Well, as most of you already know by now, Lucy was born on 2/21/10 at 5:19am. That makes her one week old today! I'm so glad we didn't have to be induced, I can't imagine her not being here now or having to wait a whole nother week to see her! She has been doing great so far...we have gotten a decent amount of sleep, and she eats plenty! She isn't too fussy, and when we figure out what she wants she is a happy camper! The labor and delivery went very well. Last saturday night, Ian and I went out to eat at Bonefish Grill. We went pretty late, but had an hour and a half wait. We found a table at the bar and had an appetizer and drink (water for me :) ). I went to the bathroom around 8:30 and realized that my water had broke. I came back and told Ian, and walked outside to call the midwife. (I was having contractions for about an hour before that, but that wasn't anything new for me.) The midwife told me to just hang out since the fluid was clear and the contractions weren't really regular yet. (3-8 minutes apart) and I wasn't working too hard through them yet. In the meantime, Ian had let it slip to the waiter that my water broke so we got our table immediately after that. :) We ordered dinner, and didn't get too far into it when I wanted to go home, the contractions were getting stronger. We got home, took a shower and things started getting more intense, breathing through contractions and about 2-3 min. apart. Around 11:00 Ian called the midwife (a good sign that I was in active labor that I couldn't talk to her on the phone). and she told us to come on in.
It took awhile for us to get there, Ian pulled over a couple of times with the contractions until we got to the freeway and by the time we got there (30 miles away) I was having really intense contractions that I was using all my energy to concentrate on and stay nice and relaxed. Unfortunately for Ian, he threw up just as we pulled up to the front door of the hospital, I stayed in the car until he was ok. It felt like it took us a half hour to get up to the 3rd floor because I had to stop each time I had a contraction and bend over on the floor. We got upstairs and it felt like it took us another 30 minutes to get checked in. I laughed internally (even though I couldn't laugh) when they handed me the paperwork to fill out and I pointed at Ian and found the nearest chair to bend over on and have another contraction. There were a couple other women in labor who were just sitting patiently waiting to go back. I don't think anyone was nearly as close to delivery as I was. Finally the nurse came out and at this point I was laying down on a couch breathing really hard through the contractions. She started talking to me and I didn't really acknowledge her, I think she then realized I was in active labor. I was proud when I was taken directly to a labor room and got to skip triage all together. The midwife Karen was there at that point and walked back with us, stopping for contractions.
We got admitted and everything going and it seemed to progress pretty fast. When I was admitted I was 5cm dilated and the baby's head was low, -1 station. We worked through the contrations, Ian was great at helping me stay relaxed. I remember saying to him at one point that I didn't want to do this; I wanted an epidural. I don't think I was really serious, I was just in need of some reassurance (he was told I would do this in labor from our bradley teacher) so he comforted me and helped me work through it. Shortly after that I was checked (2hrs after being admitted) and I was dilated to 8cm. I was really proud of myself!
Within an hour of that I was dilated completely and we were pushing! It took about 40 minutes of pushing and Lucy was here!
My first thoughts of her being born were just completely surreal; I couldn't believe there was an actual person there! It was pretty neat. I apparently don't remember much of what all went on as Ian informs me, I just remember hearing him sob when she came out. That made me really happy. I also remember asking to see the placenta which was really cool. It ended up having a thin cord and almost velamentous cord insertion which I found really interesting. Lucy seemed to cry forever after she was born, I kept thinking, oh great, we have a drama queen on our hands. But over the couple days that we have had to get to know her, that is not the case at all; she just had a rough day!
She was cleaned up by the nurses and I walked over to the warmer to look at her, and Ian took the most precious picture of us together as you can see. I teared up when I saw it in black and white. I think we will have it printed up for sure. I wanted to walk over to the post partum room, but by that time I was welcome to the idea of a wheelchair ride. I got breakfast shortly after and we fell into taking care of little Lucy quite nicely! I felt great after delivery; have yet to take a pain medication!
We have really enjoyed the last week with her. We dealt with some jaundice early on, but she has come through that well and is gaining weight well too! We go back to the doctor tomorrow for her 1 week check up, I'll be interested to see how much she weighs then!
Thank you everyone for your prayers, love and support through everything, we are very thankful for everyone and everything you've done for us! We look forward to sharing Lucy's life with you on our blog!
