Willow Grace

So, I've been a tad busy lately. Our sweet daughter was born on July 27 at 6:39 PM. Today she is two weeks old. She weighed 6 lb 8 oz and was 19 inches long. Such a lovely little lady.

The labor and delivery was quite difficult. My blood pressure and swelling was getting to a scary level, so they admitted my Thursday night in order to begin enducing labor. Around 4:30 the next morning, my water broke, and they started me on Pitocin. I had tried to go all natural for the birth, but the contractions were so fierce that I ended up asking for the epidural. I was in labor for 14 hours and pushed for 3 1/2 hours before they realized that she wasn't going to be able to come out, so we had to do an emergency c-section. With the epidural, the first dose I was given of pain medication worked, but the problem is that my epidural slipped out at some point, so most of my labor ended up being natural anyway. When I went in for the operation, they didn't check to make sure the epidural was working. I told them that I felt pain but was told that it was just pressure, and I felt, among other things, the doctor cut me open. I was screaming and arching up off the table, and finally they put something in my IV to knock me out. So, I missed the birth of my daughter. I missed her first cry.

For about two and a half hours after I woke up from the surgery, I didn't know who I was and I didn't recognize anyone from my family either. They took everyone out of my room, I think, to save more on their distress than mine. Finally, after some time, they brought Chris back in and I knew who he was much to his relief. I asked to see the baby, and they didn't want to bring her but Chris convinced them that they had to bring her. So, around 10:30, I met Willow Grace face to face.

Recovery has been slow, but I love having this little one here with us. It was a rough beginning, but she is so worth it.