Hospital Day 2

Cora's name has been a source of discussion in the Taylor household since we found out we were having a girl. Jamey wanted to name her after his great grandmother Zeola. I was not the biggest fan although I like Zee. We listed all the names in the family tree and ranked them. We met at Cora. We also discussed how much I like boy names for girls and Jamey suggested Charley. I took weeks of my pregnancy calling my stomach Zee, Charley or Cora depending on my mood. I have to admit for while there Charley was the clear winner. Then I realized my niece's new dog is named Charlie and I read three books in a row with a dog name Charlie. Weird isn't it? I decided that was a sign either in the pro or minus. I looked into the future a bit

My daughter: How did you pick the name Charley
Me: I saw/read about four dogs named Charley and just couldn't resist.
My daughter: My therapy bills are going to be huge.

OK. So not Charley. Now Cora was still very appealing. It could be cute or grown up and it was unusual. Also it has good meanings "heart" or "maiden". I remember being so irked to realize my name meant "of the resurrection". What does that even mean, really? Zeola, let's call her Zee, was also unusual but had no meaning and everyone I mentioned it to said "what? Viola?" and I had to repeat it. I got tired of that quickly, so how would Zeola feel?

My daughter: I hate my name. I always have to repeat it and then tell people how to spell it.
Me: Well, your father really liked it and since he was having a hard time getting excited at the thought of two kids, I figured I should throw him a bone.
My daughter: My therapy bills are going to be huge.

OK. So I went dictator on Jamey and declared the winner to be Cora. I told him, with some slight trepidation, that he could pick the middle name. Jamey enlisted Ruby's help and came up with several likely candidates including Key, Pine cone and Aurora.

Now, here we sit in the hospital and a woman comes in with the birth certificate. I tell Jamey's it's time and the lady says "oh no, this is just the baby book certificate. You can still think about it." Jamey happily puts off the decision until the real certificate comes in later that morning. As he's filling it out, he starts laughing. Do you think New York has the same sample occupations?

He hands back the paperwork which I intercept and am happy to see Zee as the middle name. I love it. A nod to the family tree, but uniquely her own.

Today, our visitors are my mom, dad and Ruby for the most part. Uncle David dropped by since he was on a business trip the day before. He brings us a great lunch and makes me laugh so much with his stories that I have to take a Perkeset when he leaves.

Yvonne and Evan continue in being way too good of friends by bringing us sushi, wine and bubble teas with caffeine. It's like a smörgåsbord of pregnancy no-nos and I eat to my heart's content.

Cora is such a perfect baby that Jamey and I spend most the day reading. This may be the most relaxing vacation we've had in a while. Despite that, we send Cora to the nursery for the night and get a good 6 hours sleep. Ahhhh, won't see that again any time soon.

Hospital Day 1

After Cora was born, Jamey's immediate job was to notify the family. In true introvert style for the 2010s, Jamey used text messages. There were two flaws with this approach. The first is my sister was not programmed into his phone and he forgot to tell my parents to send her the text. The second is that his mother is the same woman who once washed my cell phone in the sink when it got dirty. She thought the text was trying to sell her something and hit buttons till it went away. When my tech savvy niece got a hold of Juju's phone, she found about 100 text messages that had been treated to the "go away" approach. Luckily, his family was all at church together and they passed along the news.

Cora was so exhausted she slept through having her hair washed once we got to the room.

Our room at the hospital was fascinating. By that, I mean it has entertainment built in for the baby. Simply release the brakes on the bassinet and the baby will fly across the room. Apparently our room connects the old hospital to the new wing. Some construction genius was off on the measurements so they sloped our room to connect the two wings. It was enough of a slope to be visible to the naked eye.

Our first visitors were my parents and Ruby. Ruby was extremely excited yet cautious of the baby. I didn't discourage it. A toddler being scared of the baby is not all a bad thing. Mom and Dad brought a huge box of coffee from Starbucks (maybe a half gallon) and a basket of snacks.

Once they left, Jamey's family started showing up and showing up and showing up. The room turned into a party. Luckily, my easy labor meant I was fine with all the activity. The baby slept happily as she was passed from person to person. Oh and that large amount of coffee? We polished it off!

Aunt Karen dropped by and walked into the chaos. She left and Jamey's family slowly trickled out. Once they left, my sister showed up which was a huge surprise. Her and her children had jumped into the car upon hearing the news and drove 2 hours to visit. I was impressed with how much all the nieces and nephews oohed and ahhed over the baby. I don't remember really getting into babies when I was a kid. My mom and dad showed back up with Ruby and the Griner posse headed out.

Yvonne and Evan were our final visitors of the evening. Like angels, they arrived with Brio's takeout and a nice bottle of wine. Oh and what's that for dessert? That's right. A double doozie. Woo hoo!

