Grace Elizabeth is here! She arrived 3.5 months ago and I'm just now getting around to updating the blog... two kiddos will do that to you I suppose.
So... let's go back to the beginning.... 40 weeks rolled around and I was still pregnant. Dr T scheduled an induction for me for Thursday, May 27th. I was bound and determined to get her to come on her own before that. On Wednesday morning before my induction I was up bright and early at the gym pushing myself harder than ever before willing labor to start... didn't happen. That evening we decided to make a tradition out of being induced and we all went out to eat (with my mom and dad) at Logans (the same place we ate the night before Caden was induced). Ironically, we even sat at the exact same table! Although I had no recollection of this but was told my by family it was, indeed, the same table. Caden went home with my mom and dad and John and I headed to our empty house to try and get at least some sleep before the big day.
I was tired and hopeful that I would get more sleep than I did the night before Caden was born. I didn't have nerves this time around.... but wouldn't you know it. I was awoken by consistent and intense contractions that started sometime during the 1am hour. I started to think I was going to go into labor on my own after all.... but after a few hours (of sleeplessness as I counted contractions) they went away. So I got up early and got showered and ready for the hospital. We arrived there shortly before 5am. It's funny how at the three month point after her birth I remember pretty much nothing about the drive to the hospital that morning, but I can (for some reason) remember every detail of the drive to the hospital on the day Caden was born.... we listened to our (then) new Elliot Yamin cd on the way with Caden and I have no idea if we even had music on the day Grace was born. That makes me kind of sad....
We arrived at the hospital and had to wait in the waiting area for a while, maybe 45 minutes or so... Finally I was called back. They had a terrible time giving me my IV, and in true Amanda form I got so sick and dizzy.... By far the worst part of the entire day (for both of my children's births) was the IV. This was the first time anyone has ever had trouble finding my viens... go figure. At 7am they started pitocin (or as John spelled it in my journal patosan, which is a slightly more accurate spelling than the potusum I was given at Caden's birth, lol). At 8am they checked and I was dilated 4 cm with contractions about 2 min apart. I could definitely feel them this time around. I never felt a single one with Caden but boy did I ever this time! At 8:35 they broke my water (and I had already progressed to roughly 5 or 6 cm). The contractions were intense, but never unbearable. I was finally given my epidural at about 8:57 and my best guess would be that I was measuring about 7cm or so at that point because 30 minutes after the epi I was measuring 8cm (9:35). Here is the breakdown:
8:00 4cm
8:35 water broke, 5-6 cm (this hurt SO badly this time, didn't hurt with Caden)
8:57- epidural
9:35- 8cm
11:10- still 8cm
11:28- 9cm
12:04- 9.5cm, 100% effaced but station -1 so Dr T had me "labor down" (meaning they sat me upright and let me labor while he helped do a hysterectomy on another patient... always on call if I needed him though). I started feeling intense contractions again b/c sitting upright blocked the epi from working completely so I reclined again for a few minutes at 1:19 and they checked my progress... I admit I was nervous the epidural wouldn't get back through my system fast enough before they had my push... but it did.
1:19- 10cm and station +2.... Nurse started to get things ready and Dr T came in and had me push one time... it appeared Grace was going to come quickly so they had me wait a minute to get everything ready before I pushed again. I pushed through 3 contractions and she was here at 1:59pm! I pushed for 1 hour and 20 minutes with Caden and I felt the urge to push, but no pain. With her I felt nothing... I even remember asking if I was making any progress at all because I couldn't even tell if I WAS pushing! Fortunately she arrived into this world very quickly, in a matter of minutes really. I'd say I pushed, at most 10 minutes but probably much less. She hardly had a cone head at all thanks to barely pushing! She weighed in at 7lbs 13 oz and was 18.5 inches long. She had tons of curly dark hair and she came out crying and kicking! :) She also came out lapping the air and rooting... so precious! :) We couldn't believe the amount of hair she had! It was well over an inch long at birth, and so thick!
Welcome to our family baby girl!!!
You are so beautiful and we love you so much!!
