So it's Monday, December 30th - 2:33 AM. And I've been up since......well, I'm not sure I ever fell asleep. Maybe VERY briefly. But that's because I've been having contractions for the past three hours. Since I can't sleep, I've been trying to determine if I'm in "true labor" or "false labor". The contractions aren't hurting my lower back at all and don't seem to be getting any stronger than when they started, but they ARE consistent at about a minute long and currently about six minutes apart.
I take that back.....maybe they ARE getting stronger. It's hard to tell. It seems to be determined on how I'm sitting or standing at the moment one hits.
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Today
That's as far as I made it into my blog post Monday morning.....by 3:00 AM my contractions were DEFINITELY getting stronger at about a minute long each and 4-5 minutes apart. I woke up Lucas and called my mom to come over (and stay with Delano) a little after 3:00 because that's when I decided it was time to go. I made some notes for my mom regarding Delano and the animals, finished packing the hospital bag and we were ready to go and on our way to Parkridge East by 4:00. By the time we got to the hospital, I couldn't walk through a contraction. I would have to stop, hold onto something and just breathe until the minute was over.
We got checked in and placed in one of the Birthing Center's tiny triage rooms for "inspection" as I call it. They needed to determine if I was ACTUALLY in labor before completing my check-in and assigning me to a Labor and Delivery room. When the nurse checked my cervix at 5:00 AM, she determined that I was 2 cm dilated, but still could not tell me if I was in "true labor" or not since she would have to see if I was progressing over time. By 5:30 my contractions were 2-3 minutes apart and super painful. By 6:00 I was 3-4 cm dilated and officially checked in and given a room. I was dilated enough for an epidural, but couldn't have it just yet because the hospital needed to draw blood and do some lab work first, which all happened around 6:30. That next hour was the longest hour EVER, with contractions happening about every 90 seconds. Contractions that made my palms sweat and my toes curl. And the baby was NOT a fan of them, so would put up a fight in my belly during a contraction, which was NOT helping. NOT HELPFUL, BABY.
I was good to go for the epidural by 7:30, and the anesthesiologist showed up right away. HE'S MY FAVORITE. And I told him so. The epidural went in, and within about 10 minutes I felt like a whole new relaxed woman. And they let me lie flat on my back this time, which was SO much better than being flipped from side to side every 30 minutes like last time. Once the epidural was in full effect (around 8:00), the nurse checked my cervix and determined that I was 6 cm dilated. Woo hoo!
At 10:00, I was told that I was about 7.5 cm dilated, and the doctor came in to break my water. By 11:00 I was 9 cm dilated and by noon I was ready to push at 10 cm. I gave my first set of pushes (3 10-count pushes) at 12:15. During the next contraction, right after I started to push for the second set, the doctor made me stop.
Lucy Aurelia Simington pretty much fell out at 12:17. I had been joking for weeks that I hoped Baby #2 slipped out like a wet bar of soap......I didn't even remotely imagine it would ACTUALLY happen that way!
When the doctor said, "It's a girl!!", Lucas and I were shocked. We did NOT expect a girl. Lucas says he realized his life had changed forever at that exact moment, while my single thought at that moment was "NO SHIT!?!?". But sure enough, we had ourselves a little girl!! We couldn't stop looking at each other and shaking our heads and just laughing. A girl!
Granted, we had our girl name already picked out long ago, so it wasn't like we weren't at least prepared to name her. Her first name, Lucy, was Lucas's choice. A couple of years ago we traveled to Texas for Lucas's grandmother's funeral. While at the grave site, we looked at the gravestones of other Simingtons who had passed away. One of those Simingtons was a Lucy, and Lucas decided right then and there that it was a name he would like to pass onto a daughter (if he ever had one). Her middle name, Aurelia, comes from the movie "Love Actually". The first time I ever saw the movie, I fell in love with the storyline of the English writer (played by Colin Firth) and the Portuguese maid named Aurelia. Not only did I love the storyline, I ADORED her name. So there you have it - Lucy Aurelia.
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| Love Her. |
I have a bunch more pictures (of course) on my phone that I haven't shared yet because I need to upload them. I'll have to do that in the near future. :)
Welcome to the world, Little Miss Lucy!!
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