Baby Girl, Maielle!

Let me introduce you to our new beautiful addition!

Maielle James

8lbs 3oz

20 1/2 inches long

Our first family photo...after I tell my birth story you will understand why I look so tired.

It all started at 4am on Saturday, October 23rd. I woke up bleeding and got scared. We ended up going to the hospital, they hooked me up to monitors and I was having contractions. I wasn't dilated much and was hoping that they would send me home to labor at home. After about 2 hours of monitoring, they sent me home and said that I would most likely have a baby within 24 hours. We came home to where I labored most of the day. Looking back I wish I would have stayed home for longer, but not knowing what to expect we headed back to the hospital Saturday afternoon after my contraction got stronger and closer together. When we arrived at the hospital they sent me to triage to check me out. I was only dilated to 3cm and was a little disappointed because I was hoping that I was further along. My contractions were coming regular, around 3 - 4 minutes apart. They admitted me and I got set up in a Labor & Delivery room for a long night ahead! Little did we know how long it was actually going to be. I think I labored for around 24 hours without an epidural and then I just needed sleep and decided to get one. After the epidural I was able to get some sleep and rest up until the next morning. After 30 hours of labor it was finally time to push and meet our baby girl. They turned the epidural off and after about 4 pushes our baby girl made her arrival on Sunday at 11:09am. 

Maielle endured the long labor and did great the entire time! When she came out she didn't not cry much, seemed healthy and breastfed right away! She then had to go to the nursery for 4 hours for them to check her out and she was still doing great! They brought her back to us and my nurse was in the room checking me out. She asked if she could see our baby girl because she was making a grunting sound. She then called the nursery to come back and check her out because something didn't seem right. So we got to see her for about 5 minutes before they came to take her back to the nursery to get checked out. After some time had past we were told that she was getting moved to the NICU because she needed to be on oxygen because she had fluid on her lungs. It was so hard to see her with bruises from being stuck, iv in her hand that ended up in her head and a tube down her throat. All the things that you go in not wanting to happen because you are going to breastfeed...your baby given a bottle and a pacifier...all go out the door when all you want is your baby to get healthy. I worked hard while she was in the NICU. I would go and see her every 3 hours and feed her and then come back to the room to pump so that I would have to best chance at breastfeeding. It all worked out perfectly and we are successfully breastfeeding with no formula! 

They said by her x-rays she should be doing worse than she actually was, but she is a fighter and was on a low level of oxygen. They started antibiotics right  away and we were told that the minimum number of days that she has to be on antibiotics is 3 days and I was going to be discharged in 2 days. So that meant that I was going to have to go home without my baby girl! We ended up working it out so that we could stay another night and go home with our baby girl! So we went from constantly watching her monitors to check her oxygen levels and heart rate to bringing her home with nothing attached to her! 

This picture is from Maielle's first day home!

Since being home, she is now up to 9lbs and is in the 75% in height and weight! She sleeps well and wakes to eat and goes right back to sleep. Every now and then she will throw in a fussy night but most nights she is good! I am surprised that I am not very tired and it is easy to get out of bed when you have a little person wake you up cooing to eat!

We are very happy at home and now have a month old baby! She keeps me pretty busy, because she loves to be held and sleep on my chest. Here are a few pictures from her one month photo shoot!