4 weeks old and packing on the pounds!

So our infant scale arrived, and I finally weighed Stella today. Now, she was wearing a diaper and sleeper, but she weighed in at 9lbs 8oz. I was like - woah! I expected her to be in the 8lbs range, but she totally exceeded that.


She's definitely getting chunkier and she's now wearing 0-3 months clothing. She's wearing size 1 diapers finally, and we're transitioning to cloth diapers/hybrid diapers. We have to be careful with those since she often has blow outs in them. They aren't really well designed for gooey poop, so we try to use them for a while until she gets poop everywhere. Once her pooping slow downs and eventually becomes more solid, we'll be money with those.


Derek and I both swear that she seems like she has for real smiled on a couple occasions. We do something - like Derek likes to say "blop!" in a high pitched voice and touch her nose - and she starts making this funny face at us. Maybe we're reading too much into it. It's super cute regardless :) 


We're doing well overall. We visited Derek at work and we went upstairs to visit my office. She did great until it was time to leave and she decided she didn't want to be in her car seat anymore. She now officially hates her car seat and hates her swing. She actually likes her bouncy chair now, and she loves cruising around with Mom or Dad in the Moby Wrap or sling. She's actually in the sling asleep as I'm typing...


She does about 10 feedings a day, and she's still clusterfeeding in the evenings. We're exclusively using the nipple shield now and no longer pumping. I may pump before I run this weekend, just for my own comfort. 


Things are going great, and she has her fussy moments but what 4 week old baby doesn't? Derek and I both think she's very alert. I read to her and I sing to her a lot. I like to play Fleet Foxes for her, and she seems to really like it. :) Truly my daughter... 


We may try going to mass this weekend since it won't be crazy busy like Easter. I'm not sure, though, since we'll need to see how her mood is. Derek is back to work full-time now, and we miss him a lot during the day. I like to send pictures of her doing something cute to his work email ;) Anyway, I better go finish up this laundry while she's still sleeping. I'll end with some fun pictures of her :)

This is one of my favorite shirts!

I think she looks a lot like Derek here :) 

Actually using the bouncy chair! I was so happy! Usually she screams as soon as I put her in it.

Oh, and we owe a big shout out thank you to The Gemperlines in Indiana - thank you for the gifts! - and The Gemperlines in Lancaster - thank you SO much for the cloth diapers!! :) And my super sweet friend Jessica sent us a bonnet for Stella's baptism - so sweet - thank you so much! :) 

3 weeks old, Easter, and a medley of other topics

Our little snugglebunches is officially three weeks old, and she's changed so much in such a short amount of time. One of the biggest differences is her size - she's so much heavier! 


We received a very kind gift from one my mom's friends  - a gift card to Wal-Mart - so we decided to order an infant scale to keep track of Stella's weight gain. I'm certain she's over 8 lbs right now, but not by how much. As soon as our scale arrives, I'll update everyone. She's such a piglet! When we took her for her 2 week check up with Dr. DeMauro, he asked, "Have you been supplementing?" We said no and that she nurses and I pump. I guess she's gaining a lot for where she's at. As for the supplementing, we've had to do that a couple occasions since then.


One night, she just kept eating and getting pissed off, and we couldn't figure out why. I tried pumping thinking she wasn't getting any milk, and I was totally empty. She was starving, and I didn't know what else to do. We gave her some of the hospital-grade formula, and I was really upset about it. I don't want her to take formula, but I figured I needed to get over it because she was hungry. We had to do it again last night because she did that again. I don't know if it's my supply or just maybe her appetite, but it's really upsetting when it happens. 


I feel like a terrible mother for not being able to give her the food she needs, but Derek's always the practical one and talks me out of being upset. It's only happened a couple times, and I'm hoping that we can get through some of this clusterfeeding and she'll even out. I hate it that it has happened, though. Really makes me hate myself.


