Our Stay at the Hospital

We were in the hospital for two nights. During that time we had great nurses and an overall good stay. Michael had a stomach virus, so he spent the nights at home and I had Ashlynn stay in the nursery. The first night, this was really important because I was so exhausted and needed some sleep since I hadn't slept for two days by this point.

While were in the hospital, we had many special visitors. Here are photos of a few:

Introducing Ashlynn Pippa Utt!

Ashlynn Pippa Utt

January 2, 2012 at 12:30 p.m.

7 pounds, 7 ounces

21 inches long

Despite the VERY long 24 hours, having our sweet baby was truly an amazing experience that I really can't even describe. I'm so in awe that Michael and I actually created this absolutely perfect baby. We don't have as many photos as I would have liked, but we were both completely exhausted. I actually fell asleep holding Ashlynn when the nurse gave her to me. Because there was meconium in my amniotic fluid, there was a NICU team in the room when we had Ashlynn. They were hoping she would come in to the world without crying. As you can tell by the photos above, that didn't happen. :) They had to get her over to the warming table to begin suctioning her immediately, so Michael didn't get to cut her umbilical cord, the doctor did it quickly. After they were done with both me and the baby, Dad, Lorie, Terri & Tim came in to meet Ashlynn. Mom and Lee went home to rest early that morning so they got to meet her later in the afternoon.

Waiting and Waiting

While I was in the labor and delivery room, Mom, Lee, Dad, Lorie, Tim & Terri (and Michael sometimes) waited patiently...at least at first :)....in the not so comfortable waiting room. By the middle of the night they were looking all over the hospital for places to sleep!

Meanwhile, I was in the room watching girly movies - Sweet Home Alabama was my "epidural movie" and Pretty Woman was on later. I was shocked to find out Michael had never seen Pretty Woman before! I look crazy swollen in this photo below, they started me on IV fluids as soon while I was in labor.

New Year's Day - Will Ashlynn Make Her Debut?

We slept in late on New Year's day...me because I had a headache, Michael, well, because he just likes to sleep! Little did we know this would be the last time we would have that opportunity for probably 18 years! When we finally got up around 11:30, Michael said to me, "I want you to go ahead and push this baby out today, but after the Panthers game (at 1 pm)." I laughed at him and said I would do my best. Well...

At 12:55 pm we were pretty sure my water broke. Looking back, my first reaction should have been to eat something because I hadn't eaten since dinner the night before. I decided to take a shower, while I was in there, Michael did research on how to know if your water broke for sure. We were 95% sure that was what happened, and it looked like there was meconium (Ashlynn's first poop...yuck!) in the water. I called Michael's Aunt Carol because she is a nurse, she agreed it was probably my water breaking. I decided to still call the doctor's office on-call nurse to make sure I was supposed to go to the hospital. It took a while for her to call me back and told me I needed to get to the hospital IMMEDIATELY. This kind of freaked me out, so I didn't have us stop to eat...big mistake. I did grab a protein bar on my way running out the door. It was really warm that day and I got to wear flip flops to the hospital! I was definitely not the wardrobe I would have expected when I found out our due date was in January.

On the way to the hospital, we called mom & Lee, dad & Lorie and Tim & Terri. They all decided to come to the hospital as my contractions got closer. At this point, I really wasn't having many contractions, but it was obvious that my water had broken. We had a very uneventful check-in and had a very nice nurse. This was around 3 pm. My contractions were about 15 minutes apart at this point and were a little bit painful. The nurse asked lots of questions and even said she hoped we had the baby during her shift which ended at 7 pm. I wasn't that unrealistic, but did agree that would be great.

Me before changing into my hospital gown. Goodbye to my big belly. :( I forgot to measure my belly at it's final size! I also forgot to weigh myself, but I'm not as sad about that!

I got an epidural around 7 pm, that was pretty rough, but then it was like heaven!! I was 4 cm at 9:30 pm and Dr. S thought it would take about an hour per centimeter (so 6 hours). She was very wrong!! At some point, they stopped giving me estimates on how long things were going to take because everything was taking me so much longer. I was not making much progress and my contractions were not consistent, so they put me on pitocin to speed things up. From my perspective, it definitely didn't do that! I won't give you all the details, but Ashlynn wasn't ready for the final pushing stage until 11 am on January 2! By this point, Dr. S had left and Dr. B was there to deliver. I was totally exhausted by this point and Dr. B said it would take 30 minutes to about 3 hours to push. I ended up pushing for an hour and a half, so I finally accomplished something in the time they expected!

Baby's the size of a wintermelon!Baby keeps growing, despite being so crowded in there. She probably weighs around 6.2 to 9.2 pounds and measures about 18.9 to 20.9 inches. She's probably able to flex his limbs now. Her brain is still rapidly developing -- she's getting smarter by the week! Her nails may extend past his fingertips.

Mommy at 39 Weeks:

December 30, 2011 marked 39 weeks.

38 Weeks!

Baby's the size of a pumpkin!
Baby is about 18.9 to 20.9 inches long and weighs about 6.2 to 9.2 pounds. Her head is now about the same circumference as her abdomen. She may have about an inch or so of hair already. She's slowly shedding that white goo on her skin (called vernix caseosa) but you might see some of it at birth.

Mommy at 38 Weeks:
December 23, 2011 marked 38 weeks.

Ashlynn's First Load of Laundry!

Ashlynn has lots and lots of clothes already! Of course, I wanted to wash them before she makes her grand debut. Since I have grand plans for her scrapbook, I thought it would be great to document her first load of laundry with lots of pictures. I thought it was so fun...remind me of this after my hundredth load of all her little clothes and blankets!!