Ainsley's birth story - short and bittersweet

Since I am starting this blog almost seven months after my daughter, Ainsley, was born, I am cheating a bit with her birth story and using an email I wrote to "my Spain girls" (my closest girlfriends with whom I spent a semester abroad in Spain) shortly after.

July 14, 2013
Hey ladies!

As promised, here's a quick update on how things are going over here at the Ulstad household! I will try to save a lot of the gory details for when we talk or the next time we get together :)

Sooooo... To make a long story short, on tues, July 2nd at 430am, my water broke on the hardwood floor in my bedroom (better than the bed, right!?). We went to the hospital, I got the epidural, went through almost 24 hours of labor and was dilated 9 centimeters for the last 5hrs... At 330am Weds, my doctor said I was not progressing and that I was gonna need a c-section. I was so surprised and crushed since I had been gearing myself up for pushing the last 5 hrs, but she explained that there was a reason why the baby was not moving down and causing me to fully dilate, and if we tried to push, it would prob put the baby in distress and I'd end up in an emergency c-section rather than a somewhat planned one. The surgery was crazy... Very exciting cause Ryan was able to announce the gender! He was in his element and even knew some of the people in the operating room. But the aftermath was awful... Coming out of the anesthesia was prob as bad as the labor for me... I shook uncontrollably for a couple hours and wasn't able to hold Ainsley till way later. I most definitely hope that none of you need a c-section :( but if you do, I have lots of support and advice!

The past few weeks have been so crazy and we are still settling into our routine, but so far Ainsley has been a pretty good baby! She eats a lot and only wakes up a few times throughout the night... Ry goes back to work tomorrow so I'm a little nervous about that, but looking forward to some mommy, daughter alone time!

I have to say that being a mom is so incredible and I cannot wait for you all to experience it, but along with the joy, comes raging hormones!! I have been off-the-charts emotional... crying and lashing out for no reason, and not sleeping at night cause I'm thinking about random crap... so exhausting! Recovering from the surgery is also super difficult... Getting up and down hurts, and I wake up very uncomfortable in the middle of the night.

Anyway, I'm totally drained right now and am going to settle in for the night, but please don't hesitate to call and chat when you have a chance! I love and miss you all and can't wait for everyone to meet miss Ainsley!

- Aly

Comments

  1. AnonymousFebruary 13, 2014 at 5:19 PM

    Remembering those first few days! Whew....so overwhelming!

    ReplyDelete

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