Amelia's here!

I probably should post about my birth experience before posting about what a joy being a mom has been so far. I won't go in to a ton of detail, but here's the basic outline.

Because of pregnancy-induced hypertension, I was set to be induced on my due date. I called the hospital at 6am but was told inductions were being held off for a few hours due to how busy the hospital was at the time. We were given a time of 12:15 to arrive, so that's what we did. Just so happened that a couple from our childbirth class was waiting in the waiting room to be induced, too. Apparently they were at their doctor's appt and it was realized that their baby was way below what he should be size-wise and wasn't getting the nutrition that he should so they were sent over right then. She was due 2 days after me...they ended up having their baby 30 minutes after we had ours!

Anyway, I was checked but still at 2 (almost 3) centimeters. The Petocin was administered at 2pm on a very, very, very low dose of 2 miL/hour. The nurse only upped it by 2 every hour and a half or so and my contractions were nothing so D & I caught the Mariners game in its entirety and were able to watch them beat the Yankees! Finally, at 8:20pm when the Petocin was at 16 but I was only dilated to 3 my doctor came in and broke my bag of waters. The contractions started coming much more frequently and became very painful. I used the exercise ball a lot, tried a rocking chair, and tried to stand and "slow dance" with D for a while but the pain was really bad and I got very discouraged when, at 11:10 pm when the Petocin was up to 18 and the nurse checked me I was still only 4 centimeters. I asked for the epidural at 11:45 and by 11:50 the sweet anesthesiologist came in to administer it. She explained all the risks and benefits as well as exactly what she was doing when she did it. She told me to signal when I was getting a contraction and she'd stop what she was doing to let me breathe through it. The whole thing was painless and she did just the amount of doseage so that I could still have some movement in my legs but didn't feel the contractions anymore. When the time came, I was also able to feel the sensation to push. I fell asleep around 12:30pm and by 2:25pm I was fully dilated, fully effaced, and ready to push! I was so surprised and thrilled that I progressed 6 cm in just 2 hours...it didn't surprise me, though, that I wasn't relaxing the way I should have been during the contractions - I remember trying really hard but not being able to stop tensing up when they would come (when I felt them, that is). I pushed for a total of 1 hour, 20 minutes with 15 minutes of that time trying not to push while waiting for the doctor to show up.


Amelia was born at 3:52 am surrounded by both grandmas and two aunts (with grandparents, uncles, and cousins in the waiting room!). It was truly the most amazing experience. Hearing my husband and my sisters encourage me while I pushed and also tell me how beautiful she was (and how "tiny" she was!) before I could even see her was great motivation for me to finish the task at hand and get that baby out! I don't think there was a dry eye in that room by the time Amelia made her appearance. If there was, I don't want to know because I was a mess! They plopped her on my chest while they cleaned her up and I remember hearing her cry. Most of this experience felt like a dream and even looking back it seems that way. I know Amelia had the cord wrapped loosely around her neck when she first came out so after she was on my chest for a bit they took her over to the warmer and got her cleaned up and checked her vitals. I remember someone (my mom, maybe?) explaining to me what the doctor was doing as she prepared the cord blood donation kit. I also remember hearing the process of D cutting the cord and watched as he stamped Amelia's footprints in our baby book.


This is dragging out longer than I thought it would, but I didn't want to miss anything since I doubt I'd write out her whole birth story while it was fresh in my memory.

We were moved to the mom and baby unit shortly after Amelia was born and we stayed there until 11am on Saturday. The nurse we had most of the time in there was really awesome. On Friday night we sent Amelia to the nursery around 11:50 and they didn't bring her in to be fed until around 3:30. Even then, she slept for over an hour after we got her back before wanting to be fed. To this day that stretch of sleep is the longest I've gotten since her birth. The food in the hospital was yummy! In the labor & delivery section they had an entire snack room for the fathers-to-be with everything free of charge (really - they don't track it). They had a fridge full of sandwiches, salads, pudding, Jello, etc and a freezer with ice cream, popsicles and the like. They also had an assortment of Kettle chips and granola bars. D took full advantage of the food while I was in labor and then afterward when I was in recovery. It was so nice because I was fed steak salad for lunch and salmon for dinner! And when I wanted a snack, D ran and got it from the little kitchen. When we left, the hospital gave us a really nice SwaddleMe with the hospital's logo on it. What a sweet replacement for tshirts emblazoned with the hospital's name!


Wow this is dragging. Sorry!

Recovering from the birthing experience is harder than I thought it would be, but I'm doing okay. I'm so thankful for my family being in town this weekend to help with the baby and the house. It was really fun to come home from the hospital to a house full of some of my favorite people. Saturday night was rough. We had some feeding issues and I got really discouraged. But today Amelia is doing so much better and I don't feel like such a bad mom! My parents graciously offered to keep Amelia in their room on Saturday night for a couple of hours so that D & I could get some sleep. Exactly 2 hours after they had her I woke up with a start and had D go grab her...I felt bad for not having her with us and instead sleep depriving my parents.

I called the on-call nurse for our pediatrician's office tonight with some general questions that had me concerned. She was really sweet and explained everything well, but at the end I said "So pretty much I just need to wait for my milk to come in", to which she replied "Exactly". So, that will be a joyous event here in this house. No more hungry baby.

I'm still having hypertension issues. My swelling in my feet is getting worse and my bp is still pretty high. I need to call my doctor tomorrow...this swelling business was supposed to go away after pregnancy!

Oh, we went to my in-laws' house on Saturday for the 4th of July so I got to dress Amelia up in a patriotic outfit. The hairbow was made by a very special friend (if you remember that post), the bracelet was made by another friend, and the outfit was bought by yet another friend when she found out we were pregnant. It came together nicely! The dinner with mine and D's family went really well and was fun but I was exhausted by the end.


I really have to get going even though I have a LOT more to say. Amelia is sleeping on D's chest while he plays Call of Duty and seriously we should be sleeping, too. I'm loving being a mom even though I'm realizing that the worrying doesn't stop once they're outside the womb. I wish I could bottle the love I have for this little girl and give it to everyone - it's the most amazing feeling. I can't believe she's here and all ours. God has richly blessed us - I mean really blessed us!


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