August
Finally, the month we’ve all been
waiting for. We found out that I would be working the week Alana was due and
would be out of town, about 2 hours away. After talking to Olivia’s doctor, he
said that she was progressing wonderfully and recommended inducing just to make
sure that I was there. So we planned the induction for Wednesday the 5th
and I headed out of town to work the 2 days prior.
The special morning arrived and we
headed into the hospital at 5 a.m. After getting Olivia admitted, I headed out
to get breakfast while they got her all hooked up and ready to go. At 6, the
doctor came in and broke her water. We had asked that he do this before
starting the Pitocin to see if her body would start labor on its own.
After an hour she was having
contractions 5 minutes apart but they wanted to see if they could get labor to
speed up. So, they gave her a small amount of Pitocin which quickly got the
contractions to 2 minutes apart. The nurse upped it one more time and they
started coming in hard and fast at about minute apart. Olivia was doing great!
She was breathing through the contractions and I was rubbing her back trying to
provide some counter pressure. About 3 hours in, Olivia asked for an epidural.
The contractions were coming really fast and if this was anything like her
labor with Tannin, she still had 5 hours to go. No one knew just how far along
she was!
She got the epidural and 30
minutes later the nurse came in to check on her and found that little Alana was
crowning. We were all pretty shocked that it had happened so soon. Thankfully,
Olivia’s sister Shelby had just arrived to take the pictures.
They quickly got the doctor in
there – he wasn’t even able to change out of his suit, lol – and he threw a
gown and some gloves on. Ten minutes later, we welcomed our little Alana Rose
Reimer into the world! She weighed 7 lbs 10 oz., measured 20 ½” long, and had a
head full of curly, black hair. She’s holding up the family tradition of having
thick, black hair at birth, at least on their mother’s side, lol. Olivia was
born with black hair that was 3” long! It used to stand up straight…she was
pretty cute, no bias.
Tannin was able to see us that
night and say hello to his new sister! He was staying with grandma and pawpaw
while we were at the hospital. He had no clue what was going on and wasn’t
entirely excited about this new person taking his mommy’s lap. Since then he’s
come to like her, hugging and kissing her before going to bed.
Over the next day and a half, we
had some friends from church and family stop by to say hi and see how the baby
and momma were doing. After that, we were discharged and got home the afternoon
of August 7th. Olivia was feeling great, not having the spinal
headache she had had with Tannin.
After that, Alana had her 1 week
appointment that next Monday. I was back at work and life was finding its new
rhythm. Since then, life has been interesting, trying to juggle two kids
needing our attention and investment in their lives. It’s been good though: stretching,
but good J
Oh, and I got my extended
Permanent Residency unofficially approved! The reason for this is because my
initial Permanent Residency was a conditional one, one that needed renewing
after 2 years. Olivia got all the paperwork together and sent in. We received a
confirmation letter and an appointment for me to get fingerprinted in
September. This new card will be good for 10 years while we work on getting my
citizenship. Yay!
