Alexandria Claire's Grand Arrival

I had wanted to write this much sooner, but had to wait until the laptop had Office on it. I kept forgetting to ask Derek to put it on when I wasn’t using it and then when I was using it, I just thought I’d ask him when I was done. I wanted to write about Alexandria’s entrance into this world while it was fresh in my memory, but honestly, I don’t think I can ever forget any of the details of that day, so I’m pretty sure I won’t forget anything three 

weeks later. I was so lucky to have had the perfect pregnancy, labor and delivery.

Let’s start at my 39 week appointment. Derek and I had decided that if I wasn't progressed enough that day for the doctor to have us stay in Evanston for the night, we’d schedule my induction for my actual due date: Tuesday, May 31. We got there and I hadn’t dilated any more than the previous two weeks, but was more effaced. The doctor said she had to go out of town staring June 1 due to her father’s death, so she suggested inducing me either later that week (my appointment was Wednesday) or early the following week if I wanted to be induced. I figured that by the time she got back, I’d be 8 days past my due date, so it was very possible that the other doctor would be the one delivering, and even though I’ve heard amazing things about him, I wanted to have that experience with my doctor. Derek and I decided that Monday, Memorial Day, would be the best day since we didn’t want to worry about me having a long labor on Tuesday and my doctor having to leave to catch her flight on Wednesday. The nurse said the hospital was willing to have me come in on the holiday for the induction. Okay, we were having a baby in 5 days. We could adjust to that. Derek had to finish his current master’s class so having the weekend would help him get that done and give us one more weekend with just the two of us.

The following day, Thursday, at 1:30 pm, I got a call from the doctor’s office. The hospital changed their mind, they were no longer willing to bring in extra staff  on a holiday in order for me to have a baby, could we come in tomorrow, May 27, at 7 am? Oh wow! All I could say was “Tomorrow? Can I talk to my husband about this first?” So, I made the call to Derek. He asked if we even had a choice in the matter and I said not really, so I called the doctor back and said we’d be there. Not only did he have a million things to finish at work, but now he had to finish his class that night. He decided he would just have to pull an all-nighter to get it all done. We went to Applebee’s for dinner that night as a last ‘just us date night without needing to find a sitter’ and then went home so he could do school work. At 10:00 that night, he was just too tired. So off to bed we went with the alarm set for 4:30 the next morning. Needless to say, I actually slept better that night than I had in about two months. Woke up and thought “Oh boy, I’m going to have a baby today…I don’t know if I’m ready for this!” And off the Evanston we went with a car seat in the back along with all my hospital bags and a diaper bag. We got checked in at 7:00 and everything went very fast. It helped that we had pre-registered a few months before and all we had to do was sign a few forms. Then, we headed to the maternity ward. The nurses were so nice and very excited about the baby coming. I got all hooked up to the IV’s (first time to have had one) and started signing consent forms. The really cool thing about this hospital: they gave me a numbing shot before giving me the IV, so I didn’t feel a thing when that went in. And boy, it felt all cold when the fluids hit my veins. It was a bizarre feeling. By 7:30, I was getting my first drip of Pitocin. Derek settled into the oversized leather recliner set up for the dads and started to do more school work. I told him he might as well as long as I felt good enough to not have him right by my side. The nurse came in every few minutes to see if I needed anything and to ask about my pain level on a scale of 0-10. Every time she asked, it was still a 0. I was having contractions, but they sure weren’t painful. I finally started noticing I was actually having them about 20 minutes into the induction, but it was just pressure, no pain. I think I had been in labor for a good hour before I even went up to a pain tolerance of 1. At 10:30 my doctor came in to check my progress. I was dilated to a 1 and 75% effaced. Not exactly what I was hoping to hear 3 hours in. By this time, my pain was between a 2 and a 3. They also decided to put an internal monitor on me to see the exact strength of my contractions just to make sure they really were as small as I was thinking they were. By this time, they had maxed out the Pitocin level that the nurses were allowed to give me without the doctor approving more. They wanted to make sure my contractions really were small and not stressing the baby out before upping my dosage. My contractions were indeed pretty low, so up the Pitocin level went from 60 to about 70. My pain went to a 4, still manageable. And then they upped it to an 82 and that’s when my contractions hit. By this time it was noon and my pain level went from a 4 to a 7 in a matter of minutes. I wasn’t getting any breaks in between them either. Derek told me he thought I should get the epidural, especially since I knew I wasn’t that progressed and they would just get worse. I decided that the next time the nurse came in, I’d let her know. I didn’t last that long. I had Derek go out and tell her to let the 

anesthesiologist know that I needed him.

