Leah Rose

**This is basically straight out of my journal minus the gorey details!! Also it is really really long**
I thought I had planned everything out perfectly. Leah was due November 16^th and while I never thought I would go early, I always planned on having her before my family came into town.  My due date came and went and I made sure to walk every day, bounce on a yoga ball, eat spicy food, etc. I saw the doctor on Friday and she said that I should think about being induced on November 26^th. There was no way that I would go that far so I just ignored it. The days kept coming and going and still no baby. I didn't even have any contractions. I saw that doctor again on Tuesday (20^th) and she attempted to strip my membranes and told me she would put an order in with the hospital for me to be induced on Nov. 26^th. The next morning my family flew in and we went to pick them up at the airport. I was so sure I would be home with a baby!!

Friday was spent shopping and hanging out. Dad and Matt went golfing. I was supposed to have an ultrasound done that day to make sure baby was good but the doctors office never ordered it. SO the nurse told me to go into triage. We were there for 5 hours! Torture. In the end everything looked great. At this point I had called the hospital 3 times to see if I was on the induction list for Monday….I wasn’t. 

Sunday Crystal left without meeting baby girl. Monday came and I went to my doctors appointment. I had a mild breakdown Monday morning because I called the hospital and they said I was not on the list and I called my doctors office and left a message. I just felt so forgotten. I really wanted her to come before my family left the following day. My doctor said he would call the hospital and get me on the list. He apologized for the mis-communication. Afterwards we went to visit Matt at the hospital. He gave us a tour. My Dad tried to walk into L&D and Matt got all upset hahaha. Then Dad text him later saying “ Matt I'm at the front desk being handcuffed and I just keep yelling, I know Matt moffitt!!” Matt did NOT find this amusing.

Tuesday morning came and still no baby. We drove my family to the airport and said good-bye L At least mom got to stay. That day I got a phone call from the doctor’s office (and the doctor himself) saying that I was on the list and they could call me in as early as 9pm that night. Matt talked to the scheduler at the hospital and she said I was at the top of the list.

So that night we sat around waiting…and waiting…I couldn’t go to bed. Finally at 11:30pm they called! They asked me to come in at 12:30am. I woke Matt up and off we went. They asked that I only bring one person until true labor started. When I got there they took me up to L&D and checked me into room 16. The room was large and the nurse told me she had delivered her baby in that room only 2 months earlier. She told me that she wanted me to watch a movie because I needed to relax and when she came to deliver she was so excited to watch a movie but just slept the whole time! We tried watching Sherlock Holmes but fell asleep!

 I changed into my gown and the nurse explained that she was going to insert a gel. The gel was supposed to get me to dilate more. I’m telling you it did not feel good. The other thing that hurt was the IV. Oh man did it hurt, and it never got better. So once she inserted the gel I had to wait an hour and then get up and walk for an hour. This happened 3 times. The 3^rd time she inserted that gel I fell asleep (it was 6am) and when I woke up Dr. E was there to break my water. That didn’t feel so good either!! So once he broke my water I was 3cm. During one of our walks we heard a dog barking and could not figure out where the dog was. Then we noticed that he was in a pen outside the window of the hospital. Matt told security about him. He was obviously an employee’s dog because he had a hospital blanket and pink dish for water. I hope he was ok. The last time I was able to eat was 3am and the nurse told me to go to the cafeteria and get something filling. I had a muffin! Not too filling but nothing else looked good. They food wasn’t exactly fresh at 3am!

The night nurse left around 7am and a new nurse came in, Kristi and her student intern.  Around 1030am I was having horrible contractions. The way I describe contractions is really painful cramps. You def can’t talk or walk through them. I finally called the nurse in and told her I wanted the epidural. The anesthesiologist came in right away and the epidural was not bad at all. The only thing that hurt was the numbing shot at the beginning. It really wasn't that bad. Right after he gave it to me I started to feel nauseous and lightheaded. I thought I was going to pass out. My nurse told me this was normal and put some medication into my IV which helped. Of course during all of this Matt was on the phone! Once the epidural kicked in I was in heaven! I could see the contractions on the screen and they were really big ones and I didn’t feel a thing! I loved it. I cannot imagine laboring for hours with no paid meds.  The anesthesiologist was really nice and explained everything as he went along. He also came and visited us the following morning to see how we were. I really liked him. It was so weird to feel completely numb waist down. It was hard to move around on the bed and depend on others to move me. The one thing I was worried about was that I could not stop shaking and I thought the epidural wouldn’t be able to be administered. The nurse said it was completely normal and was a response to pain. I was shaking nearly all day and it was exhausting. She said to not try and stop the shaking and just shake!

My mom arrived while I was getting the epidural so they had her come in afterwards. The nurse came in and checked me every 2 hours and I was still only 3 cm. I was starting to get worried because I was not progressing. I thought maybe I would need a C-section. To try and get me to dilate my nurse put me on the peanut which is like two yoga balls fused together. I tried this for a while and it didn’t seem to work too well.  I just remember during this time that we watched like 5 episodes of house hunters on HGTV. I was sick of that show after 3 hours.

