Sweet Leine Mae

Our precious baby girl made her entry into this world on Saturday, July 25, 2015 at 4:47pm.  She is absolutely perfect and we couldn't be more in love!  Things are a little blurrier trying to remember her birth story (probably because I was still wrangling her two older brothers during most of the labor), but I wanted to sit down and type it out while it's still fresh(ish) on my mind.

Around 9-9:30am on Saturday morning, I started having some cramping and wondered if it could be early contractions.  They continued every 10-15 minutes apart for a long while, so we figured it was probably labor, but the very early stages of labor.  We were supposed to go to the village around mid-day, but we decided that no longer was a good idea and unfortunately had to cancel our storying session.

We started getting things ready for the hospital (like finishing packing our bags, getting everything ready for the babysitters, straightening my hair - important, I know, folding some laundry, etc.), but at a leisurely pace because it seemed we still had a good amount of time before she was born.  We spent time with the boys and tried to keep their routines as well as we could.

By 2:50 pm my contractions were five minutes apart and we decided to call the babysitters.  Nick put both the boys down for their afternoon naps, and when the babysitters (our friends and fellow M's, Nolen and Sheilah) arrived at 3:20, my contractions were coming every 3 minutes.  We knew it was time to book it to the hospital! We left our house around 3:30pm.

Nick had already called our doctor who said he would meet us at the hospital.  As we were on our way, we prayed for three things: 1) That we could park in one of the lots that is usually just reserved for hospital staff instead of on the street (the hospital doesn't have general parking), 2) That we could enter through the back entrance for employees (there is only one general admittance and it is through the ER waiting room where there is just so much sickness and germs!), and 3) There would be a private room available (there are only a handful, maybe 7, private rooms and I really didn't want to go through the whole labor and recovery process next to strangers and their husbands and visitors).  PTL, he answered all three of our requests!  Our doctor had called ahead to the hospital, and the guard waved us into a gated lot as we approached, he allowed us to enter the hospital from the back entrance, and we were given a private room!

(the hospital)

We went straight to the maternity desk to check-in as my contractions were coming every 2 minutes and had become much more intense. They told us that until the doctor arrived at the hospital, they couldn't give us a room.  We called him, and he assured us he was on his way.  So I sat down in the hallway, with all of our bags, and waited.  They were trying to make small talk with the Americans and during one of my contractions, asked, 'Oh, are you having some pains?' Ummmm, YES, that's why we were there!  We were showed to a room around 4pm and were given/paid for, haha, the best room they had.  It really was nice and we were so grateful for the privacy it allowed.

(waiting for a room)

My doctor arrived at 4:10pm.  If you remember from some other posts, this is the doctor we had originally seen for Oliver and really liked - Dr. Ulisses.  However, he was unable to deliver Oliver because he was traveling the month he was born and had recommended us to someone else.  When I found out I was pregnant with baby girl, we went back to him, but were told he wasn't delivering babies this year, just seeing patients at his office.  He said he would see me to get me started on my prenatal care, but would eventually refer me to another doctor who could deliver our baby.  Well, I guess we charmed him enough that he decided he would deliver Leine Mae after all!  We are so thankful for all of his help and care during this whole process.

Okay, back to the story....Dr. Ulisses checked me at 4:10pm and said I was 6cm dilated and things were progressing smoothly.  He promised to stay at the hospital (something our doctor with Oliver did not do...) until the baby was born, and said he would come back to check on me every hour.  Well, by 4:30, just 20 minutes later, my contractions were one right on top of the other and I was feeling a lot of pressure.  Nick decided to call the doctor.  Instead of coming to check me again, he just sent some nurses and a wheelchair for them to take me to the delivery room.  They put me in a hair net and a disposable gown and wheeled me down the hall.  Let me just tell you how many people were interested in the laboring American going down the hallway....

We got to the delivery room and I climbed up on to the table between contractions, probably close to 4:40pm.  There was no reprieve from the pain at this point and on my next contraction, the doctor helped to 'open me up.'  I have never had this done with either of the other two babies, and he didn't tell me he was about to do it.  I really thought our little girl was being born and asked Nick if she was out yet. Nick had no idea what I was talking about, and gave me the encouraging answer of, 'she's on her way, but she's still inside.'  I then yelled out that the doctor was hurting me more than the baby was, haha.  He said he wouldn't do that again - thank goodness!  He was explaining pushing to me (although by the third baby, I think I have this concept down), but I hadn't been pushing because he had never said I was 10 cm and able to start doing so.  Once we clarified that my body was ready to go, I pushed on the next two contractions, and she was born at 4:47pm.

