I'll start with the night before she was born. We went to the doctor Monday afternoon and he decided to induce the next morning at 6. Because of the winter storm, we got a hotel room in Springfield. I had the worst heartburn of my life all throughout the night and only slept for a few hours. I'm sure nerves played a part in not sleeping either, but I ended up keeping Joel up for most of the night too. When we woke up Tuesday morning to go to the hospital, it hadn't snowed as much as they thought it would at that point, and we had no problem making it the three blocks to the hospital.
Once we got to the hospital, I was checked in and taken up to my room. They immediately started prepping me and the nurse snuck in some crackers so I could eat something. The nurse put the iv in, and had trouble with the first one, so she had to try again. The second one blew, so a different nurse came in and was able to get the iv in with the third try. I was worried that our day was already starting out with things not going right, but the next few hours were pretty easy. I slept a little and was still able to get up and go to the bathroom and sit in the rocking chair since I didn't have the epidural yet. I didn't really feel the contractions and the nurses told me I was lucky! They had checked me when I got there that morning and I was dilated to a 3 around 7 that morning. Around 11 the nurse came in and said that they wanted to break my water and if I wanted an epidural that I needed to get one then. She said that the guy that did the epidurals was on the floor and he was one of the best. I was still undecided on the epidural, but decided to go ahead and get it. Getting the epidural ended up being the most nerve-wracking part of the entire day. Of course, I couldn't catch good luck and the first epidural he put in didn't work right, so I had to get two different epidurals. Once we had the epidural in, the doctor came in and broke my water and checked me again. I was dilated to a 5 around noon.
Mom and Jamie showed up around 11 and Joel went to lunch with them while I had my epidural. When they got back up to my room, I tried to take a nap again and when I woke up, I was itching like crazy from the epidural. I was starting to feel a lot of pressure at that point, also, and would have Jamie verify that I was having a contraction when I felt the pressure and she said I was. They didn't hurt, it was just pressure and it felt like they were coming more often. Hunger was starting to kick in, and they let me chew gum and have hard candy so I wanted to get some Bubblicious gum so that it seemed like I was really chewing something. Around 3, I asked Joel to go down to the gift shop/cafeteria to see if he could find me some gum. He went to the gift shop and they were closed! Because of the snow, anyone that didn't need to be at the hospital left, and let me tell you-St. Johns was EMPTY! I still wanted some bubble gum, so Jamie and Mom decided they would go down to the cafeteria for me to see if they had any.
In the meantime, the shifts had changed, and my new nurse came in to check on me. I told her that I was itching like crazy from the epidural and she said that she could probably get me some Benadryl to stop the itching, but she needed a doctor's approval. A few minutes later, the nurse and doctor both came in and decided to check me to see how far I was dilated at that point before giving me the Benadryl. The doctor looked at the nurse and said I wasn't getting any Benadryl at that point and I was dilated to a 10 and needed to start pushing! We had no idea I was that close. The nurse immediately starting telling me to push with the next contraction, and told Joel that he needed to hold one of my legs for her. Joel wanted to stay up by my head the whole time and didn't really want to hold a leg, but he knew that he didn't have a choice. I'm sure he's happy that he ended up holding one of my legs because he was able to see everything that went on. Her head was crowning in no time and they told me they could see her hair. I was so excited that she actually had hair! (Joel told me later that when he saw her head crowning that he thought her head was going to be tiny and was so worried that she was going to be so small. He said that with each push, her head kept getting bigger and he started feeling better.) I pushed for an hour and a little after 5, Ainsley was born! The labor was pretty easy, and I'm so happy that I was able to experience it.
Below is Ainsley Rose Freeman, born at 5:02 pm, Tuesday, Feb. 1, 2011. She weighed 5 pounds 12.4 ounces and was 19 1/2 inches long.
