Marie and I woke up Monday morning 11/19/07 to a little surprise. It appeared that Marie's water had broken. We quickly got our things together, and headed to the hospital. It's a good thing that we had most of it already packed. When we got to the hospital around 7am, it was apparent that her water had broken, but the doctor wasn't quite sure based on one of his tests. She also hadn't even dilated yet. After doing another ultrasound to check the amount of amniotic fluid around the baby, the doctor decided she had lost some water and admitted her to the hospital.
The actual labor took quite a while. The doctor prescribed some meds (Pitocin and something else) to try to move the process along. He wanted to check in again at around 4pm, and assess what his next steps would be. If there was no progress, then he would take her off the meds, allow her to rest, and start again the morning of 11/20.
The contractions started almost immediately after the meds began. I felt helpless, because there was nothing I could do to make the pain any better. As time passed, the pain got quite intense because of the Pitocin. At 4pm, the doctor said that she was only dilated to 1-2 centimeters, but she was having contractions 1 minute apart. He decided that the meds seemed to be working and that we should keep going. (It should be noted that while this is all going on, there was a "Jerry Springer" show going on in the waiting room. Pete, Marie's step-father, got to witness an interesting family trying to start a fight.)
The good thing is that Marie was able to get an epidural. At first the anesthesiologist was hesitant because of her back, but she decided to give it a try. This was a good thing since the Pitocin was making labor very intense and she hadn't dilated much. The epidural definitely made the contractions easier to handle. At this point, we thought we had a long way to go but all of a sudden Marie began dilating much faster. At around 9pm, Marie was at 7 centimeters and by 10pm, she was at 9 cm. The doctor came in and explained she had a c-section to perform and then she would be right back when she was finished. I don't think she thought Marie would be ready as soon as she was. She was ready to push much sooner than the doctor arrived. Finally, the nurse left to see if the doctor was ready. The doctor made it back in and announced that the baby was crowning. At 10:40pm, it was time to push and Adela Grace was born at 10:49pm on 11/19/07. She was 6lbs 10 oz 21 inches long.
Both Addy and Marie are home resting now. Feeding and resting has been challenging so far, but it'll get better and easier as time goes on. Addy is just as pretty as her mom, and I love them both so much. Addy is one more blessing in my life to be thankful for this Thanksgiving.
We hope everyone had a Happy Thanksgiving, and thank you for the good thoughts and well wishes!!!
More pics are posted in our web album!
1 comment:
She's adorable. The hour long nursing marathons do get shorter and easier and they do eventually start sleeping better. It's hard at first but we all manage to get through it. Congratulations on your sweet daughter. I cannot wait to meet her! Anna
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