Happy Birthday Ashlyn Elizabeth!

She has arrived!!!!! It took us a little longer than we thought, but she is finally here! Here stats are 7-6 and 20 inches long! She put her brother to shame in that department! I forgot the camera cord (which will make sense at the end of this blog) in all of the craziness so I just have the picture from my phone. I promise better ones to come.

So...yesterday I came up to the hospital and went into their evaluation area. I was evaluated and despite contractions (and painful ones at that) I was not dilated any further than I had been on Monday. After talking to the doctor on call (not MY doctor) they decided to send me home. I was irritated and a little embarrassed. I had been sure that this was it and labor had begun (for the record, I was right). Anyways so we came home and I had a second night of constant contractions. When morning came around I was in so much pain with the constant contractions that I was pretty grumpy. Because of what had happened the day before, I hesitated and didn't want come in again and be sent home. I second guessed myself and spent all morning in terrible pain under the impression that I was just a big baby. By 10:30am my attitude was screw the nurses and that I was going to the hospital and not coming home no matter what they said. (Foe those of you that don't know, the hospital is an hour away so these drives are not easy to make under normal circumstances!) I called Pete to come home and had him call my doctor and speak with his nurse. She recommended that I go straight to the hospital. It's about and hour drive and by the time Pete was home and I was able to get dressed, I was literally crawling on the floor because the contractions were so constant. The drive to the hospital was awful and with about 15 minutes to go, I realized that it was time to push. This baby was ready to come and I rolled over (I was in the very back with my sister) ready to go. Lynne and Pete both panicked and begged me to hold on. We finally arrived at the ER and Lynne ran in to get someone. The next part is straight out of a terrible movie comedy with me barely being able to sit in the wheel chair having to explain to the VERY slow receptionist that I was in labor and about to deliver the baby right there in the lobby. After some yelling on my part the ding dong lady finally realized that I needed to get upstairs right then and there. She wheeled me upstairs and instead of labor and delivery took me to the evaluation area. I was really screaming at this point as I knew my water had broken and could feel the baby's head between my legs. As luck would have it, my OB was having lunch there with some of the nurses and heard me screaming. He came over a little shocked at how forceful I was being and told the nurses that he would do my evaluation. He again was shocked to discover that I was fully dilated and the baby was coming. In between telling Pete that I was just too tired to push and actually pushing, I had my beautiful baby girl out in about two minutes! I never even made it into Labor and Delivery!

Ashlyn was born in the teeny tiny evaluation room. After she was out, the nurses from the day before all came in to see me and were shocked at how fast the whole process was. The receptionist from L&D that was so irritated that she had to do my paperwork twice actually came in and apologized for saying anything. The long and short of it was that they should have kept me yesterday and monitored me for longer. If they had, then they would have noticed that I was indeed in full blown labor not in pre-labor. My OB was quite irritated with the process but was glad that it all worked out. He even joked that now he gets to sleep in tomorrow morning because I was his first patient of the day!

Preston came up to see his sister and was so sweet with her. He kept saying, my sisti" and telling us all to "ssshh the baby is sweeping". I can't wait to upload the pictures.

I would like to say a BIG thank you first to my sister. She sat in the back of the car with me while I was having the single most uncomfortable car ride of my life and simply sat with me so that I did not feel alone. The second BIG thank you I have is for my mom. My mom has Preston and he is happy as can be having his cousin Dyer and his "Mawm Mawm" with him. That was my biggest worry about giving birth and knowing that Pres is in such good hands really is a huge help. I know that I will come home to a happy Peanut, a clean house, and lots of love. That is priceless.

Here is a picture of Ashlyn and I taken from my phone. I'm pretty tired looking after two nights of no sleep!




My baby girl peacefully sleeping!



Daddy and Ashlyn!