Blessed!!

There is no other way to describe it, our family is absolutely blessed.

I may have had a rough pregnancy (and it really wasn't THAT bad...but bad enough!) but labor and delivery was smooth as can be..it was almost surreal. So here's our story...and it may be TMI (too much info) if you aren't my family...so read on with caution! :) If you're looking for pictures, either check out my facebook album if we're friends, or click on the link at the end of the post.

Thursday, October 7: I was lying on the sofa watching our Thursday night comedies with Jake when I felt like I had quite possibly wet my pants...which let's face it, at 38 weeks pregnant can totally happen at any minute with a baby sitting down so low. Of course, part of me was thinking, that could actually be my water leaking couldn't it? But no..I was so in denial! I had absolutely no pain and it didn't feel like my water had broken, at least not all the way. We debated about what to do and I decided to just monitor it over night and call the doctor in the morning.

Friday, October 8: I woke up and got ready and went to school. I had lots of things to do that morning with the kids, spelling test, fast facts, math work, etc...I came up with a whole list of things to do besides go to the hospital. (Awful, I know. But if I really thought I was in labor, or that my baby was in jeopardy I would have gone immediately.) I was still pain free but I did call my doctor about 10:30. They said it sounded like my water had started leaking and to go ahead and go to the hospital to get it checked and possibly have the baby. I called Jake and he rushed up to the school (and I mean rushed...flashers on, 60 mph...he WANTED to get pulled over, figuring he'd have a great excuse!). I notified everyone on my team as well as admin and they took care of my kids and Jake and I left for the hospital.
11:30 - We arrived at the hospital and after a few quick tests were told my water had broken but not all the way but enough to admit me and have a baby soon! We called our parents...my poor mom and dad had already gone home to get started packing and were on the road by 12:15...it's a 5 hour drive down to Houston and we had no idea how long we had. They moved me to a delivery room, got us comfortable and called in the doctor. My doctor wasn't on call so her associate came in to check me, broke my water the rest of the way and said I was at a 4 and to start the Pitocin. I had still been pain free up to now but once the pitocin started, so did the contractions (duh, that's how it's supposed to work!). I had the symptoms of endometriosis before I got pregnant so I've experience cramps like no other before. So the contractions were painful but bareable at first. The nurse offered the epidural but I told her I'd wait just a little longer. A little longer was about 20 minutes! They started getting worse so they called in my epidural and I was soon doing better...kind of. It only numbed the right side of my body for some reason. I could feel everything on my left side. So they had to bring back the anesthesiologist to administer more medicine and it was almost immediate comfort. It had been pretty weird to feel contractions on only one side. One of the side effects of the medicine is uncontrollable shaking...which started pretty quickly. At this point, I'm not too sure what time it was, maybe 3 or 4ish. I was covered up with lots of blankets with Jake holding me, shaking shaking shaking. I wasn't cold, just shivery. Another weird feeling. The nurses and doctor knew I really wanted to wait for my mom. Around 3 the doctor checked and I was a 5 and she predicted I would deliver around 7 or 8 which would be perfect. But I just started moving so quickly next thing we knew I was an 8 and the baby was just sliding her way down the birth canal. They stopped the pitocin to slow things down for my mom to have time to arrive and never told me when I got to a 10 so I wouldn't freak out. Around 4:45 we started doing a few practice pushes but the nurse had me stop because Elizabeth was just so ready. My mom and dad got to the hospital at 5:02, the nurses cheering her on as she rushed into the room with the doctor just in time to start pushing and 15 minutes later at 5:17, Elizabeth Megyn was born. (To read how we chose her name, click here.) Talk about a fast, easy delivery! (And they told me it was probably fast and easy because I hadn't come in the night before...HA!)

When she was born I got to hold her for a few seconds while Jake cut her umbilical cord and then he followed her around as she was cleaned up and checked out. Forget me!! Even my mom drifted over to her while the doctors took care of me...Liz already had everyone smitten! Jake brought her over to me a few minutes later and she was so content, not crying, just staring around with her big bright eyes..it was amazing. We got to hold her and be with her for a little more than an hour before they came to take her to the nursery for all the newborn exams and everything. We tried breastfeeding and she did really well and we all got to hold her for a little bit (we all being me, Jake, my parents and Jake's mom). When they took her to the nursery, I was awake and alert, eating dinner, talking on the phone, visiting with my parents...I still can't believe how great I felt. The only bad thing was I felt like I was on a boat from the epidural. They moved me to a postpartum room around 9:00 and brought Elizabeth back to try eating again. She did really well and my parents decided to go ahead and go since we were all doing so good.

So to summarize our next few days in the hospital...we had lots of family visitors come meet Elizabeth, she continued to do well at learning to breastfeed, she passed all her newborn tests, met the pediatrician who gave her flying colors on her exam, slept in the nursery at night except for eating time and I spent as much time as I could resting and recovering. We were released on Sunday around noon and have been enjoying being home ever since. We are all doing good, I'm sleep deprived of course, but we expected that. Jake's been great..he's picked up my slack around the house and is wonderful with Elizabeth. He watches her after I feed her if she's still awake so I can sleep and he has some kind of calming influence over her when she cries. She loves her daddy! We love her too and feel so blessed to have such a sweet baby girl that our father in heaven has given to us and we couldn't be happier. We've had our rough moments of course, but overall I feel so blessed.

Thank you to those of you who have kept us in your prayers, brought us meals and goodies and gifts, called, texted or facebooked us with well wishes and come to visit us. We really appreciate it. A big thank you to Jake's mom for working on Elizabeth's nursery and a big thank you to my parents for staying with us for the first week...we couldn't have done it without you.

Click on the link below to see pictures of Elizabeth (if we're friends on facebook, this is just a link to my facebook album).

Pictures of Elizabeth Megyn Anderson