Our Talia Rose

I have to say that everything about this pregnancy has surprised me. From the beginning, I was convinced that I was having a boy. Everything with this pregnancy was just reminiscent of Ky's pregnancy. However, when I saw two "little butts" in the 20 week ultrasound--I was given my first warning that "things are not always the way they appear." Towards the end of the pregnancy, I was also feeling that this little one was going to arrive early. My intuition of an early delivery with Ky and an on-time delivery with Alaina had been correct, so I was pretty sure that I would be delivering in my 38th week--once again I was wrong. And finally, I felt this baby was a pretty big baby. I was guessing close to 8 lbs and boy was I surprised to have delivered my smallest baby. Anyways--time to begin Talia Rose's birth story....Hang in there--this will be a long one (after all, I was the best rested with this birth!)

Monday, April 25th (39 weeks) I was scheduled for a c-section at 10 AM with check-in at the hospital at 8. Easter was the day before, and with all the plans made for the holiday and packing the kids overnight bags to stay at Nana's and getting the house in order and things out for Nana--it was just a crazy day.

Rob and I dropped Ky and Alaina off at Nana's Sunday night and had one last meal as "just the 2 of us." By the time we got home, it was already 9 and there was much to be done. I needed to finish packing my bag, sweep the downstairs, do a load of laundry, pull out clothes for the kids for the next few days, and eat & drink. My fast for the surgery began at midnight--and yes I stayed up until midnight making sure I could drink all the water I could and have a small meal to suffice me. So what did I do---start a load of laundry and then Rob and I sat down to watch the rest of "Avatar". Yeah--I had priorities! After all, this might be the last movie we are able to watch for a while! :)

Of course, by the time I got to bed I was exhausted, it was after midnight, and I could not sleep. BLEH. So much for going in well rested. I cried a little- realizing that everything would be changing soon. (This is just how I deal with any change...) And of course ended up moving to the couch downstairs so I could watch my last night of reruns. (This is what I did every night of my pregnancy when I couldn't sleep.)

At 6:45 the next morning, Rob and I were up--and of course running late. Traffic was a bit more than I imagined it would be. We got to the registration desk at 8:30. EEKS! I was really worried they would be mad at me. Well, it turns out we were on time! I was scheduled to come in at 8:30 and the C-section was scheduled for 10:30! WOO! Talk about a close one.

We were taken back to triage, where I got changed into my LOVELY gown and took a few last pictures. From there, the nurse came and got my vitals and asked me all sorts of dumb questions like "Are you pregnant?" "Are you in labor?" I know these questions are protocol--but PUH-LEASE! Aren't some things obvious? And shouldn't they already have this information in the system?

From there it was IV time. UGH! I really don't mind IV's, however, I have an issue with the process that IV's become. I don't like the "let's just stab the patient everywhere and not take her advice on where to put it in" method. My veins move. They are hard to get. With every kid they have ended up having to go in my hand because that is the only place the veins don't move so much. So of course, I recommended that they just put in my hand....Six sticks and 3 nurses later (actually, it isn't just a stick, it's a stick and then probe with the needle until we make large bruise marks and then make you bleed...) they finally took my advice and put it in my hand. BLAH!

For this pregnancy I named my new IV companion "June". I felt it was only appropriate since we would become good friends over the next 24 hours or so. From there the anesthesiologist came in and talked to me. And let me tell you I had the BEST anesthesiologist EVER! I really have an issue with needles being put in my back. When I had to have it done with Ky--the anesthesiologist yelled at me. I was starving after 24 hours of labor and just totally bummed about everything and he yelled at me for moving. The anesthesiologist with Alaina was better-however, he missed. I still remember how he got out of my cord and the weird and painful feeling it left in my side. *Shudder*

This guy was really cool though. First of all he said that Rob could come in the operating room with me to be my support. (This isn't usually allowed.) Secondly, he talked me through it all. Granted, he had to do 2 tries and left some nice bruises, but it was all worth having this guy. And finally this guy took our camera and actually took pictures of Talia being pulled out. (Some of these pictures I am not putting on the slide show since they show parts of me that I would prefer not everyone in the world saw.) Anyway--back to the story...

So off to the operating room we went. First time I had ever walked there on my own. It was really quite weird. I also was able to get a good look at everything that was there. From the other 2 c-sections I don't really remember those details. After I was all numbed up they laid me down. The Docs had put on some nice pop music for themselves (there was no music for Alaina's birth, but I do remember music playing for Ky's). They then began their work. When they began to pull Talia out, she was already crying. The anesthesiologist at this time (11:08 AM) grabbed our camera and snapped several pictures. There were tears from myself as well as Rob. This had been a stressful pregnancy with the ultrasounds, but to finally hear her proved everything was alright. She was BEAUTIFUL.

The nurses whisked her away and Rob followed several minutes later to take more pictures and get her footprints. She weighed in at 7 lbs and 1/2 ounce and was 19 inches long.
I was very alert (not too exhausted) through the whole process of the surgery. Rob came back with our little girl and we watched as she smacked her lips and looked around in bewilderment. Little Talia looked so much like Kylan it was uncanny.

