Gabby is here!

I am officially a mommy! :) She is almost a month old! I had her on her due date, which I thought was pretty cool -- since I hear it doesn't happen very often.

Here's the long story.

March 23rd I woke up around 3-4am with aches in my belly/lower back. I figured they were the fake braxton hicks, so I thought nothing of them. I couldn't sleep through them though. They were mostly just uncomfortable. I debated on going to work that day, or not. I called the OBGYN and my midwives to see what signs I should be looking for before I should panic. Basically they said, don't come in until the contractions are 3-5min apart and I can't walk or talk through them. They said if my water breaks, then come in right away. So I decided to go into work. The pain was tolerable. Everyone was really nice at work. I had made a post about the pains on FB, so by the time I got to work, everyone was aware, I might not be there too much longer. My friend Flor let me borrow her blanket to sit on in case my waters broke lol I worked and the pains were still there. I only lasted at work till I think around 2pm...so I was at work for only 2.5hrs before I had to leave. I am on the phones all day at work and the pain was getting worse, it was getting hard to hide that i was in pain lol

I left work and headed home to wait until Mario got off of work. He got home before 5pm and by then the pain seemed to settle a bit. So we decided to go walking around Walmart. We went to get some snacks to bring to the hospital. We walked around for an hour or so and met up with his friend, they had a few cigarettes and I went into payless to shop for shoes, haha. Walking around helped a lot. Some of the contractions/braxton hicks were pretty strong. Didn't stop me in my tracks though.

We returned home and just relaxed. By now the pain was getting more intense. I downloaded a contraction counter on my phone to track the times they were coming. I have no idea how to track contractions lol but I did my best. Around 11:30pm we were laying in bed watching tv and I felt a gush. SHIT. So I got up and checked myself in the bathroom. I got cleaned up and laid back down. I wasn't sure if that was my water that had broke, or if I just peed myself a little due to the intense pain lol We called labour and delivery and asked them. They said if I thought it was my waters, to come on in. I didn't know what to do. All I knew is that I was in pain but I didn't want to drive all the way to the hospital, which is about 35miles away, just to get sent home. By this time I was in tears. The pain was bad. About an hour later we decided to go to the hospital just in case.

The drive to the hospital was intense. It is so far away but we made it in 10min, no lie! Usually takes about 35-40min to get there. He put on the hazard lights and gunned it. He was so helpful in the car. He was talking calmly and soothing to me "just breathe, it'll be ok, just breathe." When I would get a contraction all I could do was cover my eyes and shake my foot LOL idk, but that is how I dealt with the pain. Once we got to the hospital and parked, I got out and my butt was wet. So yes, the gush I felt around 11:30pm, was in fact my waters.

We rushed to find an elevator to take down to the main floor. From there we tried 2 different entrances to the hospital, both closed. This wasn't a fast process, as my contractions were coming about every 1-2 minutes. So during one I would have to walk very slowly and even stop. So he would run up to the doors and check them while I stood there hunched over in pain with a wet ass LOL Just imagine it. It was not funny at the time but just to think back, if anyone was watching us, I bet they were laughing lol

We found the ER entrance and headed in. They asked what was wrong and how far along I was, got a wheel chair and wheeled me to L&D on floor 10. I hated that part the most because I can walk, slowly and might have to stop a few times, but I can walk. Anyway, we got up there and they checked and sure enough, my waters broke. Now, I had just had a mid wife appointment about a week before this and they said I was only a fingertip dilated. When they checked me once we got to the hospital, I was 7-8cm dilated. HOLY SHIT.

I didn't have a birth plan. The only thing I wanted was some sort of pain relief. That almost didn't happen. It was a very busy night at the hospital and there were like 2 emergency c-sections going on & 5 others in labour, so all the epidural people were busy. That sucked. I was getting contractions pretty much every minute. Again I just covered my eyes/face and shook my foot till the pain passed. They were able to give me some other drug to help ease the pain. I have no idea what it was. But thank goodness for that :) Once that kicked in, I started fixing my makeup lol From then on it is kind of a blur. I know I ended up getting an epidural finally. And we were going to wait a little longer till her head dropped down more -- so we napped. The midwife that was doing the over night shift was great, we liked her from the beginning (when we first had midwife appointments) But of course, the whole pregnancy, we were avoiding the ONE male midwife. We saw him for one check up and that was it in all 40 weeks. Until it was time to push. Guess who was on duty? Yes, the male mid wife LOL. Just our luck. **He looks like my step dad, it was so weird.** So it was time to push (around 7:30-8am), and I pushed, and pushed, and pushed and pushed, for 3.5 hours. She would start to crown then suck back up. She just would not come out. I remember they also gave me pitocin because my contractions started slowing down once I was fully dilated.

I know there was some dark fluid or goo coming out when I would push. So they were going to take her right when she came out to make sure she didn't get any of the goo in her lungs or anything. That goo was poop -- hers, not mine lol. They said it happens from time to time, no biggie. I was fine with that. But she wouldn't come out!! They said "OK, we can try a vacuum but it can cause harm to you and the baby, and if it doesn't work, you'll have to get a c-section, or we can just go straight for the c-section." M and I talked about it and just said, "give me the c-section." As they were prepping for that and I was signing my life away, they still had the pitocin going, and I was like 'omg please stop it, i feel like i'm going to crap myself.'

I wasn't at all upset that I had to get a c-section. They wheeled me in and set everything up. Gave me that spinal thing, made sure I was numb, brought M in, and started to cut me open. The whole thing went just fine. I have no complaints, I had a great experience with a surprise c-section. No complaints at all. I felt pressure and that was about it. I was in a daze pretty much, like "OMG THIS IS IT OMG OMG OMG" There was talking going on from the doctors and M, he would stand up every now and then. When she was out, he stood up and heard him say "Awwwww" right away tears fell down my face. They brought her to me and I just stared at her. I kissed her and smelled her and they took her away -- M followed. They put me back together and at this point I had horrible labour shakes. I had it earlier before I started pushing too. They were all talking about their favorite shows and they asked me and I remember I mumbled something about Jersey Shore LOL Once I was stitched up I went to recovery for an hour. M came in and was telling me all about her. She finally came down too and I got to hold her for the first time! **Picture is above**

Her name is Gabrielle Faye and she weighed 7lb 5oz and was 21 inches long :) Born March 24, 2012 at 12:17pm xoxo