Pink! Jubilee Lynn was born on Oct 9 (six days early) at 4:53pm. She was 7 lbs 10 oz and 20.25 inches long. I posted this on the Oct board already, but here is the birth story...
I started contracting at 4 am twenty minutes apart. By 5:30 I woke DH up and they were 10-12 minutes apart. We took showers and called the doctor around 6:30 when they were 8 min apart and getting pretty painful. She said to call in a couple of hours when they were 5 min apart. Since I had never been in labor before, I wasn't sure if I should count everything I felt including tiny contractions. So we were a little confused on the timing. I called back when they were around 5-6 min apart and very painful. But in reality they were prob 3-5 min apart already. We were off to the hospital around 8:30am. I was checked and was dilated 6cm and 80-90 effaced. I was undecided on getting an epidural but the contractions were already so painful I couldn't imagine going through the rest of the labor without any relief. I got an epi around 10 am and it was amazing! I was so comfortable and was able to relax through most of my labor. It did slow down my progress though so my doc broke my water. Apparently, this affected to babies heart rate so they put some fluids back into my uterus vaginally. Then she was fine. I was also put on pitocin to help move things along. I was checked in the afternoon and was 8cm. Then checked around 3:45 pm and was 10cm. We started pushing which was somewhat difficult. They halved my epi so I could feel a bit to push. It was hard to hold my breath while pushing and I felt like I was never making any progress. Then I started to feel pain again due to the halved epi and wanted to push through the pain to make it feel better. My doc gave me an episiotomy...she cut once to help me out and then cut some more in the same spot to help even further. Finally at 4:53 pm the baby was out and she was a girl! They put her on my stomach and DH cut the cord. The birth took a lot out of me and I was pretty out of it. They took the baby to clean up etc. My doc pulled out the placenta and then sewed me up. By the time I was all cleaned up I was shaking uncontrollably. They put heated blankets on me...I think I was a bit in shock. I also felt a bit nauseous. My DH held the baby for the first 20 min of her life while I was recuperating. Then I was ready to sit up and hold my beautiful baby girl! It is truly magical.
I was really hurting the two days we were in the hospital, but felt much better by the time we were released. The body has an amazing ability to bounce back. Recovery has been moving along quickly for me. The first 4-5 nights were really hard. She wanted to breastfeed every hour. We were getting no sleep, and then she naturally started going 2-3 hours between feedings. Which is sooooooooo much better. Also, I did have a few cry fests which were the result of exhaustion, hormones, worrying etc. etc. There are so many decisions to make regarding a newborn and I was stressing over whether or not we were making the right ones. So, for me, I need to remember that we always have her best interest in mind and we can't/won't really make a detrimental decision. As long as she is eating, pooping/peeing, sleeping, and growing...we are doing the right thing!
Re: XP: Team Green Turned... (long)