After all our visitation was over, the nurse walked in for a final check of the evening. She mentioned that a Code Brown had been called for critical care unit and she would have to ask security what the story was. Seeing our confusion, she told us a code brown meant a fight. Later that evening Jamey and heard a Code Brown for Labor and Delivery. Jamey grabbed a camera and went downstairs. I yelled after him that he could probably just watch and episode of Maury Povich and get a similar story if he wanted but I don't think he heard me. Jamey missed the fight. After that, we settled in for the evening. Jamey and I shared the twin size hospital bed in part because the "dad" recliner would roll across the room if he tried to use it.

Through all this Cora slept and ate being basically a perfect newborn. I kept her in the room because I was concerned she would be taken away the next morning for the jaundice light like Ruby had been. I have O+ blood and both Ruby and Cora have A+ so it makes her a high risk for jaundice like Ruby had experienced. All in all the night nurses and Jamey's snoring woke me up more than she did. Maybe I would send them to the nursery on Day 2 instead of the baby.

Tomorrow's post - On Day 2 we get less popular and learn that Alabama's birth certificate form is a little depressing

It Was A Dark and Stormy Night

After a ridiculous number of days with no rain, a thunderstorm rolled in early Sunday morning. I know this because I woke up realizing I had a wet leg and heard the thunder. Apparently a change in pressure was just what Cora needed to decide to make her way into this world. I woke up Jamey and we called the doctor. As we waited for the call back, I remembered my friend Valerie's story that the best thing she ever did when her water broke was to take a shower before leaving the house. I jumped in the shower and even took the time to blow dry my hair. By the time the doctor called back, I was dressed and ready to go. As luck and possibly a nesting instinct would have it, my parents were visiting us to help me check off the last items on my prepare for baby list so we didn't have to worry about what to do with Ruby. Jamey left them a note and we headed out.

As we left we commented on how great it was that there would be no 280 traffic at 1:45 AM. To our surprise 280 was filled with cars. Eventually we figured out it was traffic departing from an Auburn game. Despite the traffic we arrived around 2:30 AM to labor and delivery. Contractions had started in the car and were about 5 minutes apart. I was hoping there would be time for all the painkillers they had to offer. After last time, I was ready for a birth experience like Karen's where they had to wake her up to push.

The great thing about a middle of the night labor experience is the fact that there is no concern about who to call. Jamey did, I later found out, post a Facebook status that he was eating Triskets at 4 AM which may have given it away, but only to a serious Facebook stalker.

Once we settled into the room, they started the IV and gave me what my sister Kim affectionately calls the "groovy juice". It was like being instantly drunk. I would move my head and then my head would move kind of experience. I still could feel the contractions, I just didn't care. Jamey pulled out a box of Triskets and had a snack while I happily chatted away about who knows what to him. (He later exclaimed I was primarily fascinated with how many clocks I could see where there is one clock.

All good things must end and the groovy juice was no exception. Later, Jamey would comment that "Stacy only had to feel like 1 or two contractions". It's always nice to peek into Jamey world. It's a pretty interesting place and surprisingly upbeat. In reality I had about 45 minutes of strong contractions maybe 2 minutes apart. Anyhoo, it was enough to be really happy to see my good friend the anesthesiologist. The nurse filled him in on my previous experience and he analyzed me carefully before deciding I had a long back that was a little bit crooked, but not really. Whatever dude, start the epidural! He, having taken it as a personal affront that an epidural had not worked at this hospital last time, decided to play it safe it and set it up higher on my back than normal. Delicious numbness set up from my pinkie finger on down. It was awesome. The constant question I was asked by hospital staff after telling them epidural didn't work last time -- "Was it was here?" This makes me wonder if some other local hospital has a chronic problem with epidurals? An epidural tease of some type?

Giddiness is probably the best description for how I felt as the labor proceeded. I could actually feel the baby moving down my body and positioning itself for delivery but there was no pain. It was very neat. With Ruby's very I couldn't feel the baby at all because the pain kind of kicks any nuance out of any other feeling out of you.

Around 7:30 AM the nurse told me she felt like it would be time to push soon. I tried to call my parents to see if they were up yet and had seen the note. They didn't answer. My mom called Jamey back and told him she had seen the note and assumed Jamey was kidding. Only after walking into our bedroom and seeing it empty did she realize it really was time.

The doctors were changing shift around 8:30 so a new doctor walked in, introduced himself and caught the baby after 2 contractions. Jamey cut the cord and Cora "TBD" Taylor entered the world at 8:46 AM weighing 6 lb 13 oz and measuring 19.5 inches long.





Best things packed for labor - lip balm, Triskets
Least useful thing packed for labor - Kindle

Tomorrow's post - Telling the family, the party in room 238, learning the meaning of Code Brown and Cora gets a middle name.