What a Week!!!

It's amazing how some weeks just fly by and other weeks seem like they last forever. This has been one of those verrrrrrrrrrrrrrry long weeks. We've had some ups and downs, but we're happy to say that we've ended this past week on the upside of things. We'll explain the week through pictures....here we go:

The week started with the last prenatal visit. The doctor asked if we wanted to be induced before the new year (apparently that's a pretty common request). We figured it sounded like a good idea, so we were set to check into the hospital on Tuesday at 1:30. We showed up and were actually sent back home because they didn't have enough room. They called back later in the day and we left for the hospital around 8:00 on Tuesday evening. After settling into our awesome birthing suite, we waited patiently for the nurses to come in and get everything started.

After hearing all throughout the pregnancy that labor the second time around goes much faster, we were expecting to have our little girl here in no time. Of course, when you factor in the process of induction and that it could take quite awhile to jump start labor, you quickly realize that what you've been expecting can be much different from reality. Indeed, this was totally different than we thought it would be. The labor started off very slow and nothing really progressed until about 4:00 in the morning. The nurse suggested that I get an epidural to help my body relax and get through labor faster. I was a little unsure since I had such a bad experience last time around (the epidural didn't really work, but I was confined to the bed and very uncomfortable the whole time). This time, the epidural was amazing, but the process of getting it was a nightmare. It took a couple tries to get it in, which was terribly painful. By 6:30, the doctor decided to come in and break my water. This helped everything move much faster and by 10:15 we were ready to push. By 10:31, our little girl was here! Leah Ann weighed 7 pounds, 6 ounces and was 20 inches long.

We were so happy to have delivered another happy, healthy baby. Dr. Umpai has now delivered both of our children and we are so thankful for her care throughout both pregnancies. She is an amazing doctor and we hope that when she says "I'm too old for this", she knows that she can't retire just yet...there might be more Sturm babies to deliver! Although our doctor was amazing, we couldn't quite say the same about the nurses we encountered at the hospital. When we had Caleb, we had the most wonderful care the entire time. This time around, the maternity ward was incredibly busy and we definitely could tell that the quality of care was affected.

Wednesday evening was the first chance that big brother Caleb had to meet his little sister. Right away he knew who he was coming to see and he couldn't stop talking about "We-uh". It was so neat to see him finally meet this baby we'd been talking about since last spring!

On Thursday, we only had one set of visitors. It was great to have the entire day to rest and relax. Nana Pam, Madelyn, and Grandma all came up for a little while to meet Leah.

We had a great time bonding with our little girl in the hospital for two days. It was definitely hard to be away from Caleb though.

On Friday, we waited the entire morning for the pediatrician to come in to discharge us from the hospital. We were not working with our regular pediatricians because they are not affiliated with that particular hospital. When the doctor finally did come to check out Leah, we were so happy to finally be heading home. Unfortunately, she told us that we'd have to come back the next day for a quick blood test to make sure Leah's bilirubin levels (jaundice) did not jump too high.

We were so happy to get home and settle in. Grandma made a yummy dinner and we all got the chance to hang out and experience life with two little ones to take care of!

On Saturday, Grandma came over to watch Caleb so that we could go to the hospital for Leah's blood test. What we thought would be a quick trip turned into much more. The test results came back and Leah's levels had jumped way too high in just two days. The doctor was concerned because we were only breastfeeding and not supplementing with formula. Since much of the bilirubin is flushed from the body through a baby eating, peeing, and pooping, we knew that she needed something extra to help get her levels back down. We ended up having to check back into the hospital on Saturday evening and spent two long nights there. Leah slept great in her little incubator with bili-lights shining on her the whole time and an IV in her arm. She had to be fed every two hours, which was tough because at this point, our sleepy baby takes about an hour just to feed! That meant an hour of feeding, an hour of rest, and back to feeding. Thus, I wasn't able to leave so Tyler thankfully made a couple trips home to get clothes and such. He also spent the day on Sunday back home with Caleb. It was good to know that Caleb could have some quality time with at least one of his parents!

We finally got to leave the hospital on Monday afternoon! Leah's levels had gone down enough to the point where the doctor was not too concerned. It was so great to be home and we are sure that our little daughter is going to be one tough cookie after all that she's been through. We tried to total up how many heel pricks she had done in just her first five days of life...the total is somewhere around 10...poor girl!

We hope that this past week is not a foreshadowing of how crazy life is going to be with two kids. We expected things to be different, but this has just been insane! We're hoping that life slows down a little bit and we can just take time to enjoy our new addition.