Our Baby Girl

Last Thursday afternoon (May 21st) I went in for my weekly non-stress test. The day before I had been having a bunch of contractions and it didn't dawn on me until right before my appointment, but her movements had gone down to almost nothing. With my history with Grant, I was slightly concerned, but glad to be going in for the NST. As they were monitoring her, her resting heart rate was looking good, but they also like to see an elevated heart rate when she is active. She was not wanting to be active though, which for her is unusual. We shocked her once and she kicked for a second, but then went back to sleep. After a few minutes we shocked her again and that really got her mad. But it was good to know that she was doing ok. Also during the NST it was showing that I was having some contractions. They were about 3-6 minutes apart. They weren't too strong, but her heart rate would drop just slightly with each contraction. I told the nurse my concerns with the lack of movement and how that was what happened with Grant and she said she would talk to the doctor and they would go over my NST. After a few minutes she came back in and told me that with my history, and with the slight decrease in heart rate with the contractions that they were going to go ahead and take the baby. She made a call to my OB/GYN and I made a call to Jeremy and we got set to have this little baby a few days early. It all happened really quick. Within about 2 1/2 hours from the time of my NST, I was prepped and she was out. She was born at 6:43pm. She weighed 8 lbs. 11 oz and was 20 inches long. Jeremy went with the nurses down to the nursery to get her all cleaned up while I was getting all stiched up. I sat an waited in recovery for what seemed like forever, and then they moved me down to my mother/baby room. I still hadn't heard much about the baby. Come to find out, her blood sugar was low at birth so they had to feed her a small bottle and make sure her blood sugar came up. So that was what delayed the process of getting her to me. After not being able to see Grant for 3 days after he was born, I might have been a little paranoid about waiting for an hour. Once they came up she was perfect! She had her eyes wide open and ready to take everything in. It took us a little over 24 hours to decide on a name. After all the disagreeing that we did over the last 9 months, I don't htink that's too bad. We finally came up with Hallie May Gallier. And just to clarify, it's pronounced hal-lee, not hay-lee. The May part of her name is kind of a family tradition. We all know my name is April, and Jeremy has a sister that is named January. So I thought it fit to use her birth month. If she was born in November or December or something like that, I would't have used that, but I think May fits and sounds cute.
Over the next few days in the hospital thing went really good. Her blood sugar continued to look good and we didn't have to worry about that any more. She is nursing like a champ, which is a big relief for me. Both Mikkele and Grant struggled with nursing. Her bilirubin levels were a little elevated so we had to have them checked the day after we got out of the hospital. Those results showed that she had doubled her levels and would need to go under lights for a bit. The night spent under the lights was horrible. She did not like being naked, unswaddled, and laying in a tanning bed of sorts. Thank goodness her levels came down enough the next day to get off the lights. Her levels are still coming down, but she is doing a lot better.
Thanks to all those who came to visit or called while we were in the hospital. When we got home, we were met with lots of pink ribbons and bows and some cute welcome home signs made by Alisha, Holly, Mikkele, Grant, Dillon, and Connor. It was really cute.
Life with a new baby has been a little challenging. Hallie is doing pretty good. She is doing better at night and staying awake more during the day. Grant has had the hardest time. He is used to being able to have his mommy just about whenever he wants, but with the new baby, and me having a c-section, I'm not able to hold or carry him as much as he would like. Hopefully he will adjust here soon. Mikkele is having a blast having a real live baby to play with. We already knew that she was an awesome big sister, but she has really stepped up even more. What would we do without our big sister! Speaking of people we can't live without...a HUGE shout out to all the people that have helped us out while we were in the hospital, and even now. Holly and Ryan and Glenn and Dorene helped with the kids while we were in the hospital, Alisha came into town for the first few days that we were home from the hospital, and my mom is here now helping for another week. You guys are all awesome, we would not be able to do this without you!!!