Baby Whitney is here!

Whitney Vanessa Sutherland

4.18.11

8lbs 6oz, 21in

Here we are right after she was born :)

Vic, of course, is once again the proudest, happiest daddy out there.

Tommy meeting Whitney. He was so funny- right when he crawled up into my lap he stuck his face across from hers with the biggest, silliest grin on his face.

Look at that proud brother!!

After looking, he thought he needed to give her a kiss & a hug. As you can see from the picture, he wasn't that worried about upsetting or smashing her :)

After all of his playfulness, he snuggled up next to her & decided he needed to study her face. It's hard to believe these two are siblings with their opposite hair colors!

Whitney & Grandma VanSickle (my mom)... luckily here for 3 days to help out with Tommy!

Whitney and Grandpa & Grandma Miller (my dad/stepmom)

Whitney, Uncle Darren, & Grandma & pa Sutherland (Vic's parents)

And now... THE LABOR STORY!

I'd have to say I was quite miserable going 5 days over, but it may have been very worth it as this labor was 100 times easier than the last! The last one was 23 hours, draining, & awful with an awful doctor I'd never met, & a grumpy nurse. This time...

Monday:

9:30am: I went in for doctor appt w/ my regular doctor & he said the hospital was open to induce me if I wanted to so of course I jumped all over that! Scrambled home to pack, get Tommy to a friend's, eat, & get back to the hospital by 12 to check in.

1:00pm: Doctor broke my water & told me that I was already at a 4 so I could get epidural right away. I was shocked cuz I remember how many hours of pain I had to go through last time before I could have the epidural. I was sorely tempted to do it right away, but I wanted to get this thing done with as soon as possible so I opted to walk until I felt I couldn't handle it any more.

4:00pm: I was doing just fine with only mild discomfort & suddenly within 5 minutes they got way harder & my eyes teared up on a contraction & just the memory of how painful it was last time made me panic & call for the epidural! Luckily, since it was during the day, the anesthesiologist was in house & came right up to give it to me. I was sitting pretty by 4:30. Prettyish I should say. Last time I had a spot it didn't work on the right side & this time both legs were totally numb, but right down the middle wasn't all the way numb! It made it much easier though & all I had to do was light breathing through each contraction.

6:00pm: My doctor had gotten off work & came to check on me before he went home & it was a good thing he did because I was already at a 9 1/2! He went & got dressed down, gathered up the needed staff, & by that time I was fully ready to push. I still pushed her out in 4 minutes just like last time, but this time I could feel it-- making it way harder to want to push! I hate that I could feel it, but glad to have the experience of knowing what it feels like to have a little HUMAN come out of me! Total time was just under 6 hours which was AMAZING. I can't believe how different having a baby can be! I can now understand why women can do it more than twice :) AND... even though epidurals never seem to work perfectly... thank goodness for that modern miracle!!

Naming this little girl was a challenge! Little Miss Whitney came out & I seriously would not believe she was mine if I hadn't seen her come out of me! When we went to the hospital we had the name Whitney Vanessa picked out because I thought this baby was going to look just like Tommy, but girly. So when I saw this little girl I had no idea what to call her! I kept going back & forth between names & really just felt weird naming a little girl that I was still having a hard time believing was mine! Finally I just decided that the name Whitney is cute & she is cute so they match :) I still am not sold on the name for her, but I'm sure it will grow on all of us. I picked out Whitney so Vic got to pick out Vanessa.

24 hours later & I'm really starting to feel the awful pain of healing and the rocky road to recovery, but it is all so worth it when I look at Whitney's sweet little face. She is so tiny and lovable & I can't wait to spend the next 6 weeks 100% at home with her :)

Here is one more shot of this little cutie with her sweet little feet poking out- you can't really see the blanket that well in this picture, but Vic's mom made her another one of her amazing blankets. We are so lucky she has such talent!