Gabriella's birth story + update

Written right after Gabriella's birth, so pardon any run-on sentences ;)

The weekend of 6/6 I felt like complete shit. I was so uncomfortable and was having early labor signs (contractions, pressure, constant bowel movements, spotting) that I was dismissing as nothing so that I wouldn't get my hopes up. Sunday morning I started having timeable contractions at about 8.30 am. From 8.30 till 9.30 they were anywhere from 4-10 minutes apart, but mainly they were about 7-8 minutes apart or so. So, I figured I should take a shower and shave in the event that this was it. DH did the same. From 9.30 till 10.30 my contraction were 4-6 minutes apart, lasting about 40 seconds. I also had some blood tinged discharge during this hour. So, I called the on call doc and he said come on in. On the way to the hospital the contractions started coming in what felt like 2-3 minute intervals and they started getting pretty intense. We live about 35 minutes from the hospital. We get into triage and my BP was high--um hello I was in pain! I was checked by a triage nurse and I was about 2.25 cm dilated and 70% effaced. My contractions were getting pretty painful at this point and with my BP that high, she was fairly certain we were there to stay. My fave on call doc came in about 15 minutes after that...and I was at about 3 cm at that point. He decided to break my water. Wow--talk about a weird feeling! After he broke the bag I was admitted into a labor and delivery suite. Um, yeah this is where the pain gets unreal. I was asking for the epidural pretty much as soon as I got into the L&D suite. I was lucky that it was not a busy day (despite the full moon) the anesthesiologist was able to give me my epi pretty fast. It did not hurt at all....my IV hurt more than the epi. After I got the epi, it was pretty much smooth sailing. My BPs in triage were pretty high so they took b/w to make sure it wasn't pre-e. Of course everything came back fine and once I got the epi, my BP was totally normal. About 1 hour or so after I got the epi I was 3-4cm, 80% effaced. They decided to give me a little bit of pitocin to make sure I continued to progress at a good pace. 2 hours later I was 6-7cm, 90% effaced. An hour after that I was ready to push! At this point they turned down the epi so I could feel my contractions and know when to push. I thought I was in pain before.....holy cow, once I started to feel those contractions I thought I was going to rip in half, they were that intense. Shortly after they turned down my epi I started pushing and while I felt like I was getting no where b/c I couldn't feel anything down there aside from pressure, apparently I was doing pretty well. It took a while to push Gabriella's head out....she got a little stuck. But it felt amazing to push her out. It was the most surreal and beautiful moment of my life. After the doc caught her and quickly suctioned her, they put her on my chest and I was in heaven. It was amazing. I delivered the placenta right after and then the doc stitched me up as they cleaned up and took care of Gabriella. I was floored when they said how big she was! I still am...I had 2 1st degree tears.

Life with Gabriella has been amazing and unbelievable exhausting. She has issues BFing so I have to really take my day one feeding at a time, but things are getting better. She is almost back to her birth weight after a 9 oz loss. I am offering her the breast almost every feed and if she takes it, great, if not, I give her pumped milk. Some feeds she does splendidly, other times she thinks my nipple is a punching bag. I never imagined a baby could fight you so much to eat. The fighting isn't b/c she isn't hungry either! But once she does finally latch on its like something out of a scene from dracula...LOL. Her jaundice is gone and she's getting some chubby cheeks! She gained 7 oz in a week!

My mom and sister come in a week and I cannot wait for them to come. Its hard to be at home by yourself all day. I'll be taking more pics this weekend and will post when I can.