Indie Marie is here

Before I get into the birth story I would like to say Happy Birthday to Elly and congrats on being the overall winner in your spring fling. I hope you are having a great day today. Geof and Darla, I am glad you are settled in and that you have such an adventure ahead of you. By the way I love the name June, very cute, how did you come up with that? LeAnne, it is great to have you on the blog. Adam, I loved seeing Sierra snowboard, how adorable. Mindi, I loved the story about the bird, isn't that the same thing she yelled when a stray dog got into your laundry room? She is quite the animal lover. Cory, your blog about seeing Elly come home from the hospital was classic. And finally Brooke, Mike and family, I am so sorry about all that has taken place with little Ellyn lately and I am happy to hear she is doing better. Only now that I have my own baby can I even imagine what that must have been like for you. You are all in our prayers.

So here is what happened with baby Indie. On Monday the 19th we had to be at the hospital at 6 a.m. We went to bed at midnight the night before and I got up at about 4 a.m. to get ready so I definitely did not get enough sleep. They started me on potosin(?) at 7 a.m. and my doctor broke my water at 8 a.m. (which was quite an experience in and of itself). At about 3 p.m. I decided it was time for the epidural because the contractions were getting pretty bad. So right before you get the epidural they have you sign a paper that states all of the things that could go wrong while getting an epidural which was very comforting. I just about passed out while they were doing it because it kept not working and they had to do it 3 times before it finally worked. So they give me the stuff and my legs started getting heavy and I could no longer feel the contractions so it feels great but then slowly my arms start going numb and then my chest. I am trying to stay calm although in the back of my head I'm thinking, "If my chest is numb, my lungs are probably next." So I say, "Am I supposed to be numb up here?" as I pinch my chest. The nurse asked if I was kidding and I assure her I wouldn't kid about something like that. They hook me up with oxygen and call the anestitist(?) back in. They decide to turn the epidural off completely. Then the baby's heartrate starts to drop with every contraction so they turn the potosin off, all of this is done without my doctor knowing so I lie there for about 3 hours making zero progress until the doctor comes in around 6 p.m. and gets in a fight with the nurses and starts everything back up again. Fast forward to about 10 p.m. where I am feeling pretty groggy and I have started a fever which I attribute to my "lack of sleep headache." I am finally dialated to a 9 and they call the doctor in. They all start bustling around frantically and I finally ask, "Are you hurrying because your nervous or is this normal." The doctor said everything was fine but she had mentioned that she wouldn't let me push for too long before she would do a c-section and I definitely didn't want to go through all of that to end up with a c-section so I was pushing like crazy, at least I think I was because I couldn't really feel anything. I felt like my eyes were going to pop out of my head though. Besides that it was a really wonderful time. Tony was right by me counting with the nurse telling me I could do it. He was wonderful. Mom, dad, leash, lyd, grandma Rigby, Kim and Annelee were all there and near the end they were all yelling push, it was funny. So finally at 10:55 p.m. Indie was born. She came out face up so her poor little face scraped along my pubic bone which really did a number on her face. Her poor little head was all cone shaped and swollen and bruised. And her nose and eyes were swollen and bruised too. It really scared me at first because I didn't know if she was okay but just hours later it had already gone down. Her legs and fingers were bruised too and they said it was because she was squished inside of me for 9 months and I wish she would've spread out a bit, there was plenty of room. It made me feel so bad. You could barely touch her because she was so sensitive and sore. Anyways, they cleaned her up and let me hold her for about 1 minute and then they wisked her off to the NICU because they were afraid she had asperated meconium. I got to visit her there and change her diaper. We finally went to bed at about 2:30 a.m. and at 4 a.m. they brought her back to us. It was wonderful to be with her. Fast forward again to Wednesday morning where they decided to put her back in the NICU for jaundice. We had to check out that night at 11 p.m. so we went home without a baby. I walked into her nursery and just bawled. So from Wednesday to Saturday we spent most of the days at the NICU and then slept at home. It was horrible but then again I felt blessed because most of the babies in there are there for months at a time. So on Saturday we finally brought her home. It was great to be home with her and besides the first night things have gone really well. She has really caught on to nursing which I was afraid she wouldn't because they had to bottle feed her in the NICU. We are just as happy as we could be and we are amazed by her. I could stare at her all day and I can barely do that without crying. I just feel so blessed. I never knew I could love so much and I am so glad I get to be with her and Tony forever. We have taken tons of pics but they are all on Tony's lap top so on Sunday I will post them while we are here at mom's. I found out the hard way about the brocolli Darla and I think salsa has the same effect too. When we brought her home on Saturday we had to have her on a billy blanket to continue to help with the jaundice and as of today we are done with that so that is good because her jaundice has gone away. The blanket glowed and when Chloe saw her in it she thought it was her binki glowing it was so funny. So after all of that Tony and I were driving home from seeing her at the hospital one day and I said, "we have to have a ton of kids" and he agreed. He used to only want two but I think he has changed his mind. I have loved being pregnant and the delivery wasn't bad either so as long as I can raise them that easily I think we will have a lot. It has been the most amazing experience ever. Sorry this is so long and I am rambling now so I will go. I love you guys. Love Jess