Anyway, on to positive news! I am now running again! Woo hoo! I know this is Stella's blog, but I have to say that I've been running again and I'm very happy about it. Now, I'm not fast, but hey, I hadn't ran since I was 20 weeks pregnant. I had a baby three weeks ago, so go me. haha! 


On to Easter: now, we didn't go to mass today. I know - holy day of obligation - but I didn't feel comfortable taking Stella to a packed church and having her around a bunch of old people who sneeze and cough repeatedly through mass. We decided to stay home and introduce her to church when it's a little calmer. Easter is a busy day, and our church is packed every weekend so I don't want to know what mass was like this morning. Probably standing room only. Either way, sorry for no Easter dress pictures and all that. I want to keep her away from crowds to keep her healthy. 


And finally, we'll end with some pictures. She's grunting - meaning she's waking up - so I need to make this snappy. Here are some fun pictures of her yesterday:

She's getting very expressive and we've wondered if she's smiled for real on a couple occasions. She's always doing something cute with Derek. Although, this morning he was changing her and she pooped all over him. Oh, and she peed on him on the other day when he was bathing her... so almost always doing something cute. ;) 

Update on the Angry Baby

I only have time for a super fast update, but I can say that Derek, Stella, and I slept for a grand total of 7 hours last night! It was magic! Here's what we did:


Around 7pm: I pumped and fed her
Around 8pm: She was upset and crying. We laid her on her tummy and she repeatedly grunted and farted for a while. 
Around 9pm: I pumped and fed her
Around 9:30 pm: She wanted to nurse, so I let her nurse until she fell asleep
Around 10pm: She fell asleep
Around 11pm: She woke up. I pumped and fed her. She fell asleep.
Around 2am: She woke up hungry. Derek changed her while I pumped. Then, we fed her.
Around 3am: She's back to sleep!
Around 6:30 am: She's up and ready to eat. Derek changed her while I pumped. We fed her again.
Around 7am: She and I fall asleep while Derek plays chess.
At 9am: we all get out of bed. 


Magic! It's amazing what a difference that made! Now, to appreciate the difference, here's the previous night:


8pm: Stella screams
6am: Stella goes to bed.


Pretty much it.


So, I think the pumping makes sure she gets enough to eat and the nipple shield lets her nurse when she wants to nurse for comfort. Overall, we're all much happier today. She's now post-bath snoozing in her swing.


She did have a small fussy period from 8pm to 10pm, but I'm kinda thinking it's because I had some caffeine. Dr. DeMauro says that my diet doesn't affect her, but everything I'm reading says it does. I'm going to cut out caffeine today and see if it eliminates the night fussies. I don't mind a couple hours of fussiness - that's to be expected. Screaming throughout the night is not normal. I'm glad we resolved the issue pretty quickly.


Yay for happy babies! 

It's a case of the Angry Baby Syndrome...

Phew! What a couple of days... 


Miss Stella can be a diva! She's so adorable, but over the past week, she has had a couple nights where I thought I was going to lose my sanity. Last night, I even went so far as to sit her on our bed, get up, and walk over and bang my head against our door. I felt like I was singing that song from The Wedding Singer  where he says, "Somebody kill me please..." 

Well, anyway... There's my confession of being a terrible mother. I literally was at the end of my rope around 6am this morning when she finally went to sleep and stopped screaming. Derek and I have determined that it's this damned nipple shield. We're kinda worried she's not getting enough to eat through it. Nearly every time she eats with it, I end up having milk all over me and all over our bed. The other night she had dumped so much milk all over me and our bed that I couldn't even sleep in our sheets. It was sickening. I think she has a hard time with the sucking thing.

Well, we had her tongue tie fixed - that was traumatic for me. And fast update: we've switched to Dr. DeMauro since Dr. Kreh is a big supporter of formula feeding and seems like a fuddy-duddy. Anyway, Dr. DeMauro nipped the tongue tie right in front of me, and I was more shaken up than she was. Derek was like, "Are you okay?" Anyway, I think she hasn't quite mastered the use of her tongue, but the repeat nursing during the day doesn't bother me. At night, it's torture. I don't sleep at all and she's a total grinch. 

