#LifeUpdate - Welcome to the World, Adora!

Synopsis:

Adora Lillian Ochsner was born on 2021.01.29 at 10:15 AM at 38 weeks and 5 days gestation, after about 16 hours of continuous 7-8 minute contractions. With some risk of high blood pressure, and no sleep at all the night before for her mommy, Dad (me) got to spend a lot of the first few hours hugging and admiring her (the much easier job), alongside mom, who had to deal with a few post-pregancy complications.

Today, I wanted to expand on some some very exciting personal news, in that my wife Ann-Marie and I have welcombed our daughter into the world exactly 1-week ago today!

January 28th, 2021 (Day t-1)

After having her first contractions the night before, Ann-Marie was having minute long contractions every 7-8 minutes Thursday night, and we were asked to come in to check her out. The contractions weren’t unheard of, but due to some high blood pressure the contractions soon became a very real thing, where we were tentatively advised to plan ahead for doing a ceserean at 3 AM (once food out of system), excepting the case where blood pressure lowered again.

While we got to and passed the 3 AM mark, we took this picture that Thursday night before delivery (it was 4 AM and nobody was coming by our room, so we took our masks off for this picture… shhh), since it wasn’t exactly a room with sleepable conditions.

Soon after, we got moved to another room, where Mama continued to undergo contractions for a total 16 hours from Thursday night through Friday morning (wide awake). Of course, I happen to have fallen straight asleep by 5 AM (and got a full 3 hours of rest, sorry Ann-Marie).

January 29th, 2021 (Day 0)

By Friday morning, the contractions were still continuing and blood pressure was just barely within tolerable ranges, so we were given the choice to move forward at our own decision (rather than a medical decision that would’ve been required at 3 AM). We opted to deliver, and wouldn’t look back for a second based on the situation.

After a few hours of prep, and operation, Adora Lillian Ochsner was finaly born on 2021.01.29 at 10:15 AM at 38 weeks and 5 days gestation! With some risk of high blood pressure, and no sleep at all the night before for her mommy, Dad (me) got to spend a lot of the first few hours hugging and admiring her, alongside mom, who we were cheering on as she dealt with some post-pregancy complications.

From the first day, we were absolutely in love. She was a healthy weight at 8 lbs 10 ounces (21 inches long), and didn’t cry nearly as much as we’d thought. We had to wear masks, but I like to think Adora liked us a bit too

By the end of it, I was admittedly pretty dead tired from standing and swaying Adora all day, so I conked out for a full 6 hours of sleep overnight, while Ann-Marie got about 3 hours or so.

January 30th, 2021 (Day 1)

The next morning, we woke up to a very cute baby, and feeling a whole lot better from rest. …and started it off with some skin-to-skin!

January 31st, 2021 (Day 2)

Sunday morning was a beautiful morning after a night filled with a lack of sleep, but a whole lot of love for our Adora. We were up all night, but we had one of the best nurses, named Taylor (a mom of 5) at Meriter hospital, and we learned so much from her experience as a mom, Doula, and nurse. She was truly wonderful to us.

Here’s some great pictures and moments from Sunday!

And then my VERY favorite pictures in the world

Adora with a Milk mustache (and that adorable creased lower lip):

Making use of our new home decoration in hospice

February 1st (Day 3 & “Previous” Day of Delivery)

The Day of February 1st was a surreal day for Mom and Dad (me), since it was the day that Adora was going to be delivered. At this point, through all the sleepless and sleep deprived nights, it was starting to feel a lot more like real life - a very exciting time for both of us.

Here’s some pictures of some more moments for the day, which was the first day that we could (if we really wanted to push for it) discharge ourselves.

Due to concerns with Jaundice for Adora, we opted to stay the extra day so that she could be tested again in the morning.

Jaundice is a condition (particularly prevalent in babies) where someone has too high levels of bilirubin in the blood. This bibirubin is normally filtered out by the liver to be passed out of the body through poop, but with other things going through the body from being in the womb (a thick mucky substance), it can be difficult for babies to excrete enough poop to lower their levels to a healthy level. At this point, Adora’s Jaundice levels were in the intermediate at-risk category, so we were doing EVERYTHING in our power to get her to eat as much as we could through-out and especially the night of this Monday.

That led to a lot of cute little moments like this

February 2nd, 2021 (Day 4 - Discharge Day)

Tuesday morning at 7 AM, we had our Jaundice test, and by 10 or so in the morning, we learned we were CLEAR for discharge!

Even so, we definitely had to be sure to keep Adora full and eating really well. So here’s more cute pictures of her being Milk drunk

Our Discharge Nurse was Lisa, who was very kind, helpful, and patient with us on our last day.

Finally, we got her into the car seat (safely to her disapproval): , and she eventually accepted her fate:

And that, is the story of the beginning of our family, as it was in the first few days at Meriter Hospital in downtown Madison WI!

Welcome Home, Adora

… and welcome to using safety equipment like the Snuza to help us help you stay happy and healthy

February 3rd, 2021 (Day 5)

Wednesday morning after our first night at home was definitely an interesting one. It was a rough night for both of us, and I’d realized that the sleep deprivation has DEFINITELY caught up to me - particularly so because Ann-Marie had a lot of trouble getting me up twice through-out the night feedings.

Thankfully, we got through it and are better off for it.

The morning of, we were getting ready for our first appointment with the pediatrician, so Adora got to get comfortable with her favorite place in the whole wide world: her car seat

And here’s a picture of her at the Pediatrician (crushing it)!

.. and finally, HELP has arrived (though Gigi should really be pictured here)!

February 4th, 2021 (Day 6)

After an easy night for myself where Ann-Marie and Gigi were doing the heavy lifting at night, I’ve finally caught up on my sleep debt and felt the best I ever had in my life. Beyond that, we also had family here to be able to enjoy some quality time together.

It snowed for much of the day, and we cleaned for much of it as well.

And of course, got some quality pics, as well as quality play time (after Adora was a bit fussy and not going to sleep)

February 5th, 2021 (Day 7)

Friday was a nice morning for us as well, with the house now clean and us feeling comfortable waking up at night in a familiar home environment. It was a night and day overnight feeding difference from this and the first day, largely attributed to the extra help we’ve had from family.

We woke up at 7 AM and headed to the Pediatrician again at 8 AM

… and everything came back clear! We took another blood test, and were told her Jaundice is looking MUCH better.

The rest of the day, we’d finally been able to take some time to relax and just enjoy it. We got some great pictures, like these: …and we walked out onto the lake (no Adora with us, though)

Finally, we opted for some family pictures

Good night, Adora.

Anyways, I hope you enjoyed this recap of one of the best weeks of Ann-Marie and my lives. We’re so lucky to have such a happy, healthy, and cute baby with us now up here in Wisconsin.

I’m so thankful for all the support we’ve had through the pregnancy to get us to where we are now, and the support we have in the future. While I know I’m married to one of the strongest women I know, I don’t think we’d be here without the support of our family and friends

Marc