Introducing Aubrey Anne Currey: Our lives will never be the same

I realize that we haven’t posted a blog in a few months (ok 6 months, wow, sorry!).  But don’t worry, I will catch you up on the most important thing that has happened since our last post, the birth of our first child, Aubrey!  (Isaac is in charge of posting about the other stuff that we did, like, ummmmmm, I can’t seem to think of anything except the baby.  I blame lack of sleep.  Rest assured, other things happened too.  oooh rest assured.  That sounds nice…...slowly…...drifting…….to…….. sleep…….NO!  I’m awake!  I will stay awake to write this post!  (Besides, I’m actually writing this with a kid on my boob (story of my life these days.  I basically have to do everything with Aubrey on my boob.  I’ve even been able to cook, although I’ve learned that I probably shouldn’t take hot things out of the oven when Aubrey is so precariously balanced on my boob.  Safety first!), and she’s kind enough to move around enough to keep me awake.  Thanks Aubrey!

Alrighty, I suppose I should start by talking about my pregnancy experience.  I actually had a pretty easy pregnancy.  Please don’t hate me.  I didn’t really get morning sickness or any unpleasant symptoms that others told me could happen.  I was seriously scared that pregnancy was going to be the WORST because my friends told me that all these terrible things would happen to me like constant headaches, nausea, swollen/sore joints/boobs/fingernails…..just kidding about the last one.  My mom even told me that if she didn’t know she was pregnant with my sister and I she would have thought she was dying.  Thanks for something to look forward to, Mom!  

Thankfully, nothing too terrible happened to me though so I feel pretty lucky.  I basically just had to pee a lot.  It made for a pretty frustrating situation, esp when I tried to go for runs with Katie (my sister) in the summer in Chicago and had to stop to pee about every 5 minutes.  Basically, I was running to find a bathroom for 30 minutes.  Not very scenic.  Unless you like the scenery of public bathroom stalls.    

Here’s my pregnancy transition.  

Now for the birth story.  Don’t worry, it’s not going to be graphic.  

Aubrey decided that she wasn’t going to be on time.  She came 5 days late on Feb 8th which was alright with me because it means I don’t have to go back to work until 3 weeks are left of school.  Easy!  (I hope)  I felt good up to the end and even ran a 5k the day before I delivered.  

On Feb 8 at about 2:30 am I woke up to contractions.  I didn’t wake Isaac up because I knew that labor is supposed to take a really long time and I figured he should get sleep while he could.  That lasted about 10 minutes.  I took a shower and then woke Isaac’s butt up.  I told him I was in labor and he was like “Whaaaa?  What should I do?”  I told him to go back to sleep (haha yeah right).  So we both woke up and I made breakfast and coffee and called my parents and sister to tell them to alert the press (aka post something on facebook).

Isaac drove me to the hospital at about 7 am (which is early enough that there aren’t very many people on the road.  Indians sleep late.)

When we got to the hospital, there was NO ONE in the lobby.  We were told to wait in the dark waiting room by the valet guy.  Basically we didn’t know what was going on, which was pretty much the case throughout our time in the hospital.  Eventually, someone came down and got us.  We went to the delivery room, I got half naked and hooked up to a machine to measure my contractions.  The nurses asked me if I was having contractions and I said YES!  They looked at the read out, and said, “very mild contractions”.  They sure didn’t feel mild to me.  Although, they definitely got worse.  Then the nurses all left.  They came back every once in a while to tell me that they were changing shifts.  I was introduced to about 6 different nurses whose names I promptly forgot as soon as they were introduced.  Eventually (after about 12 hours of labor), I decided that I wanted an epidural and after a super scary speech about how if I moved I could get a 2 day terrible headache and complications and all that, they gave me the epidural and my legs went numb.  It helped a lot with the pain and I was even able to sort of sleep a bit in my room.  

I remember watching a lot of America’s Funniest Home Videos and whenever the nurses came in, they would move the remote so I couldn’t reach it.  I’ve never been so upset about not getting to watch America’s Funniest Home Videos (well maybe in 1993).  It was dumb, but a welcome distraction from being in the hospital.  

After an hour or so, I started bleeding pretty heavily and my dr. decided to break my water.  And when she did, there was poop in it.  I can’t wait to tell Aubrey’s prom date that she pooped in the womb.  Anyway, apparently that’s a red flag for a dangerous situation for the baby and it means you have to get a c section.  So, I was wheeled into surgery where they gave me more drugs in my epidural hole (I think that’s the technical term).  Then they made me GET MYSELF ONTO THE OPERATING TABLE!  Seriously, I had to drag my legs and lower half of my body onto the gurnee.  It was redic.  But I did it!  

