Delivery & The Hospital

I want to make sure I remember this so forgive all the details.

Last week we decided with my midwife to get induced as an elective induction at 39 weeks. We didn’t know if I should do an induction, but it went pretty well with Emerson and I was already progressed to a 5 and 80% effaced, so we figured I was basically in labor anyways! We scheduled the induction for Thursday morning, made plans for Emerson to be watched, packed up and got extremely excited thinking about meeting our baby girl. I was instructed to call the hospital at 6am to see how busy labor and delivery was, so figured I’d wake up a bit before to get ready and make sure everything was packed up. Well I woke up at 3:30am and couldn’t go back to sleep I was so excited. I also felt like my water might have broken, so I had to get up and get going.

They told us to come in at 7:30am. We got checked in, got to our room, and had the nurses check me and get set up. Here I am before we left—last pregnant picture. Thank goodness.

They got my IV going and then at 9am my doctor came, broke my water (it had only partially started leaking) and started me on the Pitocin. Around 10:30am I got my epidural and then decided to take a little nap (I had gotten up at 3:30am!). Mitch had his laptop and worked from the hospital room and got lunch while I rested. Those blackout shades were amazing, and with that epidural in I was feeling complete relaxation. My doctor came back to check me at 12:30. The room was still dark and I was half asleep when she checked me and said, “Whoa, the baby’s head is right there! We are ready to push.” They started turning the lights on, getting the bed setup, and everything ready for the birth when I was still so sleepy I barely had a second to think about what was going on! I sat up, chewed on some cherry ice chips (when you’re induced you can’t eat anything so I was starving), and got ready to meet our girl. She came so easily in two short pushes and they placed her on my chest all goopy and perfectly sweet. She started crying until I held her and just took several minutes feeling overwhelmed at the love I had for this healthy and lovely little girl, blood covered and all. I have to say after doing this twice, I love giving birth. I cannot describe how much I love that feeling of holding that baby for the first time, and having them look up at you and recognize your voice. When Mitch spoke to her she looked to him like she knew him also, and it melted my heart.

They got Vieve cleaned off and measured and then I held her for basically the rest of the day, minus a couple checks from the nurses.

Check out little Vieve’s pensive sleeping pose! My feelings about my little girl are so much different than they were with Emerson. With him, I called him buddy from day one and admired his adventurous spirit. With Genevieve, I just want to hold her and protect her. Girls are so sweet.

I have to say I really enjoyed the hospital stay. Last time we wanted to hold Emerson all night long, but this time I utilized the nursery nurses to take Vieve in the evening so I could rest, and they brought her to me every 4 hours to nurse. I actually felt really rested after the hospital and cannot describe how quick this recovery has been.

I was really worried about having to recover while caring for Emerson, but I think it just seems to go better the second time around. I already feel great taking care of the two kids. Here is Emerson kissing the baby with my mother-in-law.

After resting up and having family come to visit us at the hospital, I was excited to go home and get the baby out of the hospital. Here we are just before leaving.

Two days ago a friend asked if I wanted to come to the children’s museum with her… and I said I’d have to see about my kids’ schedule (!). It was weird to think about—we have kids! I love it. Luckily I’ve been feeling great and was able to venture out with the kiddos to the museum, especially thanks to my stepmom Tommie who is here helping us out. She stayed next to the stroller while I chased E around. Recovery is much better the second time around. We’ve had a great time letting visitors come and tell us how cute she is. How can anyone object to that? :)

More to come with pictures of Genevieve from this week—she is such a sweetheart.