Sweet Little Ailey

I know, I know... it's taken me A WEEK to post about Ailey's birth, but what can I say? We spent 2 days in the hospital, then we spent a good part of the next day at each of our parents homes before coming home. Then, I had my sweet Mother In Law helping out for 2 days, then my mom surprised me and came to help out yesterday along with my little sister, so I've been a bit busy.

Anyway, here is little Ailey's story:

Last Thursday morning, May 13th, I was sort of awake while Eric was getting ready for work around 4:30. Just before 5 he left and before he left he said: "Let me know if I'm going to have to miss game night tonight."

A few seconds before he said that to me I moved funny and felt like my water may have broken, but I wasn't sure that's what it was so I stayed in bed for a bit and didn't say anything to Eric.

After Eric walked out the door, I decided to get out of bed to see if anything happened and sure enough the waters gushed. I waddled to the garage door and told Eric, "You actually do need to miss game night tonight."

So he came back in the house and I took a quick shower and packed my things to go. We hadn't quite decided what to do with the kids before hand, so we had to do some quick thinking. I told Eric to call his parents because I knew his Dad would at least be up. To our surprise AND LUCK his mom was also awake and had the day off so his parents said they'd meet us at the hospital and take the older kids.

We got to the hospital around 7:00. I hadn't had too many contractions but I had a few, so I knew it may be awhile.

We get checked into the hospital and they take us to a triage room. The nurse finally comes in around 7:30 to see what's going on. We tell her that my water broke and that this is kid #5. After hearing the words that it's kid number 5 she says: "We should've just taken you to a labor and delivery room to begin with." (DUH!) Anyway, this nurse was nice and quickly checked to see how bad the waters had broken and to see how far dilated I was (4 1/2) and then we were off to Labor and Delivery.

In the Labor and Delivery room we had another nurse take care of me for the next couple hours. She did the checking of the cervix every so often. At one point (time from this point on is a bit hazy for me) she checked me and I had gotten to what she said was a 7, so she called my dr. in.

When my dr. arrived a few minutes later he checked me and said that I was still only at 4 1/2. I was miserable. Having contractions regularly and was a bit confused as to how the nurse could think a 7 and the dr. a 4 1/2.

After the dr. checked me he asked if I wanted to get the epidural to which I finally gave into. (I was tired and in so much pain already that I didn't know if I could take 3 or 4 more hours of contractions) He then stated that he wanted the nurses to start me on the awful 'P' word....Pitocin - which made me all the more thankful I decided to take the epidural.

After the epidural I was finally able to get a bit of rest. The nursing shift changed around 11 or so and the new nurse checked me and also got me at a 7. So, she kept an eye on me. I told her that I kept feeling pressure and that I could feel a few contractions and when she checked me again she decided it was definitely time. I had to keep from pushing for the next 10 minutes until my dr. got there.
When my dr. got to the room it was time. Within 3 or 4 (maybe a few more) pushes and at 12:01 our beautiful baby girl was born. I was still a bit surprised that it was actually a girl!

We named her Ailey Shilo and she weighed in at 6 lbs. 13 oz. (Which is our biggest baby) and was 19 inches tall. She came with a ton of dark hair and a darker complexion and if I hadn't delievered her I don't think I'd believe she was mine.

1 week later, she likes to sleep a lot. Will eat, but not really on a set schedule. I'm thinking it's cause she was born a tad early and eventually things will become more predictable.

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