Hospital
Saturday December 1st, 2007
Arabella ate every two hours last night and today she got her ears checked, blood tests done, and a shot for hepatitis B. The nurse said that she didn't cry when they drew her blood but she screamed when they changed her diaper.
Josh had to go into work this morning because he scheduled a release for December 8th, hoping to be able to get it done before Arabella came. When he got back to the hospital, the nurse had to escort him in because he removed his bracelet that the hospital scans to make sure you have the right baby. After the machine sang it's lullaby, he settled in with Bella in his arms.
We finally got released around 8:00 PM and by then the roads were horrible. Josh was really careful driving home and when we got home, he carried Bella up to the back door for me so that I could just focus on not falling since the entire parking lot and sidewalk was nothing but ice. He slipped and slid around a little and then handed Arabella to me.
My friend Jess brought us dinner and hung out with us for a little while. Then I fed Arabella, showered, and we went to bed. Arabella slept wonderfully. She only woke up a couple of times for feedings.
Friday November 30th, 2007
At around 12:00 AM my water broke at home. We called the hospital and were told to come in. Josh finished packing up the bags for the hospital while I took it easy and then he very calmly drove to the hospital. By the time we got there, I started to have contractions.
Once at the hospital, we were taken into a triage observation room where we waited for five hours for a birthing room (The hospital was very busy with births). During this time, my contractions escalated to almost 50.
On our way over to the birthing room, I requested the epidural (I know, baby) and was given the medication shortly after we got into the birthing room.
They made Josh step out while the epidural was given, for sanitation reasons, and told him it would be about 15 minutes. I had no sense of time but he said that 45 minutes and 6 cups of coffee later he was allowed back in. It took longer than expected because my blood pressure dropped enough from the epidural that I got nauseous and they had to give me more medication for that.
Around 8:45 AM they told me to start pushing. I was totally numb from mid-torso all the way to my toes so I wasn't sure anything was happening until the nurse said I was making good progress. Around 9:15 AM I was told to stop pushing because Dr. Chronopoulos was still in a C-Section and he had to present when I gave birth, so I went to sleep for the "20 minutes" he was suppose to need.
At 10:30 AM they came back in and told me that he was finishing up and to start pushing again. Five minutes later, they tried to tell me to stop again because he still needed time. The nurse said no and I kept pushing. He came in, I pushed another set and out Arabella came.
Where was Josh? Funny story, he was actually holding my right leg up while I was pushing so he had a front row seat for the whole thing. He actually watched her come out and then cut the chord.
After she was all cleaned up, they took her over and handed her to him. He and the other nurses were confused until I admitted that I had already talked to the head nurse and requested she hand the baby to him first.
He was so happy that he took a picture of her with his cell phone and immediately e-mailed it to everyone in his phone book and couldn't stop looking at her. The nurse actually had to ask for the baby back so that I could feed her.
Josh and I ate a sandwich with some juice before he left to go home around 5:00 PM. He wanted to stay, but Ra needed fresh greens and we definitely didn't have everything ready for the baby. He had to clean up a little since we'll be having people over. Additionally, we needed to actually wash crib sheets and clothes.