She's here!

This post has been a long time coming. I've had very little time to even sleep let along write, read, or do anything for myself:-) Chase and I welcomed our little Sadie Elizabeth 12 days ago on May 8th, 2:30 p.m. She is a chunky little thing. She weighed 8 lbs. 1 oz. and was 22 inches long! She's absolutely perfect! In fact, I can't look at her without weeping. I really feel as if I have a heavenly being in my presence.

It all started on Monday morning around 2 a.m. when I started to feel some contractions. At first I wasn't sure because we had a false alarm in April. After about an hour I finally woke up Chase and we started timing the contractions until about 5 a.m. when they were five minutes apart and hurting me like crazy. In fact they hurt so bad I almost vomited from the pain. I started to get really scared and cried in bed while Chase rubbed my back. I love him! We decided this was the real thing and headed to the hospital. When we got there I was dilated to a 5 and they strapped me up to a monitor to see if Sadie's heartbeat was regular and healthy. I still remember squeezing Chase's hand during each contraction. It was an awful feeling of pain. The nurse finally told us that these were real contractions and that we were on our way to have a baby!

This immediately made me emotional and I got a little teary knowing that I was about to meet my very first daughter, Sadie Elizabeth Cannon. They took me up to the delivery room and got me all ready. First they put an IV in my veins so I wouldn't dehydrate and then the doctor came in to give me the WONDERFUL epidural. He was such a great doctor (way better than my OB). I was really scared for the needle but his English accent helped distract me. All of a sudden the pain went away and I was totally relaxed. Those women that go natural are CRAZY!! Epidurals and the BEST!!

Chase studied for his final while I tried to read my book. Chase eventually couldn't focus and read my book to me. My water broke and I was dilated to a ten before I knew it. My OB (Dr. Stanco ...name fits the person for sure) was at her clinic with other patients. She told the nurses to have me start pushing, thinking it would take me a while to get Sadie out. She was wrong. I pushed for about and hour and her head appeared w/ no doctor, just the nurse who was actually wonderful (I wish she could have delivered the baby). Dr. Stanco finally came after making me wait 45 minutes (while Sadie just hung out, ripe and ready) and 15 minutes later we had a little Sadie!!

Chase watched the whole thing as her head and then shoulders appeared. He was very brave. I thought he would faint seeing all the blood but he did very well. He even cut the umbilical cord. I loved Chase before, but after going through this with him I literally love him a million times more! He was so great. He just kept kissing my forehead as we both wept and watched our little lady give her first itty bitty cry. She was actually quite calm afterwards and hardly even cried. Chase said she gave a huge frown and screamed when she came out. Cute!

I still can't believe we have a baby! Even now that it's been some time, I still have a hard time believing that she is mine and I get to keep her forever! The first week was good and bad. Sadie ate like a little piggy but nursing her was VERY painful. I didn't know she had a tongue tie so I battled through the pain because I was told by everyone it would get better. Well it didn't. Every time I would begin feeding her my body would shake with pain. I was completely raw!! When Sadie started spitting up my blood I knew we had a problem. I wanted to nurse her for a year and was determined but it hurt so bad!

Finally a week later her pediatrician (saint of all saints) discovered her tongue tie and sent us to an ENT to get it clipped. Chase had finals through this whole saga and was totally stressed out. Luckily my family was here so my Dad came with me to her appointment. I couldn't bare to go alone. I couldn't handle seeing Sadie in any form of pain so I went into the hallway while Grandpa stayed with her. I prayed the whole time in the hallway that God would comfort her. Through tears and an emotional breakdown I was absolutely overwhelmed with love for my little girl. Mama bear kicked in and I felt horrible that someone was causing her pain. It turns out Sadie was much braver than her Mom and barely cried. So after pumping for a month (hand pump...too poor for the good electric one) I finally healed and Sadie no longer bites down when she eats. I guess I can nurse her for her first year after all. Only the best for my little Sadie Lady!