Our New Family!

Here is Charlotte Analee Spence about a week and a half old

I caught part of a smile in her sleep

Here she is snuggled in mom and dad's bed napping after cuddling with dad this morning

I love seeing these eyes looking at me. She's so dang cute

She looks a lot like a Spence in this pic. She's got a lot of her dad's features and I love the interlocking fingers. She does that sometimes, it's funny

She like to sleep with her hand up and near her face. She'll look like this a lot in her car seat

Here is daddy with his little girl. She loves to just curl up and snuggle and she just kinda sticks to you

Another sleepy one with the arms up

This is after bath time. I love seeing her little Spence ears. They are so cute how they stick out

Sleeping on me wearing her I love my daddy onesie

This is one of Scott's favorites. I just love being able to look into those eyes and see her just staring back. It's amazing, that's mine!

Here's her Paul Frank outfit. My little monkey

The interlocking fingers again. She's so funny

Me my little girl back at home

Her billirubin lights... can't wait to send them back. I hated sticking her under there like that. I felt so bad! The eye patches and the mesh little beanie thing... so sad.

I love her long skinny legs. I played with them and her big feet at the hospital while we'd hang out in my room

Me and my mom with the new baby. I'm glad my mom was there to help hold my leg. Poor Scott would have died. He said it was really hard to sit back and watch me push so hard.

Me, my dad, Chloe and our new baby Charlotte... notice how Chloe has her phone in her hand... nice

Our first family photo... I don't look too hot but that's ok, we were so happy!

Weighing her in at 6 lbs 7 oz.

One of Charlotte's first pics... the lovely newborn look!

Well she's finally here! My little angel I feel like I've waited forever for! I'll post some pics at the end but in the meantime, here is my lovely story of labor and delivery!

So we start out Monday night. Scott and I show up to the hospital at 8:00 and get all settled in. By 10:00 I'm all hooked up ready to go and they give me my first dose of misoprostil. I start having contractions within that first half hour. Nothing really bad. A little uncomfortable cramping but overall good. Scott stuck around till like 11:30 then I sent him home to be with Toby and get some rest for the long day we had ahead of us. At 1:30am the nurse came in to give me my second dose of misoprostil. Then apparently I must have misunderstood something. From what I thought the misoprostil was replacing pitocin but apparently it was just the beginning of my laboring process. So the nurse told me she'd be back at 5:30am to get my pitocin going. I opted not to take an ambien that night since those usually knock me out bad and she said you usually need to get 8 hours to sleep it off. I had a kinda restless night but figured I could sleep the next day. So bright and early they started my pitocin. Then one of the anesthetists came in and said they were over booked with surgeries so they would need to know in advance about any epidurals so they can plan around it because they can't just drop what they're doing since they'd be in the OR. So I let them know that was my plan and we'd just try to let them know before it got too painful for me.

So Scott came in around 7 or 8 am and we just hung out for a while. I had eaten some yogurt that morning just to put a little something in my stomach. Around 10am my contractions were getting to be rather painful so I decided that next time someone was available I wanted to get my epidural so I could rest before I ever had to push. My nurse at the time said she could give me something through my IV so she did. It started to feel really good. Like when you have laughing gas at the dentist. But then I got really sick from it and was puking up anything in my stomach. My poor husband stood there and held the trash can while I puked my guts up. Once they counteracted my nausea with some other medicine I was feeling really good. They finally made it in for my epidural and that went well at first. Once it was going I got sick again and my blood pressure dropped. I had to sit on oxygen for a while while they monitored my blood pressure but after about 15 min or so I was feeling really good.

