The Happy Houghs: May 2011

CAUTION: You will only want to spend your precious time reading this if you are my mother or sister (probably) . . . WAY TO MUCH INFORMATION. :) Just wanted to have it written down somewhere, so:

Bullets of Baby's Beautiful Birth

Monday, May 23rd:
* Maddie is one day overdue so we had a scheduled sonogram. Things looked great (the 3-D pics of her chubby cheeks, pouty lips, and papa's nose were so gorgeous and real) so they were content to let her cook. I was scheduled to come back on Friday and then they would set the date for an induction when she was a full week overdue. UGH! She was measuring at 8 lb. 10 oz. but they won't induce unless they top the scales at 11. Getting pretty nervous and impatient.
* Kellie (big sis) gave me some great tips to get baby here and with the rest of the day off (thank heavens for super subs), I was set on doing everything I could to coax baby here. I went extreme "curb-walking" (one foot on the curb, one foot on the street), shot some hoops with Matt at the school, and even tried some nipple stimulation. :)
* 10:30 p.m. After a calming bath, I decide that it's okay to finish the week/school year with my first graders and resolved myself to patiently await her arrival. I lay down in bed, felt a pain in my side, turned over and felt a warm gush (Matt heard the soft pop)! My membranes had burst . . . baby was coming after all! Matt flew into "papa panic mode", packing us for the hospital. He stopped for a brief moment, completely overwhelmed with tears in his eyes, and proclaimed, "I don't know what to do!" I was in no pain and no hurry. I called my mom, pooped around, and finally called the hospital (after some scolding from Matt). Dr. Benedict was on-call and told us to get our buns in but I was still liking the idea of checking in after midnight so that our billing would start on a new day. Matt didn't see any sense in waiting since with his amazing U.P.S. insurance our baby was covered 100% and it wouldn't make any difference to our wallets when we checked in! Lily (our 5 lb. chihuahua)was VERY anxious, sniffing, licking, and making sure she was 6 inches away from our feet at all times. She even jumped in the hospital bag, ready to be packed along--a valuable member on the coaching team. Matt & I both shed a quick tear for her because we knew life would be changing DRASTICALLY for the family dog who would now be bumped down to pet status rather than "fill-in-baby-girl."
* On a very rainy, beautifully calm night, we made it the the Logan Regional Hospital and checked in just after midnight. No contractions. I asked to walk the halls instead of immediately being put on pit. I was a little nervous of being induced. After a few hours of no contractions and lots more gushing, it was inevitable.
TIMELINE:
10:30 pm 5/23 Water Breaks

12:15 am 5/24 Check into Hospital; Megan, our first nurse explained that when your water breaks and you're only dilated to a 1, it can be a long process!

ALL checks from 12:15--6:15 show I'm still at a 1...maybe a 1 1/2. NO PROGRESS. AAAH! Worries of C-sections started entering our minds. Will I be one of those women who just can't dilate?

3:00 a.m. Pit in I.V.

6:15 Finally some progress--Dilated at a 3--Now that I've shown progress, I've earned an epidural. MIRACULOUS RELIEF!

During this period until pushing, I actually slept like a log--SNORING EVEN. Matt was able to lay down and rest now that I didn't need him to rub/massage/counter-push on me during the painful two hours before the epidural. My pain was intense, but surprisingly tolerable. About on par with my worst period--causing me to puke but not to the point where I thought I would die.

7:30 Dilated to a 4.

8:30 Dilated to an 8.

9:45 Dilated to a 10!

Julie, my expert delivery nurse, explained to us that they now let first-time moms sit at a 10 for a full hour as the baby drops before you have to waste a bunch of energy pushing for hours. It cuts the actual push time down and does some of the work for you. So I lay on my side with the oxygen mask on, helping baby be at top peak performance levels (wow, you watch those monitors like a hawk, making sure her heart-rate doesn't dip to drastically during my strong contractions--which I could barely feel) for the delivery. Matt and I said a little prayer while the nurses were gone to help us get ready for the delivery phase. I wanted to be powerful and strong. It turned out, I was!

11:00 pushing: I loved watching in the mirror. It was so motivational and made me want to BEAR DOWN and push so stinkin' hard so that baby's head wouldn't suck back in. Julie said I was an expert pusher. :) Matt was so touched watching me strain and shake and give everything I had, that he could barely count us to 10. His voice would break, he would cry--so touched and full of love for his little family. It was so special. I LOVE MY SENSITIVE, WONDERFUL husband!

