Ok here we go...feel free not to read the entire thing! Lots of words and lots of pictures!
WE HAVE A BABY NOW!! Say what?! Crazy. Here's how it went down. The evening of April 24th, Billy and I were watching a show on my iPad in bed. We kept watching "just one more" episode because it was a super addicting show and we just wanted to get it done! We finished the second to last episode at 11:58 PM which was already wayyyy too late to be up but then Billy said he was already screwed for work the next day so we might as well just watch the last episode! I was on board so we clicked play and it started and we were so into it. 2 minutes in I felt a weird pop in my lower abdomen. I thought it felt weird but also thought it was probably just a baby kick, but I had to pee anyways so might as well go check it out ha. I said to Billy "I think something is happening" and he thought I was referring to the show at first and was like yeah duh. But then he realized what I was saying and paused the show. I went to the bathroom and fluid just kept trickling and trickling out! We were both like uhhh what do we do? So Billy started googling it and then I was like Dr. Bruce said to go to the hospital if my water breaks. So Billy was like then why did you let me start looking it up? Haha we were both pretty flustered. We grabbed our bags and some last minute things and hopped in the car (with a trash bag and towel on my seat haha)!
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| Almost to the hospital! |
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| Our route :) |
We got checked in and in a bed in the triage waiting area. They checked to make sure my water really did break to make sure I could stay there and wouldn't be sent home, checked my heart rate, monitored my contractions, got me hooked up for my IV, etc. We were there from like 1 am to 3 am or something when we finally got our own room. We met our nurse and learned how everything was going to go down. My contractions were getting more and more intense, as to be expected. The nurse told us to try and get some rest and I was like uh how do I do that? And she said to just try to sleep between contractions, ha! So from 3 to about 6 I was "resting" aka gripping the side of my bed super tightly every 5 minutes or so and trying to sleep in between. It was not very restful at all to say the least. I think Billy got a little bit of sleep. From about 6 to 7 I was trying to walk around to get labor going more so and get more dilated. I hated walking around though because my contractions were pretty intense and I was still leaking water so it was running down my legs and super uncomfortable. The best place to be was on the toilet haha, but even that wasn't very relieving. At 7 there was a nurse shift switch and our new nurse was like "are you planning on getting an epidural?" and I was like "yes" and she was like then why haven't you gotten it yet? And I was like I have no clue! I have no idea what I'm doing ha! So she was like let's get that going. So she hooked me up to fluids and notified the anesthesiologists.
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| Checked in and ready to go! Had no idea what was coming... |
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| View from our hospital room |
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| After a long night of "resting" |
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| Monitors and IVs and stuff |
Shortly after that the anesthesiologists came in (it was a team of 2 guys) and they were cracking jokes and thinking they were so funny but my contractions were killing me and I was terrified of the epidural so I was not impressed with their humor at all. It wasn't as scary as I had worked it up in my mind to be and I got almost immediate relief so I was feeling awesome after that! Woohoo! My mom arrived shortly after I got the epidural (she took a 6:45 am flight to be there) so that was fun. At that point I think I was dilated to like a 4 or something with little progress over time so I think the nurses were starting to get a little concerned.
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| This is one of my favorite pictures from the whole experience. Billy is awesome and my BFF. |
The rest of the day was looooooooong. They started me on Pitocin to get things moving and kept coming in to check me and flip me every once in a while. The baby was facing the wrong way (facing my spine rather than my belly, if that makes sense), so they needed her to turn. I wasn't getting any more dilated very quickly at all. So I started to sense the tension in the room and between the nurses as time went by. They came in and did an amniotic flush maybe around 4 pm, which adds water to my uterus since my water had broken so long previously. I tried to nap but I kept getting poked and prodded and I tried to eat (I was STARVING) but I would feel like I was going to pass out anytime I took a bite of anything. I could take tiny bites of graham cracker and suck on it but that was it. I had met Dr. Lythgoe earlier in the morning because Dr. Bruce was out of town so he thought he would be delivering my baby but since things weren't progressing it was actually the other partner at the office, Dr. Culbertson, who delivered her. So he came in to meet me in the late afternoon and shortly after things started moving.
