Saturday, May 3, 2008

ok, it's time to explain.

dear team,

well, here we are on day 9 of Tillie Mae's life. Feeling good. Ready to type. Ready to explain the whole labor/delivery situation that took place. I feel like I have TOLD the story a billion times, and if you have heard it already, feel free to skip ahead and just look at the darling photos of our sweet baby cakes. Okay? okay.

So, here's the 411:
Wednesday 6:30 a.m. -- alarm went off to wake Aaron up for school and I was already awake feeling killer contractions in my back. (mind you, I was used to the whole contraction situation, they had been going on for days (some braxton hicks, others timed out and were bad, but they kept stopping after an hour or two)---these ones were so bad they would wake me up and it was shooting pain in my back too. So, I get up with Aaron and we pull out the clock to start timing. Sure enough, they were going every 5 minutes, on the dot.

7:00 a.m. -- I reluctantly let Aaron go to school and he has his phone ready to answer the second I dare call. (we were told to not start going anywhere until the pain was so bad that I couldn't talk/do anything during the contraction, so he went).

8:00 a.m. -- called the Dr. on call at my dr's office and she told me to not stress until I go to my appointment at 10:30 and can be checked by my doctor... that is, unless I didn't feel I could wait any longer. She also said to get a ride ready, just in case.

8:30ish a.m. -- call Kajsa to be on stand by. So sad that I woke her up, but I thought it was better to give her a head's up rather than call last minute for a plea to take me to the hospital.

waiting. waiting waiting. Contractions, still every 5 minutes exactly. Aaron was able to speed through one of his labs and be home by 9:45 to take me to my appointment. Kajsa was off the hook, Aaron was by my side... feeling good (Except for the contractions, of course).

10:30 a.m. -- Dr. said that I had not dilated any more (still at a 1, grrr! and had been for the last two weeks), but I was 90% effaced. She told me that she could have me admitted next door at the hospital then, but thought it would be better for me to "labor" at home where I could still eat and drink and be more comfortable. But, she did reassure me that we would be having a baby within 24 hours and if nothing else, she would see me the next morning around 7:00. !!! We left feeling relieved and celebrated with a Chicken Breast fillet sandwich & Frosty at Wendy's (I had to gear up! who knew? it could have been my last meal for a while!).

12:00 p.m. -- Aaron drops me off at home, gets me settled and goes back to school for a quiz. Nice. Kajsa, again, is on standby. My mom is freaking out in Alpine and I am still dying over the contractions.

I watched Gidget Goes Hawaiian and ate some food... tried to get comfortable and waited.

5:15ish p.m. -- Aaron gets home from school. The contractions are worse now, but I can still barely talk. We call the Dr. on call, and she said it is wise for me to come in.

6:30 p.m. -- Check into hospital. The nurse who had to see if I was "fit to be checked in" was SUPER rough and grrrr!---I wanted to give her a piece of my mind. Let's just say I was SOOO mad and ready to bite her head off. Fortunately, she saw that I was in mega pain and decided that they would admit me. And did I mention she gave me some morphine? I felt much better after that, and for some reason, wasn't so mad anymore.

More labor. More ouch-ness. Cried a bunch. Waiting. Meanwhile, the pain was getting REALLY bad. The morphine had worn off and finally at around 1:30 a.m. they checked me and saw that I was 100% effaced and had finally dilated to a 3. Now I was a candidate for an epidural. YeSsss PLeAsE! Ok, what do people do without an epidural??? I mean, it was amazing!!! I kept thanking the anesthesiologist and praising her name. It didn't hurt at ALL! She was incredible (found out later she had been doing it for 18 years. Love that). The medicine was incredible. And the pain just slowly went away. Love that. After that I was able to go to SLEEP! So nice, and Aaron slept too. Suddenly this labor stuff wasn't so bad.

8:00 a.m. -- My doctor came to check on me and was right. We were definitely going to be having a baby within her said time-line. Love that. She was really nice and super aware of me. Throughout the span of the morning, she kept checking back and looking at my progress for herself (even though she had appointments all morning). We were making SLOW progress. By that time I was only at a 4 or 5. She decided to give me some pitocin to see if we could speed things along.

Sometime later I was killing on my left side. Thinking the epidural had worn off, we upped my dose... but later realized that it was my sciatic nerve having a ... something? it was KILLING. I think it was worse than any of the pain that the contractions were giving me. And the epidural wasn't deadening the pain at all. So, that stunk. I kept making Aaron rub it as hard as he could---later I saw that I had a major bruise. :) Thanks honey.

