Sweet Caroline!

Tuesday (March 1, 2011) we got up like normal and got our bags back together.  Caroline’s bag was packed and ready to go!

We decided that we would go get pedicures (I had a gift certificate from Christmas) so that I would have pretty toes while in labor (like anyone really noticed!) and even Ja got one for his pretty feet.  So we loaded up the car with every thing we would need, told the dogs we’d love them and we’d see them soon, and we hit the road – prepared to come home the next time with a little one.

We got the nail place around 10ish and had a great time relaxing and getting pampered a bit before the craziness began.  We were the only people in the place and we got to hang out for a bit just the two of us.  After we were all prettied up, we decided Kimono would be the ticket for lunch.  So we ordered and Jason texted Leslie to see if they wanted us to bring them anything.  Next thing you know my phone rings and it is Leslie telling me that Mom is standing in her living room!  She wasn’t going to come up until after work that day, but what use would she be at work knowing that I was in the hospital?  So we got their order, finished our lunch, and headed over to Leslie’s to hang out for the last little bit before we headed to the hospital.  Soon it was time to go and we loaded up and headed down the road to check in.

We were sent up stairs to the antepartum unit so that I could receive the medicine I needed to get things started.

Ja and me in the antepartum room.

We got up to our room at about 2pm and our nurse Karla (who was FANTASTIC!) got me all hooked up to the monitors and asked me the 500 questions she needed to to make sure that I was who I said I was and I was there to get done what she had me down for.  By about 5:15, Dr. Lipscomb was there to insert the Cytotec that was going to help thin out my cervix and get me ready for the Pitocin.  I was only 50% effaced and about 1.5 cm at this point.  So I was ready for anything to happen naturally any time soon.  So Dr. Lipscomb placed the pill in the tip of the cervix and then it was time for the waiting game.  They would check me in 4 –5 hours and probably give me another pill.  By this time my mom and Jason’s parents had gotten there.  So I was in the bed having some minor contractions and we were all just talking.  I could feel stuff going on, but I certainly wasn’t in pain.  When it was time to check me again the nurse said she would guess that it would be lunch time the next day before Caroline got here.  So Jason’s parents headed to our house to let the boys out and they’d be up in the morning if we didn’t call them sooner.  They checked me and I was 70 – 80% effaced and a solid 2 cm.  I was feeling some decent contractions at this point and I asked when I would need to ask about an epidural.  They said once the decision was made whether to give me another pill or send me to Labor & Delivery they’d be able to give me a better idea.  Nurse Amanda who was on at this point went and called Dr. Lipscomb to give him the update.  By this time it was about 11 and she came back and told me to pack it up, that we were heading to L & D.  A little bit wide eyed, we loaded everything up, I got another gown to cover my back side and we walked our happy little selves down to our birthing suite. 

Mom helped us get settled and I brushed my teeth and washed my face since I figured once I got the epidural I wouldn’t be able to get up and do much of anything.  If only I knew what was in my near future!

Ja and me in our birthing room – before the craziness began!

Mom got our books all set up in the incubator so they could get Caroline’s foot prints.

Once I got in the bed, Ja put in Date Night since there was a DVD player in the room.  He had been so excited about watching a DVD in the room.  We watched the first few minutes and then our nurse Donna came in and hooked me up to the monitor.  By this point I was pretty uncomfortable.  The contractions were getting stronger on their own and I was at a 6 – 7 pain level.  I asked her about getting the epidural and she said she would go ahead and put the call in.  After another 15 or 20 minutes, my pain scale had maxed out.  I was breathing really hard through every contraction and both Donna and Ja told me that they were coming one after another and I wasn’t getting a chance to rest, which is why I was in SO much pain.  I was rolled over to the right side because if I laid on my back Caroline’s heart rate went down.  So I labored on my side for what felt like ages (but was actually probably 15 minutes) with Ja right by my side.  He had one had and the other hand had a death grip on the side rail of the bed.  I was trying to relax between contractions, but there was no such thing.  I have never been in more pain in my life and there is no way to describe it.  I was shaking violently and even began throwing up at one point.  My body was going into shock from the pain.  Not soon enough, the anesthesiologist showed up.  I had been really worried about getting an epidural since I had seen Leslie get hers and I had seen that needle.  At this point in my life – I did not have a shit.  Get that thing in there and get it in now!  So I sat up and he numbed the area.  This was the only painful thing about the whole process.  He inserted the needle and threaded the catheter through.  That felt weird and I felt little electric shocks going through my body, but it didn’t hurt at all.  After a few seconds, I had instant relief.  I was still shaking pretty hard (which made me surprised that he inserted it without any more pain than he did), but once he was finished I laid back on the bed and after a few minutes I was relaxed and smiling quite the drunk smile.  Finally, the pain was over.  I had made it through as bad as it was going to get, or so I thought! 

