Audrey Elizabeth Sullivan

Born November 6, 2009, at 10:55 AM.  Weighed 8 lbs, 14 oz, and was 21" long.

Thursday night, I went to bed a little early hoping to go into my last workday feeling rested.  I woke up at midnight to go to the bathroom, and I wasn't feeling well but I was too tired to care.  At 1:30, I woke up again from the general pain of things, so I went to the bathroom and noticed my shorts were wet.  I couldn't believe it - my water had broken!!!  I came back to bed and had the stupidest conversation with Travis, along the lines of, "I think my water broke."  "Well, did it?" "Well, yeah!" "Now what?" "Uh...." 

I called my sister, and she drove down from Ames to be here when Emily woke up.  Even though she made the drive incredibly fast, I still decided I should be at the hospital right away.  Since my contractions weren't that bad or frequent, I actually drove myself to the hospital, sitting on towels. :)  Travis came as soon as Jenny got here.  As a side note, Emily had a fantastic day with Jenny's family.  She was so happy to see Jenny when she woke up, and she spent the day with her cousins, apparently not missing me or Travis at all. 

At the hospital, they confirmed it was amniotic fluid, and said I was dilated to 5 and 75% effaced, but that my water hadn't completely broken yet (just a leak at the top, I guess).  They admitted me, and the on-call doctor said I could have an epidural if I wanted one.  I said yes, and they proceded to start an IV for the necessary fluids.  It took three different nurses FIVE tries to get the IV started, and quite honestly it hurt a LOT more than the contractions did at the time.  I still have four lovely bruises on my arms from their attempts.  After the fluids got started, I got the epidural, and it was also an awful experience.  It's really cold in a hospital at 4 AM, and since my pain wasn't that bad yet, I was fully aware of what the anaesthesiologist was doing and it was really awful.  And, since they thought I was progressing so quickly, the drug mix they gave me was one for fast action and not necessarily long-lasting thorough pain relief.  There was some narcotic in it that made me itch all over, like I wanted to crawl out of my skin. If I hadn't just trimmed my fingernails, I probably could've put up with it, but instead they gave me Nubain to numb that.  Well, that made me feel incredibly drunk and woozy, and it put me to sleep.  I can't remember when the doctor finished breaking my water, but it didn't get contractions going like they wanted it to, so they started me on Pitocin too, since I already had my epidural.  I slept for a couple hours, and when I woke up around 8, they said I was still just at 6 cm, but getting to be more effaced.  Everybody who checked me said I was really "stretchy."  I don't know what that means, but they all commented on it. 

By 10 or so, the pitocin had ramped up to insane levels and I was feeling the contractions through the epidural.  The nubain had mostly worn off, but I was still exhausted from all the mid-night excitement.  I was really struggling through the contractions, and finally the nurse checked me and said I was at a 10 - calling me a "goof" in the process.  They got everything all set up, and I was ready to push, and suddenly half the people left the room!!!  It was so weird - they all got called to another emergency somewhere, so there was just the doctor, the nurse, and a nurse who used to be in NICU but was training to be in labor / delivery.  I didn't really notice it was strange until later, because I was in a LOT of pain.  I could really feel the baby, and really feel the contractions, and when I went to hit the magic epidural button for more, the nurse told me it wouldn't help in time.  But, I think I only pushed for a couple of minutes, and I have no stitches!!  I also feel like I was a bit more "into" the experience than with Emily's birth, where they had to watch the monitor for a contraction to tell me to push.  This time, I knew!!

So, my baby girl was weighed and measured and checked out, and then she ate!  She was still a little drugged up from the nubain, and so was I, so it was a little tougher for her, but we did all right.  She slept all afternoon while Travis and I tried to figure out what to name her.  It was really hard, because although we had lots of beautiful options, there was always a downfall - too juvenile, too old-lady, bad nicknames, or just personal preference from either me or Travis. Finally we settled on Audrey Elizabeth, and I think it's just right!

I have been wondering if I should've not had the epidural, since I ended up in so much pain anyway.  I think that what got contractions going was when I shifted positions after I woke up.  A friend of mine had told me that sitting upright, leaning forward a bit, can help a baby get into the right position for delivery, so I figured I'd do a little of that.  There was a gush of fluid when I did that, and I could feel that contractions were stronger after that.  But, with the epidural, they wanted me to lie back as much as possible to keep the anaesthetic up in my belly and not all in my feet.  And, the stupid monitors they had on me to watch the baby's heartbeat kept losing connection when I'd lean forward, so the nurses kept wanting me to lean back.  But, if I had been able to sit up at 6 AM instead of being knocked unconscious by Nubain, I probably could've had Audrey sooner.  I know there's no way of knowing, but I'm kind of regretting getting the epidural and having to go through all those drugs.  I guess as long as I don't have stitches, I'm pretty happy.  The recovery has been so much easier this time than after Emily's birth.

Since the H1N1 virus has been going around, the hospital limited our visitors to two at a time (we abused that one quite a bit!) and no visitors under age 18. I had hoped we could skirt the latter rule, too, but they stopped Emily at the doors and said I had to come out to see her.  I did, and she had had such a fun and crazy day that she wasn't particularly glad to see me. That was really hard to take, because I had really missed her!  But she had missed my ears, and wanted me to play with her in the toys in the lobby, so we did that together, and she gave me a fantastic goodbye hug and kiss when she left to go home with Travis.  I stayed with Audrey in the hospital overnight, and came home about noon on Saturday. 

It was definitely a joyous homecoming, with Audrey getting lots and lots of kisses from Emily.  She wanted to change Audrey's diaper right away, cuz that's what you do with babies!!  And since Audrey takes after her sister in the diaper department, there have been plenty of opportunities for diaper changes.  Wow, that girl can poop!  Emily has been so loving and so interested in Audrey; the hard parts have been the effects of the general stress.  We have all been really tired, although Travis is caught up pretty well and is serving as the sole functioning and rational member of our family.  Emily is a real trooper, though, and has really been great. She was right - baby sister was coming, after all!

This afternoon, Emily is at daycare while Travis is at work.  My mom has been here since Audrey was born, and just went home this morning.  Audrey and I have had some nice snuggle time and both of us have been napping (one of us more than the other!).  My milk came in yesterday, and I've been fighting the soreness, but Audrey is doing a pretty good job of eating both sides each time she nurses, and I hope that means my stint as a Dolly Parton imitator can end soon.  OW.  The intense stretching sensation isn't as bad as the first time, but the bruised feeling is still there.  And, this time I've got a 2-year-old inadvertently throwing elbows and slamming her head on my chest in attempts to snuggle, and it hurts so much when she does that!  I sure like having more lap available, though.  We can get extra close and I have really missed that!

I have such a nice little family.  There's a new folder at our picasa site, which is linked at the top of this page.  It's pretty overwhelming that I have two children, now.  Two amazing little girls!