OUR NEWEST FAMILY MEMBER

WELCOME LAUREN GRACE DUGOREPEC

Lauren Grace Dugorepec was born on Tuesday, February 14th, 2006 at 10:47am. She is our little Valentine's Day baby. She weighed 7 lbs. 5 ounces and was 19 3/4 inches long. A very easy delivery after a very ....shall we say: "dramatic" pregnancy.

Here's the WHOLE story:
As you already may know from the previous blog, my water broke about 2:45 on Tuesday morning. At 3:30am we called my mom who came from Modesto to watch the girls for us. What we didn't expect was traffic at that time. It took Mom almost 2 hours to get here because of a traffic accident that closed down much of the freeway. She finally arrived and at 5:30am we were on the road to John Muir Hospital in Walnut Creek. Only a few contractions were unbearable - the kind that makes you want to jump out of the car while it's moving. Most were just a lot of heavy breathing and some discomfort.

By 6am we were checked in and had the monitors plugged in and recording all the vitals they needed to. I didn't opt for an epidural right away because the contractions weren't that painful. However, after they checked me and found I was only 3 1/2 centimeters dilated and about 80% effaced, the pain started coming on and we opted for an immediate epidural. When the anesthesiologist came in bare chested with the golden tan and in the Baywatch bathing suit...oh wait, I was dreaming of him in something else...When the extremely good looking anesthesiologist, wearing his scrubs and mask, gave me the 1st epidural, it only took on one side. After about 45 minutes he took out the epidural catheter and replaced it with a new one that numbed me up extremely well. At 9:45am the nurse checked me and I was completely dilated. She called Dr. Klein and told me not to push until he got there 35 minutes later.

At around 10:35 he arrived. After chatting away, getting into his scrubs and telling a few jokes he told me to push that baby out. I started pushing at 10:44 and by 10:47 Dr. Klein was telling me to reach down and pull the baby out. Talk about slippery! Wow! That was pretty cool. The first look was amazing - she looked just like Bella did on the day she was born.

Just after birth: Milenko with Lauren and Debbie & Dr. Klein with Lauren

Our first visitors came at 7pm. Milenko went home and got Bella & Lexie and Grammy. Grampa Bob came a few minutes before they arrived. Lauren didn't stay awake for their visit although Bella & Lexie were the loudest visitors in the hospital. Bella was so excited about Baby Lauren. She kept patting her and petting the top of her head. She even held the baby a few times. Lexie on the other hand didn't want anything to do with the baby - as long as Mommy paid attention to her she was okay with the baby being in the room. If I held the baby though, she threw a tantrum. That's terrible twos for you!

Sleeping Lauren and Bella & Lexie & Lauren

Lauren's blood type was tested yesterday and she has the same type as Milenko. Bella had this same situation and there was an ABO incompatibility with mommy and baby's blood. Bella was Combs positive and so is Lauren. Bella's condition was a little worse because she didn't latch well on when breastfeeding and required 48 hours in the photo-therapy booth. We lucked out with Lauren. Because she is a very good eater, she didn't need any photo-therapy and we were able to take her home today (Thursday).

Lauren and I are now safely at home with the rest of the family. Bella is being a super big helper and just wants to hold the baby, change the baby, burp the baby, touch the baby....anything to do with the baby. It's precious to see her reaction. Lexie on the other hand waves at "Baby Lolo" from a distance.

Well back to the "girls." Poor Milenko - the only other bit of testosterone in the house is one of the dogs. Haha! We'll adjust the taxes to start planning for all the weddings now!