When we first got to the hospital, but I went back to feeling
this great after the epidural too :)

At 12:30, the anesthesiologist was in my room. He walked me through every single step, it was great. He even told me when he was just swabbing my back, so that I knew what every little thing was. The only painful part was the numbing shot, 3 seconds later, that sting was gone and I didn’t feel anything else that he was doing. The hardest part was sitting completely still through my ever increasing in strength contractions. By this time, they were peaking around 80 and the nurse said 60 is considered a good contraction. But I did it! Within 5 minutes, my left side was going numb. The nurse came in and asked if I could feel the contractions and I just said I could feel them, but they were back down to about a 3 or 4 in pain. She said that one had just topped at a 100! Whew, glad my medication had kicked in by that point! Within 15 minutes, I felt no pain! I picked my phone back up (I had been texting my mom during most of the first part, but when they were getting too strong, I told her I was going to go) and told my mom I now felt amazing. She still keeps saying how she couldn’t believe I was texting even when dilated to an 8. Well, what else was I going to do since I felt so good? Right after I got the epidural, my doctor came back in and checked me. I was only at a 2! A 2 and I was feeling that much pain! But from then on out, I progressed very fast. I was relaxed, even caught a few minutes of sleep here and there, we watched TV, and Derek was able to finish his class! It was very nice. By about 2:30ish (can’t remember exactly now) I was at a 5. By about 4 or so, I was at an 8 and by 5:30, I was at a 10 and they were letting the doctor know that they were prepping me to push. They sat me up so that the gravity would pull the baby down as much as possible before pushing her. They decided to let me start pushing while we waited for the doctor. I was worried that I wouldn’t be able to push since I couldn’t feel ANYTHING from the waist down. The nurse said that if it ended up being a problem, they could reduce the epidural amount and let some of the meds wear off. Well, I didn’t have that problem. I pushed for 30 minutes and she was born! They did put an oxygen mask on me about halfway through because I was having a harder time catching my breath and they said that if I took really deep breaths in between pushes, the baby would do better. When her head was visible they said she had a lot of hair…red hair. I didn’t have time to compose my face fast enough and they just started laughing and said they were joking. Ooops, haha. Once her head was out they actually had to yell at me to stop pushing since I was so into the moment. And then, out she came! Completely soaking wet!! The doctor said “What a wet baby!” She also opened her eyes before she was even completely out. I was only in labor for 10.5 hours from start to finish. It went incredibly fast too. Derek cut her umbilical cord, which sprayed blood all over the doctor. It was a very meaty cord too – that’s what the doctor said. I got to hold her for a few seconds and then they took her away to try to get all the fluid out of her lungs that she had inhaled during her quick birth. The doctor delivered my placenta and said it was time for the baby to come as my placenta had started to calcify pretty badly. We think it was definitely meant to be to have her on Friday instead of the holiday as we don’t know what would have happened had we gone a few days longer. Then the doctor stitched me up, I tore pretty bad Derek said, and my labor and delivery process was complete. The baby was still having a hard time crying so they gave her to me and then to Derek for some pictures and then had Derek go to the nursery with her to put her on some oxygen. I stayed in the delivery room and called my parents and Megan to announce that Alexandria Claire Robinson, Lexi for short, was born at 6:06 pm weighing 7lbs, 11 oz and measuring 20.25 inches long.

Holding her before they took her to the nursery

Derek holding her for the first time, he's a very proud daddy

I had to stay in the room until my epidural wore off before getting to be with Lexi and Derek. The bad thing was, nobody told me that. I thought the reason I couldn’t see them was that she was still on oxygen so was a bit worried. My original nurse had gone home, since she was there on her day off but had come in because there were two of us delivering that day. My other nurse, who helped deliver the baby, was helping to deliver baby #3 of the night (Lexi was the biggest one), so all the nurses that were now checking on me didn’t know what was happening with our baby. And they didn’t tell Derek that I wasn’t coming down because I had to be able to stand on my own first. Three hours later, I was finally wheeled down to our recovery room. Luckily, Lexi was able to be taken off the oxygen within about 30 minutes, so I was relieved to hear that. Derek was able to hold her in the nursery the whole time, and she is definitely a daddy’s girl!

