My Angel is Here!

"Today Alexsa (note the new spelling!) is 1 week!  What a whirlwind of a week. "

LOL!  That's when I started this blog... 3 weeks ago!  Sorry for the delay... Today is Alexsa's 1 month birthday!

Without further ado... her birth story:

At our 40 week appointment, my Dr and I decided to induce on Monday night, Feb 8th (40w2d).  Originally our induction date was the 13th (41weeks).  When I told Barry about it, he had concerns that we were inducing too early.  We went to see Dr. Raspa Monday morning... Barry was worried that the reason we were inducing earlier was because of the doctor's schedule.  With the anxiety of wanting to get her out + the fact that my grandpa has been waiting patiently for her and was leaving on the 13th, I was READY to go on the 8th.  Of course, Dr. Raspa said he was going to be out of town the weekend of the 13th.  I was heartbroken that it wasn't going to happen that day.  So the Dr. left us to talk it out and we decided to try a 1/2 way approach - spend the night in the hospital with Cervadil to ripen my cervix.  If i didn't go into labor that night we would go home and just wait it out.

Well that night was hell.  the Cervadil was very uncomfortable and I bearly slept.  Nothing happened. About 8:30 the next morning I heard Dr. Raspa talking outside my door and felt a trickle 'down there'.  I thought , "Hm. what's that?" but didn't say anything.  He came in to check me and while down there interestingly enough said "Hm, what's that?"  They tested the fluid and sure enough my water broke on its own.  But because I wasn't in active labor, they had to give me Petocin to get me started. 

They started the Petocin at 10:30 Tuesday morning and by 3:00, I was still only 3cm dialated with contractions coming what felt like every 3-5 minutes.  They were painful and just down right horrible.  My plan was to give birth under a squat bar, which meant I would have had to go natural to be able to squat when the time came to push.  But by 4:30, the contractions were so painful and the only way I was able to deal with them was on my knees or standing over the bed, yet I was so exhausted my legs didn't want to hold me up.  I broke and asked for the epidural.  It was the most defeating feeling I had ever felt. But Dr. Solomon, the adiminster of the epidural, became my best friend.  I barely felt the procedure and was almost immediately pain feel.  It was the best decision I could've made. 

At 7:30 (i think) they checked me again and I was only 5cm or so, so most of my family went home. But when they checked 2 hrs later i was at 9-10!  So Barry, my  mom, and my sister started taking bets as to what time she would be born.  Dr. Raspa came in a short while later and joked around with us about the bet. They got everything ready and with my husband on my left and my mom on my right, I started pushing at 10:15 or so and Alexsa was born at 10:50pm on February 9th, 2010! (Apparently I am a very good pusher. :))  I never had the urge to push, but thanks to the wonders of the epidural, I was actually laughing though pushes!  The nurse on duty did most of the push coaching while Raspa sat behind her.  At one point he was playing with his phone.  Barry joked and asked if he was texting someone. He said, 'no, playing Tetris.  I'd play Bejeweled but I'd get too wrapped up.' LOL! Right when she was crowning, everyone was talking about how they could see her.  I was the only one that couldn't! So I actually asked for a mirror.  I thought i'd be grossed out and not want to see, but it was actually pretty cool.  They placed her on my chest right away.  She reminded me of an old man. (Her face was so swollen, slimy and purply.

After they cleaned her up a bit, I got to hold her longer than normal.  The reason was because as she came out, her nose caught and gave me what Dr. Raspa called a "starburst tear." UGH.  It took them over an hour to stitch me up.  I didn't really notice - i was holding my baby girl.  At one point, Barry accidentally caught a glimpse and had to get some fresh air.

We brought Alexsa Jade home about 1:00 on Thursday, Feb 11th.  We're sleep deprived and learning her personality, but doing well! 

Now that I have this out of the way I hope to post more regularly on the day to day happenings of being a new Mom.  Yay!