My Bathing Beauties

I actually managed to bathe both of them at the same time this morning. I set the baby tub next to the bathtub. It went amazingly well. Just one more task that I'm figuring out how to do by myself.

(And yes Grace still looks a little orange, especially next to her pale white sister. Her Doc did check her bilirubin count yesterday and it was still in the normal range. He said her color should gradually improve in the next few days.)

6 Days

Grace had her 1 week well-child visit this morning. It's typical for newborns to lose weight in the beginning and it usually takes 2 weeks to get back up to their birth weight. Well...someone forgot to tell Grace this fact. At 6 days old, she's already up 3 oz from birth weight. So needless to say, nursing is going well for us! Everything else checked out healthy as can be.

So we know Grace is doing well, how's everyone else doing? Well other than being completely sleep-deprived, physically I feel great. I certainly don't feel like I just gave birth 6 days ago. And the tiredness is getting a little better as we are getting a better sleep routine down with Grace. Claire is adjusting...slowly. She's had a few extreme wild animal meltdowns unlike anything I've ever seen from her. And she's extra needy. But it is a huge change for her to have to share her parents, so her behavior isn't unexpected. On the positive side, she has been a great helper and has been very gentle and sweet with Grace. Dad's fairing the best out of this whole deal. He's definitely had to take on some extra responsibilities around the house, but he's also getting uninterrupted nights of sleep.

We are so blessed to have two perfect little girls. It's amazing that a heart that is already so full, has the capacity for so much more love.

Grace's Birth Story

On Wednesday I started having contractions off and on all afternoon and evening. After Claire went to bed they started becoming much stronger and closer together, so we called Grandpa K. to come stay with Claire. At about 1:00 AM, I hopped in the shower anticipating leaving shortly for the hospital. Wow that hot shower felt good. So good in fact, that my contractions completely stopped. So I spent the next few hours just laying around, positive that the contractions would start up again at anytime. Nope. At some point I realized that I hadn't felt the baby move in quite a while. I had some water and a snack and waited for her to wake up. But even after the food, she was still not moving. In the meantime, I had started bleeding quite heavily.

So I called the Dr. on duty at the hospital and explained what was going on. He told me that the earlier contractions were probably just false labor. And that the bleeding was probably just caused by pressure of the baby on my cervix. And that the baby was probably just sleeping. That seemed like a lot of probably's for me. He wasn't concerned at all but said if I felt like something was wrong, that I could go in to monitor the baby. Intuition was telling me something wasn't right, so I woke Nate up and we headed for the hospital about 5:30 AM. They hooked up the fetal monitor and did a Non-Stress test (testing reactivity between movement and heart rate), which she failed. So then they took me to another building to do a Biophysical Profile (an ultrasound that tests movement, muscle tone, heart rate, and breathing.) Which she also failed. The Dr. (my own OB had been contacted at this point) wasn't quite sure what was going on, but decided he needed to evict little Grace.

The plan was to break my water and start Pitocin to get labor going. I was only 2 cm dilated when they broke my water at 9:45 AM. Within seconds of my water breaking, contractions started full force. No need for Pitocin. The nurse said I could have an epidural once I hit 4 cm. Well by the time the anesthesiologist was called and got me set up, I was already complete and ready to push. So the epidural never even had time to kick in. (Can I ask for a refund?) I went from 2 cm to 10 cm in only 2 hours! And my Dr. barely had time to get into his gown and gloves before that little head popped out. Literally 3 pushes and she was out! All of 5 minutes. And to top it off, no episiotomy and no tearing. Grace scored perfect Apgar scores and was screaming her little head off. The nurse even commented that this seemed like a completely different baby than the one who wasn't moving or reacting just a few hours earlier.

So even though it all started a little stressful, it ended with a perfect, healthy little girl. (And I'm quite happy with only a 2 hour labor!)

July 4th

We're home! All is well. Happy 4th of July!!

More Grace

Amazing Grace

Introducing Grace Evelyn, born at 12:13 PM, July 2. She was 7 lbs, 4 oz and 21 inches long. I'll post a birth story later, but both Mom and Grace are doing great!

Zoo day

Claire got to show Quinn one of her favorite places today, the MN Zoo. I think Katie and Quinn will be joining us on our many visits to the zoo when they move back to MN this fall.