Carlinland: Hailey Claire is here!!!

Hailey Claire Carlin was born on Monday, June 18th, 2012 at 10:52pm.

7 pounds, 7 ounces
She looks so much like Baby Noah, including Red Hair!! Yipee!!

Friday the 15th I saw my doctor, Dr. Hyde, and he stripped my membranes. I was 3 days past my due date, June 13th, so I agreed to give it a try. We also scheduled another appointment for Tuesday the 19th at which time he was going to insert a Foley balloon to get my cervix to dilate. The following day I was scheduled to be induced, one week after Hailey's due date. Nothing much really happened that Friday after stripping the membranes, or the next day, so I was discouraged. With Noah, the day after I had my membranes stripped I had cramping all the day and then the following morning my water broke, so I was hopeful it would be that simple again... nope! I went for nice long walks on Fri, Sat and Sunday. Then, around midnight the night before (Sunday) my mom and I went to the hospital because I just couldn't sleep... I was worried my water broke. It was a very subtle, slow trickle if anything, so I just wasn't sure. The nurses in triage were all certain it had after checking me out, but the test came back negative. So they sent me home an hour or so later. When they checked I was at 1.5 cm and 80%. While we were there on the monitor I was having contractions every 2-5 minutes, but they were very mild and not lasting all that long... so I did not meet criteria to be admitted yet. Once we got home I continued to have contractions like this all night. I was using my handy dandy Contraction Calculator application on my phone to keep track, but needless to say I didn't sleep a wink that night! Come morning, even though my contractions weren't getting any worse, they were consistent and I decided to call to see my doc. I wanted the contractions to either stop so I could sleep or get stronger so I could have my baby already, and I hoped they may have some advice. We made an appointment for 10:20 AM to get checked, but right after I got off the phone with the nurse, the contractions pretty much stopped. So I canceled my appointment in hopes that I could get some much needed rest. I didn't get much, though, because they would still come every 10 minutes or so and wake me up. So, it went on like that alllll stinkin day. I was exhausted and frustrated. My mom was with me (she never left my side, she is The Best, the BEST) and we decided to get out of the house and go for a little walk around the condo complex. I knew a long walk was not possible at this point, but we needed to get some fresh air. When we finished our walk I reviewed my contraction history on my phone and realized my contractions met the criteria to go to the hospital... finally! It all really got going around 4:30pm. Around 5:30 I called the hospital and told them I was coming in. Of course, Chris has just left to get Noah at daycare and stopped at the grocery store to get dinner. I called him while he was picking out peanut butter and let him know we were heading to the hospital because at that point the contractions were coming every 2-3 minutes and were intense... and sorry, but, I was not waiting for him to get home! My mom took me to the hospital and turned out I had progressed from 1.5 cm at midnight the night before to 4-5 cm at 6:30 PM. Before she even checked, I remember telling the nurse that no matter what, I wasn't going home! On the way to triage I had to stop in the hall to deal with contractions; I was so tired and so done with dealing with constant pain. Oh, I was miserable. I wanted my epidural ASAP. :) Meanwhile Chris got home and fed Noah dinner and brought him right back to daycare to spend the night. Our daycare provider is so wonderful! My great friend, Wendy, was on call as well, but it worked out well to just bring Noah right back to day care for his first ever sleep over! He did great I am told!. By the time Chris got to the hospital I was getting my epidural, finally!, which was around 8:00pm. They took forever to get my IV in, same thing happened when I had Noah, delaying the epidural a bit. I remember becoming giddy and giggly when they finished getting epidural in... just the idea of not feeling the pain anymore made me elated! It numbed my right side pretty quickly, but my left side wasn't totally numb until right before the pushing, so I still felt my contractions and pressure for most of it, but they were completely tolerable and dull, so no big deal. It wasn't as pleasant and perfect as the epidural I had with Noah, though, as I felt nothing at all then. I spent the next few hours assessing how much the contractions hurt and trying to position myself to get the epidural to take on the left side. They gave me the button to push to increase the epidural and it took about 4 pushes when my left side finally got numb, and just in time because before we knew it it was time to call the doctor in. And I had just decided to entertain myself with a game on the ipad... oh well! Dr. Hyde was actually there that night, though not technically on call as he was the "hospitalist" for the night, but he got to deliver Hailey! He suited up, they got me a mirror so I could see it all and everyone got into position. I pushed a few times with one contraction and her head moved a little bit. I was feeling anxious at this point, my heart was beating hard and fast so I felt like I wasn't able to do much (plus I was numb, so I had no idea how I was doing it). Then the next contraction came, I pushed 3 times and she was out! Even faster than with Noah. My mom took pictures and video, which I thought beforehand I wouldn't want... gross... but turns out it was awesome to be able to see it in the mirror and to have a record of it as well (I am not sure Chris agrees, though - he he)! The cord was around her neck, but she got an APGAR score of 9/9. Chris got to cut the cord, which Dr. Hyde commented was very long - a sign of intelligence he said! :) Hailey weighed in at 7.7 pounds; Noah was 7.2. She looks so much like Noah did when he was a newborn! She's so adorable I can't even stand it! The nurses commented that she is very strong... and feisty, especially when getting her diaper changed. After she was born, I chugged three large apple juices. I was soo thirsty!

The morning after her birth, Hailey had a "dusty" moment when she choked on some amniotic fluid she swallowed on her way down the birth canal. Thank god she was with the nurses who were changing her first diaper when it happened, because she turned blue for 30 seconds and they needed to suck out the yuck and give her some oxygen. That scared the whozee out of me, so even though I had just barely told my doc I would be ready to go home that night after dinner, I decided we were spending another night! I wanted to have the nurses around as long as possible. She has spit up significant amounts 2 other times since then, but nothing that she choked on. I am still nervous about it. So we ended up staying the optional night (optional since she was born so late the previous night, normally you get 24 hours) and came home today. My mom spent both nights with us in the hospital while Chris took care of Noah at home.

Now, what about Noah? Well, Noah met her the day after she was born and was awesome. He immediately petted her and kissed her gently, told her "It's okay" when she fussed at all and welcomed her to the world. He asked to hold her and did such a great job with it! He is so sweet and gentle with her! He's amazing. We are so proud of him and how well he did with Hailey and in the hospital that next day. He was a rock star! He got a new monster truck and Cars playdoh to play with and do so quietly and peacefully. he got to go for walks to the cafe with my mom and Chris and was an all around perfect big brother!

Today he was a rock star again, but while he and Daddy were getting ready to come get us at the hospital, Noah fell down the top stairs again, for the 4th time now. He was pretty upset so Chris brought him in to get an xray and the diagnosis was that nothing is broken... but he still complains it hurts so he can have some ibuprofen as needed to help and should be fine in a couple days. Poor, poor Noah. He's a trooper though and he'll be okay!

Here are a few pictures I was able to get on my camera as well as a few my mom took. My mom took tons and we will go through them someday soon to pick out more favorites and post them here. Enjoy...

Before Hailey was born, we noticed there was a little brown bunny just outside our window! A brown bunny has always been a symbol that I am being looked over and taken care of. He always appears when I am nervous about something, like on many outdoor adventures I have been on. It was awesome to see he had appeared on the night Hailey was to be born. Reassurance that everything was going to be okay.

You can barely see him, but my little brown bunny is eating some grass just outside our window!

Here is Hailey!!

Bummer this next pic is blurry, but this is Noah when he first met Hailey on the 19th. He was so sweet and gentle with her. He is such a wonderful little boy!