Milla's First Day

While Friday may have been Milla's official due date, we were not necessarily expecting her to be on time. In fact, we've been expecting her to be early. After two false alarms, she has kept us on our toes the past few weeks. Yesterday morning Shana had a biophysical test at St. Johns. I was able to get off work a bit early and meet her there. When we got to the hospital at 11:15, I doubt either of us expected that we wouldn't be leaving. Milla's biophysical score came back a 4 of 8, a score that prompted the doctors to try and get things moving because of her breathing and movement.

After some discussion with the nurses, doctors and Heather (our doula pictured above with Shana), we decided that it would be best to have an artificial rupture of the membranes (AROM or in other words, to break her water) due to the concerns of the biophyscial test and the strong likelihood that Shana would go right into labor. Sure enough, after the AROM at 3:00, Shana was in active labor by 4:00. At 5:57, she delivered our healthy baby girl without any further interventions. Milla arrived in this world with a shout and it was great to hear her strong lungs announce her arrival.


We wanted to make sure Anja got to meet her new baby sister as soon as possible so Ron and Linda brought her to the hospital later in the evening. Anja was great! She was very excited to meet Milla and couldn't wait to hold her. Anja was also very happy to see her mama and climbed right up into the hospital bed with her.




It was great to see Ron and Linda as well! They have been a huge help and have been taking care of Anja over the past two days. Milla makes grandchild number six for them, although I think Linda would like to see that number increase. We'll have to wait and see, but I wouldn't hold your breath. As they say, one kid is like one kid while two kids are like ten kids!

Many of you know that my father, Paul, had emergency open heart surgery to repair an aortic dissection around 4 weeks ago. Recovery for him has been going well, although the steps are small. After Ron and Linda left with Anja for the night, Paul, Marilyn and my brother Karl came to visit as well. It was great that Paul could make it for a visit, although we know it took a lot out of him. Karl also made a big occasion of it, dressing up in his fancy suit. It's always good to see a surf bum in a suit!


Our first night with Milla reminded us of the sleep deprivation to come! We finally did get some solid sleep around 4:00 am. The lack of sleep is a small price to pay as we had a great morning. We simply enjoyed being with Milla and taking it all in. We gave Milla her first bath, met with the doctor who delivered her (while not our regular doctor, he has been fantastic) and relaxed as much as we could.





Today, Anja came for a long visit over lunch with Ron and Linda. We had a nice time, and Anja and Milla had the opportunity to "exchange" gifts - it was Milla's birthday after all. Anja got right to work putting her new puzzle together although she kept going back and forth between Milla and the puzzle. One minute she wanted to sit by Milla and hold her hand or give her a kiss, the next she was back to a puzzle piece. So far, Anja is enjoying being the big sister. We hope this is a sign of more good times to come!





As a final treat for the day, Paul and Marilyn stopped by for a quick visit. All the activity of yesterday really took it out of Paul and made for a pretty rough Saturday. We were glad to have their visit and we know that 10 minutes with your new grandchild can certainly brighten one's day!


We plan to take Milla home tomorrow as a family. Anja is looking forward to it and we have her big sister outfit all ready to go. For Shana and me, it's been nice to have some relative peace and quiet at the hospital. We're excited, but also a bit nervous to see how life at home is going to change. I suppose we can be assured our new life will be similar to what Paul told Shana before we got married: "Life with the Erickson's may be many things, but it is not boring!"