Welcome, Miss Adrienne Reese!!

We got home from the hospital around 11:30 today and it feels great to start living our lives as a family of 4! The original plan was to stay in the hospital until tomorrow but I really felt that I needed to be home for Brooke and worked very hard to get out of there today like I did.

As many of you may have heard, Adrienne was having difficulty breathing after her birth and they discovered that she had swallowed large amount of amniotic fluid. I saw her in the operating room for about 30 seconds, at best, and then they whisked her away from me quickly. Little did I know at the time, but I wouldn't be able to see her until about 5 that night. The first time we officially met she was attached to tubes and monitors and IV's and it was absolutely heartbreaking. It the polar opposite of what I wanted to be experiencing on the day of her birth. I held her briefly in the special care nursery but other than that, she wasn't allowed in our room and she wasn't able to nurse either:-( It was just awful! They also informed me that she would need to stay in the special care nursery overnight, which was the worst news I could have heard. I was eager to nurse her and love her but it was just NOT happening. Finally, at 9 or so, they brought me a pump so I could express a tiny bit of milk for her and I was able to give her a first taste of my milk through a medicine dropper.

Yesterday morning she was brought into our room at about 9:30 and it felt amazing to love her and be with her without all those tubes and machines attached! We stumbled through our first nursing session and it was a lot tougher than it was with Brooke because Adrienne had to go so long without depending on nursing for nutrients, due to the IV. We're both working hard at nursing now and I think she just might be getting the hang of it!

Adrienne weighed in at a whopping 8 pounds, 9 ounces and she was 20.5 inches long. She's really tiny though so it doesn't seem like she's a huge baby, even though that number is big. Her discharge weight was 8 pounds and they said that she lost a little extra weight because 1) they got rid of lots of fluid and 2) she didn't eat for the first day. She makes the sweetest noises and her cries really sound like a goat! Lol! I am absolutely in love with the newest addition to our family and I can't wait for the wonderful days ahead:-)

Brooke is doing great and adjusting well to being a big sister. Unfortunately she came down with the stomach bug and while we were in the hospital she was throwing up, running a fever, and having awful diarrhea. I was pretty emotional over that because I felt so torn about where I should be and who I should be taking care of. Luckily we're all reunited now and Brooke is doing remarkably better!

John has been absolutely AMAZING. He has to be the world's best husband and father, as he has taken on all the needs of our family completely upon himself. I have been sore and I obviously supposed to take it easy and he has allowed me to do absolutely nothing. This whole experience has deepened and intensified my love for him more than I ever thought possible.

As for me, I will elaborate more at another time, but the C-Section was horrible. Really, many of my fears came true and it was one of the worst experiences of my life. That, combined with Adrienne quickly leaving me in the operating room, made for a very emotional, trying process. I love my daughters so much and would love to have another baby one day, but the experience I had this time around truly makes me question if we'll have another one.

Anyways, I'm off to snuggle with my wonderful husband while Adrienne sleeps. It probably won't last long but I look forward to a few quiet minutes with my man!