 (the delivery room)

 (meeting Leine)

(at 8lbs2oz, she's the smallest of our babies)

She was so beautiful, so perfect, and so.....dark!  Her skin and hair were so much darker than either of her brothers, and we joked she had come out Brazilian.  They laid her on my stomach and let Nick cut the umbilical cord.  She stayed with me just a little bit longer and then the pediatrician took her (and Nick) to examine her.

Let me take a break right here and tell you how many different people were in the delivery room and how many people just came in and out.  It was not very private...And there were hospital visitors and patients waiting right outside the door (that was constantly opening and closing), so they were privileged to hear me during the delivery...

Baby girl, whom we decided to name Leine (pronounced Lay-nee) Mae (pronounced May) weighed 8lbs2oz and measured 20.5 inches long.  The pediatrician gave her a 9.5/10 apgar score and said she was perfectly healthy.

I was being stitched up while Leine was being check out.  After this they had me crawl onto a gurney (NOT an easy task right after giving birth) and they rolled me back to our room as Nick carried Leine behind us.  I had my eyes closed most of the way, but Nick said people were coming out of their rooms, from the nurses station, and from the waiting room to see me and the baby (and that continued in our room - hospital employees would come by just because they wanted to see our baby.  One even brought her friend who was just in street clothes!)  That makes it a little hard to rest/breastfeed/recover...

Since they didn't have us do any skin-to-skin time in the delivery room, we took off her little clothes and did so once we got back to our private room. (I use the word private loosely...)  Nick and I were just in awe that we had a little GIRL and that she was there with us, no longer in my belly.  She is so incredibly beautiful and healthy and we are just so incredibly blessed.

 She and I were cleared to go home the next morning, but were not able to check out until around 4pm - 24 hours after the delivery.  All three of our kids have been born on a Saturday - how crazy is that?! However, here the offices at the hospital are closed on the weekends, so we (and by we, I mean Nick) had to go back to pay and register her for her birth certificate.  That has all been taken care of now, so as of Tuesday, July 28, 2015, Leine Mae Sroka is officially apart of our sweet little family :)

We are home now and are all doing well.  Carter is just infatuated with his little 'seester' whom he adamantly refers to by her full name of Leine Mae.  He always wants to hold her, cuddle her, and sing to her - melt my heart.  And he's big enough now, that it actually is a help!  Oliver is adjusting to not being the baby of the family (as am I).  Nick has been a huge help as Oliver is still waking up during the night and needing a lot of attention during the day (especially as he is a little under the weather right now).  But I've caught Oliver a few times, stopping just to stare at little Leine and I know they are going to have such a sweet relationship growing up together so close in age.  Leine is a trooper and doing awesome!  I have to wake her up during the night to eat (trust me, that takes a lot of discipline on my part, haha) and she hardly ever fusses!  Hopefully this is a sign of things yet to come ;)  Nick and I are totally in love and though it can be a little daunting to think of this parenthood thing with three little ones, we know we are so blessed and are so grateful the Lord decided to gift us with these sweet children.

Now for some pictures of our baby GIRL!

 

(still can't believe we have three kids!)

 

 (Dr. Ulisses)

 (leaving the hospital)

*Oh, and to make sure our hospital story is complete, much to Nick's dismay, I can't leave out what happened Saturday night after the delivery.  I could tell that evening that he was acting a little weird and kept asking if he was okay.  He finally admitted he was feeling nauseous and I talked him into laying down.  It got worse and worse, and I ended up asking my nurses if they could do anything for him.  They registered him with the hospital and hooked him up to an IV around midnight.  The IV did help ease the nausea some but then when he got up he almost passed out.  He slept the rest of the night (well as much as he could with all the people coming in and out of our room) and felt a little better in the morning, but still icky/achy.  He was able to rest more during the day as we waited going home and thankfully was doing much better by the time we got home Sunday evening.  It seemed to have been a little 24 hour thing, and though the timing was awful with Leine - he couldn't cuddle and bond with her because we didn't want to chance her getting sick - it was also good that we were in the hospital where we could get help and the other two kids were being cared for at home by our friends.

**And speaking of friends, I also have to thank Bryan and Amanda, other M's in our town, who helped out with Carter and Oliver as well!