Me, My Guys and My Little Lady: 7/1/10

wow! i can't believe it's been 4 days since this little peanut entered the world. i wanted to document her birth before it gets too far out and my already (horrible) memory gets worse. we scheduled her induction for thursday july 15. some of you know the reason that we picked this date, for those that don't, let me preface by saying i KNOW i have a problem with OCD and weird tendencies. my husband just makes these said tendencies worse-anyways, we have birthdays on the 7th, the 17th and the 27th of various months, we also have a 5th and a 25th, so we are missing a 15th. when neal realized this little pattern and we found out lucy was due right around the 15th of july, he thought that we should try to complete the little pattern that was unintentionally created, so we went for it. so, we now have a 7,17,27 and a 5,15,25. it helps me sleep better at night.
moving on.

thursday morning i called st. marks hospital at 6 am and they told me to be there by 7:15. we packed up the kids, dropped them off at my dad and kim's and were off. after we had checked in and got everything ready, they started me on pitocin at 9:00 am. i was at a 3+ and 80% at this point. i told my nurse (JEN) who was AMAZING for the record-that i was doing it natural and that i didn't want to be offered an epidural at any point--she was totally cool with that and told me that she had trained with various doulas and knew some cool techniques and such to help with counter pressure and all that-awesome-anyways, so we started the pitocin and sat back (hoping) it would do it's magic.

neal and i played a mad game of scrabble, i rocked in a rocker and tried to get comfortable (YEAH-RIGHT HAHAHA) and we just WAITED. i could NOT get into a consistent labor pattern. i would have a really strong contraction and then nothing for 3 minutes then would have 4 contractions 2 minutes apart but they wouldn't be hard, then nothing for 5 minutes etc. it was so frustrating because i knew that they weren't progressing me, just causing pain. at 1:00 my doctor (BEST DOCTOR EVER IN MY HUMBLE OPINION) came in to check me and talk about the plan. i was (GET READY FOR THIS) STILL AT A 4 and 80% after FOUR FREAKING HOURS IN LABOR. i was SOOOOOO beyond frustrated. he gave me the choice to keep going or to break my water which i already knew would send me into a fast and VERY painful contraction pattern. after some deliberation i decided to have him break my water. suffice it to say that this was SO painful. the baby was at a 0 station and was so low, but my cervix wasn't dilating so she was blocking the entrance and he had to go around her to get to my bag of waters. let's just say i went to my happy place and stayed there for a good 2minutes while he struggled to get it broken-(OUCH)-once my water was broken the contractions (THANKFULLY) picked up and became very steady.

within a half hour or so i was at a 2-3 minute apart pattern. i went inside myself and stayed there rocking back and forth in the rocker-i am amazed at the power of the mind and body. i was able to completely remove myself from my surroundings and go inward-i had no idea what was going on around me, i just knew i needed to focus and work through the pain. at one point neal was even video taping me rocking back and forth (it is HILARIOUS to watch) and i had absolutely NO CLUE! at around 2:30 i wanted my nurse to check me, i was dying at this point and in my head i had decided that if i wasn't at at least a 6 i was getting an epidural--she checked me and i was at a 7-YAHOO!!! it was here that she stayed with me for the remainder of my labor and did a whole bunch of counter pressure techniques and exercises to help me get thru the pain. it was amazing and helped so much. at around 3:00 i asked for a shot of fentenal-that stuff is the nectar of the god's i tell you-it just takes the edge off long enough to transition, with both ryder and lucy i got it when i was around an 8 and it is just awesome. so i got a shot of fentanol, at 3:21 i asked her to check me again and i was at a 9+ and 90%. she called my doc and they started getting things ready. at this point the fentenal was wearing off and i was in some serious pain-i remember the pain with ryder but it wasn't like this-i was so miserable and just wanted it to be over! at 3:41 neal scanned in on the clock, my doctor was just sitting down and i asked him if i could push-he said-PUSH AWAY and i did! at 3:48 my little lucy was born! i will just say that this was the most excruitiating pain i have EVER felt and i think it may have traumatized me a bit-it was horrible but the end result was amazing and i am so glad i did it natural and worked through the pain.

neal and i were both SHOCKED-i admit, i had some feelings that she was a girl, but i wasn't completely sure. when we got pregnant, we both said that we didn't care about the sex of the baby-which is TOTALLY true, we wanted a healthy fourth baby, not a boy or a girl--people are funny and ASSUME that without a girl my life would not be complete-it is somewhat offensive only because i love my little boys with all my heart and wouldn't trade them for ANYTHING-that being said, i now love my little lucy and wouldn't trade her, but i can honestly tell you that whether this baby was a boy or a girl wouldn't have made a bit of difference in whether my life was complete or whether i had another baby--i am loving shopping for her and i so look forward to adding in a little girl to the mix of THREE big brothers, but to say that having a girl is life-changing, just doesn't sit well with me. my life has been CHANGED four different times thus far, for the first time almost eight years ago with the birth of my little gage, then again six years ago when my little boe-boe came to earth, then again with my little ryder almost TWO years ago (holy cow) and now for the last time 4 days ago with the birth of my little lucy-my life was changed each time because a new little spirit joined our family and changed me forever-my life was changed because i became a mom again, not because i got a boy or a girl.

lucy weighed in at 7 lbs even and was 18 1/2 inches long. she has BLOND hair and not very much of it (WAAAAYYYY different then my boys who all had a lot of DARK hair). she was pretty smushed and bruised but just adorable. (she is looking lots better now ;) she has a little angel kiss birthmark between her two eyes that i know was a last minute kiss from her grandma kimmie in heaven-she is a peaceful, calm baby and has been absolutely perfect so far. we feel very blessed and lucky and are so grateful that she is here safe, sound and healthy!

lots of pictures to follow-eNJOY!
one last pregnant picture! SOOOOO ready to be done!!!
literally just minutes old
first photo with mom and dad-notice my streaked mascara-awesome!
first bath by dad-he was a little unsure of what to do!
pink blankets are a new thing for us!
ryder wasn't so sure about lucy to begin with, he's warmed up to her though
does it surprise anyone that we brought her home in camo????? sooo-o cute!
my five all decked out--ready for the deer hunt to begin eh?
this is what waited for us when we got home-so nice of grandpa and kim and the boys-loved it!
LOVING the hair bows!