Announcing Astoria Annette!: She's Here!

So here's the story:

Sunday, April 5, 2009, 2:00am I woke up thinking I had just wet the bed (I wouldn't have put it past me, my pregnant bladder was not friendly). As I gout out of bed I realized liquid was running down my legs. I was mortified. I went to the bathroom and a gush of water appeared, by this point I'd kind of figured out what it was. I yelled at Rex to come and I don't think he believed it either, after all we kept hearing "most all first babies will late". We were 6 days out from our due date of April 11th. Thank goodness the bags were packed and all Rex had to do was finish up the loose ends I hadn't yet packed. I immediately called my mom to let her know my water had broke (once again disbelief seeped through the phone) and she needed to get in the car and head to Texas. Next, I called Meredith, I think she was the biggest disbeliever. She kept asking me if I was sure. I told her if not my bladder had exploded, I was pretty sure. I told her to pack herself and her kid up, pick up mom and get in the car! After talking with the two of them I decided to call the doctor. Kind of important I suppose. The doctor told me to head to Labor and Delivery. I mentioned I didn't have everything quite packed and it might be about 30 minutes, she was okay with it. After a few more phone calls with Meredith still confirming that yes, my water had broke we got in the car (with trash bags and towels on the seat) and headed to the hospital. By this time Rex had contacted all of his crew and we managed to convince everyone to stay at home until we knew what all was going on.

Turns out my water had indeed broke but I was still considered closed and had not dilated at all. Amazing if you ask me, everything I had read said I should have been at least somewhat dilated for my water to break. Oh well, who's playing by the rules here (remember we're 6 days early).

Shortly after arriving at 2:30 am the doctor decided to start the pitocin to get me moving. I was terribly worried about all of my family getting her in time but no worry, Mom, Mere and Olivia made a 3 1/2 hour trip in 2 1/2 hours. My poor dad was at the lake house (a 5 hour drive) and managed to make it in 4. I'll never ask just how fast they were all driving. I was just happy they all made it in plenty of time.

The time seemed to fly by pretty quickly once the pitocin started working. My contractions never did get regulated but did get increasingly more painful. I made it to a 3 before I called in the drugs (about 4 hours after I started). Once the drugs were in, life was good. I'll never understand those who decided to go natural. I think I actually got to enjoy labor because I was comfortable. I even had the opportunity to watch the entire process via a mirror at the end of the bed. We started pushing around 1pm and Astoria Annette graced us with her presence at 2:30pm. She measured in at pounds 10 ounces, 19 3/4 inches long. I think everyone was surprised with how small she was (even the doctor). She came out screaming and a beautiful pink color. I cried. How could something so precious grow inside of me?

The next two days in the hospital flew by. Lots of visitors and lots of nurses in and out of the room. She took to breastfeeding very quickly and slept in pretty regular intervals. Tuesday morning mom and I woke to a phone call from my Grandmother's assisted living center informing us she had passed away during the night. Although her death wasn't a surprise it wasn't expected. We all came to the conclusion this must have been the reason Astoria came early, Grandma needed a space in heaven. She joined my Papa (her husband) and more recently my Grandpa. I'm sure they let her know what a beautiful baby Astoria was before they sent her down to greet us.

Later that morning we were discharged and I was all too ready to get home!

A few pictures from it all:

Rex trying to get her out quicker...