Great Scotts

Better late than not at all…I started writing this post when Alice was only 3 months old. Now she is 14 months. At least I got the majority of the memories down before they started to fade. I knew having two babies, especially so close together, would be a lot of work, but not 10 times more. Yikes! It’s tough some days, but my heart is always full.

So, I left off at 38 weeks preggers… I had one last doctor appointment the Monday before my due date. I went to my appointment because I unfortunately had not had the little munchkin yet. My body was ready to go according to the Dr. I was just waiting for her to decide the time was right. I went ahead and stuck with the induction date, but asked the Dr. if there was any way to skip the Pitocin to make labor easier on this momma. He said sure you are so ready that I will just come into the hospital in the morning and break your water. I was so relieved. I love my Dr. My mom had been watching Lila for me that day while I was at the appointment and thankfully so. I got home and we visited for a while and I was trying to decide if I wanted mom to take Lila that night or come back VERY early in the morning to stay with her seeing as I had to be at the hospital at 6 am. I decided to let her take her the night before as Lila was super excited to stay with grandma. I was putting the car seat in the car when I started to feel funny (I’ll try not to get too graphic here as childbirth is not exactly the cleanest event haha). I went inside and told mom about it. She told me to call Spencer and see how far away he was. He luckily was just up the street. When he got there he saw how concerned I was and thought it best to call the Dr. I called him and by talking to me on the phone he was unsure of what it was. He had me go to L&D just in case of a pro-lapsed cord. I said bye to me sweet Lila and mom and off we went to L&D. When we got there they were expecting us, so they took us into triage right away. The nurses checked and thought maybe it was a cyst, but thank goodness it was not the cord. Dr. Britt got there shortly after and looked. He said it was an edematous cervix?!?! He said in his almost 40 years of being an OB/GYN he had never seen that. Grrrreeeeaaaat! He said it was nothing to worry about and that if I felt okay to go home and sleep in my bed I could. Spencer made sure there was nothing else to be concerned about and they discharged us until the morning. The cool thing is that while we were there I was hooked up to all the monitors and was having pretty regular contractions and was dilated to a 4. I wondered if we would even make it to 6 am. Spencer and I decided to get a good dinner/date before going home. That night marked to first of many sleepless nights. Hahaha. I always think it’s funny that people say to get as much sleep as you can before baby comes, yeah right! The anticipation alone is enough to keep me awake, we won’t even go into how uncomfortable you are.

We got up about quarter to 5 to call the hospital to make sure we could still go in at our scheduled time. We were still on, so off we went. It was really weird to be headed to the hospital even though I wasn’t in full blown labor like I was with Lila. They got everything ready to go and gave me an awesome nurse again. Her name was Jane and she was so relaxed and let me just do my thing. It’s always such a relief to get a great nurse seems how they are the one with you 99.9% of the time. Just before 10 am Dr. Britt came in and broke my water. I was already 6 cm by then. He and the nurse both said it wouldn’t be long until our baby was on her way. Sure enough not even two hours went by and I was begging the nurse to push. She checked and said I wasn’t quite ready yet, but they got the on-call OB there just in case. I was having really bad back labor at this point and could not find a comfortable position. I just kept telling myself we’re almost there and in my head cursing Dr. Britt to hurry UP! At 12:52PM after only a few pushes, not even 20 minutes, our sweet little Alice Lia was here! She was 7lbs. 11.6oz. and 20 ½ ins. long. She was a whole pound bigger than Lila and two inches longer! She was and is SO beautiful. She let out a good cry and they put her on my chest right away. Spencer got to cut the cord again. It was so amazing and perfect, sitting here thinking about it makes me teary eyed. The whole event is so miraculous and special, a day that cannot EVER be forgotten. I really enjoyed it being just Spencer and I in the delivery room. Even though it was nice to have so many close family members there for Lila it was really special to do it with just my sweet husband, the amazing father to my babies, and most importantly my very best friend. It was such a different labor experience than with Lila. For so much of it there was no pain, only two hours I can handle, MUCH better than 15 ½ with Lila. It was also very different after delivery because they let me just do skin to skin and nurse for two hours before they started poking and prodding her. They even let me keep nursing her while they gave her the vitamin k injection, then they took her to weigh her and check her. I enjoyed that special bonding time with her so much.

Shortly after, they took Alice to the nursery and me to our post-partum room. My post-partum nurse was so funny because she told me I would have to stay in bed for a little while before using the bathroom because of the epidural. I told her well I didn’t have one and she was shocked. On the way to the post-partum room, I asked Jane why everyone is so impressed with my ability to go med free during labor and delivery and if it was really that big of a deal in the hospital. She said yes that probably 98% of women end up having an epidural. Not to brag too much, but I’m just really proud of myself. Don’t get me wrong it hurts like you know what, but I think I earned the bragging rights. They changed their policy in the post-partum rooms too by not keeping me up all night doing vital checks, ugh, that was so annoying when I had Lila. I actually got a decent night’s sleep that night. The nurse even convinced me to let Alice stay in the nursery for a few hours. I could tell from the very beginning Alice was already a MUCH easier baby than Lila. She actually stayed asleep for a couple hour stretches at night and she hardly cried. In fact, I got really nauseous, yeah I thought that was over too…go figure, that night and while I was fighting that off little Alice just slept so peacefully in her bassinet next to me. The shift change in nurses even freaked out because it was a little over the 3 hour stretch for nursing and she was still sawing logs. Lila, I swear, did not sleep a wink and screamed for the first 3 ½ months, such a relief to see how peaceful Alice was and is. She actually was a relatively decent sleeper until about 3 months when she got sick and then it was like we had to start all over from day one.

We only had to stay in the hospital for one night and by the next afternoon we were home. My mom kept Lila another night, so we could have a peaceful night with just us three. So, pretty much my whole family got to come over that evening to meet Alice, but most importantly so Lila could meet her baby sister. Lila was so sweet with her and so excited. I think I was the most excited though. I loved seeing them together for the first time, but also I had missed Lila. She’s my little buddy. I hate that it has taken me this long to write this entry because I’m already starting to lose some of those vivid details. We all ate dinner together and Lila enjoyed playing with her cousins and didn’t really want to be bothered with mom. Hahaha not much has changed there. That night I sobbed like a baby as Lila cheerfully waved goodbye as she left with grandma and her cousins to spend the night again. I was excited and nervous to have Lila back with us the next day. Luckily, Spencer would be home until Monday to help with everything. Then once he went back to work it would only be a few weeks until his mom came to help and Spencer got another week off. I was scared to be the sole caretaker to two babies at first, but we quickly got into a little routine and adjusted. The Boba Wrap I had was a lifesaver, that and 20+ frozen meals. It was also wonderful to have so many helping hands. Some of those early days are a blur as I think they always are due to sleep deprivation. Plus we were under a lot of stress as is the norm for this family it seems like. Spencer was getting ready to take the MCAT on May 31^st and we were planning Lila’s birthday on June 14^th. We made it though and now I can’t believe how big my little babies are getting.

Alice, momma loves you bigger than the sky! I can't wait to see you grow and change. It will be so fun to see you personality blossom. Happy birthday my sweet baby girl.