Our New Addition (March 2010)

Our New Addition….Mary 

I had been waiting and waiting for the day our little Miss Mary would came into the world, and on January 18, 2010 the wait was finally over.   

I had been having Braxton-hicks contractions since about my 25^th week.  They got stronger and more frequent the closer to the due date.  On January 6^th I thought we were going to make a trip to the hospital, which by the way was the first heavy snow of the season!  Contractions were happening every 5 minutes but never got stronger and I eventually fell asleep and a trip to the hospital was not necessary.  Another 1 ½ would go by with out another hospital scare.   

The morning of January 18^th I woke up at about 6:50 and was having a contraction; nothing too surprising because I had been having them as I mentioned.  About 7:30 the contractions just flat out hurt!  I called the docs and told them what was going on and they said, go to the hospital.  I was thankful that my friend was off work due to it being Martin Luther King Day so her and her son came to watch Sam. With her arrival and the hospital bags packed, off we went! 

I entered the hospital at 9:30am and Mary Jo Anne entered our lives at 1:58pm weighing 7lbs and 3oz!  Now I will spare you the gory details of labor and delivery but she was the easiest baby to deliver and recovery time was not at all bad.   

So after the hour and half of recovery in the delivery room, Mary, my husband George and me all were being prepared to head to the maternity ward and to my room.  I was thankful to be leaving the delivery room because Mary was not happy.  She was just screaming crying and I still was waiting for the epidural to wear off so George paced the floors with her.  The nurse checked her vitals for the last time before they transported us and reported that she had a fever of 101, so no wonder she was crying.  I had also thought that she may just be hungry because I hadn’t eaten much before her arrival, which means she too hadn’t eaten much.  I was getting a bit nervous about the fever, but they didn’t seem too concerned so I just laid back and tried to relax.  When they checked Mary’s vitals they had to unwrap her from the two warm blankets to do so, so when they said she had the fever they let her cool off and ‘wha-la’ fever was gone.  George said that the room was very warm and that the TWO blankets they had her wrapped in had come out of a warmer, so no wonder she had a fever…..she was HOT! 

Once up in our room the nurses put her under a warmer again and bathed her and fed her and checked on me several times.  As soon as she had finished her first meal, her screaming and crying had ceased.  After all of commotion was over we all relaxed and gazed at our beautiful new baby girl!  Later that night we got our first visitor.  George had gone home to check on our son Sam and my mother in law.  Once everything was settled at home he returned for a few hours before heading home again to catch some Z’s.   

Tuesday the rituals of checking vitals and doctors stopping in had begun.  Breakfast arrived and didn’t get touched.  Then George arrived with Tim Horton’s and all was right in the world.  We again had visitors; my mother in law then my friend Crystal.  Later that night after George had done errands and checked on our Son again he returned back to the hospital for a few hours before bed.  

George was with us maybe a half an hour when he remembered that he had to call his mom to give her some instructions on night time with Sam.  While on the phone his mom, Peggy, had informed us that Sam had gotten sick all over the kitchen floor, which no doubt freaked him out as he has not gotten sick since he was an infant.  While on the phone with Peggy, Sam had gotten sick again.  With this happening at home George had to cut our night short and head back.  Once there Sam got sick with every sip of water or Pedia-lite given to him.  Of course I was just a mess not able to be home with my little guy being so sick. I think my postpartum baby blues had shown up in full force that evening, not to mention I was on some strong pain medication because I broke down on the phone with George and when I was talking to my own mother.  Of course they said that he’d be fine and there was nothing I could do at home anyway and to try and relax and get some rest.  Yeah! Easier said then done, but I did eventually stop crying, sent Mary to the nursery for the night and fell asleep.

Wednesday morning I was ready to bust out of the hospital to get home.  Not only to just get home but to see my little buddy!  When George came to the hospital to pick us up he said that Sam finally kept down some water and some Pedia-lite but was really tired as he had been up until about midnight.  My parents and mother in law where at home waiting for our arrival along with Sam.  I was surprised to walk in the door to see Sam running around the basement with smiles on his face, it was a welcome surprise!  But there was an unwelcome surprise waiting for me upon my return home.  Sam was apparently mad at me.  I was so excited to see him that I went to give him a hug and he turned away from me and said “No!” Now I know he’s only 2 ½ and doesn’t understand what in the world is going on but when we got up stairs he ran to his room and slammed the door.  I thought he was just being silly (because that’s how he was acting when I walked in the door) so when I opened the door the last thing I expected was for him to push me out of his room and tell me to “Stay out!, Stay out!”  He definitely was upset and all I could do was give him time and space.  He finally started to come around later that night and was just about back to normal on Thursday morning. 

So when waking up on Thursday morning I was excited that our family was finally back together after a long three days apart, well that excitement went out the window fast!  George came down an announced that he didn’t feel well and that his stomach was a wreck.  I just couldn’t believe it!  He proceeded to get sick a few times that day and his mom and I quarantined him to our room, we didn’t need the new baby getting sick.  His sickness lasted all day and all night but he still told me to get him up around 6am on Friday so that I could go to sleep and he’d take over caring for Mary.  I had to wake him up at 5am because I too was starting to feel terrible.  He graciously got up and put on a pot of coffee and took over.  I woke up around 8am to Sam laughing and screaming in the basement.  I also woke up to a slight fever, aches and an over all icky feeling.  So I too was banished to our bedroom for the day.  By night fall I thought I was getting better when WHAM, my stomach started to do flips and I thought that I too was going to get sick. Luckily I did not.  I called my mom to tell her the news that the flu had ran through out house and she proceeded to inform me that she too was sick!  I am just thankful that George’s mom was with us and she herself did not get sick because we really needed her extra hands. 

Just when you thought having a baby was enough to go through, the flu ran rampant through our home.  Luckily it was only a 24 hour bug and had left our house by Saturday so that we could have our guests stop by to meet our new little addition. 

Thanks for reading

~Andrea