Introducing : Adelaide Marie (post initially written a month ago)

Our little girl is two months old today! I am attempting to keep up with this blog again, but I know how that usually starts with the best intentions and then floats to the back of my mind again. And with two kids, the odds are really against it. But here is what I can tell you about little Addy. She came into this world relatively easily. During my last week of work before I was intending to go on maternity leave, I started to have contractions. So I spent a sunny Monday morning timing them with my handy iphone app, tracking so that when they were five minutes apart I could go to the hospital. This pregnancy was kinda unkind to my body so I was anxious to have it over with. I took Oliver for a little walk around the neighborhood. That will go down as one of the best walks ever, getting some last one on one time with my son before his sister arrived. Shortly after we were done walking, Josh came home from school to be there once shit got real. That was about one pm. We spent the rest of the day watching shows on Netflix and lounging while family members came to visit and help. Anyway we went to the hospital at 10:30 and were admitted at 11. We were moved to the delivery room and watched the contractions on the monitor for a few hours. To add extra fun to the childbirth experience, I was sick with a nasty cough, and every time I had a coughing attack the contractions would start up again. It felt like a long time before the anesthesiologist came in for the epidural. The nurse had been building him up as one of the best ones around. Of course, he had to poke my spine with the needle about three times before he found a good spot. I'm pretty sure I've got some nerve damage from it, because I've had several weird headaches and shooting pains ever since. I'm hoping that it will go away, and maybe I'm just sleep deprived and not getting enough exercise. It helped with the contractions somewhat, but I could feel a lot still. The hardest part of the delivery was waiting for the doctor to arrive. I was slightly disappointed to hear that the Dr. we'd been working with wouldn't be able to make it. The nurses that we had this time were very friendly and helpful so overall it was a pretty positive experience. Once the other doctor got there, it only took a few minutes of pushing before Addy was out. Once she was out it was a mix of holding, cutting the umbilical cord, weighing, photographing, and happiness. The first few minutes of both of my kids lives are kind of a blur to me. I wanted to make sure I nursed her right away so that we could begin to establish that. After all the checkups from nurses and the breastfeeding, our family in the waiting room got to come in at about 4 am. My family waited patiently in the waiting room for hours, and all napped at one point or another. All except for Oliver, who was not only up the whole time, but apparently very energetic. He stayed up until 5:30 in the morning and then just crashed. But not before he got to meet his new baby sister. The rest of our stay at the hospital was pretty normal, except that Adelaide had a case of jaundice in which the Dr. noticed that her bilirubin levels were pretty high for her young age. Thankfully he noticed this within the first day so we got her under the lights quickly. Unfortunately, this meant that the only time we could snuggle with her was when she was feeding. The first few days she spent most of her time in the baby nursery. We got lots of naps that way but it sucked not having her in the room with us. Anyway, the hospital lets you stay in the maternity ward for two nights if you wish to stay that long. Addy was going to need more time at the hospital. Our pediatrician suggested that we move down to the pediatrics ward, while my nurse suggested that we stay on the maternity ward. There was a bit of a power struggle between the two of them. We really didn't know who to believe, we just wanted what was best for Addy. So we ended up moving down to the pediatrics ward, where at least Addy could be in the room with us. We still had to leave her in her little bilirubin box all day but at least we could look at her. We ended up staying in that room two nights. Josh had no couch to sleep on anymore so he had to sleep on the hard linoleum floor, while I got the uncomfortable couch. The nurses came in every five hours or so to prick Addy's feet. On Friday morning her bili levels had gone down enough that we were cleared to go home that evening.