Olivia!!!

The arrivial of our second child, Olivia Lucile Hagewood, was obviously one of the biggest highlights of 2011 for us.  She was born on December 28th by c-section at 8:03 a.m. 6 pounds, 6 ounces and 20 inches long.

We didn't want to know the gender...but deep down I always had an inkling it was a girl.  I think it was due to the fact that this pregnancy I felt so, so different from when I was pregnant with Noah. Different in a good way too...I didn't have as much morning sickness, my skin held up, and I gained less weight. We had the name picked out for a while too. Noah would have been "Olivia" had he been a girl.  The middle name "Lucile" is named after Nick's maternal grandmother, Lucile Kempf, who passed away over thirty-five years ago.  Nick was never able to meet her...

This being my second c-section, there were some differences as well as each birth and pregnancy is different from what I gather.  For one, this was delightful this time around NOT to be induced into labor and then go through a major surgery. With Noah, I went through 19 hours of labor before the doctor advised a c-section since I wasn't progressing.  In hindsight, it wasn't fun...but I didn't know any better either so it really went by pretty quickly. With Olivia, it was really nice to know the day and time I would have the surgery...and it went super quick! My surgery was scheduled for 7:30...I had her by 8:03. Hooray!

Healing is a little different with this one since scar tissue takes more time to heal up. Therefore the pain meds I was prescribed are especially welcome and taken on time :-) Sleeping-wise, I am not stressing about feeding Olivia like I was with Noah.  I'm going to save this for another post, but breastfeeding is NOT for everyone and I learned that the hard way with my first born.  I also feel it's something women don't talk a lot about (at least I never knew how hard it can be before having my own child).

Sleeping is Olivia's FAVORITE activity right now and I forgot how much a newborn does in fact sleep.  She is pretty quiet and content for the few hours she may be awake in a day and already seems very "easy" (knock on wood, right?). 

Noah is adjusting well for the most part. I think he's really enjoying having Nick home this week watching him and taking him places.  He likes to hold her and when he wakes up asks for the "baby". Being "gentle" around her is getting better and better every day.




First day home from the hospital




Olivia~ one week old