She is here!

This post is about, oh, two weeks late. So without further ado ... introducing ... Camille Grace Hollingshead. Born Jan.22 at 2:59. Weighed 7 pounds 6 ounces and 18 inches long.



Here is a quick rundown of the labor/delivery:
Despite being nearly four centimeters dialated and more than 75 percent effaced for three weeks, I didn't go into labor on my own. After passing my due date I decided I was tired of waiting and went in on Thursday the 22nd to be induced. We arrived at 7 a.m. and by 9 a.m. I was hooked up the the drip. Todd and I did crossword puzzles for about three hours while we waited for the pitocin to work its magic. I started out with the lowest dose and I didn't start feeling contractions until I was at the maximum dose. I started into active labor at noon and had her just a minute shy of 3 p.m.





Both the labor and delivery went WAY faster than with Luke. I pushed for maybe 25 minutes with Millie (versus two-and-a-half hours with Luke) and the only reason it took that long is because she was posterior. Luckily, I had an epidural (although I could still move my toes and was feeling an appropriate amount of pressure) so the posterior part of things wasn't too bad. Also, she was a pound and a half smaller than Luke, so there was less damage done to me.

Because she was posterior my doctor used the vacuum to try to turn her the right way. That didn't work but it did leave a few scratches on her head. My initial thought after seeing her for the first time was, "wow, she has hair!" For some reason I thought she would be bald. She swallowed some fluid on her way out and wasn't breathing as deeply as they wanted so she was whisked off to the NICU shortly after I had her. I didn't get to see her until four hours later, which was hard because I was dying to see her!

The entire hospital experience was much smoother with Millie than it was with Luke. Not because of nurses or anything (both times were great) but because I was in a minimal amount of pain this time (smaller baby, shorter labor) and I knew what I was doing when it came to breastfeeding and other things that were slightly traumatic with Luke.



Things are going great so far. Millie seems to be a pretty chill little baby. She hates getting her diaper changed but other than that she doesn't really cry. We had to have her in a bilibed (for jaundice) for the first five days — it was a nightmare, truly, and the main reason that I waited until now to post is because I didn't want to do some ranting, negative post. But now the jaundice is gone and she is a happy little camper.

Luke has been pretty good, although he has definitely had some not-so-shining moments. I'm sure part of it has to do with the adjustment of having a sibiling, and part of it has to do with the fact that he is 2 years old and 2 year olds are HARD. He has been nothing but nice to the baby, though, and told her yesterday, "Wuv you Mayee" translation: Love you Millie.

Overall things are going swimmingly and we couldn't be more excited to have little Millie in our family.