Yes, I tried that too...

Grrr... I have been so bad about keeping up with this blog. I am trying to remember every detail and important milestone since life is passing me by so quickly.

Here is what I remember of my birth. I was due to be induced on Tuesday morning 5/25. My mom, Bob, and my dad came into town to be there. I went to Mimi's for dinner with my dad and Uncle Rick and Aunt Beverly. I was having tons of but I had been contracting for weeks. I was already almost 5 cm dilated. I started noticing that they were increasing in frequency, at about every 6-7 minutes, but they didn't seem regular or any stronger than they had been I left for dinner I was spotting, when I got home from dinner it was worse so I called the doctor. He said that since I was going to be induced anyway in the morning I should go ahead and get checked in. We had to enter through the ER and saw some interesting characters. The L&D was busy and so I went to triage. They hooked me up to the monitors and sure enough I was in labor. I got checked into a room and they gave me something to help me sleep. I finally fell asleep at around 2:00am. At 4:00 my water broke! I was so excited, but sleepy from the meds. They came in at 5am and started pitocin. I slept most and they came in to check me off and on. I became sick so I was given something for the nausea. At around 8:00 my mom came in and Matt went to get coffee for them. A nurse came in and broke the bag of water that had collected in front Charlies head. That is when the pain started. Until that point I had very little pain, like a 3-4 on a 10 scale. As soon as she did that I was at a 10! I never expected it to be that painful! When Matt walked back in with the coffee, he wasn't sure what had happened! I begged for the epidural. Thankfully, the anethesilogist came in and I felt better. I basically slept until they told me to start pushing at around 12:15. Dr. S showed up around 12:40 and I pushed hard for about 15 minutes. C was born at 12:58. Pushing was harder than I had expected. At the end I was really desperate for them to get her out. I'll just say that I had to have some serious repair work. My mom and dad, watched the whole thing. I really didn't care at that point. My dad is somehow haunted by the fact that I didn't get an episotomy.

The birth was completely overshadowed by the fact that C came out not breathing. They rushed her off to the warmer and started to resuscitate her. I expected to cry with joy at her arrival, instead I was in shock, so was Matt. We were actually all really quiet. I just kept asking if she was ok and if she was normal. We had that down syndrome scare, so I still was uncertain that she was healthy. That was the beginning of C's tough first few days. Which is a different story. I will document her first 8 days in the NICU later.

I am so thankful she is here and as I am typing this, she is snoring next to me. As I predicted, she doesn't like being swaddled anymore, she sleeps with her hands by her head, which is covered in blonde hair!! She keeps her hands/arms by her face most of the time. She smiles (practicing at least), she loves music, she loves her daddy and her mommy. She has the best temperment. She fusses when she is gassy, but is VERY easily calmed. Mostly she is a peaceful and easy baby. I am so lucky!! I love her more than I ever imagined and I am suprised at how much I love caring for her. I get so much satisfaction nursing her, changing her diapers and knowing that she feels safe and comforted. This is the best thing I have ever done! I used to get a high from satisfying an angry customer, or solving a problem. Now, I feel so gratified when she is fussy and I am able to calm her just by nursing her, or change her diaper without getting poop everywhere. My only issue is that I can't sleep. I try to sleep when she does, but it is so hard to fall asleep when I would like to watch her breathing. I will just need to get over that. She has the sleeping patterns of her daddy, she falls asleep with no problems at all. I am lucky to have a baby that doesn't have issues falling asleep, knock on wood.