Our First Few Days

We were able to come home with Hannah on Thursday (2/16) afternoon.  We were all happy to be home!  Thursday night around dinner time I started to develop a headache.  I've had about two headaches in my life and they were nothing to speak of, so I definitely noticed when my head started hurting.  I still didn't think too much about it though.  I talked to Bert and my mom about it and we all agreed that we were sure it wasn't the spinal headache that the anesthesiologist warned me of b/c it had been almost 60 hours since I had delivered (they said if I were to develop the spinal headache it would most likely be within the first 48 hours after delivery).  By the next morning the headache was much worse.  I took Motrin and it literally didn't touch the headache. I waited a little while and tried some Tylenol and the headache just kept getting worse.  Friday afternoon we had our first doctors appointment for Hannah.  My friend Jen came over to watch Emily and my mom went with me to Hannah's appointment.  She got a great check-up, but as we were leaving I found myself wanting to hold my head. My entire head was throbbing....it wasn't just one area of my head.  We decided it was probably time to call my OB and talk to them about the possibility of it being a spinal headache. The office closes early on Friday, so I spoke with the doctor on call. Once I described my symptoms she was absolutely positive it was a spinal headache...she said it was a "classic spinal headache."  She told me that I needed to treat it exactly as I would a hangover.  Ha!  Thankfully she went on to tell me how to treat a hangover, because if she hadn't I was going to have to ask.:)  She said that I needed to drink a glass of water, then a glass of Gatorade, and then a glass of some kind of caffeine.  I asked her how often I should drink these three drinks. She paused and then said "No, you don't understand. You DON'T stop drinking.  As soon as you finish one glass you start the next."  She went on to say that drinking these liquids continually cures the spinal headache for a lot of people, but that if it doesn't then I would need to go to the ER in the morning so that I could meet with the anesthesiologist about getting a blood patch.  I started praying right then that drinking these liquids would take my headache away and that I wouldn't have to go back to the hospital.  

Once we got back to the house after Hannah's appointment (about 3:30) I started drinking water, Gatorade, coke, water, Gatorade, coke, etc. etc.  My sweet mom just kept bringing me drinks and reminding me to drink.  I laughed and told her she was being bossy, but I really appreciated her so much.  I wanted that headache gone!!  By about 8pm and who knows how many glasses of liquids later my headache was sooooooo much better.  By about 11pm it was completely gone, praise the Lord!!  We were so so thankful that my headache was responding to drinking these liquids. 

Friday night was a bit of a crazy night.  Poor Hannah was feeling the effects of my drinking caffeine all afternoon and night.  I spoke to the pediatrician about me drinking caffeine to try to get rid of my headache (because I was breastfeeding), and she said that it wouldn't hurt her but that it would probably maker her fussy and uncomfortable.  Well it sure did.  We couldn't calm our sweet girl down.  While I was so thankful to have my headache gone, I felt terrible for making Hannah so uncomfortable.  She ended up crying most of the night.  About 2 am I was rocking her in our new glider and it broke.  Talk about bad timing! (The company ended up sending us a brand new glider...great customer service.)  Not long after the chair incident (maybe 3am) Bert started to change her diaper and she literally peed all over our bed spread.  Once we put everything on to wash I was sitting on the bed holding our 4 day old baby and I couldn't help but start laughing.  It was definitely a night to remember!!  About 4:30 we decided it was time to call for Mimi, who was asleep in the living room.  We didn't want to wake her up so early, but we needed to get a couple of hours sleep.  Mimi jumped up and was happy to help!!  

I was awake most of the night Friday night so you would think I would have done a good job of continuing to drink liquids.  Wrong.  I guess I was too preoccupied with my crying Hannah to worry about drinking anything.  Plus, my resident nurse was asleep so I didn't have anyone encouraging me to drink.:)  Anyway, I woke up Saturday morning with another headache.  I quickly started drinking again and after two rounds of liquids it was almost completely gone again.  Woohoo!  That was the last of the headaches, praise the Lord!! 

Sweet Hannah....4 days old.  

I love my little girl!  

Bert really is the best Daddy!  He is so happy to help with anything and everything.  As I type this he's in the kitchen washing Emily's sippy cups.  He's so quick to help with middle of the night feedings and he jumps at the chance to hold either of his little girls.  I love him so so much!!  

These photo shoots are thanks to Mimi.  She kept pulling out her camera and snapping pictures of her grandbabies.  I'll try to keep the pictures coming now that she has gone home to GA, but I'm sure there won't be quite as many.:)  

Hannah snuggling with Daddy while he studies.  

