Amelia is officially 4 days late as her due date was on the 21st. Early in the morning, I started having small contractions every 20-25 minutes. I didn't get much sleep that night because as soon as I'd fall asleep, another contraction would come. I had a doctor's appointment later in the afternoon, but I called and they were able to get me in at 9am to check me out. Greg didn't have any patients that early, so he was able to come with me. Unfortunately, when the doctor checked me, I was still not dilated and didn't make any progress from the prior week's visit. He did say that I was starting to thin out and that he thought I'd have Amelia in the next day or two, so Greg dropped me off at home, he went to work, and we continued to wait.
These contractions continued throughout the day and didn't seem to get any more intense or frequent. At around 8pm, I began getting frustrated and dreaded another night of no sleep. I took a shower and when I got out, I remembered I had an essential oil that I wasn't supposed to use in pregnancy because it could cause contractions. After a little research, I read that this oil also is used when women are in labor to help make the contractions stronger. It was worth a shot. I rubbed a drop or two on each of my ankles. Within an hour, my contractions went from 20-25 minutes apart to about 7 minutes apart. I was so happy that it worked, but wished I would have tried it earlier in the day to get things rolling sooner. Greg was able to go to bed and close his eyes for about an hour. We had to wait to go to the hospital until my contractions were about 5 minutes apart. When they were clocking at 6 minutes apart, I woke Greg up, packed everything up, let Mia out, and we were in the car on the way to the hospital.
Once at the hospital at around midnight, we were put in a triage room. The nurse checked me and I was 2cm dilated. I was happy that I went from 0cm that morning to 2cm at midnight. My contractions didn't seem to be as frequent as they were when I was at home. The nurse had me in the triage room for about an hour and wanted to see if I'd make progress. If I did, they'd admit me. If not, they would send me home and tell me to come back when the contractions were more frequent. I really did not want to go home and come back so I was hoping I'd make more progress. When she came back an hour later, I was 4cm, so finally we were able to leave that tiny room and move to the nicer labor and delivery room.
Minutes later, we were settled in the room and I got my epidural. It didn't hurt as much as I anticipated. I was surprised at how quickly it worked and I liked the fact that I was still able to move my legs. By this time it was between 1:00 and 2:00 in the morning and Greg and I were both tired and we wanted to get some rest. He was able to sleep for about an hour in the recliner and I slept on and off in the hospital bed.
My nurse came in to check me in the morning and I was 5cm. I was actually at 5cm for quite a long time and they were considering giving me Pitocin to speed things up a bit, but next time they checked, I progressed some more. I really wanted to deliver Amelia before noon, because it was a Friday and my doctor didn't have call hours at the hospital after 12:00pm. He came in around 10:45, checked me, and said I could start to push. I pushed 12 times and it lasted about 15 minutes before Amelia was born. It was actually quite easy which was surprising. After a second she let out her first cry and they put her on my chest.
Later that afternoon, once the epidural wore off, the nurse helped me to get to the bathroom. I had apparently lost a lot of blood during delivery because I tore a vein, and my blood pressure dropped extremely low. I completely passed out in the bathroom (luckily she was able to catch me), and another nurse was called in to get a wheelchair so I could be put back in bed. The whole time Greg was on the recliner holding Amelia. I remember waking up in the wheelchair next to the bed, but once I got into the bed, I threw up and fell asleep again. I stayed asleep (because of my low blood pressure, and probably because of the Benadryl I got for being itchy) until the next morning. I was completely out of it for at least 12 hours. I missed the pediatrician coming in to check on Amelia and the next morning I was only semi-aware of her first bath. Greg literally held Amelia almost the whole time. He fell asleep with her in his arms and the nurse had to come and take her from him to put her in her bed because she didn't want Greg to accidentally drop her.
Later that day and the next day were better. While I was well-rested from sleeping so much, Greg was not. He couldn't get comfortable sleeping in the chair and he was feeding and changing Amelia. He was able to sneak out of the hospital twice to go home, get some food, and check on Mia. Luckily Kelsey lives a couple minutes away and was able to come let Mia out several times a day during our hospital stay.
Our last day in the hospital seemed to last forever. We really just wanted to go home, but because they were discharging so many people, it took awhile to get to us. We were so excited to finally go home. :)
Here are some pictures I took during our hospital stay. I wish I took more, but I was pretty out of it the first day or two.
Amelia Alexandra Mazur
Weight - 7lbs 8oz
Length - 20.75 inches
February 26, 2016
12:05 PM
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| Amelia's first picture. |
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| The nurse took our picture a few minutes after she was born. |
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| Greg holding her in his big chair (which looks really comfortable, but he hated it). Amelia liked sucking on his finger, so he'd put gloves on so she could do it. |
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| We kept her swaddled almost the whole time we were in the hospital. This is where she got her nickname, Burrito. |
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| We played a little dress up so we could take a nice picture. |
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| When she was just born, and for a few weeks after that, she hated getting into her carseat. She looks so tiny in there. |
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| When we got home, we went upstairs, put her in a gown (that said it was 0-3 months but was huge) and laid her in her Podster. She LOVES that thing. In this picture, Mia was trying to figure out what was happening. |
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| Before we went to bed, we changed her into a pajama because the gown was just too big. Jerry (her Giraffe Wubbanub) made his debut. She loves him. |
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