First Night at Home

We got home from the hospital about an hour before Carmen & Gabe got home from school (they ride the bus).

Susan brought us a tasty dinner of pot roast & veggies a little later
then Meg came by a little later to meet her youngest cousin.
Paloma sounded more than a little sassy when she said to Meg, "We were at the hospital and you didn't come!"
Next, Gigi & Hidy came over to deliver the bassinet Mom bought us and Dad assembled.

Paloma swaddled a Webkins cheetah so she'd have a baby to hold, too.

No Place Like Home

Monday morning Eva spent her only time in the nursery from 12:30 - 3 AM when she made her hunger known to the nurses. I was relieved to get some uninterrupted sleep even for that little time.

After taking Carmen & Gabe to school, David & P-Lo hurried to the hospital to bring paperwork I needed filled out by the doctor before we were released.

Dr. R called and asked if I minded if one of his collegues checked on me because he was really busy; his office was moving to a new office that day. As it turned out, Eva was his last delivery at this hospital. He had offered to let me go home on Sunday, but said the pediatrician would probably want to keep an eye on Evangelina another day because of the group B strep.

The person who came to weigh Eva undressed and awoke her, put her on the scale, then redressed her, turned around to write down the number on the scale, and the scale had turned itself off, so she had to start over again. Eva did not appreciate being undressed again. I asked how much she weighed because the scale showed 3545 grams and the person weighing her didn't know how to convert the numbers. Later I found out she had lost half a pound, down to 7 lbs, 13 oz.

My nurse that morning said she was trying to have my paperwork and everything ready to release me by 11:30. We had talked about going to Pappasitos before we went home like we did after Paloma was born, but we didn't have an infant seat yet, so we abandoned that idea.




Nutrition Services delivered my lunch at 11:15 and at 11:20, our cart arrived to take us to the car. Because Paloma was so interested in my cafeteria food, we asked the guy if he could come back in 15 minutes. He lied and said yes.

TWO HOURS later (imagine trying to keep a toddler happy this long: "Go dance in the hall, Paloma," I actually said to her), a second cart arrived. David was shooting video, too, so he didn't notice Paloma's eyes were closed in this picture.
Instead of Pappasitos, David & I ate Whataburgers and he dropped me off to look at infant seats at Babies R Us because both Paloma and Eva were asleep in the car.

There were so many choices, I couldn't begin to decide. Eva can keep using Paloma's seat from my car since I can't drive for two weeks anyway.

As we arrived in our neighborhood, I was struck by how green and beautiful everything looked. It was winter when we left in the dark three days before, and now spring had sprung!

Visitors

I did not explain in the Birth Day post that the kids had spent the night with Hidy & Gigi and they were trying to have a normal day with Maya's birthday party and Carmen & Gabriel's soccer games. So my whole family was at Maya's party, then the games, after which they came straight to the hospital.

So our first visitors were Lety, Benjamin & Sofia, who brought Abuela & Abuelo even though it's a long hour's drive for them. Unfortunately I have no pictures. David shot video, so at some point I'll be able to research and possibly post something from that and also find out who got to hold Eva first. It might have been Sofia, who LOVES babies.

About 10 minutes after they arrived, my mom and Sissy arrived with Paloma, having come with Dad, Carmen, & Gabriel, who dropped them off before they parked. We were not ready with cameras or anything when Paloma came in either. And before Dad & the kids made it to my room, the nurses came by and said my recovery room was ready; it was time for them to move me. It took several minutes for them to show up, and apparently they'd had to stop for Carmen to go to the restroom in the lobby. When they arrived, there were at least 14 people in the Labor & Delivery room. And it's a nice room, but that was a huge crowd. So right when Dad & the kids came in, someone suggested everyone grab some of our stuff and head to the other room.

