Lexi Lee Burris 5/4/12

Very early in the morning on 5/4/12, Chad and I left sleeping Ava with Mimi and Poppy and snuck out to head to the hospital. We were in a brand new part of the hospital so it was different from what we had just done 15 months ago with Ava. We arrived and met our friend from church who is a L&D nurse there and started getting everything ready. She is the same girl who helped deliver Ava! I put on my wonderfully flattering hospital gown and then went through all the routine things of medications, IVs, monitors, etc. At about 7:45ish I was wheeled back into the OR. This is always the part that takes forever. With Chad gone and with them setting up and getting everything ready I feel like it takes a minumum of an hour, when in actuality Chad was back in that room in about 10 minutes. My favorite part of setting up (feel the sarcasm here) is when they take me and roll me over on my left side - because I'm numb and can't move myself - and then they slip a board under me and roll me back over, then move said board to the operating table, roll me to my right side, remove board, and then they all leave. I'm a fan of roller coasters, but that's not one of my favorite rides. So an hour  10 minutes later Chad finally comes in and here we go! Lots of pressure, tons of tugging and then at 8:14 AM little Lexi Lee comes out weighing a whopping 7lbs 15oz and we get to hear that much anticipated first cry. They held her over the sheet for us to see and it's that moment where you quickly, without realizing it, count every finger and toe and completely check her over and let a sigh of relief out when you see she is healthy and normal. Chad then gets to go do all the fun stuff and watch them clean her off and weigh her, etc, etc while I get to lay there alone on the table as they sew me up. Yay. Thankfully there is a screen where I can see everything going on with Lexi. They came over when they got her all swaddled up and we took our first picture together :)

Chad then goes with the baby and I keep laying there and then am wheeled into recovery where the skin to skin action and first breastfeeding moments occur. Everything went great. Couldn't have asked for it to go smoother!

We then get to go to the room and see the families which is always exciting. I say this as if I have 12 kids when in actuality I've only done this once. Anyways we see the families, and I was a little nervous about how Ava would react. She actually did wonderful. She came in, hugged me, saw the baby, hugged and kissed the baby, snuggled with me and the baby, etc. It was precious! I was so thankful to have lots of family around to keep her entertained. My dad brought over this horse balloon that was weighted down so it looked like a miniature horse floating around the room. If you know of anyone having a baby that has an older sibling - get one of these. It was perfect. We just had to 'put him down' a couple weeks ago. He lasted a long time!

We were there for 3 days. The first night Lexi slept for 6 hours straight at night and I woke up shocked, scared, (and in pain haha) and completely excited that maybe THIS child would sleep! Yeah, the next night she was up every hour and a half. Comes with it, right? She ended up dropping down to 7lbs 4oz at her discharge weight and we almost had to do the bili lights but decided to try just keeping her in the window and getting her lots of sunlight. It took a while to get over her jaundice but eventually we did and she looks great now! Still has a little tan like Ava did, but definitely not as dark as Ava was.

Dr. Kennedy was great the whole time from delivery to discharge and I've loved her being my doctor with both baby girls. If there is a next time we will plan on using her again!



Little Sister shirt!



This is Ava's big sister gift - her very own chair. She LOVES it.