I L.O.V.E. this picture.  

Stephen and Alison came by on Sunday so Stephen could meet Hannah.  She just kept looking up at him....so sweet.  

My cousin, Kristi, and her husband, Jay, came by to meet little Hannah and bring us dinner.  They live in Durham and just got married on January 7th.  It was great to see them and the soup Kristi made was amazing!  I'll definitely be adding it into our meal rotation.:)  

My Aunt Kathy (Kristi's mom) gave Emily a baby doll called "Baby Stella" for us to give to her after we got home from the hospital.  Emily LOVES baby Stella.  She carries her around and all the time and loves feeding her and taking care of her.  So sweet. 

Emily also is a big help when it's time to vacuum.  She gets out her vacuum and stays right beside us.  

Spaghetti is one of her favorite meals.  We usually jut take off her shirt b/c she gets sooo messy.:)  

Hannah just looks so peaceful!  Hanging out.:)  

Hannah wasn't totally sure about her first bath.  

                                     

Emily wasn't totally sure about Hannah's first bath either.:)  

Hannah settled down quickly and since then she really hasn't minded bathtime at all!

                                      

I could not be more thankful for my family!  Love, love, love all three of them! 

Bringing Our Girl Home

Thursday morning (Feb 16th) we woke up ready to go.  We were ready to take our Hannah home.  Here we are just before walking out of our room.  We caught Hannah mid yawn.:)  

All packed up and headed to the car. (This is our nurse, Maureen, pushing me in the wheelchair and Bert's mom who came to help us get packed up took the picture...)

Hannah was not so sure about the car seat and she let us know it!

I wanted to sit in the back seat with my sweet girl on her first car ride.  She calmed down quickly once we had her in the car.  

She learned how to blow bubbles on the way home from the hospital.  Isn't she absolutely precious!?  I still can't believe she's ours!  

When we brought Emily home from the hospital we stopped by this Chick-fil-A on Capital Blvd.  It's about halfway between Rex Hospital and our apartment.  We decided last minute that we would stop again this time on our way home with Hannah.  Every time I see this Chick-fil-A I think about bringing our girls home from the hospital....it makes me smile.  I'm thankful for little memories like this.  

Emily and Mimi met us outside as we pulled in the parking lot.  Emily was soooo excited about seeing us!!

Our sweet neighbors had written a welcome note on the sidewalk and decorated our door!  So fun!  

Here we are just before walking inside!!  (Isn't Emily cute holding on to the car seat handle?!)

I love this picture of Emily b/c it shows how excited she was about having her sister home!!  Bert and I were just as excited!!  

Welcome home, sweet Hannah!!  We love you and we are so thankful for you!!  

Hospital Stay

We had a great experience during our hospital stay at Rex. We're thankful to have such a great hospital so close!

Aunt Alison brought Emily to meet Hannah on Tuesday afternoon after she woke up from her nap.  We were SO excited about seeing her reaction to her new sister.   She definitely checked Hannah out, but she wasn't sure about me being in the hospital bed.  She kept wanting to climb up.  

Our first picture as a family of four....

Me and my girls!:)  

Mimi and Papa Stan were so excited about getting up to Raleigh for the birth of their third grandchild!  They left about two thirty in the morning to make the trip up.  This picture of Mimi and Hannah was taken about an hour after her birth. 

We called Grandmama and PawPaw at about 2:30a.m. to let them know we were heading in to the hospital.  Grandmama wanted to let PawPaw sleep just a little while longer before they made the drive up, but she was so excited she couldn't sleep.  She texted Bert about 4 and let him know she was up and cleaning the kitchen.:)  They left Jackson about 5am and arrived at the hospital just before Hannah's birth.  

Aunt Alison loving on her new niece.:)

Aunt Katherine came by the hospital Tues (2/14) evening after Brett got out of class.  Brett had just been diagnosed with bronchitis so he didn't even get to come in the room.  They won't let any children under 1 upstairs on the labor and delivery floors, so little Jacob (6 months) had to wait downstairs in the lobby with his daddy.  

Another family picture....day 2!    Emily spent the day at the hospital...she loved all the people coming in and out of the room and made friends with several of the nurses.  Papa Stan drove her around in the car and let her get a good nap.  She definitely had a fun day and became more and more interested in her little sister.  

Grandmama and Pawpaw with two of their grandbabies.  

My dad (Papa Stan) caught a fresh cold just 2 days before Hannah was born.  He was so sweet to wear a mask when he was in the room with us to try to keep little Hannah from catching anything.  He loves her very much!  

