Sisters

I had low expectations for Josie meeting Audrey. She's only (almost) 17 months old. Come on, how much can she really understand? We'd been prepping her as much as we could, talking about the "baby", pointing to my belly, practicing saying her name, but generally she seemed to ignore us as much as possible and showed very little signs that she understood. Sure, she liked patting my belly and other babies, but none of that really meant she understood.

She'd been staying with her grandma and grandpa while we were at the hospital, so they worked hard on getting her to say "Audrey". Also, her grandpa's tradition is to buy a small stuffed animal horse and bring it with to the hospital when he meets the baby. Of course, the horse had been within Jo's view at their house, so they'd been working on explaining how that horse was for her sister, Audrey. 

It turned out that Grandma and Josie were the first people to arrive to the hospital, so Jo ended up being the first one besides hubby and I to see her. How cool is that? She came running into the room saying "Baby? Baby! Baby? Baby." She said it with a question-like tone, excitement, a factual tone, and repeat over and over. Hubby picked her up and she looked really close for maybe two minutes before moving on. I couldn't have asked for more. 

Once Grandpa caught up and came in the room, the next big focus for Josie was getting that horse she'd been wanting to hold for so long. Grandpa gave it to her and told her to bring it to the baby. She listened and "shared" it with her, but mostly she was just so excited to hold it. She spent most of the rest of her time there sharing it with everyone and passing it around. It was pretty sweet. She still calls the horse "Audrey horse". I don't know if she understands that Audrey's name is just Audrey and not "Audrey horse".

She was pretty happy to have a little one-on-one with us too. Glad she missed us a little bit at least!

All of her life, Josie has been the main event with everyone around. Being the first grand kid on both sides, she knows how to get laughs and generally gets a ridiculous amount of attention. With the addition of her cousin four months ago, she's learned to share it and how to interact with a baby, so we were blessed to have that part learned. She didn't seem jealous at all and was happy to clown around with those interested around her. Generally, after that initial interest, she was not interested in anything Audrey related. I'd take that over jealousy any day.



There was one point in the day that she wanted to hold the baby. We got pictures and I'm so glad we did, because it was priceless. She was all about it, got a good look, and was done. She even pushed her away like "Okay, let's play with the next toy!" Too funny.

Initial thought  - "Yeah, holding this baby is the most fun!"

And we're done. 

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Audrey's Birth Story Part 3

Read Part 1 here and Part 2 here if you missed either of them!

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Once the Epidural was in, I fell into a restless sleep. I would wake up every five to ten minutes because of all of the activity in the room and time seemed to go so slow. It was 8:15 AM. By 10:00 or so, my nurse checked me and said that I was at 8 cm and almost fully effaced. That was awesome news. It didn't seem to have been that long and progress was obviously being made. She said to let me know when I felt like pushing, but I figured it would be a while before that. I slept a little more and woke up a couple of times when I could feel the contractions high up on my stomach. I figured the drugs were not as strong at this point and planned to have the nurse give a little more. When she came back to check in again, she just noted what I told her and said to let her know when I wanted to push again. I was surprised that she wasn't going to change anything, but too drowsy to really care since they weren't hurting.

After a couple more contractions, I noticed that I felt them more in the middle of my stomach and told hubby that it felt like things were moving down, although I didn't really feel like pushing. My nurse was adamant that I would feel like it soon, so I just kept waiting (much more awake now!) to feel it. Not even five minutes later, I could feel that familiar urge to push and she got me ready to go. The midwife and her trainee came in, watched me push through a contraction, and all jumped into place frantically. They said that I was doing great and that she'd be here in a few minutes. WHAT? I thought this would take at least 20 minutes and was willing to do it for hours like I had to do for Josie. I didn't believe them. It didn't seem possible.

After a couple more pushes, they told me she had a ton of hair and that it was super dark. I could feel the contractions but there was no ring of fire like before. I didn't feel the urge to scream out and was laughing through part of it because it seemed so surreal. They had me push one last time and out she slipped. Seriously, she slipped out. It was like nothing. She made a bit of noise and they put her on my chest right away. I wasn't sick or nauseous and was fully able to enjoy the moment. They were cleaning out her nose and mouth since she had some Meconium in the amniotic fluid. I held her for quite a while before letting them take her to get cleaned up.

