The gift... that keeps on giving!: 4/27/14

Emerald Fae was born Tuesday, April 22nd (Earth Day) at 12:47 in the afternoon. She weighed 9.8 lbs and was 20-21 inches long. She has quite a bit of straight, dark brown hair and of course blue eyes, for the time-being in any case. Despite my reservations, I went into Capital Region Hospital for an induction at 6 a.m. Tuesday morning, at 40 weeks pregnant (two weeks longer than I had gone with Kieran). Dr. Nichols insisted on inducing me by at least my due date, and had wanted to induce two weeks earlier because the pregnancy was high risk due to my negative blood type. I am glad I finally gave in because, wow! she was a big baby at birth!
Kieran stayed the night with Nana and Papa Monday and spent Tuesday hanging out with them. Rick and I enjoyed a night to ourselves, watched an episode of Game of Thrones and had Mexican food out- a sort of last date night prior to becoming a family of four :) When we settled in at the hospital I measured 4 cm dialated- a good starting point it seemed. The nurses started a light pitocin drip and Dr. Nichols came by and broke my water- which was weird because with Kieran they didn't do that until after I had an epidural, so I hadn't experienced that gross, uncontrollable wetting sensation yet ;)
Things moved pretty quickly at that point, and within a few hours I was dilated to a an 8. At that point, the contractions were getting fairly strong and so I requested an epidural. Although this one didn't go as smoothly as the one I had with Kieran- a little more poking around before they hit the sweet spot and a half-block for a few minutes, after all the kinks were worked out- it was heavenly. Dr. Nichols returned sometime around 11:30 and discovered I was just about ready to push. After they suited up and prepared the bed for delivery I got ready to push. Within maybe five sets of three pushes, little girl made her way into the world at 12:47 p.m. The expression on Dr. Nichols' face as she pulled out that 9.8 lbs baby was priceless- "She's huge!" (Another fun Dr. Nichols' quote during delivery was, "And that's why you wear the boots!"- Not sure what she was referring to- didn't ask, but thought it was pretty funny.)
They immediately gave me Emerald and went to work finishing up business while I snuggled and nursed baby. She was ready to eat when as soon as she took her first breath- rooting around and sticking her tongue out ;) I nursed and held her for over an hour before she seemed finished and then the nurses measured and cleaned her before Rick finally got a chance to hold her.
We only stayed in the hospital one night. I was ready to get home by the next day and so we were discharged by 3:30 the following day. We had a few visitors while we were there including my folks, my sister, Jon, Rick's mom, Amanda and Tom and of course the new big brother! Kieran was very excited to meet his little sister and so far has been wonderful with her. He likes to pet her, kiss her and hold her on the Boppy. He isn't too keen on the crying or dirty diapers but then who is? ;)
Emerald seems to have escaped jaundice because my milk came on day three rather than day five like it did with Kieran, and we are all very thankful for that. However, because she was such a large baby, her right clavicle bone broke during delivery, which was very traumatizing for mommy and daddy. The doctors don't seem too concerned and aren't treating it as they say it will heal quickly and easily on its own and all we need to do is be gentle with her. Here's hoping they are right and she is mended very soon.
We are all adjusting to life at home with a newborn. I am relearning how to read a baby's cues and trying to figure her out. Just like her brother before her, she has no interest in lying flat on her back in a crib or co-sleeper and prefers to be held at all times... which has led, at least for now, to co-sleeping again with poor Rick on the sofa and Emerald and I in the bed. This arrangement has worked wonders and we all get more sleep now. She is a nursing champ and has had no difficulties latching on- in fact, her favorite activity right now is nursing for hours on end ;)