Introducing Aspen Lloyd

Last week our little Aspen was born!  She weighed 8 lbs 9 oz and was 21 inches long.

Birth Story:

Aspen was due July 17th, but because of how quickly my labor with Sophie happened we decided I should be induced a week early to reduce the chance of giving birth on the side of the road.  About 10 days before my induction date the doctor told me I was 3 cm dilated and 70% effaced.  He didn't think I would make it through that weekend.  So after a long ~10 days of waiting to go into labor at any moment I ended up making it to my induction date.

I got called into the hospital at about 12:30pm to start my induction.  When I got to the hospital I was dilated to 6-7 cm and 80% effaced.  They set everything up and broke my water at 1:15pm.  The doctor hoped that breaking my water would stimulate labor without pitocin, but after an hour or so of nothing happening they put me on a really low dose of pitocin.

After they broke my water I got an epidural.  It was weird to get one before I had any pain, but with Sophie the contractions came on so suddenly and things progressed so quickly I almost didn't have time to get an epidural.  So I asked the anesthesiologist not to give me much medicine.  Throughout the whole process I didn't have any pain and could still move my legs and feet, and never needed to push the epidural button.  Before the epidural was put in the nurses kept making comments about how they thought it was weird my contractions didn't hurt.  I don't know why I wasn't really feeling anything, but I'm grateful my labors have been so easy.

Ater about an hour of nothing happening, they increased the pitocin.  Then things finally got rolling.  I was having some huge contractions (according to the monitor because I still wasn't feeling anything).  The nurse checked me and I was 9 cm and 90% effaced.  As soon as she pulled her glove off, I said the baby was coming.  So she checked 10 seconds later and I was 10 cm and ready to start pushing.  I pushed for two contractions and Aspen was born.  Everything went really well and her APGAR scores were 9 and 10.  They said it was really abnormal for a baby to get a score of 10, so she looked really good.

A while after birth the nurse thought Aspen was jittery (although I thought she was just cold), so she called to have her glucose tested.  The glucose was supposed to be above 45, but Aspen was only at 40.  So the proceeded to prick her heal every 3-6 hours for the next 48 hours athough her glucose was fine every other time.

My labors are really easy and I feel great afterwards.  (Isaac says that throughout his medical school training he never saw labors as easy as mine unless the lady was having her 5+ child.)  I was walking around soon and never had much pain.  I am really grateful that everything has gone so smoothly for Sophie and Aspen's births.  I was hoping to leave the hospital after 24 hours, but due to Aspen's alleged glucose problem we ended up staying the whole time.  I don't get much rest in the hospital due to the constant interruptions, and was anxious to get back home to Sophie.

Aspen has a full head of dark hair, just like Sophie did.  At first we thought Aspen looked just like Sophie as a baby, but as time went on we began to see some differences.  Aspen is a very mellow baby and sleeps all the time.  She is only awake for a few minutes a day and isn't very happy when she is awake.  She just roots and tries to eat anything in sight, even if I have finished feeding her moments earlier.  It seems like she doesn't know what to do with herself when awake--besides trying to eat.  So at this point she has been a fairly easy baby to take care of.  We already love her so much and are glad to have her as part of our family.

Sophie has been adjusting fairly well to having Aspen around.  She loves holding her and giving her kisses.  For the most part she is really gentle with her, except when she is "done" and tries to shove her away.  We are trying to work on being quiet because Sophie is always trying to wake Aspen up.  We also have to explain that Aspen can't play swords, blocks, swing, etc. because she is too little.  So I think Sophie might be a little disappointed that this "friend" we kept telling her would come live with us isn't much fun yet.  But I am glad to see how much Sophie seems to love Aspen already.

  (The two pictures above were not posed, but they were taken within seconds of each other.  Sophie can go from silly to cute instanteously.  Crazy girl.)

We are so blessed that everything with Aspen went well and we love having her as part of our family.  Isaac is completely outnumbered by the girls, but he is soooo good with his daughters.  They have a great daddy who loves them so much.  Welcome to the family baby Aspen!