Early Christmas!

So we got a couple of early Christmas presents this year. Seeing as how we had a very busy holiday season planned, my in-laws were nice enough to give us our first present (money to buy stuff we need - best present!) and we went to Costco on Saturday and got a new camera! Those of you who have heard me complain about my old camera know that this is a very very very good thing. :)



The other present we got on Monday - Little Baby Sophia was born at 11AM Monday 11/30 after 19 hours of labor! Just so you know, because I use this as my journal I will be going into detail on this which may be completely boring for you but is important for me, so if you skip down you can see all of the pictures. :)



All through the weekend I was having really bad braxton hicks (or so I thought), and on Friday I got the whole nesting instinct and scrubbed my bathtub for 4 hours! (Jon will have to redo some grout that I dug out because I was convinced it had mildew behind it). That was the first big hint. Anyway, on Sunday we went to church and I was hurting the whole time and kept contracting, so after church I started timing them out and saw that most of them were about 2-5 minutes apart, and then there would be a 10 minute break after about 4 of them. So I called my aunt (because my mom was at work - boo) and explained how the contractions were and she recommended I go in. Since I was three weeks away from my due date I figured that they would probably just check me and send me home, but in the hopes that I would get some pain meds or something to make it more bearable we went into the hospital.



When we got there around 4pm I was only dilated to a 2, but since the contractions were so constant they had me walk around for an hour and then I was up to a three and the contractions were a lot harder, so they decided to keep me! From then on it was a full night of me with my epidural and hooked to a hundred different tubes and machines and what-not and was really very relaxing. I ate my ice chips while Jon kept our families updated on the status of everything. We had my Mom sister and brother Jeffrey visit for the night, and Jon's parents were there for most of the night as well.



The labor part wasn't too bad because of that wonderful, wonderful epidural, until about 2:45 when I started to feel a lot of the contractions. For the next 2 hours they kept getting worse, and even after hitting the boost button every 15 minutes and having the anethesiologist come in twice for concentrated boosts, they were still getting worse and I was not a happy person. I had really bad back labor on top of all of it that was shooting all the way up to my shoulder blades on some contractions. Finally the guy came back and was confused as to why I was still hurting until he checked my back and saw that the catherter for the epidural had slipped almost all the way out! It was still in the skin, but not in the spinal area or whatever. So with that mystery solved they reinserted the epidural and about 20 minutes later I was in my numb blissful happy place and was able to sleep for a bit.



So that was annoying - the other thing is even numb those contractions were exhausting me! Around 2 they had started me on pitocin because I was still only at a 6, and after 4 more hours I was still at a 6! They kept upping the dosage of pitocin to help me move along, and around 8:15am my doctor came in and I was to a 7 (woot.) So he broke my water and they upped the pitocin a little more. By the time 11:00am was rolling around, a couple of things happened. 1) I had gotten a tiny bit more sleep - not totalling more than 3 1/2 hours the entire time though 2) I started feeling my contractions again in my stomach, but thankfully not my back and I was still completely numb from the waste down. I asked for them to refill it or replace it or whatever, only to find out that I was dilated to a 10 and ready to go! So they gave me some concentrated stuff that would kick in fast, the doctor rushed in and about 4 pushes later she was here! Oh, and as a side note Jon was great through the whole thing - first teasing me that he could eat real food while I had flavored ice chips, and then holding my hand through my 2 hours of "real labor", and then holding one of my legs while my mom held the other so I could push (my legs were completely numb and I couldn't lift them, so they had to help). He got to watch Sophie being born, and he got to cut the ambilical cord! I'm so happy to have such a great husband! And after when they were weighing her and stuff, I had my mom taking pictures and even though I know that Jon wanted to go over and see her right away, he stayed there holding my hand while the doctor stitched me up and made sure that I was okay before going to see our daughter. He is so great and I love him so much, just for the record. :)



Anyway, that is the epic tale of how my sweet little Sophia came into the world - it was a long labor, and I could barely focus on her face I was so tired, but so worth it and I am so happy that she's here now. Thanks to everyone who helped at the hospital, sent congrats, visited, or just thought about us - I know that some people were concerned because she's three weeks early (to the day, just like I was!) and I appreciate everyone for their concern and I'm so happy that she is here and that she is healthy. And I must say, me and Jon made one good looking baby! Enjoy! :)