birth day

this blog is my journal/baby book/scrapbook/way to keep up with friends and family/fun hobby. and

because of this it can be a bit boring to anyone who is not me or my mom. :) just putting that out there. and since there really is no other place where i record things i will be typing up details of cora's birth day here! mostly this is a warning for people who don't yet have kids. i was pretty oblivious to the whole thing before i got pregnant and thank goodness. even though it's worth it of course, i feel like it's better to not know about all of the crazy things that can happen to you.

but mostly i am just warning my favorite father-in-law who reads this blog that this one is about "girl stuff." i'm sure he can handle it since he is now a grandfather of 2 girls, but just in case! (hi curtis! thanks for checking in!)

so. since i was having a c-section i got to choose the day. it's one of the best parts of a c-section!

the earliest they would let me deliver was the 17th of february. so i picked that day. but the hospital had too many surgeries. (kapri, i tried to get your birthday!) so we went with the 18th. my doctor and i really wanted the 17th because the 18th was a friday and a full moon! and everybody knows that people go into labor on full moons. but what i didn't know is that they also go into labor when it rains. and it had been pouring here in dublin. so the place was packed. on the 18th a total of 9 babies were born at valley care hospital. wow! the next day the craziness continued because my nurse told me that if anyone else arrived in labor they might have to send them to another hospital.

but here's the thing. the weekend before the 18th trevor started to feel a little sick. shelby and i went over to my parents to hang out so that he could rest at home and so that maybe we could stay away from the germs. no luck. we got sick and we got the rest of my family sick too! i had big plans for that last week to finish up a few projects but instead we got to all feel yucky together. fever, sore throat, coughing, sneezing, body aches. it was not cool.

the worst part was that i couldn't eat or drink anything for 12 hours before my surgery and i had the worst sore throat. so i barely slept the night before and instead got up and curled my hair slowly with a curling iron. it didn't turn out great because i had the lights off so i wouldn't wake trevor. :) it was pretty relaxing though. i was amazed by how not nervous i was. maybe because i knew exactly what was coming. last time the unknown was terrifying!

though, just like last time i LOVED my doctor.  in stockton my doctor was wonderful and fun and made me feel like a big priority. and his wife was pregnant with his 3rd daughter at the time and he was young and trevor really got along with him great. i will never forget when he finished my c-section and came over and gave me a kiss on the cheek and told me how great i did. i think he was more relieve than me! my little medical condition scares doctors.

so here's what my doctors have in common: scary last names. in stockton his name was dr. savage and here in pleasanton her name is dr. widdowson! yikes!

this time it was extra fun because dr. widdowson was pregnant and due just 2 weeks after me! wow. she was also having her second, though it was a boy. she has a 3 year old daughter. so going to the doctor was like hanging out with a pregnant girlfriend and chatting about all of the things we are going through. me:  "i'm getting terrible leg cramps." dr. widdowson: "me too!" me: "i'm getting the worst headaches." dr. widdowson "totally. just tell me if they get worse and you can have a prescription for pain meds." ( now that's a good doctor!) and i would always ask how she was doing and she would say " fine, but at least i don't have to give myself shots like you!"  that always made me feel good. she did see the big, nasty bruises and knots that those shots give me. :) she started maternity leave the day of my c-section. i have no idea how she even reached the table with her big belly in front!

i was praying that she wouldn't go into labor early. and for me too. luckily that didn't happen. so once again i don't know what labor/water breaking/contractions/or dilation feels like. lucky me! on the 18th i was 39 weeks. as a reminder, shelby was born at 38 weeks, my induction failed completely which meant i had to have a c-section. i was induced because of my blood clotting disorder which is also the reason for the shots. and now you have my medical history.

so back to the 18th.

i woke trevor up so that he could get ready and i brought my bags down to the car. my mom arrived to pick up shelby and helped us take some pictures. please admire my daughter's outfit. pajamas and that darned favorite dress, ugg boots, and crazy bead head! she would not look at the camera for anything.

here's why: 

our outdoor semi-wild cats that live on our front porch. pretty cute. we named them oreo and moo cow. they are so soft and they will only let you pet them when you give them food. well played cats!

so trevor and i drove the 7 minutes down the road to the hospital. (love it.) and shelby headed over to grandma's house for some breakfast. here is a picture of her that my mom took. she is all wrapped up in her blankets as comfy as can be. i am so grateful to have family close. i didn't have to worry for a second about shelby. she was very happy!

 i am not the kind of person who has pictures of myself on the chopping block, ahem, i mean during surgery or immediately after. it isn't the part that's important. and certainly there was no video recording! yikes! the sounds of surgery are bad enough, i don't need to have it forever. 