Since I was finally relaxed, they checked me and I was 4 cm dilated and almost completed effaced.  So Dr. Lipscomb broke my water.  I was in complete labor without the aid of Pitocin.  That is not what Cytotec normally does, but it is just how my body reacted to it.

So at this point my Mom said goodnight and headed to the waiting room, Ja got on the sofa and got set up for a nap and the lights were turned out.  Date Night that we started stayed on for all of one scene before craziness started, so the TV had been turned off.  We were going to get us some good sleep before the fun really began.

I was on my left side now and after a few minutes of rest (I think it was maybe 2 minutes) I felt a small area of labor pain on my left side.  So I hit the button to give me more epidural medicine and kept resting.  Then I felt it again, but the area was getting a little bit bigger.  I pushed the button again and Donna asked me if I needed more medicine.  I told her I was a little bit uncomfortable. She told me that laying on my side would let gravity pull the medicine that way and that I should feel relief in just a minute.  Then she went on break.  Everyone was going to get some rest!  Within 5 minutes I was in full fledged labor again on my left hand side.  I was breathing through contractions that were still coming without any breaks.  I also started shaking violently again.  Once Ja heard me breathing again he hopped up and assumed the position beside the bed.  I pushed the button to call the nurse and let her know that I was in lots of pain and that the epidural was not working on my left side.  A different nurse came in and could tell I was in a lot of pain and she called anesthesia again.  He came in and was doing tests to see what I could feel.  I tried to pay attention to what he was doing, but after a little bit I was getting annoyed and I just told him that it hurt all over.  So he went over to the monitor to see what was going on.  I felt like he was sitting there for forever just Googling shit.  I wanted to tell him to get off his ass and get something to help me.  He eventually did put something in the epidural line, but it never had time to work.  While he was sitting on his stool I got the intense urge to push.  It was an indescribable feeling.  I looked at Jason and told him I had to push.  I started crying at this point because I was scared and realized I would have to push this kid out and feel every second of it.  The nurse ran in and checked me and I was a full 10 cm and ready to go.  I had moved from 4 cm to 10 cm in an hour and I felt every single dad gum contraction except for 2 minutes worth.  They kept telling me not to push and I wanted to tell all of them to f off.  They weren’t the ones that had something coming out of them regardless of what they did.  By this point the other nurse had called Donna to come in and she knew that things were going to get rolling quickly.  I was breathing so hard and so fast that they put oxygen on me.  Jason was absolutely amazing and was trying to get me to rest and breath through the breaks to get what relief I could.  Once Donna got in there she told me to lift my right leg and to bear down with each contraction.  I had a death grip on the side rail and never again opened my eyes until it was over.  The pain was incredible.  I was breathing the best I could, but there was not a single break.  I pushed through contractions and Donna told Jason to hit the nurse button.  Once he found it, Donna told the nurses station that she needed more hands.  In rushed more nurses.  In just a minute, the bed was broken down, the incubator was manned, and it was go time.  She also had Dr. Lipscomb paged and she held Caroline’s head in until he could get there.  He didn’t even have time to tie his scrubs.  He looked and knew that he didn’t have a second to spare.  So he got in position and they told me to push and hold it.  The next few seconds were the ultimate pain, but soon her head was out.  He suctioned her and told me to hold on a second.  Then he told me to push again and she was out.  It was 2:05 am on March 2, 2011. 

I was shaking so bad at this point that I couldn’t even grasp what just happened.  Jason and I looked at each other and then again at her and she hadn’t cried yet.  Dr. Lipscomb must have seen our faces because he told us that it was ok, she was still connected through the umbilical cord and was getting everything she needed.  Ja then cut the cord and we got to hear her cry for the first time.  I had tears in my eyes and Ja was crying and then they whisked her away.  They cleaned her up and got her prints.  She weighed in at a whopping 6 pounds 0.3 ounces and healthy as a clam.

Ja was so worried about me and about her that he kept going back and forth and at one point the nurses asked him if he had a camera.  He was so caught up in what was going on that he didn’t even think that we might want pictures!

After she was in the incubator they took care of the rest of what was going on.  They cleaned me up and Dr. Lipscomb told me that I didn’t need any stitches.  I knew as fast as that had happened (I pushed for 35 minutes!) that I had torn terribly.  Just a scratch.  Believe me, I know how lucky I am.

Once everyone was cleaned up and I had warm blankets on my legs to try to stop my shaking I got to hold my sweet little girl for the first time.

Dr. Lipscomb, Caroline, and Me

Our first family photo!

After a little while they got me to see if we could get her latched on.  The nurses had told Ja that she had a very strong sucking reflex already, so I was hoping that would mean that feeding her would go smoothly.  She latched right on for a good 10 minutes.  Once we got through with that, Ja went and go Mom and Leslie who were in the waiting room.  Ja had texted my mom as soon as I started pushing and she had called Leslie who had run home to take care of Jack. 

