Our 1st Week as The McGuire Family!

Hi!

Well, as all of you know by now, AVA IS HERE! FINALLY!

On November 2nd around 2AM I started having lower back pain while I was sleeping. I knew something was up so I started googling on my phone in bed about signs of early labor. Back pain was one of them...

I stayed in bed and noticed that I was now having cramping/tightening of my stomach area every 20 min or so. Around 4:30 AM I woke Mark up and said, "Something is happening..." He told me to call the doctor and ask if we should wait until contractions were closer to to just come down. I did and they told me to come on over.

Off to Holy Cross Hospital we went. I was quickly admitted and given my epidural at 4cm dilated. ((I was determined to enjoy my special day too, and figured I am not trying to prove I am super woman to anyone so epidural it was :) Mark held me from the other side of the anesthesiologist with his head down {Mark HATES needles} and I thought he was going to pass out. I kept asking HIM if he was okay while I had a HUGE needle going into my back. ha. (Ladies, when it is your turn, don't be afraid of the epidural experience.  The numb you with a tiny needle before hand that feels nothing compared to a bee sting and THEN inject your numbed area - so no biggie!

Later on, my mom and mother in law arrived and sat around all day with Mark and I talking and watching TV in the room. At this point I was all warm and fuzzy inside. I felt like I had 3 glasses of my beloved red wine. Around this time, my two friends Sarah and Rachael walked in and surprised me. It was nice to see them and appreciated them taking the time to come by and say hi with flowers and a balloon :-)

Before you knew it, I was 10 cm dilated and it was time to push. 2 hours later, Ava Loren McGuire was born! Weighing in at 7lbs. 11oz. and 21 inches long.

She was born on Friday, Nov. 2nd, 2012 at 8:50PM. As soon as she came out, they placed her on my chest and Mark and I just started sobbing. We could not stop crying at the sight of our baby girl. We had waited not only 9 months for her, but talked about having a family one day since we were much younger. We have always looked forward to being a family and we had done it. 

We were now "The McGuire Family." Finally. 

Shortly after the cleaning up and routine checks, we were moved to our double beds hospital room where we would spend the next two nights with Ava. Not going to lie, this night was challenging. I could barely keep my eyes open and now I had a brand new baby next to me to take care of. I did the best I could, I fed her when she started to cry, changed her when she needed it, and walked ((continuously)) back and forth in the bed room to rock her to sleep. I had been up since 2AM when my contractions started, labored all day, pushed for 2 hours, and then handed my baby...I was EXHAUSTED. I remember that when I was pushing I was LITERALLY FIGHTING to keep my eyes open. I have never felt that kind of exhaustion in. my. life. 

{Not even in college after pulling all nights studying for final exam week} I asked the Dr. if it was due to my epidural and she said no. If that's the case, I suppose that not feeling my contractions all day tired my body out without me knowing it. 

Anyways...so here I was with a new baby and up all night  and afraid to drop her because of my exhaustion. By 6AM, I couldn't hold her anymore and I didn't know what else to do. I buzzed the nurse and she came and took Ava to the nursery for two hours so that I would rest. Those two hours felt like 1000 years. 

The next morning was much better. I showered, I rested, and took some pictures with Mark before family members came to visit. 

When I walked out of the shower, I saw this...I quietly reached for my phone and snapped this picture of Mark is pure awe of his new baby girl. 

At this moment, it really hit me that my life had really changed. Your life changes when you get married, but is transformed when you start a family. I love this picture of Mark looking at Ava. He is completely memorized by her. <3 We spent that day relaxing and Mark watching football with Ava in his arms. 

On Sunday at 11AM it was time to go home. Mark was thrilled about this...We put Ava in her coming home outfit that I bought for her in Miami. She needed a little Cuban outfit to keep the tradition going :) 

On Monday, Mark and I took her to her first pediatrician's appointment for her check up. He noticed that she had two cephalohematomas on her head and was looking a bit yellow. He told me to closely monitor her intake. Then on Tuesday, I called the RN who headed our birthing class because she is also a registered lactation consultant. Breastfeeding Ava was hurting a bit too much. ( I know it is supposed to hurt a little while you get used to this sort of thing - but this was on a whole other level. ) She told me to come in at 4PM and she would show me how to have her properly "latch on" so that it does not hurt. We went and it was helping a bit but Ava was struggling to latch on. Her adorable lower lip doesn't want to open up as wide as a baby needs to in order to feed properly. The RN also took one look at Ava and said, she is definitely jaundiced and to take her to the doctor first thing in the morning. I started crying (hormonal still from my pregnancy I am told) and knew that I didn't have time to teach Ava how to properly latch on when I  REALLY needed to be keeping her well fed and hydrated so help rid of her the jaundice. I did what I thought was best and decided to soley pump my breast milk (sorry for whatever guys are reading this...I know, TMI.)  I wanted to physically see what milk she was taking in so that I knew she was gaining weight and flushing out her system. The feeding was supposed to help her immune system that was lagging because it was focused to healing her two cephalohematomas. I started to get pretty angry thinking about why my OBGYN thought it was necessary to use these suction cups on Ava's head. I also started to get angry at the fact that none of the nurses helped teaching me in the hospital how to have Ava properly latch on earlier when I that is procedure. The following day at the pediatrician, they drew blood and saw that Ava was a "high risk" jaundiced level. It was more than just "put the baby near a window and give her some sunlight sort of thing... They had to order a BiliBlanket and we were to keep her on it for 18-22 hours a day. After a whole mess of miss communication between our pediatrician's office and medical supply companies, a BiliBlanket was finally delivered to our home.  ( I am currently looking into a new pediatrician for Ava. between that and my OBGYN, Holy Cross Medical Group is not on my good side these days...

After the first day, her level went down until Friday when she was cleared of needing it. (THANK GOD.) 

And thank you all again for the prayers and well wishes. 

My mother in law and brother in law came over to visit Ava that day as well. 

On Saturday, I went and got a manicure and pedicure thanks to my two friends, Sarah and Michelle, who gave bag full of gifts for me and Ava's birthdays. I have never enjoyed that massage chair in the nail salon more than that day....haha. 

After a week approximately 2 hours of sleep while learning Ava's routine and feeding, changing her, pumping, etc., I felt rested. Later on that day, Mark and I went on the long awaited "family walk." Mark and I used to take evening walks with a cocktail in tow and catch up on each other's day before I was pregnant. We used to sometimes talk about how one day we would have a little one in a stroller with us. So here we were...SO excited to take our stroll again (with some Cabernet to celebrate ;) 

Don't worry, Ava had other milk that she drank when I had this...

We stopped by some of the neighbors by my mom's place about 1.5 mi. away and introduced them to Ava. We were given a beautiful little cross to hang in her room and then went on our way back home. 

And today is Sunday...it has been a relaxing/lazy Sunday at home :-) Just the way we like it. I also was curious to see how much I weighed now that my belly is going down. (Can you believe that a woman's uterus grows 500% from normal size to support a baby?!?! That is nuts)

I am down 21 lbs! I have 9 more to go for my pre-pregnancy weight. Yippie.

Well, this post has taken me like 3 days to finish because of the new routine. I may not be posting as much (for obvious reasons) but will try to as much as possible now that we are getting adjusted to a mommy routine and a new sleep schedule. 

Hope everyone is having a good weekend and Happy Veterans Day. 

Also, A BIG CONGRATS to Kristine and Mike Marseco on welcoming their second child, Kelsey, to this world today!