A few days late, but better late than never!

And I'm not talking about Aftyn! For those not in the know yet, we had our little girl Saturday morning at 3 am. She was 8 lbs 2 oz and 21 inches long. Here is the picture they took in the hospital shortly after she was born. She's a little swollen.




For those wanting the whole "birth story", here you go.

I woke up Friday morning, starting at 1 am, with a crampy kind of feeling every hour only lasting a short period of time. I think it was just braxton hicks, but thankfully, over the course of the day, increased to every 20-30 minutes between cramp-like feelings.
Anyhoo, about 8 pm, with Reed over at his parents, house and due to be home any minute, my contractions picked up and were coming faster and getting a little more painful. I called Reed to let him know, and he made it home in record time at about 8:30 pm.
He came home and was literally running around the house, trying to get everything into the car and packed and everything. I kept telling him that he didn't have to hurry, cuz I didn't think I was really in labor or anything. So at the hospital, as we're getting out of the car, I said to Reed, what if it's all in my mind, what if I'm not really having contractions and they send me home? Luckily, that wasn't the case.
They admitted me b/c I was a 3.5 cm, and quickly dilated to a 5.5. And quickly dilated to a 7.5, and then just as quickly was almost completely dilated. Wow, I thought, that was easy without any pain meds. Little did I know what was coming.

At this point, I thought, all right, I just push her out and we're done with all this painful stuff. :) I was so naive.
My bag of water hadn't broken, so the dr. told me I had 2 choices. I assumed they were that she could break my water or we could wait for my water to break on its own. I stopped her before she could tell me what SHE thought my choices were, and told her I wanted my water broken, thinking I was ready to push and be done. So, she broke my water, and then informed me that my bag of water had been holding my cervix open, and now I was back down to 7 cm. I had never heard of this happening before. The Dr also said she hoped that now that my water was broken, she hoped my contractions wouldn't get too painful. What do you mean, MORE painful?!?

I will skip that part, and only include one word: Ouch. Really. Ending with the fact that I finally asked the nurse if there wasn't ANYTHING I could take to help with the pain, and so I got some Steidol, which only helps relax you, it doesn't numb the contractions, so I felt the contractions but was so relaxed in between and through the contractions that it was bearable. And about 30 minutes after I got that, I was ready to push. Thankfully, my body was ready, Oh and I forgot to mention Aftyn was posterior around the time I found out I was back to a 7. Posterior meaning she was literally facing the wrong way, and boy was that a fun one to fix. It was probably a lot of my OUCH problem.
So, out she came after about 30 minutes of pushing, and she was cute, and didn't want to cry. It was 3 am and poor Reed couldn't keep his eyes open. He zonked out pretty fast, while I waited for Aftyn to get done with her first bath and checking her vitals and all that stuff.
Everything went well, we were both in excellent health, so we left the hospital on Sunday about 2 pm. And have enjoyed being at home, sleeping in our own beds, eating our own food, and learning about our little Aftyn girl.

Babies are amazing creatures. I can't believe how much love I have for this little girl. I bravely tried to clip one of her fingernails today, and thought I had possibly cut her little fingertip.I promptly burst into tears at the thought that I had possibly hurt her. I don't know what to blame that on - hormones or too much love for my sweet, helpless dughter. Either way, there's a reason women are mothers because they are nurturers and have an inordinate amount of love to give. I'm grateful for that.