So, I've been waking her up to eat a lot today, and I've decided that starting in the evenings, I'm going to pump. She seems much more satisfied. I love the little booger more than anything in this world but she's killing me. I figure we'll try the pumping thing again because when I was pumping, she was an angel at night. I know it's not her fault and she wouldn't be a grinch if she didn't have a reason. I hope this works! 

In other news, I'm down 23 lbs from my delivery weight - blaow! - and I think I'm feeling much more like myself every day. The whole cabin fever thing sucks, and I miss interacting with adults. However, I love the time I get to spend with Stella. We read books - even though she's not interested but I figure it's good practice - and we sing and dance around the house. We nap together, and I swear, she LOVES to sleep on me. One of my favorite things to do is just lay and look at how pretty she is and snuggle her. She's so stinking cute! 

Every day, we try to figure out who she looks like. We've recently determined that she has some of Derek's grandmother, Sarah, in her. She has these mega long eyelashes, and that's definitely a grandma Sarah trait. I think she's looking more like Derek every day, too. Well, she's getting grumpy again, so I better run. Here are some fun pictures of her:

Tongue Tied?

Well, I only have time for a quick update on the lactation consultant visit.


It turns out that Stella is tongue tied, otherwise known as Akyloglossia, and here's another twist: she gets it from me. 


I went in to the office, and the nurse checked her mouth first thing when I explained the problem. She knew it right away. Derek and I had thought that her tongue looked a little funny, forked almost. We assumed it was a newborn thing, though, and not an actual problem. Well, the nurse asked if anyone in my family had ever had a lisp or had problems sucking. 


As a child, I had problems saying my fs and the th sound. I still have a slight lisp with the s sound. My mom had told me that I couldn't suck as a baby, and I was bottle/formula-fed. I told the nurse about it, and she asked to see my tongue. She goes, "Yep. She gets it from you." 


Sorry, Stella. I guess if we leave it untreated, she'll continue to have problems breastfeeding, my milk supply may go down (which is doing very well right now), and she'll likely have a speech impediment as a child. The nurse called the pediatrician, and we're going to try and go in to have it looked at in the next couple of days. 


To fix the problem, we'll need to have that little piece of tissue snipped. I'm a little frustrated that it's an actual "problem." I had hoped I was simply holding her incorrectly or maybe it was how I was trying to get her to open her mouth. Evidently, she can't open her mouth very well at all. 


I'm to continue using the nipple shield for now, and the nurse gave me another. They also want me to use a larger flange on my pump - I guess I hadn't been "fitted." Anyway, I'm glad we got it figured out, and I'll be glad to get it fixed. 


She was very good in the car, and since it was my first outing alone with her, I was a little nervous. She did well, though! As always, we have to end with a fun picture :)


Here, she's sitting on my legs, propped up. She really likes being able to sit up and look around, as best she can. Derek and I both think she's a very alert baby. Of course, she looks a little sleepy in this picture:

Either way, she's adorable :D I'll update more on the Ankyloglossia issue... 

Look, Ma! No Umbilical Cord!

Our girl is growing up! This morning, I looked down, and her umbilical cord had fallen off! 


It was so funny, and you'd expect to be grossed out by it but we weren't. It was early this morning, and I was just waking up to feed Stella. She had pooped, so Derek changed her, and when I got her into position (more on this update in a second), I looked down and it was gone. 


I said, "Derek! Look- her umbilical cord came off!" It was laying in our bed... We were both so excited since she's been getting really messy lately. She eats so much and milk gets all over her. She also had peed a couple times during changings so there was pee all over the changing table and up her back. So today, Stella got her first "real" bath. She had been getting wiped down and sponge bathed, so this was a fun treat for us. 