Emily really enjoyed helping me eat my meals.  She ate all of my fresh fruit.  I didn't mind a bit.:)  

Me and my sweet girl.  She really is such a good baby!  

Emily was fascinated by turning on and off the lights above my bed.  Bert had to keep a close eye on her though to make sure she didn't try to call the nurses' desk.  It was just a couple of buttons above the lights.:)  

Aunt Alison singing to Hannah and Emily looking like a big girl in the brown chair.  

Grandmama bought Emily and Hannah some clothes.  Emily was excited about the clothes...she kept saying "cute" and wanted to carry them all at the same time!

Bert's sister, Carrie, lives in CA.  She wasn't able to make it for the birth, but is planning on coming for a visit sometime in April.  Hannah's already excited about meeting her Aunt Carrie!  Our second day at the hospital the nurse delivered this fun package.  It was a box of cake pops that Carrie had sent to us.  It was so sweet and thoughtful of her and the cake pops were a-mazing!!  

I should have taken a picture as soon as we got them.  This picture was taken after we'd already eaten about half of them.:)  Aren't they so cute!?  

We're thankful for everyone that came to meet and love on our sweet Hannah!  She is one loved little girl!:)  

Hannah Elizabeth Watts

Our Hannah Elizabeth arrived February 14, 2012 at 12:15pm.  She weighed 7lbs, 14 ounces and she was 20 inches long.  We are so so thankful to have her here and welcome her into our family! We couldn't love this little girl any more!  She's absolutely beautiful and perfectly made by her Creator!  

Hannah's Birth Story:  I started having consistent contractions about 8pm on Monday, Feb 13th.  They were 10 to 12 minutes apart and not too intense so we weren't sure if this was going to be "it" or not.  We did call our parents (living in GA) who were chomping at the bit to get in the car and get up to NC.  We encouraged them to wait a while longer to see if we were actually going to go into the hospital.  Bert started getting us more organized in case we'd be heading to the hospital in the middle of the night.  I started jotting down my contractions so that I could tell how far apart they were and how long they were lasting.  About 2am we decided it was time to call and talk to the doctor on call.  I actually didn't think she would have me come in because my contractions were still about 7 minutes apart, but I just wanted to call and talk to her about when she thought we should head that way.  Dr. Watson was on call and she was quick to say that she thought we should come on in for a few reasons:  it takes us about 40 minutes to get to the hospital, it was my second baby and my first came in about 7 hours (which is fast for a first child), and I had tested positive for Group B Strep so I needed to have at least two doses of antibiotics before I delivered.  

So, at about 2:15am we called Alison and Stephen and asked them to come on over to stay with Emily. We're so thankful that they were willing to give up sleep and come over in the middle of the night! They live about 15 minutes away, so while they were driving over Bert started packing the car and getting us ready to walk out the door.  We went in to give our sweet Emily a kiss before we left.  For some reason I felt bad leaving her in the middle of the night without her knowing.  I knew she was going to be in great hands, but it still made me sad.  

We left our apartment at about 2:45am and got to the hospital about 3:30am on the 14th, where we found out that I was 3 cm dilated, contractions were coming every 5 minutes and lasting at least a minute.  I had a doctor's appointment earlier that day (2/13) and I was 2 cm.  I was definitely disappointed that I hadn't made more progress, but thankful I had made some.  At this point they still hadn't admitted me, but were just monitoring my contractions and Hannah's heartbeat.  The plan was for me to walk some laps around the hospital to try to get things moving a little faster.  Just before I was about to start walking the nurse noticed a slight dip in Hannah's heartbeat when I was having a big contraction.  They said they needed to keep monitoring her so I wasn't going to be able to walk the halls.  The contractions kept coming and slowly but surely I was dilating.  It wasn't too long after this that they decided to admit me.  One of the main reasons was that I needed to have 2 doses of my antibiotic for testing Group B Strep positive and the doses needed to be 4 hours apart.  So, they hooked up my IV and we were there to stay.  It was that point that we knew we were going to have a little Valentine's baby! :)  They checked me again about 8:30am and I was a 4, so they ordered my epidural and I waited in great anticipation for the anesthesiologist to get there.:)  I was ready!  I had be having good contractions for just over 12 hours and he (the anesthesiologist) couldn't get there fast enough. 

The anesthesiologist actually had some trouble getting the epidural in.  The first time he put it in, it went in the wrong spot and he had to try a second time.  The entire process took about 5 minutes when I had Emily and about 20 minutes with Hannah.  As he was leaving he informed us that I leaked some spinal fluid when the needle went  in the wrong spot.  He said there was a chance I would develop a spinal headache in the days to come.  We prayed that I wouldn't develop this horrible headache, but that honestly wasn't our major concern at that time.  We just wanted to get our Hannah here safe and sound!  

