Charlotte Annelise Nielson: Finally Here

So our saga began this last Tuesday - Induction scheduled for 7 p.m.... or so we thought. We called the hospital at 5 p.m. as instructed to find out if we were still on for 7 p.m. The answer... "What's your name again?... We forgot you were coming; why don't you come at 7:30 p.m. and we'll try to get you in then." Huh - not exactly what we were expecting from "The President's Hospital" but whatever. Free is free right?

We arrived at the hospital around 7:20 and all the frustration was made up for in this little sign. How can you not smile when there is a front-row parking spot waiting for you?

We finally were taken back around 8:00 p.m. and they hooked Jari up to the external fetal heart/uterine contraction monitors. Surprisingly, she was showing several contractions at this point. Once she realized that the contractions were correlated with the tightness and back pain she had been having for about a day she smiled and said, "Oh, that is what that pain is that I have been having." She was having contractions every 2-4 minutes at this point.

Almost 3 hours later, around 11 to 11:30 p.m., they started her on the Oxytocin drip. This was the beginning of a very long night. I slept looking at Jari who was obviously in pain and did not feel good, listening to the heart monitor, feeling worried when it would fade out or sound like it was slow... so it was a very long night with very little sleep for the both of us.

Overnight and throughout the next day, they slowly increased the level of Oxytocin. At mid-afternoon, she was at a fairly high dose. It was at this point that we noticed the baby's heart rate drop to 70 for a minute or so. Luckily the nurse was in the room at the time, noticed it, and stopped the Oxytocin. Then started her a little bit later at half the rate she was on and waited to see how she would do. Here is her tracing in the late afternoon. The top tracing is the baby's heart rate and the bottom the contractions.

Around 6 p.m. the nurse came in to check Jari and to our surprise, she was dilated to a 10 and the baby's head was coming down! It was so exciting. They started pulling in tables with the delivery equipment. Jari started pushing around 6:30 p.m. and by 7:08 - we had a baby! It was so exciting. One of the techs in the room received her to dry her off and get her cleaned. Not to be too critical, but he was doing a really crappy job so I took my leave from Jari's side and went over to take over. It was obvious that he was new and not really comfortable so I'm sure he was glad to have some help.

Here is Jari with our little girl. A lot happened in a very short time so I just started taking pictures. I'll let the pictures tell the story for a bit.

Here she is back under the warmer so she can get a bath. What a cute girl!

Here she is on the scale. 5 lbs, 15.2 oz. I love how much hair she has. So many babies are bald for several months but she has some fun hair already.

Little feet at the President's Hospital. And yes, her feet are as wrinkly as they prints make them look here.

Mama Petrie and Erin were able to come spend some time with us. Both got to hold her and spend some time with us. Mama Petrie is still in town and will be for another week which is nice for some extra help.

After I drove Mama Petrie home and drove back, Jari and the baby were asleep. Charlotte woke up a few times but being a newborn was really sleepy. So spent the night with her so Jari could get some sleep. I took this picture soon after I returned. Charlotte would open her eyes when held more upright, so I omitted the flash for this picture so as not to make her mad.

And the joys of spit-up begin. Actually, because she was born so quickly (the pushing phase), she had extra amniotic fluid which was not absorbed/eliminated as it would have otherwise been. So she spent the first 48 hours of life gagging and spitting up large amounts of clear fluid. It looked like she had saved her saliva for about 12 hours and then spit it up. Nasty. We were both really worried about her because she would nearly choke on what was coming up. So I did not really sleep Wednesday night either...

Now for something cute. In fact, I shall post no more pictures of spit-up or other things such as meconium. Now the astute observer might ask him or herself, "Self, are those socks on her hands?" The answer is yes! You are so observant! The reason? She had freakishly long nails when she was born that she liked to keep close to her face and scratch everything. Not only was she a danger to herself with such long claws, it made breastfeeding a little uncomfortable for Jari...

More cuteness. I know the pictures don't really show it, but she really does look like me in so many ways. But she is new so I'm sure things will change.

I'm interrupting this slide show for a monumental moment caught on digital film. The hospital had room service for Jari, three meals a day. This one was special compared to the other though because they actually got her order correct! I know it does not sound like much, but the night before, she ordered a Chicken Ceaser Salad and instead she got two small tuna salads instead. When they were delivered they said, "Sorry, the grill was off so I brought you these." I had nothing to say to that so I just said thank you. So when they brought in the chicken, potatoes, green beans, yogurt, and juice exactly as she ordered it, it was really exciting.

She makes lots of funny faces. This was me trying to copy her. Not so funny are the faces she makes when she's in pain - or at least uncomfortable. I think she has bad reflux (like all babies), so we do our best to burp her promptly after eating and keeping her propped up. When we do, she does really well.

Here is one of her funny looks. I usually get this look when I am trying to tell a joke. I think its an "are you serious dad? That was a really lame joke." At night when she wakes up (her hours of operation are 11 p.m. to 6 a.m. oddly enough), when you keep the lights low and prop her up, she opens her eyes and looks around. It is really fun to watch.

Surprise! Another picture of our little girl! You can see a scratch under her right eye from her long nails. I cut them last night so she is not a hazard to herself anymore.

She looks a little like me right? I hope she ends up looking more like Jari, because imagining me as a women.... kind of scary. But Jari s beautiful so it's only fair to hope she looks like Jari in the end.

I could not resist sharing this one. Big yawn. And yes, socks for gloves.

I guess this is our first official family photo. Sadly the quality is sub-par secondary to the fact that I had already taken our bags (and camera) out to the car. All I had on me was my cell phone. So here we are, ready to go home. it was nice to leave the hospital. She is so small that I thought she would not be able to leave because the car seat was nearly too big for her. But in the end, I think the nurses gave us the green light and off we went - not to our home, but Target to get a baby nail trimmer, then home.

So were are home. Last night was rough. She kept waking up and was not quick to be consoled. I found myself really frustrated a few times, but over time came to realize that it was most likely because she was cold. We have big blankets and little blankets, but not very many in-between blankets which are good for double layer swaddling. Jari was an angel. I tried my best to keep the baby happy while she was sleeping but in the end, it was Jari that was sweet and able to console her. Some may think it's because she is a walking food source. That may be a small part of it but I think the main reason is that she is so loving and sweet. So I'll keep on working on being sweet. In the meantime, I'll do my best to provide diapers and food for all. That I can do.

Look for more pictures to come. Little Charlotte is about 66 hours old now which means there are 1000's of hours left to take and post pictures. THANK YOU to all of you who offered prayers in behalf of Jari, Charlotte and myself. We owe our health and blessings to our Heavenly Father who answers prayers with blessing on our heads.