 

but trevor was sneaky and got this picture of us getting ready for surgery. honestly the worst part is the iv. isn't it yucky? it's worse than the catheter!

anyways. so this hospital was amazing. we checked in at 10 am and and i was in surgery on the dot at noon, the scheduled time. the nurse who was with me all day was so wonderful and calm. she has 3 little boys. my doctor was really positive and even a little excited? maybe because she was almost on maternity leave, but maybe she was excited for me too! and as we were getting ready to go to the o.r. my pediatrician dr. fry came into say hello too. i was so lucky because she and dr. widdowson were there just for us! neither of them were on call. the nurses were impressed. the minute i saw dr. fry come in i felt pure joy. i knew everything would be okay if she was there to take care of my baby. i love her so much. we found her right after we moved to dublin so she has been caring for shelby since she was a week old! and her 2 young daughters are 2 and a half years apart just like ours!

dr. widdowson told me and my nurse that she wanted me to be walking around very soon after my surgery was over, as in a few hours. she said that her style is to be very aggressive with her patients. she then told the nurse that i had a very high pain tolerance because i gave myself shots for 9 months. then the doctor left and my face must have given me away (i was panicking!) because the nurse smiled and told me not to worry, that i wouldn't have to walk until the next day. whew. i then told her that my pain tolerance was most definitely not high, at all!!!! oh my goodness, walking a few hours after. puh-lease. so we went into surgery. la de da. the anesthesiologist was wonderful. he has 4 daughters. :) he was so calm and kind. i ain't the best patient, and he handled me just fine. he was the only man (other than trevor) in there! at the beginning while they waited for me to be numb, the doctors and nurses were just chatting away! one of the nurses' cousin is a famous author. she wrote the book battle hymn of the tiger mother which i couldn't bring myself to read. too intense! it's about how a chinese mother parents in western culture. it makes the rest of us look like total slackers. so all the ladies were talking about parenting, etc.  it was so loud the anesthesiologist had to ask them to quiet down so he could hear my monitors! it was pretty funny and it made me feel better that everyone was having such a good time while i lay naked on the table. :)

 

 isn't my husband so cute? i love that it was just the two of us getting ready for our daughter to arrive. 

for those who don't know about c-sections, they take you in first and then when you are set up  and numb from the chest down, they let your husband come in and sit with you. trevor sat behind the curtain with me. last time he looked at the action during surgery and he said he didn't need to see that again! and just like last time he came into the O.R. just as i started throwing up. it was terrible at first. but my anesthesiologist said if i threw up i would feel better. and boy he was right. i felt great the rest of the surgery! last time i felt terrible but it was probably because they had been trying to induce me for a whole day. so this was much much much better, just like my doctor said it would be!

i remember dr. widdowson saying "we're almost there" and i thought. where are you going? are we digging to china here? you really can't feel anything. and then all of a sudden there is a big cry! my doctor had guessed that the baby would be big. i was measuring big. we all took bets about how big she would be. at least bigger than shelby i thought, since she was born a week later than her. but no! Cora was 7 pounds 5 ounces and Shelby was 7 pounds 13 ounces! surprise! so they handed the baby right to dr. fry. trevor cut the cord this time, which was fun/weird he said. (he didn't with shelby because he didn't want to leave my side. awwwww.) 

i will never forget the moment when dr. fry brought the baby over and placed her against my cheek. she was so warm and soft! then they took the baby to the nursery to weigh her and check her etc. trevor went with the baby. she was born at 12:59 pm. Shelby was born at 11:59 pm both on fridays! pretty fun, right?

 

 cora ann thompson

her first picture, taken with daddy's iphone

 

 trevor was there for all of her firsts with my mom watching through the window.

my mom left shelby with richard and dad and brett and headed over once i got into surgery and waited outside the nursery. here are daddy and daughter!

so cute.

i was in surgery for a while afterwards. dr. widdowson didn't tell me until after that i bled alot. it's because of the blood thinners that i was on, but still. kinda scary. i could hear a sucking sound as they were closing me up, like at the dentist's office when they suck out your saliva? i don't know what they were doing and i didn't ask! it took so long that the anesthesiologist told me he was bored. ha! so he and i chatted some more. another day, another baby being cut out of a lady, right?

even though cora was technically smaller than shelby, you couldn't tell.
she looked healthy and chubby! with cheeks to spare.
and she has the famous big lips like shelby.
though she does has very long fingers like i did as a baby.

