Her Big Debut....

Sorry this birth update is so late, but Mommy-hood and lack of sleep and time have taken over and this has not been a priority! J

As my due date came and went….I grew more and more anxious.  We laid low all weekend as I was not feeling too good.  The only thing we did all weekend was go to church on Sunday night.

 I woke up on Monday morning (September 19, 2011) around 4 a.m. with my stomach hurting.  I went back to sleep and it continued until my alarm went off to get ready for work.  I got in the shower and started getting dressed to go to work…just stopped here and there for a bit while I was having contractions.  I was not getting my hopes up as on Friday I was still at 1.5 cm and we had talked about inducing this coming Friday (9/23).  We started timing them and it was soo weird because they were coming on every minute to minute and a half and lasting between 25-35 seconds.  Now that is ACTIVE labor and not how close the contractions are supposed to start.  We decided to call the hospital to be safe.  The Dr. on call called back and asked several questions and told us to go ahead and get moving to the hospital.  Now we did not get in a major hurry…I ate breakfast, called the school, Nathan had to submit some paperwork for work, and we finished packing and loaded the car.  I timed the contractions on the drive and they started spacing out more to 3 minutes apart.  Now, I just knew they would be sending us back home that it was a false alarm! UGH!  By the time we got checked in to L & D Observation I was not having any contractions.  When they first checked me I was still 1.5. UGH!!  After 30 minutes or so of being on the monitor the contractions started AGAIN and they were way stronger now.  We found out that my Dr. was out of town for the day (the ONLY day of the whole month she was gone) so the Dr. that would be dealing with me told them to monitor me for 2 hours and check again for progress.  2 hours came and went, the contractions were much stronger, and I dilated to 3 cm (90% effaced)! WOOHOO!!  The nurse called the Dr. and she decided to admit me and said the baby would be born today!  The started my IV and started prepping me to have a baby.

We gathered our things and they were moving me up to the 3^rd floor so we could get ready to have a baby.   By the time we got settled (1:10 pm) up there I was already past 4 cm.  Things were moving fast!  They took my CD to the anesthesiologist to look at and I still had not decided if I was going to go for an epidural or not.  At this time, we had also confirmed with our parents that this was BABY DAY and they were all on their way.  The Dr. on Call came in at that time also so we could meet her (since my dr. would not be delivering the baby) and when she checked me I was dilated to a 5 (90% effaced, 0 station)—she went ahead and broke my water (1:45 pm) since that still had not happened.  The contractions were MUCH stronger now but I was still handling them.  They kept asking me about an epidural, but I still could not decide if I was going to give in to it or tough it out.  Since my labor was progressing so rapidly they told me I needed to decide quickly or it would be too late.  Now I could handle the contractions, but I was worried once I started experiencing pain “down there” that I would not be able to handle the pain in both areas so I quickly decided to go for it.

The anesthesiologist came in and decided he would have to just go in and see what the results would be with the epidural.  No one was sure if it would take or not.  He also knew he would have to go in much lower than normal which meant I would still have feeling higher up.  I was BEYOND scared, but it was not that bad (got epidural at 3:30 pm).  Immediately I started going numb, however since they had to do it so low I was still able to feel my contractions for the most part.  That was okay with me though since I would not feel everything lower.  At 4:15 I was at a 6.  They said I should dilate 1 cm per hour and I had stayed at a 6 for 2 hours after the epidural.  With that being said they decided to go ahead and start a little Pitocin since we were only guaranteed 1 hour with the epidural.  With my case being “special” they knew the epidural would work for 1 hour, but were not sure what would happen after that so we were in a time crunch.  Well, the pitocin did the trick and at 5:15 when they checked me I was at 10 cm.  That was right when N’s parents came knocking at the door and we were just starting to push so they had to wait to see us until after we had the baby.

We did some practice pushes..then the Dr. came in and the real pushes started. The baby heart rate started dropping with the contractions, so I was given some oxygen and we rested during every other contraction and everything stayed okay.  I only pushed for maybe 30 minutes and out came our little GIRL (5:56 pm)!!  Boy were we shocked…this whole pregnancy we were just sure we were having a boy.  She barreled her way right through me and did some damage, but she was healthy and here and that was all that mattered.  Daddy went with Paislyn while they did everything with her, while I layed there getting stitched up.  She was 6 lbs 4 oz and 19 ¾ inches long and completely HEALTHY & PERFECT!!!  She came out screaming and did not stop for a good hour.  We were sure her lungs were in great condition.  The Dr. and nurses kept commenting while they were sewing me up that “we don’t even need a monitor for this baby”, etc. since she was soo loud.  I was able to feed her soon after and then they took her away for a bath and to monitor her. Our families went to grab some supper since it would still be a while before they could see us.  They got some food ordered for me (YAY! I had not eaten since breakfast at 6 that morning) and got us set to move to our room.  Finally about 9 pm we were settled in our new room and they brought her back to us.  Our families got to come in and meet her and of course it was JOY for all.  They left about 11 so we could try to rest—it had been a LONG day!  We had a great first night as a family of 3.

In labor...

SHE is here!

Sweet baby girl

She is a little one.

Our first family picture! :)

Grams & Grumps

Nana

Grandpa

Aunt Cass