Meanwhile Isaac was yelling at nurses because no one would tell him what was going on or directing him to get scrubs and come to the operating room.  

Once I was on the operating table time slowed WAY DOWN.  Everyone was speaking Hindi and no one told me what was happening.  They were laughing though so I assumed everything was ok.  Then Isaac showed up and they started the surgery.  I felt them cut me open and it actually hurt.  Then it really started to hurt when they were pulling my uterus out of my body (oops, I realize that I lied about not being graphic.  Sorry kids).  I told the anesthesiologist (wow I spelled that right the first time!) that I felt pain and he said that was normal.  It didn’t feel great but I dealt with it.  At least Isaac was there.  I asked him to tell me a story and when he couldn’t think of anything I even asked him to tell me a story about Texas A&M.  He must’ve been really worried because he couldn’t even think of something to say to me about Texas A&M and that’s NEVER happened!  

They got the baby out of my body in about 30 minutes and held her upsidown over my face to prove it.  Then Isaac and Aubrey left and I was alone getting my organs shoved back in my body and sewed up for a million hours, or at least that’s how it felt.  It actually took an hour.  

I went to my overnight room (they finally lifted me) and there were Isaac and Aubrey.  It was really hard for me to not be able to walk and I was in a lot of pain, esp after the drugs wore off but it was all worth it.  We spent 2 nights in the hospital and then I begged to get to go home early and the dr let us.  

Ok that was probably WAY too much detail but hopefully you all just skimmed.

Post Partum:  Since we brought Aubrey home life has pretty much been a blur.  It seems like all I do is feed, change and hold a baby.  I love her so much but she is exhausting!   I also realized that everything I thought I knew about having a newborn was pretty much wrong.  Here’s a list of the top 5 things I was wrong about (although there are so many other things I have been wrong about, I don’t think anyone wants to read that much).

1. I can easily get a newborn baby on a sleep schedule.

Any idea of getting a newborn baby on a schedule is ridiculous (at least this early).  Apparently, some people are able to train their 2 week olds to eat 8 times a day on regular intervals.  this has definitely NOT been the case for me.  Aubrey pretty much wants to eat every 15 minutes these days, which means her naps are about 15 minutes long during the day and I feed her about 20 times/day (and my boobs are killing me!).  

Newborns are on the schedule of not having a schedule at all.   

2. 8 hours of sleep is good, even if you sleep 1 hour at a time.  FALSE!  Not all sleep is created equal and although I generally get 6-8 hours of sleep each day, having to wake up every hour means that sleep is NOT very regenerative.

3. All babies love carseats.  Aubrey HATES riding in her carseat.  The only way she can even cope with being in the carseat is if I put my finger in her mouth and sing to her the whole time.  It makes for exhausting car trips.  I’m hoping that she grows out of this one soon because spending time in Texas in the summer is definitely going to involve driving a lot and I’d like to not have to deal with a screaming baby every time we have to get in the car.

4. I’ll easily be able to run errands during the day: FALSE!   I spend most days trapped in a chair feeding Aubrey because she is seriously ALWAYS hungry.  I can’t do ANYTHING and if I try to go out after I feed her, she usually decides that she is hungry again as soon as I get 5 minutes away from the apartment.  

5. I can exercise during the day and I’ll really want to. No way!  I haven’t worked out for 3 weeks, which is the longest I’ve gone since high school and I haven’t had one moment where I even thought about it being a possibility.  First of all, you’re not really supposed to work out for a while after a c section.  But, more practically, I am so tired and busy all day that there is no window of opportunity.  Even when Isaac is home, I really can’t leave because Aubrey always wants to be on the boob and if she’s hungry, there’s really nothing he can do to distract her.  I’m sure some day she’ll get on a more regular schedule (I hope!) and I’ll actually feel like I can work out again.  But that day is not today!

Aaaaand that’s about it.  Basically, I don’t know what I’m doing but I’m doing my best.  For the most part, having a newborn is incredible and we love it.  But it’s also very humbling because we really have no control over our lives anymore.  I just hope Aubrey takes it easy on us.  In the meantime, here are some adorable pics to show you why all the pain and lack of sleep it totally worth it: