Tuesday morning came around, we woke up, go ready and ensured all was packed for the hospital...we kissed Blake goodbye and assured him we would see him later on (so hard to leave him) and off we went to the hospital. It was a bit difficult to get a taxi that day and we ended up not getting to the hospital until almost 9:15 which for me was so nerve wrecking, I hate being late, especially for something like this! I wanted to meet my baby girl! Upon arriving to the hospital we went to the 3rd floor for Labor and Deliver...as I walked to check in they were expecting me and knew who i was, no paperwork needed everything was done ahead of time. As I walked into the room which was all set up for me, Dr. She was there waiting and our midwife for the day was there as well. I was amazed that my doctor was there reviewing my chart and waiting for me, she had 3 patients that day and was on a 24 hour shift so she would most likely be delivering our little girl. Once they checked me and got my vitals, I changed into the lovely hospital gown and they started cervadil (a medicine string which i hadn't seen) which i had the day before i was induced with Blake in a gel form to start the process. They wanted me to be on this for two hours then check my progress. The midwife assigned to us would stay in our room all day, act as the nurse for the IV, medications, and take care of anything we needed. We also met the head midwife MK who was amazing, she assured me that we would have this baby today, and she was guessing on times :) She has been a midwife for over 30 years and around 26 years were in NYC. While we waiting I was able to put in my order for both lunch and dinner, they even offered me breakfast. In China the doctor said they really don't see a reason for a regular delivery to have you not eat, so I ordered a nice piece or broiled salmon with some veggies and ate my lunch before they checked me again!
Around 12pm the doctor came in to check me I hadn't progressed much so she decided it was time to stop the cervadil and go on to pitocin for the induction. Once they hooked me up they would increase by 6 units ever 20 minutes and monitor the contractions for the first 80 minutes. I was able to walk around the floor with my IV and lovely hospital gown. It wasn't crowded, there really weren't a lot of people walking around mainly just the nurses and midwives. As I got up to 24 units I could really feel the contractions and the monitor was picking them up. At this time it was around 1:30pm, the doctor came in to check on me and of course the midwife was in the room the whole time monitoring me. Brian and I were passing the time watching the few English channels on TV, mainly Discovery Channel :) By this time I was thinking i was doing ok, by 2:45 I had requested the epidural and the anesthesiologist came up to my room immediately and got the medicine going for me. by 3:30 I was feeling good and the pressure from the contractions was bearable, by 4pm the baby was down and I was starting to feel more pain, they called my good friend the anesthesiologist for another dose of medicine. He promptly arrived and gave me the extra dose of medicine, the midwife MK has been guessing 5:30pm for the delivery, but I started pushing shortly after the second epidural dose and after pushing through 4 complete contractions with Brian by my side we had our baby girl, Grace Helen in my arms! After pushing for almost 3 hours with Blake and facing a possible C-section, this was a breeze! I was so relieved to have her in my arms, she weighted 3.64kg or 8lbs and was 19" long or 49cm. As the midwife said 3.64kg Brian and I were both asking so what is that in lbs. trying to figure out how big she was. I was surprised she was 8lbs. and grateful at the same time that we didn't wait longer to have her and risk not being able to push her out due to birth weight/size. I was given a shot in my leg to help with the blood loss, but didn't have any complications, some stitches and I was able to move around.
Once they cleaned Grace up and we were able to hold her, she latched very quickly for breast feeding. She was given the Vit K shot from the pediatrician who was on-call, just so happens he is from Phoenix, AZ as well and we plan to continue to see him. After everything was taken care of in labor and delivery we were moved to another room, Blake was brought to the hospital to meet his new baby sister, I lifted him up to see her and he said "wow" , then for the next week has continued to say "baby" and point to her often. They brought dinner to the room so I was able to eat, Grace was taken off with Daddy to the nursery for her first bath and then we had our first night together. She is a pretty good sleeper and cuddler, we both enjoyed being able to hold her and just stare at her face.
On Friday November 7th we were both released from the hospital, they came to our room to sign the final paperwork and it was very easy. We now have a family of four and couldn't be happier for her to be here. Grace is named after Brian's Great Aunt for her middle name, Helen, and we both really liked the name Grace when searching for baby names. For those curious, had she been a boy we would have named her Drew Michael. The experience with all the doctors and nurses throughout my labor and delivery was amazing, I felt like i had the best possible care. If i pushed my call button for anything they were there immediately, I guess that is the difference between a public and private hospital even comparing to my experience at Good Sam in Phoenix with Blake, there was much more staff available here, and they only had 5 babies born on November 4th.
On Monday November 10th we took Grace to the U.S. Consulate to file for her birth certificate from abroad, passport and ss# so that we can return home to visit with all the proper paperwork. Getting a passport photo with her eyes open wasn't too fun, but we accomplished it! That afternoon she had her follow-up visit with the pediatrician, she is at 3.65kg so just above her birth weight within 6 days and was very responsive with good reflexes! She does have a clogged tear duct so we have to continue to keep her eye clean and she will grow out of it eventually once the tear duct opens, for now she is a very healthy baby girl!
I know we aren't back in AZ to share her with all our friends and family, but I will try to post photos when I can , I will try to add things to the blog when I can, and we will be back for a visit soon!
Thank you all for reaching out to us, sending your congratulations, sending cards and gifts and well wishes, it is all truly appreciated!!! We are just taking some time to ourselves to adjust to our new family dynamics and enjoy each other. <3
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