N.D. "Indy" Has Arrived...Finally!

Well, here she is! I'm not afraid to show a newborn picture because, frankly, newborns look pretty much the same in the first few days but...dang it! I still think she's pretty cute!

So, January 10th was the day to visit the doc for my follow-up. He wanted to recheck my blood pressure and urine, so that's what he did. After doing so, he comes into the exam room and says, "Guess what?" So, of course I say, "What?" and he says, "You're going to have a baby today." I was like, "I am?" Well, my pressure was still too high and my urine protein was at a 4+. He was concerned about my health as well as the baby's, so he called over to the hospital and told them I was coming. Hubby had gone to the check up with me so, he was totally in shock when we left the office to go to the hospital. He thought we'd be there a few minutes, go home then he could sleep off the night's work. This was not to be.

I checked into labor/delivery and they had me hooked up to the pitocin and magnesium by 11:00 am. By 1:25, the contractions were coming hard and my water broke. They gave me my epidural at 2:25 and life felt much better, after that. I went from a 4 to a 6cm, then slowly climbed to an 8 where I didn't progress much after that. The doc comes in and says, "I'm still not happy with the how high she is and I'm worried about your health and hers. The baby has been in this position for a couple of hours and we don't want her to go into stress, so we're going to have to perform a C-section." Yikes! Well, doc knows best so, they preped me and hubby got on his scrubs and matching shower-cap(too cute). They numbed me up again and rolled me to the operating room.

On the table, I was very much awake and very much aware of the tugging and pulling my doctor was doing. It was too freaky! He then says, "Now, I see why she wasn't descending. The umbilical cord is wrapped around her head." Good, Lord! Thankfully, she was okay and the moment he removed her from my belly, I felt elated and sad all at the same time. The weight of her leaving was so surreal and the idea that she was finally with us...I just can't explain it. That was at 6:45pm. The nurses took her to do her apgar score. My mother, sister, daughter and husband all saw her before I did. (I was truly jealous). Meanwhile, I chatted with the doc and the nurses while he sewed me up (that was pretty surreal, too).

So, back in my room I'm asking, "Where's the baby?" and "When can I see the baby?" I got answers like, "Oh, they're bathing her...Oh, they're running tests...Oh, they're dressing her." Finally, at around 9ish, they wheeled her in. So precious! I had no idea that my children would look so different! I just assumed this one would be Hershey dark like her big sister, but she's very fair (like my side of the family). It was magical finally seeing her.

The next day, they still had me connected to the magnesium drip and I also had the catheter (ugh!). The magnesium was infused with pitocin, to shrink my uterus and a morphine - time released pain meds. The pain meds had a horrible side effect; they made me itch and I'm not talking about a little itch here or there, I'm talking about feeling like you want to scratch your skin till it bleeds, itch. Ugh! And, I had to be on it for hours. The nurse offered me benadryl to take the edge of but, to be honest, I was really tired of all the drugs. I just wanted to be off everything or, at least, as much as I could. By 5pm, they disconnected me (thank God) and wheeled me to my new, postpartum room. I finally got to take a shower and freshen brush my teeth (Oh, the little things in life!).

Thursday was my day of visitors. My boss and his wife came and brought me the most precious receiving blanket. Then, my coworker "C" came with another coworker "M" and took pictures of the baby, me with the baby, them with the baby. It was so nice to see friends. My mother and sister also stopped by and had some QT time with Indy.

Friday was a whirlwind of getting organized and checking out. We came home and my house, oh man, my house! My husband gets a platinum star for being the most industrious man ever! It looks wonderful and I couldn't have been more happy to see it not in a state of chaos. (I have pictures I'll post later). Friday night with the babe was rough. She was still on the nursery's schedule, so she got up a lot (about every hour and a half). Saturday night was better and last night was better than that (today is January 16th, despite what the post says). I hope to have her on a more morning friendly "awake" time schedule, but who can tell? Babies will do what they'll do.

So, there's the 20 minute Version of my birth story. There are more details, but I won't go into them. I think I hit the best parts. I'm still sore and on ibu for the pain, but I'm moving around okay. It's weird to look at my stomach (which makes me look like I'm about 4 months along) and know that there isn't a baby in there anymore. Adjusting to that is taking some time. Again,though, I'm sure glad she's here and I'm even more thrilled that she was born safe and healthy.