welcome baby girl z

Last Friday, I had quite the to-do list since my gut aligned with my doctor’s prediction — that Baby Girl wasn’t likely to wait until her February 8th due date to make her appearance. A handful were things I really wanted to accomplish for work and the others were miscellaneous things around the house I really wanted to knock out before she joined us. Friday definitely didn’t go to plan…

Q was sent home from daycare the day before as a precaution so we were at the pediatrician’s office for a check-up. T decided to work from home, just in case since the doctor said the day before that he thought Baby Girl would be here by the weekend — if not before. I thought it was unlikely, but it ended up being a wise call. I returned from one doctor’s office and found myself quickly calling my own when we returned home. I wasn’t having contractions but based on some symptoms he thought it made sense to come to the hospital.

Now?! After going back and forth for weeks, we hadn’t finally agreed on a middle name. I hadn’t prepped our all-important Spotify playlist for labor. So many little things. But off we went! And after all the fretting about a snow storm, there wasn’t any of it in sight.

The ride to the hospital was so different than it was with Q. Last time, my contractions were already at a serious point by the time we were in the Uber to the hospital. This time, the drive was calm as contractions hadn’t actually started and we were in our own car. I worried if we were going to ultimately get sent home. As I was signing the papers for them to admit me, the first contraction hit.

My experience at Morristown Medical Center couldn’t have been more different than the last time at Mt. Sinai West. I almost immediately got the epidural, and it had totally kicked in before the super painful contractions started. Partway through the contractions, a lady from the hospital came in to give me a complimentary foot massage to try to help speed up the contractions. She turned on a nature channel with peaceful music and I almost fell asleep multiple times.

We turned off the TV and queued up our custom playlist featuring female rockers. With Q, it was the Hamilton soundtrack but we felt like this was a fitting choice for her.

At 5:27pm, Logan Avalyn made her arrival. Based on projections, we anticipated her to be smaller than her brother but that wasn’t quite the case. She was 8 pounds, 3 ounces and 21.75” — a touch longer than her brother! We’ve loved the name Logan for a long time. Avalyn means “beautiful breath of life” and is a variant of Linda, my mother’s name. When T found it, we decided it was perfect.

It was a quick stay and we were back home on Sunday afternoon. The hospital wasn’t allowing any siblings (or visitors in general) under age 16 now due to flu concerns. We were so happy to be back with Q and for him to meet his baby sister.

It’s been a whirlwind several days since. Hard to believe she’s already a week old today! She’s sleeping stretches of 2.5-3.5 hours and showing us her deep blue eyes more and more each day. Q is fascinated by her and we are working with him to get him to understand just how fragile she is right now. Our house feels officially full and complete now.