Sept 13... Happy Birthday!

On Thursday at 6:00 AM Mike and I woke up and got ready to go to the hospital. We had left the kids with my cousin Chelsea the night before so we didn't have to worry about them that early in the morning. We got all ready and then called into the hospital to see if they had room for us. They said to come on in (which is the first time that has happened.) So we loaded the car and headed out. We got Mike some breakfast and me some apple juice, since I couldn't eat, and we arrived at the hospital at 7:45. We were already pre-registered and they got us straight to our room. They got me all hooked up to monitors and then they had to do the IV. I hate IVs I think they are the worst part of the whole thing. They always hurt so bad and this time was no different, but hey the pain is worth it to have a baby :)  So they had to let the IV go for about an hour before they could start the epidural which we asked for first before they started the Pitocin just to be sure it worked correctly. As soon as the IV fluid had drained enough the anesthesiologist came in and did my epidural which worked great. Then at about 10 AM they started the Pitocin. I was to a 3 and 75% already on my own so I was hoping I would go fast. But at 1:45 I was only at 4cm. Talk about frustrating. It was ok though. I slept a lot and Mike and I watched a few movies which I slept through most of them. It was a pretty chill situation. The only discomfort I had was in my right hip when I laid on that side. It was just a weird pain like I had been getting at night in bed for the last few weeks. So I just stayed on my left side for the most part. At 4:20 I was to a 7 and 95% so I was happy about that. My nurse was so great too. Her name was Julie. She is the nicest person/nurse I have ever had. She was always making sure I was ok and comfortable and that things were progressing well and as soon as I started contracting on my own she lowered the Pitocin since I was up to the highest they could go with out an internal monitor. She was even making sure Mike was taken care of and that he was fine. (Oh, one nice thing about Alta is that along with the ice chips they also let me have popsicles and some frozen italian ice. So I actually had some sugar in my system which gave me some energy which was nice.) At 4:50 PM I was starting to feel some major pain in my right side so I pushed my button on the epidural for the first time all day and the alarm went off saying it was out of medicine. Not a good time to run out. So we had to wait about 20 minutes for the Anesthesiologist to come in and refill in and give me a booster directly into the epidural line. In that 20 minutes the contractions were pretty bad and I even cried for a while since it hurt so bad, Mike was there the whole time holding my hand and trying to make me feel better and by 5:30 they had given me the booster and I had pushed the button 2 times and was completely numb. Couldn't even feel my hip that was sore. I was a little worn out after that and slept very soundly for about half an hour. At 6 PM Julie came in to see how I was progressing. She said I was to a 10 and that they wanted to have me start pushing. She said Dr. Smith was out in the hall just waiting for the word to come in and deliver. I told her I was a pretty fast pusher and that with my other kids I get them out pretty fast but she wanted me to do a "practice push" first. We waited for a contraction and she said push and about half way through she said "Ok, stop.. stop!" She went and got the doctor and was like "you weren't kidding!" So Dr, Smith came in and put on his gown thing and we waited for another contraction. 3 pushes later Aiden was born at 6:19 PM. The feeling of being so full of baby to feeling the baby come out and being empty is the weirdest feeling in the world but also one of the greatest. They put him up on me, but they put him backward so I couldn't see his face, and he was bright purple. That scared me. My other kids pinked up way fast but he refused to cry very much so he stayed purple. So the nursed took him and put him in the little baby bed and tried to get him to cry. I couldn't see him at all and kept hearing little grunts of complaint but no serious cries. I was worried so Mike went over and made sure he was ok and took a picture for me so I could see what he looked like. He was so cute I almost got really emotional. He finally let out a cry and they were able to get the fluid out of his lungs and got him all wrapped up and I was able to hold him. He came so fast that the doctor didn't have time to give me an episiotomy so I had a 2nd degree tear but it wasn't to bad from what he said. I guess I also popped a blood vessel in Aidens eye since he came out so fast. I never saw it but I guess it wasn't a big deal, just funny. Julie, my nurse, was so excited that she was able to be there for the birth since it was 40 minutes before shift change. She was super nice and so excited for us. She introduced us to the next nurse and then went home. They wanted to wait 2 hours while the epidural wore off before they changed rooms for me so I just chilled in that room for a while. Channy and Ken came to visit first and we got to talk and Channy and I talked about how weird it was that my legs were still dead. When the nurse came in to transfer me to the other room Channy and Ken and Mike and Aiden all went to the new room while I changed and got ready to get in the wheel chair but my legs were still way dead. When I leaned forward to touch my toes to tell the nurse that I was still numb she said "Oh! No wonder! You are still hooked up to your epidural, and it is still dripping." So instead of a wheel chair she had to go get a bed with  wheels and I had to try to help her get me onto this other bed. Very hard to do when half your body in numb. It was pretty funny too. We got down to the other room and Mike was able to help me get into the bed in that room. There was a lot of laughing coming from everyone, myself included just because it was so funny watching my legs just do their own thing and me not able to help much. I finally got settled and Channy and Ken came back in and said good bye. My parents came right after that with the kids and they were able to hold Aiden and sit with me for a while. They told us that Mandy had her baby, Carson, at 8:30 PM too. So that is pretty fun that they share a birthday. Mikes dad was able to come and see us as well and stayed for a while too. It was so nice to have everyone come and see us and Aiden, I enjoyed it so much. Mike and I were able to go to bed at about 1 AM and slept like rocks. I love my new little baby and I am so happy he is finally here! He is absolutely perfect!