"I love that she came with an instruction manual"

I noticed from our last entry that Andrew forgot some crucial details. For those interested, here is a more detailed account of how our little bug arrived.

After a disappointing BYU loss to Utah, Andrew and I decided to console ourselves with some ice cream and a movie. After the movie, I hopped up from the couch and felt a little gush of fluid. I thought "that was odd" but decided to ignore it. While I was getting ready for bed more fluid kept gushing out. I was starting to worry about the problem but the reality of the situation never really clicked. In fact, it was Andrew who came up with the idea...Maybe your water broke? ... Of course I quickly shot down that idea. I was probably in denial that the time had now come and I was going to have to push her out. It didn't take long before I had to accept the mounting evidence that in fact my water had broken.

The doctor advised us to go to the hospital where they confirmed that my water had broken, that I was having mild contractions, and that the baby was doing well. We had the option to check into the hospital or go home and come back in the morning. It was about 2 AM at this time. We decided to head home and, needless to say, it was a long night. The contractions weren't strong enough to cause real pain, but they were uncomfortable enough to keep me awake. By 8 AM, I was having contractions every 4 minutes for about 40 seconds and the pain was increasing. It was time! By 9 we were all checked in at the hospital.

Unfortunately, the adrenaline from the drive to the hospital disrupted the regularity of my contractions. At this point the doctor told us that women whose water has broken often have long, slowly progressing labors. Since my contractions were no longer regular and I hadn't slept well the night before, she advised speeding up the process with some pitocin. I agreed, but in hindsight this was a bad idea. My contractions were already increasing on their own and I headed into active labor. The pitosin just put my contractions right on top of each other and seemed to increase the pain. By 2:30 PM I was exhausted, only dilated to a three, and getting no rest between contractions. At this point, I went for the epidural. It felt like a dream and my only regret is that I didn't go for it earlier! So, for the first time since 2:30AM I was able to relax, sleep, and most importantly like Andrew again:)

By 7:30 PM I was fully dilated and feeling the pressure to push! I was all excited, thinking that we would finally get to meet her in just a few minutes. Three very tiring hours later I was still pushing and we were no closer to meeting our little one. Not only was she facing upwards with her head bearing down on my lower back/tailbone area, but her head was also at an odd angle. At this point, the doctor gave me a choice. She could try to suction her out, with %50 chance of success with failure leaded to a c-section, or we could just go straight for a c-section. It wasn't more than a split second before I decided to try the suction first. Now, I don't think I'd really mind having a c-section if I hadn't just gone through 24 hours of labor. In my mind it's gotta be one or the other, not both. So, I was pretty grumpy that if the suction didn't work, I'd be wheeled into surgery for a c-section. The good news was that this fact provided me with excellent motivation to push her out! Thank heavens the suction worked and a few pushes later we finally met our little bug for the first time.

There you go, the most painful thing I've done! A few hours after delivery they took us down to the recovery room. On the desk was a half inch thick booklet on newborns and parenting. Andrew happily exclaimed, "I love that she came with an instruction manual!" Apparently we're all set and ready to go!

And here is Little Bug enjoying her Thanksgiving feast and post dinner slumber.