with Sloane and gets really excited when she has her eyes open.  Today at church she grabbed by hand, pulled me into her classroom, walked over to her Sunday school teacher and pointed up at me holding Sloane, as if she wanted to show her off.  This was the first time she's done this and Mason and I just looked at each other smiling.  She's very gentle with her and really just plays by herself when we are busy.  She has regressed a little, as expected, wanting to be held like a baby, sitting in the car seat, and struggling with nap time, but overall it's been a good transition.  Now when Sloane starts taking her toys, it'll be a whole different ball game.  Here are some cute little phrases Hadley has said over the past two weeks.  

              "Did baby Sloane drink all the milk?"

              "Mommy you still got a baby in your tummy?"

              "How did baby Sloane get in your belly?"

              "Baby Sloane sticking her tongue out, mommy feed her!"

              "Mommy put baby Sloane in the swing and hold me!"

It took Hadley nearly 2 weeks to say "Ok" to wanting to hold Sloane when we asked but she was very in love when she held her.  Of course Penny and Perro had to join the party and touch the nose, eyes, ears, etc. 

Many people I'm sure have noticed the large red birthmark on the side of sweet little Sloane's face.  This mark was noticed immediately after birth, which our OB thought was just a bruise from the fast delivery.  Our OB and Pediatrician said if it was a bruise it would be gone 2 weeks after birth, however it never showed improvement and frankly at times got darker when she got mad, held her breath, was feeding or just randomly throughout the day.  Mason and I decided to be proactive and see Pediatric Dermatology at Lucile Packard Children's Hospital at Stanford, where we both work to get a second opinion.  We met with the Chief of Peds Dermatology who very quickly and confidently diagnosed the birth mark as a capillary malformation known as a Port Wine Stain.  We tell Hadley it's were 'God kissed Sloane' as we don't want either one of them to be ashamed of it and hopefully if they have a positive outlook on it, it will limit some of the bullying that our society puts on kids these days.  

Our MD made it very clear that the laser treatment is not an eraser, but will help it fade significantly.   If left untreated the birthmark would increase in size, texture and color, therefore we will treat it with laser treatment to help with the appearance.  We will do 8-10 treatment over the course of the next year and hope to be completed with this cluster of treatment by her first birthday.  Each treatment is 2-3 minutes long and yes, it is painful.  Following each treatment there will be dark purple/blue bruising which they mentioned the worse the bruising the better the end result.  They will give her topical lidocaine cream and we will pre-med her with pain meds prior to the treatment to help.  As they said, it's harder on the parents because we will remember it every time!  March 9th is our first treatment and my heart will probably be in my stomach that morning.  

Sadly, there is something we have to keep a look out for over the coming months.  Port Wine Stains can be associated with a syndrome called Sturge-Weber Syndrome, which has neurological and visual abnormalities leading to developmental delays and learning disabilities.  Because of the location on her face, they feel confident she will not develop this, however we have to be aware of what could arise.  It's kind of scary when your doctor asks you "Do you know what a seizure looks like?"  I feel like I'm living a little on edge because these neurological symptoms tend to make themselves present  until around 3 months of age.  I'm trying to tell myself that our doctor is confident she is part of the 95% that does not have these characteristics, but it's still scary.  

So until March, we get to enjoy the snuggles of a new little baby that likes to sleep on our chest!  Many prayers and thoughts would be appreciated as we embark on this small journey to help improve the appearance of this birthmark!  I plan on taking before and after photos before each treatment so we can follow the improvements over the year.  

Happy belated Valentine's Day!!