Peanut is Here!

Laina Amelia was born on Friday, July 2 at 2:16 am. She weighed in at 8 lbs. 1 oz. and was 19" long. She has lots of dark brown hair and dark blue eyes. She looks so much like Michela and Aria when they were babies. Probably the biggest difference is that Laina already has some chub on her. She's got some rolls on her arms, chubby cheeks, and a double chin. Love it!

I was induced at 11:00 pm and she was born 3 hours later. The nurses and midwife were impressed with how fast and smooth the induction went. It only took a few pushes to get her out and then I was able to hold her.

Unfortunately things didn't go so smoothly after that. The nurse noticed her color was a bit off and she wasn't crying a whole lot. They took her down for some tests, giving her oxygen the whole way, and I never saw her again until 7:30 that morning. Mike got to stay with her in the NICU for part of the time but we spent most of the five hours sitting around and worrying. She couldn't get her oxygen levels up on her own so she was put on oxygen tubes. They gave her every test they could think of but everything came back negative. We were so thankful for that, but it was so frustrating not knowing what was causing the problem. They wouldn't let me feed her so she was given an IV to keep her hydrated.

At 7:30 I was finally able to try feeding her and she did great! The problem was they didn't let me come in at regular intervals to keep trying and she wasn't getting very hungry since she had the IV in. It was very frustrating trying to feed her. She had tubes in her nose that got in the way and her IV in her arm was in a weird place so they had to splint her arm. Every time her arm moved too much the IV would start beeping and they would have to interrupt the feeding to fix it. All Friday they tried decreasing her oxygen flow but she couldn't keep her levels up on her own. It was so weird not having the baby in the room with me. Thankfully Mike stayed at the hospital with me most of the time so I didn't have to worry on my own.

Early Saturday morning they had me come in and feed her around 12:30 am. They had decreased the oxygen and flow and she was doing good. While I was trying to feed her, Laina ripped the tubes out of her nose.

The nurse decided we would just try it without the oxygen and see how she did when she was eating. She ended up doing such a good job that the nurse turned it all off. The poor sweet thing was so battered by the end of it all. She had been so poked and prodded.

Later that morning the doctor said we could start trying to wean her off the IV. By the afternoon we got the best surprise when the NICU nurse rolled her into our room. We were so happy to finally have her to ourselves.

Sunday morning I was in the nursery getting her checked out when I looked up and saw my cute family all gathered at the window. The nurse chuckled and said, "Now they don't look excited or anything do they?!" The kids all fought over who got to hold her first.

They all are so in love with Laina. Funny thing is? We still all call her Peanut most of the time. Today when I went to the hospital to check her in for a Bilirubin test the admitting lady asked me what the baby's name was and I had to pause because I was about to say Peanut. I guess that's one nickname that is going to stick around for a while. We are so happy to have her home!