Ashlynn's Birth Story

Ashlynn is here! We weren't expecting her until mid-February but she had other plans... Last Saturday we had just finished eating dinner and I decided to clean out the fridge, I had been doing a lot of deep cleaning that day and the day before, I guess I had started nesting! Anyway, I started to pull stuff out of the fridge so I was kind of leaning over and I coughed... and I thought I peed my pants! haha Dave came into the kitchen and I told him I coughed and peed my pants and needed to take a shower... as I started walking out of the kitchen I felt what I thought was pee running down my legs. I told Dave and he was like are you sure you peed your pants and I told him I didn't know. (I think we both knew at this point that it wasn't pee but were in denial) I told him I would take a quick shower and if I still felt like I was leaking that we'd head to the hospital. So I took a quick shower, rinsed off and as soon as I got out I realized that I wasn't peeing but my water had broke. I yelled downstairs to Dave to get Dawson ready because we had to go!

We got to the hospital around 6:30pm and had to wait a few minutes to be seen. They took a little swab to verify that my water had broke and a few minutes later a nurse came in and said it was my water. I cried. I was scared because Ashlynn was going to be born almost 6 weeks early. It took them a little while to get me admitted and got me into a room in labor and delivery. We called our friend Sandy to see if she could come get Dawson and she was out of town. She was able to get a hold of another friend of ours, Heather, and she said she would be able to come get him. We weren't prepared at all so Dave had to run home to get diapers and pj's for Dawson and anything else he thought he'd need. Good thing we only live about 10-15 minutes from the hospital!

While Dave was gone they gave me an IV with some antibiotics (for group b strep) and pitocin. I started having contractions and they were getting pretty painful really fast. I think I made it almost an hour before I finally asked for an epidural. Dave made it back just in time to see me get the epidural. I was already dilated to a 4 when I first got admitted which surprised me a little bit. After I got the epidural I was pretty much pain free for probably about 30 minutes. Then I started feeling a lot of pressure. I told the nurse and she checked me again and said I was a 5. The pressure got worse really, really fast. Like within 30 minutes after she had checked me I was feeling so much pain and pressure and I was begging her to check me again. She said she hadn't even turned up the pitocin yet and that she just checked and I was a 5. Earlier she had said something to Dave about how she thought the baby would be here the next morning... ha! The pain and pressure was so bad that I knew Ashlynn was coming soon, I was crying with each contraction which were right on top of each other and I kept telling Dave to get the nurse back in the room because she had to check me again. I felt like I needed to push!!! (Dave told me afterward that I was very "vocal" haha) The nurse came back in and said something about how I wasn't through the first bag of antibiotics yet (which afterward I asked about and I think she said they try to get you through 2 bags 4 hours before the baby is born) and then she FINALLY checked me again and what do you know, I was fully dilated!

She called for the doctor and the NICU doctors to come in and finally let me start pushing. I think I pushed through 4 contractions, less than 10 pushes all together and Ashlynn was born. It happened SO fast! She started crying almost right away, I was so happy to hear her little cry. The NICU doctors and nurses took her right away to check her out (they were still in the room with us). After they made sure that she was ok they wrapped her up and laid her on my chest, I held her for less than 2 minutes before they took her to the NICU. We were so happy when they finally let us go down to see her!!

Ashlynn Marie Harrison
1/8/2011 11:11 pm
5 lbs 6 oz 17 3/4 inches long

Here are some pics!

Just after she was born...


Mama holding her in the NICU for the first time.


Dada holding her...


Her bilirubin levels were a little high so she was under the lights for a couple of days.


4 days old and she got a new bed! No more bili lights, no bed warmer AND she got her IV removed! (She had an IV that was basically feeding her since she wasn't eating much and she was getting antibiotics)


I love this sweet little face.


Here she is at 1 week old...



We are so in love with our baby girl. She is just so sweet. She's still in the NICU but she is doing pretty good. She is having a hard time eating and that's why she has the NG tube. We feed her every 3 hours (she's eating about 47 cc's at each feeding) and whatever she doesn't finish on her own they put the rest in the tube which goes directly into her stomach. They only allow her to eat for 30 minutes at a time, they say if she takes any longer to eat than that that she is burning more calories than she is taking in and won't gain any weight. I really hope she gets the hang of eating soon so she can come home soon! She usually does really well at the beginning of the feeding but she gets tired so quickly and wants to fall asleep instead of eat. Dave and I have been going to all of her day feeds and hanging out with her for about an hour each time because we both want to spend as much time with her as possible. I hate being at home without her. :( My last day in the hospital was yesterday and it killed me to come home without her. I know it's for the best and I want her to get strong and healthy but it is so hard.

Dawson hasn't met her yet because they don't allow anybody except parents and grandparents into the NICU to visit. I'm excited to bring her home, I know that Dawson will just love her.

Now that I finally got her birth story posted I will try to update every day with how she is doing. Please keep little Ashlynn in your thoughts and prayers.