Big Brother Nate

So, Nate stayed with his Nonna while I went to the hospital. She said that all day he kept asking when he would get to see his little sister. We wanted to make sure that he was the first person who got to see her, so my mom brought him by as soon as we had a few minutes with her and had her all cleaned up.

The first thing he asked when he walked in the door was, "Where's my baby sister?" We told them her name and (luckily) he can say it no problem! He wanted to hold her and we showed him how to do it.

First time holding his "Baby Sister"

He came back to visit twice the next day too, and even exchanged gifts with Amelia. He got her a little bee for her car seat that plays music and she got him a Tiny doll from Dinosaur Train that matches (and interacts with) the Buddy doll we had gotten him for Christmas. He loved it!

Since we have been home for over a week now, things have been pretty good. He is very sweet with her and has come in to our bedroom every morning asking the same question he asked at the hospital, "where's my baby sister?!", but sometimes we do have to remind him to be a little more gentle. I think there are moments, especially at nap and bed time, when he wishes he still had my full attention, but I think he doesn't really mind as a whole. He gives her lots of hugs and kisses, and the sweetest moment I've seen so far happened a couple nights ago. I was changing her diaper on the couch while he was watching his nightly episode of (probably) 'Dinosaur Train' and she started crying. He kept watching, but reached his hand over and just put it on her head while I finished cleaning her up. I almost cried.

Tough love

Helping with bathtime

Hopefully it can stay this way now that my mom has gone back to California and he no longer has his roommate and spoiler. We are trying hard to make sure that he still knows that Peter and I love him and that Amelia hasn't replaced him in any way. And hopefully that will just get easier as she gets older, but for now I think we are all doing a great job!

The birth story

Well, she decided she didn't want to come on her own even though I tried everything "natural" to get her to come... We even went to the mall the day after Christmas! My blood sugar got really low but little Cranberry did not want to come. So, we left Nate with Nonna and headed to the hospital at 7am on the 27th.

They put us in our room right away, so I was in bed and watching Today by about 7:10. They had to ask me a bunch of questions and fill out all of  the "paperwork" (which is now mostly electronic). The Dr came in and measured me (I was around 3-4cm) and broke my water around 9, then they started the pitocin. The contractions started kicking in around 9:30. Unfortunately since I was on pitocin I had to be monitored, so I couldn't get in the tub or walk around... I had to stay in or right next to my bed unless I needed the bathroom. I tried everything I could but when they came and checked me at about 12:30 and I had only progressed 1cm, I caved and got an epidural. I was really hoping to be strong enough not to need it, but I couldn't really bear the thought of another 10-12 hours of labor stuck in bed. I'm really glad that I did though. :) I was able to sleep a little bit and started progressing much quicker at that point. I don't know if it would have happened anyway, or if my being able to relax helped to speed things along, but in another 2 hours I had progressed and was ready to push! Unlike with Nate I didn't feel like I HAD to push NOW, so the hour or so I had to wait for the Dr (he wanted me to labor a little longer to make sure she was nice and low) was much better. And, I guess she was ready to come out at that point because it only took 3 pushes and we were done!

Her umbilical cord was wrapped around her neck twice and her body once, but it was so long (unusually so) that there was plenty of slack. So, it wasn't cutting off any of her needed supplies or nutrients and never registered any sort of stress during labor. Thank God for that! They did their initial quick tests and got her cleaned up just enough to give her to me for some Koala time. We were very happy to welcome our new little girl to our family!

Introducing...

Amelia Diane Morris

born Tuesday, December 27, 2011 at 3:53 pm

8 lbs, 5 oz

20.5"