She's growing!

Mama and Mia!

Just a few pics of Mia!

Her arrival.

I never told my labor and delivery story!!

On Tuesday morning (7/7/09) I was scheduled for a non stress test at 8 a.m. Jeremy was still at home because he didn't have to go into work until later. I get all hooked up to the monitors and drink my usual cup of apple juice and watch the morning news. (everything on the news was about Michael Jackson's memorial) A couple of the nurses noticed that I was having some pretty regular contractions during my NST. I could tell I was having a few, but didn't know how regular they were getting. Dr. VanCuren came up to check on me and also noted the contractions. He looked at me and said, "Do you want to have a baby today?" I froze. He told me that he would break my water and we could have a baby today. He could tell I looked frazzled so he told me to call my husband and he would be back in a half hour. I called Jeremy and told him the Dr. said he would break my water and we could have a baby today. I think he took it better than I did!!!! He told me he would be up in 5 minutes! Then I called my mom, sister, Cyndi & brother. Told them not to rush, but mom, Haley and Cyndi were up within an hour!!!

It was about 11:30 when my water actually broke. The Dr. just got a small enough poke to get a small leak going around 10:00. So from 11:30 until about 5:00 I would walk (well Haley would say sprint) the halls for 30 minutes and then I would get hooked up to the monitors for 30 minutes to make sure baby was doing ok. What seemed like a lonnnng day for Jeremy, actually went by pretty fast for me. I was busy walking and breathing through my contractions!! I was dilating about 1 cm every 1-2 hours. I was very pleased with the way labor was going, so the thought of having a c-section had pretty much been tossed out the window.

I got to about 7-8 cm when it was decided by the Dr. and nurses to start some pitocin to get her here a little quicker. I knew from Connor's birth that pitocin can kick your butt. So I told Cyndi that I wanted to get an epidural, not knowing that I had to wait until I had a full bag of fluid go into my IV--which takes about 40 minutes! I kinda got nervous thinking that I might miss my "window of opportunity." Luckily, I was able to get my epidural around 7 cm. Right after my epidural I had one of the worst panic attacks ever recorded (for myself)! I seriously thought that I was going to die. My heart felt like it was going to beat out of my chest. My pulse went up to 165 beats per minute and I turned a nice shade of white and was shaking uncontrollably. I had 3 nurses and Dr. VanCuren in my room plus Jeremy and my mom. They had to turn off my epidural and hook me up to some oxygen. After about 45 minutes I finally was able to get calmed down and Haley popped her head in to check on me. I asked the Dr. if it was ok that she stayed....and asked her if she wanted to stay. You all know that she really didn't want to, but decided at the last minute to go ahead and stay in the room. HA!! Not really, I thought she was going to do a backflip when I asked her to stay!

By this time I was fully dilated and not very numb because they kept having to turn off my epidural. I could feel my toes, legs and contractions.

Jeremy had a hold of my left leg, Haley my right. Cyndi was sitting on the end of the bed while she blocked her face as I peed on her everytime I pushed. I remember mom standing right next to Jeremy, with an excited yet nervous look on her face.

I pushed, Jeremy counted, Haley yelled to get my chin to my chest! I only had to push for about 20-25 minutes before Mia made her grand entrance. I remember feeling a lot of burning and pressure, but not something I would call pain. After her head came out, I remember Jeremy saying "look at me, look at me". I looked up at him because I was just so nervous and wanted her to start crying right away. One last push and Mia was all the way out! Dr. VanCuren laid her on my belly and I remember looking up at Jeremy so freaking excited. Dr. VanCuren went to hand the scissors to Jeremy to cut her cord, and he wasn't up for doing it....I grabbed the scissors right out of his hand and cut her cord :) Her arms flailed and she had a very soft cry. She received an apgar score of 9. We knew she was going to be just fine.

The day Mia arrived couldn't have been a more perfect day.

I can remember her birth and Connor's as if they just happend yesterday. 2 totally different experiences, one I wish had a different outcome. But without Connor, we wouldn't have Mia. And Mia sure has a big chunk of mine and Jeremy's hearts. We are so in love and so thankful for all of you that have followed her journey here and prayed so hard for a safe delivery.