We have a brand new beautiful little angel. She was born Saturday, May 8, 2010 at 9:25 am. She weighs 6 lbs 5 oz and is 19 inches long. Although she may lose a little length as her cone head rounds out :)
On Friday morning I started having contractions on the way to school about 8:30. I got to school and they were getting stronger about 8 minutes apart so I got a sub for the afternoon and went home at 11. I called Jake and our parents to let them know we might be going to the hospital. Well I guess she was holding out for the weekend because contractions slowed and eventually stopped around 3 pm. I was SO bummed. I had just gone through 5 hours of labor for nothing - oh except the wonderful back pain they brought which did not go away. In fact it only got worse as the day went on and made it very very hard to sleep or do anything really. I was able to take a nap for an hour then at 10:30 ish went up to bed. After what felt like hours and hours of tossing and turning - I had so much back pain - I got up thinking it was at least 6 am - Nope - 12:00 midnight. Wow, so I decided to take a bath which was the best. It was the first time in hours my back didn't hurt. Unfortunately I couldn't stay there forever even though I thought about it so I woke Jake up and we watched a movie- thinking that would distract me from the pain.
About 2 the contractions kicked back in pretty strong. Within an hour they went from 10 min apart to 8, 6, 5 - which of course is the magic number - and I told Jake it was time to go. I had been wandering in and out of the bathroom in misery and not being able to enjoy the movie much. Which is ok because I did catch a couple funny parts -Star Trek 4- where spock tries to use slang and talk tough and laughing was not therapeutic.
Anyway, we got to the hospital about 3:30 which is thankfully reallly close to us. I was dialate to 5 cm and 100% effaced when we checked in so maybe that morning labor wasn't in vain after all. After getting set up with monitors and IV's I was able to get an epidural - which was heavenly. Not getting it put in - although that really wasn't too bad. I guess the needles they use are pretty beastly but needles don't bother me if I don't see them so I just didn't look. After that there was a lot of waiting. I needed two doses of Penicillin for group B strep and the first one was at 4 so we had to wait until 8 to do anything. They broke my water around 5 to get things moving and by about 7:50 I was at 9 3/4 cm. So now we were just waiting on the dr. Thanks to the epidural I was able to sleep for a while. The worst part was the shaking from the epidural. Everytime I changed position I would start shaking again and couldn't control it. Jake distracted me by taking flattering (not) pictures and video and playing music on the laptop while I tried to guess the song just from the intro. He was great through the whole thing except once I told the nurse something hurt and he said to "suck it up". He was just joking but it was actually good advice, I was being a wuss.
When Dr. Nance finally got there and we got all in position for pushing it was around 9:15. I couldn't feel the contractions so the nurse told me when they we starting and I was supposed to push 3 times for 10 seconds each. They had told me that most women push for an hour or two. Well, Chayla must have been ready because after the first couple pushes the dr. said "I see lots of hair". Only 10 minutes (only 9 pushes) later that hair was followed by a beautiful conehead and a long body. I watched her being born and I still don't quite beleive it happened. It was so intense and surreal. She did have the cord wrapped around her neck but the dr. cut it and she was fine. Jake got to cut the cord closer to the belly button and video tape her as they weighed and measured. - while I got to deliver the placenta and get stitches. He did great being a brand new dad. He said it was pretty gross and crazy but the blood didn't bother him. Only her looks bothered him. He said "She looks Asian. Are you sure I'm the dad?" Which is kinda funny because that's one of the first things everyone else said too.
I was shaking so bad I didn't even hold her much until later down in our Mother/baby room. I tried feeding her but she was SO tired and weak. She didn't even cry much when she was first born. Kind of whimpered. Oh but she was beautiful. We took some pictures then I ate a big breakfast while Jake went with the nurse and Chayla down to get cleaned up and checked out. She had low blood sugar so they had to take blood for testing and give her some formula through a tube which they pushed down her throat into her stomach. Poor girl - so much trauma in so little time. She got a bath and a cute bow in her hair and was able to come be with us in the room about 11.
She was so tired for most of the day. She got to meet lots of new people but was hardly awake for any of it. She got to meet Grandma Jen and Grandpa Kelly, then 'adopted' uncle Brian, aunt Lee, and Kaidrei, then later on Grandpa Stead and uncle Remington come by (they were up here for Rem's water polo tournament) and later in the evening Grandpa Joe, aunt Nessa and uncle Jesse! It was a big day for her. She even did well breast feeding - after the nurse helped me figure out how to hold her the right way.
Chayla is of course gorgeous - she gets that from me :) She has all 10 fingers and toes. We checked and double checked. We are still debating whose toes she got, my big toe or Jakes long toes. I think she got them both and my big feet. We're also not sure about the nose but she definitely got Jake's mouth and cheeks which I love!
It has all been a whirlwind but all so special and amazing. The perfect Mother's Day present. The best part is I haven't had to change any of those tarry diapers yet. Jake has done it all (even the 2 am blowout diaper she had a few hours ago) and is becoming quite the expert. He seems to think that he is building up credit and won't have to change anymore for a long time once we go home :) He is the best dad so loving and gentle. And has been working so hard to take care of us. He has seen me through some pretty gross situations and still thinks I'm beautiful - How did I get so lucky. An amazing husband and a beautiful daughter. I'm so excited for all the great things in store for my little family!
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