Our baby girl is finally here!! She was born Wednesday (August 20th) morning at 4:46 weighing 7 pounds, 4 ounces and was 19 and a half inches long! She has a full head of daddy's brown curly hair! She couldn't be more perfect! We are so amazingly proud that we get to raise this beautiful baby!
Labor and delivery were a surprise! My water ended up breaking Tuesday morning while I was in bed!! And since the doctors usually like you to deliver the baby within a 24 hour window to reduce the risk of infection, I had to be put on pitocin to get my labor started. I was initially dilated 1 cm and was 60% effaced! Thomas and I walked the hospital for a few hours hoping to get the contractions coming on their own but we had no such luck! Our families got there as i was starting the pitocin around 7:30 but it wasn't working because my IV was done wrong earlier in the day... so around 8:30 they redid the IV and upped the dosage of pitocin! The contractions were constantly 2-3 minutes apart from the start and were mainly in my back! Everyone hung out in the room with me, watching the Olympics while I labored and Thomas and my mom helped me with my breathing and relaxing through the contractions! I was pretty tired from the start since my water broke a little before 11:00 and I had been going strong all day long... but labor wasn't all that bad and I was able to get through each contraction with their help!!
They cleared the room of everyone but my mom and Thomas around midnight and checked my cervix. I was only dilated to 2 and a half so they gave me an Ambien to try and get some sleep. But all that did was make me more drowsy and nauseous:( They eventually gave me some other medicine to counter the nausea and I was able to sleep between contractions for a while! I think I even slept for 4 minutes straight one time! And that felt wonderful!! Around 4:00 I wasn't able to sleep at all and it didn't seem like I was making very good progress so i wanted some IV pain medicine so that i could at least get an hour or so of good sleep since i figured i would be laboring for a lot longer. Once they gave me the medicine I started feeling a lot of pressure in my bottom. I figured I needed to use the bathroom since I was sure I wasn't ready to push. But the contractions got very intense and right on top of each other and my back felt like it was on fire! I asked to be checked again since the pressure was getting worse and I was dilated to 6 cm! I happy to have made some progress, but I knew had to of had a good 4+ hours of this hard labor ahead of me and there was no way I was going to be able to go through that for very much longer! My body started pushing but everyone was telling me that it wasn't time yet because I was only 6 cm... but I kept telling them that i either needed to push or they needed to let me go to the bathroom!! But I couldn't stop pushing so i asked for the epideral. I figured the only way I was going to be able to stop was if I couldn't feel the pressure any more! So the midwife checked me and I was already to a 9 and just had a little lip of the cervix left! I kept trying not to push, but was anyway and they checked a few minutes later and i was fully dilated and the baby was on her way out!! I pushed for maybe a good 10 minutes before she was born at 4:46! I had gone from 6 cm to birth in half an hour:):) The first dose of IV pain medicine never even had a chance to kick in! So I felt everything and in essence, had my pain med-free birth I had planned for!!
Giving birth was amazing! As soon as she came out I said "Oh my God, i just had a baby!"... I was a little loopy from being so exhausted lol! The midwife put her on my chest and she was just so beautiful! My parents and sisters and Thomas' mom were all in the room to see her come into the world! Thomas' dad and step mom didn't get back to the hospital in time for the birth since she came so fast but were there to see her shortly after! I was in and out of conciseness since all of the drugs were starting to hit me on top of me being so tired! The midwife followed our birth plan and waited until the umbilical cord had stopped pulsing (so Lily got every drop of blood God intended for her) and Thomas got to cut the cord! They took her to get checked up and cleaned off and she was great! She needed some time to get her temperature regulated and had a bit of a heart murmur... but those are perfectly normal since she was 2 weeks early and a few hours later she was fine!! Thomas got to give her her first bath and everyone passed her around and loved on her while I slept! I came in and out for a few hours until they moved us to our recovery room and then we all crashed!!
They wanted us to stay 2 days in the hospital since she was early. The first night it was just Thomas and I with the baby and it went really well! I was a little nervous about being overwhelmed but it just came so naturally to me! Lily and I learned how to breastfeed together that night and Thomas was so amazing!!
Friday morning they took Lily to get all of her blood work done so we could be discharged but it came back that she had jaundice so we were going to have to stay another day:( And she was going to have to spend it under special blue lights to help her levels go down! She had also lost 10% of her body weight so they wanted to check her levels and her weight the next day and hopefully let us go home! That was a pretty rough night. Lily had to be naked, except for her diaper and these cloth goggles so she was a little chilly and uncomfortable! We couldn't hold her any longer than it took for me to feed her and for her to get a diaper change! Saturday morning they came and tested her again. Her levels had gone down but not enough and she had lost a little more weight so again we had to stay. This time they were going to check her at midnight and if her levels were low enough they would take her off the lights and check her levels again around 6 in the morning! Saturday was a lot easier on us! Lily did so much better with dealing with the lights and she ate and used the bathroom like a pro!! We were all counting down the hours until midnight to find out if she was doing better! And when they brought my baby back to me all swaddled up and in her own bassinet I was so amazingly happy!! I sat up with her most of the night and couldn't believe how lucky i was to be her mommy! She is just so beautiful:) That morning they checked her again and cleared her to be discharged!! We had to sit around for a few more hours waiting to actually leave but once I signed those discharge papers we were off!!
Our first day and night home went very smoothly! My dad and Hunter are here now as well (my mom was with us the whole time in the hospital... she is an amazing mother to do that! It wasn't easy sleeping in the recliner I'm sure!) Thomas and I took care of her last night without any help! I fed her a billion times and he changed just as many diapers!! But this morning I don't feel tired... just blessed! She slept on my chest the whole time I wrote this and she is just the most beautiful example of love I have ever seen! Thomas is amazing with her and to see him love her makes me love him so much more! We waited for this for a long time and to have this little girl sleep right between us at night is truly a dream come true!
I just want to thank you all again for following me through this pregnancy! This blog really was a great project for me through the deployment and the last few months of pregnancy! The love and prayers we got from all of you was overwhelming!
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