tHe CrAzY LiFe oF ZaCh AnD cHeLs: December 2010

I have been meaning to write down the story of Taylee's Birth so I would have a record of it. So here it is...its going to be really long, just to warn you! It all started on Monday November 8th. I was so desperate to go into labor by my due date (11/13) because Zach had a training at work the next week that we did not want him to miss because it would help him in his career and it would give me more spending money! I was only dilated to a 1 and was not effaced at all. A friend of mine told me to go get a prenatal massage because that is what induced labor with all 4 of her kids. I figured I had nothing to loose, because a massage would feel great even if it didn't induce my labor! Well during the whole massage the guy kept pushing pressure points and told me to envision my water breaking. Meanwhile I am thinking that the guy is a weirdo and that if he knew anything about having a baby your water doesn't break when you are only 1 cm dilated. Well I didn't have any contractions that night and figured the massage was a bust. Well I woke up at 7:45 the next morning and thought I was peeing the bed. Well after about 10 minutes I realized my water had broke. When we got to the hospital I was still only a 1 and wasn't effaced at all. They gave me a pill to soften my cervix and said that I probably wouldn't have the baby for at least 24 hours. Well 3 hours later my cervix was ripe and they were going to give me my epidural and pitocin to start to progress my labor more.

They came in to put in my epidural and when they put it in I instantly went numb and told the doctor that. He seemed surprise and told me to tell him if my arms started tingling, and they were then he told me to tell him in my mouth started to go numb and it was. They went through the epidural space and went into my spinal space. Instead of being numb from the waist down I was numb from my eyeballs down. I had about 4 doctors and 6 nurses run into my room. I was in and out of consciousness I told the doctor I felt like I was dying because I could no longer feel myself breathing. He assured me that I was ok and that he knew what was going on. I couldn't talk and they had to suction out my mouth because I couldn't even swallow my spit so I was choking. Finally after about 1.5-2 hours the numbness wore off and I was only numb from my waist down. They started me on pitocin at this time and I was dilated to a 2 and hour later I was a 4 and the next hour I was at a 10 and ready to push. I pushed 4 times and she was out! She was born at 10:10 on November 9th. She was perfect. She came out and didn't cry (until the nurses would rub her and even then she just let out a few little yells). She laid up and just looked at me! That was the sweetest moment I have ever experienced. The next few days were bliss with Zach and the new babe!

On the 11th I got a spinal headache! Worst thing ever! I had to get a blood patch in order to fix it (basically they put your own blood into your spinal space to help patch the hole that was caused when they gave me the epidural). It was a horrible experience...the anesthesiologist was an jerk and to say the least it was pretty traumatic for me and Zach. I went home and felt ok for a day, but my back hurt so bad after they gave me the blood patch. I ended up spiking a really high fever and got readmitted to the hospital. I had gotten an infection in my spinal space from the blood patch...meningitis! It was awful. I had to leave my baby at home while I was in the hospital for 3 days. It was horrible being away from her. However, I got over that and came home to my perfect healthy baby! And all is well now! It has been a rough go the past month with my health and I am feeling better all the time, but I am so grateful that Taylee is healthy and doing great!

I am sorry if this scares anyone (I have a few friends that are prego) the whole time I was in the hospital they said they had never ever seen this happen and that the odds of all of this happening to me had to be one in a million (Lucky me). It has been a crazy month, but I sure do love being a mom and love that sweet feeling of having a new baby! Now, if time could slow down I would really be grateful, she is growing way to fast!

We got her newborn pictures back and think they turned out so cute, here are just a few out of the 325 pictures the photographer took!