Julia Renee Wilmarth Tyna arrives!

Name: Julia Renee Wilmarth Tyna
Birth Date: o1/17/2009
Birth Time: 12:40 p.m.
Birth Type: Emergency C-section
Birth stats: 9lbs, 7.6 oz.; 20.5 inches.
IQ: off the charts; Apgar score: 9
Favorite activities/skills: Sleeping, pooping, crying, eating, crying while eating, laying upside down, staring at faces, burping on command (daddy is proud), pooping more and eating more.

Folks, it has been a long couple of days! I'll keep this short, since the ladies barely let me out of the house to type this message (thank you Panera Bread for wireless access). What a wild ride! Quick recap:

Saturday, January 17th
6:00 a.m. Water breaks; 7:00 a.m., leave for hospital; 7:30 a.m. check-in at Elmhurst; Noon, dilated to 2cm, Dr. Martinez assesses situation and says "we're doing this the other way". Which was 'Dr. speak' for, C-Section. Though her heartbeat was healthy, Julia didn't respond to Laura's contractions and the hospital staff worried that Julia could not handle a long delivery (I think they called it 'fetal intolerance to labor' or some such lingo). Laura and I barely had time to freak-out because in 40 minutes time mom was prepped for surgery, I was in scrubs, and Julia breathed her first breath. But, I can't tell you how stressful it was to sit alone and wait for my chance in the operating room - 15 minutes felt like 15 years!

We stayed in the hospital until Tuesday afternoon. Our Elmhurst Hospital experience was interesting and maybe we'll share more in future posts. We really liked one or two staff members and disliked some others, hated the hospital food, and are generally happy to be out of there.

Wednesday, January 22
We had unanticipated visits to the pediatrician and the OB/Gyn. After multiple attempts to breast feed Julia, we learned that her body weight had dropped by 14%. After 40 minutes of a knock-down, Wilmarth Tyna crying session in the pediatrician's office, we finally caved and gave Julia formula. We're trying to give Julia a mix of both formula and expressed milk thanks to some helpful suggestions from Aunt Nancy (our personal lactation consultant!); she made a trip all the way from downtown to help us figure out this feeding thing! We also had to visit Mommy's Dr. because Laura thought she had injured her incision. As it turns out, she is fine but was reminded not to do "too much, too soon".


Despite a lot of unexpected events, the Wilmarth Tyna family is healthy and happy. Mom and Dad are sleep deprived, Julia is absolutely beautiful, and we've got a steady stream of visitors bringing us food and helping us out.

Future blog posts will be much more coherent, as they will probably be written by Laura! :o) This is the best Daddy can do in his sleep-deprived state of mind.

Thank you friends and family for all of your support!
Love,
Joe, Laura, and Julia

p.s. one last picture below