A Whimsical Bird Nursery for Macy

Seriously – SO fun putting together a nursery for our little baby girl!

 

 

Macy Victoria

She’s here! We’re overjoyed and so glad to finally have her with us.

In the spirit of recording for memory – here’s the story of how we got from staring at my 9-month pregnant self to holding our precious gift in our arms…

It was a not-so-secret fact that in the last trimester of my pregnancy, my doctor made it clear that I needed to schedule a c-section for 39 weeks – which I was not real pleased about. I was hopeful to go into labor naturally before then, but prayed and prayed for peace with however it all went down. How weird it was to schedule our child’s birthday! A surreal thing, but also kind of nice to know that there was a final date to look forward to! We both had bought new overnight bags – which were packed and ready by the door, the car seat was installed & had been inspected, there was an extra key ready for my parents who would be travelling and the nursery was all set! All we just needed the baby…

On the Thursday (5/1) before the scheduled surgery, I had an appointment and had the doctor try to move things along. Nothing seemed to be happening until Friday night, when I had a couple of signs that something may be happening. Nick got home from work and we decided to go on a “last date” to dinner with a gift card we had received (Thanks, Conlons!). While at the restaurant, I started having contractions and we began getting excited. I continued to have contractions all night and after waking up at 3:30a on Saturday 5/2, and having contractions for 1 minute each, less than 5 minutes apart and for longer than one hour (those are the rules!) – we went to the hospital very excited & anxious! Unfortunately, we were sent home after I showed no progress and the contractions did not stay consistent. What a demeaning thing to have happen! We were very disappointed – especially considering that I didn’t want the c-section on Tuesday! We left the hospital and went to breakfast where all the wait staff at our local joint were chit-chatting about when the baby would be here. Saturday was frustrating, and Sunday and Monday continued to bring random contractions and lots of just “not feeling well.” Good friends, the Downers, came over on Sunday for lunch and a bit of chilling – which was a nice mental break. We spent the rest of the weekend and Monday finishing up all of our to-dos (however non-sensical they might have been…it kept us busy!!), did a bunch of laundry and dishes and even baked to bide our time!

It certainly wasn’t easy to sleep on Monday night and Tuesday morning brought the most anxiety-ridden hours of my life. With all the anticipation of the big day, the excitement surrounding the baby, the scariness of the surgery, the nervousness in addition to not feeling well all weekend and being frustrated by my body attempting to do something – but not succeeding…I was MORE than ready to be done with it all and move on to the next stage…the baby! I had lots of sweet friends text and call that morning and while it was more than nice – I got to the point of having to turn off my phone so I could just get through the day. The surgery was scheduled for 2:30p and I was not allowed to eat for 8 hours prior – which meant I woke up at 6a to eat some cereal as my last meal. 🙂 I was so hungry all day – especially when we stopped for Nick to eat lunch on the way to the hospital…and I just watched him eat…oye!

We arrived to the hospital, got all checked in and were admitted and began surgery prep with the nurse. We soon were told that the surgery would not be on time as they had three emergency c-sections that day in addition to the scheduled ones already on the docket. No kidding! It seemed we were last in line and we were to just continue waiting. Nothing like adding to the anticipation! They put our baby’s name on the white board in the room and on the card in the bassinet and we just kept waiting…

FINALLY – at 4:40p – I was taken into surgery and Nick joined me at 5:05p. I hated being in there without Nick – I was just so scared and nervous (not to mention the anesthesiologist hitting a nerve during the spinal!) – but eventually he joined me and the surgery began. And then it became evident that the surgery would last a bit longer – the doctor kept mentioning some scar tissue she had to be careful with and it seemed like forever waiting to see the baby be raised up for us to see. But then – THERE SHE WAS! We were so thrilled and we both immediately started crying. Nick joined the baby at the warmer while they finished surgery on me and soon enough, we got to head back to our room and take a good look at Macy Victoria…our daughter!

The rest of the stay in the hospital was just so surreal – we couldn’t believe it was all actually happening. Over the course of the next 3 days – our parents came to visit, as did my girlfriend Brittany and we enjoyed getting to know Macy. The day to leave came soon enough – and as scary as it was to leave with such a tiny little being to take care of…we were thrilled to start this new chapter of our life with Macy!