Melia's Delivery Day

I'm sorry that it's taken me so long to continue with the story. So after my water broke, like I said, I just kind of laid there and laughed before I actually got up to do something about this water gushing out of me. Luckily, I already had bags packed from going to the doctor earlier to check on things. I called the doctor and he said to go to the hospital right away since I was already dilated to a 4. On the way there in the car I wasn't really leaking much but once we got there and I got out of the car we had a flood. The back of my pants were soaked and even the front had a trickle line. I thought, Well last week when we came there were no other patients in the Emergency room so there probably is nobody there this time. Wrong! There were at least ten people in there. I hope that they all came to the conclusion that my water broke and that I just didn't pee my pants.

I got to labor and delivery and all the nurses thought this was going to be a fast delivery but I knew different. With Blake I came in dilated at a 5 and I was still there 12 hours before he arrived so I knew this time it might be the same. Sure enough my labor was slow-progressing so they had to give me petocin and I proudly made it to a 6 before I asked for an epidural. Every time I would get checked they would all say that there was something different but didn't know what it was. One nurse thought she felt the baby's fingers and because of that she called in the doctor to come check it out because a baby to come out with an arm up is not a good thing. It could cause nerve damage in the arm. After feeling around the doctor finally figured out it was her face that they were all touching. She wanted to come into the world with a view I guess. The way he figured that out is he accidentally stuck his finger in her mouth. Then came the painful part. He reached up to try to get her to put her face down like she was supposed to and even with the epidural it was painful because it was starting to wear off. At that point I asked them to up my dose in the epidural but the doctor said he wanted to hold off because he wanted me to start pushing. So here came the big moment. The moment where you think, Well there really is no way of going back now. Of course from the moment you get pregnant you know there's no going back but it always seems to hit me the hardest at this point and I do a little freak out in my head. Daniel then promptly took his position behind the curtain so he couldn't see any gross-ness. We discovered with Jayla that he couldn't take any of this kind of stuff without almost fainting so even though I would like him in the room I don't want to have to have the nurses lift him off the floor or just leave him there and step all over him.

After pushing for about 20 minutes while the doctor tried to reposition the head in between the pushing and epidural wearing off (OUCH!) she finally arrived, with a little help of some suction, on Saturday, February 6th 2010 at 2:37 pm. They put her on my stomach and of course she was the most beautiful thing I'd ever seen (just like what I thought with my other two children). They weighed her and yelled out she was 6lbs and 5oz. Holy cow! She was big for being 5 weeks early. Imagine if I would have went a few more weeks.

She's still pretty purple here but still oh so cute.

Now she's at a normal color and still oh so cute.

When you hold your baby for the first time you will never forget that moment. You're finally meeting the person that you and your partner created and the life that you supported inside you. I don't know how anyone cannot believe in God after having a baby. They come out so perfect and the only word to describe it is miracle. I noticed that her hair had a red tint but thought maybe it was just blood. After she had a bath it was still red, a strawberry blonde color, which she gets from Daniel's mom and her eyes were dark blue. She has Daniel's lips and nose but overall I think she looks more like me.

I can never get enough of just staring at her. I want to drink it all in and memorize everything about her.

Here she is all bruised up. She seems to have gotten poked in the eye a few times. She also had a pretty good bruise from the suction. For being so little she still had some pretty good chubby cheeks that I'm pretty sure came from me. I've always had chubby cheeks.

She had to be put on oxygen and be monitored for a little bit but she was doing so well they took her off and I was able to have her in the room with me but the day after she was born they found out she had pnuemonia. She had to be put back on the monitors with an IV for antibiotics and a tube for oxygen. It was so hard to go in the nursery and see her hooked up on everything and to know that she was sick. It broke my heart. I knew that she was going to be okay but you still can't help it from breaking. I just wanted to take her home and I couldn't. I had to wait a couple more days and with Blake it was the same situation where he had to stay extra days to but it doesn't make in any easier to have gone through it before. Luckily, with everyday she showed improvement and I finally got to take her home that following Wednesday. We have been very blessed to have such a beautiful daughter join our family. I look at her and my kids and I already can't imagaine not having her here. I love you Melia Carol Montero!

The Day Before

This was me at a little over 35 weeks the day before I delivered.

I just got off of bedrest after having been on it for a week. It's harder than you think to be lazy. My mom and sister were a big help to me though. The reason I was on bedrest is becuase I started going into labor at 34 weeks. I went into Labor and Delivery having contractions about 4 minutes apart and they checked me and I was dilated to a 4 and she was right in position to come out. They gave me some medicine to stop the cramping and contractions and it totally took the cramping away which was a great relief to me. I had been cramping all day long and was so tired. The doctor really wanted to give the baby at least another week especially for her lungs to develop. I had to stay overnight to be monitored and I swear that bed was the most uncomfortable thing ever. The doctor came and checked on me the next morning and I was still a 4, my contractions were really sporadic, and she moved back up more into my tummy area so he felt confident in sending me home but with restrictions. A week later I went in for a check up and everything was still the same but minus the contractions and I felt better than I had during that whole week. He took me off bedrest because he was more confident that if I did have the baby she would be okay. He thought I would go at least another week but not more than two weeks before the baby came. I was so ecstatic and the first thing I did was go to Target. I was excited to be able to go to the store and go shopping. When I got home I did a little cleaning and laundry. I went to bed feeling good but tired. Later that night I woke up at 2 AM because my water had broke. I just kinda laid there and laughed to myself because I couldn't believe it was actually happening...To be continued.