The Year in Review

 
So with Ally about to turn one, I thought we'd do a small recap of her birthday. So, about a week before I got bronchitis, and could. not. breathe. The doc put me on maternity leave PTL and I stayed up doing breathing treatments etc, but needless to say, I was coughing like crazy. Fastforward a week, and the coughing is better, but I'm dialating, and having Braxton Hicks. After a romantic evening at home, I get restless about 9 pm on the 23rd. I do all the tradition things, Tylenol, 2 liters of water, rest, back massage, shower, they're went from every 7 minutes to every 5 minutes. Aw-oh. John, who was in denial, now would like to go get checked out... and I'd like to stay at home...bc God forbid this isn't the real deal... I do not want to be embarassed and then drive an hour back home to be labeled a "faker." After in a scramble, John forgot to pack up the car, and then once we were actually ready to go, we headed an hour east to Yukon, OK to LDRP. We got there around midnight, then sat in the triage room for 2-3 hours(and didn't sleep), before they decided I was going to stay bc I dialated to 4 cm, and we were gonna do this thing. Interestingly, I was told that I'd be able to walk around, take a shower, get in the tub etc, which quickly changed. The suggestion to the nurse gave her that freaked out look, which I know I've made before, and so I would pace up and down in my room when I got up to go to the bathroom. ;-) Godmom arrived from Denton, Pitocin was turned up SEVERAL times, and we were hangin' in there. Around 5 PM, I'm still a 4... and no epidural or pain meds, but now it's time to break my water... I could not relax. Her head was stuck on my pelvis... and I decided I was done. Epidural time. My body actually got a chance to relax since the Pit was maxed and my contractions were back to back. Thank God for the epi, within an hour I was a 10. Then, the puking began. I puked 10 TIMES. The best part about all of this was that my support system was SO FANTASTIC. Even the nurses kept making comments about how wonderful my husband was and how lucky I was, and really between him and Marti... it was beautiful. When it was time to puke again we just took care of it and kept going. Finally we pushed... forever. I had been told the staff would be ok with alternate pushing positions... turns out they were NOT. I pushed on my back... which helped anyway since she was side scraping my pelvis. She came out with skid marks... but she was alright. Early, with some grunting at first, but WONDERFUL. I think we both just stared at her for what felt like forever. Things got really difficult after that b/c she quit eating...got jaundiced and dehydrated and hospitalized... but somehow we made it. And her theme song became "Yellow" by Coldplay. :-D.