Little by Little

Look who is one month old already. 

It is true what they say, time goes by too quickly when you have a baby.  These past four weeks have been filled with little things that have turned into the biggest moments of our lives.

Her hands will never be this small again.

She will no longer fit so easily in her daddy's arms.

She will never have a first bath again.

Her little bottom will not fit as well into the nook of Momma's arm.

She has been to the park, seen all of her Grandparents (and Great-Grandpa), and has been kissed more times than can be counted.

This past week I packed away the newborn clothes.  I will admit...there were tears.  Tears for the time that has already gone by too quickly, but also tears in anticipation for all of the firsts that are still yet to come.

Happy Birthday!

I woke up on Thursday the 21st still pregnant.  I was ready to get labor going.  There are a ton of theories and induction superstitions out there.  Some have a loose medical tie (walking, etc.) and some are just down right stupid (touch your left foot to your left ear...who can even do that when they are 9 months preggo!). 

I decided that I was going to up my efforts to move baby girl along.  As stated above I was unable to get my foot to my ear (yes I tried) so I went a bit more conventional.

My Mom and I went to lunch at a Mexican restaurant to get some spicy food.  I had initially planned on meeting a friend downtown to get some amazing enchilada suzas but decided at the last minute that I probably shouldn't be driving over an hour away from home base. 

 

Next up on the "get the baby out mission" was some shopping.  Went headed to the mall to do some window shopping while getting in some good power walking.  At the beginning of the walking efforts I was pretty sure that I was going to be pregnant forever...however toward the end I was feeling a bit "off."  We made one final quick stop to pick up a baby book.  I had been going back and forth on if I actually wanted to do an actual book...I decided yes.

With baby book in the backseat we headed home.  We had only been home about an hour when I felt my first contraction.  Of course I wasn't sure at the time that was what was going on, only that it hurt and it was a new sensation. What happened after that was a roller coaster that ended in the birth of my beautiful baby girl.

4:00 PM First contractions started.

4:15 Called the husband at work and told him that he needed to skip his 5:00 meeting as "I think things are getting started".

5:00 The husband came home.  He instantly thought I was probably over reacting and that if I was in fact having contractions we still had a long way to go.

6:15 We made the decision to head into the hospital.  I had been having regular very strong contractions every 20 minutes...however I was having some slightly milder contractions every in between the strong ones.  Obviously 20 minutes apart is too far to head into labor and delivery...but if you counted the milder ones we were looking at every 5 minutes apart.  I panicked.  I was convinced that all of the contractions should be counted and we needed to head in.  The husband was prepared to be sent home.

6:20 While the husband quickly packed up the car I quickly slapped a layer of frosting on the cake in between contractions.  This was probably one of the stupidest things I have done but at the time it was really important to me.  I will admit that my Mom had to finish the frosting effort as the contraction pain knocked me down a bit and I needed to get in the car.

7:00 Arrived at the hospital and got checked into labor and delivery.  The husband insisted on leaving all of the bags in the car as he didn't want to have to do the "walk of shame" back out with all of our stuff when they sent us home to labor a bit more before admitting us.

7:45 The decision was made to admit us (Ha!  I knew it was the real thing!).  I was dilated to a 4+ so we were still expecting a long labor ahead of us...but thankfully it would be with an epidural.

8:00  We were in our labor and delivery room waiting for the IV to get placed.  As soon as the IV was in the anesthesiologist can in to do the epi.  I will admit I was pretty nervous about getting the epi.  I mean it is a needle going toward my spinal cord!  I know the topic of drugs vs. natural is a huge one for pregnant women.  I personally cannot recommend the epi more!  It was amazing and took the pain away instantly.  Mine was also a really good one that allowed me to still be able to move my legs a bit.  I never felt overly drugged up and I didn't have any side effects.  The doc did mention that because of my height (I am a shortie) I would most likely have my blood pressure drop a bit which would be fine as they could correct that with a simple administration of drugs.  I was supposed to let them know if I got nauseous.  So all was good. 

9:00 The doctor broke my water to try and jump start everything.

