The Story

First of all, I'd like to thank everyone for all the well wishes, texts, calls, etc! We feel so loved and surrounded by great family and friends - and a beautiful healthy happy little girl!

We got to the hospital this morning around 8:15 (a little late, woops!) and they started my IV, took some more history, and got me all prepped. Then it was the hurry-up-and-wait game... but not for too long! They came to take me back around 9:50 and the anestisiologist put in my spinal. This was the most nerve wracking part for me becaue I was so nervous that it wasn't going to work. Well, it did - very well! For a few minutes I felt a little nausous but it passed pretty quickly. They got me prepped and started the surgery (actually I asked if I was numb enough yet and they said, 'well, we started already so I think so').

Waylon was brought in and then I got really emotional. I felt so happy knowing I would be awake and couldn't wait to hear that cry. They told us when they were about to 'pop' her out and gave Waylon the option to stand up and watch - he did, so he got to see her come out! They gave me a quick peek before taking her out to be weighed and Waylon went with her. They brought her back a few minutes later to snuggle for a bit before taking her to the nursery to get all cleaned up and tested. She checked out except for two small issues - she had a slight heart murmur which they weren't really concerned about but then couldn't hear after a few hours and she also has a herniated umbilical cord. We are still unsure what exactly this means and are looking forward to talking to the pediatrician tomorrow morning about it but they didn't seem to concerned about it and from the little we read it's no big deal either.

After I was all stitched up, Waylon and Kylie met me in the recovery room and I was so happy to be holding her for the first time!! We tried nursing and she latched on a few times but only for a few minutes each time. Around 2:15, she latched on for about 15 minutes and nursing has been getting better and better since then. We ended up in recovery for almost 3 hours which was a little frustrating but apparently, they had 25 discharges today, so the housekeepers were working like crazy trying to get rooms cleaned (and had to have lunch in there, too). We finally made it to our room by about 3:00 and Waylon's parents came up to visit and meet Kylie While they were here, we all talked to Noah on Skype using the webcam, so he got to see his baby sister for the first time. He was really cute looking at and talking to her and was very interested in his baby sister. After a few hours, my parents came to the hospital with Noah (who can't come inside - new hospital policy) so Waylon went out to spend some time with him. Apparently, he was asking to come in and see Mommy and 'baby sister Kylie' - breaks my heart! Then Waylon's parents took Noah to the mall for some playtime and dinner while my parents stayed to visit Kylie. Aunt Andrea and Jennie and Cory also made it by to visit this afternoon which was great!

Everyone was gone by about 7:30 - Kay and Dick brought Noah back here to swap again and my parents changed him in PJs and he fell asleep on the way home - a big day for him - and us too!!

Well, I started this post before we attempted going to bed and I'm just now finishing it at 4:45am while feeding Kylie. :-) The nurse took her to the nursery around 10:15 last night to give her another bath and do some vitals and such, so we decided to take advantage of the time and try to get some sleep. They kept her in the nursery until about 12:30 so we got a little time to sleep. We decided to keep her in our room after that feeding but between her taking a while to settle down after eating and nurses coming in and out to check my vitals, we didn't get much sleep before this feeding - maybe another hour for me and a little more for Waylon. We may send her back to the nursery to get a little more sleep after this feeding but I think they are coming in to take out my IV and catheter at 6, so I'm not sure how much time I'll really get.

I'm looking forward to being unplugged though. I've been feeling really good - so much better than after Noah's birth, so I'm so ready to get up and start walking around and get a shower, too. We are hoping to possibly go home on Saturday but we'll just have to see what the docs say.

Thanks agan and big hugs to all of you out there. We are so lucky to have such a great support system. I'll try to get more pictures up tomorrow.

Night night (at 5am!) :-)