So now that I'm a bit more awake, I present you with the story of how Rhia finally made her appearance:
On Thursday morning I had a doctor's appointment. Not a whole lot of progress had been made since Tuesday, so the doctor decided that we should schedule an induction to start on Sunday night. I was a bit sad, because I didn't really want it to come to an induction, but I was happy to have an end-date in sight. I went home and went about my normal business, but around 11 or so I started to feel a bit odd--but I figured it was the same old thing that had been going on for weeks. Around one I decided to start timing things, because I noticed that the pain I was feeling kept coming and going. By the time Al got home at 2:00, I was timing contractions at about 5 minutes apart, but they weren't unbearable, just different. We sat it out until about 4, when they started to get worse, so I called the clinic, and the nurse told me to time them for another hour, and if they kept coming I should consider going into the hospital. They didn't get better, so we went into the hospital around 6 p.m., just to get things checked out. They put me in a little room and did another check--nothing new since that morning, so they wanted me to hang out there and see if anything progressed--we still didn't know if we'd be sent home or not--we called parents and such to let them know that we were there, but weren't sure if we were there for good.
Around 8:00 they checked again--not much going on, but things were getting more and more painful--to the point where I couldn't really talk during them anymore. It was decided shortly thereafter that I would be staying, so we moved into one of the actual birthing rooms, called parents again and let them know that it was the real thing, but was progressing quite slowly. By about midnight I was incredibly uncomfortable and things were starting to happen--I took a nice warm bath, which helped a lot, and spent a good portion of the night sitting on one of those yoga balls--I couldn't lay down, it hurt way too much. By about 3 or so I was in enough pain to take a shot of something that would help take the edge off--I still didn't want an epidural (I was trying to deliver without it)--it helped, but it didn't get rid of the pain completely, just made me really loopy and able to sleep a bit. By 6 a.m. I was miserable, sobbing, and wanted anything that would make the horrible pain go away, so I finally caved and got the epidural--the anesthesiologist was my new best friend. I lost complete feeling in my legs, but I couldn't feel the contractions anymore.
My doctor came in around 8:00, checked things out, and told me that after he finished a c-section he had scheduled that he was going to come break my water--which he did around 10:00. It took me another 5 hours before things were all ready to go--I spent most of the morning in a semi-doped up state, trying to sleep. I couldn't move around at all because of the epidural and my numb legs. Mom, Grandma, and Josh showed up around 2:00--having left Montana that morning--I was worried they wouldn't make it in time for her to be born, but she waited for them. At 3 or so I was in a lot of pain again, the epidural was wearing off, but things were ready to go. After over 2 hours of the most intense pain I could imagine, Rhia was finally born, at 5:07 p.m.--almost 24 hours after we'd gotten to the hospital, and 28 after I'd realized I was in labor. The doctor had to use a vacuum thingy to help get her out--she was face-up (hence the horrible back-labor and pain), and she had an arm up next to her head for some reason (which she hasn't stopped doing--she loves her hands at her face) so I was having some trouble. They cut the cord and put her up on my chest, and I instantly fell in love with her. After that they cleaned her up and did all of that stuff that they do when babies are first born while the doctor fixed me up. I wound up needing a few stitches, but nothing dramatic.
Al was fabulous through the entire thing--I think I somehow managed to get more sleep while I was in labor than he did. The only time he left was to come home and let the dogs out, otherwise he was there holding my hand and helping me through all of it. It was a terrifying experience--I don't think anything could have ever prepared me for how much labor would hurt--but it was worth it, because she's perfect and wonderful. Mom and Grandma were there when she was born too(Josh was down the hall being terrified by the screaming, I guess), and Kim and Charlie got to Ellensburg the evening she was born. We've had a few visitors, but not many--still trying to get used to all of this!
We've been home for over a day now (they let us come home Saturday evening), and she's a really good baby so far. Sleeps a lot--even at night. She gets fussy when the lights go out and it gets really quiet, but she calms down pretty quickly. She woke me up about every 2 1/2 hours or so last night to eat, spend about half an hour or so eating, then she'd just go right back to sleep after I put her in her bassinet. Al has been on diaper/calming general fussiness duty, so it's working out pretty well so far. I hope she stays this mellow--I know it's still early-on and she might still be recovering from being born, but so far she's mellow and really fun--she has the best faces--Al is already trying to teach her to stick her tongue out at him. I'm amazed and how much energy I have, considering how sore I am and how little sleep I'm actually getting. Al couldn't beleive how awake I was last night when I was feeding her when he came out to sit with me. I guess the last two months of not being able to sleep/getting up to go the bathroom all of the time really did prepare me for when she came. :)
So, there is the (very long) story of Rhia being born. I don't know that I'm ever going to get anything done ever again--I just want to sit and stare at her all of the time. It's so amazing to realize that I grew this entire little perfect person, and that a week ago she was still squirming around and kicking my ribs from the inside.
