The Long Story

Now here’s the long version on Amelia’s birth. Dad started writing the story while we were in the hospital. Mom will fill in the blanks and give a current events update.

Ok she’s here, whew…’ Kirsten is feeding the baby so I’m in charge of the blog update.

I would like to introduce Amelia Jean Lowry. Amelia means hard working and industrious. Jean means gift from God and is also her Great Grandmother’s name.

So here’s what happened. We went to the hospital Sunday to start Kirsten’s labor. At about 10:00 pm she was having contractions every 5 to 10 min. After laboring at home all night, we made it to the hospital around 8:00 am Monday morning. Kirsten was well into labor so she did not need any actual medicine to get things going. Things progressed slowly and painfully (no pain meds) all day until finally, at around 6pm, it was advised that Kirsten get an epidural. Everyone was exhausted and it was the best and only choice.

At around 11:00 pm she started pushing but Amelia wasn’t going anywhere. Kirsten spiked a fever of about 101 and twice the baby’s heartrate dropped to 40 beats per minute without explanation. Then her heartrate rose to 170 beats per minute and stayed that high. After two hours of pushing and a stressed out baby, the midwife and doctor determined that for the safety of the baby we needed an emergency C-section. Everything happened very quickly, as Kirsten was wheeled to the OR immediately. Our beautiful baby girl arrived at 1:48am. Because of all the stress the baby was under, she did have a bowel movement in the womb. The medical team was able to clean her airways before she took her first breath so she was not in any danger of inhaling the bad stuff. So finally after almost 28 hours in labor and some touchy moments with the baby’s heartbeat, she’s here and she is perfect.

Kirsten was on antibiotics to tackle her fever that hung around for a few days. Amelia’s fever didn’t last long enough to need medication, but then she was diagnosed with jaundice. We didn’t even notice how yellow she really was until we looked at the photos we were taking. She came home with the light bed and an in-home nurse visit each day. It only took three days for the jaundice to leave and to receive a baby clean bill of health.

So now she’s 17 days old and just as delightful as the day she was born. We’re still getting to know each other and we’re having so much fun in the process. She sleeps four to five hours at a time each night and isn’t really fussy unless she needs a diaper change or is hungry. She’s such a great baby and we couldn’t be happier.

Today Amelia took her first “walk” at Seattle’s Green Lake. Mom and Dad each had their favorite Starbucks drink and we looked every bit the Seattle urban family. It was hilarious and we loved every minute. The last time we walked Green Lake we were quite pregnant and checking out all the different strollers in an effort to make the right choice. This time we didn’t notice any other strollers or even the water as we couldn't stop staring at the contents of our stroller – perfect!