So much has happened.....

Since the 17th when I posted my last picture so much has happened. On Friday the 20th I went into the hospital fully expecting to come home. I still hadn't had contractions or any signs of labor but there were small traces of blood when I was going to the bathroom. My doctor suspected it was my "bloodt show" but wanted the hospital to confirm it. When we went in they had to check everything and hook me and Avalina up to monitors before they would release us. Unfortunately they ended up admitting us because Avalina's heart rate was very sporadic. It would be fine and then just significantly dip down.
The doctors decided because of this they wanted to induce labor so they set me up on all my IV's and started the pictocin and penicillin. For those of you that don't know how this works, they start the drip at 1 and gradually like to work you up to 10 to dilate you and what not. Well I never made it past 4. Everytime we got to 4 Ava's heartrate would drop too quickly because my contractions got too close together. They had to keep giving me a shot to stop the contractions and then race to find a position to get her heart rate up. The only position that seemed to work was me on my right side. So for the next 20 hours I spent labor on my right side trying to dilate to 10 and get completely effaced. At this time we still thought we were going to have a vaginal birth so I kept getting the penicillian, for anyone who has ever had this via IV, if it isn't well mixed it burns so bad it makes you think they are ripping your arm off. I am apparently very sensative to this drug and had to endure that pain four times. By the time I hit a dilation of 9 my epidural had stopped working on my left side because I am what is called a gravatational person. The side I was lying on took all the epidural and the other side was left feeling everything. This is when I started having extreme pain in my left hip. The doctors told me we could try another shot of pictocin to get Avalina out vaginally but I would feel all the pain on the left side of my body and it most likely wouldn't work which would mean she would become an emergency C-Section and I would be put under. The other option was to have a regular C-Section and be allowed to stay awake and let Vic be in the room. Since the options were limited we decided to try the normal C-Section since the risks of being put under were far greater than just having a huge epidural.
At about 6 pm I was wheeled into the surgery room and had been administered a ton of epidural medicine and morphine. 34 minutes later I heard the most beautiful cry in the world and saw my daughter for a split second before they had to start stiching me up. After they were done I was wheeled to postpardum where they monitor you for 2 hours, in those two hours you are supposed to be able to wiggle your toes, ankles, bend your knees and lift your bottom. I was told that this often takes the whole two hours to happen. The minute I was wheeled in I was able to do everything. The poor nurse was so impressed they didn't know what to do because they had never had this happen before. They decided to keep me for an hour and then finally I was wheeled to recovery postpardum and finally able to see my daughter and hold her for the first time. This was the most wonderful and exciting moment of my day. She is and was the most beautiful thing in the world to me. At that time I learned that she was born offically at 6:34 pm, weighing in at 7 lbs 13 oz and was 20 inches long. The reason that I was only able to lie on my right side without her heartrate dipping was because her umbilical cord was on the left hand side so lying flat or on that side put the pressure on the cord which dropped her heartrate. I also learned that the pain in my hip was her head. She was sunnyside up with her head turned so I was getting the back side of her head slammed into my pelvis. As much as I disliked the C-Section it ended up being a blessing in disguise.
From there we were monitored for 48 hours and were released at 6:34 on Monday and came home to finish the recovery process. I am very stiff, swollen and in pain. My abdomen feels like I was punched relentlessly and my legs to my feet are so swollen that I literally cannot fit into my pants. I was told the swelling will go down, it's because I had so many IV's for so long and my kidney's just cannot process all that quickly. Here were are 4 days after the C-Section and I am able to move around but slowly. I won't lie, it hurts like nothing I have ever felt and no pain medicine makes it feel better but everytime I hear a hunger or diaper cry I am reminded of how very blessed I am because despite everything I went through, God gave me a perfectly healthy baby girl!