Happy Birthday Alice

It's calmed down a bit around here and I thought I'd catch up on my writing.  Alice is here finally, and she is what we consider the mix.  Chloë is all me and Delilah is all Gerrit.  Alice is our mixture.  It's been 3 years and 4 months since we've had an newborn in the house.  I'm not sure if I'm just old and tired or what, but this is hard!  I always forget how much attention everyone needs during these times.  Here is a lot of pictures of the fun days of birth.

The night before we went to the hospital my mom gave me this shirt.  Of course it's perfect for my giant belly. Thanks Granner for the awesome nickname KamBellySoup.  Wish you were here.

 I had a pre-op apt the day before to get everything in order.  I just went in the birthing center at NCH at 6am and got started.  Mom was here and slept in with the kids.  Being hooked up to all kinds of machines is the worst part of labor.  My belly looks kinda creepy in this picture but It's the babies heart monitor that's bulging out the side.  Not my actual belly.  I have serious issues with my I V's getting started.  The ER nurse was amazing and got it on the first try.  Thank goodness for her.

Wolford students work at this hospital.  The whole time I was feeling concerned on what to do about having a student do my spinal.  I wanted to give the students experience since Gerrit is one, but I was concerned about my body as well.  My student came in to interview me and he had no bedside manor.  I opted out of him doing my spinal since he was lacking niceness.  They transfered me to the operating room and the nurse anesthetist took care of my spinal.  They put my catheter in after I was numb.  Genius. The procedures were flawless and quick.  I was so impressed.  It was down to business after that.  Dr. Bevins called start time 7:21am and delivery time 7:27am.  A whole 6 minutes for this little chick to enter the world.

 This hospital started a new procedure this week and I was so happy to partake of it.  After the c-section your able to hold your baby the whole time they finish the surgery.  Then you get to be together in the PACU. I was able to nurse Alice and just be with her, instead of seeing her 2 hours later.

Alice Miller

8 pounds 12 ounces

20 inches long

Then reality set in and I realized I had 2 other children coming to meet their sister.  They were so excited.

Some older women knit these cute beanies and booties for the babies in the hospital as a service.

 Alice had Jaundice of course, just like her sisters.  She is the only one who didn't have to go under the lights while in the hospital.  Delilah kept asking to see the blue babies.

Gerrit was in the middle of finals and had a lot of studying to do.  I told him he could sleep at home so he would actually get some rest.  I'm glad he did because night 1 in the hospital was a nightmare.  I was hooked to every machine possible for 24 hours.  The oxygen machine was such a joke.  It had to monitor me for 24 hours after surgery, but the problem was it the alarm that sounded if your heart rate went below 50 beats.  Apparently I have a sleeping heart rate of about 48...so it decided to wake me up every time I dozed off.  Not to mention Alice.  My nurse felt so bad for me, but we couldn't do anything to stop it.  I was so happy at 7:30 to take that thing off.

I was planning on staying the whole 4 days, but I just could not take it.  I headed home in 3. Packing up my room and heading out felt so go.

 Coming home with a newborn in Florida over the Summer is a little different then Utah in the Winter.

Here we are ready for the next part of our lives.  Oh and Gerrit did great on Finals!