L&D & Week 1...with Elaina Marie!

Our sweet little Lainey-bug! 

As I sit here and look at little Elaina's face as she sleeps in my arms so peacefully, I can recount the anxiety and chaos that has filled the last few days...

LABOR:

Although I thought it may be sooner, we actually made it to our induction date of December 30th and were even bumped until the next day. All in spite of the fact that I had been 4cm dilated for weeks at this point and feeling contractions and pain aka 'cooter shooters' (Paul can be sooo compassionate!) for several days as well. Paul and I were anxious to meet our sweet girl. 

We waited all day on the 30th to get 'the call' to come into L&D for our induction, only to call in several times and get the disappointing news that the hospital was full of regular labors with no room at the inn for us. Heartbreaking as it was, we had them bump us to the 31st knowing that if we were bumped again a day the whole point of the induction would be for nothing and we would have to wait for labor to come on it's own. Which, as I said, I thought could have been several times before. So I think we both went to bed expecting nothing different on day 2.  When we got 'the call' at 5:30am from L&D I think we were both shocked. I started panicking right away and had to sit down several times for fear I might pass out from lack of water and food, which ended at midnight the night before. We arrived at the hospital at 7:15 for check in and we're assigned a wonderful nurse, Judy. The labor and delivery nurses are the ones that do EVERYTHING and can make your stay wonderful or horrible I guess. They checked us in, did an ungodly amount of paperwork/questions, started Pitocin and broke my water at about 9:30am. Our doctor, whom we were thrilled would be delivering our little girl, had a scheduled C-section at 9:45am and said she would be back at about 11am to check in on me. No one expected me to progress so quickly since it wasn't 'natural' labor. Well it did! Very quickly. I started having more and more painful contractions on top of each other and asked to have an epidural, which seemed like it took a lifetime to actually administer after about 45 minutes of what most might call torturesome pain. I thought I was going to break my hand trying to push up so hard on the bed to relieve some of the pressure off of my pelvis. BUT as soon as that epidural was put in my back I had SWEET RELIEF. I thought I might try to make it this delivery without medicine but I think my labor progresses too fast. It makes enduring the pain so unbearable when you can't seem to get any reprieve from it at all.

DELIVERY: 

So after about half an hour of relief, things moved quickly as my body had gone from 5cm dilated to fully complete. Luckily, our doctors C-Section had ended early and she showed up just in the nick of time. They told me I was ready to start pushing, but I told everyone that I couldn't 'feel' anything like I had with Norah so I wasn't sure how to push. But after 2 contractions and 4 pushes I must've done something right because she was here, laid on my chest, goo and all. I was a puddle of tears looking into my sweet little girls face and learning that my dad, who had dreamt that Elaina was going to have dark brown hair, was here in all her glory! I couldn't believe it! It was too easy. Distracted by the sweet baby right in front of my eyes the doctor did the rest of her business with my business and the painful part was done.

They tended to the baby, taking some measurements and giving her an Apgar score of 9, all while on my chest. They didn't take her away from me at all and I was grateful for that. I didn't want her to leave. I got to nurse her and life seemed grand.

NICU:

Right before they moved us to the ante partum department, one of the nurses noticed a slight grunting noise Elaina was making with every breath. I didn't think much of it but the nurse kept trying to smack her back to try to get her to stop. Then they decided that they wanted to monitor her in the general nursery for a little while and then they would bring her back. But instead of bringing her back to us a neonatologist came in and explained to us that they would be moving her into the NICU II area for further observation and that they would reevaluate things after about 6hrs. It was slightly unsettling although the nurses and doctors seemed to think it wasn't that big of a deal which put us at ease. About 36 hrs later and a very long night after the nurse in NICU decided 1am would be the best time to release her into our care for a few hrs, we got her back. I laid with her on my chest for hours while she just slept and that was the moment I decided that even though I didn't know her, like I KNOW Norah, that she had a piece of my heart too!

FRENULECTOMY: 

So in all the back and forth of the NICU and nurses monitoring little Lainey under watchful eye, the nurses noticed that Lainey's frenulum was shorter normal and may cause issues in a number of ways including not being able to nurse well (or at all) because they are unable to transfer milk into their mouths properly and possible speech issues later in life. So even though they released me from the hospital 24 hours after delivery I chose to stay in my room so that Lainey could continue to be evaluated in the NICU and so we could discuss cutting her frenulum with the surgeon who was still on vacation from the holiday. It turned out not to be a very serious procedure at all. Mainly because you have no nerve endings in your frenulum anyway. So the day we got released hers was clipped by the surgeon at the hospital! She is able to transfer milk while nursing now and can even stick out her tongue at us now, where she wasn't able to before. I'm just glad we realized the potential problems before they actually became a problem and that we had good nurses and doctors who noticed and told us our options.

NORAH MEETING LAINEY: 

So they finally released both of us to go home and I couldn't be more excited about going home! But there was still one more thing to do...little Lainey had to meet Norah! They are going to be best friends for the rest of their lives, at least if I have anything to do with it. Norah LOVES babies so I didn't really expect that meeting her new baby sister would be any different but the joy and warmth that it brings to my heart to see our two little girls meet is indescribable! Thank goodness we were in a good frame of mind to catch it on film... 

FIRST DAYS AT HOME: 

So I have to admit I was a little worried, ok scared, about having to wake up every few hours with Lainey as her stomach grows to be able to handle sleeping longer. And I HATE to jinx it at this point but she's doing AMAZING and actually letting me sleep. She's slept through the night the last 3 nights in a row. I really hope that is the norm and not a fluke at this point. I think Paul and I feel like we deserve it after having our super sensitive, I'm never going-to-sleep sleeper Norah! Lainey seems like a very chill little baby! She nurses well! She sleeps well! She doesn't scream when I change her diaper and only really seems upset when it's been a little too long since she's had the boob. 

Norah is also doing so well with having the new addition to our family too! She helps get diapers and throws the old ones away. If she notices her when she walks by she always leans down and gives her a little face cuddle. It's so amazingly sweet! I still can't believe we have 2 little girls.