Welcome, Baby Lorelei Elizabeth!

After about Saturday or Sunday last week, I determined that little Lorelei was probably not going to be showing up on her own before Wednesday.  I'd gotten falsely excited several times and just decided to function like I wouldn't unexpectedly go into labor any day. 

With the expectation of her arriving on Wednesday, I spent Monday finishing up any projects and cleaning that I wanted and enjoyed Tuesday with Jimmie.  

As my last day as a Mommy of just one, we spent the entire day doing as many things that Jimmie would love as we could fit in.  In the morning, we went over to the indoor playground.  Afterwards, we went to McDonalds for lunch and to play some more at the play place.  After coming home for a nap for Jimmie, we got up and did some games around the house.  Played with blocks, did some finger painting, made some Valentine's day crafts, and played with some bubbles.  Later that night we went to Kangaroo Zoo and met up with some friends.  Kangaroo Zoo is a place filled with bouncy house toys for the kids to play on.  He didn't FULLY understand the concept of it, but did really enjoy running and bouncing all around on them.  But more than jumping on them, he liked to run around to all of the inflatable dinosaurs in the one for little kids and give them all kisses.  Cutest. thing. ever.

Hanging out and playing at the playground

 A yummy, yummy lunch

Giving the snail kisses!

It was a pretty long and tiring day (for me), but I wouldn't have traded it for anything.  It was so much fun to spend the day just focusing on my little man before there are other responsibilities and distractions.  It was really hard to put him to bed Tuesday night and know that I wouldn't be able to see him again for a couple of days, but it was reassuring that he would be in good hands and care of his Grandma.  Made it a bit easier on my mind the next day.

So here's the birth story:

For those of you looking for the simple, less detailed, summary of events-

We went to the hospital to be induced on Wednesday, February 11th at 39 weeks, 1 day pregnant. Though initially pretty opposed to the idea of elective induction, as the due date controversy weighed on my mind, we felt confident that after 39 weeks (using our latest possible due date), she should be at a healthy point to deliver.  Truthfully, induction using pitocin, wouldn't be too different than my delivery with Jimmie since we used it then too.  

From check-in until holding a baby in my arms, was about 7 hours.  Labor went very smoothly and actually quite similar in comparison to Jimmie's.  A little of playing games, talking, sleeping, and overall waiting for Lorelei to decide she's ready.  

At 2:14 pm on Wednesday, February 11, 2015- Lorelei (Lor-uh-lie) Elizabeth Young joined our family weighing in at 7 lbs 9 oz and 19.5 inches long.  She's more beautiful than I could have ever imagined with lots of dark brown hair and sweet blue eyes.  She's got long limbs, fingers, and the longest toes I've ever seen in my life. She's just perfect.

** Feel free to jump down to the pictures of baby girl now to skip over the details :)

For those of you who care to read the whole story that I'll write for my own memory-

On Wednesday, we got up early and went over to the hospital for the induction. We were to check in at 6:15 AM.  We got there a little late, but were in the room, checked in, and answering questions for the nurse by 7:00. 

The hospital room we were in had a pretty good view.  The entire wall was a giant window overlooking Provo.  The beginning of a pretty long day.

 We went ahead and got the pitocin going at about 7:30 at which point I was still in the exact same place I was at 36 weeks pregnant… 2 cm dilated, 80% effaced.

This wasn't too new to me because with Jimmie, I went into the hospital in a similar situation.  My water had broken, but my labor didn't progress on it's own so I had pitocin last time as well.

Like normal, they came in to check on me every 30 minutes and depending on how the contractions were coming, would determine if the dosage needed to be upped. 

