Paislee's Birth Story.

Wow its been a long time since I've wrote on my blog. 

Being a new mommy and nursing student takes up a lot of my time.

I just can't get enough of our little Princess Paislee Jo. 

Bringing her into this world was one of the best experiences of my life and I wanted to share my wonderful birth story...

I decided to be induced at 39 weeks because my third semester of nursing school started on January 5th 2015 and my due date was January 6th. 

So on my last appointment at OBGYN clinic we scheduled my induction date. The next available time EIRMC had was December 31st when I was 39 weeks and 1 day. That seemed like a great day to have a baby except my doctor was going to be out of town and it was really close to the New Year. For tax/insurance purposes we were trying to get her here before that the New Year. 

The night before we went in I cleaned my entire house, made sure our bags were packed with everything we might need and then we tried to get some sleep...ya that didn't go very well because I was so nervous and excited to finally meet our little girl. 

Months and months of waiting and dreaming of what she will look like was finally here. I know I should've went to bed early and gotten a good nights rest but the anticipation prevented that ( I regret that now because I was so incredibly tired after I delivery and my whole recovery while trying to recover from the flu).

I was admitted on 12-31-14 at 7:00 am. The nurses showed us to our room and I changed into my hospital gown. Shortly after that they came in to ask me a bunch of questions, check my cervix, start my IV and the pitocin drip. I was only dilated to a 2 and 85% effaced after having my membrane stripped twice before that day! It was now 8:30 am and we began the waiting game. Jake and I tried to get some sleep but again it was difficult for me...Jake didn't seem to have a problem with it though:) I just took small cat naps and ate my yummy flavored ice chips haha.

By 2:00 pm my contractions were close enough I was considered to be "in labor" although the contractions didn't really bother me. I remember I kept thinking, "Wow I've got this whole labor thing down...I don't think I even need an epidural if this is what its like". Boy oh boy would my mind change later!

After my doctor came in to talk to us around 3:00 we decided to have him break my water once I reached 4 cm. The risk with my doctor breaking my water instead of letting it happen naturally was if I didn't continue to dilate more within the next 24 hours then I would have to have a c-section to avoid added stress on the baby. That totally defeated the purpose of being induced early and having a week to recover before going back to school. After talking with each other we decided to take the risk and hope I progressed in a timely manner.

My doctor came in around 5:00 pm, broke my water and hung out in our room after watching the football game with Jake. I found this kind of hilarious because what doctor is cool enough to hang out with his patients and just talk with them?! He stayed in my room for about 30 minutes and shortly after he left the really bad, intense contractions came! I was given some morphine but it really didn't do anything for my pain just made my head feel funny. I was told the Anesthesiologist was in a surgery and couldn't make it to my room for a few hours to do my epidural.

Remember how I thought I could handle the contractions and I didn't need that epidural?? Yep I was wrong and was in the worst pain of my life. I was counting down the minutes until I could receive that Heavenly epidural. Poor Jake tried to distract me with a show on the ipad, rubbing my back and legs, putting a cool wash cloth on my forehead and giving me a bit of jerky (shhh), but the pain was so intense that not a lot relieved it. 

I kept telling him, "How in the world does anyone have children naturally and how can anyone have more than one baby??!" My contractions seemed to be every couple of minutes and when one would come I would shake but feel paralyzed at the same time. It was rough!

At 8:00 pm my epidural was finally started (after about 4 attempts and a lot of tears on my end). Then life was good again! I was very paranoid (thanks nursing school) of getting a pressure sore so I insisted that my nurse or Jake repositioned me pretty frequently. It was a crazy feeling to be that numb, but I was grateful I didn't have to feel those contractions anymore and just see them happen on the monitor.  My nurse was absolutely wonderful and made this whole process so great for me! She took such good care of Jake too, and got him a snack basket and all the soda his heart could desire:)

We brought in the New Years, watched the ball drop on TV and anxiously awaited our sweet baby girl's arrival. We still hadn't made a decision on a name and agreed to wait to see what she looked liked before a final decision. Jake's family has a New Years party every year so everyone was also anxiously waiting to here if she would come before midnight... but that didn't happen because I was only dilated to a 6.

We decided to try and get some sleep but around 3:00 am my back started to hurt again and I was becoming more uncomfortable. I pushed my button to give myself a bolus of the pain medication from my epidural and pushed my call light to let my nurse know I was feeling my contractions again. She checked my cervix to see how far progressed I was at this point and to our surprise I was at a 10! Hooray baby time!

Around 3:30 am the nurse came in to prepare everything for the delivery. She left the room, called the doctor and came back in to help me get started. I pushed for about 30 minutes with my nurse and Jake then my doctor came in and told me to give him a couple BIG pushes. I only pushed 3 times and at 4:36 am Paislee Jo Anderson arrived into this world. 

It was so surreal and I couldn't believe our baby was actually here after 15 long hours of labor!

 I remember looking at Jake while he cut the cord and his eyes started to fill with tears. He kissed my forehead while the doctor placed Paislee on my chest. She was so beautiful and my heart was so full of love for my new baby and my wonderful husband. I couldn't have done it without him by my side. It was such a beautiful and special time that I'll always hold dear to my heart.

They were so impressed with how content Paislee was while they had her on the warmer getting her measurements and pricking her heal. Jake didn't leave her side once.

 She was technically the first baby born in Idaho Falls area but because I was induced she sadly wasn't recognized as the New Years baby. 

We are so incredibly in love with our perfect sweetheart.

7 lbs 7 oz. and 20 inches long.