{ Sicily Danyel Knapp... }

WARNING: Long post ahead...

Baby girl is finally here! The journey of pregnancy #2 with baby Sicily could not have been any more different than #1 with Wyatt was but man oh man am I glad it's over!

Back-tracking a little bit after my last doctors appointment at 40 weeks I had to come back the next day to do a non-stress test. Honestly this part was really irritating because I don't understand why I couldn't just do the test right after seeing my doctor the day before? Plus, on top of that, my appointment to do the test was at 4:00 pm. I get there maybe 5 minutes early. I don't get called back to do the test (sitting in a reclined chair with 2 monitors strapped to my belly, not even seeing a doctor) until 4:40 pm. By the time I get all hooked up and the monitor turned on I was only being tested for 20 minutes. Part of which was technically after hours and most of the office staff had already gone home. My doctor says he could see some decelerations with the baby's heart rate, that it has him a little concerned and would like me to be tested longer but since it was technically after hours he would like me to go to Mountain View and be monitored for at least another hour. I go to Mountain View and stay for a little over an hour being monitored when he tells me once again, he's still seeing some decelerations, chances are when baby moves that certain way it's just pinching the cord for a second. Nothing he was concerned enough about to keep me in the hospital but that if I chose to not be induced at that point he wanted me to come back to the hospital the next morning to do a stress test where there will actually give me pitocin and see how baby reacts to that. Not starting to put me into labor, but just on the edge of that. So I leave the hospital much later than I had anticipated staying and head home.

Now, all the while we're anxiously awaiting when I would or in this case would not go into labor, Wyatt is super sick. Like I'm talking double ear infection on top of hand foot mouth disease (except just in his mouth)! IT...WAS...HORRIBLE! Jordan and I felt so so bad for him! He was on antibiotics for the ear infection (which wouldn't have known about except he'd had a cold for over 2 weeks and he doesn't act like he's in pain when he gets ear infections) but there was absolutely nothing he could have for the hand foot mouth. He had little white blisters all over his tongue. He kept saying his teeth hurt (before the sores came we were thinking maybe he was getting more teeth) but really it was his tongue and throat. Poor guy! You could tell he was in pain every time he swallowed. We could not get him to eat anything. In about 5 days he had 3 popsicles, maybe a couple cups of water, and a little bowl of sherbet ice cream. And the only way he would drink any water is if we sucked it up with one of those syringes for taking medicine. For some reason getting him to drink it out of a cup was not happening. Halfway through his sickness we got a sucker that numbs the mouth and throat just to see if it would help get him to eat something else. Poor guy is not exactly chubby so losing as much weight as he was was not very good. He really did not like the sucker at first. Getting him to take a few licks (that's all it takes to get the mouth and throat numb) was so hard but eventually he began to like the sucker and would start asking to have it. The next day we managed to get him to eat an entire can of chicken noodle soup! Hallelujah!

Jordan was so amazing while Wyatt was sick. Wyatt is already a big daddy's boy but man did he sure love his daddy even more while he was sick. We kept him on medicine around the clock. It's amazing how good you get with knowing what times and intervals different medicines can be given when your child has to have them all the time for awhile. Before we knew for sure what Wyatt had we thought it would be best if I tried to be a little careful around him for fear if I got sick (especially being so close to my due date) it might affect the baby so Jordan was almost pulling double duty with Wyatt. If Wyatt woke up in the middle of the night because he was in pain (which was often) Jordan was right there ready to give him more medicine. Mind you this is all happening while I'm still working full time, 9 months pregnant, and Jordan is going to school full time. To say the 2-ish weeks that Wyatt was sick was the longest 2 weeks ever is an understatement.

The night after I did the non-stress test I got thinking that I didn't want to do another test. I was already 2 days passed my due date, there may not have been a lot of declerations but the few ones I was having was making me nervous and let me be real here....I didn't want to be pregnant anymore! I wanted my hips to stop hurting, to have bladder function normally (weird uncommon thing but during the day I never really have any sensation to urinate when I'm pregnant) and I just wanted to finally have my baby girl here! So when I left the hospital that night I made an appointment to do the next test at 7:00 am but when I got home decided to just change it to an induction. Another plus of having her Friday was Jordan would only have to miss one class and his teacher completely understood since he had a pretty legit excuse ; )

I callled the next morning and said I'd rather be induced, the nurse of course had to check with my doctor first but we finally headed back to the hospital. Oh, on the subject of my doctor, that was a little worrisome by itself too. With Wyatt I had Dr. Leavitt be my delivery doctor. Within his office he acquired 2 more physicians, Dr. Adams and Dr. Asay. I had been rotating between Dr. Adams and Dr. Leavitt through most of my pregnancy but towards the end they were both called out on a delivery and I sort of had to see Dr. Asay. I was a little bummed about that but Dr. Asay was still fantastic. I finally chose to have Dr. Adams be my delivery doctor. Come time that I have to decide whether or not I want to be induced or wait it out was the time that Dr. Adams is going out of town and Dr. Asay is covering for him. Huh...well that sort of defeats the purpose of choosing a physician doens't it? Anyways, so I knew after I decided to be induced I knew Dr. Asay, whom I'd only met once, would be my delivery doctor but tried not to let that bother me and instead focus on just getting my little girl here.

