so, i was due on friday, august 17th. that day came and went. i had been at a 2 and 50% effaced for a good 2+ weeks with no signs that it was progressing. my doctor wanted to wait until the next thursday (aug 23rd) night to induce and plan on us having the baby on friday. i asked him if we could do wednesday night instead so that way josh would be able to have more time with me at home before he had to be back to work the next monday. he said he'd check and let me know. he called me the next day and said that the hospital was booked for that wednesday night so he scheduled us for tuesday night instead! seriously, it was the best news i had heard in a long time. i went in for a stress test on monday morning and while the baby did great, they had a hard time finding a good amount of fluid surrounding the baby. the nurse said it was something to be aware of but since i was going in the next day they weren't too concerned.
tuesday was a day full of every emotion possible: anxiety, excitement, nervousness, fear, exhaustion... you get it. i was so emotional as i thought about how our whole lives were about to change. i tried to nap, clean the house, get things ready for the hospital, etc. to keep my mind off everything. when josh got home from work, we got our car packed up and he gave me the most beautiful blessing i've ever had. i cried through the whole thing but it was absolutely perfect. it calmed my nerves and made me so excited to bring our sweet baby into the world. we took our dogs to my parents house and then went to the cheesecake factory to get some food as we waited for the hospital to call and tell us when to come in. since i hadn't progressed further than 50%, they were having us come in the night before to "prep my cervix" and then they were planning on using pitocin the next morning to start the labor.
the hospital called and we went in around 8:30. we got checked into our room and they started me on the "ripening pill" called cytotec. it's given every 3 hours throughout the night and we started at about 10. that night, josh's parents and aunt came by to visit. once they left, josh snuggled up on the bench/bed and went to sleep and i tried to go to sleep but couldn't. i watched some movies on my iPad and it felt like every time i was about to doze off, a nurse would come in to check me. around 4 am, the nurse came in and told me that i could get some pain meds if i wanted some or i could even get my epidural if i wanted it. i had no pain at that time (even though the monitors showed i was having some contractions) and told her i wanted to feel some of my contractions before i got the epidural. around 7 i was started to feel uncomfortable so they gave me a small dosage of phenergan to take the edge off. at that same time, i woke josh up because his snoring was driving me crazy and at that same time, my parents showed up. my doctor came in around 7:30 and i was only at a 2 1/2. he predicted the baby would come some time in the early evening. he broke my water then and i didn't even feel anything- in fact no fluid really even came out. shows how low my levels really were.
after breaking my water, i started feeling the contractions more and more. i finally got my epidural around 9am and it was perfect timing. the epidural was awesome- no pain in my body but i could still breathe just fine and could still move my toes. around 10:30 i was at a 5. the nurse said i didn't need pitocin because i was progressing on my own and to expect the baby sooner- around 4pm. she said to let her know if i felt any pressure or discomfort. we kept hanging out in the room with my parents and josh's mom came over from work a few times. i was so comfortable that i was starting to doze off even. we kept joking about how awesome it would be if i were fully dilated the next time they checked me. the nurse came in at 12:30 and checked me and gave me the craziest look ever- she said "remember how i told you to tell us if you feel any pressure?" i told her i felt nothing and she said that i was at a 10 and that the baby was right there and she could see her head. josh asked "so, now that liz is at a 10, what do we do now?" the nurse looked at him and said "call her doctor immediately and have liz keep her legs closed and not cough". we couldn't believe it! i started getting super excited. josh went and told our parents that our joking was actually paying off. they came in and wished us luck and left the room around 12:55 while my doctor and the nurse were in there prepping everything. when he told me to push, i pushed 1 practice push and he said, "ok, well 1 more push about a third as hard as you just did and the baby will be out". really? this is easy!! so, i pushed one more time and heard the most beautiful cry in the world! our baby was born at 1:01 pm (literally 6 minutes after our parents left the room) and was absolutely beautiful!
they put her on my chest and we noticed that she was having a difficult time breathing. they took her and cleaned her up and wrapped her up and gave her to josh to hold. her breathing was a little better but not much. josh asked the nurse to check her again and she spent a good 20-30 mins trying to work the junk out of her lungs, throat, and nose. she finally sounded better and they brought her to me to do the skin-to-skin and try to nurse her. while she wasn't sounding stuffed up anymore, her breathing was extremely rapid and the nurses were concerned. also, she wouldn't latch on and was quite fussy. they called a nicu nurse to come check her out. the nurse came and spent a good 30 minutes or so observing her and trying to calm her breathing down. around 2:45, they decided that she needed to be taken to the nicu for observation. we didn't even have a name for the baby and our parents were still in the waiting room wondering what was going on. so, josh and i had a good 2 minutes to look at the baby and give her a name before our parents came in. we introduced them to our little amelia, they said hello to her, and they they whisked her away with josh to the nicu. i was then take up to my room and told to wait until i heard from someone at the nicu.
we waited a few hours not knowing what was going on. finally, she came back to me around 5:15. josh had just held her in the nicu trying to soothe her to calm her down and it finally worked. when they brought her to me, they said her blood sugar was extremely low and they needed her to be fed immediately. we had a hard time getting her to latch again but she nursed a bit and luckily, her blood sugar went right up. she was then monitored for her breathing and blood sugar for the next 24 hours but she didn't have any problems after those first few hours.
we spent the next few hours loving on our little baby. we had lots of visitors and my cute friends lindsay and amanda came and took pictures of our new little family. all of the nurses kept telling us how cute amelia was (of course we knew she was the cutest baby, but it's always nice to have strangers confirm it for us! haha) and they were all so amazed at how wide-eyed and alert she was.
we spent 2 nights in the hospital and headed home on friday, august 24th. my recovery has been a piece of cake since being home. i guess it helps to have a smaller baby and a quick delivery but i have felt perfectly find since about day 2! i told my doctor, if all my babies come this easy, he'll definitely be seeing us again in the near future :)
