So I know it's been WAY too long. I figure now is as good of a time as any to catch up!
I work a wonderful seven on/seven off schedule. When we found out our due date was December 7th, I was thrilled to find out it was my first day of my off week. As the date approached, I was getting more and more uncomfortable. On December 5th, I went into work feeling so out of sorts. I was tired, my back ached, and I was done. At about 3 o'clock, I couldn't stand the back pain anymore. I asked if I could head home and work on a report. I got home, much to Dustin's surprise, as it was his last day off work (he's on four on/four off). He started playing a video game while I laid on the couch. I kept getting all sorts of nasty back pain, but attributed it to my big belly. I should have listen to my Lead, Kim, who swore I was in labor. At around two am, I woke up, realizing I had dozed off on the couch. I got up and told Dustin I was going to bed. He came up to bed also. After my nightly fight to get comfortable, I fell asleep. The next morning, I awoke for my usual 8 am pregnant lady pee. But as soon as I stood up, I felt a gush of fluid. My water broke. Dustin looked at me and I said, "Umm. My water just broke." I waddled my way into the bathroom to clean up (luckily, due to my fear of my water breaking in bed, I was wearing a super-duper-maximum-sop-up-an-oil-spill pad). I called the hospital and they said to come in right away. I packed my bag, had a bowl of oatmeal, and handed Dustin the keys.
When we finally got to the hospital, I waddled my behind up to the maternity ward. They did an exam and told me they didn't think my water broke. Dustin started getting anxious and I told him, "No, it was my water. I still needed to potty afterwards". A few minutes later, the nurse came back in and said, "Well, you were right. Let's move you to delivery." I was so excited! We got into our room and started to get hooked up to all the machines. Unfortunately, they were upgrading a computer system and had to hook me up to an old school machine, so I couldn't get out of bed to walk around. But on the plus side, I was the only person in L&D, so I had a department full of nurses to myself.
Since my mom works at the hospital, I texted her when we got settled. All the message said was, "Room 628". She sure got there fast. It was so nice to have my mom there on and off as she took breaks. I'm not sure if she enjoys all us kids having stuff done at the U, but I like knowing my mommy is a floor away. We called everyone to tell them the good news. Dustin's mom, sister, and boyfriend came up, my dad too. by noon, I had made little progress. They ended up inducing labor, which I was fine with. After getting pitocin, I started feeling the contractions, which were in my back. I was trying so hard to be a chatty Cathy and keep up conversation with my visitors, but oh man, they hurt. Dustin's mom started laughing and one point and said, "You are handling those really well. You'll be talking about something, then just stop for a few minutes, then continue." We were all so anxious and I still wasn't progressing, so I showed my dad damnyouautocorrect.com. Watching him and my mom blush and laugh made waiting so much easier. I'm so blessed to have such amazing parents.
When the 7 pm shift change happened, the anesthesiologist stopped by. She asked if I wanted an epi. At first I was undecided, but then the back pain was bad enough that I decided to go for it. She said we needed to do it ASAP since she was the only anesthesiologist on duty in L&D and may get called into a c-section. I like the way she did it. I still had some, very limited, movement in my legs, but felt pretty numb. It definitely made me more comfortable.
At 9 pm, the doctor came in to check my progress. He said, "Well, you're at a 6, so you probably won't have her until the morning. We'll check one more time around 11, then let you try to get a good night's sleep." I told everyone to head home, so my mom and dad packed up to go. My mother in law decided she wanted to stay for the long haul. I told Dustin to go check on the dogs and grab himself a daddy bag and some dinner. He and his sister left. I started to rest for a while. They got back, ate dinner, and the doctor came in for the last check of the night. He started the exam then said, "It's time." Dustin looked like he had seen a ghost. I told him to call my parents. They had just barely gotten home and in their jammies. They said they would get dressed and head back. I kicked everyone except Dustin and to medical staff out of the room. The medical student told me to start pushing at 1135. It didn't take to many pushes, but then my doctor suddenly told me to stop pushing and jumped in to help. Liz was stuck. He stayed calm, which helped me stay calm. After freeing her shoulder, it took another push and she was out at 1156. Right after Dustin cut the umbilical cord, they placed her on my chest and started to clean me up. She was so tiny, but I could tell she had my cheeks. It was the greatest moment of my life. They then took her to get her stats. Suddenly, we heard a knock on the door and my mom's face poked in the door. Her face lit up and she saw little Lizzie. Later, I found out that as soon as my mom told my dad Liz was here, he went running down the hospital hallway to find my mother in law.
At some point, I told a nurse I wanted a diet coke, so she brought me two. After almost 18 hours of not eating, the first swig of diet coke was amazing. Haha! I was happy to have so many loving arms to pass Liz around while I got a bite to eat.
I tried so hard to give her a December 7th birthday, but I'm now so happy that Liz and Bekah share a birthday.
A few days after we got home, we realized I wasn't producing enough milk, and what I was producing, was making Liz sick. I was so sad that I couldn't breastfeed, but knew that formula would be okay. For the first week, she screamed every time she was awake, after we got her set up with formula, we had a calm baby. Her first month was hard, but fun.
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