Yes, still alive

And still internetless. Anywho, this past month was a little more exciting than I was anticipating. Some that read this already know the whole story, so feel free to skip this entry! For those not in the loop, here goes. . .

July 14th, around 8 p.m., my water breaks at 29 weeks and 3 days. I have a very nervous drive to the hospital. I get there and they put me flat on my back and hook me to all their machines. THere are contractions, but they aren't very strong, and far apart. I start a round of steroid injections. Fun times. They go in your butt, 4 shots over 48 hours. Contractions stop, so they move me to a room. I got to stay there on total bedrest for 16 days! I got to experience using a bed pan to go to the bathroom and having to buzz a nurse when I was done so they could empty it! It was all so exciting!

July 30, around 5 a.m., I woke up with some cramping. I thought it was intestinal, until I noticed they were every 5 minutes. I was highly skeptical though, as they didn't really hurt, and I have never gone into true labor on my own. Around 6 my dr. came in and we talked about it. His response was that a baby might appear that day. My response: nah.

Around 6:45 the contractions start to hurt, BAD. I decide to tell Jeremy to go ahead and come up just in case. Then by 7 they were 2-3 minutes apart, so I buzz the nurse. By this time, I finally realize that yes, I AM in labor. They take me to the triage room, and by this time I am begging for the epidural. (and feeling like a wimp for it) The dr. checks me and I am at a 7! I think this was around 7:30. About 5 minutes later they wheel me to a labor room, and Jeremy shows up. THey bring in the epidural lady, who tries to get a better IV line in me first. After her 2nd attempt, I look my dr. in the eye and say "You need to check me" He moves like lightning and checks and next thing I know, they are RUNNING down the hallway with my bed to the room where I will deliver. RUnning so fast that one nurse almost fell down. We get in the room, and a contraction comes, and the baby starts coming out. Dr was yelling for the NICU team to get in there.

This whole time I am barely in control of myself totally panicked, as this hurt worse than all my other three births combined. Jeremy's hand about got squeezed off. At one point the dr. told me to push and I said no. But my body pushed anyways and she was born at 7:50 after only 2 pushes. (You notice this is only about an hour after true labor started.) Jeremy had only been there for about 10 minutes. And looking back, I was not being a wimp when I begged for the epidural, I was in transitional labor, and just didn't know it. If I had known, I would have been less freaked. Pretty amazing though, I went from a 7 to a 10 in about 15 minutes.

THe baby did awesome from the start, needing no oxygen or anything. We took a few days to name her and finally settled on Hannah Katherine. She is still doing awesome, the nurses say she is way ahead of where she is supposed to be. She will be out of the incubator sometime in the next few days, and they discontinued her IV yesterday. IN about 10 days they will start to try to bottle feed her, and then once she learns that she will go home. I have a feeling it will be before we are ready.

So, uh, that was July. :-)