Happy Birthday, Julia Grace!

This time, the birth was much calmer than I remember Asher's being. It makes a difference to do a c-section the second time around.

First of all, I knew about 4 weeks out that June 30th would likely be the day. Barring some need to do it earlier, that would put me at 39 weeks. So I had a deadline and something to work toward. I could put my house in order, get the baby things ready, make sure there was ample food available to eat during and after my time in the hospital. You know. All of those things that type A people like me care about. I work better with deadlines of some sort.

We arrived at the hospital at 10:30 AM. Got checked in and were sent to a triage room. They had me hooked up to a baby monitor and an IV pretty quickly, and then Enoch and I must have just waited in that room for about an hour. See what I mean by calm?

The anesthesiologist came to give me the run down on the spinal I'd get. He was a funny guy and actually said he probably wouldn't be the one to be in on the surgery because he had some epidurals to do, but he also gave me the piece of advice (which I didn't take) his wife who has had 4 c-sections lives by: "stay in the hospital as long as you can." Maybe I should have stayed one more day, but I was missing Asher too much and wanting to be back with my family. Getting the run down was pretty easy because I had been through this before, but it was good to ask questions and tell them of my fears. He gave me some good ideas for dealing with the feeling of not being able to breathe that really worked this time.

My OB also appeared to wish me well and double check everything before going in, then we walked on down to the OR and got ourselves set for surgery. The surgery started at 12:30 and just as I thought, she was born about 15 minutes later at 12:45. It was a couple of minutes until I could actually see her because the drape was up and I was down on the table, but boy, could I hear her. Miss Julia has a set of lungs for sure. :)

She was a more boisterous crier than I remember Asher being. I still had moments of tears, and I was glad to see her when Enoch brought her over for the first time. She was beautiful, and I was excited to find that she weighed over 7 pounds because the weight my doctor had estimated her to be at a week and a half earlier was quite a bit under that. More permission for me to eat, I suppose. ;)

After about 10 minutes, Enoch and the baby nurse left with the baby, while my surgery continued as they closed me up. I had been warned that it takes longer the second time around because they have to remove the previous incision scar in order to put in the new one. But soon I was out and into recovery with my baby and husband. They wanted me to feed her right away because as the nurse said, "she was ravenous." And she was. She latched on right away, and would nurse for a long time. She was hungry and the colostrum for those first couple of days barely sufficed. But we've got her eating good now. :)

It took a lot longer for the anesthesia to wear off this time. They must be using different stuff now because the nausea was also worse. Good thing I wasn't allowed to eat anything for 12 hours previous to the surgery or that nausea would have been much worse. But after a couple of hours, I could feel my legs again and the nausea was past.

Some random photos from our hospital stay.

Uncle Mark happened to be in town on business on the day she was born. He wasn't even going to let us know he was here since it was such a quick trip, but once he realized she was being born, he decided to reveal his presence and make the trip to the hospital for a visit. She is probably about 7 hours old in this photo. Mark was the first Uncle to see her.

Enoch cutting the cord.

Our first somewhat family photo with her. We missed having Asher with us.

I look bad, but remember I pretty heavily drugged here although I didn't feel that way. But I was so happy to be holding her.

So peaceful. Can you imagine the shock of entering the world?

Asher and Grandma came to visit that night along with Mark. Asher ignored her for the first hour, but he would start to warm up.

See? He's giving her kisses. He loves to give his sister kisses and to play with her little toes. He's a good big brother.

Aunt Jill, Uncle Rob, and cousins Elaine and Charlotte came to visit on Friday afternoon. The girls loved the little baby.

Ready to leave the hospital, and I am so glad. :)

She was here, safe, sound, and healthy. What more could we ask for? Recovery may not be the best with c-sections, but she was here, and there was something nice to knowing when she would come.

A note on your name: I've always loved the name Julia since I had a good friend in first grade named Julia Henderson. I always thought that she had the most beautiful name. Julia (or Julie as she most often went by) moved away after first grade, and I have no idea what has ever become of her, but I have obviously never forgotten her. Grace was also my suggestion for a middle name just because I thought the combination sounded beautiful. Your dad, though, needed to be more a part of the process, so I told him that he could decide what to give you for a middle name. Initially he rebelled against Grace because then I would have picked the whole name (I know, selfish of me), but in the end, he couldn't find anything he liked better in combination with Julia, so Grace it is. I hope you grow up liking your name as much as we do.