Paisley's Birth Story

Our baby girl was originally due on November 19th, but she measured 1-2 weeks ahead all pregnancy so my awesome OB moved our due date up a week, to November 12th. Well, November 12th came and went with no baby and no signs of labor. I still wasn't dilated, but was mostly effaced and her head was down where it should be. Our doctor told us that inducing before 41 weeks doubles your risk of a C-section, especially with your first baby, so we decided to wait it out. On the Monday after she was due, we met with the doctor to make sure my fluid levels were still okay, and because I still wasn't dilating, we decided to set up a date to induce. We decided if she wasn't born by Friday November 19 (my original due date) we'd go to the hospital to start a drug called Cytotech to make my cervix dilate. It was nice to have a definite date. The week went by and we made some final preparations and went on one last date as non-parents. Then it was time to head to the hospital.
We got to the hospital at 8:00 pm Friday and got settled into our room. While we waited for our nurse to come in, I had a minor meltdown. I wasn't sure I was capable of giving birth to a baby. I cried and cried and Allen assured me that I could do it and that my body was meant to do this. I was just so nervous about all the uncertainty that lay in the next 24 hours or so. I was so afraid that I'd end up needing a C-section because my mom had to have C-sections with all 3 of us kids. The nurse came in, started my IV, checked my cervix, and gave me the first dose of Cytotech. Dr. Davis said that I would probably need 3 or 4 doses through the night and that hopefully he'd be able to break my water in the morning. After one dose of Cytotech, Dr. Naisbitt, the on-call doctor came in, checked my cervix and decided I was dilated enough to break my water. Apparently one dose was enough to get me contracting on my own (although I didn't feel the contractions) and started my labor. Dr. Naisbitt broke my water at 3:30 and that's when the nasty contractions started. Allen had worked Friday so he was tired and he slept through them breaking my water. I needed to get up and go to the bathroom, but the contractions were so strong that I needed help getting out of bed and Al was sleeping so soundly that I had to throw hospital-issued slipper socks at him to wake him up. Ha ha. We labored through the early morning hours and I finally decided to get my epidural around 7:30 Saturday morning. Allen was a champ while I was getting my epidural. It didn't hurt, I was just scared about it. After that, labor was a piece of cake! Getting an epidural was the best decision I made all day!
My mom, grandma, and sister Kelsey came by around 11:30 Saturday to see how we were doing. Before they got there, I was dilated to a 5. Allen headed downstairs with them to get some lunch, and when they got back, about an hour later, I was fully dilated and almost ready to push! We didn't expect to start pushing until around 3:30 that afternoon, but the nurse called Dr. Davis, had me do a few practice pushes, and then we waited for Dr. Davis to get there. Dr. Davis showed up around 1 pm, and we started pushing for real. At 1:50 pm, on Saturday November 20, 2010 our beautiful baby girl was born.
The nurse had asked me when we first checked in if I wanted immediate skin to skin contact with the baby. I had been thinking about it quite a bit during my pregnancy but hadn't decided. When it was time to make the final decision, I decided I would already be sweaty and gross after pushing out a baby, I might as well get to snuggle my baby immediately, regardless of the amount of goo she was covered in. So as soon as she came out, Dr. Davis had Allen cut the umbilical cord and then the nurses wiped her off a little and laid her on my chest. I couldn't believe I had just squeezed out a baby. I could have stared at her forever. The nurses scooped her up to weigh her and clean her up. She got a 9 on her 5 minute APGAR, which is awesome! Our baby weighed 8 lb, 1 oz and was 20.5 inches long. She had wrinkly hands and feet and a good amount of dark hair. I got to love on her while Dr. Davis stitched up my 2nd degree tear, which helped me ignore the discomfort.
When we got to the hospital, we still hadn't decided on a name for our baby girl. We had a few we liked but agreed we wanted to see her before we decided on a name. After looking at our baby for a few minutes, we decided she was definitely a Paisley. We named our baby girl Paisley Jayne McCracken. After knowing her for the few days we have, that name fits her perfectly. We call her PJ, Miss Paisley, Pais, and Monkey. She has monkey feet, so that's where the last one comes from. :)
All in all it was a pretty adventurous weekend. We were in the hospital until Monday afternoon and I had awesome nurses taking care of me and Paisley. Allen talked me into sending her to the nursery both nights, which I appreciate in hindsight. Our first night home, I was wishing I could send her to the nursery so I could get some sleep! We've kind of figured things out though. We are loving having this new addition to our family and can't wait to see what the future holds for the 3 of us!