December 30th, 2012... Summer's big day

So much has happened since her birth and I have been such a bum about posting about everything going on that I feel overwhelmed, but have to do it before I forget about the wonderful experience.

At 7am Derek and I woke up, showered and packed the car. I  was very unsure of the future at this point. I was scared about my surgery  very sad and nurse about how I would feel that it was no longer your Derek and I and I was just unsure about life of being a mother and being responsible for a precious little girl. As we were driving down the 101 freeway at 7:30am I held derek's hand and just sat in thought.

We arrived at Chandler Regional Hospital at 8am. We took a couple of pictures in front of the hospital and were on our way to the triage room for check-in. They took us back to a curtained off room and had me change. There we met Ashley my Labor and Delivery nurse. In between 8am and 9:40am it was all prep, paperwork and of course sweaty palms from being so nervous. Ashley my nurse was amazing. She took care of both Derek and I. During this time the worst thing was getting my IV in. I have very small veins. Ashley looked at my arms and hands and asked for the head nurse to come in. The head nurse came in and it took her 3 times to get a vein. She told me after that I was one of the hardest IV's she has ever had to put in. That made me feel good. After IV Derek got dressed and we were off to the surgery room.

Derek had to wait outside until I was completely numb and ready to start the delivery. I was super scared about the epidural and was very sad that Derek was not in the room with me. It barely hurt and my nurse actually held me up against her chest and it made me feel very comforted and very safe. I then laid down on the bed and the medicine spread through my body. They told me what to expect and everything they said was true it was just crazy how it actually felt. As the medicine numbed me chest I had a little bit of a hard time breathing (I think it was all in my head) and I think between the medincine and me freaking out a little I told them I was going to throw up and the next thing I knew the epidural doctor was holding my head and a bag for me to barf in. I barfed about 6 times (no chunks because I had fasted) and then dry heaved for about 5 minutes. Right after I had calmed down the next thing I remember was telling Derek about how I throw up (because I don't throw up with out crying normally and I wanted Derek to be proud of me) and as I was telling him we heard my doctor say there's the head and then came ...the cry. I had no clue they had even begun cutting me, I was shocked. I just lay there on the table staring at Derek who was looking over the sheet staring at our little girl. Derek then left my side and they took him and Summer to the right side of the room where they cleaned her down, cut her cord and weighed her. It was so funny to me that we had predicted so many things. That she would have red hair and green eyes or brown hair and blue eyes, but the first thing to get called out we never would have predicted and it was the most obvious who it came from. One of the nurses said "look at the dimple on her chin". That is definitely from Derek and I would have never guessed that she would have that. Yet it has been one of my favorite things about her. All of this I was watching knowing that they were still working on me and getting my cyst out, but I did not care because I was so excited and amazed at the little girl that Derek and I created and Heavenly Father blessed us with.

They yelled out 10 lbs 12 oz. She did exactly what everyone predicted. She was a big girl! Our nurse Ashley said it was her biggest baby!  They then measured her length at 22.25 inches. After her measuring was I could hear my doctor say "Do you want to see your cyst?" and of course I did so he showed us the cyst and it was huge. I really didn't think it was that big when we talked about it at appointments, but yeah it was that big. Derek then got to hold Summer and carry her over to me and we got to be a family for the first time. Derek held her on my chest and I just sat there touching her face with my hand. She was so indescribably beautiful! I was in instant love with this little girl and I LOVED her chin dimple! We got to cuddle for about 10 minutes and then Derek and Summer left the room to go get shots and I stayed lifeless on the bed till they put me back together.

Once they were done (which felt like eternity) I was wheeled to the triage room again to find Derek and Summer with our nurse. Derek had told me that the family (Grandma Ilene and Grandpa Kent, Grandma Robin and Grandpa Rick, and Morgan were all at the hospital) got to met Summer in the hallway for a second in between rooms. Derek, Summer and I were in this small room with no visitors for 2 to3 hours waiting for a room upstairs to open up. We sat and talked, Summer got her first bath, and then we took pictures of Summer and her nurse Ashley and Summer and her delivery doctor Dr. Moore. The exciting part was that I breastfeed Summer for the first time and she latched right away and fed perfectly. I was one proud Mom for Summer doing so well at breastfeed just because I have heard horror stories and I really wanted to breastfeed my little girl.

Around 4pm that night we made our way to room 464 upstairs and that is where we stayed for the next 3 days. After getting upstairs the fun of constant checks began. They checked all of my vitals and then Summer's. Basically the next 24 hours felt like feeding Summer, checking vitals and watching everyone visit. Showers were hard, walking was hard, but nothing that was unbearable because of the pain meds. Family stayed and visited for hours. They spent some good time there holding Summer and talking about how much she looks like her daddy. Yes, everyone says that she looks just like her daddy!  That night after everyone left and it was just Derek and I, I realized for the first time how special everything was that had happened that day. We were able to be SOOOO Blessed. There are so many things that can go wrong with a delivery of a baby and so many things to fear, but we were so blessed. I didn't care that night the amount of pain I was in I loved being with and holding my new baby girl. We named her Summer Kaye Snider. Summer because Derek and I think it is a beautiful name and we both love the summer season. Kaye was a name handed down from my dad's mom Zandra Kaye Anderson who pasted away a year ago last August. Also my middle name is Kaye so you can say I passed it down as well.