On May 18th I went to the AMP studio to film my acting for the camera scene from Juno, then I went with Vanessa to her dance studio to do some "get the baby going" exercises, then we were going to get my car washed, and while we were stopled at a red light, I got rear-ended! It wasn't anything bad, just a little jolt. But we went to the hospital to get everything checked out! They hooked me up to the monitors, and everything was looking good. The nurse asked me if I was feeling contractions (no), and she said I was having some about 20 minutes apart. They were just little ones, though, so I suppose I was feeling them--just as little cramps. The nurse checked me, and I was not dilated at all (this was around 5pm), but she said I may have some cramping later because of the exam. My mom also got into town at that time, so Mike and Bobby (Vanessa's husband) went to pick her up from the airport and she came to the hospital to hang out while they were checking me. Then Mike had a soccer games, so we stopped home to change, and headed out!
All during the game I was cramping, and I didn't know if they were contractions or just cramps that the nurse warned me about. After the game, Bobby and Vanessa came over and we all had tacos/burritos and I felt like the cramping was getting worse, so I was pretty sure they were contractions. Slowly they started getting even worse, but we got into bed as usual (around...9 or 10pm?). Just in case, though, mom didn't change into her pajamas in hopes of heading to the hospital that night.
As soon as we got into bed, the contractions started to get a lot more powerful. Therefore, I was not able to sleep at all. Mike was so wiped out that he was falling asleep in between contractions, but he would wake up to let me hold his hand as they got worse. Eventually I just let him sleep, and squeezed the pillow. Now, we thought we were supposed to call the hospital when they were 45sec-1min and 2-3 minutes apart, and they were getting close, but every now and then it would decrease to 3-4 minutes apart. But then they started to get so painful that Mike woke up and he started getting things together for the hospital (I finally had packed the hospital bag the day before), and as he was getting dressed I decided we should definitely call the hospital (this was around 12am)
We got the paper that had their number, and it turns out we could have called the hospital when contractions were every 5-7 minutes apart. Mike was on the phone with the nurse, and she wanted to talk to me to ask me all these questions, but lady I'm having contractions and I can't talk! So I said like 2 words to her, another contraction started, I handed the phone back to Mike, and the nurse said we could go ahead and come in.
We got to the hospital, they checked me, and I was dilated about 3.5 centimeters! Sweet! So they officially checked me in (around 1am), and got me all hooked up to monitors. Then there was a lot of sitting and contracting. We were all exhausted, but my contractions were about a minute apart so I couldn't get any sleep, and Mike was really trying to stay awake with me (he was doing a great job--only dozing off now and then). They kept checking me, and I was dilating pretty slowly, but regularly enough. At one point Mike and I went for a walk in the hallway, and that was when we decided we would go with "Leigh" for her middle name.
Vanessa came to hang out early in the morning, even before Bobby had to go to work.
The nurse asked me if I wanted an epidural, and at that point I wasn't sure, and she asked me if I wanted a pain med that would kind of take the edge off, but I decided to wait. Then about 6 am I got the pain med. I'm not sure it did much, but I guess maybe it took the edge off? And at some point (I think it was after 6, maybe before) my water broke!
Then, still quite sleep deprived, I got an epidural at 7am and we hung out, relaxed, listened to some music for awhile, then I finally decided to take a nap. I woke up a little after 9am telling Vanessa it felt like I had to go to the bathroom, and she told me "I think you're about to have a baby!" So I buzzed the nurse in, she checked me, and said I was fully dilated and the baby was right there! She said "I think 2 pushes will do it." She called my doctor, and he didn't believe her, so she had me push once and we were crowning. So she called him back, and we waited a bit for him to get there. When he got there the most complicated part was getting my bed to come apart right. We stay in the same room for birth, and the bed essentially transforms into a birth table, but the bottom part of the bed wasn't coming off. After all that struggle, we were ready to go. And then I believe it was one push, and I heard a little baby cry as they suctioned stuff out of her mouth. He pulled her out the rest of the way, and my first reaction was "Is it still a girl??"
It was. Welcome to the world little Zoe! 9:20am on May 19, 2011. She weighed 6lbs 9oz, and measured 21in.
Fortunately the labor and delivery was nice and easy, and she was just a great baby from the start! She slept so well, and breast fed well right away. We even got to leave the hospital the next day because everything was going so well.
And then her first month here:
She is sleeping well for the most part, with just a few nights she doesn't really want to sleep. So every once-in-awhile she sleeps in the bed with us, but I like to keep her in her crib and she typically does well there.
She never lost weight after birth--just gained right away. I weighed her today and she's at about 8.5 lbs. If I remember, I also want to measure her later.
She's growing, filling out, and becoming more aware! She loves looking around at things (especially the TV!) and watching us. I've even been able to entertain her with some toys. And she gives some adorable faces!
She does well staying awake during the day, which is good for sleeping at night, but difficult for me getting stuff done--which is especially hard right now because we move to TX on Friday! And I have nothing done yet. Fortunately the Army is paying to pack and store our stuff until we get to our more permanent duty station (we're only in TX for 15 weeks), but I have to clean and get together the stuff we are bringing with us.
For Father's Day Zoe made daddy a card with her hand and footprints, and a baked playdough mold thing of her footprints. :)
Well, I think she's getting ready for a nap so I can stop typing with one hand, upload some pictures, and start packing! TX bound in 4 days! With unbelievably hot weather! We're going from 60-70ish to over 100! Yikes!
One month old!
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