The Baby Post

So I guess I'm a little behind in all of this. Juliet is now nine days old, so I guess it's time to tell about her arrival and the first week of her life.

I guess we'll jump back to my last Dr. appointment on the 9th of September. It was pretty routine, as was the previous week. My effacement hadn't really changed and each week I would dilate another half a centimeter. So come the 9th that made me a good 3 centimeters dilated. At that point the Doc sat down, and said so we have some options. My options were: Wait it out and see if I continue to progress on my own, with a no later than date of the 20th, or I was far enough along and in a good position that we could medically start my labor. He told me that I could choose between Sunday, Tuesday, Wednesday or Friday in the next week. I told him I was good with Tuesday, after all it was my due date and then she'd be here when my family would be here from Cali. We scheduled it for Tuesday and I was out the door, feeling anxious. I called Bryant and told him I had picked Tuesday and he was like I think we should go with Sunday, it just works out better with our schedules and everything. So I called the Dr. back to get that ok'd and it was set, I was going to have a kid in a day and a half. I went back to work and wanted to throw up. I cleaned up my desk, since I wouldn't be working at it for six weeks, submitted my PTO requests so I could managed my paychecks a little, and headed home. Saturday was life as normal. I made myself clean the house. I ran a few errands and I went to see Joseph at Hale again (twice). The hospital called to get me pre-registered and told me to call and confirm in the morning but that I should plan on being at the hospital at 7:15am. We were set.

(Stop reading here, if you don't want to hear about push day... Just skip the next paragraph or two)

Sunday morning I woke up, after a great nights sleep, showered, did my hair and make up (because that's how I roll) and we loaded up the car with way too much stuff and dropped Dorri off at my parent's house. We got to the hospital on time and after signing consents and what not were checked into our room and getting ready to get the party started. I had tested positive for Strep B so they started my IV and my antibiotics shortly after. The Dr. came in and said hi, and that he was off for a scheduled C section and then would be back to break my water. The nurses (who I loved!) started my potocin to get labor on it's way and got me hooked up to the monitors. We'd watch for my contractions, that I couldn't feel yet and laugh that that one looked big. They checked me and I was dilated to a 4, the Dr. came in a broke my water and shortly after I began feeling the contractions! The first real one that I felt, had Bryant laughing SO loud. I guess I make awesome contraction face. He didn't laugh again after that one, in fact he was closer to tears with the rest. I opted for some pain medication to take the ease off and that lasted all of three minutes before I was ready for the epidural. And had I known it takes a good 20-25 minutes to fully take, I would have asked for it 35 minutes earlier! A short time later I sent Bryant to eat some lunch and the nurses came in to check me again and to their surprise I was now an 8! I was progressing super fast. I text Bryant to let him know, I think he swallowed his sandwich whole and was back up to the room. My contractions were causing pressure, OBVIOUSLY, and I wasn't breathing awesomely, (what can I say, I didn't do birthing classes so I was just winging it, and fairly well I thought) so they put me on oxygen just to keep Juliet's heart rate at a good even level. They had my room set up and around 1:35 or so the nurses had me start "practice pushes." Pushing is hard work! After a little while I think we finally had her past my pubic bone. They kept saying we can see her head, to me that mean she should be popping out, she wasn't though. The Dr. came in and I continued to push. About 25-30 minutes in I was feeling done and frustrated and tired. The Dr. had brought in the forceps, just in case, and at one point I was ready to ask them to just use them and get her out. But I just kept pushing, And I kept pushing more often with or without contractions because I just wanted her out (Hooray I finally reached that point in pregancy, and I thought maybe I wouldn't) The Dr. decided to do an episiotomy to give her a little more room and to help me out a little. At 2:20 the greatest sense of relief came when with that final push she was out. The nurses were guessing that she weighed about 7 and a half pounds, but our girl tipped the scales at 8 pounds 1 ounce and 21 inches long. Upon hearing the news, I may have called her a jerkface, and all I could think was boy am I glad I didn't wait another week to let her grow any bigger! Bryant went and told our family who had all shown up and were in the waiting room while I got stitched up. All and all, I was a pretty abnormal for my first delivery. I was only in active labor for about 4 and half hours and pushed for about 45 minutes. People keep telling me I must be made for having babies and should have 8 more... That's not likely going to happen, in fact it's just NOT going to happen.

After mingling with the families and taking a few pictures, we were transferred to our room upstairs. At this point, Juliet was screaming because she was so hungry. I wasn't sure what I was supposed to do (again with all those classes I didn't take) I asked to have a nurse come in and help me out but that seemed to be taking a while and the child was still screaming, so I asked Bryant if I should just try and wing it (I mean isn't that what parenthood is any way?) We winged it and the girl is a champ! She latched on and went to town. When the nurse came in, she was like oh did someone else come in and I was like no, we just guessed and she seems to know what to do.

The next couple days were great in the hospital, and we were headed home a family of three on Tuesday afternoon. Our first day home was great, the night wasn't even too bad as I had been feeding her in the hospital in the middle of the night, just not having to worry about getting her back to sleep. And then Wednesday came. Wednesday was a rough day. She had a memory lapse or something and would not latch on to it. She cried and I cried and I broke down and I gave her some formal because I was afraid she was going to get dehydrated. By Wednesday night she was starting to remember a little more and I was feeling a little better. Thursday morning, we headed back to the hospital to check her jaundice levels (they came back in the high end of normal so no lights for her) and to meet with the lactation specialist. We got in there and she ate like a champ, silly girl must have learned from the dog that when the Dr. is around just act like everything is fine.

We're learning to adjust more and more each day. Some nights are rough, some don't seem too bad. She is as cute as ever awake or asleep. Dorri is adjusting better than I thought she might have. She is still a girl that wants all of her mom's attention but she's doing better. She will often look at me when Juliet is crying, like mom help her out. It's either that or mom shut her up! Right now both my girls are just sleeping and I love how cute they are. Both need to wake up though because it's dinner time or should be. So I'll leave you now with a few pictures, since that's what you've been waiting for I'm sure.

Our first family photo in labor and delivery

Her first bath (she loves having her hair washed)

Chillin in the hospital with dad

The two girls

The big sister :)

Her first outing to Tony's wedding and to visit dad at work

Naked photo shoot in the kitchen. She doesn't love being naked but she cooperated for mommy.