Robi Nicole Guillena

August 5, 2010

• Well, it happened... another Guillena/Roper girl...with a little bit of modern medicine help. Thank goodness for pitocin. I got to experience quite a few new things with this delivery: prostaglandin gel, IV pitocin, sciatic nerve pain, my water breaking before an epidural, an IUPC (inter-uterine pressure catheter), and an amnioinfusion.

• I was on a waiting list for an induction August 4th. They called me at 3pm, and we arrived at the hospital at 4:45 after getting everything ready to go and dropping the kids off. They started my pitocin at about 6pm, but by 9pm still nothing was happening, so they stopped it and started giving me prostaglandin gels. I had to get up and walk around after each one. I got this terrible pain down my legs, we think it was because the baby was pushing on my sciatic nerve. It was almost impossible to walk.

• They restarted my pitocin at 4am, and were expecting my labor to really take off...it didn't. At 7am they broke my water...wow that was a lot of warm fluid...and told me my labor would really take off, and I would probably have the baby by 11 or 12...nope.

• My progress was really slow, and every time they checked me, they were surprised at my lack of progress, but reassured me that it was going to just get to a certain point and then go so fast. Well, my doctor had to catch a plane at 5pm to present at a conference in California the next day. So, we were really hoping to have a baby before he had to rush off to the airport.

• Finally at 3:47 pm I was 9 cm dilated, and the doctor was able to push that last lip past the babies head so I was a 10. Then one push later and our newest daughter entered the world at 3:48 pm. Just in time. It only took 22 hours, but it was worth it. She came out with a nice good cry, (I'm a nursery nurse, I love to hear that cry), and I got to dry her off myself. She is our smallest baby, 6 pounds 5 ounces, and 20 inches long.

• Brinley and Meggie love her to death. I have to tell Meggie to stop kissing her, and every time Meggie talks to Robi, her voice goes up about 2 octaves. So far she is a really good baby. She is nursing really well, sleeping really well, and hardly cries. I guess we got lucky 3 times. We all love her very much and are so glad she is here...(especially me, it's so nice not being pregnant anymore.)