Up Close and Personal: April 2011

Three weeks in, and these two are pretty darn amazing. Joseph loves his sister and the big adjustment has been like nothing even changed. I guess the previous nine months of preparation really helped. He was as excited as we were to greet the baby and we had not seen a flicker of animosity yet.

Joseph was beside himself when he came in the delivery room. He didn't know what to do with all that excitement. He peeked around the curtain and I was so glad to see him!

He was so intrigued with his new sister. He would reach out to her, then pull his hand back. Then reach out again and gently touch her. It was so sweet to watch and of course melted our hearts.

There was a smile plastered on his face the whole time.

He had to check out all her fingers and toes and what was under the hat. He didn't really say much at all. He just took it all in.

Then he gave her the present he picked out for her.

The three of us made a special trip to the toy store to pick out a birth day present from Joseph. It turned out to be more of an exercise in corralling Joseph and finally giving him a few choices of what to pick from. He was waaay more interested in all the boy things and toys with noises and flashing lights. He was even more interested in wrapping the present than looking at all those girly stuffed animals and dollies. So he picked out the wrapping paper and bow and helped me cut and tape the paper. It was pretty "special" looking present! We loved it!

The gift he choose was a little pink and white puppy! He still brings it to her often. I'll find it tucked in here and there in her bassinet or cuddling with her in her swing.

God sure did bless me when he sent me these three. I can't imagine what it would be like without them, and surely can't imagine what the future holds. Lots of love and craziness alike, I'm sure.

Having a family is the coolest.

"New chapter" may not really adequately express what it's like to add a whole new human being to one's family. "New world" is more appropriate. Regardless, it's been pretty darn exciting around here welcoming our new Alaina!

Mom and Dad are adjusting to less sleep, more frustration and turning out a ton more love these days. Most importantly, Big Brother is doing great with the new addition and hopefully it'll get even better with time.

Without further ado, the Birth Story!

In true fashion of a woman who is nine months pregnant, I was miserable and felt ready to pop. I'd been saying for months that I thought there was a very real possibility that the baby was going to bust through my naval. Although that would have been a much bigger mess than the other more "traditional" method of exiting - which was a pretty big mess too. But I have to say, from start to finish everything was different than my labor with Joseph's birth.

It started on Tuesday March 29 when Josh and I were at my last Dr.'s appointment. I went in thinking I really wanted the baby out and in safe in my arms. I was uncomfortable, and only weeks before was in the office for a unplanned sonogram from the baby's lack of movement. Turns out she was fine and dandy, but better safe than sorry. I wanted to feel better, meet her, and put all this pregnancy jazz behind me. Although I had an uneventful and generally ok pregnancy, forty weeks of it was more than enough.

Dr. Ryder asked how I was and not even having been in the exam room for more than 60 seconds I blurted out "how fast can we induce?". She said she was pretty sure she could get us in that week, so I asked her all the questions that had been on my mind.

Is the chance of labor stalling and ending in c-section or becoming an extra long labor higher with induction?
Are the contractions really worse with pitocin (like I've read and heard)?
Does my cervix have to be "favorable" for a better labor (mine was barely dilated and not effaced at all)?
Etc, etc, etc.

It's funny how fast things change with hormonal, emotional events like this. I was pretty anti-induction my whole life, and especially with Joseph - so now I was questioning myself. Should I stick to my guns and remember why I wasn't previously choosing to induce, or do I follow my emotions and my gut and go for it. I decided there is nothing wrong with changing my mind and my sweet hubby agreed.

Moments later, Dr. Ryder said we had a labor and delivery room blocked for 7:30 the next day! I was expecting to get a little more time to adjust to it all, but this was it! I'll admit, I did have to stop for a moment and take a few deep breaths and let the sparkles subside from my vision. Little anxiety much? We left the office and were both pretty quiet. We decided to grab some lunch so we could talk a bit more and make sure we didn't want to back out.

We didn't.

Believe it or not, I slept like normal the night before. "Normal" being tossing and turning while my big, uncomfortable belly dictated the pressure on my bladder and lightly sleeping on and off through the night. I don't remember if I dreamed though.

Josh's mom arrived at the house at 6:45 to stay with Joseph and Josh and I arrived at the hospital at 7:30. Talk about weird..."hello, I'm Rebecca your nurse"...yeah, and I'll be administering your life saving (if we need to)/medicine dripping IV which will force your body into labor, which will change your life forever and create the most intense and painful experience you'll ever have, I'll be seeing every part of every crevice of your body, all the while hopefully taking excellent care of you. Do you trust me?! Yea, I'd say shaking her hand and introducing myself was a little weird.

But of course once I was settled in it wasn't so weird that I couldn't put my face on. That is one good thing about inducing...you can look just like you walked out of the salon once it's all over (not that I looked that good).

Here is a shot of my IV induced puffy face. That saline and I really don't mesh. I was about 80 times more puffy with Joseph's labor, so I was hoping a little mascara and eyeshadow in the right places would help a sista's eyes out a bit. Not sure if it did help, but it didn't hurt either.

