She's here!!!

 Morgan Alicia 

8lbs 2oz 

21 inches

Born on February 6, 2012

@ 3:42pm

Morgan is such a special little girl.  She is finally here and we all love her to pieces.  Here is her birth story....

I started having False Labor pains on Thursday night (Feb. 2nd) and contractions were every 5-10 minutes all night long. Problem was they were strong enough to keep me awake, but never got any stronger or closer together.  I was up all night.  They slowed down the next day, and Friday night they were back.  I slept a little better on Friday, but Saturday was awful.  I started throwing up on Saturday night because of the lack of sleep I was having, and I ended up being up all Saturday night with contractions too.  By Sunday night, I took myself into the hospital and asked them to check me. I knew I wasn't in real labor, but I wanted to know if these contractions were progressing me enough to possibly go into labor, and if not, I was wanting something to help me sleep through them. I couldn't afford to go another night without sleep, especially since I knew I would need strength to have this little girl in the next few days.  I wasn't dilating much, but my cervix was thinning. They sent me home with an Ambien an told me to take it if I had a good 8 hours I could sleep. I went home. Took the pill. Went fast to sleep. And woke up 4 hours later, drugged up, and totally in labor. Contractions were hard and 4 minutes apart.

So... with a little frustration, we found a babysitter to come sleep on our couch at 3:30am and headed out to the hospital.  

Arriving at the hospital at 4am, (my contractions were still strong)...they checked me and I was between a 2 and a 3... but suddenly my contractions started slowing down and becoming irregular. Soon I could barely feel them, and was so worried they were going to send me home. They sent me walking the halls for an hour and the nurse told me she would check me and if I hadn't really changed much, she would ask the doctor if he wanted me to be induced (I was already passed 39 weeks) or send me home.  

Luckily, when she checked me I was between a 4 and a 5!  The nurse couldn't believe it after monitoring my "piddly" contractions, as she called it. The doctor said he would break my water when he got there in an hour or so, and hopefully that would put me in hard labor. I still wasn't really even feeling the contractions.  

Since I was almost a 5, we decided to get an epidural BEFORE the doctor came to break my water, since it was easier for me to hold still when I wasn't contracting much. 

In the past, I've gotten my epidurals when I was in so much pain, that I really don't remember them much.  Being coherent was a much different story!  The nurses were laughing at me, when they checked the monitors and saw that my heart rate was FASTER than the babies!!  I told them I was fine...just a little nervous. 

Epidural went well, besides getting nauseated afterwards and a little headache.  

The doctor came after I was numb and broke my water....and then guess what happened?

Not much.  Well- what I could feel anyway. I STILL didn't have hardly any contractions, (none that I could even feel) but kept on dilating anyway.  It was awesome.  It wasn't even that I was too numb, because I could still move both of my legs better than I could with any of my other labors.

Anyway, every time the nurse came in to check me, I had dilated another few centimeters. 

To give you an idea of how it all went, here is a picture James took of me at about 9 centimeters dilated.  I was feeling totally normal. It was weird and amazing all at the same time. 

 When it came time to push, we turned the epidural medicine down so I could tell when I was having a contraction. Didn't do much good though. I still really couldn't feel much, but I pushed for maybe 20 minutes and out our little angel came.   I was so surprised that for being almost a week early, she was BY FAR my biggest baby. 8lbs 2 oz!  And I only tore a little and needed one stitch.

After I have my babies, I usually get more sick than I feel delivering them, but that was different this time too!  I felt great, a little shaky (which is totally normal for me) but not sick enough to not hold my little girl. I was able to hold her and nurse her for 1 1/2 hours after she was born!  

Overall, it was amazing. I'm so glad that this wasn't my first baby, or else I would completely have a false sense of what real labor is usually like.

James had given me a sweet blessing a few nights before and I know that my Heavenly Father definitely blessed me with an easy labor and delivery, and I'm sure thankful for that!

Here are a few pictures of the kids meeting their sister the night she was born...

 My little Sumo/Indian/Eskimo baby.  I like to call this picture, "My baby can beat up your baby"....

 (The hospital did a terrible job of putting bows in her hair or putting her in a pink blanket or hat. And I figured they would, so I didn't bring those things to the hospital...hence the reason she looks like a little boy in all these pictures. Still beautiful to me though!

 We headed home on Wednesday morning and the girls were so happy to come pick her up with Daddy.

 Big sisters...

 Look at those cheeks!

 She was pretty banged up when she was born. More so than my other babies. She was swollen, bruised on her cheeks, her blood vessels had popped in the whites of her eyes, and she had horrible baby acne on her little face for the first few days. A few days after we came home her swelling had gone down, the bruising was about gone, and she looked more like the other two girls when they were born. At about 5 days old, she weighed 8 lbs... almost back up to her birth weight.

We're sure grateful for this sweet little girl and her sweet spirit in our home. Welcome to our family, Morgan Alicia!