Joel cut her cord and they took her over to the warming table. I could see her on the table from my bed and could tell she was really long and skinny! Joel followed the nurse over to the warming table to get a better look at her. The next half hour was the worst part of the entire day. There was something wrong with my placenta and it wouldn't come out, so they had to do an episiotomy and pull it out. It took them half an hour to get it all, and I wasn't able to see Ainsley the entire time. Joel had her wrapped in a blanket at this point and was holding her trying to show her to me, but each time he would get her low enough for me to look at her, I would cringe in pain again. I was finally able to see our little girl for the first time around 5:40 and she was wide-eyed and just stared at me. She was perfect!
They took her a little while after that for her first bath and Mom and Jamie came in to get a look at her. She didn't mind her bath and never really cried. While that was going on, the nurse came in and gave me Benadryl because the itching had then gone down to my trunk, and told me that it would make me tired. She ended up giving me a double dose and I fell asleep shortly after that. I know Joel, Mom, and Jamie snuggled and loved on her for the few hours that I slept and it made me feel a little better about crashing right after giving birth.
Ainsley after getting her bath. Her hands were still pretty blue!
Aunt Jamie holding Ainsley!
Grandma holding her first granddaughter! (Daddy didn't get a very good picture!)
The interstates were shut down by Tuesday night because of the snow and the police were giving out tickets to people on the roads, so Mom and Jamie ended up getting a hotel room that night. The hotel was three blocks away and it took them an hour to get there and got stuck three times! I'm so glad no one else tried to come up that day, because the roads were terrible.
First family picture!
When I woke up, they took Ainsley to get shots, etc. and I took a shower. When I got out, she still wasn't back and I remember thinking how hard it was not to have her beside me. Her smashed-in nose, swollen eyes, little puckered mouth, long fingers and toes, big feet and hands, and soft baby hair is all I wanted to see! That night, she was awake and ate good throughout the night. The next day, she crashed! They came and got her around 8 Wednesday morning for her pictures and to see the pediatrician and she was asleep when they brought her back. She slept until around 4 that afternoon and didn't eat once. We were worried, but the nurses reinforced to us that it was normal and they will sleep for the first 24 hours or so after they're born. Mom and Jamie came and visited again around noon Wednesday before they headed home and Jennifer and Brian braved the snow and came up later that afternoon. She woke up while they were visiting, and they were able to see how alert she was.
Uncle Brian, Aunt Jennifer, and Ainsley
Ainsley passed out Wednesday.
Wednesday night went as well as it could while being in the hospital. The nurses would come in at all hours of the night to take her for various things. They had to weigh her at midnight, do a bilirubin test around 2 and because she didn't pass it, they came in around 5 to get blood from her to check her levels, and then the doctors start coming in at 6. Thursday morning we both were ready to get home! We met with the lactation consultant that morning and she gave us a lot of good pointers, and the pediatrician came in and talked to us and let us know that we had a perfect baby. Jodi also stopped by to see Ainsley Thursday morning while on her lunch break.
I dressed Ainsley to get ready to go home, and Joel got a laugh out of a little mishap I had while dressing her. Of course, he also got it on tape, so I'll never forget it. While putting her boots on her (which were too big, if you can't tell from the picture!), I couldn't figure out why her second boot wouldn't go on her foot. The first one went on easily and the second one wouldn't go on, no matter how much I tried to shove her foot in it. I finally pulled the boot off her foot and reached in it, and there was still the packing paper in the bottom of the boot! Oops!!! We packed our bags and finally got all our paperwork done and headed out around noon. It was so hard to put her in the car seat. She is so little in that "big" car seat! I was definitely a nervous, over-protective Mom on the way home and had to sit in the back seat with her. The interstates were clear by the time we went home Thursday afternoon, but getting out to the interstate from the hospital was terrible. Fifth Street was snow-packed and there wasn't any visible lanes. I'm so glad that ten minute drive out to the interstate is behind us!
Daddy holding Ainsley before going home.
Mommy snuggling with Ainsley before putting her in the car seat.
We're all ready to go home!
This is the snow we came home to!
I have a grunting baby in the swing beside me that wants someone to talk to, so I'll post another blog on our first week home later on.
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