The Robells’ Blog

We gave Michaela her first bath today.

Washing up

embedded by Embedded Video


Double click the video clip above to watch it.

All done

We tired out one of our bouncy seats today and Michaels seemed to enjoy sleeping in it.

Chillin in the bouncy seat

Nicole’s friends Kelli and Karen came over to see Michaela today.

Kelli and Karen

It gave us an opportunity to take our first family portrait.

Family portrait

We spent our first full day at home as a family snuggling.

Michaela and mommy

Daddy's little girl

We left the hospital Friday afternoon around 3:00 pm.

Bundled in the car seat

One of the things we did when we got home was introduce Michaela to Bella.

Bella and Michaela

We were able to stay awake long enough to sing happy (one day) birthday to Michaela.

Michaela passed her first checkup with the pediatrician.

Michaela's first pediatrician exam

All four of Michaela’s grandparents were at the hospital when she was born and got a chance to see her in the NICU. They left before she was released from the NICU but they had a chance to hold her on Thursday.

Nana (Vennell)

Pop Pop (Vennell)

Gammy (Roberts)

Gampy (Roberts)

In the NICU (little over an hour old)

After a relatively easy pregnancy, Nicole had a rather long delivery. She started having contractions shortly after being admitted around 1:30pm on Tuesday, the 24th and was started on pitocin to augment her contractions around 2:30pm.  Around 9:00pm, they decided to take Nicole off pitocin for the night as she wasn’t dilated much more than when she came in earlier in the day.  This allowed her to eat dinner and get some sleep.  They started a mild dose of pitocin at 4:00a on Wednesday morning, the 25th, increasing the dosage at 6:00a.  Nicole started actively pushing around 6:30p and continued pushing for the next 4 hours.

Michaela Elizabeth Vennell Roberts was born at 10:29pm, measuring in at a little over 20 inches and tipping the scales at 7 lbs, 9.8 oz.

Sleeping in mommy's arms after coming back from the NICU (two and a half hours old)

Additional photos and a video are online in the Michaela section of our online photo and video album.

During this morning’s OB visit, the doctor discovered that the baby wasn’t as active as last week.  The sonogram showed very little fluid around the baby so the doctor decided to induce today (instead of 8:00 a.m. tomorrow morning).  Well, after 6 hours of labor augmented with pitocin, it was clear that the baby was happy staying put.  The doctor has decided to stop the pitocin for the night so that Nicole can eat and sleep.  They will begin a small dosage of pitocin tomorrow morning at 4:00 a.m. and then start increasing the dosage at 6:00 a.m.

The good news (besides Nicole getting to eat dinner and get some rest before tomorrow) is that it also gave Nicole’s mom, dad, and sister time to stop by the hospital and visit, and Brian’s mom and dad time to get into town and get settled.