Summer Danielle

How does one even start this post???  Last Wednesday I had an appointment with the doctor and came away feeling pretty discouraged.  I was officially overdue and hadn't made any real progress from a week earlier.  In fact, my doctor was a little worried that I would end up needing a c-section because things just weren't moving along like she thought they should be.  She doesn't like to let her patients go much past 41 weeks, so she gave us the choice to induce early Saturday morning or wait out the weekend and come in Monday night to get started.  There were pros and cons to both options, but in the end we decided to wait it out.  She was off duty all weekend long, and I wanted to give my body a few more days to cooperate and progress on its own in hopes of avoiding that c-section.  So we made plans to go camping with Danny's family and started praying that my body would do the things it needed to do.  All the while knowing that if it did end with surgery, it really wouldn't be the end of the world and we would survive just like everyone else who does it.

I had some cramping on Thursday night, but nothing really more than what I had experienced in the last few weeks so I didn't think a whole lot of it.  But probably in the back of my mind was hoping it was something!  Friday morning I woke up around 6:00 with a sharp pang in my lower back, but I was out of it, it ended, and I fell back asleep.  I noticed a few more sharp pangs in the next couple  hours but still was just thinking cramps-  I just didn't believe it might actually be labor.  But as I got up and ate breakfast it just kept getting worse.  While I was up and about I would have what I thought was a contraction every three minutes, but it only lasted about 10 seconds each.  Something just didn't seem right about it so finally I called the hospital to get an opinion.  They said to just lay down on my left side, drink water, and see what happens.  Just as soon as I did that I was pretty convinced that I was in labor.  I was having contractions every 6-8 minutes that lasted 25 seconds.  I had Danny come home from work, finish packing the last minute stuff, and by the time I called the hospital again they were 5-7 minutes apart for 40-45 seconds.

We got to the hospital a little before 1:00 and I was 3-4 cm.  I told the nurse in triage that I was a wimp and wanted an epidural as soon as I could get one.  Once she admitted me, she asked if I wanted any meds through the IV because the anesthesiologist was going to be about an hour.  I said I thought I could handle one more hour, but somewhere between signing paperwork and the end of that hour, the contractions kicked it up another notch and the offer for those meds won out.  I got my epidural around 3:30 and I was around 4 1/2 cm.  And thus began our long afternoon and night in labor and delivery.

I made slow progress on my own for awhile and then kind of stalled out at 7 cm.  After a few hours of being there, they started a little pitocin but I still didn't get much past a 7.  I started questioning the c-section again but they assured me I would have to go like that for hours before they took me to surgery.  The nurse sat me upright to try and get a little help from gravity and it worked!  Within a few more hours I was ready to push.  When the nurse came in, my contractions were just what she wanted them to be.  But once I started pushing, they slowed down a little.  I spent an hour and a half pushing with the nurse- I would have about 4 contractions to push through, and then stop and wait for awhile.  Finally we were ready for the doctor to come in, but she was in the room next door with a girl who was in a race against me and had started pushing just a few minutes before I did.  The doctor had to decide who to take and who to have wait and, well, she had me wait.  

I had about another half hour with the doctor, during which time I started feeling nauseous.  Danny was put on barf bucket duty (poor guy) and it was a good thing he was there!  All the water and three cups of jello I had throughout the night came up.  Yuck!  But every time I heaved the doctor said "this is working- she's coming!" so maybe it was worth it:)  One more giant push after throwing up and she was here!  She had meconium and had ingested quite a bit of fluid in the womb so they had the NICU in the room in case she came out not breathing.  Which was the case.  It only lasted about 30 seconds but then she required about 10 minutes of deep suctioning.  I was pretty out of it still and getting stitched up, but Danny said it was pretty tense for awhile while they were getting her to respond.  Thankfully they got her going and she didn't ever have to go the the NICU.  

The doctor had guessed she would be around 8 pounds, but she was only 7 lbs 1 oz!  I was okay with that- I like itty bitties:)  She had a terrible cone head at first!  We say this is her ogre picture because her facial expression and cone head are so bad.  Danny said he'll show this to her when she's a teenage girl who feels ugly and she'll feel better about herself:) 

My first few minutes with my sweet baby girl.

Daddy taking his turn- he was smitten!

Our family of three:)

All clean and fresh after bath time!  I could have sat and smelled her all night long:)

Burrito baby!  There's not very good lighting in this picture, but I wanted a good non-cone head shot!

And that marks the beginning of our sweet Summer Danielle.  We sure do love her!