One Week

Hard to believe it's been one week of Declan already! For my faithful followers NOT on Facebook, (I'm talking to you, Donni!) here's how it went down:

Last Tuesday we got up nice and early, dropped Talia off at Daycare, and made our way to St. B for 8am. We were all geared up to meet our babe after our 10am c-section.

Around 8:30 we were all checked in, hooked up to monitors, etc. My dr. swung by and said she would see us soon. She also said very rarely, an emergency comes up, and there was a slight possibility that we may be delayed by an hour or so if that were to happen - but that was highly unlikely.

Around 10:15am she came back and said sure enough, an emergency had come up, she would see us in about an hour. And so began our day of being continually bumped, emergency after emergency. I hadn't been allowed to eat or drink anything since about 8pm the night before, so I got progressively more and more miserable and thirsty as the day went on. But really, when Talia was born, we were the emergency that bumped other c-sections back, and we were certainly glad that they made that decision for us. And while we were waiting in the triage room, we could hear the women who were coming in with the emergencies. At one point, the woman in the room next to us was CLEARLY in labour at 31 weeks with twins. She definitely needed the OR more than we did. I mean, how can you argue with a tiny baby in distress? So it was a long day, but I hope all those babies arrived safe and sound in the end.

Finally, around 6pm, we got the word that we were up next. They ran a bag of sugar water into my IV (which made me feel so much better!) and off we went.

I had a spinal instead of an epidural this time (that's just the way they do it for a planned section, apparently.) The first one froze me from the ankles down. I loved that the doctors and nurses totally gave the anesthesiologist a hard time about it - lots of "Oh, NICE work!" and "That would be perfect if we were operating on her ankles" and "You know the baby is a little higher up, right?" I did NOT love when his response was a confused "That's so weird!" Um, I really wish that wasn't a mystery to you, dude. But whatever. The next one took so well it was actually a little hard to breathe, lol.

When the dr. got to the baby, she said "Oooooh, baby has lots of hair!!" which wasn't a huge surprise to use, considering the little ape that Talia was when she was born. Then she said something that WAS a huge surprise: "It's a boy!" Rainer and I both said "a BOY?!?!?"

Declan was born at 7:22pm, but since I'd had a double spinal, we were in the recovery room for hours and hours afterward, waiting for the feeling to come back to my legs. It was after 3am before we got transferred to a room, and after 4 before we got settled in. Then I was woken at 5:30am to get up and walking - the earlier, the better, apparently. I didn't have time to nap at all that first day, so I was pretty wiped out. But I got a good sleep the next night, and felt like a million bucks the second day.

I wasn't lucky enough to get one of the private rooms (there are only a few on the high-risk ward, which is where you are automatically sent when you have a c-section at St. B) so I had to share. When Talia was born, I shared with a crazy woman. She was not coping well, her baby screamed 24 hours a day, and she would get up and scream-sing back at her "JESUS LOVES ME, THIS I KNOW....." Oy. So soothing. And to make matters worse, the baby's name was Katrina, so when Crazy Mama would get up and yell "Katrina! Settle down!!" (so effective with a newborn, no?) I would always think she was yelling at me. This time, my roommate was quiet and really lovely, her baby never made a peep, etc. So it really took my by surprise when she and her husband had a HUGE fight over each other's drinking on the other side of the curtain. I was frantically looking for my call button, thinking I was about to hear a physical domestic dispute, when the nurse randomly walked in. Phew.

Anyway, we were really glad when Friday rolled around and it was time to come home. Talia stayed at my bro's all week with my parents, when we finally got home on Friday night, she laid down on the floor in the living room and sobbed. She had a great time playing with "Landy, Nantie and Cuncle" but she was exhausted and missed her home. She has adjusted to being a big sister so well, she loves "Decal" and asks for him all the time. She gives him lots of kisses and rubs his little head, saying "Niiiiiiiiiiiiiice, niiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiice." So far, she hasn't shown any jealousy at all - although she did say "No!" and push him off her lap when we tried to get a picture of the two of them together, lol.

Grammie & Grampy moved out here for the weekend as well and left to go home yesterday. It was wonderful to be surrounded by family, and to have their help and support for the last week, but it was also wonderful to settle in with our family of four yesterday. It will be nice to be by ourselves for a few days - but I'm sure we'll be ready for some help again when Grandma and Grandpa arrive here tomorrow night!

As for Declan, he has slipped right into our family like he's always been here. He is very similar to his big sister - never makes a peep, is so content whether he's being held or just hanging out, looking around in his cradle. He has already rolled over twice - once on the couch, which I didn't think really counted since the incline sort of gave him a head start. But the second time was in his completely flat bassinet, so I suppose there's no ignoring that one. Talia rolled at 3 weeks, and we thought she was a freak of nature. Our babies are apparently determined to be on their backs as little as possible, lol. He sleeps in long stretches at night (4 hours, gets up and nurses, then 5 hours), and is an overall very easy baby. We lucked out again!