 

the only thing i heard dr. fry say when she was handed the baby was, birthmark. what the what? i couldn't see anything on the other side of the curtain and i was freaking out. no worries, it's not serious. she just has some super cute stork bites on the back of her neck and angel kisses on her eyelids and in between her eyes. they go away within a year and the only time you ever see them again is if they get really mad. i hear that when that happens it's super cute because it will remind me of when she was a baby. and the pediatrician made me laugh because she said that only in peds would a technical medical term be "angel kisses"!

i was in recovery for an unusually long time because it takes me longer than most people to get feeling back in my legs. and also i was so super duper dizzy and i could barely open my eyes. also i sort of made a big plea for a private room and my nurse was waiting for someone to check out of the hospital. :) the dizziness was ridiculous. so bad that the nurse had to hold cora for me the first time i nursed. it lasted all day! luckily by day 2 i was feeling fine.

and a moment to talk about nursing. wow i love it. i was so looking forward to it. i nursed shelby until 14 months and it was way harder for me to stop than it was for her. yup, i'm that mom who super loves it. my mom always said how much she loved nursing and talked about the connection and it was something i had always planned on. i was so stressed with shelby worrying that something could go wrong. with cora i was worried a little too, but my prayers were answered again because just like shelby, cora latched like a champ from the very first try! she is so good at nursing! when the lactation ladies came around during my hospital stay i showed them how she latched on and they were so impressed. i was like, "oh, nursing? i got this, watch. BOOM! latch!" i was a freaking rock star, at least to the cute little old ladies who teach people how to nurse. and not a single lactation person/nurse had to feel me up this time! bonus for me! also bonus, i knew how to get a really good latch and to use as much lanolin as i could, (thank you to megan rizley for first giving me that advice before i had shelby!)  so it didn't even hurt. i brought so much lanolin to the hospital this time. i wasn't messing around, because getting raw from nursing is the worst thing ever. and i completely avoided it. hooray for being a second time mom!

look at all that dark hair! it's the main difference between my two girls.

 oh my goodness trevor and i make such cute babies.

here i am the next day. i was warm and cozy in the hospital while outside it was freezing and there was snow on all the mountains around pleasanton! shelby spent the first night with my parents. then my in-laws came into town, so trevor and shelby hung with them on saturday and sunday after they came by to meet their newest little granddaughter.

so since shelby was taken care of, 

my mom and cora had some quality time while i slept and recovered.

tiny baby girl got to be held by grandma all day long for two days straight!

cora makes grandma's hand look gigantic!

so cliche' but you do forget how little newborns are.

i love her dark hair and pink lips.

since it was presidents day weekend there were lots of good movies on all night long! such as a personal favorite, legally blonde. side note, i saw it 5 times in the theater, the most of any movie! is anyone surprised by that? :) the nurses came in every few hours to give me pain meds and check on me and the baby. my dr. is awesome and since she herself has c-sections she knew how important regular pain meds are and how the nurses can be total pains about it. so she had my meds scheduled. awesome doesn't even cover it. 

baby cora was only in the nursery the first night while i was still in bed with a yucky but convenient catheter. every other night it was just the two of us. last time with shelby i think they spoiled me big time since i was a first time mom and the nurses mostly took care of her. though i haven't had trevor or my mom spend the night with me at the hospital ever. that would be torture for them! the nurses told me i was a good wife. tell me something i don't know!

here are some cute flowers from cora's great grandpa. 

he is so excited about his new little great grandchild!

and here are the flowers from my parents. 

i loved how the flowers brightened my little room. 

and while i slept, my mom read the pioneer woman's new book. i had read the parts that are on her blog, but i was looking forward to the new chapters. the hardest thing in the world for my mom is to not be able to tell me everything that happens in a book she is reading. :) it was torture for her to wait until i finished it! and we agree that ree should write 10 more books at least. we never wanted the book to end. there is always her daily blog of course, so i guess her book really doesn't end! but seriously go read it. we love her.

so i mentioned that we all got sick, right?

my mom was the only one who avoided it. thank goodness!!!

but that meant brett and richard had to wait until sunday to visit. 

cora was a whole 2 days old!

look at richard, multitasking like a pro. he's born to be a parent!

my cute hubby even came to visit on sunday and left shelby to hang out with grandpa curtis and grandma kathi at our house. 

uncle brett chatting with cora.

it's weird to think about my high school brother being an uncle! i couldn't imagine it when i was his age! but i guess that's what happens when you are 10 years apart.

and these two are 17 years apart. :)

it's always fun to have the boys around. though it was sad that dad had to wait until he felt better to see cora. luckily newborns are pretty predictable those first few days!

i am still so glad that brett was a boy. i love having 2 brothers! 

richard and i are just 22 months apart. go mom.

don't i look happy? i was! my cute, healthy baby had arrived!

and i'm not sure that there is any better feeling than that first shower after having a baby. 

 

even though the hospital had room service we decided to have a pizza party! the awesome nurses also made me a "nursing cocktail" with cranberry juice, ginger ale, and the obligatory crunchy ice. delicious. amazing. life changing. 

i had forgotten how nursing makes you feel like you have crossed a desert!

oh and look, mom and i match. she did get me the pajamas i was wearing, so i guess it makes sense.

good times in the hospital. i went home the next day! yay! my doctor was actually going to let me go home on saturday, the day after surgery. can you believe it? she's so nice. but i wasn't quite ready to give up my lovely nurses.

eventually it was time to bring my new, healthy, beautiful baby girl home! 

but first, she had to meet her big sister!