The sweetness is here!

This will have to be quick, since I'm losing precious sleeping minutes right now.

Short version: Labor itself--pretty much a breeze, delivery--not so much, breastfeeding--ouch!

Had my first contraction at 12:45 Wednesday night and apparently they were quite real! I woke Mr H up right after posting on here (is it bad that you all knew I might be in labor before my husband did???) around 3:45. He was amazing through it all though, I'm so impressed with him. Around 5:45 I called the drs office, contractions were super variable, sometimes coming as close as 2 minutes apart, other times 8-10 and lasting anywhere from 20 seconds to 2 minutes. He said since I live right between his office and the hospital, why don't I swing by right before the office opens, he'll check me out and save me a trip and getting sent home if I'm not far enough along. And then of course he ends with, if it gets worse, feel free to go to the hospital. Well little before 7 I decided to go. Things were still super variable timing wise, but they were just getting SO intense I was having a hard time breathing through them. When I wasn't contracting, I was fine though. So I was figuring I'd get sent home.

Arrive at triage, they call doc to tell them I came in, doc asks them to check me. Apparently I'm at 8 cm already. No one believes that I could possibly be at 8 and still be joking and carrying on conversations aside from the contractions so all 3 triage nurses end up checking me (lovely, right). They all agree, I'm at 8. They admit me, doc is on his way, and I put in my immediate request for the epidural. Doc gets there in a little bit, I'm already at 9. Says he's going to change real quick and we'll be pushing in a few. Anesthesiologist gets there, asks if I can staystill. I was still fine outside of the contractions so we went with it---most amazing thing EVER!!! And I love that he set it low enough that I could still recognize when they were coming, very helpful for the pushing part. Doc comes back, breaks my water, and we started pushing at 9:04. He was VERY glad I did not wait to go into the office ;)

Pushing sucked--my family has pretty big head's and this kiddo is no exception. What also sucked was that for some reason I was having crazy long contractions (2+ minutes and he said usually they are about 30 seconds) followed by a 5 minute break or so. So I would end up doing 2 sets of pushes per contraction. And then we'd chat about vacation destinations in between...a little surreal. Two hours later Thursday morning at 38 weeks 5 days, with the help of the vacuum, (her heart rate was going way too low since the contractions were so long), The Sweetness arrived! 6 pounds, 15 ounces, 19 1/2 inches of sweetness ;)

She is beautiful and amazing and I pretty much cry every time I look at her. Breastfeeding went amazing at the hospital--not so much at home. Tomorrow we have a pediatrician appt (she's not really eating at all plus she's developed a bad rash on her back) and I am scheduling a visit with the lactation consultant. I've decided that I just can't nurse at all out of one side--it is way too painful and they said that once it starts to bleed, that'll just give her an upset stomach.

Anyway, just wanted to update. Thanks for all the good wishes the last few days. Aside from the expected craziness, since she was early and I was REALLY planning on having this weekend to do some hard core nesting, we weren't as ready as we wanted to be. But it'll all work out. Now, fingers crossed, she's still asleep upstairs and I can catch a few zzz's.