When I first saw Gabriel come in the room, I knew he needed to go to the bathroom because he was jumping around. I had to raise my voice to get someone's attention to tell Gabriel he could use the toilet in my room. He went in and apparently was scared off by the measuring device in the toilet and came back out in tears; it was too late. He was mortified, obviously, and while everyone else was heading up to my room, David was asking the nurses for scrub pants for him to wear. After we got all of that settled, the nurses told Gabe he looked like a doctor, gave him a button that said "I'm a big brother" and Gabriel got to ride on my stretcher for the trip.










The kids opened birthday gifts from Evangelina before they left. They were our last visitors of the evening, and they went back to Hidy & Gigi's house for a second sleepover.



David stayed the night at the hospital. I kept trying to get Eva to nurse and she finally latched on at 11 PM.

The next morning after church, Amy and Brian brought Mason and Maya to see their new cousin.
Amy, what was this look about? I love this picture of Maya surprised. Did you tell her Eva was her birthday present?
Mason was interested in Eva, but also in the view of the street below.
Brian said Eva's "stork bite" (as the nurses called the mark above her nose) was a turkey claw in honor of her being born on the first day of turkey season!
Mason was very interested in what the nurses were "doing to Eva" when they came for a check.

Eva was really fussy by the time Joe & Susan came to visit. She had tried to nurse all day and obviously wasn't getting much milk, so I think she was just hungry.
But Joe and Susan had all kinds of ideas about how to comfort her! They were funny.

Their visit was also interrupted by someone doing some testing or seomthing on Eva.

Allison, Bill & Zoe came a little while later.
Zoe had been waiting a whole day to "pet the baby".

On Sunday, Mom & Dad brought the kids again in the evening and when they left, they went home with David since we wanted them to have a normal night and next day back to school.






Tracie, Bailey & Samantha came by after David had left for the night. I hadn't seen Samantha since she was an infant, and she is now walking and talking!
They had another friend in the hospital with a new baby too!
It was great to see them while we were in their neck of the woods.

Thanks to everybody for making the effort and the trek to see us. We feel the love and we appreciate all of you!

Eva's Birth Day

Because I had tested positive for Group B strep in a past pregnancy, my doctor wanted me to have 2 doses of an antibiotic before the baby was delivered. I was dilated & effaced to the point that he said something about the baby "falling out" before I got to the hospital. Therefore, he scheduled me to come in at 6 AM Saturday morning (the next time he'd be at the hospital).

I could not fall asleep the night before, and David finally left our room so I would quit talking at 1-something.

During the night I heard the storms and even before I awoke (I actually popped out of bed and into the shower at 5 AM to scrub for the second time with a surgical wash) I was aware of having a bad, bad headache, but I wasn't allowed to have even water after midnight, so I didn't take anything.

When we got to the hospital, we were lost. The construction made what should have been an easy repeat trip for us into a maze.

Once we parked and went in, it was evident that we were in for a much bigger maze. We found ourselves in the recovery area of the maternity ward and asked someone to take us where we were supposed to be, and it's a good thing we did, because we were already late and FAR from where we were supposed to be.

In the labor & delivery room, a nurse told me it was about time for a shift change, and to just change my clothes and wait for the new nurse to come. When a nurse came, we had to answer a zillion questions. Even though I had pre-registered at the hospital, they didn't have any of my info in their computer. (And I had even received a confirmation from the hospital weeks ago.)
My doctor called and confirmed that he wanted the nurses to start the antibiotic. It was around this time that I learned that each dose would take 4 hours to administer. Because I had to have the IV, I was in labor on my back in bed from the time I got there, strapped to monitors, etc.
Contractions were already coming hours before I was induced but they weren't bad or very close together.

My headache was bothering me more, actually, and making me grouchy instead of excited. They let me take my Tylenol Sinus with ice chips, so I was able to sleep some, but they told me it made the baby's heart beat faster. ):


This is Angela, who took all of my info. She just started in December, so she's still learning. She used to be a 4th grade teacher, but didn't like it. Her husband also changed careers since they've been married; he was in the military, but now is a pilot (and he didn't get his training fro the military, unfortunately!).
This is Hope, who was showing her the ropes. We talked about her husband, who is a high school band director, and her daughter, who is in kindergarten, as well as the over-emphasis on TAKS.