From the operating room, I was taken to recovery where I was able to hold and nurse her. Rob then made the family phone calls. I was kept in the recovery room for several hours. At one point, I had some additional bleeding as it pooled down my legs (okay too much detail..) and my blood pressure dropped a bit, but it was quickly controlled with some additional medication and additional compression bandages. The doctor said that the amount of scar tissue they had cut through on one side was causing the additional bleeding. My pain meds and IV meds were pretty high so I was getting pretty loopy at this point and some of the remainder of the day is fuzzy, but I will fill in as much as I can...
Sidenote: Rob called Debi to let her know that we had a little girl. Debi told Rob "I was sure it was a boy. All your presents are for a boy and I am not taking them back." (This had Rob and I laughing for quite a while!)

Once we were taken to our room, we had some time to bond with our little girl. She received a bath and Rob changed her first diaper. We talked a little bit about the baby's name. My favorite name was Talia and Rob's was Karena. We both liked the middle names Rose and Annaleen. (Annaleen was a name I had come up with--it represented many women family members--Ann from my middle name and Rob's Great Grandma Anna, "leen" from Grandma Arlene and Rob's mom Kathleen as well as "een" from my mom, Maureen.) The only thing was Annaleen just didn't seem to flow as well as Rose did with the two names.

I had issues with the name Karena since I really did not want people shortening it to "Rena". (Makes me think of renal glands--ewww!) I was also foggy headed so I told Rob that we should sleep on it. AND...Rob had picked Alaina's name last time, and I think he made the right choice so I was thinking that perhaps Karena was the way to go and I just needed to sleep on it.

That afternoon, Rob's mom and Jan came with Ky and Alaina and they got to meet their new sister. You could tell that Alaina really did not understand. She was pretty antsy. I imagine seeing me connected to all the tubes and being told to be careful around me was probably a bit scary. Ky, however, quickly took to being a big brother. He was holding Talia and loving every minute of it. We could tell that Nana was disappointed that her granddaughter didn't have a name yet (and even more disappointed the next day when she was still unnamed--though we quickly rectified that...)

We had purchased two toys for the kids from their baby sister to them. Talia gave Ky the much MUCH desired Buzz Lightyear. (He had been asking for it for the last 2 months). And Alaina got "Jesse" from Toy Story. That really helped the mood (Alaina's anyway--Ky was already doing well.) Ky was quite the happy boy as you can see in the pics.

The next day went by quickly as they took me off the IV drugs and the IV. I was also able to get around. I was definitely feeling much better. We chatted briefly about the new baby's name, but had some visitors and so we did not quite finish by the time Nana had arrived with the kids. We had decided at that point that Rose would be her middle name. Rob had also told me he was fine with Talia. At this point he pretty much left the ball in my court as far as deciding the name.

I felt really bad when Nana & G'ma Jan arrived. You could see the disappointment on their faces when we told them we didn't have a name. I then told Rob that if he was sure he was okay with it, I would like to go with my name. Talia Rose Schnake was then named. Whooo...boy did that take a lot of stress off.

Here's a little background on the name Talia. I had first found the name Natalia and really liked it--thinking we would shorten it to Talia as a nickname. Rob however did not like Natalia, but did like Talia. The name Talia made it on our list. Talia is a Hebrew name and means "Heaven sent dew", "little lamb", or "blooming". I LOVE all 3 meanings--however when you put it with Rose you have a "Blooming Rose". How pretty is that?!

That night our little Talia did not eat well. She was rejecting me. I was a little frustrated, but did not think much of it. At midnight the nurses weighed her and she weighed 6 lb 5 oz. They were a little concerned about her large weight loss, lack of wet diapers (she only had 1 that day), and even more concerned that she was not eating well. The next day (the day of my discharge) she did the same thing. I had the lactation consultant in with me several times as well as several different nurses. We would get her to eat, but only briefly.

The pediatrician told me I could leave with Talia, however I needed to be seen by my lactation consultant the next day and/or our pediatrician. I was also told that I should consider supplementing with formula--and this was just not an option I was willing to consider at this time. I had Rob call to set up the appointment. At the last minute our LC said they would see us that night since they did not work the next day.
Let me tell you--seeing an LC is BRUTAL. If you see one with your first child--realize that what they do is NOT how normal nursing should go. They use some pretty drastic measures to make sure your child eats. When we left, Talia had eaten 1.1 oz and I was VERY sore. I told Rob on the drive home, that while I will use some of her measures in nursing, I will not use all unless Talia totally refuses to eat.

Perhaps Talia also did not care for the brutality of the LC, because she began eating again--and well. Throughout the weekend, I nursed her continually and even woke her up to nurse. (She is a very good sleeper--she sleeps 3-4 hours at a time, perhaps longer if I did not wake her up.)

On Friday we took her to the pediatrician and she had gotten her weight up to 6 1/2 lbs. On Monday, May 2nd (her due date), we took her in and she is now back to her birth weight! PHEW! What an AMAZING weight gain after all this. Now I figure I can step back and relax and let her sleep!

So final thoughts on Talia. She is SO SWEET! She doesn't cry much at all and seems so content. And she smiles--seriously she already smiles. She will look at you and you can see she recognizes you and smiles. Amazing! As far as adding her to the family, so far she seems to be an easy baby (knock on wood). Really it is just a matter of Ky & Alaina adjusting at this point, which I am sure they will.

My little Talia is quite amazing though, and I already cannot imagine my life without her. She melts my heart. (Did I mention she is an AWESOME snuggler?!) She has blessed so many people already in her short 7 days of life--and I am not just saying that--God has really used her to help the spirits of several friends of mine that have been really down. I know that God has a special plan for her. And I am SO PRIVILEGED to have been given her to raise.

So the pics...yeah...I am obsessed...expect many more...just like with all my kids!