Caution: below are labor story details!
So we originally were going to go in for induction on the previous Wednesday, but Annie and I both were sick. We both caught the nasty flu bug that has been going around, and on top of that Annie had an ear infection and I had a sinus infection. Both her pediatrician and my OBGYN suggested that we push back on the induction date and hope that the baby stays in until then. Thankfully we heeded their advice and had some time to heal! I'm glad little Laura waited to make her debut, because we felt miserable! But by time Sunday rolled around, I was feeling like a new person and was much more mentally and physically prepared to welcome her into the world!
Sunday morning we went into the hospital at 6am and they got me started on pitocin (that induces the contractions). My body was already at 3-4cm, so the pitocin was supposed to kick start me into active labor. The nurse came in a few times after that to check my progress. It was going a little slow. My sweet doctor was only coming to the hospital for us that day, and was calling the nurse for updates. He came in to check on us later that morning and told us we had the option of him popping my water. It was basically just the difference of how long we wanted to wait. We decided to go ahead and pop it. Shortly after that I received my epidural - which was amazing! The whole morning Tyler and I basically hung out, played a few card games, put on a movie and then I was in and out of sleep. Seriously, I love going to the hospital to have a baby. We have fun with the whole experience!
About an hour after the doctor had popped my water, the nurse came in to check on me and I was progressed, the baby was there and it was definitely time to push. It took her by surprise! She told me to just keep my legs together and she was going to go run and call the doctor to have him come back to the hospital. This was all news to me, thanks to my amazing epidural! So we just kept hanging out and tried to keep our mouths from gaping open that it was already push time.
The nurse came back in and told us the doctor was here and getting ready to come in. She had me do a practice push and then immediately changed her mind once I started and told me to wait, otherwise the doctor wouldn't make it. Quickly after he came in and it was time to push!
With Annie, I had been pushing all day. With Laura, she came out in three pushes! I was not expecting that! He had me push, and then nonchalantly told me to stop and that the baby's cord was wrapped around her neck, and then told me to go ahead and push again shortly after. I love my doctor. I never felt stressed because he's so calm and collected and makes it so easy to feel confident in him. He pulled my sweet baby out and handed her to me. That feeling is always so surreal, to finally meet the little person that has been so close, but also felt so distant for 9 months.
After cuddling with our new little one for a bit and they finished all of their newborn procedures, they went ahead and moved us down the hall to a mom+baby recovery room. My epidural was still in effect, so they had me get on one of these interesting chairs (not necessarily a wheelchair, because I was kneeling on my knees and leaning forward - Titanic movie scene style) to wheel me down to the new room. That felt crazy to be rolled down the hall with my hospital gown gaping behind me in the wind. Ty and I couldn't stop laughing at how ridiculous it looked/felt.
Everything was going really well until the next day. Laura's eye started to get really pussy. Like, scary pussy. If she opened her eye at all, puss would explode out. I could't even see her eyeball if I wanted to. We had amazing nurses the entire hospital stay, except for that night. I felt like the nurse wasn't taking it very seriously, or at least she wasn't doing a very good job of answering my questions and making me feel like everything was ok. Lets just say I didn't sleep much that night, on top of the fact that I had a new baby. The next morning I felt like all of my concerns were validated with the new nurse and when the pediatrician came and saw her. He did a good job of answering my questions, as well as being honest and saying that he wasn't fully sure what the cause was, and that he was having a children's eye specialist come to figure out what was going on. The pediatrician kept complimenting me about the questions I was asking, and he must have told the specialist that or something, because the specialist came in at 100% and was talking to me like I had been to medschool. It was a crazy conversation to try to follow, but I think I did a decent job. I learned a lot about our eyes and all that goes on in that part of our face!
Basically, when he first got there, he examined her eye to make sure that the eye itself was ok, and that there wasn't some type of bacteria eating at the eyeball itself. After he ruled that out, he thought it could either be a really bad blocked tear duct, or some kind of infection - it ended up being both. They kept us in the hospital for another two nights while they ran tests to check her blood to make sure it was a local infection and not one that was spreading. They ended up giving me antibiotics to slather over her eye, as well as a schedule for flushing it out and cleaning it. It got much better once we started up those things. The doctors released us, but we still had to visit the specialist a few times to make sure we were correct on the diagnosis and on the right course of action for treatment. He was an awesome guy, and even gave me his cell phone number to text him with updates, as well as scheduling appointments with us on Sundays after office hours. We would show up and he'd let us in the backdoor to an empty office just so he could check on our baby. Tyler and I have talked so much about how we have been so blessed to have such amazing doctors. We more than love our OBGYN, our Pediatrician, and then all of the other doctors that were on rounds while we were in the hospital and this specialist. Oh, and the nurses. I made some friends hanging out with them during the day! Tyler keeps telling me he has no clue how in 12 hours of their shift, I went from meeting complete strangers, to them leaving the hospital at the end of their shift telling me that I remind them of their sister and that they have had so much fun at work today. I seriously lucked out on nurses and medical staff!
On top of that, we are also so lucky to have such amazing family. We got so much support from our local family, as well as our out-of-town family. My mom and dad kept Annie this entire time, which meant Annie was in Heaven. She is obsessed with my mom and adores every second she gets to spend her house. It was nice to know that my baby was in good hands while we were spending a bit longer at the hospital than expected.
