Teagan's Birth Day

I woke up bright and early the morning of the c-section, 3:30 to be exact.  I was running on pure adrenaline because I barely slept the night before, too much on my mind and too much to be excited for.  I showered, got ready, checked my bag for about the one hundredth time, had Nick take one last picture of my belly and headed for the hospital.  We had surprisingly had some snow during the night, so I captured a picture of that while we were loading up the car.  

We arrived at the hospital at 5:30, we were admitted and I was hooked up to an IV and sporting one of those nifty hospital gowns.  Now the only thing we had left to do was wait until they took me off to surgery, which was supposed to take place around 7:30.  Around 6:30 my parents and my grandma Marion showed up.  I was so hungry and in desperate need of some coffee, so I was definitely not all smiles when my dad showed up with coffee for everyone in the room, besides me because I couldn't have anything before surgery.  So needless to say that coffee was the first thing I asked for after I was settled back in my room. 

They took me into surgery at 7:30, and little did I know the excitement and roller coaster ride that was ahead of me. Dr. Guzman was nice enough to let my mom be in the OR for the delivery, along with Nick obviously.  And I was also lucky enough to have one of my friends that is an OB nurse in on the surgery and she was planning on video recording the entire thing. 

The first thing they did in the OR was attempt to give me my spinal to numb me for surgery.  Now I have had spinals before and they have worked beautifully.  But after they started poking around to see if it was settled in yet, they figured out that I was not numb and I could still feel quite a bit.  So after waiting a few minutes, they thought they would give it another try. At this time Nick and my mom had entered the OR, just in time for them to watch the second attempt at the spinal.  And to everyone's surprise I was still able to feel as they were poking at me and testing out to see if I was numb.  So then they thought they would try to shoot me up with a local injection throughout my stomach where they would be making the incision, and guess what.....I could still feel!!!! Crazy, I know.  Considering I am only 5'3'', I have no idea where all of this medicine was going.  At this point I was squeezing Nick's hand because they were poking at me pretty hard, especially at my old c-section scar which was sensitive to touch, and I just kept saying, "I can still feel that," even when they weren't asking if I could feel anything.  I also blurted at one point that it was totally fine by me if they had to knock me out.  Now keep in mind I was actually able to keep my composure during all of this and I wasn't screaming like a crazy woman, I was rather proud of myself for that.  At this point when I looked back at the poor nurse anesthesist, I noticed that there were 3 anesthesiologist that were all trying to figure out what the heck was going on.  Dr. Guzman then made the decision to knock me out, which sadly to say meant that my mom and Nick would not be able to in the OR for Teagan's arrival because they put a tube down your throat and they really don't want family members to see that. Before they put me under I did turn to the nurse and I told her that she could not let my husband name this baby until I was able to see her.  We really weren't agreeing on names and we were waiting to see what she looked like before we could make a decision on what her name would be.  

In the nursery right after the delivery

 One of the strangest experiences I ever had was waking up in the recovery room wondering if I actually had a baby or if I dreamed it.  Thank God the anesthesist was there, so I quickly asked him, "Did I have the baby?" and "What did she weight?".  He also informed me that she was born at 8:11 am and she was light colored.  He also told me that she was 7 lbs. 3 ozs. and 19 inches long. Needless to say I just could not wait to get back to my room and finally get to meet our precious little girl.  

They brought her into me as soon as I got back to the room.  That is when Nick and I had our "Golden Hour" with her.  We just could not get enough of her.  It was absolute love at first sight. I was shocked that she had lighter skin and lighter hair than Jack had when he was born. At birth her eyes were also a very pretty dark blue color, so I am interested to see if they will stay blue or turn a different color.   I kind of assumed that she would have darker features like her brother and dad, but surprisingly enough she is on the lighter side like her Mommy. And we were both very pleased that she took to breastfeeding like an absolute champ.  It literally took a team (literally at one time there were 5 people helping me) to get Jack to breastfeed when he was first born, so for her to latch right on was a huge accomplishment.  

And oddly enough, we didn't even talk about what we were going to name her during this whole time.  And then we really didn't get to discuss it the rest of the day because we had so many visitors. I must say that I was rather sleepy from being put under during the surgery, but there was no way that I could bring myself to even shut my eyes for a little nap, I was just way too excited to finally have our little girl here with us. 

Big Brother Jack came up to meet his new little sister around 12:30.  He was all prepared and ready to go in his personalized scrubs.  

He reacted just as I thought he would, like he could really care less about the baby, he was more interested in getting some hugs and kisses from me.  And of course he wanted to climb up on my bed, which made me a little nervous considering I was pretty sore, but he was very careful and gentle.  

But Jack was pretty excited with all the big brother presents that he had received from our family members and friends. Jack didn't stick around too long because it was pushing nap time and he seemed to be pretty tired, it was definitely hard to hear him crying as he was leaving the hospital, but from what the grandma's have told me, he was crying because they wouldn't let him run up and down the ramp in the hallway, not because he was missing his mommy.  This doesn't surprise me one bit.  

Upset because they won't let him run up and down the ramp at the end of the hallway

 The rest of the night was spent visiting with family and friends, and then our favorite nurse Erica gave us a wonderful surprise, she was having us moved to the big corner "suite" room at the end of the hallway.  The room we were in was very nice, but we definitely were not going to turn down that huge room.  It was absolutely wonderful.   

We still can't believe that our sweet little girl is finally here and we are excited to start our new life as a family of 4. We love you Teagan and we can't wait to see what happiness and joy you are going to add to our lives.