Hailey's story

On Tuesday, March 23rd, I was having more trouble than usual sleeping. It felt like I had indigestion or something. I was on an anti-biotic for a possible bladder infection so I thought it might be a side effect. I heard Vanessa coughing in her room and thought, " oh no. I thought that was over." When I finally got up to check on her, she had opened her door and was lying on the floor just outside throwing up. My poor baby.

I called Eric upstairs to help me out and clean up the mess while I put Vanessa in the bath and washed my hands really well. He found he had to clean her bedding too. What a morning! I asked Eric to stay a little longer and take the car to work. We weren't going to be needing it.

Good thing I did. My "gas pains" started to get more regular. Like every 3-4 minutes regular so I called my mom to come over and hopped in the shower.

Eric and I left Vanessa in good hands and went to the hospital knowing that she had gastro. We were at the hospital about 9:30 and went straight to a room for monitoring. At 12:30 they had they're base line and knew the baby was healthy and coming today. They took blood and gave me an IV. It took them 5 tries to get blood. (a week later and I'm still bruised) I went into the jacuzzi tub for some relaxing. I'm not sure it was relaxing but I was feeling cold and it did warmed me up. They allow you 30 minutes in the tub and at about 25 minutes my water broke.

I got out of the bath and went back into bed to wait for the epidural. It didn't take long. The epidural took the edge off but the contractions were still painful. By about 2:30 they were taking my breath away again. At about 3:30 Hailey was ready to meet the world. To bad the doctor was still at her clinic. Hailey was desperate to get out but we waited until 4 pm to put my feet in the stirrups. By 4:02 she was born. That was the easiest part of the day. There was no pushing at all and the pain was over. We had our happy healthy baby girl. We were elated she was finally here. She is a big baby. Long and lean at 9lbs2oz and 21 1/2 inches.

After the delivery, the doctor told me that she had the umbilical cord wrapped around her neck twice and around her waist. There was also a knot in it. I'm glad she arrived when she did because there could have been a lot of complications.

We held our new bundle of sweetness for hours. She had to be tested for diabetes on a regular basis because of her weight. By then end of the first day, her feet looked like she had walked on glass but they never found diabetes. The nurses noticed she might have jaundice. They ran another blood test and decided to give her light therapy. This was really hard because it meant the only time we could hold her was when I was nursing. In the incubation tank, she had only a diaper on and her eyes were covered. As you can imagine she was having trouble getting cozy. In the middle of the night I called Eric because she had been crying for an hour and I could do nothing for her. I gave him the choice of picking up a suce at the store or spending the rest of the night with his finger in her mouth. He came right away with the suce. That worked like magic.

Because of the jaundice, we stayed an extra 2 days. We were climbing the walls but we came out healthy.

Vanessa did come and visit Hailey and I. We planned it while she was nursing and I had explained to her before that Hailey had been in Mommy's tummy so long that she needed extra sunshine now. We didn't want her to be scared of the lights and incubation tank. When she visited she took it all in and wasn't phased by any of it. She even looked at my lanolin lotion and said that Hailey needed her sunscreen. Soooo funny!

Vanessa took a couple of days to get over her gastro but she was well by the time we came home. Eric went home on Friday afternoon to send my mom home for the night so she could stay in her own bed. Good thing because she came down with gastro that night. No good deed goes unpunished. Vanessa and Eric came to pick us up at the hospital. She's been pretty fantastic with Hailey. Holding her and kissing her really gently. She keeps telling us that having a baby sister is fun and Shh Shh be quiet. She's sleeping. Vanessa keeps saying, " She wants me." and puts her arms out to hold her. When we first sat her down to hold her she kept saying, "oh my goodness. Oh my goodness." and now she says she's getting big.

We've been breastfeeding and although it's going a lot better than with Vanessa this time it's extremely painful. I was concerned that she wasn't getting enough milk because I was so anxious. The nurse came to visit and told me I was doing everything right and that her mouth was probably just to small. Hailey was weighed and she is putting on double the amount of weight daily that she needs too. It means I can relax a little. She's not going hungry.