AJ's birth story

wow it's been a while. Almost 3 months!
Obviously a lot has happened with the birth of our baby girl Arisa Jane Loup!
She was born March 4, 2015 at 9:15 pm--weighing 6# 14oz and 20' long. I had a great, uncomplicated labor and delivery. I was really worried about all of that, but it went so smoothly.

I was actually in labor at work that Wednesday morning, but I had a checkup scheduled for that afternoon, so I just hung in there. I was feeling nauseous, but I knew moms probably all feel yucky when they're basically at their due date. But when I went in to my OB, she checked me and I was 5cm dilated. So she sent me straight over to the hospital where they hooked me up and started an antibiotic and fluids. And pitocin. At this point, my contractions were naturally picking up, and with the addition of the pitocin, I asked for the epidural. Charlie headed over from Oscar when I called him from the Dr's office and told him we were having a baby! He got there just before they gave me the epidural. I guess I checked in around 2 or 3. Mrs. Annie came early, too.

The epidural was kind of scary. I could feel pin-pricks in different parts of my back and I kept jumping a little. The CRNA told me to stop jerking :) It worked pretty quickly, but I had a "hot spot" on my lower right abdomen where I could still feel contractions. They rolled me over to my side, but the hot spot didn't go away. I cried. Then, the CRNA came back and adjusted the needle. It worked! No more pain. (And apparently I'm one of the small percent of women who can still move their legs even though they're numb! That was kind of bizarre feeling).

Around 7:30-8? I got really nauseous and started throwing up. Right as PopPop and Risa came in. Nursing checked me and I was about 8-9cm dilated. They said sometimes throwing up means you're about to give birth. They were right! The doctor came  in shortly after, and I started pushing. 40 minutes later, AJ entered the outside world! Charlie was a champ, standing up by my head, holding my hand and helping me get in position to push. He didn't watch anything, but I told him I wouldn't want to watch it either, so that was a-okay with me. But all the nurses and doctor DID convince him to cut the umbilical cord.

The delivery was fairly uncomplicated. Just a small episiotomy and I had to be on oxygen while I was pushing.

AJ nursed so well that night. She was also extremely alert when PopPop, Mimi, Aunt Risi, Uncle Nic, Aunt Coco and Fox came in to meet her. She was wide-eyed and looking around at everything. It was wonderful having them all come to meet her. It really was. And all the staff commented on how great our family was--they were nice, calm, and stayed the perfect amount of time. Yay Loups! :)

Our stay in the hospital was good. (Although they had NO CLUE about a celiac diet!! No clue. They would ask me if I could eat what was on the tray. I even got one tray with a piece of bread on it. My meal ticket said "no bread".) But other than that, nursing staff was awesome. AJ's temp dropped a little the first night, so they kept her in an incubator to stay warm. They'd bring her to me to nurse. Other than that, they would just check on us, but let us rest and bond.

My parents came in Friday night and got to meet AJ. It's a special thing to introduce your daughter to your parents.

One strange thing. AJ was born on the coldest night--we even had sleet. So Charlie actually had to drive back and forth to Glynn a few times to check on his plants and keep everything from freezing. I'm sure it's these small things I'll eventually forget about, so I want to write them down for record.

I know that's probably way more than anyone wants to know. But maybe (hopefully) AJ will want to know about her birth one day and we'll be able to remember all the good details for her.

AJ. Mama loves you! Daddy does too of course. I wasn't sure how I would feel to meet you for the first time. But it was awesome. You were beautiful and perfect. It was emotional in all the right ways. I immediately felt connected to you. I like to think back on being pregnant with you and imagining you there with me. You WERE with me. But now it's fun because I KNOW you. We had 40 weeks of experiences together before we ever met. I love you, little girl.