Wow! So!

Last Monday I had my membranes stripped and decided to do EVERYTHING in my power to help the contractions! I began by going to Lowe's with Nick and buying all of our flowers/plants, and we got those started. Then I mowed the back lawn! The neighbors thought it was just hilarious :) I then had a photoshoot where we were walking all over this nature park, playing in a creek, etc. Well, around 10 my contractions were coming every 3-4 minutes and lasting about 2 minutes.

So I told Nick that I thought I needed to go to the hospital and get checked out. His sister was going to watch the kids for us, but didn't want to come all the way (1/2 hour) if I wasn't in real labor, so I drove myself to the hospital since it was only 5 minutes away.

They hooked me up to a monitor, and my contractions were just perfect...nice spikes, every 3 minutes...sweet. But by 3 am (ugh) I was still 3 cms 75% effaced, same as my doctor appointment earlier that morning. I had gotten along really good with the nurse and had BEGGED her to plea my case to the doctor (the doc on call wasn't my normal doc)..he said if I was 4 cms by 6, they'd admit me. Wouldn't you know it, my contractions slowed down after that. But surprisingly by 6:00 I was a 5! So I got admitted.

Oh, let me mention that I got all of 15 minutes of sleep the night before, I was too scared to fall asleep because I was scared the contractions would completely stop. So I'm exhauuuuusted. I have called Nick the whole time, so he knows I'm being admited. There was a scramble to find someone to watch the kids, since we hadn't thought this baby was going to come before next week when my induction was set for, and my sister would be here then.

Around 10:30, my husband showed up and the doctor went to go break my water...which proved to be difficult. She literally worked on it with the hook for almost 5 minutes, managing to stretch me to a 6! They finally had to get the fetal monitoring scalp hook thingy to break it with. Let's just say it was most certainly the most painful part of my day!

Immediately aftwerwards, I had requested the epidural, so the doctor came in to give it to me. I told her that with Brynn, I had an awesome epidural...couldn't feel a THING, and that with Nicholas I had a horrible epidural where they thought I needed to 'feel to push'. I said I wanted to be COMPLETELY numb...like can't move my toes numb! She obliged, thankfully!
So around 11:30 or so, Nick and I took naps.

Around 2:00, I woke up suddenly, just feeling 'funny'. My palms were sweaty and I felt like my body was trying to get my attention. I looked over at the contraction monitor, and lo and behold I was having MASSIVE contractions one right after the other!! I woke Nick up and told him I felt weird and that I wasn't sure if the baby was coming or not, but I thought I would be able to push.

Soon after, the nurse came in to check me, and right away told me to lay back and raised the bottom part of the bed because she said the head was RIGHT there, as in about to crown on 'his' (we didn't know what we were having) own!! She ran to get the doctor and I was like, "What the heck. Wow...."

Sooooo, the lights came on, the room was prepped in .2 seconds, nurses appeared, and even the epidural doc came in because she wanted to see how I did! :) I was joking and having a good old time!

The doctor then told me to start pushing and so I just kinda gave a half push, (we were all still talking and having a good old time!) and they are all like, "BEAUTIFUL PUSHING!! Great job!!!!" And I laughed and said "I can't really tell if I am or not, so yay!" One of the nurses said how easy it seemed I was doing or whatever, and I was like, "Well, shoot, my husband won't appreciate this at ALL, I'd better milk it!" So I started fake moaning and yelling...which made all of us start laughing again, and all of a sudden there was a little head sticking out of me!

I was sitting almost straight up and was looking down and watched everything! It was so AWESOME! With Nicholas I was in so much pain it made it worse to look, but with Josie everything was so relaxed and happy, I was having such a good time!

So I pushed out her body and asked, "What is it?!?!?!" And my doctor said, "See for yourself!" and I saw she was a she and squealed, "A GIRL!!! Josie!!" And she was in my arms and crying and I was crying and it was just amazing!

It did have a little scary twist...because she was born so fast, something happened with my uterus that I just started gushing blood instead of contracting slowly, I guess that's hemorrhaging? Anyways, I could see the doctor's face change, the nurses got real serious, the mood completely changed for a few minutes, but I guess they got it under control. Unfortuately, almost immediately, because of the big loss of blood, I got really sick, shaky, started throwing up, blech. Going in to shock = not fun.

But after about 3 hours, I was un-shaky and feeling 100%, the epidural wore off, the other kids came by to visit, and Josie had nursed a few times already!

SO, her stats were 6 lbs. 9 oz, 19 inches long! She was born at 2:28pm on May 6th! Her full name is Joselyn Grace :)

We are home, and doing GREAT! I feel amazing recovery wise, nursing is going awesome, Nick is already back to work, and the kids are being awesome little helpers!!

Ready to push!

Demonstrating how bloated I felt after 4,284 bags of fluids...ugh. I kept asking them to NOT give me anymore!

Minutes before!

Our lame attempt at a picture of the two of us!

Feeling queasy (pre-pushing) but happy and anxious!!

Wowzas :)

Soooo happy! (P.S. these are in black and white because the color/lighting was horrrrible!)

Mommy and her little girl!

"O Sole Miooooo!"

Live long and prosper.

Proud daddy!!

The three of us!

I couldn't stop staring! I couldn't believe I had my other girl!!!

About an hour old...

Kisses from her big sister!

Nicholas wasn't so sure about this intruder.

Love this picture...I was still completely unable to feel my legs and Nicholas was totally taking advantage of that and stealing my water!

Our precious Joselyn Grace...

Nick left for work and I got some visitors! Yay!

Candace and Josie...

Brynn (it was carnival day at school...lovely huh lol?) and her little sister!

Aunt Dani and her new little niece (THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR WATCHING THE KIDS FOR TWO DAYS!!!)

Nicholas doing his best to ignore the elephant (baby) in the room

Another visitor, Holly (and her adorable boys!) stopped by on her way to help us out with the kids for a few hours...THANK YOU!

And Nansie and Josie!! Nansie brought me a chocolate milkshake...yuuummmmmmm!

Getting ready to go home!

Mommy's little nursling :)

Daddy's new little princess!

Ugh. Terrible light, but whatev...

Almost exact replica's of Mommy's toes...but she did get a slightly crooked 'pointer' toe like daddy!

Leaving!

Home sweet home, here we come!!!