Somehow I was magically at a 9 and then a 10 so my nurse had me start doing some practice pushes around 6 pm. Apparently she had turned off my epidural so I could feel when to push so that was no bueno. Cody was there too, in the room, during my pushing because he came to say hi and then I just started pushing and he just stayed. The nurse gave him the job of turning off an alarm that kept going off every time my heart rate got too high, which was like every minute. He also played some music for me on his phone until I started freaking out and crying because it was too painful and I couldn't do it. The nurse told me to rest and went and got the doctor. I was sooo exhausted and so hungry at this point. Oh and I had been weirdly shaking super violently all day, the doctor said due to all the medications in my system.
Dr. Culbertson came in and basically said you have to do this now, or we have to have a C-section. No more resting. He said the longer I waited, the more swollen I was getting and the more swollen the baby was getting and it wasn't safe for anyone. He suited up, the anesthesiologist came back in and turned my epidural back on and gave me a "bolus" (I think a burst?) of epidural. I could still feel the contractions weirdly which sucked but was also good so I knew when to push. This was probably around 7 or 7:30 pm when things really got going. I started seriously pushing and it was the most difficult thing I have ever done in my life. It's like pushing out the hugest poo ever that just will. not. come. out. haha gross I know but that's what I kept thinking. I pushed and pushed for what felt like forever (probably a little over an hour?) and out came baby's head (which I thought had come out loooong before so I was pissed), then a few more pushes and out came the rest! Billy cut the cord and they put her on my chest. I couldn't even see strait for a few minutes so I just laid there with my eyes closed and breathed. Then they had me deliver the placenta and I felt awesome after that! No more contractions! The baby was crying softly on me and was so sweet. She had lots of black hair and just looked like a little blob. I could see my eyes in hers which was so fun.
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| Cody in the waiting room |
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| She's here! |
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| 7 lb, 10oz, 20 inches long |
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| Just chillin |
Such a crazy experience!! Obviously. We tried breastfeeding which was super weird and awkward but she did pretty well, I had no clue what I was doing ha. After we had some good skin to skin and they got her in some clothes and all wrapped up, we headed down to the recovery floor and got in our own room. It was super late at this point. Oh yeah I tore really bad so they had to stitch me up which took forever too. I think we finally got down to our room around midnight. I don't really remember the details of the recovery too well. That night started rough, they put the baby in the little tub next to my bed and said goodnight. My mom left. Billy and I tried to sleep but Colby started crying pretty quickly so Billy hopped up and we didn't know what to do. So I had the nurse come in and she helped me figure out breastfeeding again and then told me to have Colby sleep on my chest. I always thought co-sleeping was a big no-no so I was surprised and said "I'm allowed to do that?" and she said yes of course. So I did and we slept for maybe 3 or 4 hours like that! The next day was a blur as well just trying to figure out breastfeeding and how to care for a baby when I couldn't get up very well. I stayed in the hospital 2 nights and 3 days for recovery, I guess it was 3 nights and 3 days total. We had an awesome night nurse the second night, she was suuuuper nice and helpful and my favorite person in the world. I kind of want to be a nurse now after meeting her.
Catching some Z's while mom held the baby...
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| Raptor hands |
It was a crazy couple days with lots of people coming in to poke and prod me and her. Billy and I struggled with her name for the whole time we were there. We couldn't decide between 3 of our top names, but Colby just felt right since it had been the name we both agreed on the earliest and it just kind of seemed like it fit. Not really though, I don't know what people mean when they say that their babies "look" like a name. We decided on Colby but I couldn't decide if I wanted Colbie or Colby, but we figured since it isn't a normal name for a girl anyway we might as well spell it the normal way so people could at least get that right (that was my thinking in my head).
My mom was a champion helper through the whole experience, I don't know how we would have survived without her! After the couple days in the hospital we packed up and headed home! Everything was so scary with Colby for awhile. I was soooo nervous getting her dressed, and then putting her in the car seat! It was so weird that we were taking this tiny human home and that I had to take care of it!
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| I was DYING at how cute she looked in her car seat! Sooo sweet! |
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| Daddy driving his girls home |
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| And I passed out shortly into the drive. Did not get much sleep those first days or weeks! |
We love our little girlie girl! As I'm writing this she is 5 months old, whaaat?! Crazy! I love looking at these pictures but I'm really glad I'm not back there anymore :)