Those lips are kinda scaring me though. Is anyone else thinking Real Housewives of Orange County?!

They started pitocin at 9:00am and turned it up 2 notches every 30 minutes. I was already having contractions 3-5 minutes apart when I arrived but I didn't feel them - she saw them once I was hooked up on the fetal monitor. I wanted to feel the contractions for awhile to get the full experience and let them do their thing with out the epidural medicine slowing anything down, but I'm not crazy enough to take that insanity for long. It became really intense really fast, and I asked for my epidural medicine mid morning.

I already had a "dry catheter" where the port is in but without medicine, so the anesthesiologist just had to come and administer the medicine. I chose to do it that way because they have to take the baby off the fetal monitor to give the epidural, so they have to turn off the pitocin since they can't monitor the baby, so there is a good chunk of time where I would have been off the pitocin. You already know I was nervous about my labor stalling, and the Doc says it's just a better to not have to turn the pitocin off and re-start it...so that's what we did.

One minor problem was when the medicine pooled in one side of my abdomen (since I was laying on my side) and so one side of my uterus started feeling the pain. It was pretty bad! Reminded me of Joseph's labor where I got a good long dose of how contractions felt. Ouch! But it was easily solved by rolling over (with some help since I had little feeling in my legs, of course!) and pushing that "more medicine now, please!" button several times. It took awhile to get numb again so I got some more of that pain that I wanted to feel just for a bit at the very beginning. Nice. Like a breath of fresh air!

Right when I was supposed to start pushing I started to feel a little funny. I thought I was going to vomit, then lost all my energy. I told the nurse I thought I was going to pass out and she took my blood pressure which had dropped really low and called for some epinephrine. It was a real bummer cause I really didn't feel like passing out on my baby's birth day. Alas, I did not throw up and she was able to bring my blood pressure up enough to continue on with the days activities!

Have you seen that episode of the Cosby Show where Cliff is cheering for a pregnant woman in labor? Push 'em out, push 'em out...waaaaay out! Push 'em out, push 'em out...waaaay out!

I had this going through my head for months and still do. I wonder if it helped me push?!

This picture above surely was not taken during contractions. Looks more like a "before" photo!

I progressed pretty fast and was ready to start pushing sometime in the 1:00 hour...I wasn't in the best frame of mind to remember all the nitty gritty details and surely didn't think about jotting it down as we went. ;) Although next time, I'll get someone else to! So, here's the exciting part!! I pushed three times with each contraction for two contractions and the nurse said that magic word: STOP! Thank god, cause I knew that meant it was time to call the Dr and wait for her to come DELIVER MY BABY!

I did use the mirror and loved it. I could see that I was pushing correctly and it was also pretty darn cool to see that first little bit of sweet dark baby hair push out.

Wait a second!! It's black?! What the heck?!

I just knew she was going to be blond! Then they threw the mirror aside like it was a pillow to allow for Dr. Ryder to get in there. And the lingering thought of having a baby with such dark hair distracted me enough that it seemed like only seconds before the Dr. arrived.

We had a good laugh at my 'fall risk' bracelet. We just knew that there had to have been that one person who thought they could get out of bed with an epidural (and numb legs) so now everyone has to get one of these. I tell you what though, I don't think I would have been able to even make it to the edge of the bed to be anything close to falling. But nor would I have tried!

Anyway, Dr. Ryder arrived! I got to push through another three contractions and then I heard the next magical words: "Open your eyes, Heather!" Holy shit my baby was right below my nose hanging out of my you-know-what. It was amazing! Then they plopped her right on my chest and Josh cut the cord.

I remember seeing his hands shaking and how the baby smelled, and I wanted to cry and sleep for 100 years but I didn't want to miss a moment. I was dizzy and wanted to kiss Josh. I asked Dr. Ryder how the "trauma" was down there. I asked when I could start nursing. I didn't like the way Alaina's hands and feet were SO blue...but everything else was perfect. I remember seeing how long her fingers were, then they gently took her from me to get her all fixed up.

It was perfect and magical and just as it should be. Josh took tons of pictures while they wiped her down and attached all her bracelets, then before I knew it the nurse handed her back to me.

She told me I could try feeding her and at some point the folks from the waiting room arrived. Joseph and Josh's mom were on their way and arriving any minute and I couldn't wait for Joseph to meet her. Seeing them meet for the first time was pretty much almost as spectacular as when I got to see her for the first time.

...still checking out that hair. Hard to believe how dark it is, but lightening up quickly already.

Feeding was just as I always imagined. She acted like she knew exactly what she was doing even though I was a little rusty. I only wish I could have had this experience with Joseph but rest assured that he and I fell in love with each other all the same and bonded just as much.

We stayed in Labor and Delivery for just a bit longer. We oooh'd and aaah'd and took a ton of pictures and made phone calls. Then the next big arrival we had been waiting for happened: the arrival of big brother!

That was so neat it gets a post of it's own...stay tuned!