We took some pictures - obviously :) --

She was a champ about it. Derek and I bathed her together, and she was so good. She really is a great baby. Afterward, she needed some snuggle time:

And here's a better shot of her face:

She's just so stinking adorable! I love her little fuzzy head, and I swear she gets more hair every day. It's getting darker, or so it seems, and I love it! She's now napping in her crib. I would too after such a big event - a first bath! :)

Now regarding nursing:

On Friday, I had been a pumping machine. Every two hours I was pumping. I felt like a dairy cow. Well, Stella had been getting fussy in the evenings because she wanted to latch. Thursday night was especially bad, and I had tried to get her to latch comfortably. I just couldn't. I started crying, and Derek kept saying we should give her formula. I just kept pumping away... Well, long story short, I decided that on Friday I would give in and call the Lactation Consultants because it was starting to bother me emotionally that I couldn't nurse her and it was bothering her, too. 

The lactation consultant scheduled an appointment for me tomorrow at 2pm, and she recommended that I use a nipple shield. I felt a little weird explaining my boobs to her on the phone, but she was able to recommend the size I needed and all that. Derek and I went to Target Friday evening and bought one. Now, here's a funny (but sad) side story: I was so excited to get to nurse her again and try this nipple shield out that I came home and followed the instructions. "Boil for 20 minutes." Okay - no problem, right? Wrong. My dumb ass let the water run out and it melted in our pot. I started crying, and Derek offered to go out and get one for me. I was so pissed that I threw on my clothes again and went and bought one before Target closed. I came home and used our sterilizer instead because I didn't want to risk it. Anyway, I got the darn thing working.

So, I'm very, very, very happy that it works. It's amazing. It doesn't hurt, and Stella doesn't mind it. It really helps a lot and it's so much more convenient than pumping all the time. I'm excited to go in and see the lactation consultant on Monday so we can figure out Stella's latch. I guess it's really common for small babies to have problems like this since her mouth is only so big. 

Regardless, I'm so, so happy that I can have her nurse again :) I really missed it. 

Miscellaneous: 

We also had another fun thing happen yesterday. I went to check our mail and look what was inside:

Yep! That's Stella's first piece of mail! It was her social security card, and we thought it was so cute that they addressed it to her! :) 

Overall, things are going great. We've taken her to Publix and Target, and our good friends Kerry and Chris came over for dinner last night - we all ordered Chinese food! - and she was really good while they were here. I'm also feeling a bit better. I'm still walking, no running yet, and my belly is way down. I'm down 17 lbs from delivery weight, so only 19 more to go. I'm sure that once I start running, it will all come off. 

Earlier in the day yesterday, we were talking to David and Zsuzsi (Derek's brother and his fiancee) through Skype, and they were asking us about parenthood. Kerry and Chris also asked us what we think of being parents. On both occasions, Derek and I looked at each other and said, "It's honestly a lot of fun!" It really is, though. It's so much fun to see what new, silly face she'll make, and I love watching Derek play with her and change her diaper. It's honestly the best feeling in the world :) We absolutely adore her.

Before I get too emotional, I'm going to stop :) I'll just randomly cry here and there because I'm so happy with her. I love her little fuzzy head and the silly faces she makes and her high-pitched squeaks and squeals. Okay, okay - I said I'd stop! I'll end with these random pictures of her lately:

And yes, she sleeps with us. I know I said I wouldn't do it, but she seems to really like it and we love having her close to us. She's such a little snuggler! 

One week old!

I can't believe Stella is already one week old. I know one week old isn't old at all, but at the same time, I feel like she just arrived. It's crazy how quickly time passes.


I thought I'd share some pictures from her first week:

I was feeding Stella in our bedroom just before bed time, and well, that's what happened... It was so funny that we took a quick picture before changing her. That was one of her first blowouts... 

She loves her swing. We love it, too, because it gives us a chance to eat or clean.

She's figured out where her thumbs are. She likes sucking on her hands, and Derek read in Touchpoints that it's important for them to learn to soothe themselves. I'm more of the type that tries everything in the world to fix her problems, though. 

She LOVES to be swaddled, and those swaddling wraps are like magic.

