BIG NEWS!

Well, this entry may come in pieces and/or just be really really long...It's a girl!!!!

Our baby girl Allison-Rae Noel Cavanaugh was born on Christmas Day! She was 7 pounds 5 ounces, 19.5" long and came into this world at 2:58pm. She is beautiful and great and, well there aren't really words for how hard we have fallen in love with her! So cliche that people always say how they never knew they could love something or someone so much, but I now understand. I thought I loved Jason that much...which I do, but this a completely different love and awe that I have never imagined or felt before.

So, last week I left off still working - very reluctantly - and sick with a sinus infection (which still lingers by the way). Thursday I felt so sick and exhausted, but made it out for burgers with friends that we haven't seen in so long. Friday I woke up feeling oddly energized and went on with my day full of laundry, cleaning, organizing, assembling, etc... That night we went to Christmas Eve dinner at Aunt Therese's house with the whole Cavanaugh clan. While driving down there, I felt some cramping in my lower belly, but didn't think anything of it since it was just a new pain - or so I thought. We made it through dinner and the cramps kept returning and at 8:30 when we were going to leave for 9pm church service I felt like we'd better head home as I was not up for going to church at that point. We got home, I googled (yes I googled) what contractions feel like and sure enough after timing the cramps I had been feeling, I figured out that I was in fact in labor. I called the hospital at 10:50pm asking how close the contractions needed to be to come in and the nurse said 5 minutes apart for 2 hours or until I couldn't talk or walk through them with close frequency. I was at about 5-7 min apart at that time, but not nearly severe enough to go in yet. Shortly after 1am I woke Jason up with 3 minutes between the worst gut twisting pains I've ever felt - they literally bent me over with pain.
When we got to the hospital I was 3cm and 3 min apart. Within an hour I was at 4 and they assured me that they were not sending me home - we were having a baby!
They got me in the delivery room and had me set up with an IV and antibiotics and fluids, then provided a bit of relief with a pain killer too. That made me super loopy, but did help take the edge off...for a little while. After all the pokes and fluids, they checked me again and I was at 5-6 so they wanted to get me going on my epidural. We were then at around 4am and I was able to finally rest - as was Jason after he went home to get (another) bag since I literally had no idea what I had packed in the one very bare bag that I threw together. The baby had clothes to wear home...but we didn't!
While getting to sleep we had the "enjoyment" of hearing a lady next door deliver, with what I can only guess was without any meds. Thank God I did have them because she would not have encouraged me to go on without them we'll just say that! So, we turned on the Yule Log and slept for 4-5 hours with Christmas carols playing. Around 11 the dr checked me and we were still at 5-6 so they broke my water. Shortly after that they started pitocin to help the contractions along. When I got to about 9-9.5cm our nurse, Julie, had me start pushing. I was doing really well and then started to feel pressure of the baby coming down. The epidural at this point, was helping I'm sure, but not the full numbing feeling that I thought. The Dr came in and could see the head coming down at about 2pm so she had me keep pushing. It wasn't long before the pushes were progressing a lot and I could feel the baby's head really bearing down. It felt better to just keep pushing rather than take a break in between. The contractions were 1-2 minutes apart so with each contraction, if I could find the energy, I pushed my 3 - 10second count pushes, and then some just to keep the baby from moving back up a bit after each push. Within the hour I was feeling a lot of pressure, Dr Ritter grabbed my hand and had me feel my baby's head crowning (mind you I'm pretty dilirious at this point). I just kept pushing as much as I could and at 2:58 the little baby came out and was up on my belly! The nurses originally told me that my birth plan noted that I wanted to keep the baby with me as much as possible at first, but that my not happen right away with the meconium in the amniotic fluid. Thankfully the baby cried right away so the Prenatal Nurse was out as quickly as she was in because they didn't need to drain the baby's lungs. As they lifted the baby up on my belly I asked Jason what it was, he was looking like he didn't know so I looked and thought for sure it was a boy...well, then we figured out that "it" was the umbilical cord and I heard Jason say "It's a girl!!!" - queue the water works and happiness and surprise! Jason did so extremely well too! He actually watched the baby come out...and the placenta (ew), and was right by my side the entire time.
A nurse came in letting me know that my sister was at the hospital - I was so out of it I told them to have her come in after I got stitched (yep, little tear but nothing too bad) and covered up. She came in - she didn't even know that we had the baby, she was just antsy sitting at home so decided to come! The Drs couldn't tell her any of my progress so she walked in the room to her brand new niece and little sister ready for her visit!
After a short while I was able to get out of bed (the epidural had started to wear off a while before that so I could actually walk and feel most of my body at this point). I went to the bathroom, took a short soak in the tub and we moved into our recovery room. We were very thankful to have Jen there to have extra hands and eyes as we made the move - after all we had another body to care for at that point! Oh, a few things from while we were still in our room -Jason's parents came to visit for a short bit, I ate - YES! - finally, I hadn't eaten since dinner the night before which wasn't a big meal either with my "cramping" I was feeling! We had watched Christmas movies all day during the labor and naps, but somehow ended up being on the cartoon network watching Tom and Jerry and Scooby Doo during the delivery - that we'll never forget!

To be continued...baby's waking up!