She's here!

It's been a hectic last few weeks but I am pleased to announce that on August 17, 2009 at 5:01PM I gave birth to Miss Maggie Grace Wilburn. She weighed 6 pounds 11 ounces and was 20 inches long. She's absolutely beautiful! Our journey began on Thursday, August 13. I had a scheduled doctors appointment and was having contractions all day. Nothing serious, maybe 10-12 minutes apart. I told the doctor of this and he examined me. Everything was fine and closed but he made the comment to call him Monday morning. He was on call and said he wanted to hear how my weekend went. It was as if he knew something. He said depending on my weekend he might go ahead and induce me since he was on call. So, Friday came and my contractions were coming every 5-6 minutes. So Joe and I made our way to DeKalb Medical and they examined me and I had dilated to 1 and the contractions were still continuous. So the on-call doctor had me walk around for an hour in hopes that I would dilate more. Well, no luck! So I went back home. Then on Saturday I began having contractions every 2-3 minutes apart so back to DeKalb we went. This time they examined me and I was 2 centimeters dilated. Wooo hooo! So the new on-call doctor admitted me. They took me out of triage to an actual labor and delivery room. Got the iv in and got me all hooked up. I was ready to go. This time, my contractions stopped! The on-call doctor made a visit to my room and said she didn't feel comfortable with giving me pitocin to induce labor since she isn't my primary doctor. So we went back home. Then on Sunday, Joe and I went out to eat with his family to celebrate August birthdays. We enjoyed our day and I enjoyed having spontaneous contractions rather than steady ones. On Monday morning I called my doctor just as he ordered. He was quite upset that they even sent me home and told me to get up to DeKalb that we were going to have a baby today! So that's exactly what we did. I checked in at 9:00am. They monitored me for a couple of hours and finally at 12:00PM my doctor came in, asked why they hadn't started pitocin yet and ordered them to do it immediately. I got my blood work back and thankfully my blood was thick enough to enjoy an epidural. The contractions began coming and I was feeling great! The nurses came in and said that the pitocin could have been making Maggie's heart rate drop during contractions and wanted to monitor me more closely. Then the doctor came in. He broke my water and put an internal monitor on her head to make sure the pitocin wasn't making her heart drop. Thankfully it wasn't. She was perfectly fine and as they kept saying "happy!" The next thing I remember is this horrible shooting pain in my back. A pain that came every 3-4 minutes and was quite intense. They gave me an IV drug called Demerol but that didn't work! I was begging for the epidural but the nurses said I had to finish one complete bag of fluids, a bag that was already going and still extremely full. I went from 4 centimeters to 5 in less than 30 minutes. The doctor came in and said to call the anthistesiologist for the epidural. The nurses informed the doctor that hospital protocol is that you must have a bag of fluids before the epidural. My doctor informed the nurses that he knew what protocol was and that HE was THE doctor and he wanted my pain to go away. Thank you Dr. Arshad! So about 5-10 minutes later my best friend, Mr. Epidural, walked through the door. A couple of hours later they examined me and I was ready to go. We had to wait just a few minutes on my doctor as he was delivering another baby. When he came in, they took apart the bed and I pushed twice and out she came. She is the most beautiful little girl I've ever seen. As soon as she cried we heard the boys outside the room giggling. They were so excited to meet their new sister. Once they got me together, Joe went out and got the boys and we were able to share our first family moment together. It was a moment that I will never forget. Of course, it lasted maybe 3 minutes but the greatest 3 minutes. Then the flood gates opened. My mom, dad, Joe's mom and dad, Sarah and Debbie all made their way in to see our little princess. I cannot tell you how much it meant to have friends and family surround us with love and support. I am blessed to have these people in my life! It's been busy around the house but things are starting to get to normal. The boys come in and check the cradle every morning before school to make sure their sister is ok. They enjoy hugging her and loving on her but have made it quite clear that they will not change any poopy diapers. What a journey we are on and how thankful I am to have God leading our way.