Saturday September 4, I started having some contractions around 1p.m. When I finally started timing them they were 4 minutes appart, which is when my doctor (who was on vacation) said to head to the hospial. It was about 4:30 when we got to UVRMC. The nurse checked me and I was 90% effaced and only dialated to a 1 (still.... after 3 weeks! ) They kept me there at the hospital for 3 hours and checked me every hour and nothing had changed, so guess what, they gave me a shot of morphine to ease the pain and SENT ME HOME! Thats right, so we drove the hour back home and got back home about 10:30. It was only a few hours later the contractions were back but even more severe. I was squeezing Brad's hand so tight that he seriously though I was going to break it. When we got back up at the hospital about 4:30 a.m. The nurse checked me again, and I was dialated to 3 cm! (again I can't believe they sent me home!!!) They admitted me and called in the Anesthesiologist. Even though I could hardly understand his accent I could have kissed that man! After recieving my epidural, most of the labor process for me was spent sleeping. I did start to get a fever and so by the time I had reached 10 cm, I needed to start pushing, which lasted for 2 hours. Here's where everything started to get complicated for us. When Braleigh was born, she was struggling breathing well on her own because she had ingested meconium during the birthing process. They were also worried about her catching an infection due to the fact I had a fever. I barely got to hold my little girl before they wisked her off to the Newborn Intensive Care Unit (NICU). We then spent the following 6 days with Braleigh in the NICU until she was well enough to come home with us. Talk about a crazy, intense and emotional beginning to parenthood. I know things could have been much worse for our little gal, but spending your first few days as a mom in the NICU is not what you would expect, nor want. She recovered more quickly than we had originally expected, and now we are finally home with her.
She is 8 days old today and its crazy to think that we never had her in our lives until now. I am so thankful that everything turned out well and feel so blessed to have her in our lives. I can't wait to see how she grows and changes our lives from now on.
Here are some pictures :
