Stella Ann Thompson arrived Wednesday, August 10 at 2:15 a.m.
She is perfect in every way.
The Hubster and I are truly blessed.
Here is our birth story....
We arrived at IU North Hospital at 7pm on Monday, August 8th. We were suppose to arrive at 6pm but the hospital called us at 5:30 to tell us to take our time because they were short a room. So we decided to go ahead and go to Scotty's Brewhouse for some dinner since I wouldn't be allowed to eat until Baby T arrived. It was raining hard as we nervously drove to dinner. We somehow managed to stuff our faces. I made the Hubster have a beer to try and help calm his fears. We found it humorous that it was ME that then drove us to the hospital to have our baby. When we arrived at the hospital our room was still not ready so they placed us in a triage room to begin all of our paper work, start my IV and begin my first dose of cytotec, which is orally placed near the cervix to help it ripen. Prior to this I had never been a patient in a hospital. That helped add to the anxiousness.
While waiting for our room to get cleaned the Hubster and I played Words With Friends on our phones and checked Facebook. We finally moved into our room around 8:30 pm and got settled.
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| I was 'only' allowed popsicles! Yum! |
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| That blue chair thing... yes, that was the Hubster's bed. Poor guy! |
The night nurse's name was Andrea. She was about as big of talker as me, so I liked her. The Hubster? I think he liked her since he knew I did. Its kind of important I think to like the person who is putting their hand inside you every 2-4 hours. And that she did. Every four ours she inserted an additional dose of cytotec. She also gave me my first Ambien ever around 11 pm. I told the Hubster the next morning that I had not slept that well in 9 months. I now totally get how people get addicted to those!
My OB/GYN stopped in Tuesday morning around 7:30 a.m. to see how we were doing and to make the decision to start the Pitocin. I was already contracting on my own, but was still not very dilated. The OB assured us that the Pitocin would just help kick everything else into gear, and with the contractions I was already having we would be holding our baby by that evening. So the Pitocin was flowing. My day nurse arrived. Loved her! Come to find out, she was the delivery nurse for Playmate Kendra Wilkinson. I felt famous!
My parents, sister and niece arrived and hung out in our room while we just chatted. Around 10 am I felt something funny happen and the Hubster gave me a look of "What was that?". Apparently my water had broke! We shuffled everyone out of the room, got the nurse and got pretty excited that things were really working. The contractions got closer and harder. I was pleased that I was getting to experience "labor pains" and that everything seemed to be progressing. Around 3pm we decided to get the epidural. It was kind of intense prepping me for it and actually getting it. But in retrospect it wasn't too painful or bad at all.
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| Me and the Hubster before things got too intense! |
At this point the Hubster's mom and grandparents had arrived. Everyone was there to meet Baby T. But still not much progress. I was told that once I hit 4 cm things would move pretty quickly. The day nurse then checked me and announced I was finally 4 cm. To help better track the baby's heart rate and the extent of my contractions they decided to put in an internal fetal heart rate monitor. Shortly after that we noticed that the baby's heart rate was dropping when I was placed on my left side. Even when I was on my right side the heart rate was kind of all over the place. Because of that, they decided to lessen the Pitocin. We would wait a bit and then crank it back up. However the next time we started the Pitocin back up the baby did not like it! In fact four nurses came flying in, put an oxygen mask on me, jammed a needle in butt cheek to stop labor, and basically scared the hell out of the Hubster and I. Once heart rates were stable the OB/GYN discussed upping the Pitocin again to see what happens. I should mention that at this point it is about 1 a.m Wednesday. We had been going on and off the Pitocin for the past 4-5 hours to "see" what happens and I was tired of testing the Baby. After having my sister and mom come and talk to me and discussing it with the Hubster, we asked the nurse if we could go ahead and have a c-section. The doctor agreed and within 30 minutes I was on the operating table.
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| Minutes before being whisked away to surgery! |
It was surreal. Lady Gaga was playing as I entered. I remember making the lady gaga/little monsters claw hand motion at my doctor. I think she laughed. The Hubster joined us in full surgical gear shortly after they prepped me. And Baby T was pulled from my abdomen at 2:15. My Ob/GYN held Baby T up in the air and the Hubster looked over the sheet and announced "It's a girl! Stella Ann Thompson!" to the whole operating room! Red Hot Chili Peppers was playing Under the Bridge at this point. The Hubster followed Stella over to be weighed and checked. She was perfect. He then brought her over for our first family picture!
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| Stella Ann Thompson- 8 lbs 20 inches |
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| Our first family picture! |
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The rest is a blur of sleepiness, shock, anxiety, visitors, happiness, and love. We were moved to recovery/nursery around 4 a.m. Wednesday and stayed until Friday evening. While at the hospital my parents visited, the Hubster's mom and grandparents, the Hubster's best friend Aaron and our dear friends Colin and Leah. By Thursday morning I was able to get up and walk (slowely and barely) and finally change my baby girls diaper. Prior to that the nurses and the Hubster had been tending to her. Stella immediately took to my breast very well and has turned into a great eater! She passed her hearing test and didn't have a touch a jaundice (thanks to that Farrimond blood!).
I feel like there is so much more I should be reflecting on or detailing. But as you can see it took me almost three weeks to even get on here and post that she had arrived. So for me to just sit in one setting and get all my thoughts gathered is a bit difficult for me. Physically my recovery has been very smooth and fortunate. Mentally I have had some ups and downs. Nothing that isn't unexpected with having a baby and major surgery but certainly enough of an emotional roller coaster that I have relied heavily on the support of my amazing Hubster and family!
Somethings I have learned in the past few weeks..... always accept families help, welcome company even if you are not in the mood, it's okay to cry because your baby won't stop crying, there is such thing as projectile puke, there is also such a thing as projectile poop (and at 3 a.m. when you have just removed a diaper).... there are many other things I have learned and will learn. I hope to continue to visit this blog and document them. But for now, I will fill the rest of this post with pictures!
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| The Hubster's mom and my dad, meeting Stella for the first time! |
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| Our first night home and Linus and Lucy getting to know their sister! |
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| Second night home, Stella supporting the Colts in their preseason game! |
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| My sister, brother-in law, and niece and nephew visiting on our third day home! |
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| Nana (my mom) came and saved the day! She let me nap and cleaned the house for two days! |
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| Stella's first bath! She cried so hard she pooped! |
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| Stella's reaction to having our friends Colin and Leah over for game night :) |
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| Sleeping on daddy's chest, her favorite! |
We have some great video of her right after birth, her hospital bath, and her drive home and greeting from Linus and Lucy. As soon as I get around to it, I will post those. Hopefully before her first birthday! For now, I need to go love on my precious Stella! Life is so much sweeter!
