Labored at home mostly, barely made it to the hospital, barely made it to the bed before she came screaming into the world after a couple of pushes. No medication of any kind (except Ambien but that is a whole other story). She weighed 7lbs 1oz, 18 inches long with patches of reddish blonde hair on the sides of her head. She was mostly stunned at everything that had happened and spent a good deal of time looking around at everything and everyone (still does). Healing was not a big deal, I felt great afterward!
Now, I had always heard that 2nd time labors go quicker and are easier in every way from pushing to healing. However, 2nd time moms be warned...this is not always the case!!!
With 5 days until my due date I went to the doctor who mercifully stripped my membranes (not pleasant, but productive) and less than an hour later I started having regular contractions. I was already at a 3 and she was down pretty low. We grabbed some dinner and gave it a couple of hours before heading to the hospital. Rob's parents stayed with Sadie and my parents quickly headed to Lubbock, hoping to make it in time. I was monitored in triage for about 4 hours with regular contractions that were slowly getting more intense but I wasn't making any progress. Knowing about my last experience though the wonderful nurses didn't want to send me home so by the time my parents made it to hospital (yeah!) I was given permission to walk around for an hour. After a VERY PAINFUL hour of super close contractions I waddled back to the admission desk and they told me that the dr. wanted to admit me no matter what so I was ushered into a room where I requested an epidural ASAP! (Side note: I originally wanted to go natural again but clearly I had forgotten what that felt like) It took about 30 minutes for the dr to get there and I was terrified the whole time. The idea of an epi freaked me out and I didn't have a great feeling about it but I was willing to try.
To make a long epi story short let me just say it took him two trys because the first time the needle went into a blood vessel instead of the epidural sack. Apparently this isn't common but they always test for it just in case by sending a low dose of adrenaline into the catheter. If the needle is in the right spot than nothing happens (I guess) if it's in a blood vessel than the adrenaline goes straight to your heart causing what they call a "steel murmur" because that is what your heartbeat sounds like for a few seconds. It also causes ringing in your ears and uncontrollable shaking, not to mention a feeling like you've been electrocuted in one leg. After experiencing all these wonderful side effects I asked the dr if it was normal to have ringing in my ears. He said NO and quickly pulled everything out. It was horribly scary but the second time there weren't any problems and the epidural worked like a charm! I don't regret getting one at all.
Unfortunately, the shot to my heart didn't go unnoticed by the rest of my body. The next few hours were spent trying to keep my extremely low blood pressure up and my sudden fever down. I was flipped back and forth, hooked up to oxygen, and given about 500 bags of fluid which made me nice and puffy for pictures! After a few hours I was still stuck between 5 and 6. My water broke and it had meconium in it which means that the baby had pooped already and there was the chance that she has aspirated some of the meconium (which is bad) They think the sudden drop in my blood pressure which she didn't handle well was the reason she had to relieve herself a little early. So I was given some pitocin to kick start contractions. About 10 minutes later I was ready to push. I only pushed for about 20 minutes (give or take) when my beautiful, meconium covered little screamer was given to me. Luckily she hadn't aspirated anything and other than being a little peeved at being messed with, she was perfect!
Here's the proof!!
She was 8lbs 6oz, 20 inches long (which apparently is big for her gestational age..she doesn't look that big to me but all the nurses kept referring to her as "chubby")
Here she is, naked and embarressed.
A diaper and a hat is better than nothing. Of course the hat covers up her full head of dark hair! She is Robby's look-a-like through and through, with a little bit of Sadie thrown in!
She is happiest when she is sleeping. She was awake for a little over an hour last night and that is the longest she has ever been awake since being born. She is also quite fond of her "sucky thing" which I find interesting because Sadie never cared for pacifiers.
Here we are getting ready to go home. Mammie bought her the beautiful going home outfit. Isn't she pretty!!
The hairbow didn't last very long but I had to try.
Here she is in her carseat getting ready to go outside for the first time (for about 5 seconds before she was immediatly put into the air conditioned car)
And here are both my sweet girls a week later. Sadie is showing more and more interest in Savannah everyday. I think she is afraid of hurting her. She has lightly touched her hand twice now which is progress. This is actually the closest that Sadie has gotten to Sav since we bought her home so she is getting more comfortable with her.
We are so happy to have our two healthy girls!!! They make us laugh daily and we can't imagine our lives without them. Breastfeeding has been a touch difficult. Sav doesn't latch so I spend most of my day pumping. We are taking everything one day at a time and trying to enjoy each of he the girls at the ages they are. We are looking forward to watching them grow up together and become best friends!
Thanks to everyone for the prayers and thoughts you have sent our way. We can't wait for Sav to meet each of you!!!
