Caroline...Part Two

So...Ryan's initial reaction was that he seemed a bit annoyed but once he got out of bed and some water on his face, he got his game face on and was ready to go!  Turns out he was thinking about all of the things he was planning to do that next day at school to get ready to be out and knew that he hadn't done the things he should have done to prepare because he thought we had one more day!  In the bathroom, I called Annie and told her to come on over because my water had broken. I told her not to rush right out, but to get her things and then get here as soon as she could. I then called Dr. Neblett on his cell phone and told him that my water had broken and he told me to head on to the hospital.

We finished packing up our hospital bags and Ryan loaded the car while we waited for Annie.  It probably took around 45 minutes for Annie to get there but by the time she did, I was ready to get to the hospital.  The contractions certainly increased in frequency and intensity once my water broke.  I did remember to get online and cancel my Pure Barre reservation for that morning!  When Annie pulled in, we took a few pictures and then got in the car for the hospital.  It was so nice having the hospital just be 3 miles away!  Ryan dropped me off at the entrance and he went to park the car.  My contractions were fairly intense at that point, so I had to find a place to sit down twice on my way to the check in station so I could get through the contraction.   We arrived close to 1am.

They were able to check me in fairly quickly and I had a nice nurse, which I've learned over the years, is key!  I was only dilated around 3cm when they checked me.  Once again, they weren't able to get my IV in the first time.  It seems like this always happens when I go in to deliver a baby!  After 3 tries, the nurse had a different nurse come in and get it.  Phew.  I hate that part - it's one of the worst things about labor & delivery for me!

After about an hour, I decided I was ready for the epidural and it took quite a while for them to get in with the epidural. They talked to me about the procedure and I assumed the "epidural position".  I'm not kidding when I say it probably took 30 - 45 minutes.  It felt like 2 hours.  It was horrible.  They kept saying that I had small spaces in my spinal cavity and they were hitting up against bone.  They had to stick me in 2 different places with the big needle, and probably about 5-6 times with the smaller needle.  The longer it took, the more freaked out I got.  I was very close to telling them to just forget it, when they finally got it in.  I decided in that moment, that with my next pregnancy, I am going to take Bradley classes so I can learn how to get through it myself. I didn't feel like I had any tools to get through it myself but I don't want to have to go through that again.  I'll still plan (and want!) an epidural, but if they go to do it and start talking about me having small spinal spaces, I want to be able to feel like I can call it off and be okay.

Once the epidural was in, it was probably close to 3am.  They started Pitocin then to help me progress.  I had the ability to increase the medicine myself in the epidural but was supposed to let the nurse know before I did.  I increased it once and was able to rest a little bit.  The next time I felt like I needed to increase it, I told the nurse that I was feeling my contractions and she came in to check me and I was a 10!  She said I could feel them because I was ready to push.  They called Dr. Neblett and he was there in about 20 minutes.  I only had to push through 3 contractions and out came the most perfect little baby you've ever seen.  She was born at 5am on the dot - approximately 4 hours after we arrived at the hospital, and about 5 hours after my water broke.  She was 7 pounds 7.5 ounces and 19 3/4 inches long.  She was beautiful.  Ryan immediately said, "that's what I thought all babies were supposed to look like!".  She wasn't swollen at all, she had this perfectly round little head, she looked like a C-section baby.

We were moved to the recovery room and I noticed pretty quickly that my recovery was going to be easy with her.  I was able to sit up, move around, and felt back to myself pretty quickly.  We probably could have been discharged the next day, but I liked the help of the hospital staff so we stayed a second day for good measure.  The McSwains came to Memphis on Tuesday to help with the kids.  The kids were precious meeting Caroline - Mac was more interested in playing with my keys but Madison Claire loved the baby and reacted better than we could have pictured.  She had school that Tuesday and they gave her a Big Sister crown. She was so proud!!

Here are some pictures from the hospital....enjoy!