It was baby day!!!! I had made it! AHHH!!! Thank the LORD! I had to be induced early (which was fine by me!) because at my last appointment there was some protein in my urine, I was swollen as heck and my BP was high. All that together meant that I may have the start to preeclampsia. It was a Monday that I found all of this out and I was induced on Wednesday. That Monday and Tuesday were two of the most exciting days of my life!!! I knew I was having a baby on Wednesday so I had tons of running around to do! Its like I got this second wind or something! I had slugged around my whole 3rd trimester and at the very end I was running all over town getting prepared as one could possibly be for the arrival of a baby. The doc. was estimating that she was going to be tiny so he recommended that I bring some preemie clothes to the hospital (good idea! cause she was in preemie clothes for about a month before she could finally fit into 0-3 month stuff!). So I went to Gap and bought these AWESOME kimono outfits- amazing- for all you "new mommas" out there get yourself a few of these! They look adorable on the babies and they're super easy access to their hineys (which need to be cleaned like every hour!) I also made sure I had all the stuff I needed for the hospital- the essentials ya know, like make up, magazines and books.....Yeeeaahh Riiiggghhhht....
The night before the big induction I was surprisingly very, very calm. Ryan and I rented a movie, got a dessert from Applebees and just chilled out. I remember thinking this is the last night of peace for a long time! (I was so right about that too.) I remember looking at all the empty baby things, like her bassinet, her swing, her bouncer and crib and thinking "A real life baby is going to be in there in a few days." Talk about mind blowing thoughts!!!
That Wednesday morning came fast and early. I was so ready though- Ryan and I drove through the quiet streets of Jackson all the way downtown to the hospital. It was so quiet! We checked in, filled out a bunch of scary paper work and I got a hospital bracelet that I felt was binding me to this place! There was no going back now!
Everything started out wonderfully. I was already about 1 & a half cm. and 60% effaced before they had even started pitocin. I was thinking it was going to be a quick labor. They started the drip around 9 A.M. all I can say is it felt like some mild cramping. But it was all good- I was walking around, socializing with a friend of mine who had just had her baby the day before, visiting the kitchen to get cranberry juice and joking with my parents about the Nazi nurse I had. Around 11, Doc. Pastoriza broke my water. The worst part about that was that my uterus (or bag of water I guess,) was pretty high up so he had to have a nurse push down on my belly really, really hard (yes this was the Nazi nurse!!!) while he had this giant crochet hook that he was pushing in the opposite direction, if you know what I mean. But it was over relatively quickly... we heard a pop and a gush and that was my water! I remember the doc. saying "You will not leave the hospital pregnant." I thought "Wow, what a poignant statement."
Ughhhh... this is hard to write about.... okay over the next few hours it was pure hell. I was in and out of that darn bath (it was either too hot or too cold when I was in there so I kept changing my mind about it) and the pain of the contractions was so unreal. It was radiating around my back, tummy and down my legs. They were coming about every few minutes or so. It was around this time that I asked for some demerol. The demerol worked well for a little bit... it made me feel like I was Alice in Wonderland so that was pretty sweet. But waaayyyy too soon I was out of that rabbit hole and back into reality.
Around 6 or 7 this new, beautiful, ANGEL of a nurse came in (her name was Cindy) and she was taking over for Nazi nurse. I was so thankful! Cindy checked me and said "Alright Ashley, you're not having this baby tonight. So I am going to recommend an epidural." I said "Nooooooooooo I don't want to be paralyzed!!!" But she promised me that I wouldn't get paralyzed, nor would I have brain bleeding or any of the other horrible stories I had heard about epis. So I relented and said "HOOK ME UP WITH THAT STAT." I thought it was going to be a lot better because I was getting this miracle drug called the epidural that so many people have raved about. But NO... first off, a little boy (who I truly hope is okay and well) was rushed into the ER with some kind of problem and the ONE anesthesiologist they had on call for epidurals was down with him. So we waited, and waited, AND waited. No joke- about 2 hours later, the doc with the drugs walked in. By this time I was 16 hours into my labor and I was thinking what the heck is even the point of getting it now? But I was all hooked up onto the machines and had the catheter in so we went ahead with it. The actual process of getting the epi is really nerve wracking... but not painful. They give you some test doses which shoot down your legs and thats pretty crazy! So finally the stinking thing was in... I laid back and thought it was all going to be easy from here. BUT the epidural wasn't working. It was only numbing my right side. I could feel every ounce of pain on the left. They had me flipping over trying to get the medicine to drip or drift over to my left side, but it was all to no avail. We had to call the anesthesiologist back to have her take it out and try again. Insane right??? Thank GOD the 2nd epi worked. And I got about a half hour of being pain free. But then I started feeling a TON of pressure. I kept asking to go to the bathroom, but I was reassured by Cindy that I didn't need to go potty, that it was the baby coming down. I will cut out all of the gory details of the next hour and just move straight on to the moment Maeve was born... after pushing for an hour and 10 minutes, Maeve Annabelle McKenney was born into the world. She was put on my chest right away and was the most beautiful, tinniest little thing I had ever seen!!!! She cried instantly- so there were no intense moments waiting for her to cry... thank the Lord because at that point I probably couldn't have handled it! It was the most amazing night of my life. I remember taking these snapshots in my mind of the rain outside, and my whole family snuggly warm inside, with red, wet eyes looking at what Ryan and I had created. It was unreal. And now Maeve is here! EIGHT MONTHS OLD already!! WT heck????? Crawling, standing and beginning to walk... it has gone way too fast.... I wish I could push rewind and hold my little newborn again, and smell her sweet newborn smell. I hope I get the chance to do this all again someday... although I also hope that "someday" is at least a year away!!!! :)
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