She's Here!! Happy Birthday Baby Girl!!

Our little girl is finally here. Although, I really shouldn't say finally -- she was 10 days early according to my due date and one day early according to my scheduled c-section.

Amelia Rose Seibert was born at 7:06pm on November 20th by c-section. She was 7lbs 3oz (one ounce more than Max) and 18 1/4 inches (one inch less than Max). It was a pretty uneventful birth compared to Max's, but of course, with it's own set of fireworks.

It started with me having to pee, expect that I couldn't. I tried and tried all night and half the day to go and seriously, nothing. I was in a lot of pain, too. My mom and I tried to go to Target and I could barely walk. So by the time I got home around noon I called my midwife to tell her the problem. She told me to meet her at the hospital and have it checked out. So, I called Tyler and told him that we needed to get up to the Encinitas and picked him up at school. Once there I got all hooked up to the monitors. Baby was totally fine and I was actually having regular contractions. They figured the contractions were being triggered by an overfull bladder. So, their plan -- put in a catheter and send me home with a pee bag strapped to my leg so that I could come back the next day to have my c-section -- and this was because I had eaten lunch and they didn't want to do the surgery with food in my stomach. At this point, I was feeling the contractions A LOT, having to breathe through them and everything. They were definitely regular, close together and coming harder.

Well, in comes the catheter and that is about when I wanted to kick the midwife and the stupid nurses in the faces. That catheter hurt like C-R-A-Z-Y!!!! It felt like the worst UTI ever in the history of the world. I just wanted to yank the dang thing out and go home. It was awful; so awful in fact that I was pretty much crying uncontrollably and hyperventilating. You might be calling me a woos right now, but unless you've felt it, you can't judge. And the worst part was that the catheter was doing nothing to empty my bladder. So the nurses tried to use this ultrasound bladder thingy to see how full it was and none of them knew how to use it. Another 20 minutes went by with me in agony when they decided to try to lift the baby's head off of my bladder to try and relieve enough pressure to empty it. If I thought the catheter hurt, this was horrid! They tried this vaginally, if you catch my drift. I wanted to SCREAM; instead I just cried and hyperventilated some more and had more contractions.

FINALLY... the doctor came in and said he was just going to do the c-section that night since I was in so much pain. It's the only time I wanted to hug and kiss this man (I've had a few bad experiences with him). In came the IV with morphine (so awesome) and the nurses to prep me for surgery. Within another hour I was in the OR, spinal block in place, drape up and waiting to hear my baby's first cries. In the mean time, the anesthesiologist found out that Tyler was in med school at UCSD, his alma mater, and started trying to talk to him about medical stuff, like what size needles he used for the spinal block, all while the surgeon and nursers are yelling "we're starting!!!!" I guess it's better than when he took pictures of my uterus with Max's birth. Still...

Anyway, she's here!! And she's a little angel. We stayed in the hospital for 2 nights only (and got a private room thanks to my stepdad's old coworkers hooking us up). Compared to Kaiser this experience was a dream. The staff was amazing at Scripps Encinitas, the nurses wonderful and the lactation specialists great. And as soon as I was cleaned up and stitched up and wheeled back to my room I got to hold her. With Max I had to wait hours (like 4 of them) until I even got to see him. Anyway, the birth wasn't bad. The c-section was a piece of cake compared to lots and lots of labor. And my whole experience was amazingly better. Doesn't make me want to do it again any time soon, but still, have to give that hospital props.

And, I know you were all wondering if she would have lots of hair like Max. Alas, she does not -- therefore proving the old wives tale that the more heartburn you have the more hair your baby will have (I had practically none with Amelia and the worst possible kind with Max).

Max isn't too sure about her yet. That first night after I had her Max woke up at 4 in the morning crying for me. He knew something was going on, but couldn't figure out what. The next day when my mom brought him to the hospital he kind of freaked out about me being in a hospital bed. He held her though, but kept saying he didn't like her. He's warmed up a lot more to her now. But it was touch and go in the beginning.

We're all adjusting to having baby Amelia here. She's a breeze so far, just sleeps, eats and poops. We are so thrilled to finally have her here safe. We love her so much already!!


During the c-section.


First picture!


Really bad picture of me, but first time I held her :)




Daddy holding his new baby girl!




She does a lot of this -- thank goodness.


And a new big brother.