Welcome to the World London Rose!

I can proudly say that as of Friday, August 30, 2013 my husband and I are the proud parents of London Rose Nissen who came into the world at 10:27pm at 6lbs 8oz and 19 inches long. To say she made us work for it is an understatement but any child of mine wouldn't enter the world with any less fun and excitement. Fair warning, if you don't want to know the details of day don't read ahead. I promise to leave out the gross bits though! And know that this blog is more for me to record the day so I can go back and remember all the little things.

Mommy and London

If you've been reading along with my blog or are a friend of mine you know that my husband has been in Dallas for work since the 15th of August. So, the anxiety of ensuring that he made it home on time for his daughter's birth had been weighing on my mind. Friday at around 1am I got my first contraction - and I knew right away what it was. I had been having Braxton Hicks and this felt nothing like that. This was like the intensely awful menstrual cramps I used to get when I was a teenage and hadn't discovered Midol yet. Because I have an obsession with social media, technology, and all things iPhone I immediately pulled out my phone and started up my Enfamil Expecting Baby Pregnancy App. This handy app was free to download and came with a contraction calculator. I started keeping track of the length of the contractions and the time between them.

At 2:34am I called my husband in Dallas to let him know what was happening. With any luck he'd be able to catch the first flight out of Dallas at 6am and meet me at the hospital. At 3am I woke up my parents (Dad and Step-Mom) who were sleeping on an air mattress in the nursery and let them know that today was the day! My husband let his parents know and I then called my mother in Colorado so she could get started on her journey to Chicago.

Per the doctor's orders I waited till my contractions were 10 minutes apart before calling the office to alert the Doctor that I would be coming in soon. That was 3:48am and now we're off to the hospital! Thanks to Dad for driving us through Chicago so early. I know you were not enjoying the early hour but at least we avoided Chicago traffic and Labor Day weekend traffic!!

Now we're at the hospital, it's about 4:30am and if you remember Miss London is not going to join the world till 10:27pm. That's right I am looking right at 21 hours of labor. And if that time frame tells you anything it should be that not only did Brandon, her father, make it to the hospital before her arrival so did all of her soon-to-be grandparents! It was an incredible blessing to have everyone there (minus Papa John who could not get away but we do have a special visit with him planned in just a couple of days! Can't wait!).

The decision for pain relief, namely epidurals is on each woman to decide. I opted in favor of the epidural and am so glad that I did. I got my epidural around noon and truly believe I could not have made it through without it. I was able to nap through contractions! (How awesome, right?!)

Let's fast forward through the day and now we're at 9cm dilated and I've got a fever. Over 101 degrees which means my little girl's heart rate is really high and the doctor is thinking about getting me to start pushing soon but hoping I'll have the urge, which never came. The doctor assures me that the fever I've got happens to some people with extended labors and that it just means that I have to antibiotics after delivery and so will our little girl.

Now, we're at 10cm dilated and getting close to push time. But, we have wrench thrown in! Low and behold that it's 8pm and we have a conflict - my husband's fantasy football draft starts at 8pm....yes, you read that right. Fantasy football draft starts at 8am and it's important. My husband and my father are now sitting in the room on the couch on the iPad doing the draft. Yes, I'm 10 centimeters dilated, fever, and getting ready to start the pushing and their chatty away about good running backs! My husband knows what he's doing is not going to go unnoticed or untold - he even looked at me and said, "This is going to go in your blog isn't it?". Oh yeah, it is.

My very cool doctor comes in and tells me she's going to have me start pushing now so Brandon hands over the iPad to my Dad to finish his draft and all of the parents leave the room. All day I've had Brandon with me and our 3 sets of parents have been in and out visiting with us. But now, it's just about this time with Brandon and me and becoming a family.

Two hours of pushing later my daughter comes into the world "sunny side up" which basically means she made delivery very difficult and painful (even with my epidural). She had mild trauma from delivery including her little nose looking like she had it pressed up against the glass on a fish tank. But everyday it sorts itself out and she gets cuter and cuter (if that's possible).

And due to that fever I had I don't get to keep her too long. The policy at our hospital is that they do a quick check with her and then immediately encourage skin-to-skin contact and the first attempt at breastfeeding within 30 minutes. But with the infection they have to get her started on antibiotics asap so I get to hold her briefly, and so does Brandon. Then he takes her out to see the grandparents in a show and tell. After that they cart her off to the NICU.

An hour later in a new room we are reunited with our little one and finally get to start being an inseparable family. We're now just over a week into this parenting thing and I have learned more than I ever thought possible. I am more in love with my husband, head over heels for my daughter, and can honestly say that I am more excited for each new day than ever before.

Do you have any fun labor stories? I'd love to hear them!