Wednesday night as we were watching a few episodes of Castle before bed, I thought maybe I was starting to have contractions. I didn't want to tell Nate and get his hopes up unless I was sure, so we went ahead and climbed in bed. Enough was going on that sleep was just a nice thought for me, and nothing more. Eventually I gave up on getting any more rest and got up to wash the dishes and straighten things up so the house will be clean when I get home.
About 1:30am I woke up Nate and told him to get ready to go. We dropped Liam off at our friends' house, and ended up staying and talking for about an hour. At that point my contractions were getting stronger, and I didn't know how much longer I would be able to drive, so we headed to the hospital.
Arrived At the hospital about three am. We filled out the paper work as I hadn't pre registered this time. After that they put me on the monitors, and after 10 minutes for a cervix check. I was only dilated to a three, so they wanted to wait an hour and check again, before they decided if I was starting or going home (I knew I was staying). After an hour, (Thank God for sudoku and Angel reruns on TNT) I was still only dilated to a three which was incredibly disheartening news as the contractions had only gotten more intense. The on-call doctor went ahead and had me admitted, it was about 4 am at the time, and said if things hadn't progressed anymore by 6am, they wanted to start pitocen.
After awhile I asked for something for the pain, and decided on fentanyl. When I got checked at six, I was dilated to four so I didn't need the pitocen (or to convince them I didn't.) At 7:45 my ON/GYN was there doing rounds, and checked me. I was dilated to a 5, 90% effaced, and at 0. She said "I'll come back and check you at lunch time, or maybe I'll even be here when you were supposed to have your appointment (10:50am) to deliver her." Little did either of us know she would be back in an hour.
After she left, I sat on a yoga ball for awhile, focusing on breathing through the contractions since I hadn't taken anymore fentanyl (it gets less effective with each dose). After a bit I was tired and wanted a third dose of fentanyl so I could rest. By that time though it really didn't do anything for the pain, but it did help me relax between contractions.
At about 8cm dilated, my water broke and it was impossible to keep quiet after that, lol. The nurse came in, took one look and called my OB/GYN. Turns out she had just left and ended up turning around to come catch my Baby.
I very quickly progressed to a 10, and had the urge to push. No one told me to push, I just knew it was time. Dr. L was actually still getting ready when I started pushing. There was nurse down there, so I wasn't worried. I seriously pushed for less then five minutes. I could feel her crowning, and one more push it felt like she flew out.
Thinking back I felt like I was in hyper speed, and once she was out I needed to push pause. Dr. L quickly cleaned out her mouth and put her up on my chest. It was magical and awesome. The baby nurse did everything she needed to do without picking he up, so I got to hold and even nurse her for about an hour before they weighed or measured her.
I got to cut the cord as Nate didn't want to, which was cool in my opinion. I again lost a little more blood than they were happy with, so they kept me in L&D longer, and gave me a shot of pitocen. I tore so little I didn't need stitches, which is awesome, and has definitely helped me recover faster then from Liam's birth.
Hannelore is perfect, and has been an over achiever in the pooping department. She is an excellent nurser, like Liam, and eats every couple hours or so.
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| Cutting the cord. |
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| Nursing |
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| Daddy holding her for the first time. |
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| Skin to skin snuggles. |
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| Perfection |
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| Liam meeting his sister. |