Around 3pm my nurse checked me and said I was 5cm! yay!! Of course at that point she started to look worried and asked the intern to get the oxygen out, that’s when I started to freak out inside. They got the oxygen on me and then she told the intern to push the call button and ask for help. When the front desk came on she said “Can I get some help in here please?” Then my nurse looked at me and said “Trust me ok?” I felt a little bit better when she said that but still scared. That’s when 3-4 nurses flew into the room and started doing who knows what. I was so worried. I looked over at Matt and my Mom and they didn’t look worried at all! One of the nurses started to check me and said I was 7cm already. The other nurses were prepping the baby station and I don’t really remember what the others were doing because I was just trying to hold it together. After a few minutes everything calmed down. Then my nurse explained what had happened. She said that the baby’s heart rate had dipped and she wanted me to be on the oxygen so baby could get oxygen. She felt like it was probably the Pitocin that was causing her heart rate to drop so she turned it down. She called Dr. E and he said to stop the Pitocin for a while. Baby’s heart rate went back to normal after that.

A little while later the nurse came in and checked me and said I was 10cm and said we were going to practice pushing. She had Matt hold one leg and mom the other.  She would count to 10 and I was to take a deep breath and hold it while I pushed then breathe and go again. I was to repeat this 3 times so that I was pushing for 30 seconds each contraction. We started practicing and she had me stop a few times because baby was coming too fast. She said she could see her head. She then called Dr. E to tell him I was ready but he was performing a C-Section so we had to wait for him. His nurse said he would be 20 minutes but he took 1 ½ hours. At times I wanted to push but I just had to concentrate on not pushing. I actually started to feel contractions on my right side and I couldn't get any more epidural because I was ready to push. Not fun. I had feeling come back to my right side earlier in the day and they gave me a button to push when I felt pain to administer more epidural which helped. I also made sure to turn on my right side to let the medication work. While waiting for Dr. E I fell asleep!

 My nurse decided to stop practice pushing because baby’s heart rate was dropping again and she told us that she thought maybe baby had her cord wrapped around her neck and that they had delivered a lot of babies that way. I was worried because I knew she was in the birth canal and I thought she was going to suffocate! Finally around 6pm Dr E. showed up. My nurse had my push some more and then Dr. E came in to deliver. After 3 contractions and 90 seconds of pushing Leah Rose arrived! I felt a lot of pressure and just wanted it gone. Turned out she did not have the cord wrapped around her neck. She was pretty blue and wasn’t crying though. They let me hold her for a second and I don’t even know what I was feeling. I was happy and tired and lots of crazy emotions. They took her away quickly because they were worried. She scored a 6 on her first Apgar test because of her poor color and not crying. At 5min she scored 8. They had a NICU nurse come look at her because of all the things they didn’t like seeing. The NICU nurse said she was fine and they decided to take her to the nursery to monitor her for a bit. Baby Girl was born at 6:13pm and weighed 7lbs and was 21 inches long. They put the cutest little hat on her head with a giant bow. I still put it on her! She has the longest spindly legs and feet! So presh. She has the cutest little bird nose and loves to scrunch her forehead. When she gets upset she shakes her head back and forth. It is too cute.

After they took her to the nursery (which Matt went with) my mom and I frantically text pictures to everyone! I was getting a lot of text messages throughout the day seeing how I was doing. The picture I text everyone was of Matt holding her for the first time. He was smitten from the beginning. She will be spoiled!! At 7pm my nurse went home and came to say goodbye. I really liked her…she made all the difference. She gave us all hugs and told Matt that whenever he is on her unit he needs to show her a new picture of baby!

After a little while I started to feel really bad contractions in my back. Horrible pain even worse that what I had experienced earlier. I think it was because I was still on the Pitocin because it is supposed to help contract your cervix back to normal.  I had one last huge contraction before they wheeled me to recovery. At this point I was starving and Matt got me a tuna sandwich from the kitchen and of course cranberry juice! When they wheeled me out they played the lullaby that signaled a baby had been born. I met my new nurse and they took me into a nice big corner room. The room had just been under construction that day and Matt and the maternity director made sure to get it done so I could have it! How nice.

When we got to the room the kitchen called and said they were closed but would I like some food? Apparently the manager is friends with Matt so he hooked us up! Really nice, he even delivered it himself. Everyone treated us really well. The manager of maternity came and visited us as did the director. They all like Matt I guess haha.

 Matt stayed the night and didn’t sleep well. He was planning on going into work the following day but he was so tired that he went home and fell asleep for 4 hours on accident (or so he says!) My mom came and spent the day with me. The pediatrician came by in the morning and said Leah might have some jaundice and to watch it. Dr. E came by and said I looked good and he would write discharge orders for me.

I had a few visitors too. Poiette and Sonia came by and brought lunch, my Uncle Mark and Aunt Kathy came with flowers, and Steven and Alexa dropped by that night. Deb, supervisor from MG, also stopped by since she was in the hospital. It was nice to have visitors but I was exhausted! During the day the photographer came and took pictures but I didn’t love them and they are so expensive. The lactation consultant also came in and tried to help me learn how to breastfeed. Can I Just say that breastfeeding is HARD. It’s supposed to be so natural but it is so hard to get used to.

The next morning the pediatrician came by and said Leah was not jaundice and she was good to go home. The nurse told me I could be discharged whenever I was ready. We got packed up and Matt came up to walk us out. The director of Maternity services came into our room to say hi and at this point Matt was not there yet. She said she was making rounds and wanted to make sure we had a good stay. I wondered if she knew Matt. As she was leaving Matt arrived and yes she did know him! She told us that when she walked into the room she looked at the white board and the room # was written down wrong so she thought she had the wrong room haha. She was just coming to see us but had to make up a little lie haha. She walked us down and gave Leah a really cute pink elephant stuffed animal that says, “I got my first hug at Banner Thunderbird Hospital”. Leah looked so cute in her car seat with her squished face! Then we drove off to go home!

She had to have oxygen when she was born.

There's that little hand always by her face!

Getting her dressed in her first little outfit!

Getting ready to leave.