Harper Ann Rainbolt is HERE!!!!!

 On October 3rd, 2011, Harper Ann Rainbolt arrived at 2:52 pm weighing a whopping 9 lb. 4 oz. and was 20 1/2 inches long.  She is perfect in every way.  I had an induction scheduled for that Monday, if she didn't come sooner, because we knew Michael was leaving on Thursday to give his budget presentation on Friday in Dallas so we thought it would all work out to be home before he left and it did but then things changed.  I'll get into that in another post.  My mom and sister spent Sunday night with us so Lindsay could watch Eden and bring her up to the hospital after everything and my mom wanted to hang out at the hospital.  I'll put the birth story at the bottom so if you want to read it you can or skip it.  I just want it for my reference.  Harper is a perfectly healthy baby girl and the pediatrician said she looks great and that she had a slight tongue tie but that they don't do anything for them but watch them especially if they are feeding okay.  We were discharged from the hospital on Wednesday before noon and got settled in at home.  Harper did well the first night at home.

Harper after getting cleaned up a bit.  She looks quite a bit like Eden here but Eden's cheeks were a lot bigger and rounder.  

 Michael and Harper's first picture together.  Love this=)

 My mom with Harper.  

 Harper's first bath in the delivery room.

 ZiZi with Harper.

 I hate the shadow on this picture but it is so sweet.  Eden getting to hold Harper for the first time.  She loves her so much.

 Michael's mom with Harper.

 First picture of our family of four.

 My dad finally getting his hands on Harper.

 Love this.  She was so cute at the hospital just wanting to hold and love all over Harper.  She never wanted to leave us.

Warning:  Birth story and if you get queasy be forewarned, stop reading. 

I went in at eight and things got rolling pretty quickly.  I had a great nurse named Amber which I was grateful for.  Dr. Wiedower came in at 8:40 to check in and broke my water. That was not a comfortable experience.  I could seriously feel her up in my throat.  I was only a three at the time and having very mild contractions.  I got my epidural at 11 am with contractions 2-3 minutes apart and feeling it in my back.  At 1:35pm I am 6 cm and 80% effaced.  I'm thinking at this point I can't feel my right leg at all but I can feel my left side.  Amber talks to the anesthesiologist who is in a C-Section with Dr. Wiedower and says he will be a while.  They try to make me comfortable but I can feel everything on my left side.  At 2:25 pm I'm at 8-9 cm.  Dr. Weidower comes in from the C-Section and she starts getting ready to deliver Harper.  And because I could feel everything on the left side we did things a little quicker and pushed four times through two contractions and out came Harper in all her 9 lb. 4 oz. glory.  Needless to say I tore badly and had to be sutured which I could feel=(  Harper's Apgar scores were 8 and 9, which was great.  I nursed for the first time at 3:45 pm.  Things were going fairly well while family came in to see Harper and my epidural and IV were pulled.  I was STARVING so they got me something to eat.  

Well when they started getting ready to move me to the Postpartum floor you have to get up and try to pee and what not.  Of course I was bleeding some which is completely expected and normal.  By the time I stood up in my postpartum room, there was blood EVERYWHERE.  Several nurses come in and help clean up the floor and me.  They get me to the bed and are a little perplexed because my uterus was hard and contracting like it was supposed to but they thought it might be some clots or something so they give me a shot of methergine to help contract my uterus more and slow the bleeding.  It is supposed to work within minutes and nothing happens.  So the on call doctor, Dr. Owens, was called and bless her heart.  She was on her way home and turned around to come back.  She walks in the door and feels around on my uterus and assesses things.  She prescribes another drug to help contract things that is supposed to be stronger and nothing happens again.  Meanwhile, all the family is waiting in the waiting room wondering what is going on because there are five to six nurses coming and going from the room like crazy.  Michael is holding Harper in the corner of the room trying not to pass out.  He said the bottom half of my bed looked like a massacre.  He said there was blood everywhere.  Dr. Owens starts looking around a bit more and finds an arterial laceration and another laceration that needed to be sutured.  She said the arterial one was pulsating blood out.

While she held pressure all the nurses ran to collect the things she needed from labor and delivery to suture them up.  Let me tell you that hurt like crazy.  Even with the lidocaine, which hurt itself, it hurt like crazy.  After an hour and a half, Dr. Owens finally got the lacerations sutured and held pressure to make sure they had stopped bleeding.  She was great and I really, really liked her.  She ordered a lab to be drawn to see how much blood I had lost because there was so much of it everywhere.  Several people tried and then lab had to be called because I was so dehydrated and lacking blood.  After getting the results, Dr. Owens ordered a blood transfusion.  Not what I wanted to hear as a nurse.  I never ever wanted to have one.  Oh well, I needed it.  Getting a transfusion required having another IV put in and two nurses tried and then an anesthesiologist was called to start it.  He got one thankfully.  I was starting to feel like a pin cushion and had bruises everywhere.  I got the blood transfusion overnight and was starting to feel a little better the next day.  Overall the delivery did not go as smoothly as I had hoped but today we are looking at a gorgeous little Harper and we are so thankful everything turned out okay.