August 1, 2011

On July 31st I was having some serious contractions all during church. They were coming every ten minutes pretty consistantly the rest of the night. So after dinner we went to for a walk hoping to speed things up and that didn't work. I took a bath before bed and the contractions slowed down to about 15 minutes apart. And they weren't as hard. So I went to bed slightly disappointed that I wasn't going to have this baby anytime soon. Then comes 1 am. I am awoken up by some really sharp contractions but still every 10-15 minutes. Not consistant at all. I get up and walk around that doesn't help. I take a Tylenol PM yup, that doesn't help either. At this point I am sooo tired and starting to get cranky (I don't handle pain well) I kept feeling like I had to go to the bathroom. And I kept praying that after I did the pain would ease up. Well that wasn't really working. Finally at 3 am it dawned on me a nice warm bath would help. When I got in the contractions were still about every 8-10 minutes. When I got out, they were coming much quicker and harder. But I left my timer in the bedroom and didn't feel like walking in there because I was still convinced this wasn't the real thing haha.
Finally about an hour later I went in to get my timer because they weren't easing up. And the only comfortable position I could find during these contractions was on the toilet. I don't know why, maybe it was the security of if something happened, I wouldn't have a massive mess in my pants to clean up!
So I timed them for an hour and and they were coming every 5 minutes. Just as I was about to go wake up Danny to tell him how fast they were coming I ran to the bathroom one more time... Where I noticed some blood. So I waddled as quickly as I could to the bedroom to wake up my husband and to call labor and delivery. While I was on the phone with L&D my contractions than bumped up to every 3 minutes and they definitely got harder. So they told us to come in but to take our time since I am a first time mom and probably wouldn't go super fast. So we woke my mom up she got ready and we were out the door by 6 am. Arrived at 6:30 and was checked in. The nurse went to check me and realized I was 4 borderline 5 cm dialated. They hooked me up to an IV which took forever. I wanna be nice and say the IV tech was new, but I really don't think she was. Finally they got that all hooked up to the IV and started some pain relief. I couldn't stand it any more, and the only position I could stand being in during a contraction was sitting up and the doctors didn't like that because they kept losing the babies heartbeat. Finally an hour later (about 8:00 am) the anest.. the epidural doctor came in to give me relief! Right after that they checked me, before the epidural fully took effect, and I was already a 7 borderline 8. I tried to sleep while the epidural worked it's magic, but at this point I was too excited to sleep. So my mom and I watched Pretty Woman on tv :D all while Danny played games on my phone.
Then about 10:30-11 they came in to check me and realized I was fully dialated. But she was still kinda high so they just let me hang out and relax while we waited for her to make her way down. Around 12ish I started feeling pressure in my bottom region, so they checked and still wasn't where they needed her to be but getting closer. An hour later I really felt a lot of pressure so they checked and realized I was ready to push. I pushed for about 25 minutes and she was born at 13:40 Central Europe Time. I was able to help catch her and put her right on my chest where Danny and I just loved her while they cleaned us both up!
Analyn May weighed in at 5lbs 14 oz and 19 inches long. Because she was so small they had to check her blood sugar every couple of hours, and a few times they came back really low so we had to keep pricking her foot. And the little angel hardly cried whenever they pricked her foot. However she is slowly finding her lungs but is still very quiet compared to other babies.

She is now 5 days old and she sleeps through most of the night. Wakes up only every 3-4 hours to eat. And I know I may regret saying this... I just wished she'd wake up a tad more because going 4 hours between feedings isn't very fun for this mama ;)

Moments after she was born laying on my chest

Holding her in the recovery room

After her bath Daddy was holding a very awake and alert baby girl

Analyn and Mama just hanging out

Analyn with her bunny Daddy bought her

Getting ready to go home!

(I don't know why the picture is sideways. It isn't sideways on my computer :P)