It's a girl!
Natalia June was born at 5:39 PM on Monday, February 8th, 2010. She was 7 lb 7 oz and 19.5 inches. She has brown wavy hair and her eyes are a very dark blue. Her cheeks are nice and chubby!
I woke up at midnight with a small gush of yellow-brown water- baby passed meconium in utero. My contractions had been 15-30 min apart for, oh, 3 days or more, but by 12:15 they were 5 min apart and getting stronger! By 12:30 we were on our way to the hospital. Once they hooked me up to the monitors, baby's heartbeat dramatically dropped during a contraction, scaring the hell out of me. About 4 nurses rushed in, gave me oxygen, put my IV in, and were ready to give me something to slow the contractions. Luckily baby's heartbeat got better, but for the next few hours it was still somewhat erratic during the contractions and I could tell I wasn't getting enough oxygen. So an epidural was brought up, and if I hadn't been so anxious about the heartbeat I probably would have held off. I got the epidural at about 4:30 AM and the baby's heartbeat was solid after that, absolutely perfect. Thanks to the joys of being drugged up, I was able to rest through much of labor. It only took a few hours to go from 4.5 cm and 80% to almost ready to push and 100% effaced (by about 12:30 PM)! They had me wait a while to push so my body could push baby down further. A while turned out to be until about 2, and after some pushing the doctor called and asked that we wait for her (which took half an hour). So I probably started really pushing at about 3. I surprised myself by actually asking for a mirror to watch. At some point, I started to feel my contractions again pretty badly. The anesthesiologist came in, and unfortunately he over-medicated me so I could no longer feel when to push. So for the rest of the time I was doing coached pushing, which was very difficult. I used the oxygen mask extensively bc I was having trouble getting the breath to push. Then the contractions started spacing out, and once I got my excess epidural meds, the contractions and my pushing got less strong. Unfortunately they had to give me pitocin, but it was at a tiny amount and worked right away.
I didn't even feel baby's head crown. I got a first-degree and a second-degree tear and required one stitch. It took forever for baby's head to crown, but then baby pretty much slid right out. After some major excitement, I asked what the sex was, and everyone was like "oh yeah" and looked... and it was a girl!! She was really quiet and calm but got a 9 on her APGAR (which is a perfect score in Denver because they all come out a little blue from the altitude).
That first night was absolute hell. I had no idea I would require so much self-care after giving birth, which made the taking care of her through the night very difficult. My husband was absolutely exhausted, as well, and neither of us had slept all through the labor and delivery (I got a short nap but the itching from the epidural kept me awake most of the time).
Nursing has been very difficult and painful, but she's a good nurser and really wants it. She's a little jaundiced, and we've supplemented twice now with 15ml of formula, much to my dismay and her enjoyment. She has a pediatrician appointment tomorrow morning to check on her, and I hope my milk comes in soon so she can fill her belly and get re-hydrated. It does seem like it's coming.
During one of her few calm awake moments, my mom and I put Talia on her tummy... and she rolled onto her back. We were able to replicate this, and Brandon (hubby) got it on video. My 2-day old can roll over. She can also go from her back to her side and hold her head up for quite some time. It's pretty much insane.
Anyway, back to the grind, it was nice to have a few minutes to write this out.
I woke up at midnight with a small gush of yellow-brown water- baby passed meconium in utero. My contractions had been 15-30 min apart for, oh, 3 days or more, but by 12:15 they were 5 min apart and getting stronger! By 12:30 we were on our way to the hospital. Once they hooked me up to the monitors, baby's heartbeat dramatically dropped during a contraction, scaring the hell out of me. About 4 nurses rushed in, gave me oxygen, put my IV in, and were ready to give me something to slow the contractions. Luckily baby's heartbeat got better, but for the next few hours it was still somewhat erratic during the contractions and I could tell I wasn't getting enough oxygen. So an epidural was brought up, and if I hadn't been so anxious about the heartbeat I probably would have held off. I got the epidural at about 4:30 AM and the baby's heartbeat was solid after that, absolutely perfect. Thanks to the joys of being drugged up, I was able to rest through much of labor. It only took a few hours to go from 4.5 cm and 80% to almost ready to push and 100% effaced (by about 12:30 PM)! They had me wait a while to push so my body could push baby down further. A while turned out to be until about 2, and after some pushing the doctor called and asked that we wait for her (which took half an hour). So I probably started really pushing at about 3. I surprised myself by actually asking for a mirror to watch. At some point, I started to feel my contractions again pretty badly. The anesthesiologist came in, and unfortunately he over-medicated me so I could no longer feel when to push. So for the rest of the time I was doing coached pushing, which was very difficult. I used the oxygen mask extensively bc I was having trouble getting the breath to push. Then the contractions started spacing out, and once I got my excess epidural meds, the contractions and my pushing got less strong. Unfortunately they had to give me pitocin, but it was at a tiny amount and worked right away.
I didn't even feel baby's head crown. I got a first-degree and a second-degree tear and required one stitch. It took forever for baby's head to crown, but then baby pretty much slid right out. After some major excitement, I asked what the sex was, and everyone was like "oh yeah" and looked... and it was a girl!! She was really quiet and calm but got a 9 on her APGAR (which is a perfect score in Denver because they all come out a little blue from the altitude).
That first night was absolute hell. I had no idea I would require so much self-care after giving birth, which made the taking care of her through the night very difficult. My husband was absolutely exhausted, as well, and neither of us had slept all through the labor and delivery (I got a short nap but the itching from the epidural kept me awake most of the time).
Nursing has been very difficult and painful, but she's a good nurser and really wants it. She's a little jaundiced, and we've supplemented twice now with 15ml of formula, much to my dismay and her enjoyment. She has a pediatrician appointment tomorrow morning to check on her, and I hope my milk comes in soon so she can fill her belly and get re-hydrated. It does seem like it's coming.
During one of her few calm awake moments, my mom and I put Talia on her tummy... and she rolled onto her back. We were able to replicate this, and Brandon (hubby) got it on video. My 2-day old can roll over. She can also go from her back to her side and hold her head up for quite some time. It's pretty much insane.
Anyway, back to the grind, it was nice to have a few minutes to write this out.