Paige Elizabeth

Well, for all the induction delays and false-alarms we had getting her here, I must tell you that her delivery was easy.

We went into the hospital on the 29th at 8am. I had big, HUGE hopes that the baby would be born this day. Sadly, it was not in the cards. Since I was an elective induction every time a "real" patient needed drugs/attending to I was put on the bottom of the pile.

Here's what my day looked like:

8:00am -- Arrive at Hospital

11:00am -- Get my first dose of oral Cytotech. I am already 3cm dilated before any drugs. (I have to wait 4 hours for next cervical check/new dose of drug if needed)

3:00pm -- Get checked, decide I need another dose of Cytotech. I'm 4cm. Call Dr. to give the orders.

6:30pm -- After waiting over 3 hours, they finally come to give me the next dose.

11:00pm -- Get checked again and they agree that I'm ready to start Pitocin (but still 4cm dilated) and head over to the Labor and Delivery room. There's a problem, though. The L&D is very busy and they don't have a room/nurse for me. I have to just sit around and do nothing until they calm down.

11:01pm -- I get very upset at the news. I start to think it's going to be 2013 before I ever have this baby.

12:00am -- Contractions are coming every two minutes and lasting 40 seconds each. They don't feel great, but they aren't killing me. I definitely couldn't sleep through them, which is what they are advising me to do. I decide they should give me something so I can get some sleep.

12:20ish -- Leslie meets an IV-administered drug called Nubain. Right as the drug is being shot into my IV I declare that I cannot sit in my bed any longer because my butt is too numb from sitting so long. I think I'll just sit in the chair.

12:22ish -- I stagger half-drunk on Nubain over to my bed. Nice bed. Soft bed. Comfy beddddd..

12:26ish -- Dustin tells me I was sleeping by this point.

3:00am -- I wake up refreshed and decide that I'm going to bug my nurse to see how things are over at the L&D department.

3:30am -- I'm in my new room in L&D. Apparently things calmed down and I now have a nurse named Jessica. She was super nice and friendly.

6:00am -- By this point I've had my water broken (though Paige's head was acting as a cork and barely any "water" came out when they broke the bag), I have been given the epidural and my doc doesn't think he wants to give me Pitocin after all. He checks me and I'm 6cm dilated. Contractions are still coming regularly.

8:00am -- I forget when exactly, but at some point between 6am and 8am they put me on Pitocin because my contractions were slowing a bit. It didn't take much to get me back on track.  I'm checked again and I'm at 9cm.

10:02am -- Dr. Takyi (pronounced: Ta-Chee) tells me to go ahead and give pushing a shot. He starts talking about how funny Henry is and I laugh. Her head pops out. No pushing, just laughing. 


10:03am -- My half-born daughter starts screaming at the top of her very little (and very loud) lungs. (This later earns her an Apgar score of 10, which the nurses say hasn't happened in a very, very long time.)

10:04 -- I give one real push (though my doctor is nice and counts the laugh as a push.)

10:05am -- Baby is born. 2 "pushes", 3 minutes. Dustin tells me "It's a girl" and I am in shock. Girl? As in, no penis? To make it more unbelievable, she has a head full of dark, brown hair.

10:50ish -- Sweet little Paige finally stops screaming her very little (and very loud) lungs off. The girl was clearly very opinionated about something. My guess? She was trying to scream at Henry for all the times he threw toys at her and sat/jumped on her while she was busy trying to grow and mind her own beeswax.

Mad about being weighed (Although, honestly? What girl likes that?)

The scratches on her forehead are from when they broke my water. Apparently the little hook they use got her head a bit.

Just like with Henry, we had them stamp her feet on Dustin's arm to go tell everyone in the waiting room! 

This last picture was taken just before we were discharged from the hospital. 

Paige Elizabeth Sleesman
December 30th, 2011
10:05am
7 pounds, 6 ounces
20 inches long