Um, so, yeah. I'm supposed to have three more weeks!

We've been cheated out of 3 whole weeks! We have no name picked out, I have no clothes washed and the room's not quite ready and I don't have anything that fits her! :) But we have a nice healthy baby and she is beautiful!

Here's the story - more for my benefit than yours most likely. I just don't want to forget all the details!

Ok. So I was still sick the night of the 6th. Rick was out sleeping on the couch because I'd been keeping him up all night with my coughing and he'd been exhausted at work that week.

I had been dreaming about all sorts of weird things. I remember earlier that day Rick had said that Steve and Tina were getting their paperwork in to adopt a baby and I remember that I had been dreaming about something to do with that. I can't remember exactly what. :) Anyway, through my dream I was aware that my sacrum was getting really sore. It was confusing to me (from what I remember of what I was thinking in my dream) because I couldn't think of any reason why it should start hurting in the middle of the night. I remember telling myself, it's only because I'm thinking about Steve and Tina's baby - it's not really happening. Anyway - I was thinking and talking myself out of a sore back for a while and when I finally looked at the clock it was 12 midnight.

I tried shifting position and arranging pillows but I couldn't get comfy. I started noticing that my backache was having "peaks" of intensity and thought "huh - sometimes people in labor start with a backache". I thought maybe I was having some weird prep contractions so I started timing the peaks at about 12:45. They were 4-5 minutes apart. I wasn't able to sleep and I didn't want to wake up Rick (who hadn't gone to bed very early because he had been chatting with his dad on the phone until late and was already so tired) so I hung out and timed my contractions for a while. At 2:30 they were still consistently 3-5 minutes apart and I was a little concerned. I was not due for three weeks! My baby is not coming yet! But then what else was this? I waited a few more minutes debating about what to do. Then Rick got up to go to the bathroom. As he left the bathroom (right next to our room) I called out his name and he came and stood in the doorway and asked what I needed. I felt so bad! I didn't want him to have to wake up. I didn't want to admit that I might actually, for real, be in labor, and I was worried that I might be making a big deal out of nothing. So I felt dumb and just said, "Hi." :) After a minute I told him I thought I might be having contractions (not "in labor" mind you - just "having contractions"). I said maybe we should time them. We did for a half hour or so and after I lost the mucous plug we decided we might have to go to the hospital just to check things out.

We debated about what to do with the kids and finally at 4am we called Aaron and Shelly to see if we could drop off the kids for a bit. I knew Shelly was getting up at 4:30 to go work out so I thought that if we waited until 4 maybe we wouldn't be waking them up for nothing. I got up and got ready and Rick packed up stuff for the kids and some things for us and we left and got their house at 5am.

We drove to the hospital and went to their "Labor and Delivery Triage" area to see what was up and if they were going to admit me. By the way - doesn't triage make it sound horrible? When they checked me I was 3 cm. At 6:32 (I had to stay hooked up in there for an hour under observation) I was 4.5cm dialated. They figure by 4 cm you are in labor so I was able to actually be admitted this time!

I walked up to labor and delivery, stopping 3 or 4 times for contractions. I went into a room, they hooked us (baby and me) up to monitor the heart rate for 30 minutes. Then they let me get in the tub (and the jets didn't work - no fair!) where I labored unil they came to check me at 7:57am. I was 9 cm. So they didn't let me go back in the tub. :) They waited 4 more contractions and at 8:11 I was 9.5. My water broke with next contraction while the nurse was checking me. They called for the doctor who arrived just in time for me to decide I wanted to push. I pushed a few times through one contraction and out came baby at 8:25am! So there you have the story of our latest "oneincolorado"s entry into the world.

I might just add that almost as soon as we got into L&D Rick got a migraine. So while I worked in the tub he sat in the dark covering his eyes. He came out to encourage me after I got out of the tub and pushed and he cut the cord before he went back into hiding. The nurses took all the pictures of the baby and I so some are a bit blurry. But better blurry than nothing!

He was kind of down for the count until the evening of that first day and all the nurses and the intern who was there with the OB for the delivery were so concerned about him! They were all so nice and we had great nurses and physicians during our stay.

And it was kind of funny - after my terrible OB appt. last time where I left sobbing (cuz the doc said there was no way I was delivering without an IV shunt and that I should really be more concerned about the baby than myself, that I need to be induced, that I shouldn't be delivering in a hospital since I obviously wanted my baby to die or grow up without a mother, etc) the hospital had no qualms about every request - including the IV. "Oh sure, people refuse them all the time." And they were fine with me not taking pitocin to deliver the uterus. Seriously though - why on earth would you? It takes all of 5 minutes on your own! Ridiculous!

Such a funny culture in medicine - it's all about unnecessary intervention! They were actually encouraging me to take Percoset for my cramps after the delivery. And this was after I said I was feeling hardly any pain and that my period caused me more discomfort. Holy cow people!

I had a great conversation with the last nurse we had before we left. She delivered her 4 boys naturally and we talked about how few people try it now. Same with breastfeeding. It's absolutely insane. Not even to try? I'll get off my soapbox before I ruffle too many feathers - but it was really interesting to hear her perspective.

So, an update. The baby has A blood and I have O so that puts here at a greater risk for jaundice. Her number was borderline today at the home checkup so she will be under lights until they like her numbers. This bugs me a LOT because if she were 6 days later or had O blood her numbers would be just peachy. Even now they are only close to the number where treatment is required. It's going to be incredibly inconvenient and uncomfortable for her so I'm a little ticked to be forced to do this to her. Hopefully her numbers will come down enought to appease them by tomorrow. I want to be done with this - I don't feel like they know what's good for my baby.

Hmmm - my milk is in and she already gaining her weight back - she's down 6 ounces from birth as of lunchtime. She started at 6 lb 10 oz, dropped to 6lb 7oz and then to 6lb 3oz before we left the hospital. They wanted me pumping to increase stimulation to make sure my milk would come in and she would be getting enough to eat. But she loves to suck and is doing great with feedings. So we'll be sticking with our plans to just go with our instincts and feed her like any other baby. She was 18.5" (I think - I wasn't watching when they measured her but that's what they said. They're all scrunched up at birth so it's hard to be accurate. We had them remeasure Ashlyn and she gained about an inch!) She is beautiful and worth the couple of owie hours we went through!