She's Here!!!

Our beautiful daughter, Emily, finally arrived on August 21, 2008 at 7:07pm. She weighed 8lbs 5oz and was 20 1/4 inches long. I can't believe that she has already been with us for almost two weeks! Boy does time fly when you are having fun...or are sleep deprived!!

Since my last post was all about my fear of labor, I feel like I ought to follow up on that. In short, it hurt but wasn't unbearable. We arrived at the hospital at 6:00am and I was started on a Pitocin drip at 7:15. At 11:15 the contractions were getting pretty painful, so I requested my epidural. I had actually been pretty uncomfortable for awhile before that, but I was so terrified of the epidural that I put it off as long as I possibly could. But, the epidural turned out to be nothing at all. Not even as bad as getting a shot of Novacain at the dentist. So, like I have a tendency to do, I freaked myself out for nothing. Anyway - by 11:45 I was feeling pretty good. Dr. Johnson came in to break my water at around 12:30 and found some meconium in the water, which means Emily had had a bowel movement while still inside of me. She assured me it was somewhat common so I shouldn't worry, but that they would have a neo-natologonist in the room for the delivery just in case. After that, Kerry, Bonnie, Mom and myself all napped on and off until about 4:00 when the epidural started to wear off so the anethesiologist came back to give me another dose. All in all, I was given somewhere between 4-5 doses, but the last dose really didn't help the contraction pain. But by that time I was at 10cm so they had me to start pushing at 6:45pm. They said it was actually a good thing that I was feeling the contractions since it would help me push better and the best thing I could do was push through the pain. So, let me tell ya. I pushed for all I was worth, which I guess is why she was born after only 22 minutes of pushing. Although I could still feel the contractions, I know the epidural must still have been working somewhat because they did not need to give me any other anesthetic to stitch me up. They kept me in the L&D room for another hour, then took me up to my room where we stayed for 2 days and then came home at noon on the following Staurday.

So that is my Labor and Delivery experience. Looking back, I really, really, really wish I had not let the horror stories of all the drama mama's out there upset me. If a pregnant women were to ask my advice on L&D, this would be it.
1. Eat and drink if at all possible before going to the hospital because that will be the last scrap of food you will see for a looonnggg time.
2. Get the epidural. No one will be expecting you to be a martyr, so why be in pain if it is not necessary.
3. Make sure you get the epidural before the Dr. breaks your water.
4. Take plenty of reading material. If you do have a long labor and you get the epidural, you will be laying there for a long time with nothing to do. The contraction monitor is only fascinating for a little while.
5. Welcome the pain at the end. Without it, you could be pushing a lot longer than with it.
6. Pushing really does relieve the pain, so push for all you're worth!
7. Remember that you will feel pain, but it is not unbearable pain.
8. Selfishly savor the experience. During no other time will you be able to get away with saying whatever you want, doing whatever you want, and having people wait on you hand and foot.
9. Finally, remember that the reward at the end of it all is totally worth it. There is no other time in your life that you are so richly rewarded for being in pain. Save the terror for the unrewarded pain in life.

Tomorrow is the BIG DAY!!!

Tomorrow we have to be at the hospital at 6am to have labor induced. A part of me is super excited, but another part is even more nervous!!! I know it is way too late to think about this now, but am I really going to be able to do this??? Maybe I show my naivety about the whole thing by being more worried about things like drawing blood, getting IV's, getting the epidural and getting a catheter than I am about the contractions. I know the whole experience is going to be painful, but I just hope it is not more pain than I am able to tolerate. My emotions are in such a turmoil, I really don't even know where to begin to sort them out. It still just seems surreal that in less than 24 hours (I know - if I'm lucky) I am going to be someone's mother. Kerry and I will have another human being totally dependant upon us for survival. I just really hope we are up to the challenge!!

Other than fear, I am seriously excited to meet this person that has been living inside of me. I wonder what she'll look like? Will she have blue eyes or brown? I wonder what her personality will be? Will she be seriously Type A like her mother, or will she be laid back and able to roll with the punches like her Daddy? I can just hardly wait to find out!!!

So, this will be my last post until we bring our baby Emily home from the hospital. Please keep us in your prayers!!!!!

Officially Past Due :(

Ok. I am now officially past due. For those of you that know me well, you can guess how insane this is making me. As a rule, I am a very punctual person. If I have an appointment at 10, you can bet I will be there by 9:45; if I have a project due by Friday, you can bet I will be putting the finishing touches on it by Wednesday afternoon. So, if I am told that this baby is due by August 15, then dag nab it, she should have made grand debut last night! GRRRRR!!!!! I really, really, really hope that all these old wives are correct in their tales that the full moon tonight will send her on her way!

