Our Little Piece of Heaven :)

Chatham Marie Walsh

January 10th, 2011

6:41 p.m.

7 lbs, 4 oz; 20.5 in long

Delivery Room Shots

Quick pre-delivery nap while waiting for the doctor to arrive

So happy :) 

Perfect Apgar Score :)

Eyes wide open - she was so alert! 

The Team with Little C

January 10th, 2011

Our sweet pea decided Monday, January 10th, was the day to make her grand entrance into this world. It was a long ten day wait, but boy am I happy that we let her come on her own - it made for an "as good as it gets" labor for Mommy and Baby :) Here is a very brief outline of the best day of my life!

January 10th, 2011

4 a.m. ~ woke up feeling a little "off"... strong menstrual cramps

5 a.m. ~ cramps getting more intense but still didn't feel like contractions - had a little bleeding so called my doctor's office. At this point I'm up and out of bed... had something very small to eat and woke up my husband because I knew something "wasn't right." I worried that something was wrong with the baby because of my (what I thought were unusual) symptoms

6:45 a.m. ~ still hadn't heard back from the on-call doctor, but now these cramps have intensified and feel like contractions, coming at regular intervals (every 10 minutes, every 8 minutes, now every 6 minutes)

7 a.m. ~ on-call doctor calls me back (who had never received my page) After listening to my symptoms she told us to go into the hospital triage as soon as possible

8 a.m. ~ arrive at hospital with all of our bags, thinking could this be it? The contractions are getting more uncomfortable but not too bad at this point.

8:45 a.m. ~ had been monitored and baby/mommy are doing well... only a centimeter dilated, but my doctor tells the nurses to keep me in there... this is happening late today or tomorrow (sounded like it could be a long day!)

11:45 a.m. ~ had my water broken

12:00 p.m. ~ started me on very small dose of Pitocin via IV Drip

12:30 p.m. ~ epidural administered

1 p.m. ~ I get sick (no surprise) from reaction to epidural

2:00 p.m. ~ I'm 2.5 centimeters dilated (at this point I'm thinking I'll be delivering early the next morning! At least I'm resting comfortably...)

2:30 p.m. I'm feeling a lot of pressure and a little pain with each contraction so nurse has anesthesiologist increase my epidural dosage. I get sick again minutes later

3:30 p.m. ~ Nurse checks my cervix and I'm fully dilated. My doctor hears the news and is in shock that I dilated so quickly (same thing happened to my Mother so I shouldn't have been too surprised). He wants me to relax for a bit like that. I could have delivered this baby by 4:30 p.m., but since we waited the delivery was lightening fast

5:45 p.m. ~ Doctor calls and asks nurse to have me do a few pushes to prep for when he arrives in minutes. I do one push and have to stop because the nurse is worried the baby will be coming out moments later

6:10 p.m. ~ Doctor arrives and is shocked to see baby's progress - I start the first of five sets of three pushes at 6:25 p.m. and our little piece of heaven arrives at 6:41 p.m. I felt no pain, and just a bit of pressure. I had an amazing experience in labor!!

** We were discharged on Wednesday morning, January 12th. Our doctor told us we could be discharged Tuesday evening if we wanted to be in our home for the night, but we decided to live it up in recovery for a day and a half instead of less than 20 hours :)

8 days overdue... the last of the tummy pics!

41 Weeks and Counting

This morning we had a non stress test for the little peanut... fortunately it was a quick 20 minutes and she passed with flying colors. The doctor told me that I've started to dilate a little, so hopefully I'll continue to do so and go into labor over the weekend! If not, we have our last dr.'s appointment on Monday where we'll have a second non stress test, an ultrasound, and an exam to see how far dilated I am. If we still have no baby by early next week, I'll be induced late Tuesday evening (the 11th).
The goal at this point is to have our little one make her way out on her own terms -- I'd really rather not get induced until it's absolutely necessary. Don't get me wrong, I am beyond frustrated, feel pretty yucky, functioning on very little sleep and break down in tears at least once a day as of late, but I know waiting this out a bit longer is the best thing to do for all of us :)
Several people have asked me whether or not I've tried any labor inducing techniques, and the answer is: ALL OF THEM.  The eggplant parm, pineapple, licorice, spicy foods, long walks, bouncing on exercise balls, walking up and down stairs, cleaning like a mad woman, and a few other unmentionables... I've tried them all, repeatedly... she will come when she is ready :)

She's content where she is...

We saw the doctor this afternoon (40 w 3 d along) and unfortunately I'm still 0 cm dilated - she's not budging! We had an ultrasound to check the amniotic fluid and placenta, and we got a "pass" on both so the doc feels comfortable letting me go another week (ugh!)
Because I haven't started dilating it wouldn't be a good idea for me to be induced at this point; an early induction would lead to a LONG labor, probably resulting in a c-section. That said, we are going back into the doc on Thursday for a stress test, and then on Monday we have another ultrasound. I'd be induced late Tuesday night (the 11th) if I haven't already gone into labor on my own.
I'm really hoping to be caught by surprise over the next few days, but I'm not getting my hopes up... clearly she's quite content in there!