Tuesday, August 30, 2011

Summer finally came August 24th!

So sore, so tired and soooo happy and full of love. Taking pictures is not my thing or J's or my mom's so we don't have a whole lot yet but there are a few. The picture below is our first family photo. I can't believe she's here and I can't believe how beautiful she is!


J is in love with this little girl and he is such a great dad already.

The birth story is crazy! Woke up with cramps at 12:30am wed. had regular contractions at -1:45am but nothing I couldn't handle, went to the hospital at 3:30am because contractions were 5 minutes apart and lasted for 1 minute.
-Checked into the hospital and found out I was dilated to a 4.
-7am dilated to a 6. contractions were not bad and I didn't think they lasted very long but I guess it was the right amount of time.
-9am ish. Had my water broke dilated to a 7. contractions were hard and hurt but I was able to relieve pain by showers, back pressure and rubs.
-I was soooo hungry this whole time but because I told them I might want an epidural if the pain got worse they wouldn't let me eat anything. That was more painful then the contractions sometimes!
-11am dilated to a small 8, nurses started coming into prep for delivery so I thought I would have the baby any second...little did I know this is just what they do when women get to an 8 but not all women get to a 10 as quick as others. This is probably a duh for most of you but I didn't know?
-at this point baby S's head was still "high" and doctor said sometimes that happens and then it all of the sudden drops into place so we were hoping that would happen.
- At 1pm contractions started to slow down and I stopped progressing, super annoying because I it was happening quickly which was awesome and since I am impatient I liked the quickness. Once it slowed down I wasn't as happy and again i was still hungry.
-The rest of the afternoon was a blur. It seemed like it happened so fast but from 1pm to 3pm nothing really happened. I was in a lot of pain but the contractions would last for 10 seconds and then I would be done for a while.
-3pm doctor wants to speed things up and put me on Pitocin because baby's head still hadn't dropped and I was dilated to a big 8/little 9. At this point I had really bad bad pains in my left side and back. I asked for the epidural at this point since they wanted me on pitocin anyway.
-The epidural was good but I could only feel it working in my right side and the only pain I was ever feeling was in my left side.. the pitocin made my left side and back hurt even more. I tried to tough it out for a while before I asked for the epidural to be repositioned. The contractions in my left side and back were pretty bad and breathing, rubbing whatever didn't help at all.
-Finally at 5:45pm the doctor said I was dilated all the way with a pretty good effacement so she wanted to see if pushing would help bring baby's head down since pitocin did jack crap.
-30 minutes of pushing was pointless because I couldn't feel anything to push plus it didn't move baby at all.
-Doctor came in and said that the baby's head was too far up still in the birthing canal and baby's heart rate dropped a little so it was time to throw in the towel and get a c-section.
Crazy!!! I did not expect this to happen! first of all the pain wasn't bad for a lot of the day, that was nuts in itself. Second, a c-section was not on my radar I hardly knew what that meant but off we went to the OR.
J gave me a blessing before to calm my fears of death or whatever goes wrong in a major surgery and I said by to my mom.
-The c-section was crazy! You just lie there while people prep your naked body. A naked body you can't feel, they almost dropped me a few times and I couldn't do anything but say "um guys, I'm falling." I also felt I was naked in Antarctica because I felt so cold...chattering teeth is an understatement.
Then J came in all dressed for surgery and we just sat and waited until I heard a nurse say "look at that head!!" The doctor also mentioned how the head was probably caught on my left hip bone,(hence the pain in my side and back) no one really talked to me because they were all putting bets in on how big the baby was. 9lbs and 3oz. 21 inches told you she'd be big:)
-Oh yea, and they kept saying " look at all that hair!" This was especially good news for J's mom who has been praying for this baby to have great hair for 9 months:)
No one showed her to me because they were so obsessed with her themselves, apparently josh cut the cord and helped clean her up I didn't know what to think so I just listened to her cried while I cried.
Then I saw her and I wonder how this all happened? The drugs really messed me up, I just thought i was in a dream or a movie! She was so cute and I was in love instantly! I was mad at all the people around her and the ones holding her because she wasn't theirs, she was mine and I wanted to hold her!
After a while Josh brought her over to me so I could kiss her head and say goodbye and J took her to the nursery to get a bath and I went off to recovery. It was torture but in the end we got to be together again.
My mom almost killed herself waiting to hear if everything went well, I guess when J brought the baby into see my mom for the first time she lost it. But all is well and we're all so happy!
This is long and I hope it gave you all the great details you were looking for. The drama is all here...we went from sleep to hospital to no pain to lots of pain to unplanned c-section, this is the makings of a great nervous breakdown. I didn't even mention my high blood pressure which is still an issue.

We're home safe and sound now and I have what I wanted and she is the best!!! J loves reading to her every night and he loves to snuggle we are all so content and happy. Birth what a crazy thing, it makes me realize how real the power of creation and family really is!

Wednesday, August 3, 2011

Almost there!

I swear my belly is bigger than this in real life but you get the idea of what almost 38 weeks looks like for baby S and me!
She doesn't look very low in these pics but I promise she is, maybe it's all in my head? This last month of pregnancy has brought lots of new feelings such as carpal tunnel, frequent trips to the bathroom at night, struggles getting up and down and nesting. Oh yeah and pitted edema! I am crazy swollen, it's pretty impressive! Baby isn't kicking as much any more, it's more of a role around the tummy feeling because she is getting so big!
We went in for our hospital visit a few weeks ago and it was really fun to think we will be in a new and nice hospital the best part is labor and recovery are the same room, I have heard that is a very nice thing!
I asked the doc if I am too big and he said "no, but you won't be having a small baby" after hearing that I am glad that I am going into this delivery situation blind it's probably better that way, still I love her and I gotta get her out and see what she looks like...hopefully sooner rather than later:)