She's Here!!!

I'm so happy to introduce you to our sweet little girl,

Tenley Louise!

She arrived Sunday, November 15th at 4:58 p.m.  She weighed 8lbs4oz (!!!) and was 21 1/4" long (and perfect as can be!).  Here's her story...

We arrived at the hospital at 8:00 that morning to begin our induction.  It was about 8:30 by the time I got laid down in bed and our nurse Brittany started hooking me up to the monitors and got the IV started.  The Pitocin was started at 9:30 and away we went.  I was dilated to a 3 when we arrived and at 2:00 I was still only at 3cm.  I was a tad frustrated, the meds were working pretty good all morning then started to peter out a bit after noon.  I asked the nurse what I could do to help things along, she suggested laying on my sides or sitting on the exercise ball.  I rolled over to my left side and almost immediately the contractions really started up again, including back labor pains which were awful.  I told Andy 5 minutes into that to go tell the nurse I was ready for my epidural.  He questioned me ("Are you sure you want them now?") and I told him "GO!"  So she called in the anesthesiologist and by 3:00 I was all hooked up and the pain was starting to go away.  At 4:30 she checked me again and in the 2 hours between when she checked me last I was dilated to a 10!  Yep, went from a 3 to a 10 in TWO HOURS!!!  Our little princess was about to make her debut!

The doctor came in at 4:40 and at 4:45 I started pushing.  13 minutes and 5 contractions later Tenley Louise was born!  It was so amazing, that was the shortest time I'd ever pushed, she came so easily!  I had no tearing so no stitches, which was great.  They laid her right on my tummy and wiped her all up, then we had skin to skin time for a good 5 minutes.  We've never done that before and it was so wonderful to have that contact with our little girl.  She was pretty calm for most of that, just a few little cries here and there.  Her eyes were wide open and she just looked around her at her new world and her daddy (who she already adores, by the way!).

After that they took her to do her APGAR tests.  Andy was there with her the whole time.  Meanwhile, they cleaned me up and removed the epidural.  Then I laid there and waited for my little lady.  Finally she was all ready for some snuggling.

We made a few calls and then my parents came in with the boys to meet their new baby sister.  They each came in carrying a pink gift bag - each boy had picked out a stuffed animal for their sweet sister. They were all immediately smitten with her.  Tate was so excited to see the 'bay', he kept giggling and pointing out her features.  He'd point and say "eye!"  He'd squish her little nose. He'd rub her little head.  She'd make a little noise and he'd giggle all over again.  We took some really cute pictures of those two together.  The big boys were like old pros, they were so gentle with her and just sat and cuddled her.

Tenley has been an amazing sleeper at night from the beginning. The first night she slept 8 hours.  At 5 a.m. I finally asked the nurse to take her for her first bath so she'd wake up so I could feed her.  The second night she was a fussy little gal so I had the nurse keep her in the nursery so I could try and get some sleep. She was brought in at 1:45 to eat, then again at 5:30.  She was still a little fussy that morning, then at 9:30 I fed her and my milk had already come in. That calmed her right down!  She was super calm the rest of the day.

We were discharged at 10:00 Tuesday. Bringing her home was emotional - Tate was so excited that the 'bay' was at his house.  The boys came running home from the bus stop after school, super excited to see their little sister!  That night she slept in her crib all night, waking up twice to be fed and going right back to sleep.  This was all new for me, we were used to babies being up a lot the first few nights getting used to their surroundings, not sleeping alone in their crib all night long!  I figured it was a fluke but here it is, Saturday morning, and she has continued to be an awesome sleeper!  The nights since I have only been up with her once, just to feed, diaper and put her back to sleep.  Awesome!  All of this sleep has helped a ton with my baby blues.

We are all doing awesome, adjusting well.  As soon as I get the last couple of things for her room in I'll do a nursery post.  I LOVE her room!

I am busy taking care of all these kids (and husband!) so if you don't hear from me don't panic - I'll be back!  And thanks in advance for the kind comments, I probably will not have time to reply to those but THANK YOU!