Happy Birthday, Amelia!

  

Amelia Quinn.  Our beautiful first daughter arrived perfectly healthy at 3:35pm on August 28th, 2014 weighing 6lbs 13oz and 19 3/4" long.  After 37+ weeks, meeting this little beauty was everything we imagined it would be.  My sweet Amelia.  She has become the most perfect addition to our growing family!  This post will be more for me.. remembering the day of her birth.. remembering some of those finer details that can often be forgotten!

Jas and I checked into the hospital around 12:30ish.  I remember sitting in OB triage waiting area, waiting for the nurse to come and take us up to OR traige... it was so surreal.  Jas and I were both updating Facebook statuses, fidgeting to release some of the nervous energy that was building.. both trying to contain our excitement and nerves over what was to come over the next few hours.  One of the nicer aspects of a planned c/s was that it was just Jas and me together in the OR triage area.  It gave us some last minute time to just.. sit in silence!!  Legit, I think the majority of our wait we didn't really say much to each other.. both likely thinking the same things.. wondering how our lives were about to change, again.. praying that everything would go smoothly and that our daughter would arrive perfectly healthy.. neither one of us admitting how nervous we were.. but, each being able to sense it in the tight squeeze we had between our hands.. Go figure, I was being delivered for high blood pressure, and yet my blood pressures before delivery were gorgeous - lower than they'd been in weeks!   I chalk that up to my awesome OB and the extreme confidence I had that everything was going to go perfect with her delivering us.

The actual delivery itself was mostly uneventful, which was awesome, since I had a lot of anxiety over what to expect.  Before we got started, all the nurses were joking with me asking if I got "frequent flyer miles" at the hospital or some special discount since this was my 3rd delivery in just over 2 years!  If only it worked that way!! Then we got started, and holy hell, the spinal was awful.. way worse than my first two.  When the anesthesiologist was trying to get the needle in, she kept "hitting" something that was sending shooting pains down my left side.. like, perhaps some of the worst pain I've ever felt in my life.  The nurse who was in charge of "calming me" during the procedure kept saying "just relax your shoulders and curl your back".. ummmmmmm.. pretty hard to relax when I feel like someone is stabbing me in my spine.. oh wait, someone WAS stabbing me in my spine!  I don't remember crying during my other spinals, but this time I definitely did...!  Again, my OB is awesome and suggested they numb me some more before they tried inserting it for the 10th time (maybe an exaggeration, but maybe not.. I seriously lost count after 3)!  Once that was in properly and I was numbed up, we were good to go.  I will give the anesthesiologist some props for keeping the meds in me good.. I didn't have any issues with blacking out or getting sick.. she was very on top of my stats and overall I felt the best during this surgery than I did either time before, so that was good.

I remember it all happening super fast.. I felt like as soon as I laid down and they made sure I was good and numb, they brought Jason in and within minutes Miss Amelia was out crying!  I do remember one of the nurses asking J if he wanted to "look" as she was being delivered and his response was "Na, I'm good right here", to which she replied "nothing wrong with a man who knows his limits!".  That made me laugh!  J learned his lesson when he looked too soon during Aidan's delivery.. scarred him for life!! This time, he waited for them to hold her up before peeking!  The nurses this time were fantastic.  They took so many pictures for us -- really, super nice of them! I also liked that they kept Jas and Amelia in the room with me for longer this time.. I got to see her a lot more while they were piecing me all back together, which was nice.  To me, at least, it felt like it all went much quicker than before, and soon we were on our way to recovery!

We waited a few days before having my Mom bring the boys over to meet their newest sibling.  I remember when we had Aidan that it scared Owen seeing me hooked up to an IV and not able to get out of bed, so I wanted to make sure I was up and moving around before they came to visit.  Aunt Mimi also came by to take some pictures of Amelia.. and pictures just wouldn't be complete without a hair pouf that was bigger than her head!  After all, I spent months purchasing and putting them all together.. of course she had to start wearing them right out of utero!  I think the reality of having a daughter really sunk in when I saw Jason holding her.  There is something so powerful about watching the man you love embrace their child.  I think for me it has to do with the fact that as a Mother, I have the entire pregnancy to bond with the baby since he/she is growing inside of me, but for him.. those moments of bonding come in the first hours and days of meeting the baby.  It's such an incredible thing.. to see the love he has for that little baby.. I've fallen in love with him more and more with each child we've welcomed into this world. 

 So here we are.  A family of 5!  Having the boys there to meet Amelia was even more incredible than I anticipated.  I honestly thought they'd probably show very little interest and instead be more intrigued about what trouble they could get into in the hospital room, but to my surprise their reactions were quite different.  Owen, especially, was immediately interested in Amelia.  Every sound she made, every expression on her face.. Owen reacted to it all!  The laughing picture.. he could not get over her sticking out her tongue. To him, that was the funniest thing ever!  I think if my heart could have burst with joy, it would have in those first moments of seeing my 3 kids all together.  The amount of love in that room was indescribable!  Even Aidan.. my little bruiser.. he wasn't quite sure what to make of her, but he too was drawn in by her tiny expressions and little shrieks.

Now, 10 weeks later, these three are inseparable!  Hopefully now that we're starting to get some more sleep on a slightly more predictable schedule I'll be able to catch up on the whirlwind that has been the past 2 months!  Keep an eye out for more posts!