A Christmas to remember…

We began this Christmas season with, nothing more fitting than, having a baby.   I arrived at the hospital for my scheduled induction around 5:50am.  I didn’t mind going in so early since I wasn’t planning to get much sleep the night before anyway.  Who can sleep knowing they are going to have a baby the next day?  The nurse started me on pitocin around 7:00am and then the Doctor broke my water around 8:00am.  The nurse asked me if I wanted to go ahead and get an epidural right away.  I wasn’t sure if I should wait until I started to feel contractions a little more or just go ahead and get one so I didn’t have to feel contractions at all.  Well, the nurse convinced me to get the epidural right away since my Doctor had to go deliver a baby at another hospital.  She said it would help slow things down a bit so the Doctor would have time to get back.  Well, it turned out to be the right move.  If I hadn’t gotten the epidural there is NO WAY my doctor would have made it back in time.  I want to say it was around 10ish in the morning that I started to feel a little bit of pressure.  Rob kept telling me to hit the epidural boost button.  I told him it was no big deal and probably a good thing since it would help me to know when I needed to push when the time came.  At this point I was dilated to a 5.  Well, that little bit of pressure changed very quickly to A WHOLE LOT OF PRESSURE!  It was NOT cool!  I kept telling the nurse that I needed to push but my Doctor hadn’t made it back yet.  So, they suited up the Doctor that was on call while they gave me more meds and stopped pitocin to try to slow down labor.  In a half hours time I went from being dilated to 5 to a 7 and then from a 7 to a 10 in 15 minutes.  Finally the extra medicine started to kick in and I didn’t feel that, not very comfortable, urge to push anymore.  Of course my Doctor had arrived by this time.  So, there my Doctor was, ready to deliver a baby and I was just sitting there waiting for another contraction.  Anyway, I pushed for about 15 minutes before our little Katelyn made her appearance.   The first thing I remember is that her head was perfect.  No cone shape at all.  They let me hold her for so long.  She didn’t cry as much as James did but maybe it’s because they let me hold her longer.  I even got to nurse her a little bit before they took her to the nursery.

Besides that little bit of extra pain I felt, Katelyn’s deliver went perfect.  She was born at 11:15am.  The labor was about 4 hours.  She was born 7 lbs 6 oz and 20 inches long.  I got to nurse her right away, my Doctor was awesome, and I didn’t need any stitches which has made for an AWESOME recovery.  James was able to come to the hospital and meet is little sister, whom he LOVES, my nurses were great and I really liked the pediatrician at the hospital and the one we are taking her to now.  Overall, everything was great.

It’s been two weeks since Katelyn was born and I still have a lot to talk about but I will leave that for a later post…