Happy Birthday (yesterday), Lorelei! in Baby Stuff

So yesterday I finally fell asleep at around 5.30am. I woke up at 6.30am with a contraction. I wasn't able to sleep through them, they came on strong and painful, between every three to five minutes. I watched tv and ate some oatmeal, and tried to keep myself hydrated. Jacob's parents came down to watch Cannon when we went to the hospital. By the afternoon my contractions had slowed down a bit and were seven minutes apart, then five. I was frustrated and convinced that I wasn't making much progress. Between 3pm and 4pm my contractions were five minutes apart, and triggered by me walking around. We decided to go to the hospital, so we got ready to go and left around 5, and with traffic, we didn't get there until almost 6pm.

I had a contraction in the parking lot that was pretty painful. I had to stop and just stand there. Hah. I got some pretty bad ones, but none of them were as awful as the ones I had the first time around. I did not have back labor this time, so I wasn't sure what kind of pain to expect.

We headed up to the room to see what was going on. Lo and behold, I was at a 5 almost 6, -1 station. I was SHOCKED. lol. I thought for sure they might send me home since my contractions still weren't super regular and they were still five minutes or more apart. I barley had any in the car on the way there. They kept me, and I had an epidural (yay) and things progressed quickly.

I had her at 9.06pm, and I started pushing at 9pm. It was incredibly fast. I didn't have any tearing either, which is great. Overall I was only in labor for about 14.5 hours. Things went WAY faster this time around. She was 8 pounds even, and 19.5" long. She has lots of dark hair, is chubby, and adorable. She also has bright blue eyes. I don't think she looks much like me. She has my nose and my chin, but overall she looks a lot like Jacob.

Recovery is going well for me, I'm just achey in my pelvic ligaments and having normal cramp-like pain from the uterus contracting. I am not bleeding very much anymore. I am feeling pretty good, just really tired. I've gotten about... I don't know, maybe a few hours of sleep in the past two days, but I'm handling it a lot better this time around than the last time. I think it's because I expected it, and I'm already used to being tired all the time. ;P

Lorelei is a great nurser. She barely had to have any redirection with it, and she is opening her mouth wide and latching on well. I'm in a minimal amount of pain from my nipples adjusting, and hopefully it will stay that way, as long as I can keep her latching on well. Sometimes the positioning is really challenging for me, since I haven't done this in awhile. The only problem I have had with her nursing is that she falls asleep almost immediately and won't suck much. She has been cluster feeding a lot because she gets hungry so often from it. I am trying lots of things to keep her awake, it's a juggling act right now. Last night she would only sleep in increments of 20 to 30 minutes in her bassinet, but I was determined that I was not letting her bedshare with us, since she can't at home. However, she did have a 2.5 hour successful nap in her bassinet last night, so hopefully we can figure out the cluster feeding and she will sleep better. The nurse is going to weigh her later, since I am worried she isn't getting enough to eat. She's had four poopy diapers and two wet ones, so she probably is, but I am still worried.

I actually just napped with her in the bed because I absolutely needed sleep and couldn't handle it anymore. Hopefully it was a one-time thing, but I do enjoy snuggling with her

She met Cannon today, and he just LOVES her. He tried to grab her away from us so he could hold her by himself. Lol. He was very smiley and talked to her in a soft voice, and kept trying to gently touch her. He made kissing noises at her and when she cried he tried to put her pacifier in her mouth. I was not expecting that! He has never really been around babies before so I had no idea he would know how to be gentle and helping with her. They are so cute together!

I will post some photos in my friends-only photo book later.