My OB came back in to break my water.  They were also keeping a close watch on the dips in Hannah's heart rate.  It didn't dip with every contraction, but would just take a slight dip periodically.  They said she was probably grabbing the cord, but they really weren't that concerned about it b/c her heart rate would jump right back up to normal.  About 10:30am I still wasn't progressing as quickly as they would have liked so they decided to give me a little pitocin to move things along.  They can give up to 30 units of pitocin and they only gave me 2.  The pitocin really did it's job and my contractions started coming every 1 or 2 minutes.  They were actually coming so fast they decided to stop the pitocin after about 30 minutes.  The doctor came in a few minutes later to check me and to everyone's surprise I had gone from 4 to 10 in a little over an hour.  The nurse quickly started preparing everything for delivery.  The doctor left the room but quickly came back.  The nurse wasn't going to let me push one time without the doctor being in the room, Hannah was too close. Once the doctor came back in the room, I pushed one time and Hannah made her grand entrance.  

Hannah was (still is) absolutely beautiful! Her color was great, but for some reason she wasn't crying when she came out.  I asked them why she wasn't crying and no one seemed too concerned.  So, after a few seconds I asked again...."WHY isn't she crying???"  They handed her to me for a second, but I just kept asking them why she wasn't crying.  I quickly gave her back so they could check her out.  They took her to the warming station in our room.  At this point she still hadn't made a noise and you could tell everyone was starting to get concerned.  I later found out she started turning blue/gray and her heart rate fell from about 140 to 60.  The nurse quickly called for help.  She first called for another nurse.  Then she called for the special care unit. After about 15 seconds the special care unit still wasn't there and the poor nurse said "WHERE IS THE SPECIAL CARE UNIT??"  It felt like forever, but it really didn't take long for 10 people to rush into the room.  All I could do was just stare and cry and beg God to save my little girl.  I couldn't see Hannah from my bed, but I could hear them counting "1, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2, 3, 4." At the time, we thought they might be giving her CPR. I have literally never been so scared in my life.  I truly thought we were about to loose our little girl.  I later found out that they did have to "resuscitate" her by giving her oxygen.  My mom was in the room when Hannah was born.  Once we realized our little Hannah was in trouble the three of us (my mom, Bert and I) held hands and Mom prayed for her.  I don't think any of us stopped praying throughout the entire process.  We were all three crying.  Mom stayed beside me holding my hand while Bert was trying to get as close to Hannah as he could.  He couldn't get that close b/c of all the doctors around her, but he wanted to be near her (and I wanted him to as well).  After about 15 or 20 minutes she still wasn't really crying, but she had made a few noises and her color started to get back to normal and the team of doctors seemed to think everything was fine.  One by one the doctors and nurses started leaving the room.  I stopped one to ask why they were leaving and if my baby was okay.  They said she was and that because I delivered her so fast that she didn't have time to squeeze the the amniotic fluid and mucus out of her lungs as she was coming down the birth canal.  He went on to say that if the mom has to push for too long the baby is usually in "shock" and if the mom doesn't push long enough the baby is usually in "shock." Our poor Hannah experienced the latter.  

This picture was taken just as the special care unit left and they handed Hannah to me.  Talk about shock....I was still in shock.  I was so so thankful that my little girl was okay, but the tears kept coming....they were happy, thankful, relieved tears.  

Bert was one proud Daddy.  

After they weighed her the pediatric nurse came in the room to give her a bath, measure her, etc.  They usually do this in the room with the mom, but as soon as the nurse saw Hannah she pointed out that she was flaring her nostrils and said she must have some obstruction in her airway.  She said they would need to take her to the nursery to do some more tests, but that Bert could go with her.  I had to stay, but I didn't want Bert to let her out of his sight.  In the nursery, she was able to work out whatever was blocking her airway and they once again gave her a clean bill of health.  

After an hour or a little more Bert and Hannah came back down to my room. 

Throughout that day and the next I asked every nurse or doctor that came in if she was okay. Thankfully, everyone kept telling us that she was perfectly healthy!  

Our precious little Valentine made quite an entrance!  We were reminded from her very first breaths that we weren't in control.  We love her with every fiber of our being, but I'm thankful that Hannah has a heavenly Father who loves her even more than we do!  I pray that one day she will put her trust in Him and follow Him all the days of her life.