And she's here!!

Allow me to introduce Blaire Nicole!

As had been scheduled, she was born on November 5th at 9:16am. She weighed 7lbs 2oz, was 20 inches long, and her head was 14 3/8 inches around! At our second to last doctor's appointment, he had felt her position and exclaimed "This baby has a REALLY big head!" So I guess he's done it enough that his assessment was correct. 

I know I have other posts to do about our Fall activities, but I wanted to post the birth story before the details started to slip my mind. 

For a while now, we had our repeat c-section scheduled for November 5th at 8:30am. We were told to be there at 6:30am, which we arrived right on time. Of course we waited in the waiting room for 20-30 minutes before they put me in a Labor & Delivery room. I dressed in the hospital gown and climbed in the bed. Our nurse placed my IV, which I warned her could be difficult...she made sure to nail it the first time...and when I mean nail it, I mean she NAILED it! It almost brought a tears to my eyes (and I can still see the massive hole the needle made 9 days postpartum!) 

Around 7:45am my doctor stopped by and told us that the baby from the c-section  scheduled before ours was born and we would begin shortly. So of course we waited and 8:30am came and went. Fortunately my Mom and Bryce arrived right before they wheeled me to the OR, which was probably around 8:45. There was something soothing about seeing Bryce before I went. 

So they took me back to the cold operating room to get the spinal block before they brought Nic back. For Bryce I somehow remembered I was in OR #1, but for Blaire we were in OR #2. It's funny the things we do and do not remember. 

Back in the operating room, I made sure to tell ANY medical staff I spoke to that I vomit with anesthesia. So here comes the Anesthesiologist and that's the first thing out of my mouth. He assures me he'll take care of it. In went the spinal, which I felt move down my spine and almost immediately started losing feeling in my toes. They lay me back and I quickly lose feeling in most of my body. My arms felt like they were vibrating...but sure enough I began to get sick! Thankfully my arms weren't strapped down so I was able to grab the "puke cup" and hold it as close to my head as possible. Of course since I hadn't had anything to eat or drink since the prior evening so it was just bile. 

In no time, they checked where I could and could not feel and began. They brought Nic in after they began cutting...at least I'm pretty sure they did. 

My doctor was on my left and one of the other doctors in his practice was on my right. Evidently Blaire was still high in my ribs and they had a difficult time getting her out. As Nic explained it, he thought they were going to pull lose skin up to my neck. As for me I felt a TON of tugging and pulling. I heard the doctor request the vacuum (which Nic confirmed was to pull Blaire out),  and in no time I heard the nurses say "Out!". Of course I listened for a cry for what seems like forever, but was probably only seconds. I heard a couple coughs and then cries and she was off for them to get fluid out of her lungs. I was able to catch a brief glimpse of her and saw that she had a lot of hair! No one exclaimed "It's a girl!" before they took her off, so I still wasn't 100% sure she was a "she".  I laid there while they put me back together relishing in the cries I could hear. Then Nic appeared beside me with her and I was able to know for sure I had a healthy baby girl. Then they were off to the nursery for her first bath.

A short time later, I was back in the original L&D room...alone. Everyone else was oohing and awwing over our baby girl in the nursery. From the time I originally left for the OR it had been less than an hour.  Honestly, I enjoyed those last few minutes alone until they were ready to follow her back to me. 

I heard Bryce's feet coming down the hallway and in they all came. Of course I requested to hold Blaire as soon as I could, which proved to be difficult with the IV and all the wires and my nearly completely numb body. 

I briefly passed her off to meet the others, before we had our first attempt at breastfeeding...which went well! She latched right on!

Bryce immediately wanted to hold her, and I think he fell in love as quick as we all did! 

We were promptly moved to a postpartum room, where we stayed for the next 48 hours. Unfortunately, I had vomiting episodes nearly every time I sat up after Blaire was born until 8pm that evening, including while she was nursing. That definitely took some skill! LOL! As a result I didn't eat anything all day until dinner. At dinner time, it had been several hours since I had last vomited so I thought it would be safe to eat something. I ordered items that would contain the most amounts of carbs, chicken pot pie, mashed potatoes & gravy, etc...needless to say they didn't stay in my stomach. 

Fortunately, after losing my dinner, I didn't vomit again. They removed my catheter and unplugged the IV around 10pm that night. Then I had nurses checking on me or Blaire nearly every hour so it was impossible to get a restful night of sleep even though my newborn was sleeping REALLY good! 


This is probably one of my favorite pictures taken so far.

The first picture taken of me with our TWO kids...it's still hard to believe.

Since we live so far out, I wanted to go by Babies R Us on our way home to pickup a few of the Halo Sleepsack Swaddles. The hospital used these and Blaire seemed to like them really well, not to mention the peace of mind it provided by not requiring loose blankets. I did an online order with pickup in store and since I forgot to put Nic as the pickup person, so there I was 48 hours post c-section and I went in to Babies R Us. Of course the line for customer service was slow and long and pretty much defeated the purpose of me ordering online to expedite the process...grrr!

We made it home and started settling in!

I love these next two pictures! I wonder if it's indicative of the relationship between Bryce and Blaire. He'll be sweet to her, then...

...she'll smack him!

Since we've been home, Blaire has continued sleeping really well. At night she's been getting at least one really long period of sleep lasting 4 to 6 hours...which is completely different than Bryce and completely amazing for this Mom!

When she's sleeping she looks just like Bryce did as a newborn, but I'm still deciding how much she really does look like Bryce. I do know that so far she is a far different baby than Bryce was. As I mentioned before she sleeps REALLY well! Bryce has never been a good sleeper and at this age was up every one to two hours. Also she will sleep on her back! Bryce NEVER slept on his back. She'll even allow a little swaddling, though she prefers her arms out, which Bryce never liked in any form. She really doesn't like the pacifier and doesn't act like she needs it. Bryce loved the pacifier from the day he was born. Overall she's a very good baby and I'm just waiting for that to change. 

As I planned, we've been breastfeeding...and it's going extremely well! So well that she can't keep up and I'm having to pump to find comfort and relief. We're freezing about 20-25 ounces a day and keeping plenty on hand in the fridge. I alternate between nursing and pumping, because she tends to prefer nursing over the bottle but she can't keep up with the amount I'm producing and I become uncomfortable. At least we'll have a nice stock pile when I return to work. 

So of course with me pumping, it gives others an opportunity to feed her. Here is the first time Nic got to feed her.