She's Here!!

Baby Magdalena has joined the family, finally.

The doctor wanted to go ahead with inducing and we agreed. We saw him at the office on Thursday the 20th, and the baby appeared to be 8 pounds, 10 oz. He said we shouldn't wait, so we were at the hospital that night by 8PM.

They gave me cervidil (sp?) at 11:30 pm (ouch) and I went to sleep with the Italian sleeping in the chair by my bedside. The next morning, Friday, my actual due date, my doctor arrived and checked me out. There was no progress. He told me he wanted to do it again. I said fine, hey it's what I'm here for. Then he told me again that this could be a long process. I told him as long as there's no stress on the baby, I'm cool with it. He said great, and inserted another dose of cervidil. He checked me a few hours later and there was minimal progress.

You can have up to 3 doses of this at 12 hour intervals, so I was happy to hear that SOMETHING was moving along. He said he would wait this out with us for a bit and then move me to a labor suite and give me Pitocin. Once things started to (very slowly) move, that's what we did. I was told that I could have the epidural as soon as I felt discomfort. I knew I wanted the epi, but I did hold off for quite a while. My sister came to the hospital and was there for much of what was happening. I was kind of surprised that she wanted to be, but much more than that, I was thrilled. I thought the last thing she'd want would be to attend the birth. More on that later...

I was on the pitocin and now in the labor suite (which was so nice! and they gave the Italian a bed to sleep in too). Friday night/Saturday morning the doctor and nurse came in and examined me quite a few times. They asked if I needed anything, and the pressure was getting pretty heavy duty. I figured lets get the epidural before the real pain hit and the anaesthesiologist came to apologize about 10 minutes later. He had to take care of an emergency c-section and wouldn't be able to help me for a little while. I was so happy that I hadn't waited. It worked out beautifully. I did need it when he came back to me, but I was still okay. So once again, it was a waiting game. The doctor ruptured the membrane and my water broke. What an amazing experience THAT was!! It took about 10 minutes after the exam for it to happen, but I felt so bad that there was fluid all over and I couldn't get up due to the epi!

Saturday morning there was more exagerrated activity and I was told the baby's heartbeat was dropping a little due to the Pitocin, but that they had stopped the drip and it had resumed perfectly. But my contractions were more regular and very intense. The doctor was asking if I felt heavy pressure and I started to just a few minutes later. To me, it felt like the baby was really really ready to come out. The Italian called my sister and asked her to come back for the delivery and she was there in NO TIME!!!

At 9:09 AM on Saturday morning, July 22nd, 1 day after my due date, Magdalena was born. 8 pounds, 10 oz (on the nose!) 21" long. My sister was the most amazing labor coach EVER. The doctor put her to work because my husband was just plain bizarre. My sister says it was like he was watching Extreme Discovery Channel or something, and he was wordless. I had told him I wanted him by my head, no where else. Yeah. He was holding one of my legs back and watching this whole process up close and personal. I can't blame him. It took about 20 minutes of pushing, and out she came. My beautiful baby daughter. I just cannot believe it. I couldn't get my hands on her fast enough. These people arrived in the labor suite (absolutely everyone on Long Island saw my vagina that day, I swear to god!) and waited to weigh her and do all the cleaning, footprinting, etc. But they had her and I didn't get to see her or hold her yet, and I was like "can i see my baby... can i see my baby?" while I'm being stitched closed (the doctor had o cut me, but it was not a full episiotomy). Finally, the doctor stopped stitching and said "give her the baby! what's wrong with you??" And then I got to see her when they picked her up. She was crying. I said "Maggie!" and she stopped. She looked at me!! And then I got to hold my baby for the first time ever. My sister was crying, I was crying. It was crazy. And the most beautiful day of my life. The Italian was taking pictures. It was surreal.

She nursed right away. Took to it like a champ. They gave her formula in the nursery, so she's doing both right now. Breast feeding is tough, but I think I'll get used to it. She's a content, lovely little girl. We came home yesterday and we were both exhausted. The Italian and my sister cleaned the entire apartment and cleared out more crap. It's so nice not to have to do that now. I didn't have an episiotomy, but more like a partial one. It hurts, but seeing these poor women who'd had c-sections made me realize how lucky I was that it went the way it did.

I'm happy. Happier than I've ever been. I'm scared. I check her constantly. I understand women who crawl into the crib to make sure their child is breathing! I'm stressed - it's tough to adjust to being 3 instead of 2, but we're making huge progress already. This neighborhood is alive and wanting to see the baby. It's a little intrusive, but I wouldn't trade it. I wouldn't trade anything.

I need to go check on my daughter again. It's been 3 minutes. She's asleep in her cosleeper next to the Italian who's in our bed.

Blessed.

:)