All about Melanie

I am blogging from my hospital room, my newborn daughter fast asleep in my lap. Thanks to my sister, I've got a laptop for the weekend, and I really wanted to write about Melanie. So here is a synopsis of the last three days. :)

THE BIRTH

Ah, her birth. It was interesting. I had early labor all day on Tuesday, starting at about ten in the morning. The doctor sent me to the hospital to get checked out late that afternoon, just to see what was going on. We got hooked up to a monitor around 5:15 pm, and the nurses monitored baby and contractions until 7:30. In that time, my contractions went from 13 minutes to 3 minutes apart, tripled in intensity, and I dilated to a two. It was decided that yes, I was in labor, so I got to stay. Around midnight, the contractions were more than I cared to deal with, so I got an epidural. Unfortunately, the epidural stopped my labor completely in its tracks, and I didn't have another contraction for about three hours. With the help of some pitocin, contractions started again, and at 4 am, I was dilated to a 4. Melanie's head was really high, so they kept cranking the pitocin, trying to bring her head down so she could be born. It didn't happen. By 3:30 that afternoon (after well over 24 hours of labor, no sleep, and no food since 4 pm the previous day), she was still at a -3 station, I hadn't dilated past 4, and her head was starting to drift to the side. It was at this point in time that a c-section became reality. I was disappointed, but so completely fried from labor that it wasn't a difficult decision, especially since Melanie was having some heart problems and my blood pressure was dipping dangerously low. They got me in the OR, gave me a spinal (my epidural had long since worn off), and delivered our baby girl at 4:28 pm. The crazy thing was that they got her head out, and were suctioning out her nose, when Melanie started to wiggle, and actually delivered her own shoulders. The two doctors were laughing in disbelief as they watched. She weighed in at 7 pounds, 6 ounces, and 20.75 inches long, the lightest but tallest of our three daughters.

HER PERSONALITY

Melanie is already her own little person. :) She sleeps really well, eats like a champ, and has the lung function of an elephant. I woke up at 2 am this morning to a baby crying, and was in absolutely no doubt that it was my daughter being brought to my room. She is also pretty gassy, and burps and farts enough to put a college linebacker to shame. She squeaks and grunts all the time in her sleep, and when she wakes up goes from 0 to 60 in about two seconds. She continues to be as active as she was in utero, stretching and kicking to beat the band. I glanced down at her while she was nursing earlier, and she had one eye open, and was completely glaring at me, frowning while she ate. It was hilarious.

HER NAME

We picked out the name Melanie simply because we love it. We never purposefully picked out a third "M" name, and in fact fought it for awhile before deciding that we just didn't care. :) Anne has two origins--one is simply because--again--we love the name; the second is after her Great-grandmother (my Mom's Mom) MaryAnn. Her patron saint is St. Anna, the mother of the Theotokos.

HER BIG SISTERS

Adore her. Possibly to pieces. :) When Marina finally made the connection that Melanie is the baby that was in my tummy, she completely claimed her. She spent time touching her head, and kissing her, saying over and over, "I love Melanie. She's so cute!" Megan is the consummate little mama. She does a great job holding her, and is eager to help bring diapers, pick out clothes, and just be around when Melanie is doing stuff. Marina is having some separation anxiety, and that's been hard on both of us. When she visits, she snuggles and clings to me for quite a long time. She called me this morning when she woke up, asking to come see me, and yesterday asked, "Can we take Mommy home?" It about broke my heart. I'm looking forward to getting home tomorrow, and having more than visiting hours with my family.

HER DADDY

Is completely sold. :) It took him less than three seconds in the OR to fall in love with his new daughter, and he's also doing an amazing job with the older girls while I'm gone. Megan got some mild food poisoning, and Marina's been dealing with more horrifying gastro-intestinal issues, so he was up all night the night before last with one kid barfing and one having explosive diarrhea. This was after two days of almost no sleep, and being at my beck and call during labor and delivery.

I have to be honest--I've never been more thankful for my husband than in the past few days. Labor was extraordinarily difficult, and he was my rock. During the c-section, I was incredibly scared, and I never would have made it through without him.

So here we are, a family of five. It's wonderful and amazing, and the ride is only beginning!