We welcomed Jordyn Elizabeth Heald into the world on April 21st at 2:20 pm. She arrived weighing 7 lbs 15.6 oz (they rounded it to 8 lbs) was was 21 inches long. The evening before her birth I began to feel some light cramping. This time I recognized the cramping feelings as the early beginnings of labor, which was the opposite of Hannah's birth where I had no clue I was in labor until I was much further along. Josh and I made sure everything was lined up for Grandma coming to stay with Hannah at some point during the night if we had to leave and then we headed to bed by 11 to squeeze in as much sleep as we could. I woke at 3:30 with more intense contractions and at that point started timing them. I woke Josh up at about 4:30 when I began timing them at about 5-7 min. apart. Because I dilated with Hannah so quickly (I went from 4 cm to 9 cm in 1.5 hrs) they wanted me to come in sooner than later with Jordyn. After showering and Josh's mom arriving we headed to the hospital at 5:30 am. After we got checked in and settled they checked me and I was at 5 cm. I knew ahead of time that I definitely wanted an epidural. Although I dilated quickly with Hannah, when it came to her actual delivery it was very eventful. Her heart rate dropped multiple times, I almost had an emergency C-section and then I pushed for 2 hrs. before they used the vacuum to get her out. There was no way I could have managed all of what I went through with Hannah's delivery without the epidural....sooo long story short, I received an epidural about an hour after they checked me at 5 cm. Have I mentioned how much I love epidurals?!? :) With both Hannah and Jordyn receiving the epidural took me from a delirious state of mind to a calm & relaxed state. The only draw back of my epidural was that it slowed down my contractions. Once it came time to start pushing Jordyn's heart rate starting taking some dips. They were having a hard time monitoring my contractions, so after resting for a bit the doctor decided it was time for me to start pushing again. After about 15-20 min of pushing Jordyn made her entrance into the world (so much faster than with Hannah) with her umbilical chord wrapped tightly around her neck. The doctor quickly made me stop pushing once Jordyn's head was out and she saw this, she cut her chord from her neck and then allowed me to push her the rest of the way out. This explained the sporatic drops in her heart rate. She also took in a lot of amniotic fluid during her delivery and had to have her throat suctioned out. Her coloring was very pale and her heart rate was too high, so she had to be closely monitored for her first 12 or so hours of life until her heart rate was consistently at a normal level.
Josh's mom and stepdad brought Hannah to the hospital to meet Jordyn right after she was born. It was amazing to see the overwhelming look of love and adoration that Hannah had for her sister upon meeting her. She couldn't wait to get up on the bed with me and hold her baby sister. She was gentle and sweet with her....it just melted our hearts.
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| sisters meeting for the first time |
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| such a proud big sister |
Hannah was very excited that she got to be a part of her sister's first bath, she loved watching Jordyn have her footprints taken and get checked out by the nurse (she's very into playing doctor right now, so it was fun for her to see the nurse use a stethoscope, etc...)
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| Hannah helping give Jordyn her first bath |
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| first family picture of the four of us |
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| grandma and papa meeting Jordyn |
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| our sweet sleeping girl |
We absolutely love Kaiser as our health care provider. After being there for my sister's birthing experience (which in both Josh and my opinion was less than ideal), it made us appreciate the excellent health care we have. Our experience with Hannah was great and with Jordyn it was even better. The staff is so knowledgeable, helpful and supportive. We were (& continue to be) supplied with an endless number of resources. They added on a new postpardum unit since I gave birth there with Hannah and the rooms are so nice. They are spacious, have gliders to rock your little ones, flat screen TV's and a much bigger pull out couch for husband's to sleep on as compared to the old rooms. We could have stayed two nights, but we were anxious to get home to Hannah and be all together as a family. So exactly 24 hrs after Jordyn's birth we headed home. Before heading home Kaiser treated us to a "celebratory meal". We got to order off a special menu (I got the salmon, polenta and veggies, w/ soup, salad and dessert. Josh had beef tenderloin, stuffed baked potato and veggies.) We got to toast to the arrival of our new baby girl over sparkling cider in complimentary champange glasses that we got to take home. Perfect way to end an awesome birthing experience.
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| celebratory dinner |
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| ready to head home |
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| wearing her Lil' sis hat (the personalized Jordyn one we got her was too big) |
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| Hannah at 1 week old (while asleep Jordyn looks a lot like her as a baby) |
The evening we arrived home from the hospital our good friends Ian and Kara organized dinner with some of our closest friends who had contacted us wanting to meet Jordyn. We enjoyed pizza, salad, beer and icecream sandwhiches on a beautiful sunny afternoon with 15-20 of our friends, Hannah was excited to play with many of her friends outside and enjoy the weather. It was perfect! We are so fortunate to have such an amazing network of friends.