I just like this one :) 

This was one of the last pictures we took in the hospital on Friday. We all had to wear these bands for security reasons, so we thought we'd put all three together. Every time someone brought Stella to us, we had to show our band and make sure the numbers matched. She even had to wear a little security device on her foot. 

Here's a picture of me with her. I don't have too many with me in the picture because I'm usually taking them. After delivery, my face went crazy from all the hormones, so it's probably best I'm out of most pictures. My mom took this one just after Stella and I were laying down in our bedroom. Yes, Derek is on his laptop in the background... I'm hoping that today I'll be able to get a shower and actually dry my hair. I haven't blow dried my hair in days... a small sacrifice ;) 

Anyway, I need to get back to her. Derek goes back to work two days a week starting tomorrow, so we need to spend plenty of time with Dad today. Yay for one week old! :)

Settling into a routine

So far, things have been going so well! I can't believe Stella is six days old already, and I can't believe she's such a good baby.


Now that things are settling down, we've definitely had some hiccups. 


1) The Bilirubin Blues - Stella had a slightly elevated bilirubin count when we left the hospital, so we had to follow up with an appointment the next day. Each day, her number went up, and we had to go back to the pediatrician over and over. It was so annoying, but we knew it was important to track. Finally, it was back down to 13.8 yesterday, so we were good. We have to make sure we feed her regularly, and we try to let her get some sun. She was never in a "bad" range, and she didn't require a sun lamp. However, we didn't want it to get out of control. You can definitely tell in this picture that she's a little orange-y:

Either way, her numbers have dropped, and she's just following up with Dr. Kreh in 2 weeks. Her weight dropped from 6 lbs 15 oz. at birth down to 6 lbs 10 oz, but yesterday, she was back up to her birth weight. Overall, she's doing very well and eating a lot.

2) Nursing woes - Nursing started off SO well. She latched right away, and I was definitely producing enough milk. On Sunday, I noticed I was a little sore in the morning. We survived the day 3 clusterfeeding madness - weeew! - but my breasts were definitely a little worse for the wear. On Sunday afternoon, I was feeding Stella in the nursery. I pulled her away, and I looked at her mouth. There was blood coming from my breast, and I was absolutely freaking out. I panicked and had no idea what was going on. I tried later in the evening to feed her again, and it hurt so bad that I screamed in pain. 

Immediately, I started crying because she was upset from being hungry. I couldn't bear having her latch because of the pain, and I didn't know what to do. I was literally sobbing and feeling like a terrible mother. Thankfully, I had my breast pump already, so Kathi, my mother in law, helped me get everything together and sterilized, and I started pumping just to make sure she had something to eat. For the past couple days, I've been pumping every 2 hours, and I've been working on getting her to latch again. Yesterday, I had her latch once, and today, she's latched twice. We aren't using the right side just yet since it was the one that received the brunt of the clusterfeeding action - it's been her favorite all along. After she latches, I pump to make sure I'm empty to keep my supply up. I suspect we'll be back to regular ol' nursing in a couple days. I just needed to heal. 

3) Boost for breakfast, an Ensure for dessert - Since delivery, my body has definitely been tired. I don't have much of an appetite, and most foods sound disgusting. This is really weird for me since I'm typically a big eater - even before I was pregnant. I've never had an issue with appetite. Well, I realized the other day that I had barely eaten enough to keep me going - a banana, a small salad, and some gatorade before dinner - and I knew this wasn't good. I was lightheaded and I kept feeling faint. We decided to buy some Boost to help me get calories in, so now, I try and drink those and have meal bars to be sure I'm getting enough calories to keep my milk supply up. The supply is fine but I don't want to risk losing it. I totally feel like an old person drinking them... it's pretty hilarious. 

Other than those small issues, everything has been great. She's a great sleeper, and Derek and I get plenty of sleep - it's just broken up into stretches of two to three hours. Her fussy period is typically in the evening, and the only way to comfort her is to let her nurse and lay on my chest until she falls asleep. 

