Thursday, August 25, 2011 - A Beautiful Day!

It all began Thursday morning when I woke up at 3am with what felt like I peed my pants.  There wasn’t too much so I wasn’t sure if my water broke or I just lost control of my bladder.  Jason had to leave at 6am for work, so I stayed in bed but wasn’t able to get back to sleep.  At 5:30am I started having small contractions and told Jason that my water may have broke and I may be having contractions, so I may be calling him later.  I kept myself busy doing laundry, vacuuming and getting things cleaned and continued to slowly leak fluid.  At 9:30am I called my doctor and the nurse told me to come in to check if my water had broke.  At 11am the doctor said it had indeed and that I was 4cm dilated, I was going to have a baby today. 

I called Jason and my Mom to let them know.  The nurse brought me over to the hospital and got me all set up.  Jason ran home to get our bags and got to the hospital around 12:30pm.  My contractions were progressing, but definitely manageable.  About half an hour after Jason arrived they started getting pretty strong and I was not feeling so hot.  During contractions I did not want to be touched and did not want any noise, so that kicked pretty much all our “techniques” right out the window.  Jason did an amazing job at being there and letting me go.  For about two hours I breathed through contractions and nearly fell asleep between them because of exhaustion with my eyes closed almost the entire time.  Half way through the strong ones I almost called for the epidural, but everything came pretty quick.

When Jason arrived at the hospital

Toward the end I walked around for a short while and started to have the urge to push.  They rushed in the delivery squad and within half an hour at 3:25pm on Thursday, August 25, 2011 we pushed out a 5lb 10oz, 19.25in baby girl and that was that.  She cried and cried for almost the entire hour she was in the room before they had to take her away to monitor her.  I was only able to hold her for a few minutes, but it was the best few minutes of my life. 

Just after birth

She has quite the cone head from sitting down in my pelvis for the past month.  The doctors said it should go back to normal shape in the next week.  She spent Thursday night in the NICU because she had some fluid in her lungs and was having a hard time getting oxygen, things that come along with being born just over four weeks before her due date.  We are so sad that she had to be away and isn’t able to be with us in the room, but I know she is strong and stubborn and will be able to get through this, stronger than ever.  Today she is breathing better and was moved to the Special Care unit, a step up from the NICU.  Hopefully she will be ready to go before tomorrow when we are scheduled to checkout.  Grandma Sally got here late Thursday night and has gone with us to visit the little girl twice now. 

In NICU Thursday night 

Daddy with the little one Thursday night

Grandma Sally Thursday night

Baby Girl Palermo in the NICU

Making progress in Special Care Friday morning 

With Baby Girl Palermo in Special Care

Our little girl truly is amazing and despite her challenges, she is tough and strong and making great progress.  We love her more than I could have ever imagined and know she will get through this to be a healthy, beautiful girl.  We are so excited and blessed to have her in our lives.  After hours, or months, of procrastinating, we finally came up with a name, Giabella Schoen Palermo.