The first 2 weeks

Wow! It's been a while since I had a minute to sit down at the computer. I've been so busy with Sarah it's unbelievable. She's doing fantastic though. She eats well and poops well. I try to feed her every 3 hours, but we don't have a strict schedule yet. Sometimes it's every 2 hours, other times there are 4-5 hour gaps. Breastfeeding is not going well. She has trouble laching on properly, when she does she either spits it out after a few seconds or she falls asleep.
After a number of very frustrating feedings I decided to pump instead and feed it to her from a bottle. We both find it much easier that way. We are starting to get into a routine with sleeping at night. The last 4 nights, she was only up for about an hour to feed in an 8 hour stretch. I'm finally catching up on sleep now. The first few days were terrible. Peter and I took turns being up with her at night. It was exhausting. By the way, Peter has been amazing! He was a huge help in the 2 weeks when he was off work. He quickly learned how to feed her, burp her, change her diaper and entertain her, so Mommy could get some rest. I really really appreciate his help. But now he's back to work and it's just the 2 of us home. I'm doing OK by myself, the only thing I need help with is giving her a bath. She's too slippery when she's wet, I feel more comfortable having an extra set of hands. Other than that, we are doing fine.

Our baby girl has arrived

Sarah was born on Wednesday at 7:55 am. She weighs 7 lbs 14 oz (3580 g) and she's 22" (55 cm) long. Peter and I went to the hospital Tuesday night at around 11pm. My contractions were 4-5 minutes apart. I was quickly admitted, by midnight we were set up in the delivery room. My obstetrician broke my water shortly after, which greatly increased the intensity of my contractions. I made a last minute decision to get an epidural. It wasn't as bad as I'd heard. The needle hurt going in, but I was almost immediately relieved from my contraction pains. It took full effect in about 10 minutes and I felt great. I was hooked up to a monitor so the nurse could keep an eye on the baby's heartbeat and the now painless contractions. She stayed in our room the entire time until I delivered. Peter and I tried to get some sleep while I was dilating. By 6:55 am I was 10 centimeters and ready to push. For about 50 minutes I pushed at every contraction and she slowly made her way down to the point where her hair was visible. The nurse was concerned, because every time I pushed, her heart rate would mysteriously drop. My OB decided to use forceps to help her out. Everything changed once her head was out. The umbilical cord was tightly wrapped around her little neck 3 times. That's why her hear rate kept dropping with every push. The cord got tighter and tighter. At this point she had to be taken out immediately so I received a 4Th degree laceration, all the way from front to back. One more big push and she was out. The 5 nurses, the OB, Peter and I all held our breaths as he quickly unwrapped the cord. She coughed immediately and let out a big cry. And so did I. She was put on my chest for a little bit, then one of the nurses put her in a pre-warmed bassinet, cleaned her up and checked her vitals. She received an unbelievable Apgar score of 9. The placenta came out within 5 minutes. A nurse massaged my stomach to detach it from the wall of my uterus. I don't know if it was due to the pain medications or just the emotions but I didn't see it or feel it come out. I was quickly sewed up and cleaned up. The 2 grandmothers were invited into the room not long after. They were taken back by how beautiful their granddaughter was. Uncle Jeff, uncle Vili and my dad showed up later in the afternoon. When dad got to hold her he was speechless. He managed to get just one word out: PERFECT! And she is. She has a lot of long dark hair and gorgeous big eyes. We're not sure what colour her eyes are yet. We were discharged from the hospital Thursday morning. We made a stop at Peter's parents' house to show Richard his first grand baby (he was unable to come to the hospital due to his illness).
I've never seen him so excited. It was only a short visit, we needed to get home and settle in. Tyson was very curious at first, so we quickly made him understand that it was OK to sniff, but not to lick. Our first night at home was a long one. Sarah still needs to get into a routine. Peter and I took turns staying up with her. I'm on baby duty now, Peter's sleeping. Sarah is starting to wake up now so I have to go.

41 weeks

Wow! 41 weeks and 2 days and still counting. But at least there's hope at the end of the tunnel. There has been a slight change of plans with regards to the induction. I had my check-up yesterday, the doctor said I was 1-2 centimeters dilated so there was no need to insert a strip to prepare me for labor. He then tried to schedule me an appointment at the hospital for today to be induced, but they were fully booked. They can only take 5 people a day to be induced because they need to keep the other spots open for women who come in in active labor. So he managed to schedule me in for Wednesday. I barely got in that day, I was the 5TH patient. I'm not sure the baby will wait another day though. I started having contractions yesterday morning around 3am, 10 minutes apart. They weren't overly painful, then at about 9pm last night they got a little stronger. Around midnight they got more and more intense. It's almost 5:30am now, they are still 8-10 minutes apart, but a lot stronger than yesterday. They hurt! I haven't got much sleep, maybe a couple hours. The baby's still active and I still have a huge appetite. The hospital bags are packed, Peter loaded the cooler last night, in case we have to leave in a hurry. Basically, we're just waiting either for my water to break or for my contractions to be 5 minutes or less apart, and we'll be on our way. I think it's just a matter of hours. My next posting should have a picture of our little one.