Week One with Haven

It's been a week since Haven and I came home from the hospital.  We have had a good week and everyone is adjusting well to the new family member and the changes to our routine with having a newborn.  

Haven's first bath in the hospital.  Just like the other girls, she wasn't a fan of getting her body washed ...

 But she sure loved getting her hair washed and having her head under the warm water..

The girls came to meet their new little sister in the hospital.  They were both so excited to finally meet her and couldn't get enough!  (They still can't get enough of her - it's too cute!)

 I love this one so much!

 Me and my 3 girls ..

They did a bilirubin test on Haven the morning we were leaving the hospital to check her Jaundice levels.  She was at a 15, which is one point into the high range. They had her sit under the photo therapy lights the morning before we discharged - she hated it, which meant I hated it.  Luckily, by the next day, her levels were decreasing and no more lights or tests were needed.

 Paisley is finding the baby in her and taking advantage of all of the new pillows, bouncy chairs and baby gear ..

 So precious!  When Haven cries, Paisley will go up to her and say, "shh, it's ok, I gotch ya, I gotch ya".  It's too cute and even more so because I think Paisley came up with it herself, that's not something that Ivan or I ever say.

With Emery and Paisley, I formula fed them.  I tried to nurse Emery for 6 weeks - nursing, supplementing and pumping and I never had a good enough milk supply, so I went to straight formula.  With Paisley, I nursed the two days in the hospital and went to formula the day we got home.  I decided to try nursing once again with Haven and so far we have been successful.  I did supplement with formula the first 5 days or so (which I believe had a good impact on decreasing her jaundice levels) but for the last week, I haven't supplemented and Haven is doing great.  I'm not sure if it's because of nursing, or just Haven's personality, or a combination of the two, but she wants to be held by ME all of the time.  Everyone says the first two weeks of nursing are the hardest and most time consuming, so I'm hoping it gets a little easier.  Obviously, I have to get things done other than just holding and nursing Haven all day and night, so I took a shot at baby wearing.  I've only done it a couple of times, but Haven seems to like it - she's close to me and I am hands free so I can get other things done.  I've even been successful at nursing while baby wearing - yay!

 Poor Carter - when we came home with Haven, I swear he gave me a look like, "really, you brought home another one of those things!"  Haha!  This was at 4:30a one morning on my side of the bed.  Carter nudged the bassinet a little further from my side of the bed and squeezed himself right in there ...

Welcome Haven Grace to the Family!

Haven Grace was born on July 13th at 2:11a after a quick four hour labor.  My due date was July 20th and I had an induction scheduled for July 17th if I didn't go into labor before then.  I had the bright idea to paint our kitchen cabinets two weeks before my due date, so for the week leading up to the 13th, the house was a mess and we were spending all of our time trying to get the kitchen finished.  On Friday, July 12th, I spent the entire day deep cleaning the house.  I will be the first to admit that I have OCD, but on this day, I was really overboard.  I even texted Ivan telling him that I will admit I had gone overboard.  I cleaned until about 5:30p and then took the girls for a quick trip to the library.  Then we went out to dinner and came home just to relax.  It was 10:15p and I was getting the girls ready for bed when my water broke.  Ivan was on the computer so I had to have Emery go get him.  He walked in, saw that my water had broke and we both had to get into action.  I hadn't packed a hospital bag for myself or the baby.  The girls didn't have bags packed.  Ivan called his mom and packed for the girls as I packed for myself and the baby.  We dropped the girls off and were on our way to the hospital.

We got to the hospital around 11p - I was having contractions that were painful, but tolerable.  When I got checked, I was 4-5 centimeters.  They called for the anesthesiologist for the epidural and I got the epidural around midnight.  The anesthesiologist and nurse explained the first 2 hours of the epidural were the strongest but that they figured I would deliver within the next 2 hours - that was crazy to me!  As soon as the epidural kicked in, I was relaxed and tried to take a nap.  Did I mention that I had taken a Benadryl around 9p before my water broke at home to help me sleep - oops!  About an hour later, I was feeling the contractions again, so I called the nurse.  She had me lay on a different side to try to make the epidural kick in again.  By that time, around 1p, I was dilated to an 8.  The epidural never did take 100% but it definitely took the edge off.  By 2a, I was complete and feeling pressure.  The nurse paged the OB on call and it was a waiting game.  He finally got there and after 5 pushes, Haven was born.  It was an easy and quick delivery and both of us were doing well.

Haven Grace Gallegos

7 lbs 2 oz

19 1/2 inches

July 13, 2013

2:11a