Introducing Poppy Zara!

I am excited to report that after much anticipation, Poppy arrived at 1:22 on June 3.  She weighed in at 7lbs 12oz and was 20 1/4 inches long.  Here's our birth story:

On the 1st, Troy and I headed to the perinatologist for an amniocentesis.  Dr. Askew and I agreed that a 37 week induction was the best plan to avoid the shoulder dystocia that Lachlan had, but we wanted to be sure her lungs were mature too.  The appointment took 2 hours since they had to do a non stress test before and after the test.  We had a detailed sonogram and were given an estimated weight of 7lb 11oz.  Pretty close estimate!  The amnio itself wasn't as bad as I anticipated.  She did it super fast since Poppy had already moved into her fist choice of locations.  I didn't watch the procedure since the thought of that giant needle going through my belly and close to my baby was a little freaky.  We got the news Wednesday afternoon that the lungs were mature, and we were good to go with the induction.

On Thursday afternoon, Monica came to stay with the boys until my mom could get there later that evening.  Troy and I did a little shopping and had a final dinner out at Luby's.  Obviously the restaurant was my choice.  We were supposed to check in at the hospital at 8.  We headed over a little early only to get the call that they couldn't take us until 9.  So we hung out in the lobby for awhile.  Later in the night, I was wishing that we'd gone for dessert instead...

At 9, we started the checking in process.  I didn't realize that going in for cervedil the night before meant I'd be all hooked up to the IV, blood pressure, and monitors.  So the night of "great" sleep everyone thought I'd get definitely didn't happen.  The meds didn't seem to do much either since I was 2cm when they put it in and 2cm when they took it out.

At 6am on Friday, they started the pitocin, and Dr. Askew came in to break my water around 7 or 8.  She had a hard time snagging the bag of water and worried she might be scratching the baby.  Sure enough, Poppy came out with little scratches on her head!  Good thing she has hair to hide it!  Dr. Askew jokingly compared it to the vampire baby in the Twilight books.

I got my epidural around 10:30ish.  I wasn't super uncomfortable since the pitocin wasn't quite causing a great pattern of contractions yet, but I didn't want to get stuck waiting while the anesthesiologist was busy.  The epidural was fine, but I was only 4 cm when they checked me after!

Around 12:30, I started feeling a lot of pressure, something I've never felt before with an epidural.  Pretty much the epidural stopped working.  I was only 7cm but the anesthesiologist was in a c-section.  Dr. Askew came in (after she delivered the screaming lady next door) around 1:15 and we were ready to push.  The anesthesiologist came then too and gave me an extra boost of drugs but it was too late.  I was not sure I'd be able to push the baby out through the pain, but 3 pushes later, there she was!  Peeing everywhere and making me wonder if she was really a girl!  Troy got to cut the cord this time; something he's only gotten to do with Jonas. 

Here she is getting weighed.  7lb 12oz.  She was an ounce bigger than Reef but 10 days earlier.  I don't know why I make such huge babies!

While they were cleaning her (and me) up, Dr. Askew and Troy joked about him and her husband going together to get their vasectomies.  While I am loving the newborn phase and am sad sometimes that this is it, Poppy is definitely our last baby.
We got to spend an hour with her before they took her to the nursery to give her a bath and observe her.  When I sat up after having her, I started to notice a headache that got worse throughout the afternoon and evening.  I thought for sure it would go away after I ate something but it didn't. A sign of things to come...We got moved to our postpartum room in an older part of the hospital (it was a busy week for having babies), and Poppy joined us about 5 hours after they took her.  We should've been napping but were blessed with TONS of visitors wanting to see her.

The first night in the hospital went really well.  All our nurses were fabulous, and it was nice to be able to send Poppy to the nursery between feedings, something I haven't gotten to do since Reef was born.  On Saturday, my headache was better.  Troy went and picked up Gigi and the boys, so they could come meet their sister.  Of course, the first thing they asked about was "Where are the vending machines?"  After a snack and a new toy "from Poppy", they did take a minute to check her out.

Jonas was the most interested and really liked having her hold his hand.  Lachlan had the hardest time and threw a huge fit when I had to feed her and couldn't hold him.

We spent the rest of the day trying to rest and enjoying visits from friends.  My headache slowly started to return, and Poppy became very fussy. 

The boys were having a hard time at home, knowing we were at the hospital with Poppy, so Troy and my mom switched for Saturday night.  This way Gigi could spend some time with the baby and Troy could take the boys to church on Sunday.

I was thankful for the nursery on Saturday night since the baby was fussy and my head was hurting.  On Sunday morning, we started talking with the nurses about the possibility of a spinal headache (a side effect of having the spinal fluid leak from the epidural puncture site).  They had me lay flat and drink caffeine while we waited for the anesthesiologist.  He came in around 11 and quickly assured me that what I felt (horrible pain at the base of my skull, like my brain was resting on rocks) was not a spinal headache and he would not treat it.  I accepted that and hoped the drugs and an ice pack would help.  My mom had to leave at noon so Georgia and Emily came to keep my company and drive me home.  The OB took forever to round and discharge me so we didn't get home until close to 5!
Lachlan was super excited to see me, but Jonas' first words were, "Where is the baby girl??"  He quickly located her in the carseat and demanded that she come out to see him.  It was just so sweet.

This was as close as Lachlan wanted to get.

After a pretty good night at home, I woke up Monday with the worst headache ever.  I called Dr. Askew and she called the anesthesiologist on call.  It was a different guy who agreed that I most likely had a spinal headache that needed to be patched.  Thankfully, Theresa was able to spend the day with Poppy and me at back at the hospital.  A blood patch consists of taking blood out of your arm and inserting it into the epidural space to seal the leak.  It worked instantly, and I was sent home to drink tons of caffeine to stimulate spinal fluid production.  It was so nice to be pain free!  Too bad that was short-lived and I continued to battle the headache the rest of the week.  Finally I called my dr again on Thursday (I didn't want to bother her), and she consulted the other anesthesiologist again.  We agreed to try a new pain med with caffeine in it, and if that didn't work, we'd try a second patch on Friday.  Thankfully the drugs worked.

Poppy and I spent Tues-Friday at the doctor's office and hospital for bloodwork.  She was pretty jaundiced and needed her bilirubin checked 3 times.  After Monday, Troy decided to take the whole week off instead of just 2-3 days.  It was definitely a good decision since the transition was a lot harder than I thought it would be.

Here's a picture of our angel, hanging out in the kitchen.  She really has been a great baby so far.  She sleeps a lot, and usually really well at night, and is happy to watch what's going on around her.  The last couple of days, she's started showing signs of reflux, so we'll be discussing that with the pedi tomorrow when we go to make sure she's back up to birthweight.