Weddingbee boards

After trying all the old wives tales to try to naturally induce labor, I finally started having contractions the night before my due date. Of course, she just wanted to be here on time! By 1 am the contractions were less than 5 min apart, but not very strong. We decided to head to the hospital just in case. Sadly, I hadn't dilated since my last OB apt so they sent me home. They said my contractions weren't strong enough to help me dilate. We stayed home for an hour and they got stronger right away. I tried sleeping (they gave me a med to make me tired but didn't help with pain), and a warm bath, but I couldn't take the pain so we headed back. To my surprise... I still hadn't dilated! I refused to go home though, I was just in too much pain and needed some relief. And this was just the beginning!

They gave me a shot that was supposed to help with the pain, but it didn't. A couple minutes later they checked me again, and thank goodness I had progressed! Everything was pretty quick from there. My doctor broke my water, gave me an epidural, and life was good. I got to sleep through most of my labor.

 At 1:00 pm I was sitting there watching my soap when the doctor said I was 10 cent, ready to push. I was so surprised and not ready for that, since I couldn't really feel anything happening. When I did push though I felt a pressure during each contraction so it made it pretty easy to know when to push. I only had the nurse in the room (who was awesome!), a student observing her first birth (which oddly put some pressure on me b/c I wanted it to be a good experience for her), and my husband who was so sweet the whole time. Pushing got painful towards the end, which I later learned was b/c my baby was 8 lbs 13 oz's and she gave me a pretty bad tear. I had good motivation when they told me that they could see her brown hair b/c I wanted to see her too. After an hour of pushing, they put this sweet little baby girl on my chest.

As you can see she's a screamer! She screamed her little lungs off for the first half hour, but we didn't care, we were just so happy to finally meet her! We left her on my chest for an hour to have some bonding time while our families waited (not so patiently) in the waiting room. It was great to have that time with just us three, especially because the next few days were so full of visitors. The biggest advice I could give is to limit visitors. You're up all night feeding, you're exhausted, and you want to be able to spend time with your baby instead of passing her around! Our hospital has a nap time from 2-4 where no staff bothers you, and if you ask they won't let visitors in. We took advantage of that!

We've been home a few days now and it's been amazing but exhausting. Our biggest issue right now is feeding. She was great at breastfeeding right away, she would just latch on and start sucking. But my milk didn't come in fast enough for her so the poor thing was going hungry. She stayed up all night screaming and feeding, screaming and feeding. We took her to the doctor and she had lost a pound :( I felt awful b/c she was so hungry, so we ended up having to suppliment with formula. Of course my milk came in a couple of days later, but by that time she was so used to the bottle she didn't want to go back to the breast, even though I would nurse before giving the bottle each time. So now I'm onto pumping to keep the milk up and we learned different techniques from the lactation person at the hospital to help get her back to the breast. It's been exhausting! But at least she always has a full tummy now so that's what counts. And whenever we get frusterated, all I have to do is look at her sweet face and life is good again!

Congrats! She is beautiful!

Rose is such a perfect name for her.  :)  Congrats on your new baby girl! 

Thanks everyone!

 @camrie: I'm very determined to keep breastfeeding! Everybody says to give it 4 weeks, and I will.

 @Mrs. Spring: When she came out I said to my husband that she looks like a Rose, I was very happy that her name suites her so well! It's hart to name a baby when you don't get to see them first.

She is so lovely! congrats! = )

Thank you for sharing your birth story! she is absolutely beautiful, congrats!!