We all took turns guessing her weight (because yes, the midwives and nurses were awesome and acted like family at this point) and were all guessing around 9 lbs. We were all wrong when she weighed in at just 8 lb 6 oz. That may not seem small to you, but in our families, she is the smallest baby by more than half a pound! Hubby was a big baby, my sister and I were, Josie and her cousin was, etc. She is also longer measuring at 21 1/4 inches long. (Josie was 9 lb 7 oz and 20 1/2 inches long). 

I look out of it but I think I was just blinking. I was actually smiling and crying and laughing more than anything at how wonderful she is.

A lot of hair and sweet pink skin. She looks like Josie a little but they have their differences. You can definitely tell they are sisters though!

The midwife and her trainee did their thing while we took pictures of her, texted our friends and family, and laughed with each other at how truly blessed we were. We were just giddy! It was so different than with Josie, where I was completely out of it for the first couple hours of her life.

Our immediate family came in the afternoon and met her. Josie got to meet her first, actually, and I'll post those details as a separate post. It was also a sweet moment.

My recovery has been awesome. My nurse said I had hardly any swelling. I did tear along the same spot as before but it was minimal and my pain was more discomfort than anything. I was up and moving around easily and already feel almost back to normal just four days later.

Audrey is such a joy (it's her middle name too - so perfect). She's sweet, hardly fusses, eats pretty well, and loves to cuddle. My mama heart is full.

I had a really hard time finding a picture of her face, so this zoomed in shot is the best we have from her first day. Oh well!

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Audrey's Birth Story Part 2

Read Part 1 here if you missed it!

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Once we got to the hospital and checked in, we were told to just hang out and do whatever we wanted. I was completely overwhelmed by this because I had assumed they'd want me in the bed and I'd have to push for alternative laboring positions. We ended up walking the halls after being officially admitted. The first half hour, I was plugged up to the IV for the GBS (Group B Strep) so I had to drag that along, but once that was done I was able to just walk around free of all monitors and cords. 

The contractions picked up and were 1-2 minutes apart lasting anywhere from 30-60 seconds each. It seemed great, so after an hour or so, we went back to the room to try sitting down (not laying down in bed). At this point, the contractions did slow down, although they didn't stop. I was distracted by my water leaking  because it seriously seemed out of control. Anytime I switched positions or bent a little or even moved backwards or forwards, it would pour out of me and make a huge mess. I spent a ton of time in the bathroom trying to stay relatively clean and dry. It was frustrating. I even asked if it was normal to be leaking so much for so long, and they said that I was probably holding a lot more fluid than other pregnant women. This makes sense because we all assumed baby would be huge but she wasn't - I just had a lot of fluid.

Around 1:30 AM, my nurse came in and wanted to talk about sleeping sedatives. I was hesitant at first because I still was hoping for an all natural birth, but she said that a lot of times after the water breaks, it can take quite a long time for contractions to really pick up. Since we were missing all of a night's sleep, she wanted us to have the option of getting a few hours before I was really put to work. The risks were extremely minimal and I was getting pretty tired. She also said that if my contractions got strong enough to be serious or close to pushing, my body would not even acknowledge the meds and I would be awake in no time. Sign me up! 

They kicked in about 45 minutes later, but I never really fell asleep. I did completely relax and get some serious rest, but never lost consciousness. Around 4:30 AM, I really wanted to get at least something going. I woke up the hubby who was sleeping on the super uncomfortable chair/bed they have in the room, and we resumed walking. The contractions really picked up and were taking my breath away, but once we stopped they lost their intensity. 

My midwife came in around 5:30 AM and said that she wanted to start a little Pitocin (the drug that they use for inducing me). I was shocked by this because I thought they wouldn't want to do that unless absolutely necessary. They planned on doing a minimal amount and only upping it when needed. Although I was bummed, I also realized how fast time was going and how little progress had been made. At this point, I was at 4 cm, which was great because I had progressed from the 2 cm I had been at when I came in, but was not a lot of progression for the amount of time I had been laboring.

They started the Pitocin at 6:30 AM, and the contractions started getting really sharp. They were also coupling and tripling, which is similar to what happened with Josie. This meant that I'd have two or three contractions each about a minute apart and then have a long break, usually around five minutes. As long as this was the pattern, they planned on bumping up the Pitocin level a little at a time until it evened out. These contractions were so different from normal contractions, and I could feel myself freaking out. I was in a haze of exhaustion (possibly the sleeping sedative that hadn't worn off completely) and could hardly focus on getting through each contraction. 

