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Welcome Laila Rose!
Well, this is definitely some of the biggest news I've ever posted about:
Laila Rose (from לילה, "night") was born at 4:02 p.m. May 13th.
Originally,![[instagram.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/profile_icons/instagram.png)
sashagee and I were just going into the hospital on Wednesday because she wasn't feeling well. She had a headache and was starting to get spotty vision, and while she had an appointment later that day with the midwives she didn't think she should wait that long, so I took the afternoon off and drove her to the ob/gen triage at the hospital like the midwives had suggested if anything seemed out of the ordinary. When she got there, they did standard intake, put her in a room, and then hooked her up to a fetal heartrate monitor. That caused a huge flurry of activity because the baby's heartrate was around 110--very low for babies--and didn't have much variability, so several nurses ran in and started prepping, a doctor came in, and just as she was explaining the risks of an emergency C-section to sashagee, the baby's heartrate recovered back up to the ~140 you want it at.
Obviously they couldn't send us home after almost scheduling an emergency surgery, though, and since Laila was one day overdue anyway they decided to induce labor.sashagee was originally going to do a natural birth--we got a preview of this later in the evening when we heard a woman screaming somewhere down the hall and then, about twenty minutes later, a baby crying--but once her contractions started she almost passed out multiple times, so she opted for an epidural. That caused another flurry of activity because after administering the epidural, her blood pressure and the baby's heartrate both dropped, so more nurses came in, a doctor came in and started once again prepping for an emergency C-section 
...and then everything went back to normal again. With the epidural in, she was even able to get some sleep, while thosesocks kindly came to pick me up and drive me back to our house to pick everything up that I had left behind when I thought it was a simple doctor's visit.
They started the second stage of inducing labor around 3:40 p.m. on Thursday, and after 15 minutes of pushing, our daughter was born healthy! I ended up assisting with the labor, helping a nurse hold on to one ofsashagee's legs while she pushed. I admit, before we went to the hospital I was worried that I'd be squeamish about the birth, but I wasn't. I watched part of the placenta come out, followed by Laila's head, followed by the rest of her body in a rush, and I'll remember for the rest of my life the nurses laying Laila on sashagee's chest as sashagee cried and said "She's perfect."
Laila almost immediately went for the boob, so she andsashagee had a bit of bonding time, then I got to hold her while the nurses checked sashagee and cleaned her up, and then they took Laila over to be weighed (3500g exactly, much to the nurses' surprise, about 7 lbs 11 oz) and measured (19 inches), and then while my parents came to visit--my father took me back to the house to shower and eat, since sashagee got a bunch of meals but I got nothing--they moved her to the new mom and baby section where we spent the next two days. That was the less-exciting part, where they did tests, sashagee fed Laila, I slept on the inflatable/pull-out couch thing, and sashagee healed while they made sure nothing serious went wrong with either her or Laila. After the last test came back clear, showing slightly higher-than-normal new baby jaundice but nothing serious, they let us go and we came back home with our newborn daughter! It's been a bit rough at home caring for her without the nurses to ask for advice and help--she refuses to even be in her bassinet for more than a few minutes, even when I'm actively cooing at her and holding her hands to show her that I'm still right there--but I know there's an adjustment period and I'm determined to adjust!
I'm a father!!
Bonus picture of Laila showing her resemblance to Kirby
:
Kirbaby.
Laila Rose (from לילה, "night") was born at 4:02 p.m. May 13th.
