she's here!!!

Sorry I've been MIA... I have a good reason, our baby arrived last Wednesday!! Here are the stats:

Name: Piper June
Birthdate: May 25, 2011
Weight: 7lb
Height: 20.5 inches

I went to my doctor last Tuesday (may 24) for a NST and my weekly checkup. The baby did not move at all the first 20 minutes, but then passed the test the second 20 minutes. The doc checked me and I was 3-4cm dilated at the bottom of my cervix and 2cm at the top. She said that I was dilating like a woman who had given birth before. She scheduled my induction for May 31st in the evening. I told her that I was too concerned to wait that long and asked if there was anything else we could do. The night before my appointment, Piper hadn't moved at all over an hour and I just about had a heart attack. So... I was not keen on waiting a whole week for my induction, not knowing if I would go into labor before then. Thankfully, my doctor is incredibly understanding and got on the phone with the hospital and moved my induction up to that evening. I had to call the hospital at 6pm to make sure they had a bed. I did that and they told me it would be until after midnight or early the next morning before they would have anything. During this time I called my mom and told her it was go time so she could head up here from Chi.cago. She arrived around midnight and we talked for a bit and then we both went to bed. Around 3:30am I woke up to go to the bathroom and realized that I was having what felt like period cramps with my contractions (I should mention that I had been contracting regularly for over a week but they hadn't been painful). I started timing them and they were coming every five minutes. I tried to sleep because they didn't feel painful enough to warrant going in right then...but that was pretty much pointless. Eventually I got up and finished my nesting and at 6am I woke MBL up and told him it was time to get up and get ready to take me to the hospital. My contractions were getting more painful and at times coming every 2-3 minutes. I could tell that he was in disbelief that it was actually time and just kind of meandered about trying to figure out what to do. Right before we left I decided to eat one frozen waffle to give me some fuel for the long day that was likely ahead of me.

We got to the hospital and they checked me in right away. They brought me up to L&D and said that they were actually going to call me because they had a bed ready. I got changed into the glamorous gown they had for me and then got hooked up to the contraction and fetal heart rate monitor. I continued to have painful contractions that ranged between 2-6 minutes apart. Because the contractions were not happening at regular intervals, they wanted to break my water and start pitocin. I couldn't believe that we were actually going to be meeting our daughter soon! When the resident broke my water she checked my cervix and I was at 3cm and 60% effaced. She was letting out all of the "pockets" when she suddenly asked, "When was your last ultrasound?" MBL and I told her it was at 26 weeks. She then said, "This baby is not on it's way out!" And, at this point, I'm two seconds away from having a panic attack...wondering why the resident wants to know when my last ultrasound was and how could my baby not be on it's way out?? She went and got the machine and put it on the bottom of my belly. I couldn't make out a head so all I could think was that my baby didn't have a head!! She then lifted the wand up to the top of my belly and showed me that her head was actually up at the top of my belly!! She was breech!! The resident asked if I knew what that meant and I said, "Yep, c-section."

She said that I was exactly right and then asked when was the last time I ate. Remember the ONE waffle I ate before we left? That ONE waffle meant that I had to wait at least 8 hours before they could do the section. Because I was hooked up to pitocin, my contractions started coming more frequently and were more painful. Basically, I ended up having to go through 8 hours of real labor knowing that the contractions would never accomplish what they were created for. I tried to go through it without any pain meds (all they could give me was IV narcotics), but the contractions became unbearable and I ended up asking for something. They gave me nu.bain which they claimed would "take the edge off". What it actually did was make me high and sleepy without really taking away any of the pain. It did make me care less about the pain I was in, but definitely offered little relief from it.

I'll have to continue this story later as my little girl is demanding to be fed...

In the meantime, enjoy this picture: