Alyson Jade has arrived!

Ok, this post is way late since Aly was born Nov 11, and I am sure most of you know that already, but I wanted to post my story here for those of you who haven't heard me tell it yet (I know there are atleast a couple of you who are interested). It's been 6 weeks since she was born, so some of the details are fuzzy and times may not be exact, but this is as close as I can remember it lol.

I woke up at around 2am on Nov. 11 (my due date) with bad cramps and KNEW this was finally IT! I tried to go back to sleep knowing I would need my rest, but the contractions (abbreviated ctx from now on) were coming too close together for sleep in between and I was excited. I called Dave at work and let him know to be prepared to come home...then called him right back and told him to come as soon as he could. He said he needed to wait until all the lunch breaks had been taken unless I knew I would go super fast. (It was only about 30 min more till the last break would be over). So I told him he could wait that long.

My dad had flown in the night before, so I woke him up to let him know what was happening and he moved to the couch to nap some more so he could hear me yell if I needed anything. Then I went and got in the tub and turned on some relaxing music. The water helped with the ctx some, but certainly didn't take the pain away. Dave finally got home around 3:30, and came into the bathroom to sit with me. We still hadn't decided on a name at the time, so he brought the laptop in and was looking up names and we were discussing which ones we liked. (After nine months of not being able to decide on a name that we both liked, it was actually fairly simple to agree on Alyson Jade).

I called my midwife at around 4:30am to let her know I was in labor and that my ctx were around 5 min apart and lasting close to a minute each. She told me it sounded like I was still in early labor, but to go ahead and go in if I thought I needed to (but that I should try to wait it out a little longer). At 5am I said we need to go now because if this is just early labor I am going to need drugs (I had wanted a natural childbirth). It took us about 30 min to get everything ready and the van warmed up etc, and about 30 min to get to the hospital. That 30 min was awful! The ctx hurt so bad and I had to stay buckled up and couldn't move much to make them better. (Just like my menstral cramps, the ctx hurt my back the worst).

When we got to the hospital around 6am, I was dilated 5-6 cm already. (Early labor HA!) After an hour laying in the bed on the monitor, I was already stretchy to an 8, so I didn't get up out of bed to walk thinking it would go pretty quick. I was making some strange sounds during my ctx, just saying Oooooooh really loud through pretty much the whole ctx, or saying things like 'open, open' which I learned from Ina May's book. I still got hung up a bit between 8-9 cm, so I opted for a teeny bit of drugs at 9cm. They gave me 0.5 cc of Fentinol (sp?) and told me it should kick in right away and take the edge off, but I never felt a bit of difference at all. They told me afterwards that it probably didn't help me at all and that I might as well have gone without the drugs because they didn't help. A few min after they started the drugs, I told my midwife she could go ahead and break my water. That was a weird feeling of all the fluid gushing out, and with each ctx more and more would come out and I was thinking 'how did that much fluid fit in there?' There was so much fluid that my socks got wet, and I had soaked the whole bed. (There was also a little meconium in the fluid, so I knew that could be a concern).

I am not sure how long I pushed for, but I started feeling pushy on my own and she checked me and there was a tiny lip that I could push around, so I started pushing. Pushing was hard work, and there were a couple of times when I wanted to give up and say just give me a cesarean (I know I was being a wuss lol). When she finally started to crown, it got a little easier to push because I knew it wouldn't be much longer. I looked in the mirror and could see this mass of dark hair coming out. She crowned for quite awhile and I was having trouble pushing because it hurt so bad and I wanted to just breathe through ctx instead of pushing, but knew I needed to push to get her out. The midwife mentioned that she would let me push through a couple more ctx and then talk about an episiotomy. I did not want an episiotomy at all, so the mention of one gave me renewed strength to push. The hardest part was when her head was coming out I could feel myself starting to tear and I stopped pushing...I didn't want to tear, but knew it would probably be better than being cut still, so I finally got over it and pushed as hard as I could. Her head came out, and the body was nothing after that, I don't even remember pushing, but I probably did just a little with that next ctx and she was out and she was HUGE! (and yet tiny). Because of the meconium they didn't put her directly on my belly like I had wanted, but took her to be checked out under the warming lamp instead.

