Addison's Birth

My journal of Addison's Birth-

Most of you know that over the last couple weeks of my pregnancy, ultrasounds showed that Addison wasn't growing as well as she had been previously. My new OB sent us to see a specialist last week to make sure everything looked okay. It was determined by that perinatologist that Addison had IUGR (intrauterine growth restriction), was essentially malnoursished in me, and would be safer out of me so I could start to feed her breastmilk. Cause of all this is still to be determined.

The news hit me hard. I was scared. I cried for awhile. Then Mark and I raced home and began packing and preparing for her arrival. Mind you, I had still worked all week, house was a wreck, still wasn't done packing, and had tons of things on my list to do before her arrival (including a mommy massage).

We went into the hospital Wednesday evening to prepare for induction. I was terrified. The specialist had said some very scary things to us and I just wanted her out because I knew that was the safest thing for her!! But I was also terrified of an induction which could potentially lead to a c-section.

Thursday morning I was started with the lovely pitocin at 5am. I said, okay, here we go. I was checked at 8:30a and was still 1cm and firm. So my doc cranked up the pitocin, (yeah), and I kept on going. Around lunch, my doc came back and broke my water and cranked up the pit, (yeah). And then the fun started. I truly endured labor this go around. Painful contractions for about 4 hours. I made Mark massage my back until his fingers cramped, haha. The nurse and Mark kept pushing me along and I waited until I couldn't take the pain anymore and was 4cm. I got my epidural, (hurray), and then about 20 minutes later I was 10cm. We were shocked!! Our family wasn't even there yet. I thought for sure it would be hours more of this!

My doc walked in and 3 pushes later Addison came right out. I was so happy to see her and hear her cry!! I remember asking Mark, "does she look ok, how many fingers/toes does she have?" She was perfect and petite!!

Our little miracle baby was born on 2-24-11 at 5:59pm weighing 6 lbs and 18 inches