MacchiOTTo's Birth Story

Our little MacchiOTTo arrived on May 8th, 2012.  After much anticipation and waiting on our part; the big day finally arrived.  As you may recall we were due on May 6th.  For weeks leading up this we had everything ready around the house; at the office, in the nursery, etc.  So that weekend both Ott, E and I were a little anxious to get this show on the road.  He worked out in the yard and garden to keep his mind busy and I tried eating spicy food and taking long walks as I heard those were wives tales to help spur on labor...but... no luck.  On Monday, May 7th I had a Doctor's appointment in the morning and when I went in to the office they said everything looked fine, but they suggested inducing labor since I was overdue.  At first I was a little disappointed because I wanted the surprise of feeling contractions or water breaking, but at the same time I knew Ott, E and I were tired of waiting so at 8 pm that evening we were checked into the hospital and ready to start this process.       

It was an awkward night of sleep in the hospital as I was given something to soften the cervix around 9 pm and again at 1:30 am. I was hooked up to a machine to monitor the baby's heartbeat as well as having a blood pressure cuff around my arm which went off every so often to check my blood pressure. so sleep was a bit difficult.  By 4 am I started to feel some contractions and when the nurse checked me at 6 am I was dilated 4 cm.  My body had started to go into labor on it's own without any more assistance so I was happy with that.

The contractions continued throughout the day and by 10 am I was at 8 cm.  At that point the contractions were getting stronger and more painful so I asked for an epidural.  Once that took effect things felt much better.  The Doctor broke my water around 11:30 and I started to push a little around 12:30.  By 1:47 pm our little MacchiOTTo arrived. 

The doctor allowed Ott, E to call out what it was since we had decided to keep the gender of the baby a surprise.  He looked down at our baby (half shocked with what had just happened and trying to decipher the umbilical cord from the rest of the baby) and said, "Uhhh.... I think it's a girl."  The Doctor said yes it's a girl and handed him scissors to cut the umbilical cord. 

After that they placed her on my chest for some skin to skin time.  She was pretty peaceful and didn't cry very much.  She just laid there and looked at me with these big blueish gray eyes.  I thought she was the cutest thing I had ever seen.  She had long dark curly hair and there was no doubt where she gets that from. 

She weighed 7 pounds 13 ounces and measured 20 inches long.  She also had a head circumference of 14.5 centimeters.  (Only a mother would mention that stat.)  She passed all her test and is perfectly healthy in every way.  We got to bring her home on the 10th and the past week has been a blessing of getting to know her and she getting to figure us out.  She eats and sleeps a lot and we have changed a lot of diapers.  She is a gift and we are truly blessed to have her in our lives.