Blakelyn Anne

To say the least our November has started off a little busy! Our daughter, Blakelyn Anne, was born Thursday, November 10, 2011 at 1:05pm! Without going into too much detail and making the blog super long, I'll recap our labor and delivery:

Blakelyn's original due date was November 7, which coincidentally, is also my father's birthday! However, she did not make an appearance that day. I had a regular doctor's appointment scheduled for November 9. When I showed up, the doctor said, "oh, you're still pregnant!" We went ahead and scheduled an induction for November 14, assuming (and hoping) she would come on her own.

That night I felt my usual contractions, but these contractions were more rhythmic, stronger, timely, and no matter what position I maneuvered into, they would not let up. At 12:30 am we decided to head to the hospital. Since I had been 3cm and 80% effaced for a few weeks, I knew that even if I was experiencing false labor, the hospital would keep me since I was overdue.

I labored at the hospital until 2:30 am when the nurses and doctor said that if there wasn't any change (and there wasn't any) by 6am they would either: let me go home and labor on my own, or keep me and go ahead and induce. I decided to get some sleep and let them induce me!

At 7am the nurse started the pitocin drip and dilation began! At 8am the doctor broke my water (ha and I was worried that I wouldn't know if my water broke!). By then I was 5cm and 90% effaced! I labored a few more hours without any pain medicine until I was 7cm and 100% effaced. I decided to get the epidural instead of the medicine they put in the IV, since the epidural doesn't cross the placenta. The other medicine would make me drowsy and cross the placenta to make the baby drowsy too.

The anesthesiologist said that I was "the patient of the day" for my animation while getting the epidural put in. Simply put, I watched too many videos that scared me. Luckily, the epidural worked perfectly and no complications occurred. I asked the anesthesiologist about the spinal headache that could result, and he said that as soon as he put the epidural in, he could tell if I would have complications or not. Good to know for the future!

The epidural slowed down my progression, but I didn't mind. I enjoyed just chillin'. Around 12:30pm the baby began to do into distress because I wasn't getting enough oxygen. The nurse put an oxygen mask on me and everything resumed as normal. Around 12:45pm the doctor arrived, all systems were ready, and I began pushing. Five contractions and 15 pushes later, out Blakelyn came...

Not crying.

Some merconium was present in the fluid and Blakelyn hadn't taken a big breath as most newborns do. The doctor said it was Transient Tachypnea of the Newborn (TTN). Her breathing was very labored, Bryan describes it as having an asthma attack. We got to see her for a few seconds before the nurses whisked her to the bassinet to take stats and figured out her breathing problem. To say the least, Blakelyn was taken to NICU for further observation for a few hours... We didn't get to officially meet her until 6pm that night.

The whole delivery was surreal. Everything happened so quickly at the end and then all of a sudden it's just the two of us again... but with an empty infant cap and a flat stomach. The experience definitely makes me respect those who put children up for adoption or for those who are surrogates. I can only imagine their deliveries to be similar or worse.

On to stats:

Name:

Blakelyn Anne

Weight:

7lbs 14oz

Length:

20.5in

Eyes:

blue/grey

Hair:

RED!?

Yep, we produced a red head! It's more of a strawberry, but still it's red.

And of course a picture: