Special Delivery!

June 24th has come and gone and seeing that it was the second most remarkable day that Jordan and I have ever experienced in life (the first being Kinsey's birth), I think it's probably worth a blog post :)

The days leading up to the 24th are now a blur, but I know that I was just trying to spend as much special time with Kinsey as I could.  Along with extra cuddle time I pretty much let her ride on me, jump on me, and play with me as much as I could take while still breathing and not urinating on myself.

Kinsey was such a help the last few days and even assisted in the installation of baby sister's carseat! You can see here that she has put "baby sister" in for a test drive.  Her imagination and attempts to help are absolutely darling 0:)

Jordan and I woke up on the morning of the 24th ready to go.  My iPhone also reminded me just in case I'd forgotten I would be pushing a baby out of my crotch that day.  Details like that are easy to forget.

The plan was to wake up, get ready, and then wait for the hospital to call us in. We were ready by 7:15 am and then we just waited...

And waited....

And waited....

At 10:00 am we called them and were told that L&D was crazy and they would probably be calling us in around 3:00 pm.  So we decided to make the most of the day and headed out for a hike and a little time at the park down the street :)

We finally got called and told to arrive at 4:00 pm, so we loaded up, gave Kinsey LOTS of kisses, thanked Shannon for watching our little girl, and headed out.

Almost 40 weeks!

Official last family photo as a family of 3

We checked in at exactly 4:00 pm and I put on this sexy number. 

Then we waited some more. 

So what do you do in this day and age when you wait?  Why, take selfies, of course.  And play each other in Hanging With Friends :)

But that's not to say that I don't take this whole "childbirth" thing seriously.  Obviously.

My entire delivery only lasted 3 hours, so to make a short story even shorter:

My IV was in and the Pitocin was started at 5:15 pm.  Just like last time, I was having no pain and basking in all my "I'm so strong" glory.  "I can do this."

At 6:30 pm, Dr. Froerer breaks my water.  He hangs around for about 10 min to shoot the breeze with us and I start to feel the contractions.  "Hmmm, that doesn't feel great."

7:15 pm rolls around and my nurse basically tells me I'm dumb.  She says that if you're planning to get an epidural, you might as well get one now so you aren't in all of this pain.  "I guess she's right. This sucks. A lot." 

So she pages Anesthesia but unfortunately they had just gotten called into an emergency C-section.  It'll be awhile.  

7:30 pm: "Holy hell...where is my epidural?!?"
7:31 pm: "Hasn't it been 30 minutes yet?!?"
7:32 pm: "I'm dying!!!"

You can imagine what the next 30 minutes were like. 

At 8:00 pm, my anesthesiologists shows up and my cervix is checked.  I'm dilated to 4 cm and 70% effaced.  "This is going to be a long night."  He starts to work on my epidural and each contraction feels more painful than the last.  He finally finishes and one contraction goes by...."that might feel a little better?" "Oh, no, I was wrong!...it still hurts and I'm pushing...." The nurse checks me again and even though only about 10 minutes have passed, I'm now 6 cm dilated and 90% effaced.  

She charts something for a minute or two and then I tell her that I'm REALLY pushing.  She checks again and I'm completely dilated, effaced, and she feels a head.  "Good heavens, my body doesn't mess around!"  

She emergently starts calling in other nurses and paging Dr. Froerer frantically.  Then she grabs a random OB from the hallway and I'm introduced to some weird lady I've never seen before.  I looked at her like she had 4 heads.  I am not going through all this pain on this particular day to deliver with a stranger.  NOT happening.

Dr. Froerer finally runs in at about 8:20 pm and at 8:31 pm Teagan Elle Meher enters the world 0:)

At 6 lb 15 oz and 19 1/2 inches, she was freakishly close to her sister's numbers (7 lb even and 19 inches long).  She was perfect from the second she came out! Her APGAR score was 9 and she was a great nurser right off the bat, like it was an instinct or something :P

The famous Dr. Froerer.  LOVE HIM!

Unfortunately, since they were trying to get my epidural to take effect VERY quickly, they gave me a large bolus.  So I still felt the whole birth but about 5 minutes later I couldn't feel or move my legs AT ALL.  Totally different from my last experience and I have to say I was pretty annoyed by that feeling.  Dr. Froerer asked me afterward if I was traumatized since, as he put it, "that was essentially what natural childbirth feels like".  Before I could reply, Jordan piped in that he was actually traumatized from the whole thing.  Luckily I feel fine, but Jordan may need a few therapy sessions to recover.

Proud daddy and his new daughter :)

What an angel 0:)

That night was great! Teagan actually slept for a 5 hour stretch and although I was worried about it, the extra sleep was nice.  She continued to nurse really well and had a nice, large meconium poop in the early morning hours.  I wanted Jordan to take a picture of her first poop but he declined.

The next day we were itching to get out of there but Teagan needed to pass all of her tests first.  She also got her first sponge bath which she surprisingly enjoyed, and then the pediatrician came around to give us the thumbs up on heading out early.

My nurse, Claudia, from delivery was wonderful!

At about 6:30 pm, Shannon brought Kinsey to the hospital so that we could experience our ceremonial first trip in the family van all together. And I was SO excited to see that the sister shirts I had ordered had finally arrived!!  Kinsey looked BEAUTIFUL in her new shirt and was in such a great mood! 

Watching her meet her new sister was one of the most endearing moments I've ever had.  When I came back from Teagan's CCHD test with her, Kinsey knew right away who it was and was so interested to see her and touch her.  And she was incredibly gentle and soft, which was a relief for us.  We got the whole thing on video, and my favorite part is when she's inspecting her for the first time and exclaims, "Look...her nose.  She has no boogers!!"  That was my first thought too.

Our new family :)

"A sister is a gift to the heart, friend to the spirit, and a golden thread to the meaning of life."  -Isadora James

We were finally discharged and ready to head home at 8:00 pm and we booked it out of there!

I'm not going to lie, going home was tough. Teagan slept the whole car ride, but once we got home, it was down to business. It was already 8:30 pm and we still had to get Kins bathed, fed, and put to bed, shower and feed ourselves, and get Teagan ready for bed too. Phewph! 

It all worked out fine, however, and surprisingly we got pretty decent sleep that night.  The next morning we were ready to get back to real life, so where would we go other than the park? :) After some sweet snuggle time, of course.

Kinsey was SO excited about her new castle that Teagan gave her as a gift!

We then headed to the airport to pick up Grandma and Grandpa who came to visit for a few days, meet the new addition, and of course play with Kins :)

Overall, this pregnancy and delivery were a breeze and I consider myself extremely lucky to have had such an easy time.  And now that Teagan is here, she is proving to be just as easy in person as she was in utero.  Jordan, Kinsey, and I all love her so much and can't wait to watch her grow into the beautiful little girl she will become. Before I had Teagan many people told me that once she was here, I wouldn't remember what life was like without her. Oh how right they were.  I love my new life with my new family of 4!