Aubrey's First Check Up

    We are all doing well! My Mom is here helping out and still deciding what she wants Aubrey to call her. I think we've decided on Nana, but no one is sure yet. We've gotten the hang of nursing, after working out a few positions and her preferences. She is pretty good about eating every 2-3 hours. Sometimes her naps go about 4, but that's OK. She'll wake up happy enough and ready to eat. 

    Even though she sleeps most of the day, she's starting to spend more time awake, which is awesome! I love being able to play with her and see what silly faces she makes. My favorite face of hers is her little surprised look. 

    I'll put up some more pictures as time goes on. I'm bad at taking pictures, I just love staring at her! And she has the bad habit of closing her eyes as soon as we get a camera close, even with the flash off!

    She had her first doctor's appointment and she did so well! She only cried when she had to strip down and just be in her diaper in a cold office. But she is almost back to her birth weight, which is great! She passed all the other little exams and we couldn't be happier! Poor Aubrey was starving though by the time we left. She's not used to having to wait to eat and she kept trying to eat the doctor's hand! But she was good on the car ride home and had a nice second lunch and a well-deserved nap when we got home.

    Aubrey also does pretty well at night. I get a few hours of sleep and she'll make little noises letting me know she's awake before having to cry. It's a good system so far. We just have her in the bassinet in our room for this first little bit. I like having her close.  


    I'll keep posting little updates! She takes good naps, which gives me some free time. I know I should be sleeping, but I love looking at her and sometimes I just want to be close to her!

My Story - Part Three; The End of My Pregnancy

    The epidural was working, I was feeling pretty good! Jared and I were able to take naps and we just enjoyed our time together. The nurses would come to check on me and finally the midwife came to check how dilated I was. Finally, I was at 5 cm. She said that usually at this point with the drug speeding up my contractions, I should dilate another inch every hour, if I'm like the average woman. 

    Jared did the math and said I should be around 9-10 by 10:00 that night. So we waited and waited and watched TV and waited. Jared went out to eat again and came back and we waited some more. 

    We took another nap and the midwife came back around 8:30 to check up on me. Jared was hoping I was around 8 cm because of the math. When the midwife said I was 9.5 and it was time to get the delivery going, we got so excited! Well, Jared got excited, I got a little scared and nervous. I couldn't really feel anything from the waist down, so I wasn't sure how this whole pushing concept was going to work. 

    But we got me set up, they checked the monitor and told me when to push! It was pretty laid back, again, I refused to be one of the loud people in movies. Breathing went out the window though. I'd take a huge breath and just held it in while I pushed. The nurse had to remind me to breathe out each time before I took another breath.

    They weren't kidding when they said she was ready to come out. After the first couple, she was just a push away. A few more pushes, and she was out! My stomach deflated, they cleaned off our baby girl a little bit, sucked the stuff out of her throat and let me hold her. She was perfect! Totally worth the 9 months of being pregnant and worth the pain earlier that day. Even though I was exhausted (we had been there since 3 that morning and had her at 9:04) I was so happy! And Jared couldn't have been happier! He took pictures of her first few moments of being measured and cleaned and all that. 

    I was a little upset I couldn't see her. The nurses were all in the way, trying to clean her and help me with the after stuff. Jared would come back and check on me and tell me about out little girl. She still didn't have a name and he was having a hard time deciding. So I got to pick Aubrey Lynne. 

    I just wanted to hold her and see her. But I guess I lost a little more blood than I should have and I lost all the color in my face and lips. It didn't help either that I was shaking uncontrollably. It passed though and they finally let me hold our little girl!

    She is absolutely beautiful. Born at 9:04 PM April 15th. Weight 7lbs and 5oz. About 19 inches long. She has Jared's nose and I think his hair color. Her hair in back looks like mine, but it's lighter on top like Jared's. Her eyes are beautiful and I hope they turn into Jared's color. 

    We love her so much!

