WOW!

Here we are...home at last. What an amazing journey this has been!!!!! I NEVER expected labor and delivery to be as much of a challenge as it was. Man, I thought I was going to have it so easy (you know, with the epidural and all) but now I know how unpredictable it really is! In a nutshell I am going to share the birth story....I don't want to scare anyone, especially those that are currently pregnant or are thinking about doing so very soon :-)

Friday (June 1st) seemed like any other day this past week. I hadn't been able to sleep much the night before and I ended up going in to work later than I had planned. I felt a little worse at work than I had during the beginning of the week but didn't think much of it. As the day wore on I began to feel a bit better. Matt had Fran and Amy's rehearsal dinner that evening so my mom came over and made me dinner and then we ran out for some Rita's Gelati's. I felt great that evening...even made a comment to my mom about how good I felt! Matt returned home around midnight at which point I was feeling quite hungry (unusual for me at this time of night). So, I made some mac and cheese and sat on the couch watching some TV. I ended up going to sleep around 1:30 am or 2:00 am......I woke at 4:20 (on the dot) from a contraction. It was quite strong.....strong enough to wake me but not strong enough to make me think anything was going on. In fact, I think I was having a dream about contractions so I might have had several before I actually woke up. So, I got up to pee and then got a glass of water. After I drank the water I got comfy on the couch again ready to go back to sleep. Then....POP...my water broke. GUSH, it went everywhere!!!! I rolled off onto the floor and began yelling for Matt. He came downstairs pretty out of it but quickly realized what was happening. We called the doc and they said to come right in. The whole way in to the hospital I got on the phone and made some phone calls....didn't expect to be this comfortable heading to the hospital!!! We got there around 5 am and they admitted me. I didn't have any contractions until close to 6 am or so and they weren't very strong either. The nurse on duty gave the doctor a call to see how they wanted to proceed...once they got wind of Matt's wedding they decided to put me on a Pitocin drip to see if we could move things along so he would still be able to make it for the ceremony and pictures. It definitely got my contractions going!!! At around 8 or 9 am I asked for some Nubane (painkiller)...they administered it right away and I immediately felt groggy and maybe even a little drunk. But...like I was warned by friends it didn't do all that much for my pain. After about another hour or so I asked for the epidural....the contractions were getting stronger and more regular and they were mostly in my back - OUCH!! Those tennis balls actually came in very handy!!! Luckily the anesthesiologist was in the hospital so the epidural was administered within 30 minutes or less from the time I asked for it. Smooth sailing from this point forward!! Once the epidural kicked in I felt great! I could still move my legs and I still had a little bit of feeling in the lower half of my body but with each contraction I only felt a little bit of pressure....if that. I watched the computer screen to see when I was having them....boy, some of them looked they would hurt A LOT! :-) Around 3 pm they checked my progress....I was around 8 cm at this point and they thought I would be 10 cm in no time. About 30 minutes later they had me do a practice push to see how things would go....then they decided to let me labor down for while (let the contractions do the work of bringing the baby down - she was still pretty high up). Then around 4:45 they had me start pushing. My nurse was excellent and I was really blessed to have her assigned to me....I could have never done as well as I did without her. We even got to practice the towel trick (the nurse holds a towel and I pull on it while pushing and having a contraction). The pain started getting a lot worse almost as soon as I started pushing....the epidural was not working like it had been. At this point they would not turn it up!! :-( I ended up pushing for almost 3 hours...only took two breaks - breathing through contractions. The pain was too intense not to push. The baby was in the wrong position - face up and was hitting my spine over and over....no amount of pushing was going to get her out. Unfortunately, she was too high up to tell that her position was wrong (we found this out after she actually came out)....the doctor was wary to use any procedures to help bring her down because she wasn't exactly sure what the hold-up was. At the 3 hour mark I had just about given up....I asked for a C-section - even though it was the last thing I wanted. They prepped the Operating Room but my doctor, who is also incredible, offered to make an attempt with the vacuum....I agreed. So, with the next two contractions I pushed and she pulled......here she came. When the doctor announced it was a girl I couldn't believe my ears!!! For the past 4 months I had believed that it was a boy for sure!!!!! Although the pain was intense and basically indescribable (my screaming could attest to that) the feelings that overcame me when they placed her on my chest were even more intense!!! I took one look at Matt and I knew that this was the moment that would change both of us FOREVER!!

The entire day I had the best supporters/cheerleaders EVER! I couldn't have done what I did and I wouldn't have been able to go on as long as had without them! Matt, I freakin' love you - you were incredible!!!!! A HUGE thanks to my mom, Matt's mom, my sister.....I made it through. Oddly enough.....I plan to do it again :-)

I will do my best to continue posting every Friday.....I have been pretty bad with getting things done lately - as you can imagine. I am still healing......Alida tore me up pretty badly. But, it was all worth it!!