Lindey Lucille Hughes

Our baby girl decided to come two weeks early.  We had planned to be induced on Thursday, but Easter Sunday I went into labor (which I had never done before--we've always been induced).  I started  not feeling well around 5:00pm.  I was nausious, and had diarreah, and just didn't feel good.  Around 7:30pm I started having contractions.  We called the doctor around 9:00pm, my contractions were 5 or 6 minutes apart, so he told us to head to the hospital just to be on the safe side, especially where we have to travel an hour to get there.  By 10:00pm we had the kids situated, I got my blessing from John, and we were headed to the hospital.  With all the rushing around (I still hadn't packed my hospital bag) we forgot to take our usual picture of me being pregnant.  We took one in the hospital after I remembered.

I wanted to go natural without an epidural this time.  This labor was not much different than my other children.  I was progressing slowly.  We came into the hospital dialated to a 3, and by 6am I was at a 4.  The nurses wanted me to be at a 5 before they would admit me.  Before that I was just on observation.  My doctor came in after 7am told the nurses to admit me that I wasn't going anywhere and he broke my water.

After being in labor through the morning, I was dialated to an 8.  The nurse came in to check my progress and said she thought she felt the baby's ear and shoulder in the birth canal.  My doctor came in and tried to turn her.  She kept going back to that position, so he said we'd give her some time to try and turn on her own.  After another couple of hours, she still hadn't turned, so Dr. Gagon wanted me to have an epidural so he could turn the baby without hurting me so much.  Bummer!  So much for going natural. :)  I was grateful for the drugs as he spent close to an hour trying to get the baby turned.  She just was not budging and without the pressure of her head on my cervix, I wasn't dialating past an 8.  Dr. Gagon told us that the baby was not in danger--her heart rate and oxygen levels were good, but it wasn't looking like she would be turning herself to be born vaginally.  He recommended doing a C-Section.  This scared me to death.  I''ve never had surgery before, and all my previous births were so easy.  I couldn't believe this was happening.  I cried on John's shoulder for a bit, and had him give me a blessing. I was so tired, so I was glad that it would be over soon.  They started prepping me just after 6:00pm for the C-Section.  John had to wear scrubs to come into the operating room with me.  I couldn't pass up the photo opportunity. :)

They had to do a spinal tap in the operating room for the C-Section.  So not only was I not doing this naturally, but we had to pay for an epidural AND a spinal tap.  That was frustrating to me. John thought they said that baby was coming, and stood up too early and saw way more than he wanted.  He sat back down next to me and said he felt like he was going to pass out.  I tried to get him to focus, but then I saw his eyes glaze over and he fell towards me.  He hit the table next to my shoulder and fell on the floor.  I couldn't do anything--both my arms were strapped down and I couldn't see anyone to get him some help.  I hated that feeling. :(  Pretty soon they noticed he was on the floor and told him to lay still for a minute.  The C-Section went smoothly (It took them longer to prep than to do the surgery) and after a few short minutes I got to see my baby girl over the curtain before the took her to take her vitals.  That was hard to not be able to hold her right away.  I've always been able to do that.  One of the nurses grabbed our camera from John while he was sitting down and took pictures for us so we wouldn't miss anything.  

I love this picture of John's hands around Lindey's feet. :) 

Lindey Lucille Hughes was born Monday, April 25th, 2011 at 6:51pm.  She weighed 7 lbs. 9.5 oz. and was 20 inches in length.  We named her after my Grandma Willard.

Mommy with Lindey.  She was so beautiful and absolutely perfect.  I still didn't get to hold her until after I went to recovery for an hour or so.  It almost didn't seem real that I had this baby. Delivery was so different from the other 5 kids.

While I was in recovery, John was able to go to the nursery with Lindey and the nurses let him give her a bath and clean her up.  He hadn't done this before, so it was a special time for him. (I'm glad the nurse saw the value in taking photos for me.  They are some of my favorite pictures.) 

When the nurses took her for the night, they brought her back to me with her cap off and a cute bow in her hair.  So precious!

She was quite alert--taking in the world.

A couple of days later John's parents brought our three oldest children to see Lindey.  (The two little boys get carsick so they didn't want to deal with that.  The boys stayed home with my mom who had come to help me after Lindey was born--I felt kind of ripped off because I was in the hospital with the C-Section four of the six days my mom was there.  I felt bad I had planned to get all these things done around the house before Lindey was born--Laundry, Summer clothing for the boys, clean the house, etc.  When Lindey came four days early, that stuff fell upon my mom to do--Sorry Mom!!)  Morgan was the first to hold her little sister.  She was so excited it wasn't a boy this time.

Zander was so cute with her.  He was holding her and said, "Look, she even came with a bow!"  He was so excited.

Ian holding Lindey. 

Zander was so concerned with how I was doing.  I could tell he wanted to give me a hug, but didn't want to hurt me.  I had him climb onto the bed next to me and he told me all about what he'd been doing while we were away.  He really liked that. :)

Lindey was pretty sleepy while we were in the hospital. (Probally from the drugs I was being given and giving her in my breastmilk.)  We had to unwrap her to get her to wake up long enough to eat.  The nurses took her so I could sleep and when they brought her back she had on these cute little booties.  The nurses said her feet were cold and they had had her on the warmer.

We were in the hospital for four days.  We went home on Thursday.  We found this cute little white dress with pink trim and jacket at Sears.  She looked so cute in it--even if it was a little big on her.

Waiting around to be discharged.  That process always takes WAY too long.

Sleeping comfortably in her carseat for the ride home to Green River.  She looks so small in it!  I think you forget how small brand new babies really are. :) 

Welcome to the family baby girl!