I don't know what we would have done without Kelly. She called in sick to work so she could take care of Wyatt so Jordan could be with me in the hospital. I was incredibly grateful! After getting the okay from Dr. Adams (who did come to see me before he headed out of town) they basically started me on pitocin, as if they were going to do the test but a higher dose of the pitocin to actually get my contractions started. That was at around 7:45 am. But I also tested positive for the group B strep this time so they had to start me on the antibiotic for that as well. They had to monitor me a little closer because they had to make sure to get at least 1 bottle of the antibiotic in my system before I dilated too much to the point that I could push so they couldn't increase the pit nearly as much as they had with Wyatt. They get the antibiotic in my system and my contractions keep increasing. My mom and Jordan were the only ones in the room. Jordan would ask me how I was feeling and if I needed anything and my mom would ask me as well. My water still hadn't broken on it's own so at 12:00 pm Dr. Asay came in and broke my water (really strange feeling). She said that it shouldn't be long 'til my contractions really start to increase. Boy was she not kidding! By 12:05 pm the severity of my contractions had gone from probably a 3 to at least an 8. I'm trying to focus on my breathing and even pick a point to focus on. I'll never forget The Fifth Element was on tv while I was feeling all those contractions. By about 1:30 pm I know I'm wanting the epidural so I ask the nurse to get the anesthesiologist. They had a hard time with the epidural. I apparently wasn't sitting straight enough on the bed so he basically couldn't get the epidural in where it needed to be. He had to try twice to get it in but the first time I could feel the needle almost scraping on I'm guessing one of my vertebrae (so grateful he had already numbed me). My nurse (who was awesome) was trying to help create more space to get the needle in by basically pushing down on my shoulders as I'm hunched over hugging a pillow but finally it was in and the happy medicine was flowing. However, it wasn't in just right because it was only working on my right side. I couldn't feel everything on my left side but it definitely wasn't completely numb like my right side so he came in and had to adjust it. When the epidural was in, even before he adjusted it, I had a strange metal taste in my mouth and my tongue was tingling. The tingling part is what made me nervous. A friend of mine had a horrible experience that started with her tongue tingling and it getting worse and worse from there. I was pretty relieved when he got it adjusted right. Both sides of me were finally numb about 2:00 pm and by 2:30 pm I was pushing. This right here is why I already know I want Dr. Asay to be my doctor for my next baby. During the entire time I'm pushing she's encouraging me every step of the way saying, "Go mama, go! You got this little mama! You're doing great! Keeping going! You got this!" My delivery nurse and my mom and Jordan were of course still encouraging me as well but it was awesome having my doctor be a cheerleader for me too! I was so grateful for that! I think I did 5 sets of pushing with 3 pushes per set and Sicliy was finally here at 2:55 pm weighing 7 pounds 15 ounces, measuring 19 inches long (Jordan and my mom thought the nurses measured really fast and didn't get her length accurate though). I couldn't have been more relieved. She was finally here safe. No more worrying if the declerations were just once in awhile or if something more was wrong. She was here. She didn't have as big of a cone head as Wyatt did but she was super swollen. I will never forget how big her cheeks were! As soon as I saw her face I couldn't wait to snuggle and love on her.

She got lots of hugs from Obesa (my mom-"grandma") and daddy while everyone was finishing taking care of me. Thankfully I only tore a little bit, nothing like the 3rd degree tear with Wyatt so a couple stitches took care of that quickly. After a bunch of pictures miss Sicily nursed for the first time. At that moment I thought I might lose it and just start bawling tears of happiness. She was finally here in my arms. The definition of pure joy was in my arms. That moment of holding your new baby in your arms for the first time is indescribable.

This little one is so tiny and had only been in this world for 5 minutes but she had already filled my heart with such an immense amount of joy I can't begin to describe it.

Little does Jordan know but Miss Sicily already has him wrapped around her little finger.

Jordan went home that night to help take care of Wyatt. We knew there was no way Wyatt was going to get much of any sleep at all without at least Jordan there. Then it was just me and my girl for the night. The nurse came to take Sicily for her first bath. At first she was a little upset but as soon as she was in that warm water she absolutely loved it! You could just see the look on her face go from uncomfortable and startled to very peaceful and calm. It was so cute! It was pretty warm in there. I was feeling a little light-headed so I either leaned on the counter by Sicily and watched or sat close by for a few minutes but I got some cute pictures of her first bath. All of the nurses were amazed at how quiet she was while they were taking all her measurements again and getting her dressed.

