We are officially a family of FOUR!

Welcome to the world (and blog life) Samantha Jane!

Well, she's here and she is incredible. The short story: She was born at 8:06 a.m., May 14, and weighted 7 pounds, 13 ounces and was 19 inches long. She has blond hair, blue eyes, and is so darling. Jay, Addi and I couldn't be happier to have her in our lives.

For those who want to know, here's the long story of her birth: Wednesday morning Jay and I headed to the hospital for our scheduled c-section to meet our new daughter, who at that point was still nameless. Fast forward a few hours and I was on the operating table, getting my spinal and expecting to hear our little girl in a few minutes. They checked me to make sure I was totally numb (very important when they are cutting you open!) and I could still feel a strip down the middle of my tummy. The anistesiologist moved me around to try to move the meds and it didn't work, so they said I had to get put totally under. That really upset me b/c I didn't want to miss her first cry, seeing her for the first time, picking a name, etc. but I really didn't have much choice. I asked if I could see Jay and he was apparently standing right behind me, so he reassured me that everything would be OK and then they kicked him out. I woke up a few hours later and Jay told me everything was fine, she was great, looked like Addi, and eventually they moved me to my room and brought the baby in so I could meet her.

Jay and I hung out for a bit with her and decided to name her Samantha Jane. She has my initials and we later found out Jane is a family name so that works out too! I nursed her somehow laying flat on my back (a side effect of a spinal is that you have to lay flat until you have all feeling back, which generally takes 2-5 hours) and didn't feel all that great.

More on the spinal... it also had morphine in it, which I had a reaction to. My face itched like crazy and drove me nuts, and I was super dizzy and very sick to my stomach. After a few hours (Jay had left to get Addi) they finally decided I should be better by now so the anestisiologist came back in and decided I was having another reaction to the spinal, so they had to give me more meds to combat the dizzies, itchies and pukey feeling and I had to keep laying flat. Fast forward to 2 a.m. and I was still sick, flat on my back, which totally sucked. I was finally allowed to start sitting up and by 10 a.m. was even allowed to get out of bed, lose the catheter, and hold Samantha for the first real time. Overall, the spinal experience sucked but I'm just glad it's over!

Back to the good stuff.... Jay came back to the hospital and brought Addi and she got to meet her little sister. She was very excited to see me and the baby, liked playing with the hospital bed, and laid down with me for a bit. She held the baby for a few minutes and only had one minute of jealousy, basically was just really happy to meet her!



The rest of the hospital stay was as good as could be... Addi came to visit every night and loved on her sister more and more. My parents were in town so they visited a lot and Jay, Samantha and I started to bond too. We came home yesterday (Saturday) and although it was slightly hectic with some unexpected difficulties (Addi woke up last night at 2 a.m. throwing up, yippee) overall life is great! Addi wants to hold the baby nonstop and help out and really seems to be adjusting well. She tried to feed the baby crackers but took the news pretty well that she couldn't, and the jealousy factory hasn't been too bad.

Samantha is doing great! She is nursing well and sleeping as well as we could hope, got up every three hours last night but slept in between feedings. She looks so much like Addi and then so much like her own person too. She has only cried a few times (when she was hungry) so we are taking every advantage of that, since we know it won't last.

Overall, Jay and I are so happy... we feel very blessed to have Samantha in our lives!