This part is always pretty slow.  Definitely some kind of boring parts, but the relaxing mixed with anxiousness feels very long.  Filled with talking, sending updates, game playing, napping, listening to some music.  We were smart enough to bring face cards this time to play some games :) 

This time I waited longer before getting an epidural, thinking that I wouldn't need it quite as quickly as I did.  Now I know to request it as soon as I start to feel uncomfortable.  It took about 2 hours from the time I realized "Okay, this really hurts and I need something" until I actually got it.  This was one of my least favorite parts of it all.  But it was definitely helpful to have headphones in so that I could close my eyes to try and relax and focus on my breathing through each contraction. They were close together and strong, but thankfully not super long. I finally got the epidural at around 10 am. 

I'll tell ya what, epidurals are one of my favorite things ever! They can have some pretty negative effects on people, but my body tends to respond really well to them.  I still have great control over my legs, can move them, can move my toes, etc. 

Our nurse and assistant student nurse were fantastic.  Our student nurse also happened to be named Emily.  It's always great to have a nurse that can crack a joke and keep things interested every once and a while.  

By 11 am, I was finally making some progress to 4 cm, and by 12 pm I was up to 5 cm.  Somewhere in there, they artificially broke my water to help move things along.  This was probably the low point of my labor.  It took it's toll on me pretty quickly. Even though I was laying down, it was apparent to everyone that immediately that my body was not going to have that and started to pass out.  I'd been struggling to breathe a bit the whole time since I'd gotten my epidural, but thankfully, with the change of position, a little bit of time, and some ice chips, we were able to stop me from going beyond blacking out and re-stablize everything.

Once everything was calm again, labor continued quickly.  With an epidural happily in place and nothing but time to kill, we both just napped on and off for about 2 hours.  The next time the nurse came to check where I was at (1:45 pm), I was 10 cm, fully effaced and ready to go.  We gave our doctor a call, waited for her to arrive, and we let Jim sleep until it was go-time.

By the time we were ready to go, it was quite a production going on in our room.  We had our nurse and her college nursing student. As of early afternoon, we also had another nurse who had just been hired to the hospital, shadowing our head nurse. As shift change was coming up, we also had the next nurse scheduled stepping in so that she was in on everything going on.  Of course, she had a college nursing student with her as well.  Our doctor arrived for delivery and she also had a resident shadowing her.  Not gonna lie, it felt a little like a circus by the time it was time to deliver.  Next time, I think we will probably charge admission :) But by that point, I don't care if the entire hospital staff were in my room…I was just ready to have a baby!

The doctor arrived at by 2pm.  Long story short, because of some complications earlier, I couldn't feel when I was having a contraction at all to know when to push.  Unfortunately, the nurse and doctor were also having a hard time really feeling when I was having a contraction. It took 14 minutes to deliver her (since we weren't able to feel contractions), but really only about 7 pushes in the course of a few minutes.  Getting her out was the easy/fast part.

[This delivery was a bit different as the third stage of labor and delivery was prolonged.  After having the baby, you have about 30 minutes to deliver the placenta and all that jazz.  Generally, like it was with Jimmie, it just comes out right after…no big deal. It took about 25 minutes after delivery of baby girl to be totally finished with it all. Cutting it pretty close to the 30 minutes! I guess they call it's placental retention and it occurs in less than 5% of "managed" (non-natural) births. The biggest issue/risk with this is the potential of postpartum hemorrhaging. Thankfully, even though things took longer than normal, I didn't (haven't) have any problems with unnecessary or concerning bleeding.  Aside from this weird little hiccup, there was no tearing at all (internally or externally).  It has made for a very smooth recovery.]

By 2:14 pm, we had our beautiful little Lorelei (Lor-uh-lie) Elizabeth weighing 7 lbs 9 oz and 19.5 inches.  She weighed nearly a pound more than her brother (15 oz), 1 inch longer than him, and a full head of dark brown hair :)  They look so alike and so different in so many ways. Lorelei has long fingers and really long toes.  It was really quite amazing how peaceful she's been since the beginning.  She cried, like all babies, when she was born. But once they brought her over to me, just just laid there, totally wide eyed,  quietly looking around and staring at me for such a long time.  She did the same thing when Jim held her.  For the most part since she has been home, it seems like this is just her personality.  Sleeping or awake and just peaceful and alert.  What a little doll.

