The Culpepper Family

I've been wanting to write this blog since Alyssa was born so that I could share the experience of her birth with you all & so I can have it to always look back on. Since she is normally a sleepy head in the mornings (which we love) and I seem to be awake before her, I thought I'd use this opportunity to write this post.

As you know we decided to induce a week before my due date because Mama was r-e-a-d-y, like really ready. I was so ready that I was walking the neighborhood trying to induce labor & basically kick baby out. This was a big deal considering if you were around me much near the end because I was pretty cranky & not very mobile. I was very swollen near the end, just about everywhere, hence my super sexy balloon face & my nose that some how managed to get bigger each day. I heard once that if your nose gets bigger during pregnancy it means you're having a girl, well in my case it turned out to be true. Anywho, so I walked to the park, I walked up our stairs in our house, I did squats at the top of the stairs & then waddled back down. My sister, Shannon, helped in my plan "baby-eviction". She came over and read off ways to induce labor from the internet. When nothing was working we settled for dancing the baby out via the Wii game, "The Michael Jackson Experience"...which I just happen to be the most experienced at (just sayin'). Even Thriller couldn't entice baby out of my comfy belly.

So Wednesday night, March 21st we packed our car with our "go bags" that I had ready & Chase held my hand as I waddled my way to be induced.

Last picture before leaving the house.

We were like two kids before Christmas. I will never forget the feeling. We had the house in perfect order ready to bring baby home & entertain family. We kind of just walked around the house that day smiling & saying, "next time we're here, we'll have a baby!".

Settled in

Don't let this picture fool you. We were hard at work. Texting TONS of family & friends, since Chase "checked us in" on facebook at the hospital our phones were blowing up with excited and curious texts & emails.

That night we hung out together with Shannon & Keith for a bit, my mom stopped by and brought me a gorgeous floral arrangement to help my sterile hospital room feel a bit more like home. (What? Of course I have gorgeous floral arrangements all over my house...psh)
As the night progressed and it was time for bed the nurse gave me an Ambien to try and help me sleep. As you may remember at this point sleep was near impossible for me because I was so big, but mainly because my legs were so, SO restless. Well the Ambien backfired and I got sick, like running to the bathroom sick to my stomach. This was interesting because of my already slow movement being big & what not, but then to be hooked up to monitors and dragging an IV pole...fun all around, trust me. So after my system removed the Ambien from my body without consulting me I was left to flop and twitch miserably in bed for several hours. Finally at around 4am I called my nurse & said in my best calm patient, but also a nurse, voice..."I'm really sorry to bother you, & I know that you probably don't have anything ordered for me, but is there anything else you can give me to help my legs stop hurting and let me sleep?". To which she quickly replied, "sure would you like some Stadol?". My mouth dropped open, & I promptly nodded my head. My mind was screaming..."you mean to tell me this whole time of writhing in bed miserably there was stadol at my disposal?!". As she pushed the wonderful invention of stadol into my IV Chase reached for my hand and whispered, "hopefully you can get some sleep now", to which I replied, "I'm already out", and out I was.

*Knock Knock*
6am came quick & in came the nurse with the pitocin to kick start labor. Then right behind her at 7am came the doc to break my water. So by 730am things were looking a bit different.

Epidural please!

Man did those suckers hurt. Contractions are no joke. I know those of you who have been through labor are probably thinking, "duh", but I have seen people text in between contractions & having conversations with family during labor. I thought my labor would be the same, my family around me all day while I occasionally was heavy breathing & uncomfortable. That dream labor was no where in sight. Instead I said nothing while Chase held my hands and asked if I was ok or helped me through the contraction. When the doctor broke my water and said, "it's going to get intense now, so you can have an epidural at any time", I didn't believe her. So after only 2 hours of contractions that mean business, coming every 1-1.5minute and lasting for 60 whole seconds I was ready for that blissful epidural that I've heard raves about. The anesthesiologist took his sweet time to get to my room and in the mean time they kicked Chase out and in bounces my sweet nurse ready to take his place. She proceeded to count down my contractions and I proceeded to silently kill her in my mind. I really don't talk when I'm in pain so I said nothing. She asked me questions, I said nothing, she asked me jokingly if I was alive I shot her a "you wont be if you keep talking" look. So in walks the man who's going to make all my dreams come true and release from this torture, and he's on the phone the entire time. He's chatting about other patients, and when he's going to go to lunch, all while he sets up for the epidural. He stops just before administering it, pauses his very important phone call, and says..."hey did you know you have a slight curvature to your back?". To which my mind screams...if you don't get that needle in my curved back there will be a slight curve in your face from my fist!...but of course my mouth only got out, "oh". Then boom...the drugs were on board and that burning pain that he warned me about was nothing compared to the painful grip of contractions. Within seconds I was numb, and it was awesome. The nurse got me situated in bed & brought Chase back in. Our families had arrived and came in to say hello, we were laying in our beds at this point, I'm sure looking super convincing when we said "no you can stay" as they all said politely, "you guys look like you need rest, we'll be in the waiting room". So out they went, and out we were.

We slept for hours & once we woke back up I could feel quite a bit more, downstairs, again. It was about noon, and the nurse checked me and said it'd be any time now. She turned me every so often for an hour or so and Chase & I spent that time talking to my sister Shannon excitedly about if Baby Pepper would be a boy or a girl. We some how were convinced that baby was going to be a boy that day, everybody was saying so. Man were we suprised. During this time the nurse comes in to check me & states excitedly that she can feel lots of hair on baby's head. We're all squealing in excitement. She then looks right up and Shannon and Chase and reaching her gooey glove at them says, "here, you wanna feel?"...Shannon & I simulatneously hold our hands up at her and say "um, NO". I am all for sharing my baby, but not when she's still hitched up in my giddy up, mmkay.