1:30 p.m. -- Are you tired yet? Yeah, we were too. 30 hours had came and went... still no baby in sight. The doctor came back in, checked me out... I was dilated to a 9 and the baby was "very low" but it was crazy that I had moved so slowly. My contractions weren't strong enough, and the doctor said that my body was going to need to compensate for it and push even harder to get the baby out. Nice. Tell that to me after 30 hours. I was exhausted and felt like I was ready to die. Tell me that I was going to have an even harder time than most to get the baby out.

Then the doctor realized that the baby was actually occiput posterior (aka sunny side up), meaning that she was facing my belly button instead of my spine. Hence, the reason my body didn't want to deliver her. So, seeing the whole situation, she decided that we were going to go ahead and have a c-section. My body had been working so hard and even though the baby's heart beat was still so strong and constant, she worried that there could be major complications if I tried to deliver her vaginally. So, c-section it was.

Aaron and I were a little sad, but I think mostly relieved. Poor Aaron had been glued to the monitors watching to see if my contraction levels were getting higher to no avail. We were glad that they were finally going to get this little one out!

2:00 p.m. -- Aaron went to change into a white willy wonka jumpsuit (looked SO handsome) they shoved a beautiful blue cap on my head (Gag, nice pictures, eh? It was about ready to fall off when Aaron took some pictures of me, so beautiful). And they pumped a different kind of medicine in me and took me to the O.R. By this time we were on our third anesthesiologist and he was really nice. Offered to take lots of pictures to record the event and was very friendly. My dr. had another dr. come into assist so she could help push the baby up from the the birth canal (or something down there) while my doctor pulled her out from my belly!... and the NICU team was on hand because apparently the baby had already pooped inside of me and they were worried about that. I love that the staff were counting all the tools to make sure that none of them got stitched up inside of me. (ps - this is aaron - i got to be there the whole time and watch them pull matilda out; then pull out melissa's uterus, fallopian tubes, ovaries and all; then pull the placenta out of the uterus. it was crazy seeing melissa's uterus completely outside of her body!)

2:33 p.m. -- Yep, that was the time of Matilda Mae's birth. She was finally here. The nurses all exclaimed that she had a head full of red hair. (yeah, it has a little bit red tint, in the sunlight, but definitely isn't red red. kind of funny). She had a major divot in her head from being down so low, but it went back to normal shape after a few hours. She cried. Aaron was crying and saying "Oh my goodness!" and I was in shock. Happy shock, but really was just... in a weird state. (Any moms out there know what I am talking about??) So relieved, however, that she was here and they said she looked great!

***YOU MADE IT! *** That was the story. After 31 hours of labor (yes, we are counting EVERY single hour) Tillie Mae came to us. 8 pounds, 2 ounces and 20.3 inches. She is perfect. She is totally perfect. We love her SOOO much and spend lots of time crying out of the blue because we are so overwhelmed at her perfect-ness. She is beautiful and we are so happy she is ours. I love that I get to kiss her as much as I want!

Aaron is so great with her. She always seems to stop crying when he holds her. She sneezes in twos, just like her dad. Her toes are crazy long... looking like mini mini fingers, just like her dad. (seriously, it is nuts...I am going to take pictures to prove my point).


Basically we love her more than we ever could have imagined. So, go ahead and enjoy these pictures of her in what I fondly call the "Lace and Ribbons with Chef Hat photo shoot." Enjoy.
love our family of three.

"is it hot in here?"


"you want me to cook? but I am so little."


"shake-ah-shake-ah I'm a little bake-ah! i can't stop!"
(these are things I imagine are going through her little head).

26 comments:

The Tarin Family said...

Thanks for posting that! It was so fun to read! I love to hear other's birth stories. Isn't being a mom the best! Congratulations! She is beautiful!

AubreyB said...

ditto to the above comment - i love to read those stories! such cute pics, too!

Marc, Michelle, Jackson, and Bennett said...

SOOOOO happy that you survived 31 hours of labor and delievery. And yes you should count every one of them....but the hours you survived without the epidural should count for double or triple. I am so happy for you. Oh, and the feeling just really strange after labor. I so understand! I felt so weird and out of it. It is a strange emotion to try to explain to anyone, unless they have felt it.

I can't believe how tiny she is!!! What a cutie.

cbo said...

I still think it is such a bummer that you had to do both the labor and now the recovery from a c-section.
When in Mom leaving?
Let me know how I can help you!

Steffani Dastrup said...

I am very impressed that you were able to do 31 hours! I really hope that mine goes much quicker than that, but at least I'll know that it is doable! Matilda is so cute! I love all her funny faces! Congrats Melissa! We are so happy for you!

