Nina Sofia Malo.

She's here!  Nina is a mini-Josh face and a total delight--I am so in love with our growing family.

Elena and I read (or started to at least) Angelina's Baby Sister the night before the delivery.  Angelina throws a temper tantrum and trashes her room when she feels she's not getting any attention, and then her mom pours on the love after her parents and grandparents witness her poor behavior.  It was about that point in the book where Elena said to me, "I don't like that book.  No, Mommy," and made me close it.  I guess that explains her initial reluctance to even acknowledge Elena in the first few minutes of their meeting, choosing instead to hang her head over the side of the bed and look at the floor, kicking her feet.

She warmed up pretty fast, however, and was soon hugging Nina incessantly and now can't keep her hands off of her.  There were many "I want my baby sister" whines tonight after she came home from daycare.  The two nursed simultaneously a few times, and she'd reach out and stroke Nina's hair, or toes, or hands (depending on how they were both positioned).  Very sweet.

After Elena's birth, I detailed her birth story in my journal.  I guess I'll go electronic with Nina's.

As I mentioned, I had my doctor strip my membranes at my 1:00 appointment on Tuesday.  After the appointment I had irregular contractions that evening going on into the night, waking me up some.  Elena must have known something was up because she kept waking up as well--a real restful night for all of us!  Around 5 am they started to get more regular, and I needed to breathe through them a bit more, but nothing a little yogic breathing couldn't handle.  I had a half-schedule of patients that morning, with the remainder of the morning to be spent fielding lab results and calls from the practice's patients.  By 6 am, I was still thinking that I could go in and finish my morning session.  By 6:30, I thought that wasn't going to be possible, but I could still swing by and sign some prescriptions I had printed the night before.  And by 7:30, I let that ship sail as well.

I had called Josh's mom around 6:30, and she was planning to be at our house by 8.  By the time she got to our house, I couldn't stand to be in any position but on my hands and knees during contractions.  Luckily Josh got there a few minutes after Lynn did, and we were soon off to the hospital.  I told Josh in the car that if they checked me and I was 6 cm, then I would try the tub, but if I was 7 cm, "I'm just getting the f---ing epidural."  I went on to say, "Yeah, I know the body produces endorphins and all that crap, but come on."  I guess rational brain handily won the battle against romantic vision brain.

I was 7 cm when they checked me in triage, and shortly thereafter I was wheeled (on hands and knees) to my room.  IV placement, labs, calling anesthesia (and waiting for labs) all took a little bit of time, and my epidural was in some time after 9:45.  Just before the anesthesiologist arrived, I was starting to panic with contractions, annoyed at all the tethering (BP cuff, IV, etc) and feeling nauseated and hot.  I just don't know how people tolerate even more intensity coupled with actually having to do something during contractions.  Post-epidual I was relaxed, nice and cool, and insanely thirsty (and still answering questions from the triage nurse, not even the L&D nurse).  In triage I had learned that someone else was covering my doctor's patients (such as myself), and was sort of disappointed, but in too much pain to care.  Right around epidural time, my nurse told me that Dr. H was going to come in just for my delivery, which she did, straight from her step aerobics class, headband and all.

Once I had a chance to collect my thoughts post-epidural, I put in my requests to my L&D nurse about skin-to-skin time and nursing during the vitamin K administration.  Dr. H was on board with the same mode of delivery with her delivering Nina's top shoulder and me reaching down to pull the rest of her out and onto my chest.  She also offered to keep silent if I wanted to claim an unmedicated delivery, which was sweet of her.  I do have to say that my epidural wasn't as heavy as my last one (my last one left me unable to control or feel my legs for hours after my delivery), so at least I could claim a 75% medicated delivery?  Not that it matters, I'm kidding.

Everything went great--I got to watch Nina's progress in a mirror, deliver her onto my chest at 10:57 am, assist in wiping away her cheesy vernix, and get to have her hot sausage body against my bare skin for nearly an hour.  Josh declined the offer to deliver her, but he did cut her cord.  She was a pro with latching on to nurse, and even ventured to open her left eye a bit to check out the scene (the right one stayed closed for a bit).  That skin-to-skin time was pure magic.  Hot, sticky, melty magic.  After about 45 minutes we were both satisfied, so I okay'ed the start of her torture.  She yipped a bit with the vitamin K, but then went back to nursing.  Eye gooped, weighed (7 lbs 7.73 oz), measured (20 in), she then got diapered and given back to us.  There was a nursing student there who followed me from triage through trans, and she seemed very appreciative to have been allowed to observe--apparently I was a model patient as my seasoned labor nurse (who I knew from UMC and have seen in my office as a patient) said to her, "They don't all do this well."

I can't explain how nice skin-to-skin is.  We did some post-bath skin-to-skin last night, and even Josh got some STS action.  She's such a soft little toaster.  I'm sad that I didn't do that much with Elena, but so grateful to have experienced its glory now.  It totally rivals the awesomeness of the epidural.

She's been great, nursing like a pro (though I think my technique and well-conditioned equipment help), and even had a nice 4 hour stretch of sleep last night.  I'm hoping for the same tonight, but we'll see.  Who knows, this post got interrupted by Elena waking, needing a splinter removal, demanding a bandaid, going back to sleep, and then waking up again.  This should be interesting!