And here she is! Hope Rose Lynn Fiedler was born 5:28pm on May 10th. She weighed 6lbs 10oz and was 18 1/2 inches long. My water broke about 11:00 am and I started having contractions around 3:00 pm. It took a little while for my contractions to get started, but once they did we didnt waste any time! I went from 3cm to 8cm in about 10 minutes! I had barely enough time for an epidural! They pretty much gave it to me and about 20 minutes later I had her! (it was a REALLY great 20 minutes though! :) It took about 4 pushes and she came right out! Aaron cut the cord (although he was crying so hard I'm surprised he could see it! We will post pictures very soon! I havent had a chance yet to download any from our camera.
I did test positive for Group B Strep. About 1/3 of women test positive for this. It is a type of bacteria that grows in the body and it can be higher at some times than others. It doesn't affect you in any way, but can cause some very serious health problems if the baby gets it in the birth canal. A very small percentage of babies contract it. To prevent any problems to baby, mom is put on antibiotics during labor. I received 1 dose (ideally they want you to receive 2-3 but the one I got was a pretty strong one). After Hope was born she was very lethargic. I didn't even get to see her eyes till the next day! Her blood sugar was also pretty low (37 at one point, they prefer it to be between 50-70). She was having some problems maintaining her body temp as well. They were concerned she had gotten the Group B Strep, so she was tested 2 separate occasions and a neonatoligist was consulted before we were allowed to go home. Both times the test came back negative and once she started eating her blood sugar came right up! We still had a little trouble with her temp the first couple days she was home, but she is doing fine now! The only thing we are still watching is how much she is sleeping. Tomorrow she is 2 weeks, so we should start to see her spending more time awake soon!
On the morning I had her, I woke up with a fever. a couple days before, Emma had been put on antibiotics for possible strep throat. My fever stayed pretty low just around 100 the day I had her and the next day. By the following afternoon my fever was gone. I was of course sore and achey so they kept me on ibuprofen to help with that. Turns out the ibuprofen was also keeping my fever down! I had to stay a full 48 hours so they could keep an eye on Hope, but I was allowed to go home Saturday evening. I headed to church later that evening to see a really neat speaker we had coming (we live right next door to our church so Grandma was able to stay home with Hope). While at church the last dose of ibuprofen I had taken wore off. I began to shake from head to toe (at the hospital they had just chalked this up to hormones), my teeth were even chattering! I had major body aches and was coughing (let me tell you, coughing right after giving birth is really uncool!!) pretty badly. I was just laying in bed crying I felt so awful (NOT a normal reaction for me!). I took my temp and it was 101.5. I called the on call nurse who sent me in to the ER. By now it was after 10:00 pm! Me, Aaron, and Hope (who would need to eat soon) all headed in. 2 hours later, 2 blood draws, a chest x-ray, a flu test, and a strep test finally showed I had strep throat! That was the only part of my body that didnt hurt!!
The next day Aaron got sick, and about 3 days later, Grace also got sick. Within 1 week our whole family had gotten sick! Thankfully, my mom flew in to help out and she and Hope both stayed healthy (Amen!). I dont know what I would have done if my mom had not come! We were getting Hope weighed every couple days until she started to gain weight back. (as of Monday she had gained 5 ounces! She was 6lbs 1 oz when we came home) The first week we pretty much spent recovering from all of us being sick and making trips in to get her weighed and checked out!
Slowly but surely I am finally working towards getting into a routine! My mom headed home this past Monday, so the last 3 days its been me and the girls. Emma and Grace both LOVE their little sister! They have done very well respecting the boundaries and they love to sit and hold her and talk to her. Emma has been through this before and is a HUGE help to me! Grace is doing well helping with getting diapers and wipes and "watches" Hope for us in the car.
It is definitely an adjustment trying to fit in nursing and errands and running kids to and from school etc. Our church has blessed us immensely with a wonderful shower (another blog post for another day!), and have been providing meals for us as well. I can even begin to describe what a HUGE help that has been! Mealtimes are a difficult time for us with Grace. It is usually the hardest part of the day for us. With the craziness of me cooking, Emma just home from school etc it is the perfect setting for Grace to have a major meltdown. With people bringing us meals, it has been MUCH easier trying to get through this time of the day with Emma and Grace and trying to balance nursing Hope. Its amazing how your life entirely revolves around nursing when you have a newborn! I am looking forward to getting her on a schedule in the next couple weeks! I have had to feed her every 2 hours to try to get her to establish a routine of eating and to put some weight on her! Now that she is nursing fairly well and gaining weight I can start to stretch that out and hopefully get her on a schedule! Check back soon to see the pictures, I think she's pretty cute! :)
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