Leah Jane has arrived and our family of 4 has increased by 1 more. We are adjusting well and excited for this new stage in all of our lives. I want to tell Leah's birth story because the purpose of this blog and the one before is to serve as a journal for my children. Ryan and Luke love to read their blog and learn about their own early years and be reminded of many family occasions. I love being able to keep track of milestones and the special and ordinary times of my kids' lives. Hopefully, I'll do a better job than I have for the past year and stay committed to tell our new family story.
Leah was born on Feb. 4, 19 days before her due date. To say we were not quite ready is an understatement. Many things had been taken care of - like my bags were packed, notes left for my sub at work, logistics of what to do with the boys, but we were still not quite ready. I had my 37 week appointment the day before and there was no indication then that she was coming early. But my water broke at 4:45 the next morning and I shot out of bed and told Greg - he asked if I was sure - you can't mistake that. I called my doctor and was told that I needed to go to the hospital. Since I was trying a natural birth after a c-section with Ryan and Luke, I didn't have the option to labor at home. My parents in Texas were called at 5 and awoken with the news. They quickly got their things ready and hit the road. Greg and I were ready within the hour (Greg had to pack, I sanitized pacifiers, woke up the boys, etc) and Greg, Ryan and Luke dropped me off at the hospital ER. Greg took the boys to their school's morning daycare and dropped them off when it opened at 6:30, then came back to the hospital to join me. Ryan was concerned that I was going to be sitting in the ER waiting room the whole day where he left me. Greg got lots of questions from them on his way to their school.
After about 4 hours and no contractions, I was put on pitocin to induce labor. I abandoned the all natural route at about 2 that afternoon. I would like to think that if I had started contractions first and things were progressing normally, I would have stuck it out all day. I'm really not sure about that. But I do know that I didn't really see an end and already being hooked up to the pitocin took away the benefit of free movement during labor. So I opted for an epidural - that really does feel better. Bummer to be stuck in bed, but much more comfortable. After many hours of progressing normally and coming so close for my body to be ready, the baby's heart rate plummeted with each contraction. At around 10 that night my doctor started to talk to me about the need of a c-section. The nurses tried a few more things to get her heart rate regulated, but it wasn't working. At 10:30, my doctor told me we were out of options. I was pretty devastated. I really didn't want to go through another c-section. Things were a blur from there. I remember shaking violently from whatever was being given to me and quickly transferred out of my room and wheeled into the OR. A hospital can move extremely fast in the case of an emergency c-section - at 10:59 pm, Leah was delivered. It turns out that she had a "true knot" in her umbilical cord. That was what was causing the plummeting heart rate and would've made a natural delivery extremely dangerous. I am grateful now that a c-section was insisted upon, but up until that point, I was not sure. Leah weighed 7lb 5 oz and was 19 1/2 inches long. Despite the cord knot, she was perfectly healthy.
Part of the reason I didn't want a c-section is because I am almost 9 years older than I was with Ryan and Luke. When I was taken into recovery after their birth, there was another mother who was groaning and sounding like she was in horrible pain. I remember the nurse told me that I didn't need to worry, she was an "older mom." I now feared being that older mom and having a horrible recovery and still needing to take care of a newborn and be a mother to my 8 year-olds. The initial recovery was worse this time - much more pain and shaking, but after the first 12 hours, I was moving around much more comfortably than I had before. Overall, the recovery hasn't been any worse than before and in some ways it has been better. I'm good with that.
Greg and I spent 2 full days in the hospital and were given the option to stay another night - but we were ready to go home. There is no real rest in a hospital and we also knew it was important to get home and be with Ryan and Luke as soon as possible. Ryan had called us in tears the night after Leah was born. He was very sad that we were both away from home. It was important to keep things as normal as possible for them.
Leah has been an absolute doll. She is pretty easy going and rarely gets too upset. She is also a great sleeper. For the most part, she wakes up only once during the night to eat - although last night she wasn't interested in going back to sleep from 2:30 until about 5:30. Greg and I were woken up this morning at 8:40 when Ryan came to ask who was going to take him to school. We're hoping last night won't be repeated too often.
In terms of her personality - she is a girl of a thousand faces. She has so many cute little expressions that remind us of Luke when he was an infant. She loves to be in someone's arms more than anything else world.
Ryan and Luke were so excited to meet their new sister. They aren't too sure what to do with her at the moment, but they do like to check on her. They have also started a new nightly tradition of each reading her a book before they go to bed.
Leah's first selfie.
Ryan brought his camera to the hospital the morning after Leah was born. He took many pictures and a couple of videos. When my parents took them to school later in the day his teacher let him show the whole class his new sister. I received a text from one of his friend's moms later that day to tell me that Carter told her he had seen a picture of Leah and reported she was "so cute."
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