She's here!

Sidenote - Sorry for the delay! It happens these days. :)

If you missed Part I, you'll want to read that first (here).

6:00 PM. Mom calls J. It's go time!

J arrives in record time, a bit frazzled for sure, but he's there and he has our hospital bags (Remember when I made asked you to pack a bag and you told me you had plenty of time, you're welcome darling).

7:00 PM. Mom heads home to get some rest (begrudgingly :) ). Who knows how long this will take.

8:00 PM. 6 1/2 cm dilated. And it's epidural time. There's a line-up of 4 emergency c-sections so they give me my epidural now before they're held up for a while and I end up real uncomfortable. Fine by me!

I'm starving but it's clear liquids only. Boo. Italian ice it is! It's been years since I've had one of those and damn it tasted good.

10:00 PM. 8 cm dilated! Omg. They tell us to try to get some sleep, it could still be awhile, but HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO SLEEP??! Jay's actually snoring by my side....he's got an awful head cold and I keep asking him if he's ok and how's he's feeling. Pretty sure he wants me to just stop talking but I can't help it. He especially loves how I keep asking him how he's doing when I'm the one IN LABOR. Whoops.

I'm still starving so I test out ginger ale hoping the bubbles will help me feel full. Eh, kinda. And I spend the next couple hours between pinterest, facebook, instagram, etc. A.n.y.t.h.i.n.g. that will distract me.

Sunday, July 20

12:00 AM. 8 cm dilated. Wait, what?! No change. Ughh. Come one Baby C! Mama wants to meet you.

A little motivation!

4:00 AM. 10 cm dilated. Big gulps. Now it's really go time! J texts the moms, they're ready and waiting to meet their new grand baby.

This time goes by in a bit of a blur. I haven't slept in far too long, I'm starving, and I'm just not very strong anymore. J and my nurse are amazing and I don't know what I would have done without them. I keep telling J I'm either going to pass out or puke - labor is no joke.

After an hour or so it's decided I need an episiotomy (fantastic...). J will be doing the honors of announcing Baby's C's gender and cutting the umbilical cord. The delivery team is in place. Ah!!

One last push and the doctor notices that the umbilical cord is wrapped around baby's neck so she makes the quick decision to cut it during delivery.

5:28 AM.  J turns to me, huge grin, and tells me it's a girl. I couldn't believe it (really, I turned to J and asked him if he was serious). I have a daughter! And she's just the most beautiful baby ever.

5:30 AM. (Due to the cord being around her neck she's taken aside for check up almost immediately). No skin to skin as planned. Still waiting for a good lung clearing scream from her....
5:32 AM. And waiting...
5:34 AM. And waiting...She's grunting and doing everything she can to breathe, but she's having a bit of trouble. Baby girl swallowed too much fluid on her way out.

A respiratory team has been called and a NICU doctor is on site. J watches over L while they do everything they can to help her out. I'm exhausted, still need to get cleaned up by the doctor, and my nurse keeps telling me she'll be fine. She just descended too fast and needs a little attention. I feel like I'm in a state of denial and shock. I cannot look at J who's looking at the doctors working on L for nearly 40 minutes.

While we keep being told everything will be fine, we're given less than 5 minutes to meet/hold our girl before they need to cart her off for chest x-rays and further examination in the NICU. Bless my nurse for stealing my camera to snap a few first photos of us.

J goes with the team to the NICU but I cannot get out of bed yet thanks to the epidural. And right now, I need him to be with her. I can't even begin to tell you how strong my husband was during this. I still tear up just thinking about it. He was/is my rock. And I needed that. I needed him to tell me that she'll be fine. 

Apparently it was a bit of a sob fest when he met the moms in the waiting room and told them they had a granddaughter! The fact that he held it together for me is unbelievable. No joke, I'm tearing up typing this. #hormones

7:30 AM. Just me, my incredible husband, and our new baby girl. 

L spent 3 days in the NICU, and 1 night in the Step 2 care nursery before passing her final test and being discharged to come home. While it was definitely not how we imagined her delivery to go, we are beyond thankful to have a healthy, happy baby. We are so grateful for the NICU nurses who cared for our girl, and taught these first-timers a few things. I'm not sure I'll ever forget their names.

We like to think that L just joined the world about 36 hours too soon. For that's how long it took her body to adjust, which was long enough to keep her under the NICU's supervision the whole time and in the hospital a day longer than expected.

Welcome to the world baby girl! We are so blessed to call you ours.