Talking to Mom again after getting all wrapped up

They eyebrow raised…it gets me every time :)

Such a pretty little girl :)

This little one just melts my heart.

Getting to spend some time rocking with Daddy while Mommy ate some lunch

Mommy and Daddy with Lorelei

Little footprints

Relaxing in the nursery before her shots and bath

Bath time!

Snuggling with Mommy in our recovery room after her trip to the nursery with Dad

The sweet picture that Grandma sent while we were in the hospital :) An excited big brother

Jim picked out the bows for her head…pretty fitting as I think of her as my Valentine's baby

Just talking to Mom and Grandma

Lorelei getting some snuggles with Grandma at the hospital :)

And spending some quality time with Aunt Meg

Clearly, he enjoyed getting his bath!

Jimmie wasn't able to come visit at the hospital.  Due to the flu season, no one under 14 years old was allowed to visit anywhere past the lobby.  It was great to be able to leave Jimmie with Jim, Megan, and my Mom (they all took turns) while staying in the hospital.  Obviously he survived just fine without me ;)

And loved going to the park with Grandma

Just hanging around, being adorable

Clearly, we embraced the idea of ordering a ridiculous amount of for for a flat rate.  Don't worry, we basically ate every bite, every meal.  Mmm…room service is a great thing.

Her sweet little bed tags

Rocking the bow

Oh, just kicking back and relaxin'!

My wide awake little angel :) Lorelei sleeps, sleeps, sleeps! I mean, it's nearly impossible to have her awake during the day.  If you want to see her awake, your best bet is to come around 12:30-3am.  That's when this shot was taken in the hospital!  She's gradually fixing her night-day confusion and is awake more and more during the day.  She's so sweet though that you can't even be annoyed with this early morning wake up call!

Since Jimmie couldn't come to the room to meet his sister, he did come to the lobby of the hospital so that we could see each other on Thursday night.  It was really bittersweet to see this kiddo.  He looked SO big after spending days without seeing him and with a tiny little baby.  He's never seemed more like a great big toddler.  Boy, did I miss that kiddo.  Even though I was going to see him the next morning, it nearly broke my heart watching them walk away and him waving goodbye with a very confused look on his face. 

This is Lorelei's bunny.  When I was pregnant with Jimmie, I bought a little stuffed sheep called a "Sleep sheep" that played white noise.  We brought it to the hospital and he's slept with it every night since.  He uses it to self soothe and turns it on by himself now that he's older.

This one is a sleep bunny…and is way bigger than Jimmie's sleep sheep.  We thought we'd take a picture of her next to it for a size comparison for as she grows bigger.  

Love all of the dark hair she has.  After her bath in the nursery, she came to me with a mohawk.  I thought they maybe styled it like that…and maybe they did.  But when I bathed her later at home and washed her hair.. I brushed it back when she was done and it naturally went into instant mohawk.  Ha! She has crazy hair already, poor girl.

My friend, Kari, stopped by the hospital on Thursday night as well to visit.  She's a photographer and was sweet enough to take a few shots for us while she was there. Here are a few of them:

Long little fingers

 Always struggling to wake up…

Long little toes

Sleeping peacefully

Serious contemplation

Love this shot of her.  A little confusion and all of that crazy hair

Mommy's sweet little girl

Another one of my favorites.  Her face is classic here.

Daddy's little girl

We were able to go home from the hospital Friday morning.  

Friday morning with Dr. Daly after getting clearance to head home.

She's been our family doctor and my doctor through both pregnancies and birth. 

Getting ready to head on out.  She fits into Newborn clothes much better than Jimmie when we left then hospital

She seems kind of over it… "Can we get this show on the road please?"