Video chatting with Kristen so she could be there with us

My wonderful sister/photographer/oxygen mask holder

Last picture of us as a duo before we become a trio

Ready to be a daddy

So 145pm hits and the nurse says she's called the doctor who is finishing her lunch and then will be on her way (how nice of her). She proceedes to set up the room & gets me in position. By 2pm we're ready to push and making bets on when baby is going to be born. The nurse says repeatedly that it's going to be like 2 minutes..."one push & it'll be out" because baby is "right there". Well I would like to go back in time and hold my finger up to her lips because it only makes it worse pushing for 33 minutes and about 15 rigorous times after someone has promised something like that. Regardless, the minutes went by like slow motion and I pushed with every ounce of strength I had.

I pushed in sets of 3 during the minute long contractions, which I could now fully feel again. A little word to the wise, when they ask if you want more drugs prior to delivery...just say yes. I felt just about everything. I could hardly catch my breath between contractions.

I went back to not speaking as they shouted orders at me, "lean into it, legs back, shoulders pulled tight like you're rowing a boat!". I was trying to do all of those things the best I could & feeling her come out slowly and wondering how much more I have to push as the contraction ended and I could push no more. My doctor assured me I was doing great but that baby was coming out then going back in. Set after set and still the same result. I stared into Chase's eyes in between contractions and telepathically told him this wasn't going to work, I was giving it all I had and running out.

My doctor must have sensed this telepathic exchange because she then says, do you want to feel how far the baby's out? So I reluctantly reach down and feel my baby's head then as I feel another contraction coming I wipe my hand and resume position. The room cracked up. Apparently me wiping off my baby's goo was hilarious. My sweet doctor also proclaims, "baby's out about an inch!" which made me throw my head back and after many silent minutes yell, "AN INCH??". Again, laughter fills the room and again my mind is yelling, "lady do you know how long a baby is?!". This was all in a matter of very short, but slow motion seconds and then I was back to pushing.

The nurse kept yelling at me to look down at my doctor while I pushed because then the baby would push out that way...I ignored her because who wants to stare at someone else while you're making the most horrible, let's face it, poop face ever?? So I looked up, away from everyone else concentrating and trying to make my body do all the orders she was barking at me. Finally on the last push after her yelling "look at the doctor" over and over...I agreed. I looked at her while making what had to be the most awful face ever and my doctor met my eyes with cheerleader like smiles and ecouraging facial expressions and then boom, baby pepper was out.

They scooped up baby before we could see boy or girl parts and set the little boo on my chest for us to unwrap together. I couldn't see the give away bits, so after a few seconds I yelled, "what is it??" frantically, to which the room replied, "it's a GIRL!". Tears immediately filled my eyes as they rubbed this beautiful crying creature off on my chest. Chase was right next to my head looking at our baby girl and I felt like we were one. We were now a family, and more than ever the reality set in and it was truly...awesome.

I can't quite describe the peace that you feel. But after all the discomfort at the end of pregnancy, and the work that it takes to get your child out into the world all just some how washes away from you in that moment. It's as if I only saw her and my husband and the family that we'd become. This is definitely why people can go through all of this again. That peace, that high of bringing another life into the world, holding that prescious gift in your arms is what makes all that pain something you'd go through again.

Alyssa Kate Culpepper was 6lbs 15.2oz & 21inches long born at 233pm on March 22nd 2012. Our families couldn't wait to find out pink or blue so after some cuddle time alone with our baby girl we made the announcement.

As you can imagine everyone was ecstatic. Frilly girl things were bought and we haven't stopped since!

XO- The Culpeppers

Today was the day. The day we let Alyssa try real food. I have been dreading this day since we went to the doctor for her 4 month check up & she just stated matter of factly, you can start feeding her whenever & whatever. My eyes got wide & my forhead got sweaty. Chase left the doctor's office that day super psyched imagining all of the fun foods he was going to buy for her & try with her. I left with my phone in hand feverishly researching & researching when to start baby food, how to start baby food, what kinds of baby foods are best to start with, how to make these "best baby foods". I felt like I had showed up to school and a pop quiz had been thrown my way & I was completely ill prepared. I was looking at my 3 percentile for weight baby & thinking...you're joking right? She's not ready to eat! Well the internet backed me up & after much (MUCH) research I felt better that the American Academy of Pediatrics and several others have researched and proved that it it much more beneficial for little ones to wait until 6 months to start adding baby food. So wait we did. I am really glad that I did. For me, breastfeeding (while so not easy) is an awesome thing. It's great for her, it's good for me, and she'll only be this small once so I don't want to rush her through these phases. So while for the last couple of months she's grabbed at and drooled over our food while we eat, she finally got to do some eating of her own!

I decided to start with Avocados since it was literally no preparation & they've got looks of goodies for baby girl. She did lots of gagging, as we've discovered she's got her Daddy's super sensitive gag reflex, but I think it was a good experience. She did what she was supposed to. Smiled some, made silly faces some, made a big ol' mess, but got lots of good practice in. She'll get the hand down I am certain, because Baby Girl's thighs aren't going to feed themselves ;)

Here are some pictures from this big moment so you feel like you were right there with us :)

Just look at that adorable green mushy face! I used to see moms giving their babies kisses on the mouth full of drool & who knows what else and it would make me cringe. I always thought, "that'll never be me". But one look at this round avocado stained face & I wanted to kiss those gooey green lips! And that, ladies & gents, is how you know you're a parent.

XO- The Culpeppers

The Culpepper Family

Monday, October 8, 2012

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Sunday, September 30, 2012

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Wednesday, September 26, 2012

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