The Roblee Blog: March 2013

We woke up on Thursday, February 21st ready to meet our baby girl! We had a room reserved for us at 7 am at Scripps Memorial Hospital in Encinitas. Auntie Kim was there with us and would watch Dane and Ryan while Mike and I drove to the hospital that morning. My parents were headed down in Dalcorp One to be there in a couple hours. Things were movin' and shakin'!

Mike and I arrived at the hospital at 7 am and headed into our room. The staff there was incredible. Everyone was so friendly and accommodating. I went and changed into my beautiful hospital gown to get ready for my induction. I definitely had some major nerves going on, but was just trying to remain calm and soak everything in.

After my nurse Ramiko checked me in and got me settled into the bed, we started monitoring the baby. Everything looked great! At that point, Kimmy got there and was ready for action. She was SO excited to be in the room. I had no idea how much she wanted to be there, so when I asked her the night before if she wanted to be there for the birth, she jumped at the chance! It was so sweet how grateful she was for that and I was so glad we had her there. She also video-taped for us, which was a great gift!

At 8:30 am I was about 6 cm, so Dr. Cap broke my water and we got things underway. I walked around the room and made sure to do some squats to get things going, per Kim's request:) In the mean time, Kimmy and Mike set up a game of cribbage so we could keep my mind off the surges (aka contractions...or as Kimmy called them...sunflowers). I think it was about 10:15 and only one hand into the game that I realized I needed to get to the bed. The surges were coming on pretty quickly and strongly, so it was time to hunker down and get serious. (Side note: I had done quite a bit of research on Hypnobirthing and Visualization techniques to keep calm during the birth. Since I wasn't going to have an epidural, I wanted to learn how to get through the birth with as little drama as possible.)

I kept my music on for a while and Mike did a little pressure point work on my foot to help with the surges, but after a while, it was too intense. I turned the music off (at this point I didn't even have time to find my play list that I wanted...that's how fast labor was moving) and I was working through labor quickly. I was able to keep very calm and only had a couple moments where I got a little nervous. Overall, it was a really great labor! AND FAST! Around 10:45 ish, Ramiko checked me and I was 7 cm. I thought I was going to die because so much time had passed (haha, okay in actuality that's not much time), so how was I only 7?! My surges were getting so close that they weren't stopping, and within about 30 minues (I think), I had reached 10 cm! Dr. Cap came in and started prepping for me to push. The last hour was such a blur, but I do remember things in the room being so peaceful and quiet. It was really nice. There weren't tons of nurses and people running in and out. It was just Dr. Cap, Ramiko, Mike, Kimmy and me. SO wonderful.

So, at 11:47, Dr. Cap said I could start pushing. He was trying to show me where to "aim" when I pushed, which was funny...I didn't need ANY coaching in that arena - I wanted that baby out and she was coming out! At 11:50, after one fast push, Alana flew out! It was the most incredible experience ever. Feeling her move through me like that (and with such speed) was just unforgettable. Dr. Cap plopped this beautiful little baby on my stomach, and from that moment, I felt a high I cannot describe. It was so wonderful having her on my skin. And I even got to have her root for her first breastfeeding experience. If you've never heard of this, it's amazing! The baby is actually able to find the breast herself after she's born. The baby can crawl, bob her head and basically "smell" the milk. It was so cool to watch her find it herself and have my first breastfeeding experience just minutes after she was born.

The environment in the room stayed calm. After breastfeeding, the rest of the family began to trickle in and Ramiko then did all of her cleaning and testing she had to do on Alana. Everyone got a chance to hold her and Dane and Ryan were in awe the whole time. It was so great to see Dane asking Ramiko a million questions while she was going through all of her procedures with Alana. He's so curious! Ryan was a little jealous I think, but he was so excited as well. It was a time I'll never forget.

After a sleepless (but wonderful) night at the hospital staring at and getting to know my beautiful baby girl, Erica and AJ drove down the next morning (the 22nd) to see the baby. Since they were only able to visit for a few hours that day, and my family was all at the house with the boys, I decided to come home early. It also got pretty busy at the hospital that night, so I was sharing a room at that point - NOT ideal.

We had a great time visiting and passing around Alana, but after a while, I got SO tired and I started to go through the hormonal fluctuations that lead you to your first melt down. That night I was pretty weepy, but thankfully, everyone was very understanding and I didn't completely ruin the evening. HAHA!

It was hard to say goodbye to everyone on Saturday, but it was also nice to have the house to ourselves to embark on our new life as a family of five. Thank you SO much to my wonderful family - for all of your support, encouragement, babysitting, picture-taking, grocery shopping, cooking, and just plain loving. Mike and I are truly humbled and blessed by all you've done for us. That goes for all of our friends who've made it a point to help us out as well. We cannot believe how lucky we are to not only have such beautiful, healthy children, but to be surrounded with such loving and caring people. Love to you all and thanks for keeping up with us on the Roblee Blog! If you'd like to watch a video of the birth and see what the day was like (don't worry, nothing scary), please click here to watch this BEAUTIFUL video that Kimmy made for us.

Welcome to the world, Alana Margaret Roblee. WE LOVE YOU!