Happy Birthday Summer!

Friday, July 13th, 2007.

My last day of work, I made it (or so I thought). I woke up at 6:30 to my alarm, lay in bed for about 5 minutes, got up and went to the bathroom. I went pee and sat on the toilet for a second waiting to wake up. All of a sudden I heard a big gush hit the water. I knew it was my water, I had just went pee. I also knew Summer was still breach and I could not go into labor, and I was home alone. I put a pad on (I was still leaking water) and went and got my cell phone (I was shaking) and sat back on the toilet and called Kris. I told him my water broke, and he thought I was kidding. I finally convinced him and told him I would just meet him at the hospital (he was right across the street on base, I was about 15-20 minutes away with good traffic). I called labor and delivery and told them my water broke, they said come in and they would verify,and they were very patient about it. I didn't know what to take, I brushed my teeth, put my hair back in a pony tail, grabbed my "hospital" bag - it had three pairs of socks, a tooth brush, toothpaste, and my disability paperwork, and that was about it. I changed out my soaked pad with another, and grabbed a towel on the way out the door to the hospital.

As I was driving to the hospital (still shaking, I was so scared), I called work (it took me three tries to call my boss) and then I called my mom. I was scared to call her because she was suppose to be here for the birth and I knew she was going to miss it. She was actually ok, and excited. I then called Kris again, and told him just to meet me in labor and delivery.

I felt the first contraction as I arrived at the hospital but luckily it wasn't very intense. I got to the parking space and had soaked through another pad, got a little on my car seat, but I was able to hop out quickly so it mostly went on the ground. I used the towel to wrap around myself and went into the hospital. Luckily around 7:00-7:15, there wasn't many people there yet.

I got to labor and delivery, wearing a towel, and went into a room. I undressed, tried to stop the water (that was still leaking) and got in a bed. They put monitors on me and detected the heartbeat. The water was still leaking, I couldn't believe how much water there was. The doctor came in and did a exam, ouch she had to push hard, and determined I was dialed to about a 3. She got the old ultrasound machine and saw there was no water around Summer, so they didn't have to test to see if my water had broke (not to mention the bed was soaked). The doctor then did a visual exam, but there was so much water she could not see, but thought she could see the cord (which is very bad when the cord is coming out first). Maybe by this time I had one other contraction, still not bad.

So I was in the room around 7:30, and Summer was born at 8:11, so at this point things went real quick. The elevated the end of the bed to keep the cord from coming out, the anastecologist came in, I signed paperwork, they started an IV, and the next thing I knew, I was being wheeled into the operating room. Kris was there standing around somewhere, I had lost him at this point.

In the operating room there were about 10 different doctors and nurses doing this and that. We didn't have a camera, but luckily Kris had someone bring him one from work (shew). I received a spinal block, it took a few pokes, but I was really surprised that it did not hurt. I was laying down, my knees were at my chest and my chin was to my chest, and this is when I did actually feel a stronger contraction. Once the spinal block was in, I had an air mask on my face, I was lying out, they were swabbing my stomach, and I was afraid I wasn't all the way numb. I even told the anastesiologst I wasn't numb yet, and he said they had already started cutting, so I said ok never mind I guess I am numb :o)

Kris was sitting next to me, I was squeezing two of his fingers, and some nurse with a mask kept telling me how good I was doing. They kept telling me to take deep breaths, and I asked Kris, "am I taking a deep breath?" because I couldn't tell. Once they were all cut, they said I would feel pressure, and oh ya it almost took my breath out, and I bet I tensed up, but it was over quick. I guess the baby came out because Kris said "do you hear that?" and I said, "no, do I hear what?" and then I heard it, and I said, "I heard that!". I was really cool. I was still being operated on, wishing they were done and this was over, and they were cleaning Summer off. Her apgars were either 8/9 or 9/8 - so I knew she was ok. Kris went and took some pictures of her, but only pictures of her cleaned.They took her to the nursery and Kris left with her, I guess I was all sewed up, I ended up having internal stitches and external glue, Kris said they used a torch somehow.

It seemed to me like it took forever for them to sew me up. I did get to see a glimpse of her, but I couldn't see much, she was wrapped in a blanket and she had a hat on her head. I also did not know what she weighed yet. Then ... I started shaking. They said the hormones and the drugs were doing it. I would have felt ok if it wasn't for the shaking. I was taken to the recovery room and was still shaking, they gave me some demoral. While in recovery, my blood pressure was still going up, which was making me scared. I shouldn't have looked ...

Finally, after what seemed like forever, I was wheeled into my room. Kris was already in the room with the baby. It was about 10:00, so I was in recovery a while I guess. I still didn't know what she weighted, but finally in the room, I was able to see the tag on the bassinet, she was 7 pounds, 11 ounces, 18.5 inches long, and technically she was 12 days early.

I spend the most of Friday recovering, all the drugs and I was druggy. Kris held her and just stared at her most of the day. He ended up taking over 60 pictures before he left . We were both taking pictures with our sidekicks and emailing everyone. My blood pressure was up all day on the 13th, and I had to take a pill, but it finally went back to normal. Two days later, I am home, feeling great, walking around, and my mom arrives tomorrow to help for the month YAY!

Breastfeeding has been an interesting challenge. All she wanted to do was sleep, and she had issues latching on, but the nurses said she had enough to keep her full for a while. Just today has she really latched on, but I have formula too just incase, and ended up giving her about 4 ounces between today and yesterday just to make sure she wasn't starving. She did end up losing 7 or 9 ounces, which they said is fine, so I am not worried. I try to breastfeed every 4 hours, but I have to wake her up to do it.

I will post pictures as soon as I sort through the 60 and find good ones, and as soon as Kris puts them on the computer! Sorry so long, I bet I forgot something important!