Mia is a year old today. It's funny to think that a year ago today I was sitting in the studio secretly timing contractions throughout the morning show. At this time I was walking into Joe Cassady's office asking him to sign a form allowing me to take a half day sick. And about 5 and a half hours later Mia was in our arms!

In honor of her birthday I thought it would be fun to repost the blog I wrote about the day she was born the day after she came into this world.

11/9/11

Yesterday was quite a day. I was on the air in the morning. I said a couple times when we were promoting the guess the arrival contest that it could be any day any hour. I was right. I knew I wasn't feeling well and came in planning to make it a short day. Once the show was over I filled out a time off sheet requesting a half day sick. Joe signed it and wished me well. I got out of the office around 9:25am and headed home. I called my mom and told her to keep her phone handy because I had a feeling it was the day we'd meet our little girl. I called Josh and told him that I was on my way home from work and he asked if he should come home too. I told him not to rush just finish up whatever he had to do and come home early. He decided he'd leave work at 11 so he could get a half day in and I said that would be fine. Minutes later I started having painful contractions about 5 minutes apart I didn't have an accurate timer in the car I was just using the clock on my radio. By the time I got home I thought I'd try a few things to make the contractions go away. I tried a bath and that didn't work. I tried to eat something light and that didn't work. I tried to bounce and rock on the exercise ball and that didn't work either. Luckily Josh didn't stick around at work too much longer he got home around 11:30 and by the time he got into the house I was sitting on the bathroom floor feeling like I was going to vomit. Then I had to get on all fours to get through my contraction. We used an accurate contraction timer and called the hospital, the contractions were 5 minutes apart and lasting about a minute and it had been happening since 9:37am and continued to get more painful and longer over that time. The woman on the phone at Ministry Saint Michael's Hospital in the Women and Infant Center said, "It sounds like you're still in early labor so you can come in or just wait a little while." I told her we were going to come in because we're 20 minutes from the hospital. Josh had the car already loaded up and the dogs in their kennels while I was on the phone with the hospital. He was ready to go. So we hopped in the car. By the time we were on our way my contractions were 2 minutes apart.

When we got to the hospital shortly after noon the nurse checked me and I was 100% effaced and 3cm dilated. My water sack was bulging so the nurse didn't want to push to hard to find the baby's head, but she did say that my cervix was low so that's a good sign. The doctor on call, Dr. Jamison, came in shortly after and checked me concurring with the nurse's assessment then did an ultrasound and found that baby was breech! Which was crazy because she was head down for the last 4 appointments we were at and the last of those was just this past Thursday! Dr. Jamison ordered another ultrasound machine just to get a clearer picture. She wanted to measure how much amniotic fluid was there to see if there would be a chance for them to turn the baby externally, but she found that there wasn't so we'd need to do a C Section. She also ordered the epidural that I would need for the C Section. After that things started moving really quickly because they were worried about my water breaking because it was buldging so much. If my water had broken I would've had to deliver her breech which is not an impossible thing to do, but certainly not ideal for either of us. 

The anastisiologist came in to talk to me about the epidural. I was having very close contractions and very painful contractions by this point so I was not listening to a thing he was saying just thinking please just give it to me I really don't have much of a choice about getting it anyway. I think I had 4 massive contractions during his speech then he finally let me sign the papers. 

They sent Josh to change luckily my mom was there to hold my hand for the last contraction before they wheeled me away. She arrived just before they did the second ultrasound to confirm what they were going to do. I really didn't want to have to do it this way so I cried a little it was nice that she was there to help me deal with it.

They wheeled me into the operating room and gave me the epidural. Josh still wasn't in there. They made him wait in the hallway until they had me all set up and ready to go. I was asking for him, they told me he'd be in soon. Shortly after he was by my side and we cried together while the doctor sliced me open.

At 2:57pm our beautiful baby girl was delivered. They showed her to me for a second and then took her away. Josh went with her while the doctor stitched me up. They asked me what her name would be and I told them I didn't know yet. Josh came back in by me to tell me how perfect she is and I asked him, "what color is her hair?" We had two names picked out and decided that her hair color would determine her name. He told me it's dark and so fuzzy and soft so we decided to call her Mia Anne. Anne is my grandmother's name and she was so excited when she heard that we gave her greatgranddaughter her name.

Josh got to bring her into the operating room to meet me for a minute before bringing her back to the birthing suite. She was wide awake and ready to eat. Unfortunately because of the circumstances I couldn't feed her for almost an hour. Josh got to hold her skin to skin to warm her up that first hour so that was really special.

While I was in the operating room Josh's parents arrived and my dad got here. They were all waiting in the waiting room until Josh got back to the room. When the wheeled me back they were all ushered out for a few minutes. I needed to nurse and I really don't have issue with my parents seeing me do it so I told the nurse they could come back in.

We had a busy night for visitors, my sister, my best friend Felicia and her sister and Josh's brother and his family. It was so nice that they all came. Especially with as snowy as it was today I'm glad they came yesterday so they didn't feel obligated to come today.

Today we had a busy day of doctor visits. My regular OB came by today to check on me. Dr. Locher Mia's pediatrician stopped in to see her and to check her hip. Because she was breech she was born with a dislocated hip. Dr. Locher discovered in his check today that it is typically in place, but easily slips out which is actually better than the alternative. He said a brace can help straighten things out so he would send for an orthepedics consult. So we got a visit from him too. He brought a brace with him for Mia to wear 24 hours a day 7 days a week. We do have to take it off to bathe her, but that's it. He also referred us to Marshfield Clinic for an ultrasound of the hip to determine how bad it is. She needs to have it fixed because if it slips during her development it can cause some major problems later on. She'll need to wear this brace for 6 to 8 weeks. We have our appointment for the Ultrasound next week Tuesday so we should know more then and I'll update you.

Breastfeeding has been going very well. Mia took to it like a champ and I did pretty good too. The nursing staff here have been absolutely amazing helping me get her latched on correctly and helping me with a lot of other things since I had a C section I have limited movement.

Because Mia wasn't squeezed through the birth canal she didn't get all that amniotic fluid pressed out of her so she's been spitting it up. We've had to suck it out of her mouth and nose a lot today. She even chokes on it sometimes and scares the crap out of me. I was by myself earlier because Josh had to run home to tend the dogs and I had to call the CNA to get in here to help me because Mia was choking so badly.

She's doing great now though. She's in the nursery right now getting her pictures taken and having a hearing test done. Though I'm pretty sure she can hear because she settles right down when she hears Josh's voice. Not that she's very fussy.

We are so excited to welcome Mia Anne 7 pounds 7 ounces 19 and 1/4 inches long into the world at 2:57pm on 11/8/11.