She's Here! She's Here!

So here is Mae's birth story

After weeks of being told that she "will come any day now" and my doctor even worried about her being born premature, Mae had to be forced out two days before her due date. It was a tough decision to decide to be induced but in the long run the pros outweighed the cons.

Wednesday, January 19th, we went to the hospital at 7:30. They brought us into the delivery suite which was really nice. The walls had a faux finish and the lighting was dim and there were no florescents. They told me all about what was going to happen and I had a minute where I almost said I don't wannna do this, let me go home. My mom and shawn prayed with me and I called down a little bit. They started the pictocin around 8:30 and I started to feel contractions not long after that. At about 10 my doctor came in and broke my water. She said there was no going back now! It was a very strange feeling. I had two pain management options- epidural or a pain killer called stadol. I told them I would prefer not to have an epidural but it was not out of the question.

For the next 4 hours, Shawn and my mom watched tv (keeping up with the kardashians) while I labored in peace. At 12:30 each contraction started to get pretty painful so I asked to get the stadol. The drug was put in my IV and it makes you dizzy so for the next hour and a half my eyes were pretty much closed. The medicine didn't take much pain away but it made me really really drowsy in between contractions and I almost fell asleep. Luckily it also acted like zanex for me, I wasn't anxious all which was good because at 1pm 3 nurses ran into the room freaking out. Mae's heartrate dropped during a contraction and they put me on oxygen. Normally I would have been really anxious ( my mom and shawn thought I was gonna flip out) but I was fine. I just focused on my breathing.

At about 1:30 my contractions were SO intense. I enjoyed the minute break in between them so much and tried not to think that it was going to happen again. This was when I asked about the epidural. I went to go to the bathroom and once I got on the toilet I felt the slight need to push. I got back to bed and with the next contraction I felt the uncontrollable urge to push. I told the nurse and she checked me (during the contraction- ouch!) and said it's time. They were preparing the room and had called the doctor. I had to fight so hard not to push till my doctor got there. She ran in and they got her dressed and I was ready. They told me I could push and it felt so good.. well it felt good to do what my body was forcing me to do. I think I pushed through 3 or 4 contractions and then her head popped out at 2:06. I think back to how it was as she was coming out and it just felt so strange. They told me to open my eyes and Mae was on my chest screaming. She had a conehead and was covered in gunk. Shawn kept saying how amazing I was and had such a shocked look on his face.
They took Mae away to clean her and stuff. The doctor fixed me up which, painwise, was comparable to delivery. I heard Mae screaming and looked at my mom who had the biggest smile on her face as she watched them clean her. Shawn was with me and was so happy. They had Mae for like half an hour. She was still in the room but just behind a wall. She weighed 6lbs 11oz and was 19 inches long. I was shocked that she was under 7 pounds. They brought her over to eat and she latched on perfectly. She is still a great feeder. We spent the next 2 nights in the hospital and she came right before the biggest snowstorm this year.

I love her so much and have never seen something so beautiful. She is so expressive and lovely. Shawn and I are absolutely enthralled by her. Grandma Rene has been my life saver and has taken half the night shift happily. She has already recieved many “secrets”. All I can say is PRAISE THE LORD! He has been so good to us. I feel so blessed to have had such an amazing delivery and to have such a good baby.