The birth

I wanted to write about the day Stella was born before the memory fades too much. It was so different from Hudson, and I look back already and wonder how i could have thought that i might not "know" when i was going in to labor. Wednesday morning I woke up at about 1:15am (it was 1:19 on my clock when i got up to go to the bathroom) and was having some contractions. I layed in bed for about an hour as they continued to get more intense, then finally woke Andy up to tell him. In the next 30 minutes they went from painful to so painful i couldn't talk and hound myself holding my breath through each contraction. It was then that we called the doctor and they notified the hospital that we'd be coming in.
During this time Andy and I talked mostly about what to do with Hudson. We had not planned on calling anyone at 3am (or had hoped we wouldn't have to), but soon called our friend Sarah Inks Jones to come get Hudson. She and her family live about 30 minutes away, and after she let us know she was on her way I didn't know if i would be able to wait that long to go to the hospital. We decided that since the hospital is literally less than a half mile away, I could drive myself there and Andy could come meet me after Sarah got to our house. It wasn't our ideal choice, but it wasn't long after we talked to Sarah that the contractions were coming on strong every 2-3 minutes. So I kissed Andy, grabbed my hospital bag, sat in the car through a contraction, and drove as fast as i could to the hospital. I had to stop once, then sat in the car at the hospital before I could walk in to check into the delivery wing. Andy arrived about 30 minutes later (i think), and I was more than ready to put my request in for an epidural. The pain was intense in my back - literally feeling like someone was trying to saw my spine in half - and I was not feeling the need to deliver naturally!
After I got the epidural, i remember having a few minutes to rest with Andy and anticipate her arrival. Since the epidural can slow down contractions, it gave us a little more time to process the fact that "it was really happening". My water hadn't broken on it's own, and the nurse said Stella was pushing up against it so they were going to break it, speeding up the delivery. Right when the nurse got the 'tool' (you don't want me to describe that to you, trust me), the back broke on its own - all over her! It was the funniest, grossest, strangest thing I have seen - and apparently doesn't happen often according to the nurses!
It was not long before hard labor began once my water broke, and literally 20 minutes later Stella was born - with her hand by her head saying hello to the world!
They took her to clean her up and get the fluid out of her lungs, and after about 20 minutes of that they told us they were going to need to take her to a "transition" room because the fluid wasn't coming out of her lungs. I literally held her for less than 10 minutes before they took her away for what would end up being 6 hours of transition. Because she couldn't flush the fluid out on her own, she needed to be on oxygen and monitored to ensure she was getting enough oxygen in her lungs when breathing on her own. We were able to go visit her after a while in the room, but she was not able to be off the oxygen. Though the doctors weren't too worried about her being fine, it did take longer for her to fully breath fine on her own that they initially thought. So when she finally was able to be in the room with us we were relieved!
Everything else with her birth went great, and though she did have jaundice and needed to be on the light bed like Hudson did, she was not as bad as he was, and we were much more relaxed about it since we'd already gone through it once!
When we got her home she was sleeping and eating great, and is still doing well at almost one month old! She did seem to still be having some trouble breathing, and was making quite a bit of noise so we asked the doctor about it and found out she has Tracheomalacia. Basically her trachea is soft so it collapses when she breaths. We are hopeful that she has a mild case and will outgrow it with no complications. She is still able to eat and sleep fine, which are good signs that it won't be more complicated or need special treatment. Most babies outgrow this as their trachea hardens (it's made of cartilage) and are fine by the age of 2. If she gets sick then she needs to be monitored much more closely, so we are hoping to make it through the flu/cold season and into summer with no more illness in our house for her sake! Respiratory infections can be more dangerous, so we definitely will be keeping a close watch on that.
Otherwise she is a wonderful little girl, happy most of the time, responding better to sensitive formula (my breast milk never came in, much to my trying hard for more than two weeks!!) than normal formula (we aren't sure if she's lactose intolerant but it definitely gives her more gas!). She sleeps 3-5 hours at a time during the night, and takes at least one solid nap during the day - especially if Hudson is less noisy than normal. She is precious, growing every day, and securing a deeper spot in our hearts by the minute.
Love you, Stella bean.