Lexi is 1!!

Well, I CANNOT believe that Lexi is 1 years old already! She is growing up so fast! I feel like the next thing I know she will be driving! I am going to post a lot of pics in the next few days to commemorate her first birthday, but first, the past week I have been having lots of pregnancy / birth flashbacks. So you all get the story one more time....

The labor story...
We are thrilled to announce that we had our baby girl Alexis "Lexi" Catherine Witt arrived Thursday May 7th at 12:25am, weighing in at 8lbs 3 ounces. Derek, Ryan and I are so happy to welcome her to our family...I will be posting MANY MANY pictures later, but wanted to fill you in on how she made her way into our world. One thing pregnant women will tell you is that you lose ALL sense of what qualifies as "too much information", so if you are weary at all about "women things", please skip to the next post...because here is Lexi's birth story.



The process actually started May 5th, I had a folley put into my cervix that would help start to dialate my cervix, it was like a rubber tube that blew up like a balloon. The plan (if it was to work) was to put that in at the Doctors office, then I should be dialated 3-4 cm by the time I got to the hospital to be induced on Wednesday. The plan worked, and by 7am on Thursday when we got to the hospital I was 4cm dialated and having contractions on my own!I was excited that things were getting started off well, the Doctor came in to break my water at 12:45pm and I was still at 4cm dialated and having regular contractions about 2-3 minutes apart. The contractions started getting stronger and I had my edpidural put in at 2:45pm. The epidural was fantastic, the afternoon progressed fine and I couldn't feel the contractoins. :)



There is a monitor in the room that shows the contractions and the baby's heartrate and things were looking like they were progressing...the nurse checked me about 5 or 6pm...I was still at only 5cm dialated. The Doctor came at about 7:30-8pm and I was still at 5cm. This was the first threat made by the Doctor of me having a C-section if things didn't progress in an hour. I VERY much did not want to have a C section! The next hour was odd...I started to feel pain in one of my sides, but didn't know if it was the pressure of the baby moving down in the birth canal or if the epidural wasn't working. I had no idea what amount of pain there was supposed to be with an epidural, but I knew the pain in my side wasn't right. They checked me after the hour and I had progressed to 7cm...just what we needed to avoid the C-section at that point. Yeah!



The problem was that I was in a lot of pain...again, not sure if it was what I was supposed to be feeling. The nurse checked my epidural by putting ice on my legs and stomach...I could feel everything (when she asked me earlier, I asked her if she really put ice on my leg or if she was joking), this meant that there was a problem with the epidural. To make a long story short, the line sheared off and the epidural fluid has stopped flowing into my back. They then paged the anethesiologist (sp??) to fix it. The amount of pain I was experiencing sky rocketed, I was near tears with each contraction. Derek was great about talking me through them and feeding me ice chips after each one. I do not know how or why anyone would would go through labor without an epidural, I sure didn't intend to, but for about 1 1/2 hours, I went au natural! That hour and a half took every ounce of energy that I had, and it got me to the 10 cm dialated that I needed so Icould start pushing.



I actually wanted to push before they got the epidural back up and running, but they said I should wait so that I was more comfortable. Once the epidural was fixed, I started pushing...and pushing....and pushing....I started pushing at 10:30pm and at 12:15am, I got C-section threaten #2. They told me I could have 15 more minutes or they were going to do a C-section. I was completely exhausted and told myself that I was going to give everything I had for these last 15 minutes and after that, I knew I had done everything I could and would have to be ok with having a C-section. About 10 minutes later, I made some good progress, and all of a sudden, she was crowning and the room errupted into a flurry of activity, doctors running around, machines being brought in, NICU nurses, just in case...I had another big push where she was almost out and they made me stop pushing because they weren't ready! Derek quotes me as saying "ARE YOU KIDDING ME??" It hurt so freaking bad! I had to wait for another contraction before pushing again, then with the next contraction out she came!



Physically,it was the biggest feeling of relief I have ever had. Derek was crying like a baby, my mom was crying like a baby and I was so exhausted I just layed there! They put Lexi on my chest and let me see her, then she was whisked away so they could check her out.Part of the reason I was so exhausted was that I couldn't eat anything after some of the drugs started...so the last thing I ate was a granola bar at 11:30am....at midnight...that wasn't helping me. The TV was on the room while going through labor and I swear as I was pushing everytime I looked at the TV there was a fast food commercial on with a huge hamburger on it! What I would have done for a hamburger right then! As they were cleaning Lexi up and fixing me up, someone handed me 1/2 of Derek's Subway sandwich and I devoured it like I had never eaten before in my life. It was the best sandwich I have ever had. lol.



I know this is a long story, but wanted to share my experience, you never know what is going to happen when you go into labor, I am just happy to have a healthy, beautiful baby girl. Derek and my Mom were in the room with me and they did a fantastic job of supporting me through the entire experience. Ryan was able to be there for part of the afternoon and came back the next day to meet Lexi. My good friends Allison and Julie were able to be at the hospital and visit me when it was over....they stayed until the wee hours of the morning...and got to witness the sandwich inhaling. :)



Derek and I could not be more happy with our little Lexi, thank you to everyone for their support and best wishes throughtout the process. I have some great pictures of Lexi courtesy of her photo shoot with Auntie Katie today, I will post those once I have time. Lexi has been a very mellow baby so far and we just love her to pieces.