Athena Rose Roundy

January 15, 2014

Labor Induction day 

It was three days before Athena's due date. We planned it so Athena would be born early and not get too big. We could not have her come sooner than that because of the craziness of buying the house, getting all our stuff, putting Luke into Kindergarten halfway through the school year and Sterling's work schedule.
We also had the induction because my parents wanted to come help us with the delivery and we needed them to. So we planned the delivery to make sure they would not miss it.

The day before Athena was born it snowed! Lots of snow.
Dad and I went to Lowe's that morning. Mom and I went shopping that afternoon. Tiberias had woken with a kinked neck so he was immobile and sick all day. Poor kid! He watched tv and was held by one adult or another all morning. Cried a lot and didn't eat much.
Sterling was at work and Lachoneus was at school.  It snowed hard most of the morning. In the afternoon it was sunny but windy and the ground was high with snow.
Mom and I shopped for throw pillows for the living room couches we have coming on Monday. We also shopped for lamps for the living room. We bought six awesome pillows for $100. Pillows are expensive and we got bigger sized ones.

That evening Tiberias was feeling better but still had the kink in his neck so he kept his head tilted to one side.
We dragged him out of the house. We all went to dinner for some fun before the baby's arrival.
Mom and Dad had never been to the Texas Road House whereas Sterling and I discovered how awesome it is just this year. So we all went to the Texas Road House for a large yummy dinner.
Poor Tiberias was our temporarily handicapped child. He wanted to be held. He could not lift his head. And he wanted to be fed and helped to drink.
Other than that we had a great time.

Then we stopped for a little shopping on the way home. Mom, Sterling and I went into Hobby Lobby. My dad took the little boys next door to Toys R Us...which they've been begging to go into every time they've spotted that store.
While mom loved browsing the whole store of Hobby Lobby Sterling and I focused on things we need for the house. We looked at the floor lamps and side tables. We decided to get the set of lamps we saw at Lowe's. We did buy a wall key holder that night though.
And while we did that Luke and Ty were having a blast looking at the toys. It turns out that store was the medicine Ty needed to get his head up straight and a little bit of his bounce back. Usually he jumps around and pretends to be a power ranger. All day he had not been able to do that. But my dad said Ty had jumped once or twice in the store.  :)

When we got home that night Ty was feeling so much better he did play like a power ranger for a few minutes. But then he went back to tilting his head.


The morning of the induction I got up at 4am because I was suppose to call the hospital then. Sterling and I left around 5am for the hospital. Everyone in our house was still asleep.
Outside was actually not too cold! Obviously it was going to turn out to be a nice, fairly warm day.

We got into our hospital room around 5:30am.  I told the nurses not to start me on the Pit until they were able to get me the Epidural. I was worried about being in a ton of pain for too long before the Epidural was ready. My experiences in the past have been that I want the epidural as soon as can be and it usually takes a long time to get it. But this labor was very different from my first two because this one I didn't go into the hospital with labor pains. I had a few contractions but Athena was not going to come on her own that morning.

It was close to 7am when the nurse asked if she could start the Pit, on a low level, about half an hour before the Epidural was ready. I agreed. And for that time I felt no pain or contractions on the Pit.
It was really weird to get the Epidural without being in any pain. My legs went numb.

So all morning I was numb and that was not comfortable. Laying in bed with numb legs, tossing and turning trying to get comfortable. Not fun! But I wasn't in pain...atleast for a while. Around noon I started feeling more and more pain. For an hour I was in a ton of pain! It turned out that my epidural was leaking and not really getting to me for some time. They got that fixed and things got better.

We called my mom to come down for the delivery at maybe 1:30ish. She got to the hospital just in time. So did the doctor. lol. 
I was not sure who was going to be my doctor because the doctor, Dr Diehl, I had been seeing for the last month was suppose to be having his day off today. But he did tell me that he has a hard time not delivering for his patients on his day off. He tends to come in and do the deliveries.

Dr Diehl was eating his lunch when they called him to let him know I was probably about ready to deliver. He scarfed down his food and came to the hospital.
At that point I could feel some pain but my lower half was completely numb...I could not move my right leg or foot at all!  So my breathing I had to focus on because of the pain but I could not feel what was going on even if I were to push.

The doctor told me to push. Half push. Then push. And it was done. She was out!
Quickest delivery! I thought Ty had been a speedy delivery at 15 minutes of pushing! But Athena was less than one minute!!

She was born at 1:37 pm.  Weighing 8 lbs 7 oz. 21 inches long. 

The nurses did not wash her up right away. I was excited to hold her. Mom and Sterling were also eager to have their turns. They cleaned her off a little but didn't give her a bath until a bit later. She went to perfectly breast feeding. No problem at all. Later that evening she started getting lazy though. So I have to work with her on that.

We have a daughter!!!  I don't think she looks like Lachoneus or Tiberias as a newborn. I wonder if she will look like her brothers at all or have her own look entirely. Lachoneus and Tiberias don't look alike.

After Luke got out of school my dad took the boys to Main Street's ice skating outdoors. It's close to the hospital. Luke had been wanting so much to go ice skating since we got to Rapid City. He had never been ice skating before.
The school sent home a flyer advertising free ice skating for the students and the day happened to be our baby delivery day. My dad took the boys and mom joined them, after her visit with Athena.

Apparently they had a blast ice skating. Luke did most of the skating but Ty took a turn as well. Then they all came to see Athena. The boys were able to meet and hold Athena. They were just as excited to play with the balloon my mom brought for Athena as they were about holding their new sister.

My parents took the boys to eat at Mcdonald's then to our house. Sterling stayed with Athena and I. I had sent him out earlier that afternoon to get me a Frosty from Wendy's. He came back with a little tin vase of red roses, the Frosty and Twizzlers for me! He's so wonderful! Sterling and I laid on the bed together...I took a nap while he watched a movie. Athena stayed with me more than I had either of my boys after they were born. Usually the baby gets taken to the nursery. This time they didn't take the baby. That was nice.

I sent Sterling home early that night to say goodnight to our little boys. Make sure they feel secure and happy going to bed that night.
Athena and I had a nice little night alone at the hospital. The nurses did not come in pushing my stomach as much as I expected...as was done after both my boys were born. So it was a nice night. Athena didn't like sleeping alone in the bassinet by my hospital bed. She was only happy when in my arms or laying on my chest.

My right leg was numb from the epidural until late that night. I could not even stand. It was weird being so numb for so long. Then trying to get use to my leg again once the numbness was waring off.

Athena has to stay 24 hours at the hospital before she can go home for the first time. Sterling came and spent time with us this morning. He enjoyed holding our new little bundle. Then we enjoyed a movie together on the hospital bed.  Then I sent him off to get stuff done until it's time for checkout.

I'm recovering nicely and Athena is very healthy. My mother however got sick last night and had a horrible night. Sterling said that Tiberias' kinked neck is much better today. He is holding his head straight and playing like normal.