The delivery

After the shower i continued to go to school, trying to stick with the plan of delivery very close to the due date (just before springbreak). Then a few days later i started getting pretty tired of being pregnant and was just ready to have the baby asap (all the late night bathroom trips, awkward movements, baby sleeping in my rib cage was killing me). By the 39th week everyone kept asking me if i was having any contractions, did the baby "drop", what if the baby comes late...others were saying i should be at home resting not at school and definitely not driving. But I felt healthy and not too concerned about having contractions while driving. Then I started worrying about my baby being born on feb 29th. Then i kept asking my sisters and sister-in-law what will the contractions feel like, does your water really break like you see on tv, what`s the mucus plug look like?

It must`ve been all that shopping on friday because in the middle of the night like 330am the mucus plug came out and i was calling people (my mom, my doctor) thinking i was going into labor any second now. Apparently it`s still hard to predict when labor will start. Then just before midnight my water broke...just like on tv. my fiance kept asking me what to do and i turned the shower on and told him to get me something to wear...i definitely didnt tell him to call 911 but there i was still in the shower and i hear an ambulance (and my boyfriend telling me to get out of the shower because he thought the baby might drop out ;-). I ended up at the hospital with the most randomest outfit and no socks nor underwear because of him. I also ended up at a random hospital (northeastern) instead of jefferson because we didnt drive ourselves and the ambulance takes you to the closest maternity ward. i didnt start having any contractions until about 45 minutes later and they werent that bad and i could see them on the monitor and prepare myself for the big ones...by 5:30am though i didnt think i could take those big contractions anymore. i dealt with the iv, the cervix checking, the sensors put inside me to monitor the baby`s heart beat but when they said i was only 5 cm dilated and it might take 4-5hrs to get to 10cm i said i wanted an epidural. Of course it`s not like you`re instantly medicated i had to go through several more contractions before the epidural and i also had to get a cathether put inside me (which they did not tell me was necessary until after the epidural). The epidural worked but if only i had the hindsight to realize i would be ready to push in not 5hrs but in 1hr, I would not have gotten it. At 6:15am just before the epidural i was 5.5cm dilated and at 7:20 i told my mom i felt like i had to push. No one believed i jumped to 10cm that fast, 2 nurses checked to make sure...and then i was trying to "hold it in". They moved me to this delivery room and i started pushing around 8:05 (i kept my eyes on the clock and everywhere but below the whole labor/delivery) and when they said we can have this baby out in 2 pushes i was ready. 9 minutes later I heard her crying. Amazing. Truly amazing. My fiance cut the ambilical cord and she looked so big i couldnt believe she was inside of me for 40 weeks, and that i just pushed out a 19.5in long baby. My baby...6lbs 6oz Patricia Mackenzie. One week later and I`m still a little awe struck. I`m a mommy. Me.

Baby Shower

I was truly surprised when i ended up at a restaurant (tiffany`s on the blvd) one saturday back in february and there was my baby shower...every day prior to feb 16th i just knew my shower would be either at my mom`s or my aunt`s...i would pop over my mom`s house (coming from school or driving from home (yes i was still driving up until 2days before i gave birth, shopping at the new target with my sister). I`d complain to my sisters that they should start cleaning the house for my baby shower, tell them not to upset/stress my mom before my shower, and ask them when they were going food shopping for the shower. I felt pretty confident about the date of the shower and so when my brother suggested that we go out for a late lunch for his belated birthday i was trying to act like i didnt know he was just picking me up for the baby shower but when he kept calling giving me later pick-up times and then got lost coming to my house, i was almost ready to say "stop playing...you`re going to make me late for my own baby shower". He and his wife were still stalling when they finally picked me up and wanted to come inside and chat about planning for the baby and other baby stuff. When we got into the car my sister in law asked me where i wanted to eat and i said doesnt really matter i`m starving and she suggested tiffany`s and i said ok (what if i had said the olive garden?). As soon as she said tiffany`s, a light bulb went off in my head, i remembered a friend from school talking about my baby shower and about to give the details to another girl and i thought i heard her say tiffany but i assumed i heard wrong and in any case never would have guessed she meant a restaurant.

It was so much fun, so many people, so many gifts, so many laughs...i was really surprised by how much stuff we got for the baby: 4in1 crib (picked up later), bassinette, pack n play w/ bassinette and changing table, bouncers, swing, travel swing, bath tub, mobiles, diaper bags, lots of clothes, lots of blankets/bibs/, bath products, diapers, diaper organizer, wipe warmers, handmade baskets (filled with announcements, albums, frames, scrapbooks, baby books, clothes), cash, gift cards etc etc It was great! A few of my great aunts came and cousins that i had not seen in years...