Starting to catch our breath...

The last couple of days have been a whirl wind We've had so much fun experiencing every kind of emotion. 2/12/2010 started with Shawntel's water breaking and from there the roller coaster began. It started as a nice pleasure ride and as Shawntel started to experience contractions it slowly became a fast ride into the unknown. It brought excitement and pain along the way but not just for Shawntel. It wigged me out a lot more than I thought it would. Starting at 5:00 am we progressed through about 9 hours of labor. Shawntel's plan was to have the baby natural and was making her way through the contractions great. When the nurses came in to check Shawntel again to see how many centimeters she was dilated. The one doing the checking wanted another nurse to check and confirm what she was thinking. The second gave it a check and sure enough 5 centimeters(awesome), 90% effaced(excellent) and breach(WHAT!!!). She then got an ultrasound lady up to the room to confirm and sure enough there was Olivia was upside down. So the nurses then explained we were now going to have a C sectiona nd how it would go down. They left the room and the emotion roller coater took a sudden right turn. I had my hands in the air and Shawntel had one on the rail and one in the air. The nurse then came back to the room with my new outfit a pair of funny booties so that I don't track mud in the OR(sterile environment), yellow hospital gown, a lunch room hair net(I thought we may stop by the cafeteria and I might serve up some navy beans who knows) and a surgical mask and we were told to be ready at 4:30. When 4:30 hit though the plans had changed because somebody else was 10 centimeters dilated and cranking out a baby. Oh our Dr. was the only Dr. there that day and was on the move all day, she said that she delivered 4 babies that afternoon/evening including Olivia. So we were told then that she was wrapping up with that one and Shawntel would be getting wheeled back within 10 minutes. Here we go starting to get the butterflies back again and wham another patient hit 10 centimeters. Wow so we were put on hold just a little while longer. That was number three for our Dr. and Olivia would be number 4. So without further ado it was Shawntel's turn there was no turning back this time no one else was pregnant except Shawntel. So she was wheeled back and given the spinal block and set up for surgery. I came in about 15 minutes later and was shown to my stool. I wasn't prepared for for anything that went down in there. It was weird on one side of the curtain was the peaceful smiling face of Shawntel and on the other side of the curtain was Olivia coming into the world kicking and screaming Discovery Chanelesque. I have a great respect for labor and delivery nurses and OB Dr.'s(not that I ever had a disrespect but wow their job is wild). Olivia came out folded in half but first. Once her legs chest and arms were out all that was left was her head. Her head doesn't seem to be that big but, she looked like a sleeping ostrich with her head buried and it wouldn't come out. The Dr. and nurses then put it in high gear and the mood changed a little. The Dr. was telling people to quiet down and was a little more as a matter of fact. Then we both heard the sweetest sound ever Miss Olivia took her first breath and started to cry and she hasn't stopped yet.