She is finally here!!!!

Ashyln Victoria DeLorme arrived on Tuesday November 6, 2007 at 5:38 a.m. She weighed 7 lbs 5oz and was 20 inches long.

Here is how the whole thing happened:
At my appointment Friday the doctor checked me and I was 3 cm and 60 % effaced. All day Monday I was really cranky. I was just so over being pregnant and so uncomfortable. I kept complaining to everyone that I wanted her to come now and did not want to wait until my induction on Thursday. I went to lunch with my mom and sister. I came home and took a 2 hour nap. Joey got home and I kept whining to him how uncomfortable I was. I took a bath around seven. I was laying on the couch watching tv. Around 8:15 I felt a really weird pop and what felt like a really, really low kick. I thought I should get up and check just to make sure. The whole time I kept thinking "please say my water broke". Sure enough it had broke.
Things got a little crazy after that. I wanted to take a shower and get ready before we went in. At the same time I was trying to call everyone to let them know. I took a really quick shower. At that point I figured I did not want to bother getting totally ready. So I told Joey we should get going. Joey was running around the house getting everything ready. It was like a scene out of a movie.
We got to the hospital and went to triage. They checked to make sure that my water had indeed broken. They said it had. The nurse then decided to check me. She checked me and said "Have you felt any pain?" I said "No" cause I had not. She said "Well you are already 5 centimeters and usually first time Moms will be in a lot of pain". I honestly had not felt one contraction, nothing.
They then brought me to my room and hooked me up to everything. I told them I wanted an epidural and they said they would wait a while. The doctor came in and said that if I had not progressed much by 4:00 a.m. they would start pitocin. I felt pretty good at first. Just some pressure. At that point my parents, brother, and 4 friends were there. Katy was actually working that night. Thankfully someone agreed to come in and work so she could be there. I started feeling contractions. They were the worst pain of my life! They hurt so bad! I had about 3 good ones and said that's it I want the epidural. They gave me the epidural which also hurt a lot. It was a small price to pay for some pain relief. Around midnight they said that I had a fever. The nurse said that they would have to start the pitocin. I was not enjoying the epidural all that much. It helped but felt really uneven. One leg was not numb at all and the other side was so numb. I still felt some pain. At one point I had all my friends were scratching my back, rubbing my feet. It really helped. They kept checking me and I was progressing well. My fever was not getting better despite tylenol.
At around 4:00 a.m. the nurse told me that I was complete. She said to let her know when I had the urge to push. I never felt the urge. I decided to let my sister stay in the room even though we decided originally to have it just be Joey. I started pushing. It was not fun. I pushed and pushed and they kept saying that I was doing a good job. She was just not coming. I was getting so exhausted by that point. The contractions were feeling so painful. Finally the doctor came in at 5:30 a.m. and said I was was doing a good job but asked if I wanted him to use the vacuum. At that point I was so desperate to get her out and soooo exhausted I said "yes". I pushed about 6 times with the help of the vacuum and she was born. Crowning was the absolute most horrible pain I have ever felt. Seeing her for the first time was the absolute best moment of my life. Unfortunately I was only able to hold her for a few seconds. They took her away because they said she was not breathing right. They said they would be taking her to the NICU. It was very scary.
I got to eat breakfast. Which was nice. Joey was in the NICU with her. I got to see her and hold her around 10 am. By that time she was no longer on oxygen and was breathing room air. They said that they thought my infection during labor could have caused her breathing issues. She was doing really well. I got to nurse her for the first time and she did really well. They said that I just had to nurse her five times and they could take her off the i.v. and she could come stay in our room. She got to come to our room around midnight. It was a rough night. She did not want to sleep and cried a lot. We managed through the night. Joey is so good with her. He loves having her sleep on his chest and changing her diaper.
We noticed on Wednesday that she was starting to look jaundice. They did a blood test early Thursday morning. Before we left the hospital the told us her levels were at 12. They said that was an okay level but they would have to check her again the following morning. We got to leave the hospital around noon. It was nice because she was born during some kind of birthing boom. We had to be moved to a different floor and the nurses were so busy. I dont think we got the best care because of it.
We are home now. Both of us are going through an extreme lack of sleep. It is very difficult but very worth it. We have had a lot of visitors and a lot of help. Her billirubin levels came back high from Friday's test. We went to the pediatrician this morning and he said her weight was good and she looked good other than the jaundice. We had to take her to get her blood drawn again. The doctor called this afternoon and said her levels have gone up even more. He said that they will be delivering lights that will help bring her levels down. The whole thing is just really scary. I know they are staying on top if it. We have to go everyday to get her blood drawn. They have not brought the lights yet so I dont know how long she will have to be under them for. The whole experience has been very trying and scary. I just want my sweet angel to be healthy!
She sleeps all day long. We can hardly wake her to nurse. Around 3 or 4 in the morning she is wide awake. Hopefully she will get on our schedule a little more soon. She nurses really well. So in the meantime we will be trying to get some sleep and loving our little angel. Please pray that her jaundice improves quickly! She is a very good baby. She hardly cries at all. Only when she is really hungry or is getting her diaper changed. Well, that is an update for now. Im sure there will be more to come soon.