The Hollinsworth House: May 2011

Lexi's birth was quite an adventure! It made me realize that not EVERYTHING will go as you plan. This might be a little lengthy, but stick with me.

It all started at our appointment on Monday. It was our weekly appointment but our dr. said that if I was a 3 or 4 we could stay and have the baby! Well, we went in and I had my heart set on staying. I would have been completely devastated if she would have told us we had to go home. So, I weighed (the final time-30 lbs. total gained) and had my BP checked and waited anxiously for the doctor to come in. She checked me and said I was a good 3 and asked if we wanted to stay and have a baby! The feeling I had when she said this was a feeling I hadn't expected I'd feel. I all of a sudden got super nervous and a little scared! The time had finally come and I couldn't wait to meet her.

So we headed on over to labor and delivery where they admitted me and had me put on that pain-in-the-butt gown. They started my IV and started the Pitocin. This was around 4:30 that the whole process got started.
Time went on and the contractions started to intensify due to the pitocin. The nurse came in and checked me and I was STILL a 3. In fact, I stayed at 3cm until 3 AM! Geez! At around 1:30 the contractions were bad enough that I was asking for the epidural. So they called the anesthesiologist (whom I called the "blue man" because he was in those blue/green scrubs) and he came to administer the epi. He got it in place and I quickly got relief from the contractions. I was thinking, "Yes, I can do this, it will be a cakewalk!" Little did I know that things would quickly take a major turn...

I slept about an hour and a half because I was in NO PAIN. The epi was working and I was feeling good. Couldn't even feel the contractions! Then I woke up and I felt a little "pop" and felt fluid coming between my legs. I thought I had peed myself but I had a catheter so that wasn't possible...The nurse came and checked and said, "Your water just broke!" I was thinking, "alright, let's get this show on the road." Well, I quickly started feeling the contractions again. HARD contractions. I told the nurse I could feel everything and my legs no longer felt numb. She called the anesthesiologist to come back and up my dose on my epi. He came and did so, but guess what- no relief. The dang thing I had counted on this WHOLE time wasn't working on me. Great. So, after that things started progressing rapidly. I went from 3cm-10cm in ONE HOUR. Holy Crap. Then it was time to push and after the epi had been cranked up TWICE...there was still no relief. It was time to push and guess what...we had to do it the all natural way. I pushed for 20 min and then out she came. All 8 lb. 9 oz. of her! I couldn't believe how big she was. It was such an amazing experience and you really do forget about the pain afterward.

We are so thankful that we have our beautiful, healthy, chunky baby girl. She is such a joy and a great baby! We couldn't be more lucky!