A Day In Z Life: Alice Catherine :)

First sister picture <3

We welcomed Alice Catherine to our family on October 1st at 7:38am! I know, I'm just a little behind posting haha Adjusting to juggling 5 kids has been a process.

I actually made it to my scheduled c-section date! I couldn't believe it, that was the longest I've ever been pregnant (39 weeks)! It was so weird to walk into Labor & Delivery and not be in labor haha Felt a little like going to the salon, oh I'm just here to have a baby! Haha We checked in at 5:30am (which was ok since I hardly slept anyway), were done with all my admission stuff by 6am so we had over an hour to twiddle our thumbs. About 6:30am the nurse came in and asked if they ever mentioned a heart murmur for Alice. No one ever had, pretty sure my own heart rate doubled at that point. The nurse explained there's a common murmur that goes away after delivery and not to worry. Hahaha yeah right lady!! I spent the next 45mins worrying and texting with one of my good friends who just happens to be a NICU nurse. She made me feel about as good as a mom could about it. By 7:15am things started to move, Jason got dressed in his scrubs and they started to move me to the OR. This OR wasn't nearly as cold as the one with the twins thankfully! We had a lot of waiting around to do, there was only one anesthesiologist and she was doing another patient. My OB even came in ready to go before she got there haha Then the spinal took forever to completely numb me. My last spinal numbed me so much I never felt any of the tugging and pressure everyone is always talking about. Felt it this time! That I must say is an experience I could have skipped. Thank God for calming yoga breathing to keep myself from freaking. Alice wasn't even half out when she started SCREAMING away! :) She was quite unhappy with her rude eviction, she continued to scream the whole time they cleaned her up! It was a beautiful noise! Her Apgar was 8 and 9, my OB called foul on not giving her a 10 since she came out ready to tell us all off! LOL Jason and the nursery nurse finally brought our newest baby girl to see me! She was so cute, 8lbs 5oz 20in, reminded me exactly of her big sister Naty! After a few minutes Jason went back to our room with her to wait for me. After what felt like forever, they were finally done with me and I got to go be with my baby and husband.

Our hospital stay was uneventful, always good. The morphine made me itch like crazy but I was so happy I didn't get sick coming down off the spinal this time! Alice was a champ at nursing and we seemed to be settling in to a routine already. The on call pedi said she still heard the murmur but didnt think it needed an echo yet and to just have my pedi check it in a few days. When it came time to be discharged the nursery told me Alice had dropped 8% of her body weight which is a lot but since she had wet and dirty diapers, they weren't worried yet, told me to keep doing what I was doing.

So long stories short, we got home and were adjusting well but Alice was becoming more jaundice and sleeping more and more. Turns out she was also continuing to drop weight. There wasn't anything wrong with her nursing skills, so it was me. I went through this with the twins too. With them we stuck it out 6 weeks trying this, that, and supplementing. I know how this road ends, there's something wrong with me and I just can't get my milk to let down. It's fine, I dealt with the big bad emotions of all that with the twins. So we just switched to formula and within a few days she was gaining weight and you could tell the jaundice was getting out of her system. By one week old her pedi also didn't hear a murmur anymore! Yay! That was great news!

Alice has been so much fun to have around, all her sisters adore her and want to help all the time with everything! She's a mellow personality who isn't afraid to have her opinion known when she cares, like when she's hungry or objecting to hiccups or pooping LOL She isn't so thrilled with the whole car experience and would prefer if we walked in her Ergo everywhere hahaha She reminds me of Jason's personality a lot so it should be interesting as she grows. ;)

And now the many pictures, sorry a lot are sideways;