Rebecca Woolston said...

oh my. I started crying because I was laughing so hard. "Me cook? But I am so little." Ha ha! Literally wiping away the tears right now.

Shaela said...

I'm happy to get the full scoop. You were a trooper! I can tell you two are totally in love with Matilda. Isn't it wonderful?! Still waiting to hear the details of the middle name story.... I'll be patient.

Hope you are resting up and recovering well.

stampinashley said...

Yay for a cutie baby! Bummer for 31 hours of labor ending in a C -ugh!

I totally know the feeling you speak of... not really totally "there". I didn't have near as much of that the 3rd time around.

Um, yah, hilarious baby comments... I'm pretty sure she'll say that one day. Dying laughing at those ones!

Mike and Kelly said...

That story was so very similar to mine. It was definetly worth the wait though. Look at those photos. We will come by to see her soon, whenever I can get away from my own kids.

Becker said...

Oh, Melissa, congratulations! Well goodness sakes! Yes, I'm glad they finally just delivered her C-section. It was high time to get that baby out of you. As for the weirdness just surreal state when the baby is born, I can relate. I almost wonder if it has to do with the drugs because at that point you haven't FELT like you were in labor for a while and then poof! baby appears! I hope you're finding her to be better out than in! :)

Lindsay said...

you are AMAZING Melissa--way to go!! What a long labor--isn't it amazing though, once your baby is here, how quickly it's all so worth it!
She is adorable!!

Russ and Nat said...

wow, wow, and HOLY WOW!!! I am SO glad you posted the hour by hour, because I was wondering what happened over there in Texas....will you PLEASE come out and so we can meet her???

kimmy girl said...

it seems you have this baby delivering down to a science. i am very much interested in the end result, because you seem to be so good at it, maybe you can just have my babies for me and then i will take them home. deal?

Unknown said...

Crazy story. You are a lot stronger than me! 31 hrs! I'd die. Mine was like 16 or so and I thought that was bad! As for the "weird" state after having a baby... I know exactly what you mean. I was so tired and not with it but so relieved that she was here. "weird" is a perfect word to describe it. Glad that she is her so perfect and healthy!

Lyssa Beth said...

Phew! I was getting exhausted just reading about your labor! That is a very long time but I think it is all worth it in the end! She's so stinkin' adorable and I love your commentaries on the pics. I bet she was thinking those exact same things. Where did you get that mini chef hat outfit? That is somehting my mom would buy for me...so cute! Congrats again and hope you are recooperating!!

Sarah said...

wow! I am so sorry you had to go all through that. Cute baby though. I am sure it was all worth it.

Kelsi said...

Holy cow Melissa!!! You are amazing! I could never have gone through that and stayed so positive! Actually, how can you not when you see that sweet little baby. She's a doll good job!

elements: overexposed said...

You crack me up. Where did you get the lacey chef's outfit? She is a sweetheart and I must say looks just like mommy and daddy.

I'm glad both mommy and baby are well. Great story!

BETH said...

ughh- the labor and c-section combo - I totally feel your pain.
Love the commentary on the photos- I too am interested in where you got the puffy bakers hat with lace outfit

Kirstin - Klinton - Max - Krieg Starr said...

I just wanted to let you know that I can not wait to come down there I hope there is lots I can do to help and I can't wait to hold your perfect angel :)

Mark & Bek said...

Hi woods! We missed you in Utah this past weekend. Aaron, we saw your fam - they are doing great just so you know. Maddy (Thats what we call her) looks cute cute. You guys are great. bye

Devon and Brooke said...

melissa - she is beautiful - congrats! the twins were c-section and so was barrett - it is not as bad to heal from as people say! you are awesome! love you!

mandy said...

oh my word this made me laugh so much - i cried! haha! you are the funniest! miss you.

Nelson Family said...

Melissa, I just had to say Congrats to you and your family. She is beautiful and I am soo happy for you. Wow what a long labor you had, I'm so sorry you had to go through all of that. It sucks with just shot labor and yet you had 30 hours. I cant believe it!! I hope everything is going well for you and your family. Again congrats.
Tana (Jones) Nelson

Denise and Brandon said...

You are too funny! Congratulations! Reading your story I had dejavu. It was almost exactly the same as mine. I was at a 9.5 for four hours! That was after laboring already for three days. ugggh, the back pain! I experienced the sunny side up thing too. Be grateful you didn't have to push for two and half hours and deal with hemorroids for a up to a year afterwards. Don't love that.

Kylee Clark said...

Hey Melissa, what a cute baby! every picture you post makes me giggle! what a cutie!

kylee clark ( terry)

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