Welcome Alyssa Rose!

I went to work on Friday feeling fine. Throughout the morning I was having contractions here and there. They started to pick up around lunchtime. My water partially broke while I was using the restroom....I thought it would be more obvious so I was unsure if it was the real deal. I called my doctor, Justin, and our mom's and went to the hospital. By the time I got there, the contractions were every 3 minutes and were painful. I was having back labor and it was much harder this time than it was with Gabe. I wasn't dialated, but they checked me and my water did break. I went ahead and opted for the repeat csection since I had a section with Gabe. Why risk it...especially since I wasn't dialated at all was laboring pretty intensly. Everything moved pretty fast from there. Alyssa was born at 2:58pm on 11/4/11. She weighed 6lbs 2oz and is 19 1/4 inches long. She's a petite thing. She was 3 weeks and 3 days early, so she was considered preterm. I thought she would be coming early the whole pregnancy. Gabe was 3 weeks early and I just felt the cues coming on that she would be early. Luckily she is perfectly healthy. She had a great cry as soon as she was born and her color was really good. They monitored her for jaundice. Jaundice can happen when you are born early and can be more severe when the baby's blood type differs from the mother (I am O+ and Alyssa is Justin's blood type A+). Luckily her bilirubin levels were fine. Her weight didn't drop too much. Nursing is going a little slow. Sometimes she latches on great and other times she falls asleep or gets impatient and cries which is typical of preterm infants. They encouraged me to stay with it and give her a week or two and she'll catch up. It was nice to have the weekend at the hospital to recover. Justin was running around back and forth to take care of Gabe and finalize things at home for her early arrival. Gabe came to the hospital on Saturday to visit. He is very cute with her. He says baby and pats her when we tell him to be gentle. He'll give here a kiss and then he's off to play with something else. We came home today. It was nice to get settled in when Gabe was at school. This evening went well. I tried to give him some attention and he ate well and was talking well like everything was normal. He does have a little bit of a runny nose, so I'm hoping he doesn't get a cold. It would be really bad timing. I am doing well....a little tired of course, but in a good way. It was so nice this time around to be able to come home from the hospital as a family. While I know it will be difficult and sleep deprived I don't have the worry I did with Gabe. The first 2 weeks will be difficult since I can't lift Gabe after having my csection, but we'll make it. Luckily we have lots of help. I am happy, tired, but very happy.