I always start a blog, post new entries for a few weeks and then forget it exists. The same may happen with this one that I started over a year ago, but I'm really going to try to keep it updated as much as possible.
To jump back to the end of my last post, we found out our baby was a girl back in June. We still proceeded with caution, but started working on the nursery. We did an owl theme in honor of my mammy (who loved owls). I had a few baby showers and got so many things for our baby girl and enjoyed every minute of organizing her nursery (which is now not as neat as it once was - babies will do that to ya).
I woke up with contractions on November 1st (3 days past my due date). They were 5 minutes apart, lasting for only a minute when I woke up at 4am and not anything I couldn't handle. They were just mildly uncomfortable. I called Josh at work around 8:30am after I called the Dr's office (they told me to come in to be checked). He came home and we got there around 11am. I was only 1cm dialated, but they wanted to induce me since I was late. I didn't hesitate (this coming from the girl who originally wanted to do everything naturally). We came home, got our bags, ate a bite of food and headed back to the hospital. We got there around 4:30, got settled in and hooked up to all the monitors.
I was told I could have some food since they were going to induce me until early the next morning. I ordered a ham sandwich and some chips. The Dr. came in at 7pm and placed a little pill inside me to thin out my cervix the rest of the way. I got my food about 30 minutes to an hour after that. Well, I started eating, and half way through my meal I was already in so much pain that I couldn't hardly take 2 bites in between my contractions. Apparently that pill didn't just thin out my cervix, it jumpstarted or sped up my labor.
The only thing I remember after them taking my food away was the nurse asking me if I wanted anything for pain. I told her no that I wanted to do everything naturally. She left and the contractions kept getting worse and worse. She came back later and asked me again: at this point I said "maybe", and before she left the room again I was screaming for the anesthesiologist. I wanted to be one of those strong and empowering women who have their babies naturally, looks at the mirror behind the doctor as the baby is being born and reaches down to help deliver it, but yea, that turned out not to be who I was. I wanted to check my pain tolerance. I gave in at 4cm - so I guess that isn't too bad, but I still felt a little wimpy. I will be sure to get the epidural for baby #2 before I get that far along again.
Once I got the epidural I felt like a new person. I was happy, not screaming at Josh, and not crying or climbing the bedrails any longer. My old side effect was the trembles, which I expected. The process wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it was going to be either. Shortly after the epidural was placed, my water broke on its own (thank goodness). It was not clear fluid, so we knew there was meconium present - yup, my baby is a pooper!
Fast forward to the next morning (after a night of sleeplessness): I am dialated to 8cm by 7am and at 8am I am already at 10cm. I asked to labor down a bit so I didn't have to push as long, and they said that was fine. I wasn't a fan of the Dr. on call that morning, and argued with the nurse that he would not be delivering my baby, that she needed to get any other Dr. in the practice to come down and deliver me. After much hesitation, she finally got another Dr. (one that I loved) to come in. I started pushing before she got in there, and after 2 sets of pushes they yelled at me to stop because she was ready to come out. I had to literally hold my baby inside me while waiting on the Dr. to get to my room. I couldn't hardly breathe without feeling her start to push her way out on her own. After 15 minutes, she finally got there. I pushed one more time and my little Ava came into the world at 9:29am on November 2nd.
I was overcome with emotion as they took her to the warmer and cleaned her up. Josh went over to take pictures while I was being cleaned up. She was very calm when she came out. She cried for just a minute, but when she was placed in the warmer next to the window with the sun shining in on her she calmed down immediately. After the Dr. was done with me I got extremely nauseous and had to be given a shot of phenegran (which of course made me drowsy). Josh held her for a while before I got the chance to. The moment I held her in my arms I just fell in love. She is the most beautiful baby I have ever laid my eyes on and I can't believe she is mine. There is no love like the love a mother has for her child, and it really is impossible to explain until you have experienced it.
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