Colin & Claire: Claire's Arrival

Claire Elizabeth arrived on April 21 at 8:11am with much less fanfare than her brother. She weighed in at 8 lbs, 11 oz, and 21.5 inches long.

Not too interested in opening her eyes and being part of this bright, cold operating room.

We went in at 6am for my C-section, and we spent a lot of time checking out how Claire was doing, discovering that I was having contractions that I couldn't feel, getting my IV inserted, etc. My nurse messed up the IV the first time, and it hurt horribly. Due to the fact that I hadn't been allowed to eat/drink for about 9 hours at this point, my veins were really difficult to access. Second attempt on a different side went better. I walked back to the operating room (a little surreal), and they put in my spinal. I was wishing Peter was back there at this point, and the nurse was trying to help me relax. Sure, I'm relaxing while you jab an enormous needle by my spinal cord. We had 2 instances of pain, but the anesthetist quickly fixed the problem. Then they laid me down and about 5 different people go to work doing God knows what. My doctor came in, asked for Peter, and then got to work quickly once he was sitting down. They told me that she had a lot of hair and that she was big, and before I knew it, she was crying and finally with us. Then I started to not feel very well. They had warned me of some of the effects of the spinal, and I was determined not to throw up. But I felt like I couldn't breathe, I had a terrible headache, and I was incredibly nauseated. The anesthetist pushed medicine as necessary, and by the time they got me back to my room, I was feeling better (if not a little itchy from the morphine). No shaking this time, so it was much easier to hold Claire!

We had a phenomenal nurse from 7-7 that day, and of course, her name was Elizabeth. The rest of our nurses were fine, but I really liked Elizabeth. We were fortunate enough to get her back on Thursday from 7-7, and it made my experience so much better!

Family showed up to visit Claire, including Colin. Casie and Dad couldn't wait...at least they didn't have to spend the night at the hospital like last time!

Joey go to come and visit later that night, but it appears we didn't get a picture of him!

Colin enjoyed coming to the hospital, if only because he got to play with cars by the window in our room.

(And modeling)...

We have pictures of the 4 of us, but since I write the blog, and I don't like the way I look in the pictures (so swollen!), they won't be here :)

Here's a good one of Peter and Claire though!

Claire lost a little bit of weight in the hospital, but she kept her jaundice numbers down, passed her hearing screen, and was all around healthy while we were in the hospital. We came home on Friday, and we settled into life as a family of 4. Colin has struggled mostly related to being off of his schedule (no daycare, spending all day playing with Grandma), but since he has been back to daycare for 2 days, he's been a lot better. We have a flowering crabapple tree in our front yard, and it is GORGEOUS when it blooms. Peter took a few pictures that I thought I would throw up in here, plus a few of Colin's personality...