Rose Lilian came into the world on April 24 at 7:10am!
Here is her (long) story....
In the night on the 23rd (after 12:00am) I began to have some contractions. Nothing major but they seemed about 10 minutes apart. This was after eating a meal of Chinese food, which I was told by 2 ladies at the dentist office would bring on labour. I was thinking, "woah! this really worked!". The contractions kept me up from a bit of pain, but more excitement. I was able to sleep for a couple of hours, but basically was up in the night thinking we would be going to the hospital in the morning. I let Mike sleep so he would be alert. When the morning came and I had put the grandparents on call, the contractions completely subsided. I tried walking, lots of water, resting, etc. I talked to the hospital and they told me this was ok, and I should rest since I had little sleep the night before, in case I went into labour later. The day went by, but at around 5:00 I started to have contractions again, and this time they were present if I was sitting, walking and lying down. they were about 10 minutes apart. But because of the night before, we continued to be normal, eating dinner, etc. I soon realized that this was the real deal and we called in Grandma to come get Paige for the night. Paige was picked up at around 8:30, which was kind of sad, knowing that it was the last time we would see her as an only child. We made sure everything was packed up into the car and started to watch a movie on tv. The contractions started coming on very hard around every 8 minutes, and then eventually varying between 6-8 minutes. I called the hospital and they said it was a bit early, but we could come if we felt like it. Knowing we are about 20 minutes away from the hospital and there is a long bumpy construction road leading to the highway, we decided to go. It was getting pretty unbearable as well.
When we arrived to the hospital we got set up in the examination room where the baby and contractions were monitored and I was examined. I was about 3-4 centimeters, and at the time the baby was low. We were able to be admitted and got set up in our room. I decided to go for as long as possible without the epidural. We went from sitting on the bed to pacing the halls. It was nice as I was the only one there and it was the night, so some lights were out and it was much more relaxing. Also we had lots of attention as there were 4 nurses there. When the pain became unbearable and I was at about 7 cm, I opted for the epidural. At this point, it was about 2:00am, and I had only had the 2 hours of sleep the night before. I was worried I couldn't physically handle the demands of the rest of the labour. After this was set up I was able to rest my eyes and would start to dream, but never actually slept. Mainly because what followed demanded my attention. With every contraction, the baby's heart rate would drop from 150bpm to 60. I was put on oxygen and instructed to take deep breaths. The doctor (who happened to be my own OB who was on call) was getting very worried by the heart rate drop. She was saying that she couldn't watch this for much longer and I would have to go in for a c-section if it didn't improve. I was scared stiff by this. They tried to reposition me a number of times, and it was also discovered that the baby was not descending and was very high up, as well as face up. The doctor realized as I was lying down in the position that was best for the baby's heart rate, she was also so flopped over to the side (because my stomach was so torpedo shaped) that there was no way for her to descend. The nurses had to hold my stomach up, which almost instantly improved the situation. But still she just wouldn't go down very far after a couple of hours of pushing. Finally, when she got far enough, the doctor said that she would try a vacuum extraction 3 times, and if that failed it was into a c-section. With the first try at the vacuum, little Rose pretty much flew out at 7:10am, 14 hours after the beginning of the labour! I got to hold her right away as they cleaned her off and Mike cut the cord. As grueling, frightening, and tiring as the whole experience was, the care from all of the nurses and the doctor was amazing.
Rose was weighed as 7lbs, 11oz. and 20 inches long. She was in great shape when she came out, except for a little squished nose...which I'm assuming happened during the labour and the "sunny side up" delivery. Like Paige she came out with her eyes open, looking at the world.
We had a great 2 days at the hospital. She slept quite a bit and we were able to either hold her or put her in the bassinette. As we were so tired from no sleep, the nurse recommended that Mike went home for the night of the 24th so her could sleep. The nurse would take Rose for as long as I wanted while I slept and she would bring her in to see me to nurse her. Mike left at about 8:30 and I was able to get some glorious sleep, and the nurse brought her back in at 3:30. She offered to take her back after that, but I opted to keep her in the room the rest of the night. We were in a semi-private room, but there was no one else in it. I was able to have all the curtains open in the big room and have some bonding time with Rose. During the day it is easy to let everyone do things for you, but it forced me to tend to her, and myself without any assistance. I needed to experience that. So, it was nice, despite being tired. Mike came back early at 7:00 and we had another great day with her. The nurses had to do a hearing test, and blood work. Both came back fine, and in fact the nurse told us the blood work was the best she had ever seen! This was for jaundice and something else. She said it just means that everything is working really well. Pooping, eating, etc. We decided to go home that day at 5:30. Although I was still in pain, we figured that going home would be fine and that Paige could do with coming home. She came to visit us 3 times while we were there and it was quite confusing for her. We felt that bringing her home with us would be the best thing for her as well.
So far Rose has been very easy for us in her first few days. Of course we are much more confident parents, but she is a lot sleepier than Paige was, and the nursing is going much better. She doesn't take to a soother very well, which is fine since my milk has come in and the nursing is easy, and I need to do it to relieve the extreme engorgement. We have been able to put her in her crib right away and she is sleeping very well as long as she is in a nice tight swaddle. Again, unlike Paige who liked to be free, and would break out of any swaddle. We are averaging 5-6 hours of sleep a night, which I would say is realistic. I thought it would affect me much more, but I think the whole thing is so exciting that I don't notice being tired. This time around I am appreciating this stage much more, and I don't want her to get any bigger. Paige likes looking at Rose a lot, and so far is being quite good around her, and in general is taking quite well to the new family situation. I would say that so far we feel a lot different then we thought we would. It's not as stressful, demanding, or tiring as we thought it would be. We are loving every single second with our bigger family.
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