Vadajo

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You’re supposed to only give sponge baths for the first few weeks, but we couldn’t help ourselves! Suzette and Kate helped, and it was really quite a production. As for Vada, she didn’t seem to hate it or love it. Probably needed bubbles.

The postpartum nurses had expert swaddling kung-fu, and each one had a different style. This is our poor attempt to recreate what we called the “mother theresa” wrap.

We never did get very good at plain old swaddling, but I luckily found a “miracle swaddling blanket” at a garage sale. Score! To any new parents out there: you need one of these!

Here we are, on Thursday morning. I thought we were getting released right away, so I was ready to go bright and early. I was feeling suprisingly well! The postpartum nurses were great, but the rooms were incredibly tiny – just enough space for a bed, a chair, and the bassinet. After two days, we were so ready to go home. Vada had some tiny issues (slight fever right after birth, and a touch of jaundice) so they threatened to keep us one more day. Thankfully, they finally checked us out on Thursday evening, around 9pm.

I love this shot… Look at those tiny tiny hands!

This pic shows her jaundice starting up… We had to take her in to the pediatrician on Friday and Saturday to monitor it, and we supplemented with formula for the first week or so. It cleared up just fine, and then we were on our own!

At my checkup on Thursday (March 30), my blood pressure was up and I had a crazy amount of water retention. The midwife said “go home now, do not even go into work to clear off your desk.” Of course, I ignored her! But I did work from home on Friday, and had a nice lazy weekend. Chris and I did the belly cast kit on Sunday (silly but fun!). Little did we know it was just in the nick of time…

So, Monday, April 3 was my first official day of maternity leave. I had another checkup that day, and the OB said I wasn’t dilated at all, but that I could still have the baby tomorrow or 3 weeks from now. She jinxed me! My water broke in the middle of the night – hey, did I just wet the bed?? No, it wasn’t that dramatic; more like a leak than a gush.

Let’s see if I can keep this brief… We met up with our doula, Randie, at the hospital at about 4am, and they hooked me up to the monitors. I was having contractions alright, but I couldn’t even feel them! Randie and I walked laps around the ward to try to get things going, but no luck. At 8am, they started the pitocin drip, and slowly ramped it up. I’d already decided to get an epidural if the pain got bad enough (which I assumed it would!), but I wanted to wait as long as possible, just to have as much of the full “birth experience” as possible. By about noon, I was in enough pain that I asked for the narcotics that I was told would “take the edge off”. Well, either the drugs interacted with the pitocin somehow, or the nurse thought she’d just crank that puppy right up while I was too stoned to notice! About 15 minutes later, I was in intense pain and ready for that epidural. The anesthesiologist was brilliant, and the epidural was blessed relief. They had checked me just before the narcotics were given, and I was just over 1cm dilated. I felt like a wimp for giving in so soon, but they checked me again after the epi was in, and I was at 6cm. So, 5cm in one hour – no wonder I was in such agony!

The rest of the delivery was mild in comparison. Did I mention how much I loved that epidural? I napped and chatted and watched TV for the next few hours, until I was fully dilated at about 6pm. Then the pushing started. Yes, it’s hard to push when you’re numb! There’s definitely some learning to do – gotta take in a deep breath, sit up, push the right way at the right time, take another breath while you’re still pushing, push some more… We had a little issue with Vada’s heart rate (turned out that it was because she was clutching her own umbilical cord the whole time!), so I also had to use an oxygen mask. But we kept at it, and she was born at 7:56pm. We lucked out, and the midwife we loved did the delivery. Chris cut the cord, and I got to hold her right away, and she started right up with nursing. Good baby!

The new family!

She’s so beautiful… Okay, every baby looks like crap when they’re born. But she’s beautiful to us! She was 7lbs, 11oz, and 19″ long.