9:30 The nurse told us to get ready to wait around for the next 5-9 hours while my body dilated from the 4 to a 10.  The husband was doing jumping jacks trying to wake up a bit and we were getting ready to watch a couple of movies on Netflix.  I started to feel nauseous.  I called the nurse and waited.  While waiting the alarm on my blood pressure went off.  My blood pressure had begun to drop rapidly.  The anesthesiologist and nurse came in and gave me the mediation to stabilize my blood pressure.  The OB doctor also came in around that time.  He said he wanted to do a quick check on my progress as there was a VERY SLIM chance that the blood pressure drop and nauseous was due to me being in the final stages of labor and not actually due to the epidural.  The doc and nurses reassured us that this was REALLY RARE for a first time mom. 

10:15 "You are dilated to a 9.  Get ready to push in 30 minutes."  After the doctor made that statement pretty much everything else is a blur.  There was a flourish of activity with nurses getting things ready.  The husband had to make a quick call to the Grandmas (both my Mom and his Mom) to let them know that they needed to get in the car and drive to the hospital NOW.  I got a bit panicky as things were happening so fast I did not have time to mentally prepare myself.  Looking back it was probably a good thing as I would have only succeeded in stressing myself out. 

11:00 - After some great coaching from the doctor about how to push we were ready to go.  It was just a couple of nurses, the doctor, and the husband in the room.  It was the hardest thing I have ever done.  Because I had the epi I could not feel when to push or if I was pushing correctly.  The doctor had to guide me.  After a few rounds of pushing the alarm on baby girl's heart started sounding.  She was in distress and stuck in the birth canal.  The husband and I could tell that the nurses and doc were concerned.  Out came the vacuum.  I had hoped to avoid it but obviously we needed to get baby girl out.

11:30 - Our lives changed.  One final set of pushes and one application of the vacuum and Hadley Anne was born.

Through a bunch of tears I finally was able to see my baby girl as she was placed on my chest.  The husband cut the cord and she was quickly whisked away to be checked out by the pediatric nurse.  The husband went to the other side of the room with baby girl while the doctor finished with me.  I ended up having a pretty good number of stitches but honestly I didn't even ask anything about myself I just wanted to hear her cry and see if she needed any time in the nursery or NICU.  Thankfully she did not.  She passed all tests and was eventually placed into my arms.

I can't even describe that feeling...there are no words.

(She was upset that she didn't get any cake!)

 

Happy Birthday Hadley!
Love Mom & Dad

We Have Cake

During one of my third trimester energy spurts I decided that I wanted to make a birthday cake to take to the hospital for after baby girl is born.  I had seen the idea somewhere and liked the concept of celebrating her first true birthday with a cake to share with family, friends and hospital staff.

I decided that I was going to make the cake from scratch versus my usual method of cake mix.  I am not exactly sure why I decided to do this as I have complete faith in Betty and Hines's cake skills.  I guess I just figured it would be more special if I did it myself.

There is a reason I don't really make cakes from scratch...

1) I don't actually like to bake.  I like to cook but baking I can leave more than I take.

2) I am not much for following exact measurements.  I like to round and estimate.  This is actually kind of funny as this is a bit against my normal nature for most of my projects where I like to be pretty precise.

3) They tend to be a bit dryer than the box mixes and I do like me a moist cake.

I managed to get the layers made and frozen.  I still need to make the frosting but I do have back-up store bought in case I go into labor before I get that done.

Logistics of this plan are still being worked out.  In my mind I will be frosting the cake while in between contractions right before heading out the door.  I suspect that this will not actually be how it goes down and it will be my Mom that ends up frosting the cake after baby girl has made her entrance into this world.

I looked around for a "0" candle for the top of the cake but all of them were either blue or red and looked pretty stupid.  I decided to make a little paper flag bunting for the top.

We have plastic plates, forks, and a serving slicer all ready to go along with plastic champagne glasses for the sparkling cider.  What I really will want is a glass of actual champagne but it is probably not advised with all of the meds (God willing I get an epi) I may have in my system.  So sparkling cider it is!

Come out baby girl....we have cake!