40 Weeks!!!!!!!!!

We have finally made it. We are officially at 40 weeks!! Whoo-hoo!! We went to the Dr. today and they performed the non-stress test, which just means the MA hooked me up to the fetal monitor again for about 30 minutes. The Dr. read the results and said that everything looked perfect. She checked me and found that I am just a teeny-weeny bit shy of 3cm. We went ahead and scheduled an induction date of Thursday, August 21, but she said she really expected me to go into labor on my own before then. However, this afternoon I think the "bloody show" occurred so I could very well go into labor tonight or tomorrow. I think I am ready. One minute I am and the next I am very scared. Oh, well. I guess this baby is coming whether I am ready for her or not. But, I think I have done everything I can to prepare for her. The nursery is all ready, we have taken all the classes, prepared our "birth plan", washed all her clothes and blankets in Dreft (OCD - yes, I know), bought plently of supplies and packed my bag and the diaper bag. The only left to do is wait. I know we still have one major mountain to cross (namely, Labor and Delivery!) but at least the finish line is in sight! Stay tuned!!!

39 Weeks

Only one more week to go (hopefully)!! We saw Dr. Clark (my original OB and the high risk specialist) on Friday. Blood pressure was totally normal - 118/60 something. The dreaded moment of truth came when I stepped on the scale... I have gained approximately 63lbs during this pregnancy - a horrifying number. I guess I will just have to get busy pushing our cute little pink stroller around the neighborhood. Emily will know the 'hood like the back of her hand by the time she is 6 months! But, back to the appointment...Dr. Clark poked around on my tummy and said that her best educated guess was that Emily will weigh somewhere between 7.5 and 8lbs...pretty normal. She said that since I had been checked for dilation during our hospital fiasco on Wednesday, she didn't have to check me unless I wanted her to. As unpleasant as this experience is, I asked her to go ahead and check just to see if anymore progress had been made. Since I was only a little more than a cm, she "stretched" my cervix to 1.5 to 2 cm. OW! OW! OW! But worth it, I guess, if it means it will get Emily here any sooner! She then told us that she did not like to induce first time Moms before 40 weeks, but we could go ahead and schedule an induction date if we wanted to. We decided to wait until the 40 week appointment to do this. I would really like for nature to take its course, so we will probably put induction off as long as possible. Dr. Clark told us that while there is no way to be absolutely sure, she believes I will go into labor sometime between 40 and 41 weeks. I will be 40 weeks on 8/15/08 and there will be a full moon 8/16/08....if the moon can pull the tides maybe it can pull this child out of me!!! I am officially off of work now, so I plan to just rest up this next week...maybe I'll even find time to finish Emily's baby blanket!!! But, I guess I shouldn't expect miracles... :)

1st Trip to the Hospital

Yesterday I was feeling a little woozy and lightheaded, so I asked Tracy at work to take my bloodpressure. It was 150/85 which is pretty high for me since I normally have kind of low blood pressure. So, I called the Dr.'s office who told me I needed to come in to be seen. I called Kerry to come get me since I didn't think I should drive while I was so lightheaded. Once we arrived we saw one of the nurse practioners so said I was still dialated only 1cm, that my blood pressure was down to 140/70 and she wanted me hooked up to a fetal monitor there in the office for awhile. However, after she consulted with Dr. Grider about this, Dr. Grider made the decision to send me down to Labor and Delivery. I then spent the next four hours hooked up to a fetal monitor and a contraction monitor and I got some blood drawn. I believe they were concerned about preclampsia, so they taking all the necessary precautions. But the blood test came back normal, the fetal monitor showed Emily was doing wonderful and the contraction monitor, while it did show I was having contractions, it was not enough to justify keeping. So, home I went. Kind of a waste, but I guess it is better to be safe than sorry. This little episode did convince me, however, that I need to be through with work. I thought that just working half days this week would be no sweat, but I guess it was harder on me than I thought. Oh, well. I guess just resting up until the big day isn't such a bad idea after all!

38 Weeks

Today I am 38 weeks pregnant. This morning I went for my 38 week check up and, much to my dismay, found out I am still only 60% effaced and 1cm dilated. Boo!!! I was really hoping they would tell me I had made some kind of progress. I think this little girl is just too comfy in there. Maybe it is time to try some of Aunt Tiffie's home induction methods...