July was a busy month for me. I worked up until July 13 and then took off work for Maternity Leave. My doc said I could schedule the c-section for July 26 and I said let's go for it (her due date was originally Aug 3). I had a c-section because I had a section with Elise. I thought I could VBAC but it turns out I have a large fibroid right next to the old incision and they didn't want to risk rupture. The great thing about it was that I was able to schedule it. So that morning we dropped off Elise at a friends house at 4:30 am and got to the hospital at 5:00 am. They took us right into the labor and delivery prep. I changed into my gown and they started with the blood work, IV and pressure checking. My blood pressure was high but that was because I was nervous about the whole thing. Then around 7 am Dr. Calder came in and asked if I was ready. I said let's go. So in we went to the surgery room and I got my spinal and laid on the table. Dr. Calder said everything was going great. When the baby finally came out she said "What an adorable face!" I was so happy to finally be done with pregnancy. I also got my tubes tied at the same time. I even asked her a few times if she was sure they got both sides. Jared was at my head the whole time but really wanted to be right in there for the birth.
Katie Rae was born at 7:51 am weighing 6 pounds, 15 ounces. She was 20.87 inches long. She had strawberry blonde hair, which kinda surprised me and she sounded like a cat meowing when she came out. They brought her to me after she was all cleaned up and laid her on my chest when they wheeled me into recovery. That's the part I don't remember because I was pretty groggy at that point. So then I was in recovery for a bit while they monitored both of our vitals. Katie was a peach during that time. She just laid there wide awake on my chest looking around and not crying a bit (kind of a curser of things to come which I didn't know at the time). The nurse gave her a bath right there and cleaned her up. Then it was time for me to be transferred to the postpartum unit. I thought that she wouldn't nurse like Elise so I didn't even try. I pumped a little and gave it to her. Then a little while later I was tired and figured that I could just try to nurse and see how it went. She was a complete natural from the start. I had no problems whatsoever. I was so excited to not have to pump. It was heaven. She was (and is) such a calm, mellow baby. She hardly ever cried except when she is hungry or tired or being bugged by Elise.
My hospital stay wasn't the most pleasant and I had to say a few extra days because my blood pressure was high and they didn't want me to have a stroke at home. So I was finally release and able to go home. I have to say that the pain was so minimal. I mean my incision was painful but not for very long and recovery was really fast. I was up really quick from surgery and was able to sleep in my bed from the beginning. I had great friends come to visit during my stay including the Burr's, Dutton's, Christina, Jen and even some of my work friends :) It was so nice of everyone to come see me.
Being home was a blur and after not sleeping for about 3 weeks I finally gave up on breastfeeding. I still pump every day, 5 times a day, I just never feed her on the boob anymore. It was so much work every few hours that I just didn't have energy to do it. Plus I knew I would be heading back to work eventually and needed to switch over. She is doing great with the milk. I have given her formula 2 times when I didn't have enough milk but she vomited that up everywhere. I'm glad we don't have to buy formula and that I have enough milk for her. Soon we will be starting on solids, but I'm trying to wait until at least January.
Katie is such a great baby. She is really calm and mellow and I love her little personality. She loves to just look and observe. Yesterday at dinner we were sitting at the table and she was reaching and grabbing at toys on her chair. Both Jared and I were amazed at her progress. She is already growing up and I don't want it to happen. I'm not ready for the crawling phase and the putting everything in the mouth phase because that means I'll have to be uber clean and tidy up all of Elise's toys. Anyway, I'll have more to post about the rest of the stuff I did this year and hopefully it won't be so long in between posts :) Here are some pics from the hospital.
