She's here!!!!!

It's hard to believe that Alyssa is 5 days old now! The last week has gone so quickly!

Here is the story of how things went in the delivery room...

The process of getting Alyssa here was quite an adventure. I started pitocin at 5:00a.m. on Thursday, the doctor broke my water at 9:00, and by around 11:30, I was only 3 centimeters but already ready for my epidural. The epidural was AWESOME at first. (I considered running away with Mike, the epidural man!) A few hours later, though, it became really spotty, and I think I was feeling pretty much everything in my lower right side. Bless his heart, Mike kept coming in and pumping more meds into me, but it only seemed to work in one of my legs.

I made slow progress at first, and my contraction pattern was not ideal for most of the day. The contractions weren't quite strong enough, and they were happening one on top of another without letting up in between. Given the contraction pattern, slow dilation, and what we thought was a large baby, the doctor and nurses really didn't think I'd be able to give birth vaginally. The doctor said we would give it a try, but I could tell that he expected to be performing surgery in a few hours.

At 4:00, the doctor came to check me, and since I had only been 5-6 cm a few minutes earlier, I expected that he might be making the decision for a c-section. But no...I was suddenly completely dilated and ready to go! So the doctor left, and I started pushing at 4:10.

It soon became apparent that Alyssa was stuck behind my pelvic bone. She just kept bumping her head into it when I pushed. We were told in childbirth class that the pushing stage can last "up to 2 hours" with a first baby. So as I noticed that two hours were almost up and I was getting really tired, I was ready to give up. Finally, the nurse called the doctor and he came back around 6:15. (Note that I've been pushing for over two hours now with a less-than-perfect epidural.) Again, I expected that I would be on my way to the OR, but the doctor wasn't giving up yet. Over the next hour, he tried all sorts of medievil torture techniques to get Alyssa past my pelvic bone. (I don't think my right hip will ever stay in the socket again!) Finally, he was able to get the vacuum attached and pull her past it. After another few minutes, out she came at 7:10. Everyone was amazed that I didn't end up with a c-section. The nurses in the nurses station all cheered when they heard the news. My nurse said she had had the meds pulled and ready for a c-section.

Alyssa came out at sort of an angle, and her left hand came out beside her head, which could have been part of the reason that she was stuck for so long. She had a conehead and lots of bruising that made her head sore, but it is much better now. She has been healthy and strong from the moment she was born. Throughout labor, her heart rate did just what it was supposed to do. She's really a trooper!

She is absolutely beautiful! She looks JUST like her daddy's baby pictures. She was much smaller than everyone thought she was, which is a good thing considering the way labor went.

We came home from the hospital Saturday night, and we are getting settled in at home. Alyssa has been REALLY gassy at night and has cried all night long two of the three nights. She sleeps beautifully during the day, though! She didn't sleep more than 5-10 minutes at a time last night, but went to sleep at 5:30am and is still asleep now at 11:45! When her days and nights get straightened out, maybe she will be able to sleep this long at night! We saw the pediatrician yesterday. She is up to 7lb3oz now, which is really soon to be up past birth weight. The doctor said she looks perfect!