Originally,
sashagee and I were just going into the hospital on Wednesday because she wasn't feeling well. She had a headache and was starting to get spotty vision, and while she had an appointment later that day with the midwives she didn't think she should wait that long, so I took the afternoon off and drove her to the ob/gen triage at the hospital like the midwives had suggested if anything seemed out of the ordinary. When she got there, they did standard intake, put her in a room, and then hooked her up to a fetal heartrate monitor. That caused a huge flurry of activity because the baby's heartrate was around 110--very low for babies--and didn't have much variability, so several nurses ran in and started prepping, a doctor came in, and just as she was explaining the risks of an emergency C-section to sashagee, the baby's heartrate recovered back up to the ~140 you want it at.Obviously they couldn't send us home after almost scheduling an emergency surgery, though, and since Laila was one day overdue anyway they decided to induce labor.
sashagee was originally going to do a natural birth--we got a preview of this later in the evening when we heard a woman screaming somewhere down the hall and then, about twenty minutes later, a baby crying--but once her contractions started she almost passed out multiple times, so she opted for an epidural. That caused another flurry of activity because after administering the epidural, her blood pressure and the baby's heartrate both dropped, so more nurses came in, a doctor came in and started once again prepping for an emergency C-section ...and then everything went back to normal again. With the epidural in, she was even able to get some sleep, while thosesocks kindly came to pick me up and drive me back to our house to pick everything up that I had left behind when I thought it was a simple doctor's visit. They started the second stage of inducing labor around 3:40 p.m. on Thursday, and after 15 minutes of pushing, our daughter was born healthy! I ended up assisting with the labor, helping a nurse hold on to one of
sashagee's legs while she pushed. I admit, before we went to the hospital I was worried that I'd be squeamish about the birth, but I wasn't. I watched part of the placenta come out, followed by Laila's head, followed by the rest of her body in a rush, and I'll remember for the rest of my life the nurses laying Laila on sashagee's chest as sashagee cried and said "She's perfect."Laila almost immediately went for the boob, so she and
sashagee had a bit of bonding time, then I got to hold her while the nurses checked sashagee and cleaned her up, and then they took Laila over to be weighed (3500g exactly, much to the nurses' surprise, about 7 lbs 11 oz) and measured (19 inches), and then while my parents came to visit--my father took me back to the house to shower and eat, since sashagee got a bunch of meals but I got nothing--they moved her to the new mom and baby section where we spent the next two days. That was the less-exciting part, where they did tests, sashagee fed Laila, I slept on the inflatable/pull-out couch thing, and sashagee healed while they made sure nothing serious went wrong with either her or Laila. After the last test came back clear, showing slightly higher-than-normal new baby jaundice but nothing serious, they let us go and we came back home with our newborn daughter! It's been a bit rough at home caring for her without the nurses to ask for advice and help--she refuses to even be in her bassinet for more than a few minutes, even when I'm actively cooing at her and holding her hands to show her that I'm still right there--but I know there's an adjustment period and I'm determined to adjust!I'm a father!!
Bonus picture of Laila showing her resemblance to Kirby
: Kirbaby.
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Me too...
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We both stayed calm during it, but in retrospect it was a little scary having all those nurses and doctors rush in for a baby's birth. I'm glad that they weren't necessary!
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Yeah, it's rough not having those nurses to help...but it's way better than being in a hospital!
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Things are going to be pretty hard for a bit, but I know we'll get through them!
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(I hope the icon I choose is not offensive, I think I used it for something once and someone was a bit squeamish or didn't like it, don't think it was you, buuuuuut... if so, apologies).
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Haha it's fine. That was basically Laila's attitude--she came out, cried once, and then calmed down almost immediately. She was ready to see the world!
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She's a little scared of all the stories she's heard about Australia being a sci-fi deathworld, but I'm trying to make her come around!
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Very happy for the 3 of you and with best wishes to you all!
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Me too! It looked like there were going to be major problems for a moment, but fortunately it all worked out.
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And what a beautiful name! If I ever were to have a baby (which is extremely unlikely), Laila would be one of my top options. It was my grandma's name, too.
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Your grandmother's name? Is Laila a Finnish name too?
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It has no meaning in Finnish, but it appears to be a variant of a name that means 'holy' in Sami. ^^ (So it doesn't really *mean *anything, but that's the origin.)