Cienna Claire Redd: hEre'S oUr sToRy...

Well, I am sorry that it has taken so long to post all of our exciting news, but oh my...life is sure busy with our new little miracle! We are all doing great (besides the huge lack of sleep), and we are just adjusting to our new life of "4".

We want to tell you all about our adventurous day, so here goes: Well, my Mom got here safe and sound on Tuesday, the 27th and I had an appt with Dr. Robinson on Wednesday. She agreed to helping me get induced, so she referred me to an OB. We saw him Thursday morning and then went to pick up my cute sister that afternoon. The OB scheduled me to go into the hospital to start the whole inducing process for Friday morning. So could the timing have worked out any better?...I think not!!

So Friday morning at 9:00 am we started our great adventure. I went in to the OB day unit and they started me on my first round of gel and they monitored me for a couple of hours and then sent us home. Our nurse said that my cervix was still really posterior and I had quite a ways to go, so she wouldn't be surprised if I had to have quite a few doses of the gel. So we were preparing ourselves for a long day (and night)! Well, we headed home, hung out with the fam, enjoyed the sunshine and I enjoyed my ever increasing contractions. My contractions seemed to be getting stronger and more frequent, but I have so many contractions regularly that I didn't think much of it. At 2:30 pm we headed back to the hospital to get the second round of gel (which is twice as strong). The nurse got ready to do the gel and then checked me first and immediately said how shocked she was at how much progress I had made. She said I was dialated to a four and the baby's head was completely down, so she stripped my membranes and then decided not to give me the second dose. She scheduled me to start the drip in the morning, but she was expecting me to be back in full on labor sometime that night. So once again, we headed home.

While we were at the hospital, my contractions were definitely getting worse and more crampy, but I was trying not to get my hopes up quite yet. When we got home I was still having contractions, but they were irregular and didn't last longer than 45 seconds, so I thought it was probably false labor again (we all know how much I enjoyed all of that with Ilie's delivery!!) But those lovely contractions didn't stop and I just kept having them every 2-3 minutes. My mom and Mark kept saying, "let's just go to the hospital!!" But I really did not want to be sent home again (like with Ilie) so I wanted to wait it out and make sure I was really going into labor. Well, it didn't take long for those contractions to reach that "holy crap" point and I knew it was time to go when I started bleeding (lots!!) So we scooped everyone up, grabbed the hospital bags, dropped Ilie off at Emmy's and we were off. Mark was convinced he needed to make a speed car racer trip to the hospital, so let's just say we got there very fast!! And I am very glad we did...by the time we got there it was really getting to that toe tapping/curling, "holy, holy crap", yep I can't walk point. So they rushed me up to the evaluating area, asked me all those questions that you can't remember, because "holy crap" you feel like you are going to die, and then finally checked me. And oh, there was no way they were sending me home this time. I was dialated to a five and bleeding a lot still. So into my gown I went and asking for my epidural began.

They got me into my room pretty quick and got my IV started. And I was very impressed at how fast they got the anesthesiologist to start my epidural. I was so ready to feel relief because it was at that point where you really don't know if you can handle it anymore!! So she did her needle work and unfortunately it didn't work the first time so she had to start all over again (oh, how lovely...just give me drugs already!!) She tried again and said that she put the initial dose in, so I should feel some relief soon. Right after she was done Dr. Robinson arrived. She was expecting to check me and then come back later, but plans changed when she checked me and I was dialated 8-9 cm. So she broke my water (wow...gush!!) and then checked me again during a contraction and I was fully dialated to a 10!! Did I mention that I wasn't feeling much relief from that dang epidural yet?? Well, right about then I had another contraction and I could tell that I needed to push, so the doc checked and she said, "Well, let's have a baby right now!!" Now as excited as I was, I was still like "hello, still in pain here can we wait for the epidural to work a little more?" So I asked if I could push the pump first to get some more. It was at this point that the anesthesiologist informed me that the catheter on the epidural never worked, therefore the pump didn't work and she was just hoping that I was going to have a quick labor (otherwise she was going to have to do it again!!) In other words, tough luck, the drugs aren't going to get any better. Well, I didn't have much time to freak out about all that because I was having more contractions and I had to push and now is when i really felt the biggest "holy crap" moment of all. With Ireland I was in labor for quite awhile and then I pushed for an hour and half, so the drugs really had time to kick in. This time, there was no time for them to kick in (and oh, the pump and catheter didn't work anyways!!) So I basically felt most of everything "down there". When I think of that typical scenerio of a woman screaming her way through pushing, I completely understand why. When they say it feels like a ring of fire...oh, I know what they are talking about. It was pretty intense...my hat goes off to all those who do it completely natural and especially when they have a long labor and long pushing...I don't think I could do it. But thank goodness Cienna was in a hurry to get out because 11 minutes and a few pushes later...she was born, screaming her head off. And I can't say enough how glad I was to be done and to be done quickly. There were moments that I really didn't think I could do it, but you don't have a choice...so you just do it!! And it's worth it!!

Well, unfortunately, I had a few tears "down there" and I tore a blood vessel and was losing a lot of blood so she had to stitch me up quick and even more unfortunately I still wasn't numb down there and felt the whole thing and it wasn't a pretty thing. (I don't recommend trying it if you have the choice!!) All I can say it "holy crap"!! :)

So our little miracle girl arrived two hours after we got to the hospital, so it's a good thing we didn't wait at home any longer. She came so fast, she shocked us all. As many of my friends have pointed out, I didn't even have time for my lipstick to wear off (ha, ha). Her official time was Friday, May 30th at 7:56 pm. Weighing 7 pounds 8 ounces and 20 3/4 inches long and she has tons of dark thick hair, totally opposite from how her sister was.

We feel so blessed to have this new little edition in our lives. Ireland is so sweet with her. She loves to kiss her and help me take care of her. She also is trying hard to get a lot more attention and can't quite figure out why everything is so different!! But to tell you the truth, I am trying to figure out how different everything is too, so I don't blame her. So we're back to no sleep and worrying about all the little baby things and hoping we can get the hang of it again!!

P.S. Sorry this is such a novel...