That's kind of ironic actually. The nurse repeatedly said that she couldn't tell based on my demeanor when I was having a contraction because I was so "zen". I would focus completely on my breathing and praying through each one and spent some time reading the bible verse cards I had prepared ahead of time. Up until this point, I knew I was doing pretty good and was not nervous, just excited.

Now that I had the Pitocin in my system, I changed my birth plan. I had always known deep down that if I had to be induced, I'd probably get an Epidural again. The Epidural pushed me from a 2.5 to a 7 in just a couple of hours with Josie and it was clear to everyone that my body needed to relax and just do it's thing. So this time, I was willing to let it do it again. Plus the contractions were so so so sharp. That's the best word I can come up with to describe it. I turned to the hubby at one point and said "don't you love how I just completely changed course?" and he just had to laugh. He agreed with my decision and we got the ball rolling for the Epidural.

It took about 45 minutes from that point until the anesthesiologist was in the room getting the needle in place in my back. With Josie, he (a different doctor of course) hit my nerve twice and it was incredibly painful. I was terrified of this happening again, but this doctor was so nice and calming. I trusted him. He got me laying on my side and talked me through most of it. I started praying immediately because the contractions were crazy intense and he wasn't waiting for a break between them before continuing.  Get this. He hit a nerve like four times. FOUR times! It was just ... a terrible ten minutes (let's just put it that way). The tears came, I did what I could to not cry out, but thankfully he was very aware of my body language and always stopped the second he went too far. Finally, he got it in place and I was able go back to a normal resting position. 

Part three here.


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Audrey's Birth Story Part 1

Now that she's here, I want to get this birth story written out before I forget everything! So. 

We were scheduled to be induced on Sunday, November 18th which would have been ten days from due date. The week before that, I was nauseous and extremely uncomfortable almost every day and was thinking to myself "Why on earth did I push back the date to be induced??" I was feeling guilty about not being able to play much with Josie and being hard to be around for hubby and the family the rest of the time. Thankfully, they seemed to understand.

On Saturday, I woke up thinking "last day for sure with just me and Josie" so I knew I wanted to do something  and not just sit around feeling miserable. My body felt pretty good and I had minimal nausea. I got it in my head that I was going to Walmart to stock up on a few things (flour, eggs, the basics) and then I was going to decorate for Christmas as much as I possibly could. Somehow this plan actually worked out, and I was happily able to get a lot of it done before hubby got home. It was fun to do it with Josie around because she loved the "Christmas books" and her nativity set that she got to play with while I did the "real work". 

Once hubby was home, he put the lights up outside and then we ate dinner as a family of three. Josie stayed with hubby's parents (awesome because she's there so much the way it is, it's like her second home) while we were gone so we brought her over after we ate. We figured it was better for her to sleep there then to have us wake her up really early and then have to fall back asleep once she got there.

It was bittersweet dropping Jo off, knowing that next time we saw her would be in the hospital. It did help that she was completely excited to be at grandma's at night.

Back at our house, we continued to decorate our home for Christmas. At one point (as we were basically getting done), hubby through my phone towards me and I missed it. As I reached down to pick it up, I felt like I peed a little (sorry, TMI) like when I coughed too hard a couple of weeks ago while I had that awful cold. 

I went to the bathroom to assess the damage and was surprised by how wet everything was. Plus, no odor, which if being honest, usually made me more grossed out than the act of "peeing a little" itself. I was planning on showering anyways, so upstairs I went to shower and get ready for bed.

Afterwards, nothing seemed out of the ordinary, so even though I had an inkling that my water had possibly broke, I assumed it was me being paranoid and threw on a robe (good choice, looking back). I bent over to grab the garbage bag (always cleaning and prepping in prebaby mode) and suddenly realized that I was standing in a huge puddle of clear liquid. Thank you God that I was upstairs on the hard surface floors instead of downstairs on the carpet! I yelled for hubby to bring a towel and just stood there with no clue what to do.

Have you seen the episode of Keeping up with the Kardashians where Kourtney goes into labor with Mason? (Don't judge, that show is my weakness) Well I think this is similar to what happened to her, so thankfully I had an idea as to what was coming next. Funny where we learn things from. I called the hospital and the nurse said take my time coming in since contractions hadn't started. She also said that it was good for me to call and check when I did because I did need to come in with enough time to get the antibiotics for Group Strep B since I had tested positive. Hubby took a shower, I finished packing up my bags, and we left the house at exactly 10:00 PM.

41 weeks - last pregnancy picture

Part two here.


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