My Birth Story

OMG I can not believe it! How the time has flown these past 2(ish weeks). On Sunday July 10th, my husband and I were enjoying dinner at my parents house- one final dinner before Baby "L" was to make an arrival. We got home and got some things cleaned up and packed for the hospital, and then my husband had to go into work to reset the computer servers so his co-workers could work on Monday- and he was not going to be there because obviously we were going to have a baby! He did not get home until 11:30pm, so we tried to get as much sleep as possible before getting up at 5:30am to go in to have a baby.

We arrived at the hospital at 6:45 am for my induction, and it took a while to get all the paperwork, meds ordered, and changed into hospital gear. My IV was started at 9:30am, and since I have such horrible veins they had to put it in my wrist- which kind of hurt, and I occluded it a couple of times when using/bending my wrist...oh well. After that we kind of hung out all day, we played battle ship 5 stars on our Iphones, and I enjoyed an orange popsicle. We kept our parents informed of my "progress" or LACK OF I should say. We had a visitor stop by the room (he works at the hospital) and shortly after he left my husband went to get dinner (about 4 PM). Well as I was sitting there trying to relax and listen to my baby's heart beat I heard a little pop, and then had an intense contraction. I called the nurse in and YUP, my water had ruptured on it's own. I texted Scott and told him my water broke but not to hurry back, because it was not like I was having the baby right then or anything.

After my water broke it was like I had entered a WHOLE NEW WORLD! WOW, talk about a contraction. I had to ask how to breath through them, and by 6PM I was hurting so bad I was either going to break down or I needed an epidural. So we called in the anesthesiologist, and oh what relief! My goal was to make it to 7cm dilated before I got my epidural, and to my surprise when I was checked after the epidural took over I was 1-1/2 cm...GREAT! Over the next 5 hours I progressed slowly, my family came to visit, and I basically just hung out and waited for my baby to make his/her arrival. Well my family left after I was checked to be only 5 cm...and they predicted it would be at least another 5 hours to progress then another few to labor/push. In a matter of an hour after them leaving I noted a wet/dripping feeling and we called in my awesome nurse. She said that happens when the you have cervical change, so things must be going well. She was not going to check me, but saw the baby's heart rate was irregular and difficult to keep on the monitor. With in about 2 minutes her and another nurse both noted that I was 10 cm and ready to go. They put an internal monitor on the baby, administered O2 to me, and turned off all my IV's. I was not sure what was going on, but that will get your blood pumping! The told me the baby may have the cord wrapped around his/her neck, and that was the reason for all the rush.

I stabilized and so did the baby after about an hour, then they let me "labor down"- they turned back on the IV's and let the baby do his/her own thing and travel down into the birth canal. Around midnight I began pushing, I didn't realize that you only push with each contraction, so there is quite a bit of down time. My nurse said I was a good pusher, and all I knew was that there was a LOT of pressure and I wanted my baby out and safe! My OB arrived for the delivery at about 1am, and Allison Claire was born at 1:33am! She had the cord wrapped around her neck so Scott did not get to cut the cord, and I have NO idea who said "IT'S A GIRL". (those were 2 things I REALLY wanted Scott to do) but our baby girl is beautiful! She did not cry right away, and that was scary- but the nurses worked quickly to get her crying. Her 1 min. Apgar score was 8/10 and her 5 min Apgar score was 9/10 because of her color. But now she is a beautiful peachy pink =)

After delivering our baby girl, Scott surprised me with a "push present!!" It is a beautiful light pink pearl necklace! (from the Shane Co.) We had gotten a beautiful pearl on out honeymoon in Maui, but I lose all my good jewelry and of course I misplaced it. So this is a pearl necklace to remember the amazing day we brought our beautiful baby girl into this world...What a great husband I have, I am truly a lucky girl.

The rest of the stay at the hospital was AMAZING, I can not say enough good things about the staff that was there to help and answer questions (OH SO MANY QUESTIONS) We have been home since Thursday July 14, 2011 and been inside because of this CRAZY heat wave. I am working on nursing, and things are going fairly well. Scott is just an AMAZING dad I have been so lucky to have him home with us for the past 2 weeks. I'm not going to know what to do when he goes back to work ='( We are learning how to care for and play with our little girl. We have had lots of great visitors, and been trying to stay on top of sleep (a little at least). Scott has probably gotten a little more than me, but I am nursing so that is to be expected.

We have come to learn google is a GREAT resource for baby related questions, and driving with our little one in the car is terrifying. But what can you do, we are learning and loving our baby girl. And I will be the first to admit- motherly instinct is NOT always right....I TOTALLY thought we were going to have a boy!!! So good job all you friends/family out there who guessed correctly, I SURE did have my doubts.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JULY 12, 2011 TO MY BEAUTIFUL BABY GIRL ALLISON CLAIRE!!!!