She Did IT!!!!

First off, thanks to all of you for your wonderful comments. I was feeling like a shitty friend a bit and you helped validate that my thoughts were well intentioned. Andy informed me the other day that although I might seem well-intentioned that I am kind of a birth-snob. He said "your birth wasn't only intimidating to other women, it would be intimidating to most men". I don't mean to be a birth-snob. I see myself more like Rosie the Riveter...hang on!

Bam! There is me as Rosie in 2006.

As I was saying, I try to be more like Rosie "You Can Do It!"...obviously I have several buddies with extenuating circumstances that this sort of perspective doesn't apply to. I know those ladies wished they had the opportunity to birth naturally and would have if they could've.

But anyway, I am blabbering on for no reason, because Emmicakes DID IT!!!! She did it! And I am so proud of her. Granted it was kind of accidental that she didn't have an epidural. When I talked to her yesterday she said 'I wanted one, but it all happened so fast, by the time I asked for it, it was too late'. Which means, she actually didn't feel a need for it until she hit transition, a time when we all either say, or as in my case, think 'I could go for an epidural right now'. So in my mind Emmicakes is an AMAZON! She did it! I was so proud of her I almost started crying when I told her 'I knew you could do it'. Whoa whoa, let me back up.

Okay so as of 6am when I texted back and forth with Pickles, she wasn't contracting. They had started her on Cervidil the night before, she had a few contractions and then nothing. I am not totally clear on the deets, but they gave her Pitocin sometime between 6am and 11am, because I received a text from Dylan that she was at 6cm and doing great around 11:30a. I thought about heading out, but again I figured he would tell me if she wanted me to come and mostly I was thinking that it took me 5 hours to go from 6cm to ready to push and I wasn't thinking hers would be much faster. So I sat tight. Sounds like she went from 6cm to feeling the need to push in an hour because she said she got in the pool and then a few contractions later was like 'I need to push!'. They don't let them birth in the pool at this birth center....there are mixed thoughts on this, the biggest worry is they can't tell how much blood you are losing if you are in the pool....and it turned out to be a REALLY good thing she wasn't in the pool, but I'll get to that. So she's ready to push, asks for an epidural, finds out it is too late and 45 minutes or so later, Lucy Isabella arrives!!!!!!

She was 6lbs 3oz and 18" long. What a shrimp! She looks like a tiny little elf....sorry no pics yet. Stoopid Natalie forgot her camera when she went to visit yesterday. But I did remember the brie and crackers, which Emmicakes requested months ago.....and of course some chocolate. Yes I am available to come visit you after your birth. I bring gifts! Send me an e-mail and I'll put you on the calendar. :)

So as you can discern, Emmicakes lost a lot of blood. It was a little scary there for a bit. Thank god she wasn't in the pool. She said they kept her in recovery for the entire day and wouldn't let anyone visit her until later in the evening. Bad stuff. When I got there yesterday around 5, she was still pretty pale and said she felt a little weak, but overall she was doing great. She said that Lucy is breast feeding like a champ! Woohoo! and she is now experiencing the joy that is the first few days of painful as shit nipples. We only stayed for a little while because their family was coming in shortly after us. And that crazy girl asked us to come over tonight when she gets home from the hospital. What is she thinking? I think I will text her and see if it would be better for us to visit tomorrow or later this weekend. I think she'll need lots of resting time and plenty of time to get settled to having a new baby in her house. Then again, maybe she will be stir crazy. I remember texting her to come visit several times and I had Andy's mom and Bret there for the first week.

So that's the story. I promise to get pictures of the little bean sprout soon. *huge sigh of relief* I am just so glad everything went okay.....and now I must bitch internally how her labor was a fraction of mine :). Hahaha. Go figure right?