Well, she's finally here!! Baby Grace Marie was born on Saturday, February 23, 2008. She was 5lbs 13oz and was 18-3/4in long. She is so tiny, but perfect in every way!
On Friday night we had dinner with some friends of ours. I wasn't feeling particularly comfortable that night. At about 11:30pm that evening I started having a crampy feeling in my back. It wasn't anything regular, as I had this a few times before that week. I was able to go to sleep, then around 2:00am the cramps got worse. I was still able to sleep through some of them, but at 4:00am they were pretty strong and were getting more regular.
I finally got out of bed at 5:00am and my water broke! I woke Bryan up and told him it was time to go to the hospital! We showered, ate breakfast (yes...I'm very cranky if I don't eat!!), and took care of some last minute things around the house. All the while pausing to breath through the contractions that were coming every 5 minutes.
We arrived at the hospital at 7:00am and they admitted me. They started the pytocin and things progressed from there.
I finally asked for the epidural at 11:30am. At that point I was 4cm dilated. Which is funny, because I was 4cm dilated all week! There were some issues with the epidural. It didn't go all the way to my left side, so they had to give me another dose of medicine. That was really weird because my lower body felt SO heavy...even more than it had. It was kind of a scary feeling as I didn't like not having control over my body. A few hours later, the epidural wore off on my right side of my body. Now this was extremely painful becuase at this point the contractions were right on top of eachother and Bryan said, according to the monitor they were pretty strong. I felt the pain up the right side of my back...not fun. I tried breathing through them, but asked for the anesthesiologist to come back. At 2:00pm they gave me another dose of medicine and the pain went away. BUT...the nurse had not checked me before that. So she decided to check me again before the anesthesiologist left and I was 10cm!! They had me wait for an hour for the medicine to wear off so I could start pushing. At 3:00pm I still couldn't feel a thing, THANK GOD, but they had me push anyway. With the help of Bryan, my mom, and my sister, I pushed for 42 minutes...which was hard work I tell you!! At 3:42pm Princess Grace arrived! What a surreal and amazing moment for Bryan and I! We both immediately were overcome with joy!!
We brought Gracie home on Monday night. We are adjusting to being parents. It has definitely been a learning process, but with each day things get better and we feel more confident! We couldn't be happier! We also couldn't do it without the support of family and friends! Everyone has been so generous bringing dinners, cleaning our house, cutting our grass, bringing over preemie clothes because nothing fit her, taking care of our animals, etc. Bryan and I are truly blessed! God works miracles in so many ways...even small ones!
Enjoy the pictures and I will try to post updates when I can!
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