January 18, 2011

On January 18, 2011, I met my baby girl for the first time. We went to the hospital at 6:00 am, were in a room by 7:00 am, had my water broken at 8:00 am. Then began the several hours of waiting and watching the monitors.

We waited and waited. My family came in the room and visited for awhile. Scott's family came in and visited. Church friends came and visited. Hours passed...and nothing was happening. Mid afternoon the doctor came in and mentioned the possibility of a C-Secton due to my lack of progress, but he allowed me to labor awhile longer to see if any more progress could be made.

At 4:30 the doctor came back in and explained that my cervix was swelling due to pressure from the baby yet I wasn't making any progress. At this point a natural delivery was out of the question. So we prepared for the C-section. Within the 20 minutes I was being rolled into the operating and and at 5:29, Scott and I became parents. 

It didn't matter what image I had in my head of what my daughter's birth would be like, or that it was nothing like what I had imagined. When I heard her cry, my heart had never been so full. It didn't matter how she got here, God had answered our prayers and she was finally here in our arms. 

While I was being stitched up, the doctor explained that my bone structure wouldn't allow a baby, no matter how small, to pass through the birth canal. God had different plans for my labor and delivery long before I ever considered having children, just like He had different plans for my pregnancy. There is such beauty in knowing that God had this day, this pregnancy, this birth planned from the beginning. 

And y'all, she's beautiful. It's an amazing feeling having your baby placed in your arms for the first time. The recovery was (and still is) painful and long but every time I hold that little girl I realize that precious gift is worth every bit of pain, every hour of lost sleep, and every feeding and nursing frustration. Scott and I are totally in love with our sweet baby and it's amazing that in a short week and a half she's already changed our lives completely. 

And she has red hair like her daddy! :)

Ready

There hasn't been much blogging lately because, frankly, there hasn't been much going on around here. And it's been lovely. I stopped working in the mornings at Christmas break and have only been working 3 hours at the after-school program--which I love--and it's left me with most of my day to rest and get ready for baby. 

So I have a confession...I've been terribly lazy. I mean, I'm 40 weeks pregnant so it's not like I can do a whole lot and it seems like the one piece of advice that I've been getting over and over is, "Get rest while you can." So I have.  I've watched lots of Golden Girls re-runs, taken naps, made lists of things I want to get done before the baby arrives, and enjoyed our Netflix account. The only two things that I have been doing consistently is washing clothes and keeping the house clean(ish) in case baby girl decides to make her debut. 

Scott and I were snowed in last week like much of the South but I had a doctor's appointment scheduled Monday morning. I called the doctors office 4 times. No answer. I was truly convinced that they were still open because I had the first appointment of the day. I knew that they won't answer the phones until office hours began (8:30, my appointment time) and the news wasn't scrolling the name with the other closed doctors offices, so I just knew they were open. I dragged my sweet husband out of bed (who insisted there was no way they were open) and he drove me the through the snow and ice to the office. The 10 minute drive turned into a 20 minute drive but when we finally pulled into the office we realized....we were the only ones there. No lights were on. No note on the door. Nothing. Scott didn't even say "I told you so" as we pulled out of the driveway (but he did mumble something about "there aren't even any other tire tracks..." hmmm...).

I went in the next morning and saw a different doctor from my regular doctor. It was a fantastic visit because he very kindly offered to schedule an induction but left it up to us. I almost jumped off the table and hugged him. Scott and I accepted for a few reasons:

1. My blood pressure has been increasingly higher and higher at my few appointments.

2. I've gotten my morning sickness back and have either gotten sick everyday or have been unable to eat much the last few weeks.

3. I'M READY TO HAVE THIS BABY. (Is that reason enough?)

So we're scheduled to be induced Tuesday morning. I'm so excited to meet this little one that I've been carrying the last 9 months and I'm ready for the next step in our lives. Now I just need to wash one more load of laundry and mop the floors and I will be ready to go!