Maggie's Birth Day!

So here goes a little bit about Maggie's birth on the 20th..
I was due on the 14th of June and that date came and went with nothing. No contractions, no twinges of anything happening...so I went about my week, a little (lot) aggravated and ready to have a baby. My Mom was here from Kansas and had been since the Friday before, also awaiting the baby, so I was just ready to have this kid! Seriously tired of people asking when was going to have it. I had a follow up with my Dr. on the 19th and when I went in I was surprised that my blood pressure was up- it was 144/88. I was only dilated though to 1 cm. They took my BP several times while I was there and they were all in the 140 range. So knew something was up when the Dr. asked if my husband was around- took my blood pressure again, and then said "well we are going to have a baby today". The Dr. was concerned I was showing signs of preeclampsia, and decided to induce my labor. So she gave me an hour to go home get my bags and get back to the hospital.. I was very calm at this point, I guess you just get there mentally and know that it has to happen. I wasn't overly thrilled about being induced, but didn't want to have anything go wrong with the baby either. Amiel met me at the hospital and we checked in, got to the birth suite which was huge-Rose Med. Center was awesome- and I got pretty settled in. Had to have an IV and all this other blood drawn etc, etc- the blood work all came back normal, no preeclampsia. So basically the plan was to start the induction with Cytotek- sp? It is a small little tic tac thing they insert next to your cervix to soften it, then after it starts working they hit you up with Pitocin to get your contractions started.. That was the plan anyway.
The Cytotek alone ended up putting me into labor quickly, I had almost immediate contractions. And they were very fast and very hard. I hadn't been sure about getting pain relief, but now know there is no way I could have done it without it. We checked in about 1:oo in the afternoon, my labor was started about 2:30 and by 6:00 I had an epidural- which was the best thing ever, ever, ever. Amiel said it was the first time I smiled since we got into the hospital.
The epidural was fine, it didn't hurt at all really- I think having the IV put in was worse. The hard part was curling up in a ball- a. like you can do that when hugely pregnant, and b. stay still through contractions. Anyways, the Cytotek worked all night and by 5 am I was dilated almost to 9cm. I was completely elated thinking this would all be over by morning- I was very wrong. Basically I stayed at 9cm all morning, and at 11:00 they decided to finally start Pitocin to see if they could get things moving again. So they started it in my IV and all I can say is Pitocin is evil. I know it was a necessary evil, but that stuff is crazy! They kept uping the dosage every 1/2 hour or so and I was contracting so hard that I could feel it through the epidural. At 2:00 I still was only about 9/12 cm dilated and my cervix wasn't completely thinned out either. I was getting pretty frustrated at this point. The other scary thing was that the baby's heartbeat kept dropping- it would go from 145 (normal) down to 60 and then back up. The nurses kept coming in when this would happen- at one point like 5 of them came running in. It really freaked me out, and then all I could focus on was the heart monitor. So my Dr. came in and said that if things didn't start happening soon we were going to have to "consider another way to get the baby out". My labor nurse Nora- who was incredibly awesome, suggested we try just a few pushes while she pushed on my cervix a bit. Well that seemed to work because within a half hour we were pushing for real. So with a bit of an audience- my mom, Amiel's mom, Amiel and of course Nora and the Dr. we pushed. It was a lot of work, but I was a good pusher (maybe they tell that to every laboring woman) and I managed to push her down pretty quickly, but her cord was wrapped around her neck, and we needed to get her out fast, so out came the suction cup thing that they put on their heads. Long story short with the suction out she came. The first thing I thought, which is so funny now in retrospect, was "she doesn't look like me at all". We all shed a few tears- honestly mine were both because she was here and because it was over. Amiel was great, he stayed with me the first minute after birth and then went to be with the baby as they checked her over. He really helped me through the whole thing, there is something very comforting about having the person you trust most with you. Even though things weren't quite as planned, really it does end up being more about the result than the path that you took.
We roomed in with baby and I started breastfeeding- she has really taken to it well. On her first ped. visit she gained back the weight she lost after birth, and weighed in over her birth weight at 8 lbs 7 oz! My recovery was a little challenging. I didn't quite feel like myself there for awhile, I didn't think it would take so much out of me, but am feel much better now- even with sleep deprivation... Well I guess that in a nut shell are the gory details.. Maggie is so cute and tasty- we both love giving her little face lots of kisses..She likes baths and being swaddled, but hates being in her carseat, and having her diaper changed- oh well, we'll keep working on it..
We will keep ya'll updated here on our little Mag Pie.. Love to All!
Amy