That's just the way it is... a baby story

Sometimes having kids is tough.  Pregnancy this go-round was really rough.  I felt good for probably only about 2 months.  Which means the rest of the family felt good for about... 2 of the last 9 months ;-)

But first, let's talk about all the great things about this time around for me.  We arrived at the hospital at 6am ready to go.  I had been awake waiting for the alarm since 4:15, of course.   We were the only ones there (gotta love small hospitals!) and I got full attention.  While they got me set up, Steve worked on getting all the electronics online and wifi up and ready to go.  All the important things, of course.  

Every single person I came into contact with was awesome.  Nurses were great- beyond great.  Anesthesiologist was incredible. I had two there, and the one that actually gave me the spinal was an older gal, Maddie, who worked with one of those "doctors without borders" a few times a year.  She is retiring in a year and wants to do that full-time.  How great is that?  The other, Kyle, was one of the guys that hazed Steve when he was here is first year at West Point.  Everyone did a great job teasing him about that, of course.   My doctors were excellent and very proficient at what they did.  I was beyond impressed.

At about 8AM they walked me back to the OR and all the set-up began.  They were all so kind and were joking and it was a grand ol' party in that operating room.  We had lots of discussions about what to name the baby.  One nurse, Stephanie was a big fan of her name- the perfect combination of mine and Steve's name.  I thought if we were to combine our names it would have to be "Steeffanie (say with a Russian accent and you get the idea).  :-D  They let Steve come back for the whole surgery, which is fairly unusual from my experience.  The first cut was made at 8:13 (I remember because it was Aug 13th... at 8:13) and by 8:27 our little angel was delivered.  She was in breech position, and it ended up that her legs were up at her head, too!  It took a little pushing and pulling to get her to come on out.  But oh, the sweetness of that little spirit coming and joining our family.  Always an emotional moment for me.  Steve got to take pictures of all the clean-up fun while they finished up with me.  He went with baby girl Elgan (no-name girl) and they finished up with me.  All was done by 9am- again... I think it was record time.  The incision site looks awesome.  Best I've had so far!  And this is the first time I didn't get those horrible shakes after surgery.  I don't know what was different, but it was heavenly!  I did end up being extremely itchy for two days, but that's a very normal side-effect for me.

Since I was the one-and-only on the floor, I was able to recover in my own room and the nurses just hung out with me for a couple hours while they did all the checks to make sure all was well.  Again- so incredibly awesome.  Baby came in and she ate like a champ.  Do you get the theme that all the stars aligned on this day?

I was spoiled for three days.  Every day, multiple times a day, I was asked if baby had a name yet.  We were choosing between a couple names.  The top two names were Hailey and Clara.  We thought we really liked Clara, but every time I tried to call her that, it just didn't seem right.  So I spent hours scouring the Internet for a name.  So ridiculous.  But for some reason I just couldn't figure it out.  Let's just say there were many tears shed over this dilemma.  Blame it on the hormones and lack of sleep.  In the end Steve told me to pick a name and he'd be happy with it.  And our girl would fit her name no matter what we picked.  What a good husband I have.  By Wednesday morning it was decided and I made Steve write up the birth certificate before I could doubt myself some more!  So my Anna has a name and I love it.

The only really hardship I had while there (besides the name) was that Anna was constantly hungry and I couldn't keep up with her.  In the end we supplemented and that made for a happier baby- at night anyway.  Nurses didn't want me supplementing during the day.  There were times that she got so frustrated that she refused to even try to eat.  The cramping and crying was far too reminiscent of colicky Katie.

I had the choice to stay until Thursday if desired.  Only problem: school started Thursday morning.  And this was Sarah's first day of Kindergarten.  I couldn't miss that big milestone!  I came home Wednesday right before dinner.  It would be an understatement to say I was a bit overwhelmed by the chaos of being home again after the quiet of the hospital.  I started to doubt my decision to come home. The first couple nights were rough.  Again, Anna was just hungry and her day/night schedule was off and I was tired and sore and Steve was kind and took over multiple times when I just couldn't do it anymore.  Two nights he slept on the couch in our room with Anna in his arms.  It taught her to sleep at night, though.

By Friday night we were starting to see that Anna was not doing well.  My milk had come in, but she was still trying to eat nonstop, then cramping and crying and there was nothing I could do about it.  Basically all day Friday she cried.  It was rough.  So that night Steve drove into Central Valley (since it was after 7pm and everything was closed here) to get some formula.  And Anna finally slept!  Yes, there was definitely some mommy guilt involved in that decision.  But considering that 4 out of 6 of my kids have had issues with my milk, I wasn't too overly surprised.  Frustrated?  Yes!  Isn't mother's milk supposed to be the best?  Sheesh!  While Anna was tons happier, there was still a little bit of fussiness there, so Wednesday Mom and I took another trip to the store and picked up some "sensitive baby" formula and Anna has been an angel.  I hope we finally have this all figured out.

There is a bonus to having baby on formula, though.  My girls LOVE to be in charge of feeding Anna! They all absolutely adore her, and Katie and Sarah especially fight over who gets to hold her and feed her.  All the kids have been great with her.  Ryan and Tommy every once and awhile pay attention to her, but mostly they don't care too much.  Which is probably safer for Anna.

And I think that about summarizes the last week and a half around here.  I've tried to stay as immobile as possible, but it is really, really hard.  I've basically been confined to my room except for a couple hours when I emerge and join the fray.  It's just quieter and more comfortable for me on the bed.  My mom was a lifesaver.  She kept my house clean, the clothes clean and my children extremely happy.  I feel like I missed out on her visit, since I was in my room so much, but I also feel as though my recovery has been a million times better than any other because I was much more careful about too much exertion.  And having her here has been a huge factor in that.  Unfortunately, Mom left this morning (insert extremely sad face) and with the timing, I've been here alone all day.  There has been too much stair climbing (I was doing only once-a-day) and other such things, but after tonight Steve is on leave for 10 days!  Yay!  I'll recover tomorrow?

We tried to take some newborn pictures yesterday morning and Anna cried the whole time.  Kind of a bummer.  I think we got a couple fairly good ones and once I convince Steve to edit them I'll post them.  She is a sweetheart and I feel beyond blessed that she is a part of our family.  It already feels as though she's always been a part of the "Elgan Clan."

Oh, and I have SIX kids!!!  Kinda strange to say...


note from tiff: I'm gonna have to go back and do an edit later.  Children are hungry.  And mistakes made above will hopefully be rectified soon!