She's Here

Little baby Amelia was born 3/20/14 at 7:24am.  She weighed 7 lbs, 9 oz and was 18 1/2 inches long.  We got checked into the hospital around 5:45pm on the 19th.  Once I was comfortable in my hospital bed, the nurses started me on my antibiotics.  I had to have two doses of those before they could start my pitocin.  We found out around 7pm that Carleigh couldn't stay at the hospital past 9pm.  So I had to scramble to get in touch with our neighbor's to see she could stay with them overnight.  Thankfully they said yes, so Heath drove her over to their house and came back to the hospital.  Our neighbor's have two kid's around the same age as Carleigh, so it worked out perfectly.  Once Heath got back to the hospital, we watched Identity Thief, which was quite hilarious.  I'm so glad the hospital had some free movies to watch.

Throughout the evening, the nurse kept coming into my room to see how things were going.  She kept asking if I was having any pains.  Apparently I was having a lot of contractions at 6 cm dilation, but I didn't feel a thing.  I didn't receive my epidural until 3am, and even then, my pains weren't that strong.  They just wanted to get that over with since I was going to be induced.  The doctor who was on-call never made it by my room to break my water because she got stuck in another part of the hospital helping others.  My doctor showed up at 6am and broke my water for me.  That's when some of the real pains actually started coming.  There were some pretty nasty contractions that even the epidural couldn't save me from.

My doctor came back in the room at 7am for me to start pushing.  I had about three or four rounds of pushing and Amelia was born.  It took 24 minutes of actual "labor" for her to get here.  It was a very smooth birth.  I held her for a minute or two before she was taken to get cleaned off by the nurses.  Once I got her back, I was able to breastfeed her right away.  We did some skin-to-skin contact cuddling as well.  It was so nice and relaxing.  Breakfast was delivered to my room about an hour later and it was so nice to eat something other than ice chips.  Our neighbor dropped Carleigh off at the hospital around 1pm.  Carleigh had the cutest reaction when she saw her baby sister for the first time.  She walked over to my bed, looked at Amelia, and had the biggest smile on her face.  That same evening, Carleigh went back to the neighbor's house to stay the night since I wouldn't be released until the Friday morning.

I was released from the hospital on Friday afternoon.  It was so nice to get out of there a little after 24 hours after giving birth.  I'm not a big fan of hospitals.  I'd much rather sleep in my own bed.  Our first night home was a little rough.  We ordered some Chinese food for lunch and I ate a ton of broccoli.  Since broccoli is a green, I figured it would be really good for the baby too.  WRONG!  It breastfeed Amelia in the evening, but it made her so gassy and fussy.  We did not sleep at all.  Both Heath & I were up all night trying to figure out what the heck was going on.  Amelia would refuse to attach to my breasts completely during that whole ordeal.  Heath went out to the store around 6am to buy some formula just to supplement for the time being.  I really wanted to avoid formula, but I also wanted to make sure my baby wasn't starving.  I even pulled out my breast pump to see if I could get anything for her.  All I got was a small amount of colostrum.  So we mixed that into the bottle of formula to ensure she was still getting some really good nutrients.

We've had to supplement with formula off and on since then because my milk hasn't come in yet.  Thankfully, Amelia will still latch on to my breasts and try to get some milk out of me even after using a bottle.  Not much is coming out yet though.  Amelia will get frustrated and clamp on really tight and it hurts so badly.  She did some decent damage to my left boob.  I've been unable to let her use that one because it hurts a bit still.  This afternoon, I did pump and got a little under half an ounce of breast milk out.  So at least that's a start.  My milk is slowly starting to come in finally.  Yay!

Amelia has her first doctor appointment Wednesday afternoon.  So, I suppose I'll update again on Wednesday night or Thursday afternoon.

