So... we had a baby

Catch up time!

Elena is almost 4 months old and I haven't blogged since before she was born. Where to start? I guess I'll write a little bit about the delivery.

I was scheduled to be induced on Friday, November 18th, but ended up going into labor at about 2 AM the night before. I thought I was just sick to my stomach from the pizza I had for dinner, but suddenly I was in a lot of pain. I yelled to Mike in the bathroom to wake up because I was in labor. I had to do this twice since he went back to sleep. He asked me how far apart the contractions were and I told him that I had no idea, but I was in pain. We got to the hospital about 20 minutes later and by then I was dying! While the nurses asked me about a million questions I made it clear that I wanted an epidural as soon as possible. Luckily I only had to wait a half hour because I was shaking so bad that Mike was holding my legs to try and keep them steady. Oh the bliss of having an epidural! Once things calmed down Mike got some sleep while I just lay there. I'm a really light sleeper and they were taking my blood pressure every 20 mins and so I didn't stand a chance of getting any sleep.

At about 12 PM I started to push and then she was born at 1:27. It was so neat to watch her come out of me! Mike snapped pics while they cleaned her up and then they brought her to me. I wish I had pushed the button to get more drugs before she was born because they wore off really fast and I had trouble even holding her due to the shakiness. Mike went with her to the nursery where they fed her and tested her blood sugar. Her blood sugar was too low and so they admitted her to the NICU. I didn't get to see her until about 8 PM that night which was really tough. I spent the next three days living in the NICU so that I could be with her. We finally got to take her home Monday night and it was the best feeling ever to have her home with us.

This is me before drugs.

This is me after drugs.