Life has changed 7/23

My whining texts went into the early morning with Michael. My contractions were becoming more and more annoying and I had received my 4th (and final) trabutaline shot. Sadly, that shot did absolutely nothing...haha if anything it was just a big waste of medicine doing NOTHING in my body. The doctor came in and decided it was time to check me. Check me?!? For what?! I wasn't possibly having a child today! My contractions were NOT fun but they still weren't terrible...so that totally means that I wasnt going to have a baby right?! ha! Those TLC shows have it all wrong!

Dr. Galpin (whom I had never met until that moment, go figure) came in to check me sometime around 8am and lo and behold...4cm dilated! WTF!! Allie was coming whether we wanted her to or not. My mom called Michael, and woke him up from a deep sleep poor thing, and he made his way to the hospital, along with all our other friends and family. Michael arrived in no time and then my dreaded worst nightmare was brought up...the epidural.
I have been having nightmares about this moment since before I even thought about getting pregnant. I have heard so many stories and come on, there is nothing fun about a huge needle going into your back right??
The anesthesiologist came WAY too quickly and the moment they had me sit up and scoot towards him on the bed, I lost it. I cried and cried I was so scared. I get super anxious about needles...well not really needles, but pain. If I dont know what kind of pain to expect I get really really nervous about it. So Im sitting there, hunched over, gripping on to Michael and just crazy anxious when they administer the shot of lidocane. Wow. No big deal...I honestly didnt even feel the burning they said to expect. Whew...ok...one shot down but the BIG one to go.
I was waiting for it...and waiting for it......and waiting for it.

But it never came.
I didnt feel a freakin thing. Not.one.single.thing. I practically held my breath the whole time waiting to feel SOMEthing...but never did! How glorious!!! The part I was scared about the most was probably the easiest thing ever!! My iv's were worse than this!!! Hallelujah!!!
Weirdly enough...I could still feel most everything. In the beginning I kind of felt numbness in my mid section...but I would move my legs and feet and most of when peopl touched me. haha whatever I guess! I wasnt feeling my contractions anymore so I was good to go!

Friends and family came to visit over the next few hours...haha they practically took up every waiting room in our wing! It was nice to visit and see everyone before our lives took such a big change! Throughout this time I had progressed to about 6-7cm...it's weird how much the epidural takes care of...I was pretty comfortable but anxious to get this show on the road.

Haha here is one of our "maternity photos"! It bums me out that we never got to take real ones, but I guess this is better than nothing right?

This is me, Michael and my sister in law Stephanie!

So time passes and I think I can safely say that Ive hit a road bump...I guess there was a small lip of cervix that Allie hadn't made it through yet and I even tried pushing her through it a few times...but she wasn't having it. So finally, around 5ish the doctor decided to put me on a small dose of pitcocin to see if that would get me over the little hump.

So I waited...and waited...and was a little ticked that nothing had happened yet...so my friends came back in to visit and all of a sudden...contractions! Hard and long and painful contractions! I felt everything! (later I think we all came to the conclusion that my epi had worn off and whatever I self-administered just wasnt cutting it). Im not joking, they just started happening out of nowhere...it's not like they worked they're way up the pain ladder or gradually helped me get used to them. And what sucked even more, is that as soon as one was over, another started 30 seconds later. NOT fun. This is when I lost it and started crying...because I knew as soon as I could catch my breath from one, that another was right around the corner and I was so DONE already! What's sad, is that I only had about a handful of them before I got to push...major props for all the women that have to endure so much more than I did!!
The nurse finally asked me if I had to push to which I replied YES YES! and she quickly called the doctor and the nicu team in. At this point I was dying for the doctor to get there as the last contraction I had made me feel like she was going to shoot out all by herself! Its weird that you can feel a change and know that "its time"!

Finally everyone gets there (ok not finally...it was just minutes but felt like forever for me!) and its time to push for reals! I had my little crash course in child birthing just a few hours before so I was kind of nervous about not doing anything right, but I think I did a pretty good job ;) It was SO nice to push through the contractions...I didnt feel a thing because pushing through them felt so great...there was really no more pain once I started pushing.

Again, major kudos to women who go through hours of labor and/or pushing. I dont know how I could have done much more than I did and I know that I had it super easy!! Pushing takes SO much out of you...and then when you are finally done pushing through 1 8 or 10-count, they want you to do it again and even HARDER than you did the first time! haha I thought I had pushed as hard as I could the first time!! Somehow, you find more energy though and you get through it! haha its hard and you're sweaty and it's just draining...but once that little life comes out, it is absolutely true that all the pain and tiredness goes away.

With just a few sets of pushes, Allie Lynn came into this world and changed our lives forever. She was so so tiny and was whisked away to the nicu team standing by so they could stabilize her and take her away for treatment. I saw her briefly and we even heard a few small squeaks out of her!! It was so nice to hear because I didnt think we were going to hear anything!!

I am so thankful for the below photo. Dr. Naglie (the neo dr.) made sure to bring Allie next to me so i could touch her before they took her away. Her eyes were open and from what I could see she was obviously perfect.


Michael went off with Allie and the nicu team while they cleaned up all the mess in my room and before I knew it, I was good to go like nothing every happened! haha my friends were able to come back in and that's when I learned that everyone was right outside the door and got to hear everything as Allie was born!! I have to admit, I thought that was pretty darn cool! I love that friends and family got to share such an exciting/scary/life altering moment with us...even if it was only through sound!
My wonderful girlfriends (and Allie's auntie's) who were there that day!


Life has definitely changed for the better. It's weird to think of Michael and I as parents...don't know how long that takes to set in. Maybe because this wasnt supposed to happen for another 12 weeks...who knows! But Im very much looking forward to being Allie's mom and seeing all parenthood has to offer!! Im very scared still, of course, Allie is going to be in the nicu for a good 2 months at LEAST so it's going to take a lot of adjustment...but at least we still have time to get her nursery ready and make sure we have all the gear she will need when she finally comes home! We barely have anything for her as of yet so I guess we better get our butts in gear huh?

And of course we celebrated (ok they celebrated) with cigars and a shot of Jack!!




Welcome to the world beautiful Allie Lynn! We love you!!!!