A week ago today...

Paige Kaitlyn Hulbert was born at 1:14pm. She weighed 7 pounds, 11 ounces and was 20 inches.

It was a pretty smooth operation. Geoff and I arrived at the hospital at 10:30 to get admitted and fill out paperwork for the scheduled c-section at 12:30. Our nurse was very nice and she did a great job getting us settled.



I was feeling very comfortable about the procedure and not too nervous until the anesthesiologist came to talk to us. He was very nice and very thorough, but that is when it hit me that I was having major surgery. I didn't have time to think about it when I had the c-section with Allie. After 30 hours of labor you are ready to do anything to have a healthy baby. With this one, we walked in ready to roll. Once he gave us all of the information about what they would do during the procedure, Doctor Olsson arrived and calmed my nerves. He is a great doctor and very confident and positive. That was about 12:15. Then I headed down to the operating room. Geoff got on his scrubs and waited to be called down. At 12:25 Dr. Olsson, a resident from UCD, my nurse (I can't remember her name), the anesthesiologist, and surg tech were all present. We were waiting for the pediatric nurse to come and she was not showing up. Dr. Olsson was getting frustrated since we were all ready to go. She was on break and not answering her phone. So they did a page overhead to get her in the OR and I knew my mom and Georgeanne would hear it on the hospital speaker and think something was wrong (they did). Geoff still did not know what was going on either. You realize how important it is to be on time for things! She finally strolled in about 12:50 and we were ready to go. I got the spinal block and they started working. They put up the sheet and I was totally aware of what was going on. I couldn't feel anything but could hear everything. 'I am making a cut here....and then will pull here'....are you kidding me? I can hear all of this? Then I felt a little tugging and we heard crying. The tears started to roll and we were very happy. This is the greatest feeling and sound in the world...can't really put it in to words. We didn't know Paige's name at that point but we knew it was all good!! When Allie was born Geoff was hesitant at first to look over the curtain but when Paige was out and handed off to the nurse, Geoff was over there and gave me the details. "She is tiny, looks just like Allie did, has a ton of black hair, and is so cute, she is really cute! " Then he came back over to me to make sure things were ok and said "and your placenta is in a big silver bowl..it is kinda gross!" I bet it is.... The next stage was a bit boring but I was confident they were doing a good job putting me back together.


We all went to the recovery room where they took care of me and Baby Girl Hulbert and were ready to go get Allie to meet her new baby sister. She was out in the waiting room with my parents (Grandma and Pa) and Grandma and Paka. Geoff called her on the phone to tell her the baby girl was here and that he was coming out to get her. Paige cried right at the same time and Allie was very excited and said "baby sister said my name". Allie loved her baby sister from the second she saw her. She gave her a kiss, talked to her and got to see her get her first bath. It was awesome to see them. Allie will be the best big sister. She is such a natural little mama. She is very caring and just a sweet little person. Once we got a bit more settled in the recovery room my parents came in and met Paige. They were very excited and thought she was perfect and looked just like Allie but a little different. Then Grandma and Paka came to meet her. They thought she was just perfect too!















Once everything was ok, we headed to our room. It was 307. Everyone came to visit and Allie finally got to hold her baby sister. She was a natural. We still had not named her but were leaning towards Paige. The top 3 were Paige, Avery and Blake. Once we saw her and looked at her she was a Paige. The nurses would say have you named her yet, and Allie said "this is my baby sister Paige Kaitlyn Hulbert"...and there you have it. She was named! Paige Kaitlyn was officially her name.













We have never left Allie over night so we were not sure how it would go over with her staying with my parents at our house. Allie did awesome and stayed all night. The second night Allie was a bit out of sorts and was a bit sad to leave us at the hospital. We were sad to see her go too! But she was a trooper and gave us a kiss and was off. I am making it sound easy....it was not easy at all. There were lots of tears but we knew she would be fine. When Geoff walked with them down to the car the nurse that we spent hours and hours of HARD labor with when we had Allie was a nurse on duty. She got to meet Allie and then came to meet Paige. I am not sure she remembered us...but I don't think we will ever forget Victoria.





We were lucky that Allie's pediatrician was on duty this weekend at the hospital. Allie loves Dr. Matoni (really Dr. Otoni) and talks about her all the time. Allie was holding Paige when Dr. Otoni came to check her, so she let Allie hold her and while she did the assessment It was very cool. She let Allie ask all the questions she wanted and Allie told her she would help me nurse Paige (oh dear) and would hold Paige's hand so she wouldn't be scared to get her shots. It was priceless. We got some of the conversation on video.



We all got to go home on Sunday. When were were pulling up on our street Allie said "this is our home Paige Kaitlyn". We got settled and things have been smooth sailing every since she got home. My parents were here for the first couple of days so that was nice to have them here. Visits with Grandma and Pa are never long enough.







Paige is a great baby. She is very calm and loves to nurse, poop and sleep. She has had to make daily trips to the lab to get her blood drawn since she is a bit jaundice but her level is dropping so she won't have to go back for anymore heel pricks! She was a great sport and slept through all of them. We can't imagine life without Paige and feel very blessed to have two beautiful, healthy baby girls!! Life is sweet.