Derek is a diaper-changing master - all I need to say is, "I think I smell pee," and he's on top of it. He even took some poop to the shirt at the pediatrician the other day. It was hysterical. Poop was everywhere, and he was a total champ about it! He even gets excited about it. We'll hear a big squirt from her diaper, and he goes, "Oooh! Yeah!" He's also great about swaddling, and he likes to just lay with her while I take a shower or eat. We've been walking every day for about 20 minutes, and I seem to be recovering just fine. My belly is definitely smaller every day, and I can't wait until it's finally gone. I'm down 12 lbs from my last pregnancy weight, so we're making progress. I'm glad we haven't had any major issues, and we're finally getting into a routine. Oh, and we can't realistically use our cloth diapers yet because she's so tiny. They start at 8lbs, so we're doing Pampers Swaddlers for now. Once she's a little bigger, we'll switch over to the gDiapers. 

I absolutely love spending time with her. Everyone made it sound like it would be so exhausting, but honestly, it's no worse than pulling fire guard in the Army. You just wake up, pull your shift, and then go back to sleep. No big deal. She's so sweet, and even when she's angry, it's adorable. If you can't tell, I'm absolutely crazy about her :) We've already given her a nickname - Pig - because she snorts and farts and makes the cutest little squeal-y noises. I love it. :) 

I better get a shower before she wakes up to eat again. She's been sleeping since our walk, and I thought I'd use the time to blog about her.  We took some pictures of her yesterday as she was sunning by the glass doors. You can definitely tell her color is better:

Welcome, Stella Mae Ratcliff!

After the all the griping on the blog post, I guess Stella heard me out!

Before I get into all the fine details, here's a picture of the little princess:

Our sweet girl in her coming home outfit! 

And yes, I think she's the most beautiful thing I've ever seen :) 

So, it all started on Wednesday. I woke up, went to the gym, went to work, and knew I had an appointment at 10:15. Derek and I expected nothing to happen, so we didn't really take anything seriously. Heck, I didn't even log out of my computer at work, and I didn't pack a pair flip flops for Derek in the hospital bag, and I didn't grab our toothbrushes. I figured we'd be home that evening. I had chicken thawing for dinner and everything. 

We arrived at the doctor's office, and in the waiting area, I had a contraction. I looked at Derek, and we were both like, "Eh, it was probably just nothing." I was called back, gave my urine sample, and all of sudden, I had like 3 more contractions while we were in sub-waiting. One of the nurses noticed, and she goes, "Are you okay?" I said, "Yeah, just false labor. No big deal." She walked by again as contraction number three happened, and she goes, "That's it. You're getting hooked up to a machine." They hooked me up to the contraction monitor, and I was having regular contractions, every minute or so. Dr. Helmken came in, and she told me she'd check my cervix. 

When she checked my cervix, I was one centimeter dilated and contracting for real. She said, "Well, today's a good day to have a baby." She had me go to labor and delivery, and Derek and I were still in disbelief. We still hadn't called our jobs or our mothers at this point. We thought, "Eh, nothing may still come of it." 

We got there, and they told me that Dr. Helmken wanted me to start Pitocin (which induces labor) to get things moving. After I got settled into L&D Room 10, Derek and I realized it was actually happening. 

I continued having contractions for about another hour or so, and at about 1, Dr. Helmken showed up. She just walked in, checked my cervix. And, without warning, she broke my water. I was like, "What was that?" She said, "Your water." I was like, "Woah, that felt like I peed myself." The contractions hit harder than ever, and I continued to labor until about 5pm. Here's an action shot:

I was still relatively happy at this point - it's roughly 2pm here.

Derek, looking super excited

At around 5pm, the contractions were horribly painful. I was almost 3cm and 75% effaced. I looked at Derek, sobbing in pain, and I said, "I can't continue doing this." He and I talked, and I decided to get an epidural. I know I said I wouldn't, but you heard it here first, folks, I caved and I was all talk. That shit hurts. 

