We welcomed Flower Power to our family on Thursday, 12/2/2010 at 4:11 (or 4:10, if you ask me) 16 days early!!! She weighed in at 8lbs even and 20.5 inches long. Can you imagine how big she would have been, if she came on time on the 18th?!?!
Here's her birth story. I'll try to keep the gory details to a minimum, but there will be some...be warned ;)
I woke up at 6:30 to go to the bathroom. I sit down and heard a POP! I thought hmmmm did my water break??? But there was no gush and no pain. I assumed it was my plug uncorking to get ready for her which tends to happen a few days/weeks ahead of time, but nothing was in the toilet. I wiped (TMI) there was blood. Blood is always scary! So I decided we should go get checked out. I go tell Mr.E that he isn't going to work today. I call my parents to come watch Little Lion who was still snoozing. My parents get to our house. My contractions are around 3-4 mins apart, but not painful at this point. My dad stays with LL and Mom, Mr.E and I head off to the hospital.
We arrive at 9am. I get checked out in triage and I"m only 4cm dilated, but my water had broken. So we got to wait for a delivery room. It took 2 hours!
Today was going to be the day!! I continued to contract, but they weren't very strong. We get to the room and the Dr. comes in and tells me he's going to give me a couple of hours to see if I progress on my own or if we need to start pitocin which I didn't want! I go walking around the hospital and sit on the yoga ball. Contractions are coming, but not much stronger. Two hours later Dr. comes back. He checks me and I'm still only 4 cm!!! UGH!!! He realizes that my water has not officially ruptured. He breaks it and the contractions begin!!
Just like with Little Lion after the 2nd contraction, I call for an epidural :) They administer it all the while I'm huffing and puffing through very painful contractions. The epi was well appreciated!!! However, I didn't think it was working very well because my contractions were still pretty painful and I could feel the epi more on the left side than the right. It took about 30 mins for my right side to start to feel the tingly sensation. My WONDERFUL delivery nurse Mindy, said she'd check me since I was I 4cm an hour ago and she figured I'd dilated since then. I continued to wallow in my pain ;) Mindy asked us all what we thought I was at in cms. Mr.E guessed 7cm, I guessed 7cm also, and my Mom guessed 8cm. Mindy's guess which was correct 10!!!!!!!!!!!!! The dr. came in and it was on!!!! Once the bed was ready and the dr. I pushed for about 10 minutes and Miss. Flower Power made her arrival. I didn't have to be cut, but did get a 2nd degree tear from the spot where I was cut with Little Lion. Mr.E cut the cord and they placed her on my chest! Mr.E and my Mom started tearing up. I didn't because I was just relieved she was out and it was quick!!! Mr.E had timed it on his iphone...yes he's a dork....and from epi to delivery was 1 hour and 26 mins!!!! That is crazy fast!!!
Flower Power is the prettiest baby ever! FP has the most round precious face! She does have a weird respiratory issue. Since I dilated so quickly, she had a hard time adjusting from water to air breathing. Therefore, she has a lot of amniotic fluid in her. FP has passed all drs' inspections. She just will be a little bit more spitty for a while and breath a little funny. It will go away soon.
We of course are IN LOVE with her! We are blessed to have two beautiful children! I can't wait to see how her and Big Brother LL interact and what they grow up to be. I feel complete and very happy! Don't worry that we don't have many photos posted, they will be downloaded soon and shared! I'm a proud Momma!!
OH and we have a winner on the baby Pool...ADAM!!! Lottery tickets will be coming your way. He won mainly because he was the only one who thought FP would be coming so soon....2.5 weeks early!!!!!