We had a photoshoot done at the hospital when Annie got to meet her new baby sister for the first time. I had prayed a lot about this moment. I had been feeling a lot of worry about taking our only child and making her feel like she had been replaced. I was scared she was going to have some negative reactions towards the baby. We had decided beforehand that we were going to put the baby in the bassinet on the other side of the room when Annie came to visit us for the first time in the hospital. We wanted to make sure she had time with us first, and that she would find the baby on her own. We knew we didn't want her to walk in and see us holding a new baby in a weird setting. Our plan worked out awesome. She came in and cuddled us, then started exploring and found her sister. She was instantly IN LOVE. From that moment on she did not want to stop cuddling with the baby or staring at the baby. My heart has never been so full! Below are some pictures from the shoot - can you tell I had a hard time just choosing a few to post
. ;)
Our sweet girl was just OBSESSED with the baby. She wanted to crawl in the basinet to keep the cuddles going with the baby, and she cried and cried when it was time to go because she wanted to keep holding the baby. It was the sweetest.
Since we had an extended stay in the hospital, due to Laura's eye, Annie came and visited us a few times. She loved helping take care of the baby and playing with Daddy. We tried to make the most out of those extra days.
We are lucky parents to two beautiful little girls. Thankfully everything ended up good with Laura's eye. We had answered prayers and blessings as well as great doctors to help. So now we are all home and happy and settling in as a family of four! :)
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| Updating the family - waiting for the action to start! |
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| It's almost go time! |
Everything was going really well until the next day. Laura's eye started to get really pussy. Like, scary pussy. If she opened her eye at all, puss would explode out. I could't even see her eyeball if I wanted to. We had amazing nurses the entire hospital stay, except for that night. I felt like the nurse wasn't taking it very seriously, or at least she wasn't doing a very good job of answering my questions and making me feel like everything was ok. Lets just say I didn't sleep much that night, on top of the fact that I had a new baby. The next morning I felt like all of my concerns were validated with the new nurse and when the pediatrician came and saw her. He did a good job of answering my questions, as well as being honest and saying that he wasn't fully sure what the cause was, and that he was having a children's eye specialist come to figure out what was going on. The pediatrician kept complimenting me about the questions I was asking, and he must have told the specialist that or something, because the specialist came in at 100% and was talking to me like I had been to medschool. It was a crazy conversation to try to follow, but I think I did a decent job. I learned a lot about our eyes and all that goes on in that part of our face!
Basically, when he first got there, he examined her eye to make sure that the eye itself was ok, and that there wasn't some type of bacteria eating at the eyeball itself. After he ruled that out, he thought it could either be a really bad blocked tear duct, or some kind of infection - it ended up being both. They kept us in the hospital for another two nights while they ran tests to check her blood to make sure it was a local infection and not one that was spreading. They ended up giving me antibiotics to slather over her eye, as well as a schedule for flushing it out and cleaning it. It got much better once we started up those things. The doctors released us, but we still had to visit the specialist a few times to make sure we were correct on the diagnosis and on the right course of action for treatment. He was an awesome guy, and even gave me his cell phone number to text him with updates, as well as scheduling appointments with us on Sundays after office hours. We would show up and he'd let us in the backdoor to an empty office just so he could check on our baby. Tyler and I have talked so much about how we have been so blessed to have such amazing doctors. We more than love our OBGYN, our Pediatrician, and then all of the other doctors that were on rounds while we were in the hospital and this specialist. Oh, and the nurses. I made some friends hanging out with them during the day! Tyler keeps telling me he has no clue how in 12 hours of their shift, I went from meeting complete strangers, to them leaving the hospital at the end of their shift telling me that I remind them of their sister and that they have had so much fun at work today. I seriously lucked out on nurses and medical staff!
On top of that, we are also so lucky to have such amazing family. We got so much support from our local family, as well as our out-of-town family. My mom and dad kept Annie this entire time, which meant Annie was in Heaven. She is obsessed with my mom and adores every second she gets to spend her house. It was nice to know that my baby was in good hands while we were spending a bit longer at the hospital than expected.
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| My mom, dad and grandma came down to meet baby Laura on the night she was born. |
We had a photoshoot done at the hospital when Annie got to meet her new baby sister for the first time. I had prayed a lot about this moment. I had been feeling a lot of worry about taking our only child and making her feel like she had been replaced. I was scared she was going to have some negative reactions towards the baby. We had decided beforehand that we were going to put the baby in the bassinet on the other side of the room when Annie came to visit us for the first time in the hospital. We wanted to make sure she had time with us first, and that she would find the baby on her own. We knew we didn't want her to walk in and see us holding a new baby in a weird setting. Our plan worked out awesome. She came in and cuddled us, then started exploring and found her sister. She was instantly IN LOVE. From that moment on she did not want to stop cuddling with the baby or staring at the baby. My heart has never been so full! Below are some pictures from the shoot - can you tell I had a hard time just choosing a few to post
. ;)
Since we had an extended stay in the hospital, due to Laura's eye, Annie came and visited us a few times. She loved helping take care of the baby and playing with Daddy. We tried to make the most out of those extra days.
We are lucky parents to two beautiful little girls. Thankfully everything ended up good with Laura's eye. We had answered prayers and blessings as well as great doctors to help. So now we are all home and happy and settling in as a family of four! :)
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