It's a long one....
Mia Katherine joined our family on Tuesday, March 27, 2012 at 10:03 in the morning weighing in at 8.1 pounds and measuring 19 inches long!
The morning of her birth could not have gone better if planned.
Carrie woke up with mild contractions around 3am and was able to mostly sleep through them for about an hour. Between 4 to 5:30, the contractions got stronger, longer, and closer together, but she was able to remain in bed and rest (and pray that Mia waited a bit longer so that Emma could be taken to daycare, which opens at 6:30, before having to get to the hospital). At 5:30, Carrie was more uncomfortable and went downstairs to walk through contractions and avoid waking Kurt up; she passed time reading useless celebrity gossip online. At 6, she decided to shower and had a series of three strong contractions in quick succession. She woke Kurt up saying, "Kurtie, can you wake up so we can get Emma to daycare and go have a baby?" Kurt sprang from the bed and immediately started rushing around; Carrie tried to assure him there was plenty of time (luckily, he didn't listen to her). Around 6:20 Emma woke up and asked, "Mommy, Why are you walking around so much?" She was very excited when Carrie told her, "I think you'll get to meet your sister today!"
We tried to get Emma dressed while we were all upstairs, but she exclaimed, "But I have to eat breakfast first!" We thought, Seriously, today of all days, you decide to be routine oriented?!? Also as a result of this, we thought she might dally during breakfast so we told her she could have a special treat for breakfast, coffee cake from the weekend. She said that she would rather have an egg from an Easter egg hunt that was filled with M&Ms. Carrie explained to her that she wasn't sure how, but cake was better for breakfast than chocolate was. At any rate, Emma inhaled her cake. :)
After Emma was dressed, the garbage taken out, Carrie's bag loaded, and all of us in the car, we headed to daycare. Carrie was very uncomfortable the entire way. At first she couldn't bring herself to sit the whole way to get the seatbelt on. Kurt tried to tell her that she needed to...she said, JUST DRIVE! Carrie uttered into Kurt's shoulder multiple times, "THIS SUCKS!" (Here's hoping Emma didn't whip out that sentence at daycare!) Kurt and Emma ran into daycare and then made it to the highway. At 7:17, Carrie asked if they would reach the hospital at 7:30. Kurt wasn't sure, but Carrie made him promise that they would. As they pulled into the garage, Carrie barely let the car stop before hopping out of the car. It felt SO much better to stand than sit!
After getting checked in, (It seemed like the lady at the admittance desk was taking her sweet time punching in our insurance number.), Carrie was triaged and learned that she was between 8-9cm. After moving to the labor and delivery room, Carrie received an epidural which relieved the contraction pain but allowed her to still feel all the pressure sensations. It did not relieve the pain of Mia's head pressing against her sciatic nerve which was compressed with every contraction and resulted in shooting pain radiating down Carrie's right leg. After 'resting' for about 10 minutes, Carrie was fully dilated and ready to push. After only 25 minutes of pushing, Carrie and Kurt met their gorgeous little Mia Katherine!
Unlike her sister who started rooting immediately, Mia screamed --not cried, but angrily screamed -- for 2 solid hours! After moving from the delivery room to the hospital room where we would stay, Mia did start nursing. She was an angry girl until she actually got some milk about 2 days later!
We had a quiet afternoon. Kurt's Mom came to meet Mia before going to pick Emma up from daycare, Carrie and Mia rested, and we made phone calls/sent text messages to family and friends. Emma met her sister just before dinner. She was immediately enamored. She was also a little nervous, but very excited. She loved being able to hold Mia with Kurt and snuggling with Carrie in bed.
In the evening, Kurt, Emma, and Laura went to Panera Bread for dinner. Carrie was changing Mia's diaper when Mia started to gag. Carrie wasn't able to get her to stop and called her nurse who ended up having to suction out Mia's nose and mouth and then give her oxygen. The nurses monitored her for a bit but shortly after returning her to Carrie and Kurt, Mia had another similar episode. As instructed by the nurse, we pressed the code blue button and had all the nurses on the floor in our room in about 30 seconds. (They were winded but there!) Following that episode, Mia was taking to the NICU and had her stomach pumped to get rid of residual amniotic fluid which is jelly-like and was getting stuck in her throat. The nurse told us that it was likely that Mia has reflux and instructed us to keep her upright after feedings and prop up her bed.
Since we were obviously shaken and wouldn't rest during the night trying to keep an eye on her, the night nurse kept Mia at the nurses station so we could get a couple hours rest. (AAMC doesn't have a well baby nursery and babies room in the whole time.) Luckily, Mia didn't have any more bad episodes. We did suction out her mouth a couple times when she sounded like she was gagging following feedings.
Although we probably could have left the day after she was born, we were more comfortable staying just to make sure Mia was all right. Kurt's Dad and sister came to visit on the 28th and on the 29th, we were home in time for lunch.
Thursday, March 29, 2012
Monday, March 5, 2012
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