#2

Brea Rose Shaver
December 8, 2009
10:39am
7lbs 10oz

Now that she's almost 3 weeks old, I finally have some time to type up some of the details of her exciting debut...

At 38 weeks pregnant, we went to the doctor to see if our little baby was still in the breech position or if she had flipped to the head own position. Luckily she had flipped, so we scheduled an induction so that she wouldn't flip on us again.

On Monday, December 7th, we said goodbye to Eden and headed to the hospital to start the induction process. It was 8pm so we were prepared for a looong night. We got off to a rough start when it took over an hour to get my IV started. A couple of different nurses tried, but my veins kept blowing. They finally had to call the anesthesiologist to try and finally, after laying practically upside down (to get my blood flowing better?) , he found a cooperative vein. So then came the pitocin. It wasn't until about 2am that I could finally start feeling some contractions. We couldn't keep a steady heart beat for the baby, so the nurse attempted to put an internal monitor on her head but instead broke my water. THEN, I could feel some contractions! After about 20 contractions I asked for the epidural even though I was only 3cm dilated. Haha, I'm a baby.

After getting the epidural, we slept for a few hours since things were progressing pretty slowly. It took me about 10 hours to go from 2cm to 6cm but once I hit 6cm things went really fast! At 10am, the nurse checked me and I was 10cm and ready to push. We did 2 practice pushes and then had to wait for the doctor because she was ready to get out of there. Once the doctor came in, it was only about 5 minutes until I had her. It was so easy! My Mom and Sister were in the delivery room with us and we all cried as soon as she came out. She was so perfect! The nurses laid her on my chest and let me hold her for a good 30-40 minutes before taking her to get all cleaned up. I felt great and had no tearing or stitches. As soon as the epidural wore off I was up and walking and haven't felt any pain since. I never thought I would feel so good after delivering a baby.

After we got to our post partum room, we had tons of visitors. That night, a nurse had come to take some of the baby's vital signs and she was concerned about a little murmur she heard with her heart. They took her to the NICU for observation for the night and I tried to get as much sleep as possible while being woken up every 2 hours to go feed her. The next morning, they did an EKG and an echocardiogram on her heart. They pediatrician said that a little heart murmur is normal and that he wasn't concerned and released us from the hospital. We were so happy!

After leaving the hospital, we drove straight to my parents house to pick up Eden since she wasn't allowed to be in the hospital at all. I missed her SO much! We finally get home, get all situated and put Eden to bed for the night. As we were getting all tucked into bed for the night(at 11:30pm!), Craig's phone rings and it was The NICU from Banner Desert (the NICU from the most advanced hospital in the area) saying that some of Brea's blood had tested positive for an infection and that we needed to go to the NICU right away and admit her. Of course, I was a wreck. That was probably the most evil thing you could do to a Mom the night she brings her baby home! Craig gave Brea the sweetest blessing and I just knew everything was going to be ok... but I was still scared to death!

We get to the hospital and they immediately hooked Brea up to some monitors and started her IV. They had a little room that I could stay in since I had to be there 24/7 to feed her. We were in the regular NICU for that first night then they moved us to another part of the NICU where Brea and I could share a little room so that I wouldn't have to be away from her at all. Being in the NICU was really depressing and I hope that I never have to go back! They had taken more of Brea's blood to test it again for infection and we had to wait 2 days for the results to come back. Meanwhile, they had started her on antibiotics to fight the infection. Luckily, the test results came back negative, which means that her first test results were contaminated. The doctor's had assumed that was the case because Brea looked and acted so healthy, but it was still scary not to know what was going on for 2 days! Somehow, Brea's blood got contaminated with bacteria after it had been taken from her. It happens in about 1 of every 500 blood draws. So, we were released from the hospital on Friday night (we had been in the hospital since Monday!) and we've been home ever since and she is healthy as can be!

She is such a good baby and we love her to death! Eden is such a little Mother and wants to help me do everything! She even breastfeeds her dolls while I'm feeding Brea. She wants to be a part of every single diaper change, every bath and she thinks that she needs to help dress her too. It's pretty cute. She calls her "Baby Beeba". She has been sleeping so well at night and has been giving me 5 hour stretches at a time lately! If she's not sleeping, she's eating and she rarely fusses. I hope she stays this good!

Now for some pictures. If you want to see the entire album, Click Here.