Throughout the morning, we also talked a lot about baby names, since David & I still hadn't decided on one for sure.

I got an epidural at 10 and my doctor broke my water and started me on pitocin at 10:40.
I actually told David to take this picture so I'd remember how itchy the epidural made me.

Dr. R was very interested in our powerbook. He said his kids had iPhones and he was curious about Macs, so that was David's green light. We're happy to share our zeal for Macs anytime we're given the chance! Dr. R logged into a program that allowed him to see my progress (contractions & baby's heartbeat) on the screen, which he'd be able to do on an iPhone, too.
(I took this picture from the bed!)

They started the pitocin at 4 and increased it by 4 each hour or so until it was finally at 16 before it was time to push.

With each contraction, I felt a wave of queasiness. The nausea and the baby's heartbeat getting faster told me when I was having them. My legs were tingly but not completely numb and I could move my feet and toes.

Between contractions, I was thirsty and hungry and could smell when lunches were being delivered. The nurses kept track of my contractions and could tell the difference between contractions and the scratching, which made sharp zigzags instead of rounded hills. ("We know what you're doing in here even though we can't see you!")

Dr. R missed seeing Jane Pauley at the new hospital's opening. I felt bad about this because I knew he wanted to be there (I had heard him tell his nurse on Thursday). In talking about this, David told the story of meeting Jane Pauley and how she molested his hand with her butt.

I felt badly that he was waiting around for me, but like I told him, I was never strapped down on my back in bed for hours before! He had plans to meet his daughter for lunch that were on hold until after delivery as well.

One element of timing worked out perfectly. I had asked my friend Amy to take pictures at the hospital, and originaly had asked her to come at 8 AM. When I found out that it was going to take longer because of the antibiotic, we called to say come later. It turned out that she had to work, but she was able to go home, get her camera and be in the hospital parking lot around 2. She called from the parking garage and David offered to go collect her so she wouldn't get as lost as we did.

Before David could get back with Amy, though, Dr. R came to check me again and found me completely ready to deliver--we had to wait a couple of minutes for David & Amy to get back!

When they arrived, we were ready to go. We waited for the next contraction and I got the go-ahead to push.

I pushed until I heard Dr. R say, "Stop!" as her head crowned but it turned out he said, "Don't stop!" so I took a breath and pushed again, this time Dr. R really did say "Stop!" and her head was out. Someone told me--David, I think--that her head was out so this time I opened my eyes and looked and was thrilled to see her! As I pushed one last time, she was delivered at 2:38.


The nurses placed her on my chest a few moments later. I think this is around the time we decided on a name and we were still talking about a middle name. We had to make decisions so David could make some phone calls!

Then they had to do another Apgar score, weigh her, etc., before I had a chance to nurse her.






Dr. R delivered the placenta and I asked if I should push. "No!" he exclaimed, "You'll blow me away!" I said I'd never seen the placenta before, so Hope showed it to me and accidentally squirted blood all over the place.

Nesha told me later she'd seen art made from a placenta. It was interesting looking with all of the veins--really a miracle in itself--but making something out of it--or worse, eating it!--is a little far out even for me. I'll have to post later about the belly casting!

After Dr. R repaired the damage I did while pushing, he left for lunch with his daughter and our fond appreciation.


David says this is the look I give him when I call him a goofball. I don't remember what this particular look was about.

I finally got to eat a box lunch--a ham sandwich never tasted so good! Also they let me have a mini can of Shasta and some half-frozen, slushy Cran-Grape juice which became a new favorite in my 2-day stay.

At some point I tried to get Eva to nurse, but she just played around. Hope reminded me of the football hold; having last nursed a toddler, it's hard to remember breastfeeding an infant!


Special thanks to Amy for the photos--they are precious to me! I LOVE that I could illustrate this story for Eva and remember it for myself all the better.