



Where do we even start... I was admitted into the hospital around 9:30pm on Friday April 10th. It was a very surreal feeling while I was being hooked up to the monitors and having IV's placed, thinking to myself, "WOW! I am going to be a mom soon, my life will never be the same and I can't wait." The nurse came in a placed a drug called Cervidil. It was a drug that was supposed to get my cervix to dilate. At the time of the induction I wasn't dilated at all. After a few hours the nurse checked me and said that I was dilated to 1cm. That was disappointing but normal considering I started at nothing and it was my first pregnancy.
After a little more waiting around my doctor came into the room to remove the cervidil after 12 hours and without any warning she tried to break my water! The first attempt didn't work so she tried again and it was successful. Unfortunately, that was just the start of a long night of the most intense pain I have ever felt in my life! After the water broke everyone started to get a little more anxious because they started Pitocin which was supposed to move things along a little quicker. Which it didn't! The next time they checked me I was back to being closed with no dilation at all!
The next step was the epidural. I was very nervous about the needle and pain of an epidural but after being in labor for about 14 hours it was time to let the pain fade so I could try to enjoy myself. The epidural was not quite as bad as I had thought but I knew I didn't want to go through it again... That was too much to ask because 6+ hours later I started to really feel the pain of contractions again. The epidural had moved and was no longer working! They had to remove it and place another one lower and with a different type of drug. This one took a long time to start working and in the mean time the doctor had called to check on my status. I was at 1cm again so they tried to turn off the Pitocin and start it over to work its way back up to the max again. When the pitocin wore off I wasn't hardly contracting anymore. After a few hours the doctor called again and the nurse checked my cervix and found that I had only made it to 3 cm! The nurse came back into the room after reporting to the doctor and told me that she was on her way down to do a cersarean. At that point the new epidural was still not kicked in all the way and as upset as I was so go into surgery I was ready to get the pain and labor over with.
At this point I was talking to the anesthesiologist because I was still really feeling the contractions. She gave me a dose of something that was supposed to completely make me totally numb. She did a few tests and felt confident that I wouldn't feel a thing. The nurses came into the room to have me sign the paperwork and I started to realize how real this was getting. In no time this all was going to be over and another chapter of our lives was about to begin. I was so tired that I could barely keep my eyes open and I was shivering uncontrollably due to the drugs. I said goodbye to my parents and they wheeled me off into the operating room. As they were prepping me I was telling the anesthesiologist that I was still worried that I was going to feel what was going on. And that is just what happened!! I started to feel an overwhelming amount of pain as the doctor was working. The anesthsiologist kept putting more drugs into my IV to try to make me comfortable and it wasn't doing the trick. I felt the "pressure" that they described to me when they were taking her out and all of the sudden felt a strange feeling in my stomach and heard my little girl crying. I told Kyle to go be with her while they finished with me. It took probably a total of 10 min which is really fast but it felt like an eternity! The pain was so intense that I couldn't sit still. The nurses kept telling me to stop moving my legs but I couldn't help it. Another nurse came over to me and told me that he was going to give me a shot of Morphine to stop the pain. It finally worked as soon as they were finishing, of course. Unfortunately, the side effect of the Morphine was tiredness and lightheadedness. I could not keep my eyes open for anything!
They wheeled me into the recovery room and I got to see the most precious little baby in the world! Kyle was holding her tiny hand and she was quiet and content. Addison Grace Brown was born at 2:14am on 4/12- Easter Sunday. She weighed 8lbs and 5oz and 21 inches long. I remember the nurses telling me a bunch of information and handing me Addi to try to feed her but I was so tired I don't think anything was sinking in. They gave her and me a bath and then we were wheeled into our new room. I started to wake up a little bit and looked over and she was sitting next to me in her bassinet and I could see just how adorable she is. She just looked so peaceful. My parents were let into the room and they got to meet their granddaughter for the first time. The next few hours were a blur.
The next few days friends and family came to visit and I was released from the hospital on 4/14. Things have still been crazy but are starting to calm down. She is already 9 days old today and I can't believe how fast its gone! For the most part she is a really good baby. She does have a problem with gas in the middle of the night. She will cry and scream for a few hour and then finally fall asleep. Breastfeeding is very difficult and I am working with a consultant. Addison had to be supplemented in the hospital with formula because of Jaundice and since then I have had trouble getting her to latch on. I found out that I had no milk coming in and that is why she got Jaundice. We bought a pump and I have been getting her milk that way but she refuses to latch on now. I hope that we can get past it, but at least she will get the nutrients from me pumping instead of using formula.