My Story - Part Two; The Pain

    So now, I am finally admitted and laying in the labor and delivery room. It was a nice room. My contractions were slowly getting worse, but I wasn't dilating very quickly. After a little bit, the midwife came in, saw I wasn't dilating very much and decided to break my water. Sure, no problem. I guess sometimes that helps. 

    Not with me though. Things were still going well, just slowly. Then they decided it was time to get me the epidural so they could give me that drug to get my contractions going double time. 

    Everything went smoothly with the epidural. It hurt, but the nurse was great and helped. The anesthesiologist was super nice and cracked jokes. It seemed like it was working, so I was left alone. It was around lunch time so Jared went out to grab something to eat. This is when the worst part of the whole day happened. 

    I was watching Queer Eye for the Straight Guy on our computer. The hospital had wireless, so I figured I would distract myself with Netflix while Jared ate. During the first episode I watched, I realized I could feel some discomfort in my abdomen. That was weird. So I pushed the little button thing to give me more drugs. They went in, I rolled over and continued watching. A few minutes later, I had the same terrible feeling. 

    For some reason, I didn't want to call the nurses. I wasn't sure if the epidural was just taking a while to work, and it really wasn't any sort of emergency. Just a little pain. I started the second episode just waiting for the pain to subside. It was coming every few minutes and lasted about a minute. 

    Jared came back from lunch and I told him I didn't think the epidural was working. I was feeling the contractions. I asked Jared to get the nurse and tell her the epidural wasn't working. By that time, I had pushed the button twice and was losing feeling in my right leg. Could barely wiggle my toes!


    The nurse came in and began to check the monitor to see what was happening with my contractions. She had been asking me throughout the morning what my pain level was on a 10 point scale. The highest I would ever say is 7.5. When she noticed the tears streaking down my face with every contraction, she knew my level was at a 10, I just refused to say it. This went on for quite a while. I would squeeze Jared's fingers with every contraction and just let the tears fall. Not only did I hurt from the contractions, but I felt bad that Jared was upset I was in pain. 

    The contractions were coming every two-three minutes and lasted about a minute. I barely got any break time between the pain. I tried to practice those silly breathing tips with each contraction, but half the time my breathing came out like quiet sobs. I refused to be loud like the people in movies.

    After a bit, the nurse called a lady who came in to give me another dosage of the epidural. We waiting for a little bit to see if it would help. Nope. Then I got another dosage...still nothing worked. Now was the time to discuss if I needed the epidural completely redone. 

    Because it didn't really hurt in the first place, I was fine with getting the second epidural. But ONLY if it would help. I didn't want another one for nothing! Now, my right leg was completely dead. There was no feeling in it. At all. 

    The anesthesiologist came back and got ready to redo the epidural. He wanted to try something else first to see if it would help. They gave me some other kind of drug to see if it would help, but it didn't. I didn't even ask what it was. 

    Plan B to the first epidural was redoing the whole thing. Fine...The nurse had to move my leg for me and help me sit up. I was numb up to my hip. The anesthesiologist wanted me to scoot back, but I couldn't. That part of me wouldn't function. He had to pull the blanket I was on so I would move back. 

    Things went well again with the epidural. The first time I felt the pain my right leg, but because it was completely dead, I felt nothing except the quick prick of the thing going into my back. They said though that Plan C was him bringing in a bat (trying to joke about just knocking me out so I'd feel nothing). The lady with him cracked a good joke about agreeing to Plan C was if I got to hold the bat (and hit him over the head because the epidural wasn't working).

    There was no need for Plan C. This time, it worked. After one epidural, 2 extra dosages of it, some mystery drug and a completely redone epidural, I was able to survive the contractions. 

    It was so great not being able to feel anything! The nurses were relieved not to see me crying, Jared was so happy not to have me squeeze his fingers (and happy I wasn't sobbing anymore), and I was in bliss being able to relax.