My Beautiful New Girl

I'm awake while my baby is asleep. I'm breaking the golden rule of being a new mom because #1. Reagan slept through the night last night, so I've gotten plenty of sleep and #2. Because things thus far have been so perfect, it's hard not to be awake and in anticipation of what's going to happen next.
This all happened a bit differently than I was expecting. I started having contractions Wednesday morning at about 4am, but they were still the "Oh! There's a contraction, how fun! Let's wait and see when the next one is, Oh! I hope it's soon!" kinda contractions. I will never forget when I had those going into labor with Kameryn, I called my mom and told her excitedly that "We might have a baby in April after all, I'm feeling some contractions!" And she said, "It's probably not labor, then, Kjersti, because no one is excited about those contractions!" And I had Kameryn two days later, and man, my mom was right.
So after falling asleep in between contractions for the next couple hours, I prepared myself for the next couple days, thinking it would be about that long until we got to meet our little girl. At 6 I woke up to use the bathroom and saw blood. Not a ton, but enough to make me panic and head straight to the phone to call Dr. Allie. Pregnancy has made me appreciate having Dr. Hanna only a call away, no matter the time of day, so thanks for that Allison! And Allie told me I needed to go get checked out.
I called Jay at work and said what are apparently the magic words, "I'm bleeding" because he was home not 5 minutes later throwing a bag together and pushing me out the door so we could head to the hospital. At that point I was the one saying, "Jay, calm down, it's no big deal." I thought they were going to send us right back home, and I would have the reassurance that everything was fine but I still had some time to do what I had planned before the baby actually came. We drove to the hospital joking about my contractions and planning on picking up some breakfast on our way back home. Outside the hospital I had a contraction that made me stop walking, but Jay cracked a joke and I laughed the entire way through the contraction, despite it hurting. So this couldn't really be it, right?
We walked in and got taken back to a room almost right away, and the nurse came in to check me. I was dialated to a 2, but 80% effaced, so they said that they would check me again in an hour. The hour passed quickly, we watched some TV and my contractions got worse. She came back in and checked again, and I was dialated to a 2.5, so she said she would wait another hour and check again. Not wanting to be sent home, Jay and I decided to start walking around the hospital. We overheard that every labor room in the hospital, 30 total, was full, and it was about 9am. So I was hoping for the contractions, but they also were getting passed the "Oh, how fun!" stage. In fact, Jay kept having to remind me to breathe through them instead of holding my breath, and it made me mad enough that all I could manage to say was, "DON'T tell me to breathe!"
When she checked again she said what we had been waiting to hear: That we could stay. I would've been happier, but the contractions were coming just a couple minutes after each other by that point, and it was hard to focus on much of anything. The nurse offered a pain med, which I accepted, and I now I am a firm believer in the magic of Fentanyl. She said it wouldn't stop the pain, it would just take the edge off, but after she gave it to me I was telling Jay how much I loved him and how good I now felt. I love the stuff.
And then, not too much later, the anesthesiologist came in to give me my epidural. He was a good guy, and though he had a little trouble getting it in, it wasn't bad. I had been a little scared for that part, but luckily it turned out to not be a big deal, and thankfully afterwards I couldn't feel my contractions at all. And then we just had to wait.
Danae, Allison and Mom all came after noon and kept me company. I swear after that my nurse must've been convinced that all of us were crazy, especially when they made up an instant song about Patossin. Then, at 3, we were ready. The family took bets on how long it would take for Reagan to make her appearance, and Allison suited up to catch the baby and catch her cord. Three pushes later, my baby was here. I've been dreaming about that moment, the one when you've delivered the baby and you get to see her for the first time, and there's really no way to describe it when they put a perfect, beautiful little girl in your arms. And my little girl looks so much like her sister.

My mom told me that I would be amazed to see Kameryn after having Reagan because you get to realize how much they've grown up. When we went to my recovery room my in-laws were there with Kameryn, and it was just how my mom described it to see my other daughter up, walking around and talking to "Steve" on the cell phone. And I did get a huge dose of amazement about how much she's grown as while she was talking on the phone she said, "Steve, I need to borrow money, yo." I swear, I don't know where she learned that!
I was worried about Kameryn and how she would react to the baby, but she has taken it beautifully. She loves Reagan and wants to be close to her, and in the hospital when the nurses would come in to take her vitals she would tell them "Don't touch her!" until we explained that they were being nice and helping the baby. Anytime they took her out of the room to the nursery, Kameryn would mope and cry.

I'm not usually the type, but it makes me wonder if they've known each other before. In a way, it almost feels like Kameryn has been waiting for Reagan to get here.
Jay is amazing with Reagan. I love to watch them together.

So, that's the story. I know that the baby blues may still be making their appearance, and I know that I'm sure to be overwhelmed and wonder what I've gotten myself into, but even with all of that I'm so grateful for my family and excited to see us grow together.