A Winner and A Birth Story

So the person who guessed the date correctly, oddly enough, was Scott (the baby is his prize), and the closest on the weight (since no one guessed right on) was my sister, Maxine with 6 lbs 10 oz. Congrats Max, I'll figure out some sort of spiffy prize.

Anyway, here is the story you've all been waiting for:

I was scheduled to be induced Wednesday the 18th at 7am because the doctor was concerned about the baby's health. Tuesday night Scott and I took the kids to Russell and Collette's house so they could babysit for us until my sister arrived from SLC. After we had dropped them off we ate dinner, and went home. We had just laid down in bed at midnight and were talking when I felt a gush. I wasn't sure it was my water and tried to sleep. An hour later I felt another gush, but I was still unconvinced. I gave up on sleeping then and went through some last minute preparations for the hospital, and watched some tv. As the hours went on I felt more and more gushes and finally became convinced that my water had indeed broken. It was already getting so close to the time we were supposed to check in at the hospital, and I wasn't having any contractions, so we decided to just wait it out.

We showed up at 7, told the receptionist lady about the water, and she scolded me for not having come in earlier. I got feisty with her, and we were finally shown a room and set up with pitocin. The doctor showed up at 8 to break my water, and I informed her that it was already broken. She didn't believe me and attempted to re-break the bag. It didn't work. She said she'd come back in a half hour and try again. Scott and I laughed because she thought I was crazy.

Contractions got hard and crazy very fast, but I worked through them. Probably around eleven I had to use the restroom, so I stood up to walk over and of course, lots of water gushed to the floor, and the nurse finally realized that my water really was broken. As I came out of the bathroom I was shaking uncontrollably, and the nurse told me I was going through transition. She called my doc telling her she'd better come soon, as another doc checked my progress and declared that I was dilated to a 7, it was a painful exam and I started to cry. Just then I heard my doc ask the nurse over the phone about my water, to which she replied, "yes, it appears it is broken afterall." Scott and I looked at each other and just laughed, even though I was struggling a little bit.

My doctor showed up a short time later, and she and the resident doctor said I could push, so I did, only to be told to stop because there was still a small rim of cervix in the way. I had to wait an excruciating 10 minutes or so for the rim to go away. It was hard, I was trying not to lose it. Finally they said it was gone and I could push, and it hurt. I screamed. A LOT. I panicked over the amount of pain. The only way to lose the pain, was to push the baby out. So I did. She popped out at 11:58, the pain stopped and so did the screaming. The doctors proclaimed with joy, "its a girl!" and laid her on my chest. I didn't have a tear or need an episiotomy, and instantly felt better.

Scott said, "No way, I can't believe it!" a few times and looked so happy. I was happy too. Happy it was over, and happy to have another baby girl. The baby was beautiful and perfect and weighed in at 6 lbs 9 oz, and was 19 1/2 inches long. We named her Echo, because it is an uncommon name that we both loved, and gave her the middle name of Marita because it is a combination of our mom's names (Marde + Dawnita = Marita).

She is very happy and easy-going, but constantly rooting for milk. I feel like I nursed her non-stop in the hospital. We were able to check out of the hospital thursday afternoon, and went home to our sweet kids who welcomed baby Echo with open arms. Ivy is suffering through only minor bouts of jealousy. My milk came in at lightning speed, and I am struggling with the pain that comes with it.

I am so happy to have this sweet, content little baby home with us, and that she came out completely healthy despite the threat of the ICP. That, by the way, is supposed to clear up for me in the next few weeks. So yes, I'm still itchy, but not for much longer.

Thank you everyone for all the prayers and positive thoughts, we couldn't have done it without you! Here are a couple of pictures for your enjoyment.

Scott loves his new baby!

I love this picture

In the carseat, ready to go

Dexter is the only one of the kids really interested in holding the baby. He's so sweet with her.

You can't really see it in the picture very well, but I had little purple broken capillaries all over my face from the pushing. That had never happened before. Weird.