I promised the birth story so here goes...
We went in Friday morning (8th) for the induction at 7:30. By 8am my doctor administered Cervidel, which is a gel to help dialate the cervix. She also broke my water and started mechanical dialation, a bag of fluid placed above the cervix that pulls down and helps things move along. Contractions started almost immediately. They were 4 minutes apart and pretty strong. We walked the halls and tried to stay on top of them but it wasn't easy. Poor Dave, he didn't know what to do.
By 12:30 my doctor wanted to start Pitocin and break my water. I asked for the epidural but the doc said she didn't think my pain was enough. (yeah right!) She just so happened to come in between contractions!!!! I was not happy but couldn't really argue. By 4pm I was 4cm and 50% efaced. Contractions we about 2 minutes apart and my doc finally ordered the epi. Man what a relief, I thought I was going to die!
The next few hours I got to hang out with my family that drove in from Michigan. Little did I know that it was the lul before the storm. My doctor came in around 6 and checked me, I was 9cm and 100%, almost ready to push. The nurse told me I had had 8 contractions in a 10 minute period! She asked if I could feel down there and couldn't so they took me off the epidural - that's when it all started. Within minutes the drugs started wearing off and I was having contractions through the roof almost every minute! 15 minutes later I started to push, drug free!!!! I pushed for 2 hours and even after two shots of lidocain (sp?) I could feel everything! I gave up. I was so tired and just didn't have it in me anymore. My doctor said she would try the vacuum, but if it didn't work they'd have to do a c-section. At that point, I could have cared less, I was in so much pain it didn't matter and it didn't seem like she was coming out naturally, no matter what I did. So, out came the vacuum. 6 pushes later at 8:34pm miss Emma was born. She was 19" long and weighed 6lbs. 10oz. My doctor said that if she was a half pound bigger she wouldn't have been able to be born vaginally.
I am very thankful that I didn't have to have a c-section, but I do have a third degree tear and a sulcus, which I was told was an internal tear on the vaginal wall. I am still very sore, even after 7 days, and cannot wait to be able to walk normal again!!!!
Emma is a great baby. She rarely cries, only when she's cold or being probed by the doctor. She does have GERD (reflux) which makes her hiccup and sneeze all the time, but I'll take it over anything more serious.
She took to breastfeeding right away but I wasn't doing it right and now have cracked and bleeding nipples. Every time I nursed I felt like crying it hurt so bad. I finally went in to see a LC nurse this morning and let me tell you, it's a whole new ballgame now.
Nights are pretty good. The first night was HORRIBLE, but we expected it. She woke up every hour and we had a really tough time. The following two nights were awesome in comparison, feeding every three hours. The third night was bad also, cluster feeding every hour for 6 hours, but last night made up for it, she slept for 5 hours straight!!!! Dav and I couldn't help but check to see if she was breathing! I'm hoping tonight is as good, it felt amazing to wake up slightly rested!
I'll post more later, but time is a valuable commodity these days and I need some couch time. Just know we are totally in love and can't wait to share her with the world. We've been advised to keep visitors away for 6 weeks because of flu season and RSV so as much as we would love to introduce her to everyone we need to hold off. I hope you all understand.
Here are some pics of your beautiful baby girl, miss Emma St. Clair Simpson
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