Miss Anna!!

After much ado about a lot of things, Anna is here! 

I haven't had the chance to blog much because well, I have a newborn, but also because it is way easier to play on the internet on an iPad while nursing, but it is not easier to type a blog post on an iPad.  An iPad is a lot of fun things, but a functional piece of technology, it is not.

Nonetheless, me and my little jaundiced baby are chasing sun around our house and I am currently at our desk...which makes typing a blog, albeit typing one handed, a much easier task.

The rest of this post is fairly TMI...but since you read my blog already, you are probably fully aware that I have no filter when it comes to sharing of information.  Soooo, you've been warned. 

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A brief overview of my labor and Anna's subsequent delivery...

I got in on Wednesday night to start the process...I slept about 30 minutes that night.  I don't know they expect ANYONE (nevermind someone with serious sleep issues) to sleep when they are having contractions, are tied up to a fetal monitor and an IV, are having their blood pressure taken every 30 minutes, having blood drawn about 7 times (side story!), and are probably going to have their life changed dramatically in the next day or so...so I was pretty pooped on Thursday.

On Thursday morning at almost exactly 7AM (which worked out perfectly for my Ironman timing comparison!), they started me on the pitocin which jumpstarted my contractions...and I jumpstarted my watch. Ha.  My doc came and broke my water...with a knitting needle...and the real fun began.  Our families arrived around 10:30 and while I tried to enjoy seeing them, I was in pain and wasn't really in the mood for chit chat.  I decided to get the epidural around 12:30...I kind of thought the anethesiologist would take longer than he did, but alas, I was epiduralized by 12:45.  My Family Feud was interrupted, but it was totally worth it. 

The epi worked its magic and I was a whole new woman.  My family came in and we chatted and hung out the rest of the afternoon.  I wasn't feeling any pain (ie, not feeling the contractions at all) and had a really good time with my family.  The nurse had told me that I would feel "pressure" when I was fully dilated and ready to go, but at 4:45PM, she came in to check me and said she could see hair...holy crap.  I assumed we were still really far away from delivery since I hadn't felt anything...I was very taken by surprise.  My doc showed up at 5 and we began the fun! 

With an epidural, delivery is hard work - probably some of the hardest work I have ever done - but it was not painful in the slightest...and within about 45 minutes of pushing, little Anna was placed on my chest and a family of 3 was formed!

I thought I would be totally grossed out by how nasty the little monster was, but like everyone says, you just don't notice it.  She was wonderful and beautiful and I felt so overcome with love...for her, for Tommy, and for our wonderful friends and family. 

I aslo thought umbilical cords looked like red sausage links...um, no, they do not.  They are blue, look like telephone cords and are HUGE.  Like probably the diameter of a quarter huge.  Holy crap. 

I beat my Ironman finishing time by over 2 hours (hooray!) and when I went through the pictures, I cracked up that my husband knows me well enough to know that I would need this picture:

10 hours and 47 minutes of labor...I was done before the sun went down. It's every Ironman's dream!

Our family of 3.  It's really a shame that labor and delivery are such hard work.  There's just no way you could ever get a decent picture.  At least Anna and Tommy look good.

 After they fixed me up and I got to hold Miss Anna, they weighed her - a solid 8lbs 0.7oz of monster - and our families came in to see her.  It was great being so pain free and relaxed to be able to enjoy the time with her and with them. 

Then they took me to my recover room, where we went by the nursery and I got to see her one more time before they started all the mean things they do to newborns.  They wheeled me by the nursery and I started crying when I saw her.  And then they told me that that wasn't her.   Ha.  All newborns look exactly the same to me.  Apparently this is her...but frankly, she looked identical to the one in the crib next to her, so who knows. 

8lbs 0oz of Terror!

The cutest little baby I have ever seen.  And I am sooo not a baby person.  Although, maybe I am now.

 Every morning at 6:30, all the babies are taken to the nursery for the nurse shift change...I had no idea this many babies existed in nature.  Nevermind in one location.  And this is only half of them. 

The baby parade!  The one next to the one with the blue thing on it has the giantest, bushiest eyebwrows I have EVER seen.  Even on an adult.  It would give Bert and Ernie a run for their money.

Miss Anna!

I will write more at some point and then I will get caught up on everyone else's blogs...stupid iPad and it's lack of blogger functionality...but until then, I leave you with this quick story about me getting my blood taken 37 times in the span of 3 days...

I have always thought I had o positive blood.  I donated plasma twice a week in college for about 3 years (I was very poor!), I have donated blood every 8 weeks for the last 7 years (they come to my office so it's super easy) and when I got pregnant, they took my blood and verified that I am in fact, o positive.  HOWEVER, when I got to the hospital on Wednesday, they took my blood and told me I am o negative.  They took about 20 more vials to confirm this.  They all came back o negative.  APPARENTLY (now this is just so bizarre), I am o negative, but it has enough positive in it that I can't donate to o negative people.  Not a single doctor we talked to has ever heard of such a thing.  The hemotologist (blood doc) had never heard of such a thing.  None the less, after giving the hospital most of the blood I have in my body, I still have absolutely no idea what my blood type is.