amelia is one week old already! this time last week, i was plum tired and so glad to be holding my baby girl. and a week later, well, i'd say things are about the same. :) ha! i thought her week-old birthday would be the perfect time to share amelia's birth story... another successful vbac, praise the Lord! this is a long post... in fact, i think it took me longer to write this post than to actually birth amelia!
here we are, ready to leave for the hospital at 5:50 AM last thursday morning. don't we look bright-eyed and bushy-tailed?
we arrived at the hospital right at 6 AM. i got settled in to my labor and delivery room, which was the same one that claire was born in a little over a year ago. my nurses, jenny and angie, were wonderful. jenny has been working in L&D for almost 30 years, and angie is a very experienced nurse who has been training in L&D for the last 2 months. i guess nobody would really call delivering a baby "fun", but these two ladies sure did make it a great experience. before things really started kickin', we chatted and laughed a lot (while brian enjoyed the burn notice marathon that had already begun at 6:30 AM). they really were great nurses. and they kept the ice chips comin'. :) you've gotta love hospital ice!
since i wasn't getting my water broken till around 9 am, i assumed they wouldn't start my pitocin till after that... well, i was wrong! i was 3 cm when i got there, and they started a low dose of pitocin around 7:00. by 8:45, i was still 3 cm, and i was ready for my epidural. that didn't take too long to kick in, but it was a little stronger on my left side than on my right. my blood pressure stayed pretty low through all of this, which is one sign that the epidural is working, but it was too low, and i had to stay lying down for most of the morning. when the dr. came in to break my water at 9:20, i was still at 3 cm, so they started really kicking up the pitocin. i was having good strong contractions, but they were incredibly far apart. by 10:50, i was at 5 cm, and an hour later, i was fully dilated! woohoo! so we went from thinking that we'd be waiting until well into the afternoon to "it's time to push!". woah!
hang on...let me back up to 7 cm, though. around 11:30, i started feeling the contractions. not just the pressure, but the pain. down there. at this point, there wasn't really much they could do about it, and i knew i wasn't feeling all the pain that my amazing natural-birth friends have felt, but it still wasn't pleasant! so i had a feeling that i was going to really feel this baby come out this time. and i did. with caroline, my epidural was too strong, and i couldn't even feel to push very effectively. well, i made up for it this time! that pain sure is motivation to get that baby out, i tell ya what! again, i'm sure i only felt a fraction of the "real pain" that comes with natural childbirth, but i felt plenty! i don't fully understand the whole epidural thing. i know it can have some patches where it doesn't take, but i couldn't feel the nurses checking me, i couldn't feel being stitched up later, but i could feel the whole birth. that's all in the same general vicinity if you know what i mean, so i just don't get it!
ok, so i started pushing at 11:55, and after several contractions, amelia's heart tones did not bounce back as quickly as they should have, so she needed to come out fast. my doctor ended up using the vacuum to get her head out, though he was really hoping that i could push her out without any help. i told him just to do what he had to do! as her head emerged, the dr. saw that amelia's cord was around her neck. he was unable to unwrap it, so he had to cut her cord while i waited to push her out. (i was thinking, "take your time!") at 12:16, only 25 minutes after i was fully dilated, amelia lynn was born! my whole labor and delivery was clocked at 3 hours and 20 minutes. not too shabby!
since it all happened so fast, we didn't have time to call any friends and family before hand to say, "she'll be here soon!" (after ethan's 30+ hour labor, our loved ones are hesitant to hang out at the hospital to wait for our babies to be born!) so after amelia was born, brian and i were both frantically calling everyone to let them know she was already here. i'm sure we looked like incredibly uncaring parents, both chatting on the phone while our baby girl was taking her first breaths in this world!
she was a little stunned after her birth, so amelia had to be under observation for about half an hour before i could hold her. i could see her from across the room, and i could already tell that she looked like her brother! amelia had great apgar scores and checked out fine, so around 12:45, they handed me my baby girl!