I had a couple of really small tears, only one of which required stitches...so I got 2 stitches there. (Oh yeah, sometime in there I gave a tiny push to get the placenta out too lol). Since I was being stitched up and couldn't really hold her yet, they took Alyson to the nursery to weigh her and do all of that stuff. Dave went with her, and my midwife continued stitching me up and explained that I had a small 'skid mark' on the inside that didn't get stitches and a tiny tear at the top that didn't get stitches because it was so small and wasn't bleeding that stitches would create more pain and trauma to the area that wasn't necessary.

(Alyson Jade was born at 11:12am on 11/11/06 and weighed 9 lb 8 oz--told you she was huge lol--and was 21 1/4 inches long).

It was probably about 20 min later she and Dave finally came back from the nursery and I got to start breast feeding. She took to it right away with no problems. She had gotten a clean bill of health from the nursery pediatrician and there were no problems from the meconium being in the amniotic fluid. We stayed in the hospital for 2 days and went home on the 13th. (We could have gone home on the 12th, but I wanted to have the extra day since I was still hurting pretty bad getting in and out of bed, and because I could sleep propped up since the bed moved.)

Next time, I know I could go completely natural if I wanted to...if there is a next time--we are still not sure on that one. Hope you enjoyed the story and keep reading along, I will try to update this blog more often and add pictures. Speaking of which, here are a few from the day she was born.

Very first family picture.

Daddy and Aly

Mommy and Aly

More pictures coming soon!

12 days until baby?

Well, if she is born on her due date, we have only 12 days left until we meet our precious baby girl. At my appointment today though, my midwife told me she doesn't expect to see me at next week's appointment. She said that based on the progress I have made in the last week, she gives me only a 50% or less chance of making it to my appointment next week. This is very encouraging news, but at the same time just a little bit scary. In less than a month (and possibly much sooner) Dave and I will be responsible for a tiny being that will rely on us for her every need. I am super excited though...I can't wait to meet this little girl! (For anyone who is interested, I have posted my 'stats' from last week's appointment and this week's below).

10/20/2006

baby is at -2 station
1-2 cm dilated
60% effaced

10/30/2006

baby is at -1 station
2 cm dilated
80% effaced

Her prediction is based on the difference in station. She said the baby has moved WAY down since my last appointment, and the head is definitely engaged. I feel like I am emotionally ready for her to come, but there is so much we still need to do to get the house ready. Her bassinet is still in pieces and I need to make certain all of her clothes are washed and we have plenty of diapers etc. Guess we had better get a move on just in case she does make an appearance sooner rather than later.

Ready for baby

Well, I am sure if you are reading this, you probably know me pretty well and are aware that I am pregnant. I am due Nov. 11, 2006 (only 16 days away). I am getting very excited to meet our baby girl. I'm not sure why, but I keep have and inkling that she will not stay put until Nov. 11. Dad is supposed to be flying in on the 10th so of course he is hoping she atleast makes it until then, and Mom is driving up and wants me to call her the minute I think I am in labor so that she can hopefully be here for the birth also. (It is a 24 hour drive...sorry Mom, but I hope I am not in labor that long).

We toured the hospital a couple of weeks ago and I was pretty disappointed in the facility. The hospital website describes the birthing rooms as comfortable and homelike, but I have never seen a more sterile looking birthing room. The postpartum rooms are awful also. They are tiny and have 2 beds shoved in there where there is barely a foot of walking space between them...pretty much just enough space for the curtain that hangs in the middle. There is also about a foot of room between the bed and the wall on the other side of each bed, and about 3-4 feet between the end of the bed and the wall...and the only chair is wooden and uncomfortable looking. I was told they have cots and sleeper chairs for if Dave wants to spend the night, but I don't have a clue where they would put it in this room. I hate to complain about it so much, but really, you would think they could do a little better than that. Oh well, atleast I will be meeting my baby girl, and I am sure the surroundings won't matter quite so much after that (but I am still keeping my fingers crossed that I don't have a room mate).

In other news, we still haven't picked out a name for sure, but have a few choices narrowed down and are still looking for other possibilities that we like. I doubt that we will decide before we meet her, but if we do, I don't know if we will share our choice. All that matters is that we like the name, but when we share the name and someone doesn't like it, our feelings tend to get a little hurt (ok, Dave's may not, but mine do, and I don't want to be talked out of a name I love because someone else doesn't care for it). Either way, y'all don't have long to wait...we have to come up with a name soon because we won't be calling her 'baby' forever. I hope this was decent for my first blog and that everyone will continue to read as a way of keeping up with the goings on in our life.