I got my epidural around 5pm, and I was feeling good again. I had some ice chips to celebrate:

Well, at 7pm, I hadn't progressed at all, and Dr. Helmken turned me over to Dr. Hull, the on call doctor from our office. I started noticing that I was having terrible pain my left side, and I told the nurse. She said, "Hm... let me call anesthesia. That doesn't sound right." Well, apparently, my epidural only took on the right side. They gave me some extra drugs to help with the pain on my left, and that helped a lot. 

Well, around 10, I was dilated at 5cm, and I was having some awful pain on the left side. I asked for more drugs for my left side, and they said my blood pressure was too low. It was around 11pm when Dr. Hull checked me and she said that if I wasn't dilated to at least 8cm by 12:30 am or so, then we may need to do a C-section. 

With all of the pain on my left side, I thought, "Yes! Freedom! The end is in sight!" At this point in the evening, I was crying and contracting like crazy. I thought my pelvis was being ripped out through my left leg. 

At 12:30, the nurse checked me, and I they were amazed that I was definitely at 8cm. I thought, "Crap, there goes my out..." I was completely miserable. 

I kept crying and saying, "Derek, I can't do this anymore..." Derek was amazing, though. He kept soothing me and rubbing my neck. He kept telling me that I was doing a great job. He was simply amazing. 

At about 1:15 or so, the nurse checked me, and I was completely dilated. Dr. Hull came in and said I was ready to start pushing. I thought, "Yes! Here's my end! I can do this!" 

The nurse got me all set up and Derek held my right leg while the nurse held my left. I started pushing with the contractions. It was a relief for the pain since I felt that I was doing something about the pain rather than just sitting there taking it. I was also having some problems with infection. I was running a temperature, so I kept getting plenty of antibiotics through the whole process. 

Well, it was no NEAR end in sight. I pushed and pushed, and Stella wasn't born until 3:58 am. Yes, that's right. I pushed for all of that time, and at about 3, Dr. Hull said, "If you can't get her through your pelvic bone, we're going to do a C-section. Let's try just a little more." I started crying and saying, "I'm exhausted. I can't keep going." She said, "I know, but  it's so much better if you can deliver vaginally." I softly replied, "I know... but this is so hard." 

Well, I kept pushing and pulling on a towel with the nurse to try and force Stella out. Finally, Dr. Hull said, "Alright. Let's at least try a vacuum." She busts out the vacuum, and then finally, she decided to squeeze out. Derek was all teared up, and he said, "There she is!" I couldn't believe it happened. I actually did it. I delivered vaginally. I kept asking if she had hair, and Derek ran over to the warmer with her while Dr. Hull continued working on me. I didn't even care what was happening at this point. I had to have some stitches, but all was well. She was born at 3:58 am, weighing 6lbs and 15 oz. She was 19 inches long. 

Derek took some quick shots:

Here, you can see how my skin was all blotchy from delivery. I didn't look good... at all. We did the skin to skin thing, and Stella latched right away. Breastfeeding was too easy. I couldn't believe it. Everything was perfect - she was eating, she was healthy, and all things considered, I felt much better. 

We stayed in our room, and they finally brought me some food. I was starving and had been dreaming of a cheeseburger. I got a cold turkey sandwich, but I didn't care. It was heavenly. 

We moved to our mother-baby unit around 5am. Derek and I had been up for 24 hours, and we were sooo tired. And remember that I said I didn't pack shoes for Derek... well, he wore mine. He became known in the nursery as the dad with pink flip flops:

Our moms made it, and our awesome friends Kerry and Chris came to visit. We didn't get much sleep since the nurses wouldn't leave me alone. 

Well, that's the birth story. All turned out well. I'm feeling pretty well now. My belly has shrank so much. Derek is amazing. He's a swaddling master, and he's a diaper changing master:

Now, I better get off here - Stella is hungry and her wonderful father is shushing her so I can finish... I'll post more pictures of the little darling later :)