She's Here!

It's a little late, and everyone knows I had my baby, but I need to put it on the blog, so I have my birth story recorded! It's long, but so was the labor! =)

Rowyn Olivia Kilgore 

was born on April 5th, 2012. She weighed 7lbs 9.5oz and was 19 1/4 inches long.

My due date, April 1st, came and went. I wasn't showing any signs of labor and was not progressed at all. At my appointment on Monday April 2nd, we tentatively scheduled an induction for Monday, April 9th. I was scheduled to go in for one more appointment that Friday, April 6th to see if I have made any progress, and if I hadn't, we would go through with the induction. So, starting that Monday, Operation Induce Labor began! (I had already been on maternity leave for a week!)

I started walking a lot, and I read that eating things like eggplant and pineapple could induce labor. Of course, also eating spicy food. On Tuesday, we had the carpets cleaned, and went and saw The Hunger Games. We aren't really into The Hunger Games, but since it was such a huge movie, and we knew we wouldn't be able to see it anytime soon, we figured we'd go. After the movie, we went to the store and got some eggplant and pineapple and some Sriracha hot chili sauce. (This stuff) Kelly made me an eggplant pineapple smoothie and I drank it. It actually wasn't too bad. LOL I wasn't feeling like this was all very promising, but I played along. After that, Kelly made me some ramen noodles and put the Sriracha sauce in it to make it spicy. (I don't like a lot of spice, so it was spicy for me! I'm a total baby...haha) We headed to bed, just like every other night.

I got up to go to the bathroom about 5am Wednesday morning and got back into bed. I was laying there, and actually felt her jump, then I started leaking. She had actually broken my water! Since my water was broken, we had to go straight to the hospital. I didn't get to labor at home at all. I was admitted to the hospital about 6am, and when they checked me I still wasn't dilated or anything. They gave me some Cytotec, which is used to help soften the cervix. I started feeling some minor contractions, but I knew it was going to be awhile, so I sent Kelly to work. (He works 5 minutes away from the hospital, so I knew we were okay. My Mom was on her way from Mtn Home (45 minutes away), so I wasn't going to be alone for very long.) By lunch time, I ordered a turkey sandwich, and when it came,  I took one bite and suddenly started feeling stronger contractions. It was the food that helped! (lol) They checked me after I ate, but I still wasn't progressed enough. They wanted to start Pitocin, but I asked them to wait a little bit. Finally they gave me the Pitocin at 3pm and things started happening! Contractions got very strong and I was finally dilated to a 4.5 by 5pm, so they let me have the epidural! I LOVE that thing! haha!  Since I have scoliosis, it took them almost an hour and three tries to get it in, but it was so worth it!

Happy after the epidural! =)

I continued to progress, and they took me off the Pitocin to see if I would keep progressing on my own, and I did. Hooray! By the time I knew it, it was after midnight, so I wasn't going to have my baby on April 4th, she was going to be an April 5th baby. I really didn't feel like I had been in labor for 18 hours, but I had. I had kept sending Kelly home since it was taking so long and we live so close to the hospital, but around midnight, I had him come back. Then the nurse then had some scary news - I had developed a fever and probably an infection since my water had been broken for so long. If I couldn't get my fever down, they were going to have to take my baby to the NICU and treat her for what was called Chorioamnionitis. This was pretty upsetting, but there wasn't really anything I could do. Finally I was dilated to a 9.5 by about 2:30am, and even though I wasn't at a full 10, they had me start pushing at 3am because of the infection. All of this is pretty fuzzy in my head, because I was pretty out of it while pushing, but I pushed for three hours and she got stuck! The doctor told me I had two options - they could try the vacuum, or do a c-section. I wanted to avoid a c-section as much as I could, so I chose to try the vacuum. Finally, at 6:47am on April 5th, I had a baby! I had labored for 25 hours! Kelly cut the cord, and I got to hold her for a quick minute and they cleaned her up, then gave her back to me for a couple more minutes before taking her to the NICU. 

Kelly got to take her to the NICU, but I had to stay until the epidural wore off and I had eaten something. I sent Kelly to work again since there wasn't a whole lot we could do, and he only needed to work for about 3 hours anyway.  After a couple hours, I finally got to go see her and hold her and it was so nice!

My pretty girl with all her wires! This was before she was hooked up to the IV, too!

Proud Daddy!

A very tired, but happy mama!

Rowyn (Who actually didn't have a name for the first 36 hours of her life!) was tested for the Chorio, but we wouldn't know if she had it for 24 hours, so she had to stay in the NICU until we knew. It was rough to have her in there, not knowing if she was going to test positive and spend 10 days there. The NICU is upstairs from Labor and Delivery, so I had to go up there, hold her and feed her, then go back to my room and rest. I know it could have been much worse, though. She ended up not having it, so that was a huge relief! We got her in our room with us the second night, after 36 hours in the NICU, so it was great!

 Hanging out. 

We got to go home on Saturday, but ended up spending most of the day there anyway because there so many people coming in and out of our room. Nurses for me, nurses for Rowyn, the lactation consultant, and other people. Finally, we got her in her car seat for the first time and headed home!

Our first family photo!

Once we got home, we moved her stuff around, trying to figure out the best way to do things. It's been just over three weeks since we've been home and things have been going great! She is a little colicky, so we have some pretty good crying sessions, but we are figuring things out. I love my little girl!

 Maggie wanting to give Rowyn kisses when she first met her.

 Clyde checking out Rowyn.

Clyde saying "Please don't forget about me, Mom!"

Maggie and Clyde have done pretty well with her. For the first couple days, when Rowyn would cry, though, Maggie would get upset! (Then she got used to it and it does phase her anymore...LOL) Poor Clyde has had to get used to not seeing me as much, but we have started to get them together more and they seem to like her. We have already gone to a Pug Meet when she was 2 weeks old, too! We love our life with Rowyn! =)