Almost 3 months later is the perfect time to do a birth story, right? I mean, between having the hubs taking a new job (with a new shift) having a newborn, working, the Holidays and moving - who has time to blog? Unfortunately, I.did.not. So, hang on tight... here we go! This is a long one.
On October 1, the hubs and I were just relaxing - all day. Landon had a football game in Ohio that we had contemplated going to but decided to relax at home and get ready for baby. I was feeling great, just getting tired. I had told my husband "I don't know if I can do this for another 4 weeks!" I had to take breaks when getting off of the chaise-end of our couch, take a break when bent over tying my shoes, and take a break between anything, really. I knew it would be worth it, though.
Around 11:15 p.m. the hubs and I called it a night and went to bed. I had some swelling on my feet so I put some pillows on the end of the bed, crawled in and put my feet up. We were watching the news and just talking. No more than 3 minutes after putting my feet up, I felt something wet. At first, I thought maybe I had peed a little (sorry if TMI, but I have a funny hubs and at that point not much control over my bladder). I was wrong - it didn't stop. I jumped out of the bed and, both, the bed and myself were soaked. I looked at the hubs and said "I think my water just broke"! He just looked at me and said "Huh"? So, I went into the bathroom and he got out of bed and started to get nervous. I yelled from the bathroom "What does this mean"? Obvi, I knew that a baby was coming, but it wasn't in order from any article I read while pregnant. No contractions. No pain. Nothing. Hubs response: "Uhm, what do you mean? We are having a baby!"
Still on the toilet, I called my mom. It was about 11:20 p.m. now. They were in Ohio for the football game. She answered and said "Yes?" - like she knew something was going on, that mother's intuition. I told her "My water just broke" and she said "What? Shut up!" (Thanks, mom! - haha), and asked what we wanted them to do. I told them to stay there and I was going to call the doctor, go to the hospital and see what they said, not knowing if they were going to send me back home or keep me.
I called the hospital and talked to the doctor. She said that I should come in. Good thing, as we were pulling onto the hospital road when I hung up with her. (It was amazing being so close to the hospital!) We got to the hospital by 11:40 p.m. I got to the hospital, got checked in and hooked up to machines and the doctor said: "Well, you are having a baby today. It will probably not be by 6 a.m. or anything - but you will meet you little angel today!"
O.M.G. - This is ACTUALLY happening. I am ACTUALLY going to be having a baby (like the 34+ weeks before didn't give me time to have this sink in), I am ACTUALLY going to be a mom... TODAY!
I called my mom and when she picked up, I asked her what they were doing. Her response: "Driving". So much for just waiting until I had an update.
I got into the birthing room and we played the waiting game. It was slow. Very slow. They gave me some stuff to get it going a little faster, and then the contractions started to kick in. Well, I was able to feel them. The doc said I had been having them, I just could not feel them. I was miserable. They came in and gave me some pain meds and I was so much better. I was able to sleep between the contractions and only woke up at the "peak" of it. But, too soon, that medicine wore off.
Baby girl was tired and not very active, so I had to wait for an epidural. They had me rotating from side-to-side to get her moving. Once she did, I got the epidural and it was a cake walk from there on out. My parents had arrived and checked into a hotel as it was pretty early still. They came to the hospital around 8 a.m. or so and hung out with us.
I tried to push a couple times to get baby further down, but she just wasn't ready. Mommy was too cozy. So, they sat me up, I put the bottoms of my feet together and waited some more. I was a TOTALLY different person with the epidural... laughing, talking, and spreading the word that IT WAS BABY DAY!
Baby finally was ready to come out and in came the nurse (THE BEST NURSE EVER! We were so blessed with her!). We pushed a couple times, she called the doctor in and the doc said to let her try to get the baby a little further down and to call her back in. So, we did. The next thing I know the nurse called in NICU, the doctor and others and then BAM the room was full of people waiting to see my precious baby girl. Hubs mom had showed up in there, but I didn't get to see her until after baby.
While pushing everyone kept telling me about all the hair she had, that they could see her head. At one point, I said "Just pull her hair and get her out! I am ready to meet her!" Everyone couldn't believe the good spirits I was in. I wasn't in pain - Thanks, Epidural, I just wanted to meet her and kiss her!
I started to push around 1:50 p.m. and by 2:25 p.m. baby girl was here! 6 lb 12 oz and 18 3/4 inches long. As soon as she was out, I started to cry. I INSTANTLY felt this rush of feelings that I had never felt before. A feeling of love that I couldn't explain and a feeling of responsibility. This baby is now my world, I am responsible for her and I want to make her so proud! I had a feeling of nervousness - am I going to be a good mom? Will I mess up?
I was 4 weeks early so the nurse tried to prepare me that she may go into the NICU. She came out just screaming. The NICU nurses did what they had to do and then she stopped once they laid her on my chest. That hour of skin-to-skin was probably the best hour of my life. I didn't want to let her go, but since Daddy was getting to feed her, I did.
Soon after, Uncle Landon, Ally and Uncle Zac and Aunt Tiff made their way to the hospital to meet this beautiful baby.
A couple hours later I was able to shower and they took us to our hospital room. While in the hospital room they did a glucose test and decided it wasn't what they wanted and that she would need to go up into the NICU. I was devistated. I felt like they had just ripped my heart out. I didn't want to be without her.
Baby girl spent a couple days in the NICU. They had a sugar IV in her to keep the glucose where it should be, and had her on a feeding tube so she was getting enough to eat. She was a little jaundice and had to be on a billy blanket for the last 1 1/2 days. We were visiting when the doctor made his rounds and hearing him say "Why is she still here?" was probably THE best thing I had heard in a LONG time! We talked to him and determined that she would be home by Saturday. Thank God!
We finally got to go home!
