Introducing…Bree Nova

Our new sweet daughter has arrived! I am still in awe that we now have two precious little girls.

Since I have gestational diabetes, we were scheduled to go in for an induction on the morning of Tuesday, December 22. I would be 39 weeks along at that point. Adrianna hadn’t shown any inkling of coming earlier than her due date and we were still technically a week out from ours, so I had it in my mind that this pregnancy would be the same. I figured we could get everything packed and the house cleaned up on Monday in preparation for her arrival on Tuesday. Baby Bree had other ideas.

On Monday morning around 4:45 a.m., my water broke as I slept. I was in the guest room since Greg had a cold that caused him to snore and I wanted to get a good night’s rest. I didn’t get good sleep at all. In between many trips to the bathroom and crazy weird nightmares, I was up most of the night. And then my water broke.

I immediately rolled out of bed onto the floor as I quickly realized what was going on. I called out for Greg, who awoke instantly. We threw the bedding in the washing machine (as we were expecting company that evening!) and started rushing around the house, throwing stuff into an overnight bag for the hospital. So unprepared were we! Greg thought I was crazy when I insisted on hopping in the shower before we left. I wasn’t having any contractions yet, so I wasn’t too worried and it was important to me to get a shower and also to attempt to shave my legs for the big event.

After packing and calling the hospital, the doctor-on-call, my sister, and our neighbor, we dropped Adrianna off at the neighbor’s house and were off to the hospital. I had one contraction on the way. We got there about 6:45 and I was wheeled up to the maternity ward.

Last minute photos before leaving

One of the absolute worst things about Adrianna’s birth was how painful the I.V. insertion was. Crazy, I know. But it took the nurses several tries and lots of digging around in the back of my hand and it stung all day even after it was in. When I had hernia surgery at the same hospital a year later, the nurse in that ward put a numbing cream on my hand first and what a difference that made!

So I immediately told my nurse in the maternity ward this time that I wanted the numbing cream first. She told me that they didn’t use it on that floor but I was extremely insistent even though she wasn’t being very promising. I told the nurse on the next shift the same thing, and she was a lot nicer about it and with the approval of my doctor, she found me some. I ended up not needing it though, as she and another nurse also investigated my veins in my hand and decided they were so tiny that they called in the anesthesiologist himself to do the I.V. The anesthesiologist made the decision that they were much too tiny to even attempt an I.V. there and they put it in the inside of my elbow instead. What a better experience that was! I felt very much vindicated for having made a big deal out of it too since the anesthesiologist agreed with me that the whole hand thing would have been very painful. And I am proud of myself for not backing down (like I often do).

I was still feeling pretty good at this point and there weren’t many contractions. I was only 1.5 cm dilated at this point, so after being hooked up to a monitor for awhile to check on the baby, we were allowed to walk the halls to see if that helped things progress along. When my doctor came along around 8, we headed back to the room and some gel was inserted to soften my cervix to see if that would get things moving. It did. The contractions began coming, stronger and stronger, but I wasn’t dilating any more.

Resting between contractions

After a couple of hours and intense contractions, they checked me again and I was at a 6, so the nurse recommended that I get the epidural if I was still planning on that. I am SO glad she did, because things progressed very quickly after this point. In fact, the epidural didn’t even have a chance to fully kick in before it was time to push. It did take away the pain of the contractions though, so for that I am thankful. But the pain of everything else was very much present. This is very evident from the amount of yelling and exclamations that are present on Bree’s birthing video compared to Adrianna’s birth. Things were going so quickly that I was afraid that my doctor wouldn’t make it back before the baby arrived. But he did. 20 minutes of pushing and baby girl was here!

Just minutes old

Daddy and Baby

Resting after her first bath

Her stats: Born on 12/21/09 at 12:49 p.m. MST. 7 pounds, 6 ounces. 21.25 inches long. The whole experience was just over 8 hours with 20 minutes of intense pushing. So much quicker than the 24 hours and 2 hours of intense pushing from Adrianna’s birth. Bree was born face up instead of face down, but that didn’t seem to cause any extra complications.

I recovered from this labor and delivery much quicker than from Adrianna’s. I am sure the shorter labor and delivery is the reason. The nurses were a little concerned that my blood pressure was running a little high, but not overly so.

Cindy came to town with Layla and Aidan to watch Adrianna for us. My parents are also in town to help. They all came to the hospital so Adrianna could meet her new baby sister that evening.

We decided to leave the hospital after only a day. The only thing holding up our departure was choosing a name for our new baby girl (for the birth certificate) and waiting for baby girl to take her first poo. Once both of those were accomplished, we were excited to head home. We really missed Adrianna! (I don’t think she missed US much though. She was too busy playing with her cousins and didn’t even want to take a phone call from Greg once as a result.)

Deciding on a name that Greg and I could both agree on was stressful! 24 hours after baby girl was born, she still hadn’t been named. At first, Greg had only one name that he really wanted and though I tried to get on board, I just couldn’t. And he didn’t like any of my choices either. He also really wanted naming rights since he let me name Adrianna. (She was also named at one day old.) Finally, he suggested Bree which I really liked. I wasn’t sold on the middle name of Nova at first, but I quickly came around and now I really love it. Bree Nova Reimer.

Leaving the hospital

We are so glad to be home. We are enjoying time with Cindy, Layla, Aidan, Mom, and Dad. Mom vacuumed our entire house for us and has been keeping the kitchen clean and Cindy has been a huge help with household chores and refereeing the kids as they play and keep Adrianna busy and happy. She also got our baby swing and bassinet setup and ready for us. I am so glad they are here to help with the transition.

Baby Bree is such a good baby, at least so far. I am extremely excited that Bree slept okay in her bassinet last night. Adrianna didn’t sleep well her first few weeks in any place other than her car seat (which ended up causing her torticollis), so this is a huge deal for us. I hope our 2nd night at home goes as well as the first did. Bree has a healthy appetite and loves to be held. I am happy to accommodate, as I have a hard time putting her down and I just cannot quit staring at her in wonder that she is ours.