Paige's Arrival and First Day

Yes, yes. I know that I am about two and a half months behind in posting this, but better late than never right?

After my ultrasound at 20 weeks, and them noticing that Paige was a big baby, (and knowing how big Hallie was) we started discussing the possibility of inducing early if needs be.  My doctor was hoping it wouldn't be an issue, and we basically decided it would be a "we'll cross that bridge when we get there," type of things.  So around a month before my due date, another ultrasound was scheduled.  At that point she was already nearly 7 pounds, so they decided to schedule an induction at 39 weeks.  May 2nd. Yet, of course, I was still hoping that we wouldn't need it.

But the day came.  The night before we got everything packed up, Hallie off to Grandma and Grandpa's for a few days, and Eric off to work.  So I had a whole night to myself to sit around and do nothing.  It was quite nice.  I actually ended up making some headbands for our little Paige, and going to sleep relatively early.  But that night, the hospital called.  They said that they were pretty full and they weren't sure if I would be able to come in or not.  I was rather annoyed and really hoped that it wouldn't be an issue. The nurse who called said to call at 4 am to see what it was looking like, so that if they were indeed full that we wouldn't have to be there at 5 am like we had planned. 

Eric ended up working a little bit late so that he could take the next couple days off.  He called the hospital around 4 am and they said to come on in. 

Last belly picture

We headed out a bit earlier than we needed to.  (We hadn't considered that there would be no traffic at that hour)  So we were there, and checked in all before 5 am.

5 am is early!

 Hallie had come quite quickly, so I was prepared for that, but I was fearful that it would be quite the opposite and it would take all day, but that was not the case luckily.

Because I tested positive for strep B bacteria, I had to be on antibiotic for four hours before delivering.  The only problem being, I am allergic to many medications.  Including most standard antibiotics.  So they spent a good hour figuring out what to give me that would work.

After doing the normal checks (and them having a hard time because her head was so low), I was hooked up to an IV around 5:30 for fluids (after they had a really hard time getting it in).  Around 6 for antibiotics.  At 7 they started the pitocin, and the anesthesiologist came in around 7:30.  And then we waited and were both actually able to get some sleep.  I woke up around 11 to a nurse coming in to check things, and said it was time to call the doctor. 

Our doctor's office is basically connected to the hospital, and he was there within five minutes. Then our little Paige was born at 11:15 am. (15 minutes past the required four hours of antibiotics, so she didn't have to have any more additional tests.) 

She was not at all happy.  She screamed and screamed.  I would say for close to an hour.

When they announced that she was 9 lbs 1 oz, we all were surprised.  We had planned on a big baby, but being 6 days early that was more than we had expected.  Our doctor even commented on how he was glad we didn't wait til 40 or 41 weeks.  She easily would have been over 10 pounds!

After being weighed, Eric started calling her our little meat loaf. :)

 And we were all instantly in love with all that hair!

I think this may be one of my favorite pictures.  It's just amazing how quickly you can love someone.

 After eating, and calming down a bit.  The nurses came and took her to the nursery to have a bath.

 Which made her very angry again.

 Until they washed her hair.  Eric said she loved having her hair washed.

 And with all that hair she even got a cute little hairstyle.

 Then we just hung out in our room, and adored our new little baby.

 Later that evening my mom brought Hallie to come meet her baby sister.  She was, understandably, a bit hesitant, and wanted to see her, but that was about it. She sat on my bed for a minute, gave Paige her book and elephant, and took a picture, but then she just ran around and played with her dad.  Which is totally fine too.

 And Paige had a present for Hallie.  A kids digital camera, so that Hallie could take pictures all by herself.  It has been great!

 Karen came too, and Paige just loved being held by her.  She was so quiet and happy.

Say "Cheese!"

 My dad came as well, and we all sat and chit-chatted for a bit, then they all headed home.

Daddy's first diaper change in a long time.

 When they ran the standard blood work on Paige, her blood sugar was a bit high.  They had to retest it every 6 hours I believe, her poor little feet were poked and poked and poked! But because of that it made her really tired and she didn't want to eat, so we had to feed her some formula with a syringe.  None of us enjoyed that experience.  It would take us close to an hour to get her to eat, and she would keep spitting it out and it just was not fun.

After getting her fed, we walked her down to the nursery for the night.  The nursery was incredibly full.  The nurses asked if they were keeping her for the night, and we said yes.  They just said, "okay, I guess we'll find room somewhere."  I think we counted 15 babies in the nursery at that point.  When we had Hallie I think she was one of two or three babies in the nursery.  They said they had so many they brought in extra nurses from UVRMC.  It was crazy.  But after getting her settled, we headed back to our room (right next door to where Hallie was born), and went to sleep.  What a great day it had been.