Baby G is Here!

Baby Magnolia * born September 29 * 8 lbs, 4 oz * 20 1/2 inches long

Well our little Baby G is finally here! Things are a little crazy, so I just jumped on the blog really quickly to give an update since not everyone knows what's going on.

We came to the hospital Wednesday evening to get induced. They started my pitocin and things were going pretty well. My doctor came in and broke my water and then the contractions started coming much stronger. I toughed it out for a couple hours and then asked for my epidural. I know there are lots of opinions out there on inductions and epidurals and blah blah blah, but for my part, getting induced was the right thing in our situation and it went beautifully. And epidurals are fantastic.

Anyway, they told us to expect at the soonest that she would be born around 7:00 the next morning. So imagine everyone's surprise when the nurse checked me at about 2:00 a.m. and said I was all of the sudden at 9+ centimeters. I couldn't believe it. I spent weeks sitting at a 1, and then another few weeks at a 2 (which is what I was at when they started the pitocin) and in just a few hours we were almost all the way.

Without getting into all the details, our beautiful baby girl was born at 4:54 in the morning. Labor is difficult. That's all I'll say about it on the internet.

My nurse was awesome and made me feel really comfortable, and when my doctor came in he was amazing and really helped me feel like I could do it, and took really good care of me after she was born. But hands down Rob was the best. He was right in the thick of things and really involved with the labor, always helping me, encouraging me, and being so positive, never getting squeamish or making me feel alone.

When the doctor held up our little girl, and placed her on my belly Rob and I were both sobbing. It's the most surreal experience, and you can't really adequately describe it. She was so perfect. They took her across the room to clean her up and I couldn't stop looking at her. It made for a nice distraction because the doctor was sewing me up and people were in and out cleaning things up.

Now comes the sad part. At the end of labor I got a slight fever. They started some medicine in my IV and I really didn't think anything of it, but it turns out that about half of all babies born when the mother develops a fever during labor have an infection. So a NICU nurse came up and cleaned her off, and after we had about an hour with her in the delivery room, she told us they'd be taking her away and doing some tests. I was so confused and didn't expect to hear anything about the NICU, what with an 8+ lb baby born a week past her due date. They wheeled me down and we had to drop her off. They just said they'd be doing labs and they'd let us know, and everyone acted cheery but I was so confused. I'd just been up all night in labor and delivering a baby, so I was pretty out of it but I didn't understand why I didn't get to take my baby upstairs with me, or why they weren't telling me more information.

To sum up everything, Nolie has an infection and is in the NICU to be monitored and administered anitbiotics. The tests they do take awhile to really tell if the baby does or doesn't have an infection, so they have a mandatory 48 hour period where they kept her in the NICU. We finally found out yesterday that she for sure does have one, and our pediatrician told us to expect maybe four days to a week before we can take her home. It could be sooner, but he didn't want to get our hopes up.

We were discharged this morning, but we're still at the hospital on hotel stay because we go down to the NICU every few hours to feed her. The first day of recovery was really difficult for me on every level. Again, that's all I'll say about it on the internet.

By Friday, the second day, I was feeling much better. Recovery was getting easier and even though we found out she'd be here longer, we were glad that she was getting the care she needed and that they caught her infection, because it could have been so much worse if they hadn't treated her. She's eating like a champ most times and she is just such a sweet and mellow baby. Plus she is such a gorgeous little thing.

Tonight, we're here in hotel stay, and we're actually feeling pretty good. We went out and got snacks, I can drink as much free coke as I want, and even though we can't take her home yet, we finally have our cute baby. Physically I'm recovering really well, and Nolie's tests have been coming back better and better, so we could go home as early as tomorrow. But even if we don't, being in the NICU has sort of been a blessing. I can't really explain it, but it just makes us even more excited to take her home and have her there with us, without all the wires IVs and people coming and going.

I will try to update as I can, and once we are home I will make up for the lack of photos by taking a bajillion. We don't have very many because things have been so crazy and the IV in her poor little head makes me sad. Anyway, we love our little girl and can't wait to take her home with us, hopefully very soon.