Introducing Aubrey Kate!

Aubrey Kate Andreae made her debut into the world Thursday, May 24th, 2012 at 12:49p. She weighed in at 8lb 1oz and was 21 inches long. Her head circumference was 35 centimeters.

I was scheduled to be induced on Thursday and had to be at the hospital at 5am. I was having contractions during Wednesday night, but only lasted about 30 seconds each and on average were about 7-8 minutes apart, plus they weren't intense, so no need to go in before 5am. However, Aubrey would have probably been born on her own accord if we waited a day or 2. My doctor had called us the night before our induction to let us know that she forgot about an obligation she had to attend between 10:30a until noon, but we decided to stick with the induction plan and just hope that my doctor would be available when it was "go-time."

We arrived to the hospital at 5am, got checked into our room and I was hooked up to the pitocin by 6am. When they checked me in the morning, I was still only at 3cm and 75% effaced. Then, the doctor came into assess me before 8am and I was still the same. By that point, I had been getting pitocin for almost 2 hours and I was pretty discouraged that I hadn't progressed at all since I had been at 3cm for almost a month already. I was just thinking to myself "Here we go again!" Natalie's induction took forever and was exhausting with 3 hours of pushing. My pitocin levels got up to 10 and I was definitely feeling the contractions, which with Natalie I didn't feel them until my water broke. I decided to get the epidural before my water broke this time, which was done around 11a. This time, I could still feel the contractions, but it was more of a dulling sensation than painful, which was different from Natalie since I couldn't feel anything and had to rely on the nurse for a contraction. After the nurse checked me, I was at 6-7cm. The resident was going to break my water (at least what was left of it since I was leaking some), but the doctor asked him to hold off because she was on her way. When she arrived around 12:40p or so, she broke my water, checked me and said I was ready to go after having me do a "practice push." The doctor and resident gowned up, the baby nurse and my nurse were ready, and it was officially time to push.

THREE pushes later and Aubrey Kate arrived by 12:49p. It was a whirlwind and a completely different experience than Natalie!

Happy Mommy after only 3 pushes!

Proud Daddy

Already sucking her thumb

In love!

With Grandma Andreae

Big sister Natalie meeting little sister Aubrey

Happy family of 4

Grandma and Grandpa Brodzinski

  

I absolutely LOVE this picture!

Our celebration dinner

Grandma with her girls

Sleepy girl 

Nails all ready for a manicure 

Daddy with his girls

Ready to go home! 

Big Sister Natalie 

I got to do skin-to-skin with Aubrey, then she latched on right away to breastfeed. So far, although I think Aubrey looks very similar to Natalie, she seems to have a much different personality so far.

We were hoping to leave the hospital on Friday since I was feeling good and Aubrey was doing good, but the pediatrician on-call wouldn't let us leave since Aubrey's white count was only slightly elevated. However, when our pediatrician came by on Saturday, he said everything looked good and we just needed to make an appointment in the next week or 2. I was getting cabin fever in that hospital room, so I was ready.  I was pretty bored on Saturday since in the morning, Bobby helped some friends move. Then, around 11, Bobby and Natalie came up and it was just our little family hanging out before discharge. Natalie was good and we all ate lunch together. We were discharged by 2p on Saturday, and off we went to our house to become our family of 4 (well 5 including Rusty)!

I was really bad about getting pictures with everyone who visited, but our visitors included: Grandma and Grandpa Brodzinski, Grandma and Grandpa Andreae, Aunt Amanda and Uncle Matt, Abbey and Tim Fouse, Joel and Hailee Lauritzen, and Big Sister Natalie!