A New Way of Life

Well, I think everything is different now. Ariel Mason Woolard arrived almost four weeks ago on October 27, 2008. She was two weeks early and weighed 9 lbs 5 oz/ 21.5 inches long. She's perfect. So how did it happen? We went to the hospital around 5 am Monday morning thinking my water broke, but apparently it wasn't enough to start labor. However, they decided to do some bloodwork because it looked like I had preeclampsia and the results sent me immediately into a room to have my water broken completely. I was having mild contractions, but they wanted to move faster so I was given a light petossin drip to get them going stronger. Within about 45 minutes I was progressing pretty good. Then the midwife came in and asked if I was planning to get an epidural and I explained I was just planning to wait and see how things went - being flexible. However, she had different plans. She explained that I should realize I was going to have an epidural because I couldn't afford to have my bloodpressure jump because of pain. So when the pain got bad Jason decided it was time...and I was grateful. I wanted to wait, but logic said if I had to get the epidural eventually - why wait and suffer. I helped...while it lasted at least. After that, things progressed really well until I got to about 7 cm and then they slowed up and I essentially only dialated to 9 cm and stopped. The doctor increased the petossin, tried to up my epidural (which stopped working and never worked again), then after a couple hours decided a c-section was required. Then our big little girl was born at 10 pm. I guess that makes about 13-14 hours of labor leading to a c-section. Well, I planned to write more, but the girlie is awake now and calling. Will write more later.