Anyway, on to the good stuff. On January 29, 2013 at roughly 4:20 pm, Felicia gave birth to Eliza Snow Stacey. It was a week early, which we were totally okay with. January seemed to just inch by at such a lethargic pace we weren't sure February 5 (her original due date) was ever going to get here. But on Monday the 29th, the doctor decided it was time for the baby to come out. Pretty good thing because she came out 8 pounds 9 ounces. A week later and pushing her out would have been like trying to pull your bottom lip over your head.
The delivery was a little interesting. Not sure how much I want to put on this blog, partly because I know that all you really care about is pictures of the baby and partly because I just don't really want to write it all. Suffice to say, Felicia is a believer in epidurals. She did get some sort of intense pain in her shoulder right before she started pushing which lasted the entire delivery. The doctors weren't sure what causing it and were fairly concerned. They did an EKG before they would let her deliver which didn't show anything, and ran a CT after the delivery that also didn't show anything. But it hurt her so bad she almost wasn't able to push Eliza out. After about 2 hours the doc said we needed to either do a C-section or he needed to use the vacuum. I'd never heard of people using that during delivery but it sounded easy enough, so we went with the vacuum. It's essentially a suction cup that is put on the baby's head so the doctor can help pull while the mom is pushing. Two or three contractions later and Eliza was here. Apparently the suction cup has the potential to do some real damage to the baby depending on how hard the doctor has to pull. Our doctor was fantastic though and the physical evidence of the suction was incredibly minimal. Eliza had a red ring on her head and it was a little tender for a day or two and a very little bit of scabbing, but she healed up from it just fine. And she has a little head of black hair! It's the cutest thing I have ever seen in my entire life. Neither of us are sure where the black hair came from, but we'll take it anyway.
The other thing that happened at the hospital was that Eliza was having a hard time regulating her glucose levels. The hospital we were at doesn't have a NICU, but they do have what they call a Level 2 Nursery which basically is a place they put babies that need special care. So that's where they put Eliza. She was hooked up to an IV and all sorts of monitors and she couldn't be brought into our room. So for the first almost 72 hours, every time we saw her we had to go to this room and try to navigate through all the wires she was hooked up to. It made holding and feeding her difficult, but we loved her anyway. The silver lining was that since she had to stay there and had a nurse looking after her 24/7, we were able to spend our nights sleeping. Well, as much as you can sleep in hospital beds.
Anyway, to make a long story short, she's fine. Her glucose is fine. Felicia is fine. Eliza is adorable. Here's the proof.
I do just want to say one thing quickly about this picture. That white Minnie Mouse onesie is was incredibly complicated to put on. It took both of about a minute and a half to put on her, and as you can see she wasn't very happy about it. Her grandpa stood by and laughed at her parents complete ineptitude while taking pictures. In the end, it's a super cute onesie so it was totally worth it.
The BYU hat is curtesy of Felicia's aunt Melodi. I can't believe I forgot something so completely necessary as BYU gear for this baby. That almost makes me a bad, neglectful parent. Good thing someone was looking out for us.
