She's Here!

Thursday, September 30th started (not so) bright and early for Edgar and I. We were up at 4:30 getting ready to go and meet our little girl. We took the time to take a 'before' shot :) And then we were off.

We got to the hospital at 5:30 and they took us to triage. They started an IV (and, no, I did not pass out.) and got me prepped for surgery. The time went by amazingly fast. We talked to the nurse and the anesthesiologist about what was going to happen. A couple of students came in to ask permission to observe the C-section...then I realized that the anesthesiologist was, in fact, also a student...and he was doing my spinal while under the observation of the doctor. THAT made me a little nervous...I made sure I wasn't his FIRST patient, and they said 'Oh no...he's been doing them all week'...yikes. I could have requested that the actual dr. do the spinal, but I decided to live on the edge...

Edgar got his scrubs on, and we were ready to head in to the operating room!

I kept waiting to get nervous...it didn't really happen. People must have been praying for me, because that is still a bit unreal to me :) They wheeled me in and got me on the operating table. The student gave me a spinal (not at all comfortable...but once he was done I was blissfully numb) and I laid back. As soon as I laid back I felt awful. I got really dizzy, and felt like I was going to pass out. They said my blood pressure dropped some. Whether it was nerves or my blood pressure, I don't know, but I started to panic a little bit-I did NOT want to pass out or throw up! They gave me something and I quickly started feeling better. They brought Edgar in (he couldn't be in there for the spinal) and we 'got ready'. They started the operation...and I knew I was going to throw up. Gross. That was the one thing I was worried about (that's right...I was worried about throwing up...not getting my abdomen cut open...). I heaved a bit (sorry) and they gave me something for THAT, and I felt better :) I love medicine...

I couldn't believe how soon they were saying 'You're gonna feel a LOT of pressure' and then two little whimpers and a big cry! She was here. They lowered the curtain, and we got to see our little girl for the first time!

She was born at 7:51 am, weighing 7 lb 15 oz. There she is with our doctor :) They took her over to the exam table to make sure she was okay.

Edgar went over and cut the chord and watched as she got checked out.

She is so beautiful!

I was still on the operating table, so I was glad to at least hear her :) It took a little while for them to bring her over to me-I was also having a cyst removed, so I think they were waiting to finish that before they brought her over.

But soon, I was holding Leah in my arms :)

They handed her to me, and I instantly thought-'holy cow! It's another Eli!' She looks a lot like her big brother. (compare Leah's first pictures to some of Eli's HERE)

I didn't want to let her go!

Almost exactly an hour after she was born we were headed out of the operating room on our way to recovery. In recovery I was able to nurse her-she did GREAT. I just snuggled her for about an hour, and worked on wiggling my toes as the feeling came back :) We sent pictures via our cell phones, and announced her arrival. It was so good to finally meet her!