Around noon my doctor came in to see how things were going. It wasn't looking too great. I wasn't dilating like they thought. The nurse thought I was at like a 3 or 4 but ended up being only a two which meant after about 14 hrs I was only 1 cm further than I was when I went in the night before. The doctor was asking if I had ever had any surgeries that could have affected my cervix. He thought maybe the baby was too big or I just wasn't built right for labor. He wanted to keep me on the pitocin to see if it worked any better so they took me off my external monitor for my contractions and put one up inside of me. That way they could administer more pitocin. He also decided to break my water to see if that helped. So I went on until about 5 pm and he came back to check and at that time I was only dilated to a 5. He was growing concerned since I had been laboring so long and was afraid my body just wasn't gonna change. So he told me he'd give me two more hours to see how my body reacted to more pitocin and if things didn't change we'd probably do a c-section. At this point I was so tired I could have cared less what happened. I was kinda hoping for a c-section just so I could be done with it.

At about this time my epidural was out. They came and replaced the medicine but it wasn't working for whatever reason. I noticed my contractions getting stronger and I could actually feel them because the epidual was starting to wear off a bit. I tried pushing the button but it kept coming up with some error code the nurse couldn't figure out. So once they got a hold of an anesthetist he came in and finally got it fixed. Once it was going I hit that button like 3 more times because my contractions kept growing and getting worse and I was feeling more than I really wanted to.

My mom and sister had come in around 5:30 or 6 and were hanging out waiting to hear what was gonna happen. The nurse had come in to examine me just before 7. She totally shocked me when she said, well looks like you're a 10. Next contraction you feel start pushing. So my mom came back in and she stayed to help. Scott didn't wanna get queasy or anything so it was nice to have her there because I know it was really hard for Scott to have to see stuff. So after pretty much convincing myself I was gonna end up a c-section I had to now focus on labor. It was the weirdest thing feeling all that pressure and pushing. An experience like no other. I pushed for about an hour and 20 min. I was so tired and could barely keep my eyes open. I had to pretty much breath into an oxygen mask the whole time too because the baby's heartrate was dropping. She ended up having the cord around her neck. She barely fit too. My doctor felt bad because he had to do an episiotomy. Of course that was better than a tear so you do what you gotta do! Towards the end it was hard since the epidural had kinda worn off and I felt a little more than I really wanted to but it was probably better that way so I could really feel when to push so we could get the baby out quick before there were any major complications.

Once she was out at 8:19 pm the doctor being the funny guy he is said, "you have a beautiful baby boy." He knew it wasn't a definate yes on the girl but my mom lifted up the baby's leg when they put her on me to confirm it was a girl. I was so excited. So my little Charlotte Analee Spence ended up at 6lbs 7 oz 21 in long and she's got some big feet! She looks a lot like her dad and is just the sweetest baby ever. She did have jaundice but they said we could take her home and do phototherapy. So we got the suitcase and had to do that for a few days and had daily visits at the hospital to get blood drawn. She's done really well so far. We got the official word today that she is in the clear and her billirubin levels have dropped so the yellow in her skin and eyes should fade away here pretty soon. She eats really well and I can already see a change in her. She is so cute to cuddle with and I just love when she is wide awake and those big eyes just stare back at you when you hold them. She is such a sweetie. Scott loves being a dad. We were talking one night saying how funny it is the love you have for this tiny little being and how we created that! We were also saying how different it is the love we now have for eachother. How it just seems to have grown even more then we ever thought. It's amazing.

Well anyway, I think I've gone on enough. Everything went really well and I feel great. I recovered a lot quicker than I thought. Makes me thankful I didn't have to do the c-section now. I haven't had to take any pain pills since I came home from the hospital. Charlotte is doing great. She's in the 90th percentile for her height and like only the 15th for her weight and head circumference. Her doctor said she'd be tall and skinny like a supermodel or maybe a basketball player. Scott and I are going for basketball player. Charlotte goes in again on Monday and we'll see how she's progressing. Hopefully gained a few more ounces so she can fit in her newborn clothes a little better! She is just such a blessing in mine and Scott's life and I am just so thankful she's healthy (so far at least) and that everything is going well. I love being at home with her and all the sacrifices we have to make are well worth it.