11:30 Dr. Horsely arrives after completing a C-section. We had to put the breaks on while we waited for a few minutes. I loved Dr. Horsely--so calm, quiet, and comforting. Even so, I'm not sure why we pay the docs--those amazing nurses do all the work! When he came in, I was beaming and smiling so he was very surprised when he looked down and saw her head mostly out. He said, "When I saw you looking so happy, I thought we were still a ways away. I should have known you'd be smiling."

11:48 Baby is born! I'll never forget watching her beautiful, fat face emerge, her body twist out, and holding her for the first time. When we saw her chubby face, Matt and Julie wanted to change their guesses of how much she weighed because her squishy face looked so full and fat. It turns out she was exactly 8 lbs--perfect in my book. I had over-judged her, Julie under-judged and Matt was the closest. We rubbed her til she cried. We loved all her purple parts and pieces! We were pleasantly surprised at her regular sized nosed. Matt talked to her a hundred miles a minute, introducing her to the family, the world, and congratulating her for her good work. I kept my eye on her as the doctors and nurses calmly kept their eye on me. Little did I know, I was hemorrhaging pretty good! The gave me a shot in one leg . . . then a little while later, in the other. I could feel (only slightly, thank heavens for epidurals) Dr. Horsely sweeping up WAY inside my uterus. Pills were packed in my rectum (sorry for all the info). The bleeding finally stopped, during which time Matt was bonding with baby girl--it seemed like an hour or two. Matt looked back at me one time and started crying it was such a scary, bloody sight. I was never worried. Very calm. I remember thinking, but not saying out loud because I didn't want to scare Matt, that I had come here to do what I had just done (birth this beautiful baby girl) and that if I left, Matt would have the best piece of me and it wouldn't be so sad. But I was never nervous. Probably because of the calm people around me. Later, Dr. Horsely explained it by saying that my uterus simply didn't clamp back down after delivery. It was situational and shouldn't mean every delivery will cause me to hemorrhage. And I really hope that's true, because the sever diarrhea afterward was off the charts! I was puking and feeling so sickly, but at the same time grateful for modern medicine. One of the nurses said that 100 years ago, I woulda been a gonner and to be grateful for diarrhea rather than death. I sure was!!! The two hours after delivery and the two hours before the delivery were probably the worst. But overall, I was THRILLED, SHOCKED, and pleasantly SURPRISED with how beautiful, relatively short, and low-pain the whole process was. An answer to prayer for sure!

The hospital stay was dream-like and wonderful. Everyone treated us like royalty. The nurses loved our baby and said they fought for her in the nursery because she was such a cuddle-bug. She sticks her bumb out when you set her against your chest--the same position I saw/felt her in my tummy for several months. We loved Logan Regional and walked away without paying so much as a dime for our baby girl--THANKS, MATT, FOR YOUR AMAZING INSURANCE!!!

Wonderful family and friends came to visit us in the hospital. We were blissful, happy, and had never loved each other more. But we were glad to pack up and head home. We'll never forget when Buble's song, "I wanna go home," came on the radio as we drove home and we both cried happy tears and proclaimed we'd never been happier. (We're trying to hang on to those positive vibes as we struggle with breastfeeding, exhaustion, and crazy roller-coaster hormones, now) :)

We love our baby girl so much. We loved her perfect delivery and hope the rest of her life will be so charmed as well.

So I will freely admit that I have become gargantuan--LARGE AND IN CHARGE, vast, enormous, gigantic, and simply marvelously massive! During pregnancy (just like at all other times in my life) I felt much better when I was eating. No food was off limits--GREEN LIGHT SAID, "GO!"

Well, for the last month or so it has been a squishy, uncomfortable experience inside my clothes. Since after Christmas, I have rotated between two pairs of maternity jeans and these champs have held up and are still going strong. But I've hated buying tops and that causes all kinds of distress getting dressed in the morning.

So imagine my sheer delight when I came home to find 6 new jumbo-sized tee-shirts waiting for me. Marvelous Matt--sweetly observant, kind, and helpful--keenly aware of my plight, made a special D.I. run for some XL Lovin'. My favorite tee is the size of the original United States flag, bright red, with the motto--BEAR DOWN--screaming at the world on my back. We had a good laugh about the Boston Marathon tee. For Mother's Day he also got me some HUGE, soft, delightful sweats. Matty knows how to treat a lady. I am the luckiest gal on the planet.

P.S. He did, however, mention that my personal trainer is showing up in early June.

P.P.S. Another doctor's appointment tomorrow morning. Madi's due this Sunday so it's really getting exciting now. I'll keep ya posted!