Blair Kathryn Days 1 & 2

Our sweet little (well, not so little really) Blair Kathryn made her arrival into this world this past Wednesday, November 16th, which was a week and a day earlier than her due date. She weighed 8lbs, 12 ozs and is 21.5 inches long. Can you imagine how much she would have weighed if she had stayed in another week!?!

A very short version of her birth story is that I woke up at 2 am with a strong contraction, but didn't get my hopes up because I had been having inconsistent, strong Braxton Hicks contractions for a couple of days. The contractions that started at 2 though stayed between 8-10 minutes apart for an hour, so (at 3 am) I knew this was the real thing. By 7:30 they were 1-3 minutes apart and it was time to drop the kids off with Katie and head to the hospital.  When we got to the hospital I was 5 cm dilated, which was a little disappointing since I was 4 cm a week ago at my 38 week appointment, but it didn't take long for things to start moving. At 10 am I was 6 cm and they gave me an epidural, broke my water and started some pitocin all back-to-back. 5-10 minutes later I was 10 cm and was in a tremendous amount of pain with the contractions, which were two minutes apart. I had told the anaesthesiologist that when pushing I wanted to feel the contractions so she only gave me half the normal dose, which basically just left me with an annoying tingling in my legs. After 30 minutes of that though I didn't care about anything besides getting out of pain and getting this baby out. Fast forward another 30 more minutes, the normal dose of the epidural medicine, and relief! Blair arrived shortly after at 11:59 with about 15 minutes of pushing. 

Updated 1/11/12: I realized there were some things I wanted to remember: 

• There was something about my first real contraction with both Blake and Blair that wakes me from sleep knowing that it's the real thing.
• Between 3 am and 7:30 am, my contractions were only consistent when I was moving. As soon I layed down, sat down, or took a hot bath they slowed WAY down. It was very frustrating. At 7 am, I was so frustrated that I went on a 1 mile walk. That's what really got things moving and to be honest I had a hard time walking back as the contractions were between 1-3 minutes apart, plus there were many I couldn't walk through. I bet I was a sight for our neighbors, but at that point I didn't care. 
• When we arrived at the hospital, my contractions had slowed down again to the point that I told Luke that I can't walk into the hospital feeling this good. So, we started walking up and down the sidewalk.
• Once I got to my labor and delivery room, I quickly realized that I didn't like my head nurse. She was rough when moving me, didn't really listen to me, and would repeatedly ask questions in the middle of a contraction and keep asking even though I clearly couldn't answer at the moment.
• I will never forget the funny voice message I got from Katie & the kids (Boone, Emmy, Bailey, & Blake) saying push it out, push it out, push it out (this was Bailey's potty training poop song : ). Let's just say that I nearly peed in my pants.
• I will never ask for a half dose of the epidural again. By giving me the full dose when she did, which was about 15 minutes before I delivered, I had what felt like elephant legs for quite awhile afterwards.
• I keep wondering why I was given pitocin at 6cm? And was given it for an hour after I was fully dilated, fully effaced, and she was down in position? Seriously, there was a point at which my L&D nurse said, "Oh, I guess we can stop the pitocin".
• During the hour I was at 10 cm & fully effaced, the thing that helped me was to curl to the side, squeeze Luke's hand as hard as I could, make him count through it, and would say "oh dear Lord, oh dear Lord, oh dear Lord". This was absolutely the most painful thing I have ever experienced in my life, even more than my appendix pains before the appendectomy.
• I was so thankful that my doctor delivered me instead of a stranger. That's part of the reason I like his practice.

When she first came out I thought she looked just like Blake did at birth because of the way she scrunches up her face when crying, but now I also see alot of Bailey too. 

First peek while the nurses were cleaning her

Nice big cheeks and eyes open.

Gigi getting to hold her 3rd grandbaby

and Nana holding her 6th!

Bailey finally getting to meet her sister

These were our visitors the first night. Joel who was meeting up with Katie and the kids after work said that at 50 feet away he no longer had to look at room numbers, but just listened to the noise to find my room :). Thankfully I didn't have anyone on either side of my room as we had a mini birthday party for Ms. Blair.

Franny with ALL her grandkids

Blake was SO sweet just looking at "baby"

Emmy getting a turn

Rebecca's turn. I think this set of pictures is so funny. None of us noticed what she was doing at the time, but she was giving Blair a little taste of her new world.

Aunt Ali

One of me and the girls

I know this is blurry, but Bailey was kissing Blair bye. She was so sad that Blair wasn't coming home with her. She thought just mommy was staying in the hospital and cried big tears for her little sister.

A very early morning photo. We had so many interruptions (13 in 9 hours) that this was taken at a point when I had kinda given up on sleeping.

Day 2

After getting some much needed sleep it was time for more visitors.

Gigi had been watching been Bailey and Blake, but Franny relieved her and she got to come get up and visit some more.

 

Later that night the Murray clan came up and Nathan took a turn with Blair.

And lastly Emily. She loves little newborn snuggles and we let her soak it up.

Blair's hair is definitely dark, just like the other two at this age.

And this is my view as I am typing this. Just taking in my little girl. : )