Induction Day

It's finally Wednesday.  I'm being induced at 6pm this evening.  It's crazy to think that in about 12-14 hrs I will have a brand new baby to hold.  I'm really hoping this delivery goes as smoothly as Carleigh's did.  We have everything I can possibly think of packed and ready.  When Carleigh woke up this morning, I told her that her baby sister was going to come tonight.  Her first response was, "YAY!!!!"  So at least she's excited for right now.  She even repeated to me what I've been telling her for a couple of weeks now, "the baby needs a lot of attention."

Heath & I have already told both sides of the family not to bombard us with text messages and phone calls for the first couple of days.  We want time for all of us to bond with the baby and we also need to make sure Carleigh is bonding well too.  When I had Carleigh, I had my phone going off every 20 minutes.  It was very annoying and such a distraction.  It was stressful too.  I mostly had an issue with my mom.  I remember one day, she called me when Heath had ran home real quick to take a shower and take care of the cats.  Carleigh was fussing a lot.  I was trying to get her fed, burped, changed, etc... When my mom called, Carleigh had made a mess of her diaper and threw up.  And, of course, Carleigh was crying a lot because that's what babies do.  My mom's response to my stress case at the moment?  Laughter.  Yes.  She laughed because I had no help and was trying to take care of my baby as quickly as possible.  It was so rude and I'll never forget it.  So I don't want to deal with that again.  My mom swears up and down that she understands not to call/text us for updates.  We will see how long that lasts.  We told everyone we will update them when we have the time to do so.  If anyone finds that rude, tough cookies.

I'm hoping to be released from the hospital after 24 hrs, but that's probably wishful thinking.  I don't like staying in hospitals.  My home is so much more calmer and relaxing.  We won't have to deal with visits from family until June.  We already openly expressed we didn't want people here a week or two after the baby was born.  That was so much stress last time too.  Our neighbor across the street said she'd drop off some dinner on Sunday night.  That's super nice of her to do.  One less thing for us to do that evening.  So really, only our neighbors will see the baby almost right away.  But they don't hang around our house and bug us all day.

I'll try to update again when I have some free time after we arrive home.

Maternity Leave

I am finally on maternity leave!  My last day at work was yesterday.  My doctor scheduled my induction for March 19 at 6pm.  I had my last prenatal check up with him this afternoon.  I was only 3 cm dilated today.  My doctor believes that I will have the baby delivered before midnight on the 19th.  That is if the baby wants to stay put until then.  Who knows for sure when she's going to make her grand entrance into the world.  I'm having some contractions right now, but they aren't that bad.

It's just nice to finally be out of that stress case of an office.  It has been nothing but one thing after another there since September.  Too many changes all at once.  The extra days of rest before the baby comes will be greatly appreciated.  I don't know how some women work right up until their water breaks.  I didn't do it with Carleigh and I knew I wasn't doing it this time around either.  I understand that some people don't get short-term disability benefits through their employer.  I'm so thankful that I do so I can take that extra time off before I pop.

Carleigh's last day at preschool is on Friday.  She will be home with me until she starts kindergarten.  I plan to give her worksheets and art projects to do while home.  I have all of her kindergarten paperwork ready to go since registration starts next week.  It's so crazy to think I'll be sending one kid off to kindergarten this summer.  Since our schools here are year-round, I'm going to pick the schedule that gives her the summer break around her birthday.  For kindergarten, it's not really a big deal since she's only doing half days.  And you can't even consider it a half day since it's only 2 1/2 hrs a day.  The full day kindergarten is "tuition based", even for public school, so you have to pay extra.  Forget that.  I'm not trying to brag about my kid, but she's really smart and she gets bored with preschool work sometimes.  So I know she will get bored with kindergarten if she went all day.  I plan on throwing some first grade lessons/worksheets in with some of her kindergarten work to see how she handles it.  On her educational websites, she likes to play math games directed at first graders and she does pretty well at it.  So the math worksheets will be some of my go-to's.

Nothing else exciting is going on here.  We're all just waiting for the baby to come and enjoying the warmer weather.  My next blog update will probably happen after we bring the baby home from the hospital.  I'm sure there will be a time in between feedings and nap times that I'll be able to update the blog.