Well it has been much too long since we really wrote and told you about all the fun we are having here with Danica. I suppose we will start at the beginning:
I went to the hospital at 10:00am and they took me to the delivery room around 10:30 to do the prep work and to get the epidural started. Around 12:30 they transferred me to the operating room and told Tom to get in some scrubs and to just wait while they got things set up in the OR. It was a little bit scary in the OR because I’d never had a serious surgery before. There were like 10 people in there buzzing around doing different things; tons of machines beeping and such; I had to wear an oxygen mask and just laid there waiting to go numb. However, I just kept reminding myself that I was about to have a baby and I was so excited I just kept smiling and taking deep breaths. I could see my heart rate on a big screen and despite my nervousness the positive thinking kept me really quite calm. I had one great nurse sitting by my head and I kept asking her what was going on and she was pretty helpful. I also kept asking when Tom could come in because I didn’t want him to miss it (and I didn’t want to be alone) and finally the doctor said “Where’s the husband?” and they scrambled to get him. He almost wasn’t there in time! He came in right as they were doing the incisions. He was able to video tape some of it for me to watch because I couldn’t see anything.

At 1:06pm Danica was born! They had told me they would hold her up over the curtain so I could see her but when she came out she was a little bit blue and not breathing. They rushed her into the adjacent room and I sent Tom to go with her. He tried to video tape for a while but when the nurses panicked and started to push the emergency button he got too scared and turned the camera off. Luckily, just then Danica started to breath and they got her lungs cleaned out and she was fine. The nurses were young and Tom thinks that more experienced nurses may not have panicked. Needless to say I was a little stressed just waiting to hear her cry. No one told me what was going on so I was so relieved to hear that cry. A short time later Tom was able to bring her in and I got to see her! He held her while the doctor fixed me up. It took about 30 minutes and it felt like someone was sitting on my chest and my head was pounding but I am sure it could have been worse. After that we were all moved into a recovery room. I was able to hold and feed Danica and just try to rest while the feeling came back into my legs. I kept having contractions, which were really painful despite the epidural, so I guess my body hadn’t yet figured out that the baby was out! But within a couple of hours they moved us up to the mother/baby floor!

Tom went and picked up Hayden to meet his baby sister for the first time. When he came in the room he was excited to see me and ran over to give me a hug. Then he just kind of looked around confused and finally saw Danica in her little bed. Tom helped him look at her and it was really cute. I was feeling pretty good at this point because I still had an epidural pack that allowed me to feel my legs but kept the other pain in check. I couldn’t get out of bed due to all the things hooked up to me but that was just as well since I had no desire to move! We had a nice evening just hanging out in the hospital room together. When it got late Tom and Hayden went home and I had my first night with Danica. I was worried about how to care for her when I couldn’t even lift her out of the crib without a lot of pain but the night went really well. She was such a dream and never fussed except to eat or be held. I didn’t have to rock her or bounce or anything, she was just so content. I stayed in the hospital until Thursday and Tom and Hayden came to visit me every morning and evening. Hayden loved Danica right from the start and kept telling her how much he loved her and wanting to hold her. She kept being so calm and content and was eating like a champ. She was gaining weight before we even left the hospital! Coming home has gone really smoothly. We’ve had a lot of meals brought in and Tom has been doing the house work. I’ve just had to relax and play with Hayden a bit and hold and feed Danica so it’s been a dream week for me. We have no where to go and no one is coming over so we can just relax and sit around all day. Tom has taken Hayden on a few outings like to the zoo and such. On Monday night I ventured out with Danica for the first time and we took Hayden to see Santa Clause with the Debaltzo kids. However, Hayden didn’t like Santa and just cried and refused to go sit on his lap. Oh well, there’s always next year!

Hayden has adjusted to Danica beautifully so far so hopefully that will last. He just loves her and always talks to her and tries to read her stories and such. He pretends she can talk to him and always tell us what she is saying. Danica is a dream baby, she is so content to just sit in your arms and look at you. She sleeps well at night and has fun awake periods during the day. The only adjustment were working on is getting her to “go to bed” earlier because she likes to have her sleep cycles from about 1:00am to 1:00pm. But since all you really have to do is hold her (instead of walking circles around the room while she’s crying anyway) it’s not a big deal. I know it won’t last forever but I am relishing it while I can, she’s amazing! You couldn’t ask for a better baby! I took her to the doctor today for a jaundice check and they said she looks fine. She is only 9 days old and already weighs 6 lbs. 6 oz. and is 19.2 inches long, that is great growth!

So life here in Cleveland is great. The temperature is freezing but we’re staying inside so it doesn’t matter anyway. We’re getting ready for Christmas and are really enjoying all this time to just hang out together. Hayden can sing all the words to “Jingle Bells” and “Santa Claus is coming to Town.” Plus, he makes up his own songs that sound similar to Away in a Manger and stuff. Today when I was putting him down for his nap he was cracking me up because he didn’t want to talk about Christmas. He was insisting it is Halloween and he started singing “The 12 Days of Christmas” but he said “days of Halloween” and it was his ghost bringing him things. Funny kid; almost too clever for his own good really. His new line to anything he does is “Sorry, it was an accident.” That seems to get him out of anything!

Okay, now that I have written a novel, and Danica is about to wake up I will stop. I hope you are all doing well and excited for the holidays. We really wish we could be there with some of you to celebrate. Enjoy the festivities, we’ll send more pictures soon! Take care!

Tracey