Well as you all know, Baby Evelyn was born on March 3rd!
First of all, Nana won the bet. She picked the exact date she was to be born, and if it was up to Baby E, she would have lingered even longer. My doctor doesn't believe in letting the pregnancy go past 41 weeks so we were scheduled to be induced.
We ended up going in to the hospital Sunday night to get some Cytotech which is a cervix dilating medicine. If anyone has stayed in a hospital, especially overnight, you know it is nearly impossible to sleep. Plus I was having a baby the next day! It was like Christmas Eve as a little kid waiting for Santa! No sleep for me, that's for sure! But at least I got to watch the Walking Dead while waiting anxiously for morning.
At 6:00 am, I was still only at 2 cm (which is not very far considering a BABY'S HEAD has to fit through there) They started Pytocin here. So I guess this is the official "beginning of labor."
So after the pytocin, my contractions started to pick up, apparently they were full strength but I didn't start feeling them and having them hurt til around 11:30 at which point I chose to get an epidural.
My personal philosophy is this: Why be in pain if you don't have to be? So epidural was a great option for me.
I finally got poked in the spine at 12:30 and it was fricken awesome. I recommend epidural to everyone. I was able to rest and nap pretty much all day because I wasn't in pain. It made the whole labor process pleasant and easy. At this point, I was still only 2 cm.(I know right...lame)
So after a couple hours, I think it was at about 4:30, I started to feel pressure, so of course I told my nurse. Apparently, this is a good thing! My nurse said she'd check how dilated I was at 5:30, but my doctor came in and decided to check me then. Guess what? I was fully dilated and the doctor actually could feel Evelyn's head.
This next part is hilarious, and I feel absolutely no shame in sharing it because I've had more people in my vaginal and breast region than I ever thought I'd have down there.
When you get an epidural, you can't walk you can't feel anything but pressure (so you can still push when the time comes) Needless to say, you can't pee either. So they come in a catheter you every coupe of hours. However.. because I was so dilated all of a sudden they forgot, so when my doctor checked me, he had me push and I literally peed all over him. HA! Seriously it was so funny. He had to go wash his whole arm and everything. Needless to say, he left for a while and I got cathetered again. He also decided to let me labor down, which means you just ride the contractions and let your body do the work instead of pushing.
At about 6:30 ish, we started pushing, which literally feels like you are taking a dump. But anyways, I started pushing and two hours later, and after my doctor tried convincing me to use a vacuum or forceps, but this mama kicked a** and pushed her munchkin out all by herself. (sense the pride here?)
This is where the scary part came. Before we started pushing they let me know that they would hand my baby girl straight to me if everything was okay. It wasn't.
While I was laboring, Evelyn passed her first stool in utero. This is extremely dangerous because if they inhale it, they could die. When she came out, they even postponed making her cry to make sure she didn't inhale any. Time stopped. I didn't hear the words of comfort provided by the doctor and nurses. I didn't feel the doctor stitching me up. I just stared at those bright lights shining down on me and I prayed. I prayed with all my heart that my daughter would be okay. That I would get to hold her, that she would be safe and sound.
I'm not sure how long it lasted, it couldn't have been more than a minute, but it felt like hours before I heard her beautiful cry. As I heard her beautiful voice, I woke up. I could see Spencer dancing around on his toes trying to see her from across the room because he wanted to stay by my side. I told him to leave me and go see our daughter, and that's the only we have pictures of her with the nurses. He was so excited to be a dad and see our girl.
To be honest, I can't remember much after hearing her cry. I was just so relieved that she was okay that the rest is a blur. I know she didn't inhale any of her poop, but they did have to pump her stomach. I know I still got to hold her and nurse her in the the first two hours. I know Spencer ordered Jimmy John's for me that I ate before they would give me pain meds. I know that I couldn't go to the bathroom because I almost passed out on the toilet from lack of fluids and blood. I just remember finally seeing her sweet face and beautiful bright eyes looking up and me and knowing that I just saw a glimpse of heaven.
Of course it has been hard, and it's only been less than two weeks, but I wouldn't trade the lack of sleep and sore hurting body for anything in the world. Being a mother is what I've always known I would be, and it has exceeded my expectations tenfold.
