She's Here! (pics and labor story with detail)

Miss Cailin Jessa was born Saturday August 21st at 12:20pm! Our little peanut weighed in at 6lbs 11oz and 20.5in long.. She's doing great! Lilly is a proud big sister who wants to snuggle and kiss her all the time. :) The hubby took the week off from work to help with the adjustment, so we'll have to see how next week goes with just me and the girls... should be interesting to say the least!

L&D was nothing crazy.. at 38wk 4days i woke up with regular contractions around 2am Sat and eventually starting timing them when i realized how regular they were (less than 10min apart.) Since they weren't too close and not real painful, i let Hubby sleep until he started moving around at 5:30 and told him i'd been contracting for a couple hours. So we got up, had coffee, took showers, took the dogs out.. and called our moms! My mom was lined up to join us at the hospital and my MIL was taking Lilly (and my wonderful Aunt took care of our dogs!) so we gave them some notice after my OB said yes, go to the hospital. We took our sweet time because i wasn't in crazy pain and i'd been timing my contractions with this spiffy online timer thing which let me know they were 4-5min apart. The hospital isn't very far from our house and it was a saturday morning - no traffic! We got there and checked in around 9:15 or so, got a room, changed, and the midwife checked me - and was surprized that i was already 5cm dilated and 60% effaced. I'd walked in from the parking garage and was feeling pretty good. She said "I guess you're staying to have a baby!" :) Once I'd been hooked up to the monitors for 20min or so and been checked, they let me walk around with my IV poll and my posse (mom and DH) for 45min and my OB showed up. He was really surprised by how relaxed i was when he checked and realized i was 6cm and 90%! He didn't end up going to the other hospital to check on his postpartum moms that morning.. He broke my water at 11am which was utter hell on earth it hurt so bad! In hindsight I should have fought against it because of how well i was able to deal with the contractions and still be progressing that quickly.. Anyhow, after he broke my water the pain skyrocketed, i was contracting way more frequently.. and nothing i was trying was making it easier to cope. So I requested an epidural which happened around 11:30. The guy that did it kicked mom and DH out for "half an hr" but it only took him 20min.. which also hurt like hell. It's hard to sit really still through a really painful contraction while curled up around your belly, while someone stabs you in the back! A little bit after that was done my OB came back and checked me again.. and i was 9.5cm and 100% - told me i was going to have to push once and have a baby in a minute. Had to call DH's cell to get them back in the room! I ended up pushing twice.. tho they were two *really* long pushes.. and then i heard her cry almost instantly at 12:20! Apparently the cord was really short, so my mom had to cut it before they could put Cailin on my chest. After they got her suctioned out enough, she ended up nursing really well for about 45min and we got to spend quite a bit of time with her before they took her to the nursery to be thoroughly checked out and i was wheeled to my PP room. My IL's brought Lilly in that evening to see us and meet her baby sister before going out for dinner.. She was so happy!

All in all, i was thrilled with how this birth went. especially when compaired to being induced at 41wks with Lilly at the other big, teaching hospital down the road. We were so much more relaxed and comfortable at St Peter's from the start. I probably could have done without the epi if my OB didn't break my water, but we'll never know. I don't regret getting it tho!

Now for pics of the peanut!