Friday, July 3, both Steve and I were off for the holiday. We spent a fun day at Joshua's Pond and then in the evening we had a picnic with my family. I had been having heartburn the past several days so on the way home, we stopped at CVS to get Tums and Zantac. Friday night I didn't sleep well at all (although the Zantac helped with the heartburn), and around 4:30 on Saturday morning I started having contractions. I was a little surprised since it was 16 days before my due date and 11 days before my scheduled C-section. I waited about an hour before waking Steve up. The contractions were pretty close together and pretty regular, so I was pretty sure I was actually in labor. I took a shower and then called my doctor. He told me to come in and that I would most likely be staying. I then called my mother (who didn't answer the phone because it was still on silent from prayer meeting the night before, so I had to call my father) to come over to be with Caleb. My mother called Rosalie to also come over so she could come to the hospital. We arrived at the hospital around 7:00 and they hooked me up to the monitor to see my contractions and to check and see if I was dilated. I was having pretty strong contractions and I was dilated 1 cm, but they determined that I was definitely in real labor and they decided to go ahead with the C-section. They moved me to a room and admitted me and then got everything ready for the C-section. In the meantime, I was having pretty bad contractions, so I was so happy when they took me to the operating room and gave me the spinal.
I was nauseous during labor, hence the pink bucket (luckily I didn't throw up)
The doctor on duty was not one of my regular doctors, which I was a little disappointed about, but it was a female doctor, Dr. Weldon, and she was super nice and reassuring to me, so I was fine with it. I was just happy that Kaitlyn was coming early and that I would be done being pregnant!
Everything went fine with the C-section and I didn't even feel nauseous afterwards like I did with Caleb. I had told the anesthesiologist that I got sick last time so he gave me a cocktail of whatever he could give me in my IV to make sure I didn't get nauseous and apparently it worked! However, I was very itchy afterwards, so they put Benadryl in my IV and then I was kinda knocked out for a few hours. I literally couldn't keep my eyes open, so I was happy when that wore off. One other thing that was different this time was after I got back to my room, I was shivering for about 20 minutes. It was kinda strange, but I guess it's normal.
Kaitlyn was born at 9:26 am, and she was 7 pounds, 7 ounces and 20.5 inches long! We were shocked because she was a week earlier than Caleb and he was only 6 pounds, 7 ounces. In fact while we were waiting to go into the C-section, I said to Steve that I thought she was going to be tiny!
Caleb came over in the early afternoon with Grammy and Grampy to meet his sister and it was a special moment. We also gave him a couple of presents from Kaitlyn, because I had heard that was a good way to minimize jealousy right off the bat.
Love this - headed into the hospital!
I love his face - he was very excited to hold her!
So cute - he was waving to her!
Touching her hand
He loves his trumpet
First family picture
We were afraid that since it was a Sabbath that people would want to come visit, but last time I had too many visitors in one day and was exhausted, so we had them make an announcement in church that we didn't want any visitors until the next day. Steve's family came down from Vermont and Lowell in the afternoon, Aunt Melanie and Perky came later in the evening, and that's pretty much it.
Caleb stayed overnight with Grammy and Grampy the whole time I was in the hospital (3 nights) and he did great.
Special animal waffles at Grammy's house
Steve's family stayed at our house Saturday night and came back to the hospital on their way out on Sunday morning.
And of course, my family was there a lot as well. My mom stayed with me sometimes so Steve could have some one on one time with Caleb.
On Monday, we had some more visitors. Rosalie, Pastor John, Nathan, Beth, Jim & Charlie, Uncle Bill, and my friends Mary and Gina from work (they brought me food and presents, which was so nice).
Here are some other pictures from our hospital visit.
We went home on Tuesday morning. I felt extremely nauseous in the car on the way home, and it was pretty bad for awhile. I even took a Zofran to see if that would help. Luckily, I think it was probably just because I hadn't been walking much the past few days, because it did go away after not too long.
Looking out the window waiting for us to come home!
Silly boy trying on Kaitlyn's hat
Steve was home on Tuesday and Wednesday and then went back to work for Thursday and Friday and my mom spent those days with us. My mom was extremely helpful for the first 2 weeks. We couldn't have done it without her! She came over every morning at 7 before Steve left for work and mostly did things with Caleb. She usually left during Caleb's nap and then came back afterwards. Sometimes she took Caleb with her on some errands.
When Kaitlyn was 9 days old, I took her to the doctor for the first time because she had a lot of yellow discharge coming out of her eye. It was so bad that I knew we needed to go to the doctor. They said she didn't have an infection but they gave us an antibiotic ointment anyway because there was so much discharge. Luckily it helped and it cleared up shortly after getting the ointment.
Steve took the following Thursday off of work and Amy and Greg and the boys came down that Wednesday night to see Kaitlyn and stayed until Friday morning. Here are some pictures from Kaitlyn's first days home and from Amy and Greg's visit.
Caleb loved playing Tyler's guitar!
Caleb was so meticulous putting ketchup on each individual piece of french fry - it was unbelievable.
The Conrad cousins!
The day before Kaitlyn was 2 weeks old, she had her first official doctor's appointment. She was up to 7 lb, 10 oz already, which they were happy about. Everything else was good!
When Kaitlyn was 2 weeks old, we took her to church for the first time and she did great, sleeping through a lot of the service.
Adorable dress courtesy of Auntie Jen!
Monday night when Kaitlyn was just over 2 weeks old, my parents left for Nova Scotia and took Caleb with them. It was a little hard for me to have him go, because that was the first time I had been away from him except for being in the hospital. I cried when they pulled out of the driveway, but then I was ok and I used the next 2 days to get ready for us to go to Nova Scotia and tried to get some rest. Here are some more pictures from Kaitlyn's first couple of weeks. My next post will be about Nova Scotia.
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