Hey Doc

Lane had her second doctor's appointment Friday. She had gained 1 lb. in a week, so she weighs 9lbs. and she has grown 1/2 inch. Everything else checked out okay too.

Some people have asked if I was going to blog the birth story. So here is what I remember.

Sunday 12/16/07 - I began having regular contractions during church that were about 6 minutes apart. I tell Brandon after church is over that I think we should go walk around some of the shops near our house to see if they continue to go away. I had been having irregular contractions all week. But this time they did continue and began to come more often, so we go home. I sat on the couch to see if they continue and tell Brandon to get everything ready just in case. At 12:45pm, I tell Brandon that I think we should go to the hospital and say, "The worst they can do is send us home." So he puts the bags in the car and as we stand at the top of the stairs going through our check list...gush...my water breaks. All I can say about that is...yuck. So I change clothes and we go to the hospital.

We go to maternal observation and they tell us that they will be sending us to labor and delivery as soon as there is a room ready. It takes about 1.5 hours. We get to labor and delivery and the contractions begin to come on strong. I breathe through them as best I can. After a few hours of this I decided that I would ask for some IV meds so that I could rest up and prepare for the pushing portion of this ordeal. I was able to sleep on and off with the meds but could still feel the contractions.

The IV meds start to wear off and I decide to go for the epidural...right about the time that the doctor comes in and says, "Thank goodness." Because he was about to order pitocin and was afraid of how I would handle to contractions afterward. The anesthesiologist came and had a realy hard time finding the correct location between my vertebrae...so after FOUR tries...she finally said the magic words,"There we go. I'm in." The epidural works really well and I can't feel anything and begin to progress well and dialate from a 3 to a 9 in a few hours.

12/17/07- At about 5 am the doctor (which was the doctor on call) comes in and says that the nurse and he have been concerned because the baby's heart rate was decelerating during the contractions. Her heart rate was still within normal range, but he felt like this was an indication that there would be serious complications. He recommends a c-section. So we went from thinking that I was about ready to push to we are having a c-section.

Brandon suits up in his scrubs and I get wheeled to the OR to prep. The surgery begins and within several minutes Lane was born. After the surgery was over...the nurse put Lane in my arms and we were wheeled to our room. Overall, the c-section experience itself was not that bad...except for having really bad shakes due to the epidural medicine.

The recovery has been painful at times and somewhat frustrating. But each day gets easier. And I would do it all over again to have Lane.