Mimi meeting Caroline for the first time!

Aunt Leslie meeting Caroline for the first time!

This is one proud Daddy.  I can’t say enough about Jason and the support he gave me and how incredible he was through all of that madness.  He was strong and steady and exactly what I needed him to be.  He would ask me what I needed him to do and even through I would tell him that I didn’t know, he would some how know exactly what to do.  He let me breath, kept me focused, and coached me right through the whole thing.  I am an incredibly lucky woman and Caroline is a lucky little girl!

Caroline’s teeny hand and Ja’s big finger!

Eventually Ja was able to reach his parents and let them know they needed to come back to the hospital.  That Caroline was already her and things moved a little quicker than we had originally planned!

Grammie meeting Caroline for the first time!

Pops meeting Caroline for the first time!

Once everyone had a chance to get their hands on Caroline, Donna told them where I was headed next so they could get me taken care of and down to our home for the next few days.  Once Donna had a chance to catalog everything that had gone on during the madness I got up to go to the bathroom for the first time and then we loaded everything up, I hopped in a wheel chair with Caroline in my arms and we headed down to the Mommy + Baby rooms.  We stopped by the nursery on the way down (by this point it was about 4:30am) and dropped Caroline off for her first bath and to be looked over the pediatrician and nurses.  We then got wheeled down to room 3318, which would be our tiny home for the next 2 1/2 days.

We got to our room and got settled and vitals checked and all of that good stuff and then it was time to rest.  We turned all the lights out and passed out.  We were both so exhausted.  I was able to sleep until about 6:30.  They told us that she would be in the nursery for about 2 hours.  So at 6:30 I was just awake and waiting for a nurse to roll her in to us.  I waited and Ja woke up and we got a little bit to eat and then at 8:30, there she was!  We had our little girl!

First diaper change!

Aunt E was Caroline’s first visitor!  She was nice enough to bring us Qdoba for lunch and get to hold the little munchkin!!

Leslie and Will brought Anna by that night to meet her cousin.  She hopped right up on the bed with me and got to hold Caroline for a bit.  She was so sweet, but kept making sure that we didn’t forget about Baby Jack!

Uncle Will and Caroline!

After work my dad drove up from Wilmington and got his hands on Caroline for a bit!

It is insane how quickly you are completely in love.  She is completely innocent and trusting and counting on us to give her what she needs.

She was SO little that we would have to strip her down to her diaper to wake her up to eat and after she did, this is what she looked like when I burped her.  Completely passed out!

On Thursday, Leslie brought Jack over to the hospital to meet his cousin.  They are exactly one month and one day apart!  They are having a serious discussion here and Caroline is slyly flicking him off for whatever he said!

Mimi and grandkids #4 and #5.  Even the food people knew how happy this Mimi is about her 5 grandkids!!

Papa with Jack and Caroline!

Papa, Mommy, Caroline, and Mimi

Getting a few winks.  The sleep was not something easy to come by!  When someone is coming in and out all day, it makes it not very peaceful!  I didn’t mind, though, because that meant that I got to hang out with my sweet girl some more!

She already has him all types of wrapped around her tiny little finger. 

On Friday we FINALLY got to go home.  We were very ready to be in our own bed, shower, and with our boys!  So got her loaded up, discharged, and we were in the car!  They took her alarm off of her ankle and told us they had a no return policy!  I’m pretty sure we’ll keep her!

The boys did a great job!  Harley was pretty forceful with wanting to get really close, but he figured out pretty quickly what was ok and what wasn’t.  After the initial run around, they have done such a good job.  Caroline is definitely going to have two big protectors!  They are always around when she even makes a peep to make sure she’s ok!

When we got home my mom and Jason’s mom had done such a cute job of decorating the house!  We had pink balloons on the mailbox, a pink bow on the door, and an ‘It’s a girl!’ sign in the yard!

Friday night Uncle G and Aunt Michelle made it up to meet baby Caroline!

Saturday afternoon Caroline got to meet her Aunt Michelle, Aunt Katie, and Uncle Brian!  I lived with Michelle and Katie all four years in college and they are still my very best friends.  Brian and Michelle dated in college and got married a year and a half ago.  I was SO excited for Caroline to meet them!

Her first bath came on Sunday afternoon.  We got everything out and prepared for her to scream the whole time.  She loved having her butt in the water, but didn’t like being cold.  But oh my gosh – she smelled SOO GOOD!!!

Needless to say we are completely in love with this little girl.  She has stolen both of our hearts.  I thought I knew what it was like to love someone, but love for your child comes from a whole new place.  I am definitely a lucky, lucky woman.  I have a husband that I love more today than ever before and a little girl that I just want to eat up.  I am also very aware at how blessed we are for how well this whole experience has gone.  I know there are a lot of aspects of her birth and the time since then that could have been much, much worse.  We are all very lucky!