lucy

I'm finally getting around to writing about my sweet baby girl.  I am madly in love.  

The story of how she got here? I'm glad you asked.  I had "false labor" starting on a Thursday night.  Friday morning at the Dr. I was 3 cm dilated.  Contractions again on Friday and Saturday night.  The contractions Saturday night were pretty painful and I was having a hard time sleeping.  But we didn't know if we should go in.  They say to go in when you can't talk through the contractions anymore.  I could talk through them, I just didn't want to.  They were coming about every 5 minutes.

 Finally around 10 on Sunday morning we got tired of guessing and just went in.  They hooked me up to the monitor and.... the contractions stopped.  They gave us the option of going home or walking around for an hour to see if things would get started again.  I was starving so home it was.  I was starting to get discouraged.  Especially because when we left I asked the nurse when she thought I would really go into labor and she said "Oh, probably in the next few days".  Boo.  I wanted to hear that it would be in the next few hours.   I spent the day having contractions, eating ice cream, going for a walk and giving Michael a haircut (can't believe that haircut turned out okay).  Michael went to bed and then at midnight the contractions got really bad.  All of my pain was in my back and it hurt so much that I would involuntarily jump off of the bed every time one started.  Michael had to go to work the next day unless I was really in labor and I thought I was just going to have another night of fake contractions so I went in the living room so I wouldn't wake Michael.  The contractions got worse and worse but were only about 6 minutes apart.  I didn't want to wake Michael up because I still thought he would be going to work.  Back labor is awful.  Every time a contraction started I would have to jump up and pace around the room.  I couldn't sit still.  I was screaming in the shower around 4, which finally woke Michael up and he stayed up with me.  He would push on my back as hard as he could with each contraction which helped.  But contractions were still only 6 minutes apart.  We didn't want to get sent home again.  Finally at 6:30 am my water broke and it was off to the hospital!

I got to the hospital with my wet pants and contractions every 2-3 minutes.  Liquid eeeverywhere. I now understood what "can't talk through contractions" means.  The nurse said "We will probably keep you".  After she left the room I told Michael "Hell yes, they are keeping me.  I ain't leaving."  I was in so much pain that Michael let me swear without expressing his disappointment.  They got my epidural started quickly and it was heaven.  Thank you Dr. Bell! Then they checked me, finding  I was at an 8 and 100% effaced.  Hooray!  I hung out, got some fluids and then started pushing around 1 pm.  So glad I got the epidural because I was happy and relaxed and cracking jokes the whole time.  I couldn't really feel the contractions so the nurse had to tell me when to push.  At 2:53 pm our beautiful Lucy came into the world. 6 pounds, 3 ounces, 20 inches long. My mom was crying, I was crying, Michael just looked stunned.  They put her on my chest to keep her warm but I couldn't see her.  I was so tired and I just remember saying "I can't see her, I can't see her".  But I finally did get to see her and then I fell in love.  She has long legs and arms and fingers and ridiculously long toes.  Michael and I both have finger toes and the one thing we knew about our baby is that she would have long toes.  Well done kid.  

I can't believe that we made this little person.  She is so amazing.  Motherhood is even better than everyone says.  I love Lucy so much and would do anything for her.  Michael is so sweet with her and such a great dad.