Sicily definitely did not like it when her clothes were taken off but as soon as she was put into the warm water she calmed right down and loved it.

She even liked being under the warm lamp. Until she had to put clothes on. Then she wasn't a fan at all.

That night she did amazingly well! You know that little feeding/diaper changing log sheet hospitals give you to keep track of it all making sure the baby is eating often enough and all that? Well, I fed her about 11:00 pm and we both fell asleep. Of course I'm basically sleeping like a rock after just having a baby but Sicily didn't wake up to eat again until about 6:00 am. When she woke up I instantly panicked thinking she really did wake up hungry but I didn't hear her for some reason. The nurse came in to check on us, saw the time I wrote down on the log in sheet and was like, "Uh...she needs to eat closer to every 2-3 hours." And I'm thinking, "Ya I know. Would you wake a perfectly peaceful sleeping baby? Especially after you just spent a good amount of energy having that baby? Exactly, I didn't think so."

Later that next day my girl and I started getting visitors. Grandma and Grandpa Knapp, my Aunt Elaine, Dane and Corey to name a few. The best and hardest visitor of all was late afternoon when daddy and big brother Wyatt came by. I wanted so badly to hold both of my kids for the first time. Get that "first family photo." But when I say it was the hardest visit it's because I knew I couldn't even touch Wyatt, let alone hold him. Jordan put a mask on him and surprisingly he kept it on but we still didn't want to take any chances. At least Wyatt got to see his baby sister for the first time, even if it was only for a couple minutes. My mom was with me when Jordan brought Wyatt in. As he was leaving I slowly started to sob. They were both tears of joy and tears of sadness. I couldn't even hold my son. I couldn't help him feel better. I felt so useless. Not like a good mother at all. I felt horrible. My mom saw me crying and started to tear up herself but told me she understood and tried to make me feel better. I just kept telling myself everything would be okay. That this is what is for the best for everyone right now. Jordan came with his dad to bring me the car seat for Sicily but after leaving took Wyatt to community care. I felt so bad for Kelly though. She wanted to come see Sicily so badly but knew since she'd been taking care of Wyatt for us, that it probably wasn't a very good idea. We later were told that Wyatt had hand, foot, mouth disease which was localized to only his mouth, hence all the little white blisters all over his tongue. Good thing we kept Wyatt and Sicily separated and were super careful. That's when it was decided that Sicily and I would go to my mom's house in Shelley for a few days. Or at least until Wyatt wasn't contagious anymore which according to the physician at community care is until the blisters on his tongue were gone.

The day came that we were able to leave the hospital but that proved to be a little trickier than I was expecting. Our car was left at the hospital since we were pretty sure I was going to go to my mom's for a few days but I was still waiting for Jordan to bring the car seat. Jordan and his dad came down to bring me the car seat and see miss Sicily one more time before we headed to my mom's for a few days. We got a family photo of just the three of us...

look at those cheeks!

and we're outta here!

Then Sicily and I headed to Shelley with my mom and her boyfriend John behind us and Jordan and his dad headed back to Rexburg. We got to my mom's around 3:00 pm and got everything settled where I wanted it. My mom is amazing and made me my favorite dinner that night. Sicily woke up a little more than she had been the last couple nights but went back to sleep pretty easily each time. I was a little worried even though she didn't really cry that she'd wake up my mom but she said she didn't hear anything.

Sicily was born on a Friday, we got to my mom's on Sunday afternoon and stayed there until Tuesday morning when we left and headed to Rexburg to her first doctor's appointment. We spent our time at my mom's just lounging around and loving on my sweet girl. I knew once we left we wouldn't have our own mommy/daughter time so I tried to soak it all up. Sicily slept for her naps really well. Kelly was super excited about her doctor's appointment because I decided to start taking her to where Kelly works for all of her appointments and she works in the pediatric department so she finally got to see Sicily for the first time!

After her appointment we finally made it back to the house and started getting settled in with having 2 kiddos now. We decided just to be on the safe side we'd keep Wyatt away from Sicily for another day  and definitely not let him around her face. That was still a little tricky but so far so good because everyone is doing great and Sicily hasn't gotten sick at all. Jordan didn't go to his classes on Monday since he was still taking care of Wyatt but we decided that he should go on Wednesday so it was just going to be me with the two kiddos for the first time. I'm a little nervous but still excited at the same time.

Here's to crossing my fingers all goes well my first few days with both kiddos. I'm a little nervous but bring on these next adventures!