Way overdo post ...

It's amazing how the time has flown over the past ten days and how my desire to communicate went on a hiatus. I have spent so little time on the phone or online since Piper was born ... I just haven't been able to take my eyes off of our new little angel and have been enjoying every minute with her. Plus we had a 48 hour speed bump with jaundice and had to go back to the hospital so Piper could get some photo therapy to lower her bilirubin levels so that was a stressful experience and I feel like we needed to adjust to being back home with her again. But now all is well with her and with us and I'm ready to share what was an unbelievable experience 10 days ago today. Here's the play by play ...

July 6, 2009

6:00 am - The alarm goes off and I hop in the shower before heading in for our scheduled induction. I was excited, nervous, happy, scared - so many emotions at once and needing to get last minute things together. Reid slept until I was out of the shower and then he got going as well.

7:15 - When we should have left for the hospital to be on time. I'm getting antsy.

7:20 - When we actually left. I hate being late, but we did the best we could. At least my angst of being late served as a good distraction for all of the other emotions we were feeling!

7:35 - Reid drops me off at the hospital entrance and I go upstairs to check in. They're immediately ready for me and I meet the two nurses (one finishing up her training and then her teacher - both are super chipper and nice and I feel immediately comfortable) that will help us through the labor and delivery process. They lead me down to our room and I get changed into a gown and Reid comes upstairs with our first load of stuff. Yes our hospital packing list was long and we packed more than we needed, but I wouldn't change that. It was nice to not have to wish that we'd brought something. My mom arrived too and I was super happy to have her and Reid there for the whole process.

8:30 - The midwife comes in and checks me. Still 4 cm dilated and 80 percent effaced. We decide that she'll break my water and see if that will get things going. Next thing I now, the water is broken. Wow, no going back now! After that, I get out of bed and start doing laps in the hospital wing. Contractions started and they were no big deal at all. I was all smiles and thinking that this whole deal wasn't that bad. I mean, the first 4 cm happened without me really ever being very uncomfortable. How bad can this be? I was worried it was going to get tough, but on and on we walked.

9:15 - The baby looked like she (ok, so we didn't know sex then, but now that Piper is Piper, there's no way I can call her an it!) was hanging out on the right side of my uterus so they decided to try to get her to spin around by having me kneel with my stomach on ice and a warm pack on my back. The theory here is that the baby heads away from the ice and toward the heat to get into a better position to come out. It's an interesting theory and spinningbabies.com covers it well. After 30 minutes of this, I got back up and started walking and the contractions really set in. From here, they got stronger and I was no longer smiling the whole time during my walks around the wing. When each one came, I would stand against the wall and take deep breaths with my eyes closed. I could tell Reid felt helpless, but I really needed to just deal with each contraction in my own way, which was independently and internally - typical of how I deal with all pain (emotional and physical)!

12:30ish pm - I'm guessing on time now since I pretty much stopped looking at the clock, but at some point, I had a cherry popsicle since that was all I was allowed to eat besides ice chips and I was starving. By this point, the contractions were getting really tough and we asked when it was too late to get an epidural because I didn't want to miss that window. I forget the answer ... at some point, my OB came in to check on us and he advised that we just order it. Things were clearly only getting worse so why not get a bit more comfortable.

Soon thereafter, the back labor set in and holy hell it was the worst pain I have ever experienced or could have imagined. When the contractions were in the front, they were tolerable. I mean, they sucked by that point, but they didn't make me feel like I was dying. The ones that were in my back though were unreal. They were HORRENDOUS and made me sick to my stomach. The anesthesiologist was called and it would be about a half hour before he could come up. I thought I knew who it was going to be - a Dartmouth alum whom I had met originally when I had the D&C for the miscarriage. I was hoping he would be the one to do the epidural since it would be comforting to see a friendly face. Alas, the good doctor arrives (and yes it's the one we were hoping for!), we discuss the procedure (in between contractions, which are so terrible I can't really concentrate) and then he gets to work. Now, it was well worth it, but to get the epidural, I had to lay on my left side, which caused tonic contractions. It was 4-5 minutes of constant back labor contractions and the pain was so terrible that I threw up my red popsicle and everything else in my stomach. Finally, the worst was over. The epidural started working almost immediately and I entered a state of painfree euphoria. The change was unbelievable, and since I was able to chat and mak jokes again, Reid started taking pictures. You can tell the pain is GONE because I was able to ham it up for the camera around while eating my ice chips :-)

1:45 pm - The midwife comes back in to check to see how dilated I am - 10 cm. Fully dilated. Time to push and become parents. I was a bit shocked to be honest. I'd only had the epidural for 20 or 30 minutes at that point and all of a sudden, the time was here!

From 2 - 3:20 pm - Pushing. Pushing. Pushing. Each push gave me terrible heartburn and I threw up again, but after I threw up, they had me reach down and I felt her head. At that point, I just wanted her to come out so that we could meet her! The epidural was perfect too. I could tell when a contraction was happening, but there was no associated pain, which enabled me to really push productively. Everyone was getting really excited in the room because we knew she would be out soon so back to work I went!

3:25 pm - One final push and Piper Elizabeth arrived!

I will admit that I had come to the conclusion that she was a boy so I was shocked to see a little girl. Shocked and immediately and completely in love. It sounds cheesy, but my heart was bursting with love and I could tell the same was true for my husband. I'm so glad we waited to be surprised by her and she was definitely worth the wait. I counted her fingers, five on each hand, but couldn't yet see her toes. Then Reid cut the cord and they whisked her off to the warmer to clean her off and weigh her. At 21 inches, 7 pounds and 4.5 ounces, she's a lanky little girl, but she's our little girl and she's perfect. And yes, she has all ten toes too.

So that's how little Piper came into this world. From start to finish, the whole process took about 7 hours - MUCH shorter than some horror stories I have heard so I certainly have no complaints. If I had it to do all over again, the one thing I would change would be that I would get the epidural a half hour earlier. It really made such a huge difference, and it likely sped up the dilatation process.

And ten days later, I'm pretty tired, but we're settling in nicely. Piper doesn't look so hot in her daddy's glasses, but she does look great in pink, which is a good thing because she now has a ton of it!

And now that we're feeling more settled, I'm looking forward to posting more and chronicling our journey as parents. It's sure to be a wild ride ...