Lucy's Birthday

I have been waaayy behind on blogging lately (I had problems with the formatting and then Lucy came and, well, life with a newborn has been a little crazy!) But, I wanted to try and get back on track, so we will start with Lucy's Birthday! The last posting was about me going on bedrest, with plans to be admitted on Sunday, April 10th to start the induction process. So, we'll continue the story from that point.

On Sunday, April 10th, Mike and I enjoyed our last day by ourselves- we slept in, had a great breakfast, enjoyed a lazy Sunday on the couch (as I was still on bedrest!). My parents came by early that afternoon, and my dad prayed for us before they left. Right after they left, I decided I would take a nap, seeing as I would need lots of energy the next day delivering our baby. I had hoped that I would go into labor on my own, because I really didn't want to be induced, but it was already 2:00 pm in the afternoon, and I thought that there's no way that I would go into labor on my own before we checked in to be induced at 8:00 pm that night. Famous last words.

 I woke up from my nap around 2:30 pm with some cramps. They continued for the next 10 minutes, which is when I decided I should probably start tracking them to see if they were really contractions. I had bought an app for my phone that allowed me to track contractions, so I started tracking. And they continued to get stronger and closer together. By the end of the hour, they were about every 4 minutes apart, lasting 1-2 minutes. Legit contractions, and to quote my phone, "This pattern of contractions satisfies the 5-1-1 rule (a contraction every 5 minutes, 1 minute in length, for at least an hour). You could be in labor and should contact your medical provider immediately."

Well, I already knew we were going to the hospital and decided to skip calling the medical professional part and take a shower instead (who wants to be all nasty when checking in to have a baby??! not me! plus, I needed to shave my legs!). So, I proceed to take a shower- Mike stayed in the bathroom with me, still counting contractions, hoping I didn't pass out in the shower from the pain.

About 20 minutes later, we were in the car, headed to the hospital (I think I saw the speedometer get a little over 80 mph on the high way). We get to registration and the contractions are now every 2-3 minutes, 1-2 minutes in length. Not fun. They rush me back to the L&D room, get me changed into a hospital gown and hook me up to the monitors. I think we freaked the nurse out when I told her my mom's longest labor was 3 hours (with me), and that was induced! At that point, I was 4 cm dilated (I was bairly 1 cm when I was at the doctor's office that Friday).

Let me just say the nurses in L&D were awesome. We got there about 5:00 pm, so our day-shift nurse was busy getting me hooked up, starting my IV in-between contractions (and she used lidocaine so I wouldn't feel the 18 gauge IV!).  She quickly got the ball rolling on the anesthesiologist for my epidural, because she thought I was going to have this baby super fast. The CRNA came in to take my history before the epidural (at this point I really couldn't talk, the pain was so bad and I didn't really have any breathing time in-between contractions because they were so close together)- he kept trying to ask me all these health questions, explaining things in slow, simple terms, talking to me like I was 5, and the L&D nurse tells him, "she's a nurse practitioner, she understands medical lingo, go faster!" It was awesome.

In comes the anesthesiologist to place my epidural, which he did in like 5 minutes flat. Let me just say, epidurals are AMAZING. I cannot begin to tell you the amount of relief I felt almost 1 minute after it was in.  I know lots of women who have babies naturally, and my hat goes off to them- I don't know how you do it. When we got the bill in the mail for the anesthesia, my thought was, "it was worth every penny!!"


After the epidural. Life is good.

So, after the epidural, I was able to rest and relax and let my body keep laboring away, all the while, I was pain-free. By 9:30 pm, I had dilated to 10 cm, fully-effaced, ready to start pushing. My OB (who was not on call that night, but came in anyway to deliver me!) came in to break my water (still hadn't broken), and then our fabulous night shift L&D nurse started us pushing. And pushing, and pushing, and pushing. And pushing some more. This continued for 3 hours.

Last pre-baby picture of us!

We finally got to the part where the baby's head was about to crown, so our nurse calls back my OB, who comes in to get ready to deliver. Two more sets of pushes later, and little Lucy Noelle arrived at 12:54 am on Monday, April 11!

Here she is!!

 

Finding out it's a girl!

It was quite unreal to have this crying, goo-covered little baby placed on your belly after pushing for what felt like an eternity, and to finally find out what gender this baby was! I couldn't believe she was a girl, but SO excited! I know Mike had thought all along that it was a boy, and he said that he had to re-set his mind to think "girl" instead of "boy."

Mike cut the cord (he said it was like trying to cut a rubber hose with a pair of safety scissors- quite difficult!).

Cutting the cord

Proud Daddy!

It took awhile to get me all stitched up, so it took a little bit of time before I could actually hold her. Holding her for the first time was amazing and surreal. Crazy to think that this was the child that I saw on a sonogram 9 months prior- at that point, all we could see was this bean-shaped being with a visible flickering heart. And to think that she had grown and developed to be a healthy, 7-pound, 11 ounce, 20 inch long baby over the course of 9 months was amazing.

My parents and my sister Liz and her boyfriend were troopers and stayed at the hospital until they could see her, which was about 1:45 AM! After they were done visiting and meeting Lucy, we finally were taken up to our room about 3:30 am. Mike so graciously went to Whataburger and got me a cheeseburger (glad that there are places opened 24 hours a day!). I don't think we went to bed until 5:30 am that morning... and then got woken up at 7:00 am to see the pediatrician, have vital signs taken, see the nurse, etc....

Aunt Liz

Papi and Grandmommy

Thus started our life as a little family!

I was thinking back recently about her delivery and all the ways that God had totally blessed that day, and it reminded me of all the answers to prayers I had prayed over the past months- that the baby would be healthy, that we'd have a quick and smooth delivery, that He would provide great nurses, that my doctor would be able to deliver me, that I wouldn't have any complications, that the epidural would work, and that I'd go into labor on my own. Amazing to see how everything turned out exactly the way He wanted it to be- His timing was perfect!

More to come soon about life with Lucy!