Loves her Daddy!

The birth of Raelee

Birth



3 weeks old

We're enjoying our little one. She's so much fun, except she wakes up around 1100pm and is wide awake wanting to play all night. This morning she finally went to sleep at 0430am to wake back up at 0800am. My theory is that she was held too much straight from the womb. In the hospital, Brad held her every night, and when she did go to the nursery, my co-workers all took turns holding her, so she was never in her crib. Now that we're home, she's not having it when we try to put her in the cradle. Such a funny little girl :) Now the birth story:
Raelee was due Dec 15th, well that day came and went and the Doctor was expecting her to be big and with Christmas coming quickly, we decided for an induction. I was supposed to go to the hospital at 4pm on the 19th, but they were so busy with babies popping out, we weren't able to be admitted until 7pm. Cervadil was started that night around 9pm and I started having contractions every 2-3 mins, but they weren't bad, most of the time I couldn't even feel them. The next morning at 5am, Pitocin was started and a very long day began. FYI labor beds were not made for extended stays, my body was killing me from being stuck in bed, not fun! My parents came to the hospital around 6ish am to be with us during the day. It cracked the doctor up, because he came in to make rounds at 8am and my mom, dad, Brad, and I all had different books out and were reading away. The room was too quiet for him I think, LOL! By that afternoon, I was maxed out on pitocin and still only 1 cm dilated, which is what I had been since November. Kinda disapointing. I was starving, having been on liquids all day. Normally I love Jello and applejuice, but when thats all you can eat, it gets old, fast. We stopped the pitocin for the night, I was able to eat(which was awesome), take a shower(which was wonderful), and get off the monitor and out of bed for awhile(which was AMAZING). My tailbone has never been so sore. Brads parents came to the hospital and we watched the finale of Survial. BTW my contestant won :) We started Cervadil again around 10pm, and around midnight I was having real contractions, that hurt! My nurse checked me again, still only 1 cm! She did some manuvers that I won't go into on here, TMI, that hurt like the dickens, but...she was able to get me between a 2-3. Whoohoo! Around 1ish am, is where my memories start to get fuzzy. I was hurting pretty bad and it was too early to get an epidural, and at the time we were thinking there was another entire day of pitocin ahead of me, so I was given some IV pain medication to help me sleep. Well, I've never taken anything stronger than motrin, so I was thrown for a loop. The whole dose wasn't even in when the room started spinning. I couldn't even sit up straight I was so dizzy, but I did sleep for a bit. Apparently, I kept waking up and telling Brad to watch to make sure I kept breathing. I guess this scared him just a bit, so he sat and watched me breathe and sleep for about an hour. Then I woke up really hurting and needing to pee bad. Brad had to walk me to the bathroom with my eyes closed, every time I opened them I thought I was going to fall due to the room still spinning. Once in the bathroom, I kept asking Brad if it was real, because I thought I was still in bed, dreaming, and that I was going to wet the bed. How embarrassing would that have been? Once Brad convinced me that I really was in the bathroom, I was able to do my thing and then get back to bed. At this point, I was 3 cm, but contracting every 1-2 mins, so I was able to get an epidural. I don't really remember much of that, other than I guess I was shaking really bad, because the nurse had to hold me to keep me still for the doctor. Once it was in and the foley catheter was insterted, I was good to go. Was able to go right to sleep for 2 hrs. Then the nurse came in at 5am to check me, because Raelee's heart rate was being funky. I was 8 cm! Brad called the family to get every back to the hospital, they were estmiating she would be born by 8am if not sooner. My doctor had gone off call, but said he would come for the delivery, if I could wait until 9am. So thats what we did, I just kinda chilled and napped. I started pushing a little after 9am and Raelee was born at 1003am. Delivery went well, I didn't feel any pain, but I could feel when to push. During the pushing, I was totally awake and with it, but after she was born, those IV pain medications came back to haunt me. I was really dizzy and sick to my stomach. The sleepiness and dizziness didn't go away until that night. Not fun. Once that feeling went away, I felt pretty good. We stayed our 48 hrs and then went home on the 23rd. On the 24th, was Raelee's first doctors appt, and she had lost over 10% of her birth weight, so I had to pump after I breast fed her and then feed her what I pumped. Christmas day, we re-weighed her and she had gained weight, so I was able to go back to just breast feeding. Now everything is going great except for the sleeping part :)
All in all, I was pretty nervous about giving birth, but I think every went pretty well. The only thing I would change,would be to not take the IV medication. I feel that I was really blessed though, because I had Raelee where I work, which I was wondering this whole 9 months how I would feel about my co-workers being all up in my business, but I think it turned out to be a blessing. I was able to pick who would be my nurse every shift, so it was my friends taking care of me, and was very calming. Some of my very good friends were able to take care of Raelee and I, which is a special memory I will always have. I feel so blessed to have such a sweet, healthy little girl. It's so fun to watch Brad with her. He is an awesome dad, you would never know this was his first baby, he's been so confidant with caring for Raelee. She always smiles so big when he holds her. We both think she's the perfect mix of both of us. It's going to be so fun watching her grow and learn :)