...Miley Sophia Knapp...

Miley Sophia Knapp

 7lbs 6oz, 20.5 inches long, born at 5:18am

 

Interesting and sweet coincidence is my cute dad weighed 7.6 lbs when he was born and he left for the big party in heaven on May 18 (5:18) I like when little things line up like that because I like to connect my dad with my kids in fun ways!

Here's the low down and dirty on Miley's life for the past 2 weeks that she's been here. 

 



 The Name: Poor baby Miley was officially nameless for almost 36 hours. We were just SO stumped and confused. Her name was Rylee for about 4 hours, Molly for 2 hours, Abbie for 30 minutes, Annie for 15 mintues and finally Miley for good. I seriously almost got to the point where I was going to just pick out of a hat! Thankfully, a couple of hours before we left the hospital, Rich came to my room, sat in chair and just stared at her in silence for about 30 minutes. He finally looked up and said "Ok...She's Miley Sophia" I hurried and wrote it on all her paperwork and turned in in as fast as my little post partum legs could carry me for fear one of us would change our mind again!! The further we get from her birth date, the happier and more excited I feel about her name. I dislike....and when I say dislike I mean, HATE...that people will associate her with Miley Cyrus, but we are hoping that chick won't be around for much longer, or that our Miley will just be so adorably opposite of Miley Cyrus that there is no way you could think of both Miley's at the same time!

 

The Birth: My official due date was May 8th, and like a good little listener, that is exactly when she showed up. I went to bed the night of the 7th at 11:30pm. I woke up to a pretty painful contraction at 2am and started timing them. 10 minutes apart. I wasn't sure if this was the real deal or not, but I wanted to be ready just in case so I got up and changed clothes. I freshened up a bit ( and YES, put on makeup because I have looked like a scary, strung out, homeless women in all my other birth pictures!) and straighted up a few things around my houses. By the time I was done, I noticed I was having contractions about 7 minutes apart. I called labor and delivery and told them what was happening, answered a few questions, and then they advised me to come on in! I got a little surge of adrenaline and hurried back upstairs to finish packing my bag and wake my red headed husband up to tell him it was go time! He was a little out of it at first, but then he heard me breathing through a contraction and that whipped him into shape quick time! 

 

At 2:50am we left the kids in the oh-so-capable hands of my mother, and drove through our sleepy little town to the hospital. One of the cool parts about Whitefish, is that they turn off all the traffic lights from 11pm to 5am so we were there in no time! 

 

At 3am, We checked in, got set up in a room and I got checked.. I was dilated to a 4! It was the real thing! I was going to have a baby!!! I breathed through a few pretty painful contractions while I got an IV and got the baby's heart monitor all set up. Then I had to go potty. When I had finished, I was headed back out of the bathroom and contraction hit me that brought all the memories of bringing Luke into the world, and I got scared. Luckily the nurse wasn't in the room, so I let out a couple of tears and told Rich "I think this is going to hurt." After that I made him just hug me...until the next contraction when I heard a crazy not-so-nice women that sounded JUST LIKE ME saying "Don't touch me!"

The nurse came back in the room and I told her, that I was 100% sure it was time to call the anesthesiologist. She told me, lucky for me, he was sleeping at the hospital so he'd be right in. In the 8 minutes it took for him to wake his butt up and schlep over to my room my contractions were coming every minute and a half.  I heard the nurse say " I think this baby is coming sooner than we thought" and I tried my hardest not to panic.

 

It took Mr anesthesiologist FOUR....count them, FOUR...times to place my epidural correctly. I swear my back is cursed! Finally after 30 minutes of epidural hell, I felt some warm tingling in my leg that gave me hope that sweet relief was just around the corner.

 

I've never been more wrong.

 

The epidural NEVER kicked in. My contractions felt like they were RIGHT on top of each other and pain relief NEVER CAME! I was in crazy pain...CRAZY. I found myself uncontrollably humming super loudly through contractions and I kept apologizing to everyone for sounding like a dirt bike. Anytime I opened my eyes, they wouldn't focus and it was freaking me out so bad that I just kept my eyes closed and tried to keep my motocross impersonations as quiet as possible. All of the sudden, in the middle of the contractions I felt an urge....THE URGE. I told my nurse I was seriously about to potty, #2 style ,all over the table and that I was super sorry and so embarrassed. She checked me and said, that's not #2, that's the baby, oh-and FYI, BTW she's posterior. Which is just a fancy way of saying, this is gonna hurt WAY worse than you thought, because she is face up and not face down. Seconds later my doctor walked in and sat at the end of my bed. I felt my water break, then I felt people grabbing my legs. My eyes were still closed so I had no idea who it was, but luckily later I found out it was my nurse and Rich. Although at that point it could have been the garbage man, for all I cared, I was just IN PAIN and wanted my baby out.

 

I started to feel a ton of pressure with the crazy pain and at that second it hit me that I was going to do this, the WHOLE thing, with no help of an epidural. I panicked/whimpered for a second and then just decided to shut up and push this baby out. I asked if I could push and he said yes. I gave two pushes, and then it sounded like everyone in the room screamed at me to stop. Apparently Miley's cord was around her neck and the doctor actually had to push the baby back in a few inches to be able to slip the cord off her. That felt GREAT. He told me to push again and out came her head! One more push and at 5:18am, just two hours from getting to the hospital, our teeny tiny cutie butt was here. My doctor tossed her up onto my stomach and said "She's still a girl!" I was SO HAPPY. I felt the biggest rush of peace that she was here, healthy, and I was no longer having to push or have contractions!!! I felt AMAZING!

 

She got all cleaned up, I nursed her, we switched from the delivery room to a regular room, I took a shower, Miley took a bath, and I ordered and ate breakfast all before 10am!

We stayed overnight in the hospital and after we got the all clear from my doctor and hers, we headed home to start our life as a family of 5.

 

 

The Baby: Even though her birth was quick and PAINFUL, Miley's life has been nothing short of sweet and painless! She is super healthy, nurses perfectly, sleeps all the time, and even mostly at night! Although, I have to say I have NEVER had to work this hard to burp a baby! She's almost impossible to burp!! Her brother and sister could not be more in love with her, and want to hold her.... ALL.THE.TIME. :) The 2 to 3 kid adjustment is taking some getting used to. Before Miley I could grocery shop, clean my house, play with my kids, go to the library and make dinner all in one day. Not SO MUCH anymore, friends! I have to really plan out the day and it takes an act of congress to fit in a shower. I have to choose just a couple of things and let everything else go... for now at least. Macy starts kindergarten in 3 short months so my goal is to just take it easy, and savor these last 3 months when I get to have all my babies home. Life is a lot SLOWER paced, and takes MUCH more patience. I have a feeling my trips to Target and Costco will be fewer and further between and I'M SURE my husband will be happy about that. :)
 

 

I feel so blessed to have another sweet little addition to our family. I can't wait until she is as loud and crazy and spunky and full of life as Macy and Luke...I have a feeling that's when things will start to get REALLY crazy :)



 Sadly enough, Miley's first nick name is "Grandma Wrinkles"...Grandma, because I think little babies look like old people and Wrinkles because whenever her eyes are open she raises her eyebrows making these HUGE wrinkles on her forehead, which you can clearly see below. :) Hence...Grandma Wrinkles.