Allison: Birth Story

Life's been a little sweeter since July 19th. I mean, how could it not be with a cute little face like Allison's?

We knew that we wanted to be a little more prepared for this baby's arrival given that we were literally not prepared at all for Katie's arrival two years ago, so we had a bag packed and car seat installed two weeks before we knew our C-section date. Thankfully we never needed any of it early as she passed both of her non-stress tests before her delivery. 

On the night before our C-section, we spent plenty of time together as a family of five. All the kids knew that the next day they were getting a new baby brother or sister, so they spent a little extra time giving my belly some loving. We asked them one more time what they thought baby was going to be, and all three said that it was going to be a boy. Early in the pregnancy, Brayden said he wanted it to be a girl, but did eventually switch it to a boy. Ashley was pretty dead set that it was going to be a boy because she "already had a baby sister". And Katie just says whatever Ashley says, so we weren't surprised that she said boy. 

Aside from getting up (on purpose) at 11:45 for one more snack before my no-food-after-midnight cutoff, I actually slept pretty well. I was a little bummed that we couldn't have our C-section in the morning, but Dr. Haller had a surgery that morning, so we were slated for 12:30 the afternoon of the 19th. 

We were able to get the kids dropped off at daycare and give them one more big hug before our lives all changed forever. We did some last minute picking up around the house and before we knew it it was time to head to the hospital. 

We not so patiently waited the few hours in the labor room until everyone was ready for us in OR. As I was getting my spinal, Dr. Haller and all the staff in the room were asking if we had any guesses on what baby was. I told them I would love for Brayden to have a brother, but I would be so happy if it was a girl as well. Dr. Haller said that everyone there was betting it was a boy since they had had so many boys born that week already. I laughed as I told them that Eric would say that that would mean baby was definitely going to be a girl. As soon as my spinal was done and Eric was able to come into the room, Dr. Haller asked Eric what he thought baby would be, and mentioned the part about them all thinking it was a boy due to all the recently born boys. Eric literally said, "I'm a numbers guy, and if there's been that many boys then we are definitely having a girl." 

Eric and I held hands as we patiently waited for them to get baby out. They told us that they were almost there, and they had a little trouble getting her out of my right side, which is where baby lived about my entire pregnancy. As Dr. Haller pulled baby out, she said "dad you were right, it's a girl!" I've never seen Eric smile so big and breathe such a big sigh of relief as he did. After everything that we've been through on our journey to parenthood, it was so good to see this last pregnancy have such a beautiful outcome. 

Allison Danielle Schackmann was born at 12:51 PM on July 19th. She was 7 pounds and 13 ounces (our heaviest baby yet) and 19.5 inches long (tying Katie for our longest baby). And speaking of Katie, Allison is almost a cut and paste of Katie, it was crazy how much Allison reminded us of Katie, so much so that we still are occasionally calling Allison Katie or Kate. 

But at this point, Allison was still nameless. We had had a few names for each sex that we both liked coming in to the hospital that morning, but we definitely didn't have a clear favorite. We actually didn't even give her her official name until the day after she was born. And to top it off, Allison wasn't even on our original list of names we liked. But it seemed to fit her and we both liked it, so that was a weight off of our shoulders to finally have a name for her. 

The kids came Saturday morning to meet Allison, and I loved seeing their reactions to meeting her for the first time. They were all very excited to see Eric and I, and Katie wanted to come right up on the bed with me. Brayden and Ashley gravitated towards Allison though, and she was instantly smothered in kisses by Brayden and love pats by Ashley. 

Ashley won out on getting to hold Allison first, and seeing her smile down at her warmed my heart with love.

And then it was Brayden's turn, and if I had any doubts about him being the absolute best big brother to her (which I didn't), he would have squashed them right then. You could see how in love with her he was. 

Katie was a little a lot less interested in Allison. But I won't hold it against her, it was a little overstimulating in that hospital room. She didn't seem too excited and didn't want to hold Allison by herself, pretty much clinging to me or Eric the entire time. I would like to say that when we got home on Sunday, she immediately wanted to hold her and gave her all sorts of hugs and kisses, so she came around to her baby sister pretty quickly. 

We stayed in the hospital until Sunday around lunch, and for a while we were thinking we would be there even longer since Allison refused to poop. The nurse practitioner ordered an x-ray just to make sure everything was ok, and thankfully it was. And at some point in the wee hours of Sunday morning Allison finally let one out. 

We were ready to be home, and we have been adjusting well to being a family of six. The kids are still absolutely in love with her, as are Eric and I. We can't wait to see what life has in store for us with Allison in it!