That night was a bit rough, but we made it through. I hadn’t eaten since 5 am that day and since I could only have ice chips during the whole labor, I was pretty dehydrated and starving so almost passed out. Our recovery room nurse was supposed to bring me some soup, but she forgot and I didn’t get any until after midnight. I thought it would be nice being at the hospital since the staff could help us with adjusting to the baby, but instead, I just felt very self-conscious as I tried changing a diaper and nursing and holding a new baby, all of which was completely foreign to me. Derek helped and encouraged me with all of this, he’s so great with her – a natural! Derek by this point had been awake for 48 hours, he didn’t sleep well at all the night before. So, I let him sleep and I stayed up with Lexi. She didn’t like her hospital bassinet at all, so I just held her most of the night and tried not to fall asleep myself as I didn’t want to drop her.

The next day, we had family come see the new addition to the family. She’s a very special baby as she’s the first grand baby for both sets of parents, first great grandbaby for both sets of my grandparents and also made all my aunts and uncles ‘greats’! Derek’s dad came first, followed by our good friend Diana, and then Soni came followed by my parents. We got lots of great pictures and it was so fun showing off our new little baby. Everyone said what a beautiful baby she was. She was such a good baby and let everyone hold her while she just slept away. Later on that day she went for a few more little tests and then at 6:00, they started getting us ready to be discharged. We were heading home by 8:30…in the middle of a BLIZZARD! Only in Wyoming! Traveling on the Sisters, we were going about 30 mph and following a semi that was the only one actually going a good speed. We finally made it home around 12:30 am. She’s definitely a Wyoming baby. Derek was so sweet and took her for the night so that I could sleep, as I was going on 36 hours of not sleeping and was completely exhausted.

Grandpa Robinson with Lexi

Grandma Robinson with Lexi

Grandpa Hargis with Lexi

Grandma Hargis with Lexi

Dr. Karen Evans with Lexi

It was a bit of an adjustment having a little person in our house, but a good one. She’s such an amazing baby and we feel so blessed to have her with us! She didn’t like sleeping by herself at first, so we kind of took turns co-sleeping with her on the couch and recliner. She’s now sleeping in her bassinet and sleeping between 3 and 6 hours each night at a time! It’s been great. She normally only cries when she actually needs something.

We took her to her first pediatrician appointment when she was 5 days old. Her actual doctor was on vacation so we got a very weird substitute lady who was kind of hippyish. We had Lexi weighed and she was 7lbs, 6 oz. She said she looked very healthy, but she wanted to see her back the following week for another weight check to make sure she came back up to her birth weight. So, the next week we took her back and she was only at 7lbs, 7 oz. The doctor said she still looked completely healthy, but she wanted to definitely see more than a 1 oz growth, so she suggested we start supplementing with formula at night. I don’t seem to be producing quite enough milk for her, so this way she can get more calories in her. The doctor gave us several samples of formulas and we started her on Similac for fussiness and gas. She LOVES it. I mean loves it!! It also really fills her up at night so that, plus the great swaddling blanket my mom bought her, equals lots of sleep for the two of us. On June 14, I took her back for her next weight check and she had gained 4 oz and was back up to her birth weight of 7lbs, 11oz! I also got to meet her real doctor, Chandra Yeshlur, which was great! Derek had to go back to work that Monday, so my mom went with us. (It was so hard letting Derek go back after having him home for 17 days. He cooked all three meals, did laundry, dishes, cleaning, and got up on some nights with the baby. It was amazing!) The doctor is from India and was very nice to talk to. He had lots of good information, including natural, herbal ways to help increase my milk supply. He said she looks very healthy and what a cute baby she was.

She loves her swing!

So, that is the story of Lexi. She is our cute little snuggle bug and we’re loving every minute with her. And tomorrow, she gets to meet her Aunt Megan for the first time!