posted April 28, 2004 01:02 AM              

*sigh* and a mighty welcome sight too, in this God forsaken world.

posted April 28, 2004 03:55 PM            

Congratulations. I wish your family every blessing.

posted April 30, 2004 09:45 PM              

Congratulations Sweetie!!!!! She is Beeeeeeeeuuuuuuuttttttttttttttttiful!!!

Why I think we should have a baby shower...but how? Maybe you could register at Target or sump'in like that......hmm, there has gotsta be a way...

Thanks for sharing all the photo's of your blessed event.

posted May 03, 2004 01:05 PM              

*tangent girl reels herself back in*

*beams*
Yep, ya'll - we kinda think that she's gorgeous, too. Her hair's looking more and more like it has a definite reddish tinge to it and she has her Daddy's tone (pale as a mo'fo' Irish...hello, sun block).

For crystelle re: the delivery:
Contractions started the night before, but were mild and quite bareable, even as Jase and I ate pizza and watched "The Blue Collar Comedy Tour" with our neighbors. We got back around 11 PM; the contractions were still mild but definitely a regular five minutes apart. Jase drew a hot bath surrounded by candles and seranaded by Norah Jones for me (in order to relax me and perhaps speed up/intensify the contractions). It worked. When I got out they were much more noticeable.
We hit the sack around midnight and I woke up at two AM from their force. I woke Jase up and told him that we should get things ready for the hospital as we waited for the contractions to hit two to three minutes apart. We left slightly after three and finished admission procedures to the hospital shortly before four. They hooked me up to the external fetal monitor and the contraction monitor for a bit to make sure that the kiddo was doing OK. Seeing that she was, I then went for a walk - it was to be about an hour, but lasted roughly twenty minutes.
At the end of that, I was still only about 2 cm dilated and 80 percent effaced.
We stayed in the room watching TV and being monitored until just before seven; my Doc then came in, examined me (3 cm dilated now, Meg's head at zero station), and broke the amniotic sack with his finger condom of doom (a little finger thing w/ a wee hook at the end).
Things're a little blurry after that.
Contractions intensified immediately, both in strength and duration. By shortly before ten, they were at least a minute and a half in duration with (at most) 5 to 10 seconds between them. Much of the time, as soon as one subsided the next started. Jason said that my eyes were rolling back in my head. I know that I felt like I was fading in and out and I don't remember much of what was said to me. I made the call for an epidural during one of my 5 second rests.
It was an hour and a half coming.
As they were reviewing my file, an emergency c-section was called on a woman down the hall. There're only 2 anesthesiologists in that little hospital, adn the other one was in surgery. I was put on the backburner.
By the time they made it to me, my contractions had actually begun to subside in strength - but that was most likely because my own strength was failing (being allowed only an IV for nourishment'll do that to ya...though I'm not sure that I would've been able to eat at that point anyway). Examined, I was at 6 cm dilated and 100 percent effaced.
I gritted my teeth through the contractions and was sure to let the person administering the epi know when one was coming on - the last thing I needed was for my spine to be knicked. Jason knelt in front of me, supporting my wilted mass as she guided in the needle and then the thread. I had a few more contractions, and then almost immediate relief. Control of my legs began to die away and I began to shiver like mad as a side effect of the drug. I didn't care. I looked over at the read out of my contractions...they were back to Rocky Mountain jagged peaks with little to no space separating them. I didn't in the least want to feel them any longer, and don't think that I would've managed it if I had. The nurses all said that they looked like a reading from someone on a hearty dose of Pitocin, but it was simply the result of my body going to town.
I felt like bearing down in less than an hour. I told the nurse this; she called the Doc and it was time. Pushing took less than 10 minutes, and the Doc and I chatted throughout the process (when I wasn't actually pushing). The poor dude had had that c-section and a hysterectomy already that day, and was on his way to another scheduled surgery right after me.
Jason stood beside the bed shaking, pale, and sweating. I looked at him and smiled, "You're doing a great job, Love."
He pushed out the same compliment to me and said, "I love you."
"I love you, too."
The final contractions came, with me getting in 4 good pushed w/ most. As is often the case with an epidural (even a "walking" one, as I had), the Doc deemed a small episiotomy necessary. I was in no position to argue the matter at that point. Jason and a nurse each held one of my legs and pushed back as I pushed. Meghan began to crown. Her head came out with the next push and Jase forgot about his leg job for a moment. He looked down and I saw an expression of pure wonderment. He said that he felt in shock and awe, but he also bore a grin that splashed its way across face. "Ohmygod, honey!"
She began to cry even before she was all the way out. When she emerged, the Doc cradled her and said, "And this is what makes my job a good one," as she bawled, impossibly red. Jason cut the cord (he wasn't sure until that moment that he would be able to) and they took her for about 30 seconds for her initial APGAR screening (she scored 9 out of 10...pretty good considering that the nurse told me later, "They pretty much have to get up and walk out of the room to get 10 out of 10.")
She was then lain on my chest, still bloody, and put to my breast (those pictures of her nursing aren't included in the link given for obvious reasons). She immediately relaxed and gazed up at me and over to Jason with wide and alert eyes, though she only half-heartedly took to the nipple.
All three of us were tagged as belonging to one another, and then they took her to get cleaned up, Jason following the whole way.

posted May 05, 2004 02:22 PM              

Bah - there's more to the story, but I don't particularly want to write it out.
Needless to say, she's doing well (w/ a bit of a diaper rash...gah! I change her at a minimum every 2 hours...any suggestions?) and is growing by leaps and bounds (well, *I* notice the difference when I pick her up, anyhow...).

