Hallie Grace has arrived!

KellyJ009 · #1 October 25th, 2008, 06:31 PM

Sorry it has taken me so long to update...life has really been crazy! I really appreciate all the well wishes in my other thread. Our baby girl, Hallie Grace, was born on Tuesday at 1:46pm. She weighed 8 lbs even and was 20 and 1/2 inches. Hallie is healthy and absolutely precious...we are madly in love already.

I had a really short, but rough, labor. When I got there for the induction, the nurse hooked me up to the monitors and was like, did you feel that? I was like, yeah, I think it's just her moving around and it's kind of uncomfortable, I've been feeling that for a couple weeks. The nurse was like, no that was a contraction. I felt like such a dork.

I was close to 3 cm and 90% effaced when I got there. They started the pitocin on a really low level and that got my contractions regular and much more intense within an hour. I asked to be put on the list for the epidural because they had a couple people before me, and suffered through the wait in pretty awful pain. When they got there to do it, I was much more worried about the contractions I was going through than the needle or anything like I thought I would be. The problem occured when thirty minutes later I wasn't feeling any relief except for a numb left leg. They checked me again and everyone was shocked to find out I was 8 1/2 cm and 100%! They rushed the anethesiologist back in and she upped the dosage but said she was afraid it might not be able to catch up in time since she was assuming I was still at 3 cm when she set it. I eventually did get a little relief, but definitely not complete, by the time I was ready to push. I had sharp, stabbing pains in my right pelvic area (apparently that was her shoulder lodged in there) and I felt every contraction coming on so I knew exactly when to push. I pushed for an hour and a half---I thought her head would never come out! But once it did, it was such a relief because one more push and she was out! I burst out crying, of course, and so did my sweet husband. It was just such a miracle to see her. I said, "she's so little!" And the nurses and doctor said, "actually she's really not!"

DH was such an incredible coach and he is just captivated with his little girl...it's the cutest thing ever.

We've had some breastfeeding issues, but things seem to be getting better and we are incredibly happy to have her home! I'm including some pictures...I think we've taken about a thousand already.

Sorry so long---thanks for reading!