I'm SO in Love!!!

(This is pretty long. Here's the shortened version: 26 hours of labour, almost four of just pushing, no epidural (and if I had I'd have been a c-section!)...and she's beautiful!)

Well, I can't say I find myself speechless too often in life. Truly, we all know I never shut up, whether in person or in writing, but today I am definitely near that point.

I have the most beautiful little girl in the whole world!!!! Thanks to my Mom for updating while I was in the hospital :) I'm sure you guys appreciate it, and well...it woulda been a long wait since the "we're going to the hospital" until she was born post! Why? Well, it was a loooong time in between. Should I start at the beginning? I don't mind sharing the details :)

Wednesday (her due date) after my frustrating appointment, I took my mom to the mall for four hours to get a good walk in to try and get something started. We're not sure if it was the walk or the glass of wine at dinner, but one of them triggered labour, we've decided (and a glass of wine is good for you at that point in pregnancy...it was just small and I was getting desperate to get her out!). By the time we got home from my mom's house at 9pm I started having contractions. I thought perhaps they were braxton hicks, even though they had never been so painful before - turns out this was the early stages of labour. So we'll say labour started around 9pm Wednesday night. We went to the hospital by 3am because I couldn't figure out the whole timing the contractions thing, but nothing else was happening. My contractions were *very* sporadic - 3 minutes apart, then 7, then nothing for 15 minutes, then a whole bunch right on top of one another. The doctor checked me and I was 1cm and 75 percent! Definitely making progress. She sent me home and said come back when the contractions are too much to handle (or contractions became regular).

I made it until about 11am and we decided to venture back (but not before I showered at least 40 times, using every towel in my house...literally), though it was because of the pain not regular contractions...they were still all over the place. While the doctor was checking me this time, she said "oops" and there went my water all over her hands. I was 3cm and 100 percent! They admitted me and off I went to my room. I had a shot of morphine in the thigh and that was wonderful - it helped me sleep in between contractions (which were still all over the place), which I so desperately needed. We had a *wonderful* nurse at this time - Elva - and she asked me just what I desired for birth. I told her the plan and she was wonderful about it. She left Jord and I alone a lot and just did what she needed to. Contractions still weren't regular, but it seemed like I was progressing.

The pain started to get a little worse again around dinner time, so she gave me an IV around 6pm to keep me hydrated and a little fenitail (or something) to "take the edge off"...it just made me sleepy and didn't really help. Contractions were still all over the place, sometimes four or five all 30 seconds apart, and other times I'd get a nice long break. I ended up having a "lip" for quite sometime and so was stuck at 9.5 cm for quite a while. However, by seven I was ready to push and Elva (who was off at 7:30) seemed to think she'd see the baby before she was off. It made me so excited. The details get fuzzy here, as I did a lot of yelling that I quit and couldn't do it anymore. I told the nurses to get it out and that I couldn't, and then I did a lot of apologizing for not being stronger. However, they just kept telling me to push and so I just kept pushing.

I can't really remember at what point it happened, but the nurse went to get the doctor who figured out Alexys' head was looking sideways and that's why progress wasn't happening. The doctor then called the head OB and let the O.R. staff know that they couldn't go home yet. My head was going a mile a minute - I would have been pretty disappointed if I had to have a c-section after such a long labour. By this point there was probably seven people in the room, and the OB was trying to turn Alexys' head inside of me. It wasn't working and no matter how hard I pushed she wasn't coming. At this point I didn't have much control left, nor did I care - I just wanted the baby out safe and sound...the OB got the vacuum (which she had to suction on twice...there was so much hair it wouldn't stay on!). She did an ultrasound to confirm the position, and froze everything with needles. I had to keep pushing she said, and so I kept pushing. She did end up cutting me, but she said I was already tearing, and truthfully by that point I didn't really care. I just wanted her out!!!

Jordon was holding my leg up and I guess being so tired, and hungry wasn't helping the fact that the room was a little bit covered in my insides. He was SO cute though - all of a sudden he was trying to get someone else to hold my leg, and his eyes were rolling back into his head. Thank goodness there was a male doctor in the room - he caught Jord and laid him on the floor. He had a nice one minute nap and a gingerale before he was up and watching again. He watched the rest of the time and thankfully got to see Alexys be born. He told me after it was watching me in so much pain that got to him the worst.

At 11:16pm (after nearly four hours of pushing!) Alexys May Story was born into the doctor's arms. She came out screaming and holding her head (I would have too) - Jordon didn't cut the initial cord, as we wanted, but he did cut the second part on the table - so that made me very happy. She weighed 7 lbs. 1 oz. (although technically it was more like 1/2 an oz, but we'll say 1 oz. to make it even) and was 20.5 inches long. They did quite the sewing job on me - only second degree tears, but my urethra ripped so it's a little extra painful right now. I delivered the placenta and not too long after they put Alexys on top of me. We got to breastfeed skin-to-skin within half an hour, so I was pretty glad for that. Jordon cried and cried and cried...it was the most beautiful thing I've ever seen. He was so happy and proud (and probably relieved). The OB told me after that if I had already had an epidural they would have c-sectioned me, and she said she so impressed with how much I did...and that most people wouldn't have been able to do what I did. Phew!!!

I could post so much more but I just don't really feel like it. I just want to spend time with Alexys. She is feeding really, really well and sleeping pretty good. Last night was a little rough but she's sleeping now and we're good to go. I'm showered and almost caught up on laundry!

Here's a picture to hold you over until I get the urge to post or my blog goes private ;) She was just a few hours old in this picture!!!

kortney elise xoxo