The Birth Story...

Well, Aliyah Jane Maldonado is here! I can hardly believe it because I have been waiting forever, but she really is here! I am so in love with her. I honestly can't get enough of her! I want to hold her or look at her all the time! :)

I want to remember the birth story this time because I really don't remember much of Elijah's. I decided that I should blog about it while it is still fresh in my memory! So here it goes...

Her official due date was October 3, 2010. At 4:30 am on October 3, Elijah woke up crying out for Daddy. I woke AJ up and asked him to go see if he needed anything because I knew that it would take me a while to make it down there. When AJ got out of bed, I rolled over and felt this gush of fluid. I thought "what?! I'm peeing my pants?!" So, I got up and went downstairs to the bathroom. I went potty and when I stood up, I was still leaking everywhere! That's when I knew...my water had broke! Luckily, Nikki (my sister) was in Nappanee at a scrapbooking retreat that weekend, so I called her and she came to get Elijah. I took a shower, got ready, packed a few last minute things, AJ showered, got ready, packed some stuff, and off we went to the hospital. I wasn't in a super huge rush because I wasn't having contractions at all. So, we stopped at McDonald's before we went for breakfast. I could hardly eat anything, though, because I was so excited, but I knew I should eat something before I went so that I would have more energy to get through the long day!

We arrived at the hospital around 7 am. We checked in, they checked to see if it was my water that broke, and it was. When I first got there, I was only 25% effaced and 1 1/2 cm dilated. We walked around for a long time to see if anything would start on it's own. At about 9:20, I was given 1/4 of a pill of cytotech in my cervix to help soften things up. I then started having pretty regular contractions. We walked and walked. AJ took a nap while I walked some more. At 1:15, they checked me and I was only dilated to 3 cm, so they gave me pitocen to help speed things up. My contractions became pretty intense. I was able to sit on the fitness ball, though, and that really helped. Well, Aliyah decided she didn't like the external heart monitor, so after trying over and over to keep her heart on the monitor, they decided I needed an internal heart monitor so they could make she she was doing okay throughout the labor. They put one in, and it didn't stick. They had to try to get it out, and that hurt so much that I involuntarily started crying. Then I was getting contractions while the nurse was trying to get the monitor out, it just was really hard. They finally cut it and then took it out without trying to untangle it. Then they tried 2 more times to get the monitor in, and they finally did on the 3rd try. The nurse said that Aliyah must have a lot of hair because the only time they have so much trouble is when the baby has a lot of hair. That was the only comforting thing about having to have them try 3 times! :) The internal heart monitor wouldn't register on the mobile monitor, so after they put it in, I was confined to my bed to deal with the contractions.

When they checked me at 4, I was still only 4 cm dilated, so because I wasn't allowed to take a shower or sit on the fitness ball, I asked for the epidural. At 4:16, I got the epidural, and as soon as it was in, I felt so much better. I layed down and took a little nap. At 6, they checked me again, and I was 5 cm dilated. She had me roll over on my side with my leg over a pillow, so I was almost laying on my tummy. She said if I felt the urge to poop to let her know because it probably means I'm ready to push. Not even kidding, at 6:30 pm, I started feeling the urge to push, and it was during contractions when I would feel that. I thought for sure that it was too early. I had only been 5 cm dilated half an hour ago! So, I waited about 15 minutes, and the feeling only got more and more intense. I called the nurse in, she checked me, and said "Yup! You are 10 cm dilated and her head is RIGHT there!" She called the doctor, who was all set up and ready to go by 6:55 pm. I was shaking so hard, which they said was a sign I was ready to push. The nurses were AMAZING at coaching me on how to push. AJ was, too. He was so encouraging throughout the whole day. I pushed through 3 or 4 contractions, and out she came at 7:06 p.m. on her due date! They put her right on my chest to clean her up and said that the next hour was mommy and Aliyah time. They said not to worry about her crying, that it wasn't quiet time and by crying she would get all the gunk out of her lungs that she needed to. So for an hour, I held her on my chest and looked at her and memorized everything about her. I fell in love as soon as I saw her! :)

They weighed her after the hour and did the bloodwork and everything for us. She weighted 7 lbs 1 oz and was 19 inches long. Perfectly tiny. She has dark hair...we think it's black, but if not, it's dark dark brown. We can't really tell what color eyes she has yet...they look dark, but they'll become more of a color in the next few weeks. We could tell Elijah's eyes were blue right away, so she might have dark eyes. I don't really know.

Anyway, that's the birth story! It was the best experience ever...I had the same nurse the whole day. She thought she wouldn't be there for the birth, but at the end of her shift, Aliyah came on out, so it was perfect! From the time my water broke til the time I had Aliyah it was only 14 1/2 hours. And from the time my active labor started, it was only a little less than 6 hours! It was really fast and perfect!