Baby Blessings

Wow!  I can't believe we finally made it this far.  Layla Danielle Wright was born by c-section on Monday, December 29 at 5:22 pm.  She weighed 8 pounds 11 ounces and measured 20 and 1/2 inches.  She is perfect!  

Here is what I remember from the day.  Sorry if it is long, I just want to make sure I have this written down so I can remember it all later :)

I started having contractions around midnight Sunday but I wasn't sure if they were the real thing.  We went to bed and then they started hitting harder and consistently.  At one point I did tell Eric that I was having contractions but he doesn't remember me telling him.  So, basically, I would start a contraction, get up out of bed, walk around the house until it was gone, lay back down and try to sleep for 5 minutes and then another one would come.  It was a long night.  I finally decided that I was sick of trying to sleep and got up and took a shower.  I got back into bed after that and woke Eric up and asked him if he was ready to have a baby today.  It really got his attention that time and he was wide awake.  A few minutes after that I was having a contraction so I got up to walk around.  That's when my water broke!  Despite the pain and shaking (not sure why I was shaking) we started the sprint to get out of the house and to the hospital.  On the ride there the contractions were about 3-4 minutes apart and getting pretty unbearable.  We made it to the hospital just fine and had to fill out paperwork and then I finally got checked.  The nurse was excited that my water broke on my own and that things were progressing on their own.  They moved me to a nice room (seriously 3 times the size of our bedroom).  The doctor came by at some point and checked me and said I could have an epidural any time I was ready.  I was ready.  I wasn't sure how I would handle the epidural thing because I am so squeamish but Eric was there with me and I made it.  I was oblivious to this but Eric told me later that the nurse set down the gigantic needle on the bed and he covered it with the blanket.  The nurse asked him if there was something wrong with the blanket and he told her that he didn't want me to see the needle.  What a sweetheart my Eric is.  The epidural was AMAZING!  I hadn't been that relaxed and comfortable in months.  As the day kept going the nurse kept saying how great and uncomplicated things were moving.  Then Eric and I were resting in the room and all of the sudden 3 nurses came in and were rushing around, giving me oxygen and rolling me onto my side and all this stuff.  I was really scared and they said the baby's heart rate dropped a bunch and they were trying to get it back up.  They did get it back up and everything was back to normal.  A while later one of the nurses checked me and we tried pushing a few times.  I was thinking to myself, "I can do this, no pain, just pushing."  Then she told us that the baby was facing upwards.  Her head was down but she was looking up instead of down.  She tried to turn her while I was pushing but couldn't so she called the Dr. and she tried as well.  Also during this time, I guess the fluid coming out was not the color they wanted.  So, now it was decision time.  They said since she had been stressed at one point she must have pooped which isn't good because it can get into her mouth and lungs and all.  They said we could keep pushing and try to make it work or we could have a c-section.  I just looked at Eric and he said to the Dr, "Whatever you think, you are the boss."  She definitely wanted us to do the c-section so we didn't cause any more stress on baby's heart.  Immediately they started getting us ready for the surgery.  I started crying when they left the room.  I think going into this, a c-section was one of my biggest fears.  Eric was right there comforting me.  They gave me some more drugs in the epidural and rolled me away.  Eric had to wait in the room until they asked for him to come to the OR.  I was thinking "come on, I need my Eric!"  Everything was moving so fast that I didn't have much time to be extremely nervous.  They got me all ready and Eric came in and sat next to me.  I was praying for peace and God gave it to me.  We had just listened to a sermon on Sunday about God being Jehovah Shalom which means God of Peace.  It was awesome that God had that all planned out for me to hear that when I needed it.  I am amazed at how He gave me the peace I needed at that moment.  Eric watched the entire process and even got to cut the cord.  She came out crying and I started crying.  They kept saying, "she is so big, where were you hiding her in there?"  They weighed her and did all that while I was laying there getting fixed up.  Eric got to take her to the nursery and watch her warm up and then give her a bath and wash her hair.  No fair!  I got all sewn up (actually stapled I think) and they brought me back to the room.  I felt like I waited for ever and Eric finally came back with little Layla.  Whew!  It was over and we were all safe and sound.  My parents got here not too long after that.  I did not feel that great, I was having the "baby shakes" and in quite a bit of pain.  But nothing was more important and awesome as the birth of our little Layla miracle.

God has blessed me so much these last few days.  I sit here and hold little Layla and am overwhelmed with joy.