Jimmie has been SO GOOD with her since we arrived home.  He just loves her and wants to help so badly.  Unfortunately, we found out about 2 days after these pictures that Jimmie has Hand, Foot, and Mouth disease… which is one of the most contagious viruses for kids.  Thankfully so far, no one else has gotten it.  We've spent the last several days sanitizing everything, continually washing our hands, and having to keep Jimmie away from everything especially having to do with Lorelei.  It's kind of sad to not let him give her kisses, etc.  He really likes to give her little smooches and pat her head.

He may not really be able to say her name but he makes an L sound with some other noises and talks in a high pitch voice while he points and waves at her.  She's the first thing he wants to check on when he wakes up in the morning and just loves to watch out for his little sister.  It'll be fun to see them interact once he's no longer sick and she's a little bit older.  He's so good at being soft and sweet with her.

Soft touches for baby Lorelei 

Snuggle bug likes to be swaddled and will sleep all day on your chest if you let her.

Or if you're really lucky, like Grandma, she will just stare intently at you for 30 minutes at a time :)

This one was too cute to not capture!!

Saturday was Valentine's Day.  I had a sneaking suspicion that I may be pretty preoccupied when this holiday rolled around so thankfully I'd been on the ball enough to prepare for it beforehand.  Jimmie has been reading a Sesame Street Valentine's Day book basically every day since last year.  Couldn't let this one slip by.

We didn't do much for the day but we'd gotten Jimmie a few Valentine's day gifts for the occasion.  We also did a little craft the day before being induced that Jimmie was able to help with.

He got some chocolates, bathtub crayons, Valentine's fruit snacks, and some super cute pajamas.

Wearing his #LadiesMan pajamas…don't mind the shoes, he was obviously ready to go play outside :)

Our little heart craft.  Jimmie helped me "sew" the yarn through the holes of the little cardboard hearts.

Miss Lorelei thought it as just like any other day :)

We are breastfeeding her, but she's struggling a little.  With the bilirubin, we just needed to make sure she's getting as many fluids in her as possible so about half of the time I just pump and feed it to her.  Whatever works!  She takes a bottle really well.

Just checkin' out what's going on.  She's becoming more and more awake during the daylight hours each day. 

 Grandma and Grandpa Tucker came down to visit on Monday from Idaho. It was so fun to see them!  We went out for lunch with them and more relatives (the Tuckers, the Griners, and the Wilhelms) for lunch on Monday.  Always so fun to visit with family.

On Monday we also got Lorelei's BiliBed and BiliBlanket for Lorelei's jaundice.  In the hospital, her bilirubin levels were "low intermediate" so they wanted to test her 48 hours later.  We went for a blood draw on Sunday, which came back higher so we tested again on Monday morning. (That's also when we went in to get Jimmie looked at & officially confirmed that he has HFMD).  Her levels came back even higher so we got to do the glow worm treatment.

After one day of that, we got her levels tested again and got the OK to be finished with the treatments.  We have to go back today to do a final blood draw to be tested to make sure it's stayed low.  She's really been getting a lot of fluids and doing well, so she should still be good.
Jimmie has been seeming to feel a lot better.  His fever is gone and he's finally starting to eat somewhat normally again.  For now we just continue to give him pain medicine, watch his sores, and keep everything as clean as possible.

And Jimmie patiently watches his little sister and talks to her all day long.

Megan left for Idaho on Monday and Mom (Grandma) had to head back to NJ today.  We will sure miss them and all of the great help they have been to us!! We got a surprise phone call on Tuesday from my brother, Geoff, who let us know that he'd be in town on a recruiting trip for a few days this weekend.  So this morning we had to say goodbye to Grandma, but got to say hello to Uncle Geoff.
It's sure been great having everyone here to help and visit.

I cannot believe that this little angel turned a week old yesterday.  Where does the time go!?  Can't believe how quickly time is flying by, but sure look forward to enjoying some more of it with my little family.