newborns make me smile for a million reasons, but one being that they can look like precious little dolls one minute and wrinkly grumpy old men the next moment. :) does anybody else know what i mean, or am i just a really bad mother?! the picture of me holding amelia above? grumpy old man... the pictures of the kids holding her for the first time below? grumpy old man. picture at the top of this post? precious little doll! and there will be plenty more precious doll-baby pictures to come, i am sure! i guess those sweet newborns' grumpy little looks are pretty legitimate after what they've just been through to arrive in this world! ha! ok, on with the pictures... i love this one!
ethan and caroline arrived at the hospital with my mom about an hour or so after amelia was born. they brought her "happy birthday" cards that they'd made earlier that day with gram. ethan was so excited to give his card to amelia. the kids hopped right up in the bed with me to say hello to their baby sister. they were so sweet to touch her gently and talk softly to her. they were very concerned that her feet were black (from getting her footprints printed), and caroline did not like the hospital bands on us or the lines taped to my hand (hep-lock?). ethan's first comment to me was, "why did they make you take off your shirt?" :) good to see you too, son!
aunt kristie and karina also showed up with chick-fil-a (thank you!!). so amelia momentarily was forgotten, and daddy's fries were the real showstopper. this picture makes me laugh... (insert finding nemo: "mine! mine! mine! mine!")
the kids were so excited to hold baby amelia for the first time. i actually didn't even know they had held her until after it happened because they were on the other side of the room, but at least kristie caught this precious moment on camera for me! caroline seems SO OLD AND BIG now, just as i thought she would. look at that proud big sister! :) and look at the sparkle in ethan's eyes. he is so happy that amelia is finally here!
ethan and caroline loved watching amelia get her first bath. my nurse was so wonderful to make sure that the kids could see what she was doing.
we had visitors for most of the rest of the afternoon and evening. it was such a blessing to share amelia's special day with so many people we love! i'm pretty sure i got a picture of everyone that came to the hospital, but this post is already extremely too long, so i won't make it too much longer. by the end of the night, we were exhausted. they moved us to a TINY room, and we tried to get some sleep that night. every little peep that amelia made was waking me up, so we eventually sent her to the nursery, and i was able to get three whole hours of sleep before they brought her to me to nurse again. but before we sent her to the nursery, i had a little fun taking some pictures. i raised my hospital bed as high as i possibly could, and with amelia beside me (and below me) in her little bassinet (i call it the rubbermaid container), i snapped away. here's a sweet shot i captured...
so that wraps up amelia's big day. the kids actually came back to the hospital later that evening for a little birthday party for her, so i will share those pictures next. we are having fun enjoying every little thing about amelia, and we're so thankful that she is here. i can't believe it's already been a week! check back soon for more fun stories and pictures.
kristie and i have a tradition of bringing donuts to each other in the hospital to celebrate each new baby. and being the silly women that we are, we also like to turn it into a little birthday party with candles and everything. :) (now our excuse is that the kids enjoy making it a party, but i'm not sure what our excuse was originally...) after we got settled in our room at the hospital, the party began! the 3 cousins looked so stinkin' cute all lined up on the end of my bed, and they had so much fun singing "happy birthday" to baby amelia. of course, caroline has been practicing this for who knows how long! and then out came the donuts. less than an hour before bedtime. but hey, i wasn't dealing with the kids that night. :) (haha, just kidding, mom!) for the record, i really only think they had 1/2 a donut each. but my new "mom of three kids" mantra is "i don't care". not about everything, but about things like donuts at 7:45 at night... especially on their sister's birthday! so anyway, after consuming x number of donuts, the kids were pretty wired. and the hospital room was pretty small. and though aunt kristie was so smart to buy a balloon for each of the kids, they all wanted the same one. go figure. those party animals quickly morphed into party poopers! so we kissed them good night and sent them home on a donut high. but it was a fun little birthday celebration for sweet baby amelia... i think she slept through every minute of it! and i managed to eat a donut and hold amelia without showering my newborn daughter in krispy kreme sprinkles!! oh the skills of motherhood. :) here's a few pictures from our birthday celebration...
here are the cousins piled up on my bed singing happy birthday.
this picture makes me laugh so hard. karina must have been
sweet, sweet cousins. look at those identical little profiles!
here we are with amelia's wonderful aunt kristie! 
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