Jase's started flight school, so I'm pretty worn out from being, in effect, her sole caretaker. He does what he can, but he's out of the house from 5 AM to 5 or 6 PM and when he's home he's reeling from the sheer amount of info being dropped on him at once; flight school's been compared to having a firehose put into your mouth and opened up full blast. I'm being a genuinely hard-headed woman and doing all of the night-time feedings (oh, yeah, btw - latch-on problems have lead to pumping being her primary means of nutrition; she'll breastfeed sometimes, but it's almost like my milk comes out *too* fast for her...eh). Since Jase would wake up any time she would, I'm continuing my stubborn streak by sleeping on the couch in the living room (b/c if I were in the bedroom and he in the living room, he'd wake up every time I went to the kitchen to get her food). He protested, but I used the aforementioned logic to appeal to his Aqua Sun. Well, it *does* make more sense, and I've the creeping feeling that at least a smidgen of my Pisces Sun relishes the hint of martyrdom in it.
Proving that every Taurus should be so lucky as to have a softie Fish Mom, she's been sleeping either beside me or on my chest as she wails if placed her in crib or bassinet. I'm weaning her into the latter, and once I've her sleeping in that and in her room, I'll allow myself to once again share a bed w/ my husband.
Gah, not doing so sucks.
SucksSucksSucksSucksSucks.

*blinks*

posted May 05, 2004 03:52 PM              

All this happiness is a wonderful thing to see.

posted May 05, 2004 07:16 PM            

It's rough not being able to sleep with your husband but on the other hand it's really good that she gets to sleep with you. I think it really eases a child's transition into the world to be allowed to sleep with momma, especially the first couple months. My little Q slept with me until he was almost 2. It was an inconvience for me at times but now that he sleeps in his own bed I often miss waking up to his sweet little smile and baby cuddles.

And just keep trying to encourage the breastfeeding. She'll get the hang of it soon.

You're a great mom, prox!

posted May 06, 2004 12:50 PM              

------------------
Sincerely,
divinia

posted May 06, 2004 03:05 PM              

oh, and RE: breastfeeding...my kiddo had some trouble with the gushing mouthfulls too, but that levels itself gradually too. It will adjust to a less urgent stream, AND she'll get better at the whole sucking/swallowing thing too. *sigh* I miss breastfeeding. I miss my baby bull. getting sappy here...ahem...sorry. I still have her, of course, but she certainly aint no baby anymore. It's nice that she's almost totally independant now, though...I gotta admit it. I miss the baby stage, I miss the toddler stage, the preschool age, the middle years...And I CANNOT wait to miss the pre-teen/early teen years. They have not proved to be my favorite thusfar ;-)

Ah, Prox. You make me want to go out and get knocked up. j/k...sorta.

You were trying to refrain from the epi, huh? You held out for a long time. You almost made it too. I guess it just didn't move along quickly enough for you. I soo remember how intense it got when the amniotic sack got broken. I spent 2+ hours in intense labor AFTER they broke mine as well. I would have asked for an epi, if the thought of getting a needle in my back didn't seem so torturous, on top of everything else. I couldn't brace myself for anything else, it was all going into bracing myself against the contractions. Ironically, I didn't have any pain relief whatsover, because I was too scared.
And, her dad nearly passed out in the delivery room. He later described having what sounded like an out-of-body experience right after she was out, and placed on my chest. He kind of floated up and was seeing everything from nowhere and everywhere at the same time. I do recall him looking glassy eyed and "out of it". It was an incredible experience for both of us.

posted May 07, 2004 06:27 PM              

Looking back on my last post, it does sound a bit more down than I really am.
A wee bit of the Pisces Martyr Dance hopped out.

*spins to its music, long coat flailing*

Ahem. Well, it's something that Fishies have to watch, anyhow.

---
Thank ya, TINK

---
lalalinda - *beams*
Thankya.
I happen to think so on both counts, too.

---
divinia - Yep, she sure is a dear.
Especially when she's sleeping.

(just kidding, just kidding)

---
lioneye - Well, yesterday she was wearing a little white onesie w/ rosebuds on it (it was her 2 week appt. and we had to be sporting...or something). Well, that was one of 5 outfits she wore. She was in a spitting-up mood that day. Today we're in a unisex mood, wearing a little blue onesie with ducks all over it and a green bib (ha ha, I learn) with a stylized embroidered giraffe on it. Oh, and little orange socks with an embroidered Sun each (her Dad's contribution).

Re: sleeping night of delivery: Gah, I know.
I really only slept about 1/2 an hour b/f getting up the night of and I didn't sleep *at all* the night after (I decided to try rooming in).
Re: teenage years...: Yeah. *shakes head*
She's gonna be a teen w/ a Gemini Moon, Venus, and Mars in the 11th...
*continues shaking head*
re: the epi: Yeah. I didn't see how passing out would've benefitted anyone involved. :-/

And I leave you with this: