I Still Can't Believe It

I still can't believe that Campbell has been here for over a week now. It is amazing to sit here and watch her sleep and think that just over a week ago she was still inside me. We are so blessed to have her in our lives, overall she is a pretty easy baby. She sleeps well during the day and I do believe might be figuring out what is day and what is night, seeing as we have had 2 really good nights, but I won't count my chickens before they hatch...things could be different tonight. Good thing today was Sunday which means lots of football and lots of mini naps while Campbell napped!

I want to do a quick recap of my stay at the hospital just so I can look back and remember and years from now Campbell can go back and read how I felt about it. Let's see....

We checked into the hospital on Wednesday, November 4th at around 4 pm and began the process of filling out paperwork and answering tons of questions & have an iv line started. We got settle into our room & I got to put on my beautiful hospital gown & prepare to spend the next couple of ours in bed....which was hard to do b/c the bed wasn't the most comfortable thing. But around 8 o'clock, the doctor came in to give me some medicine to get the process started & at midnight the nurse came in to start my IV & remind from that point on I could not eat or drink anything.

I woke up at around 6 o'clock on Thursday morning and was ready to get the process started but we had to wait for Dr. J to arrive to break my water. She arrived around 8 and the process began. At around 11:30, I had to get my epidural b/c my platelet count was low and if I waited to long I might not have been able to get one at all and that was certainly not happening. After I got my epidural I couldn't feel a single thing and that lasted until Dr. J was just about done stitching me up.

The day went by pretty quickly, with a bunch of cat naps and my annoying IV's beeping all day b/c I kept moving my arm in weird positions. Finally around 4:30, I paged my nurse and asked her if she could come and check and see how far along I was b/c I was starting to feel a lot of pressure. She came in and checked and I was 10 cm dilated, but Campbell was still pretty high up there, so they made me sit up and hoped that gravity would help to pull her down. Dr. J arrived around 5:30 and I began pushing at 5:45, which was really hard to do b/c my epidural was working so well I couldn't even tell when I was having a contraction, so Kristy & Dr. J had to tell me when to push or I would have just continued to sit there.

After 45 minutes of pushing, Margaret Campbell Harris made her way into the world & was greeted with kisses & love by her mommy & daddy who were beyond thrilled to see what she looked like and to finally have our baby girl. Brian did so well and was so great during the labor and delivery...he had made a playlist to play during labor and was a great cheerleader & help while I pushed. He even cut the cord, which totally shocked me, but I am so glad that he did. After we got to see Campbell for a few minutes, they took her to get her all cleaned up and get her weight, length & all the necessities. She weighed 8 lbs 10 oz and was 21 inches long. At first they were a little concerned b/c her blood sugar was low, but after a while that concern went away and we were able to spend some time together as a family.

The new hospital rules that are being enforced are a little annoying though b/c they don't allow more than 2 visitors in a room at a time and Brian was considered a visitor so that meant that my parents and sister couldn't come back and see Campbell and one time. They each had to take turns or two of them could come back if Brian left....CRAZY! I understand b/c of all the germs, but I would have thought that the babies father wouldn't have counted as a visitor.

Later that night around 11, after I had enjoyed my #7 from Jersey Mike's, we were moved upstairs to our room on the recovery floor, which was tiny, but the bed was much more comfortable. The rest of our hospital stay was uneventful and filled with wonderful friends and family coming to visit us and meet Miss Campbell, luckily on that floor they weren't as strict about the 2 visitors policy which was nice. The people who came to meet Campbell in the hospital were: Noni & my Dad (he hasn't decided what he wants to be called yet), Aunt Kaite & Colin, Leigh, Insley, Chris, Dr. Peters, Ashley, Brad & Christina. It was so wonderful of everyone to come and visit her.

We were finally discharged on Saturday at around 11:30, after waiting around from about 9:30 for all the paperwork to be completed. I told Brian in the car on the way home that it was weird to be out in the world with her & to drive around and no one you pass had any idea that you have a 3 day old in the car with you. We made it home and let Grover meet Campbell for the first time, which went well. He really didn't think much of her, sniffed her a few times and then went on about his business. The weekend was full of more visitors, which was really nice. On Saturday Uncle Aaron, my family, Mory & Chris came to visit. On Sunday Mark & Jessica came to visit and brought us lunch...you will never guess what I had a #7 from Jersey Mike's...I missed that sandwich so much!!!

That pretty much sums up the first few days of Campbell's life. We are so blessed and honored to have her in our lives and can't wait to share with all of you all the special moments in her life.