Josh was off from work the first week after Jordyn's birth. It was so nice having time home just the four of us. Jordyn had high jaundice levels, so daily we had to take her in for blood draws. We tried really hard to get her levels down because we didn't want a repeat of our experience with Hannah, who had to be readmitted for two days for dangerously high levels.
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| sunbathing to avoid readmittance |
Hannah has been such a sweet, loving big sister and has exceeded our expectations. Any time Jordyn makes the slightest peep, Hannah is by her side shhh'ing her and calming her down. Fortunately for us Jordyn has been an extremely easy baby so far (feels very similar to our experience with Hannah as a new born). She sleep about 20 hrs a day and only fusses when she's hungry. I've been getting 3-5 hr blocks of sleep at night and hope this trend continues. :) Her only issue at this point is that she spits up very easily (I could probably count on one hand how many times Hannah ever spit up). She's taking some medication for acid reflux twice a day, which seems to help a bit. At this point burping her frequently while feeding seems to help the most. Because Jordyn sleeps a lot at this point we've been able to give Hannah about the same amount of attention as she previously had. We realize this will change, but for now we're enjoying it. One of our favorite times of the day is when all 4 of us snuggle in Hannah's bed for bed time stories. Josh and I both read stories to Hannah and then when we're done she reads a story to her sister. It's so cute listening to Hannah talk to Jordyn. She'll give her kisses on the head and say things like, "my sweet, sweet baby sister". One day she walked over to Jordyn and leaned her ear next to Jordyn's mouth and said, "what was that you said Jordyn?" and then turned to us and said, "Jordyn says she'd like to go to the park." :)
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| first night home...reading stories to her sis before bed |
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| so in love with her lil sis |
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| 3 days old...first walk to the park |
We've enjoyed visits from family and friends during Jordyn's first two weeks of life. It was so special having Lilly and Jordyn meet for the first time. The girls are so close in age (4 weeks apart). Nicole and I always dreamed of having babies at the same time, sometimes I can't believe it really happened. It is going to be so neat watching these girls grow up together. I just wish we lived closer...
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| cousins....first picture of the three of them |
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| Lilly and Jordyn .....Looks like Jordyn is telling Lilly a story here :) |
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| our sweet big sister |
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| first ride in the Bjorn |
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day 6...after 6 blood draws, numerous sun baths and countless feedings
Jordyn's jaundice levels finally came down to a safe range |
Sean and Nicole brought their new camera down and snapped a few pics of miss Jordyn. Playing around with their Canon made Josh and I want to get a new camera of our own... we are currently beginning to research what we want to go with.
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| proud big sis |
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| waving "HI" to the camera...so alert here |
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| our little sleeping beauty |
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| first nap together :) |
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| with our girls...so incredibly happy |
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| Jordyn 1 week old |
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| family pic |
We enjoyed a special visit from Nonnie and Nonne as well. It was so nice having them down and the girls getting to spend time with them. Hannah especially loved our trip to Train Town together (pics to come). It was so hard to say goodbye to my family, however we'll be heading up for Mother's Day (& our traditional Mother's Day brunch at Benbow Inn) and Nicole's birthday this upcoming weekend, which we're very excited about.
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| spending time with Nonnie |
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| Nonne and his girls |
Well Josh only has 3 weeks (including this one) of work left before he's off with the girls and I. We are so excited to have the entire summer off together. Josh will be working a few weekends at The Grove again, so my plan is to head up to Fortuna at least two of those weekends to spend extra time with the fam. We are really looking forward to a fun and relaxing summer together...I've said it many times before, but I love love love that we're both teachers and can enjoy the entire summer together as a family with our girls. Not many people have this luxury and we cherish every minute of it. Some events we're looking forward to this summer...
~weekend trip to Fortuna for Mother's Day/Nicole's bday
~ Josh participating in the Nor Cal I Mud Factor at Sears Point Raceway
~Visit from my best friend Ang
~promotion with my 6th graders
~ Girls Dance Party (kick off to summer break)
~bridal and baby showers
~Group camping trip to Lake Philsbury (we were fortunate enough to get the huge group
camp site this year!)
~Josh to Seattle for Mike's bachelor Party
~A's games
~Days on the lake
~Mandy's bachelorette weekend
~Rodeo weekend in Fortuna....just me and the girls, Josh has to work :(
~Annual family/friend camping trip to Union Valley
~1st Annual high school friends camping trip (location TBA)
Believe it or not this summer is much more low key than last summer...which was our goal :) Recently the weather has started to peak into the high 70's and low 80's which makes us ready for summertime even more!!
