She's Here!

Please welcome Ansley Elsa Schularick to the world. She was born on Tuesday 10/13 at 8:03 pm. She weighed 6 lbs 6 ozs and was 17 3/4 inches long.

I went to my 40 week doctors appt and my blood pressure was still really high. Doctor Ruffin recommended that since I was full term that I just head right over to the hospital to be induced. She was worried about me developing preclamsia. This was quite unexpected and everyone was caught off guard. Even though I was incredibly scared, I was equally as excited. I headed right next door to Kennestone Hospital and began the induction process. For that night the doctor gave me cervidil to ripen and dialate my cervix. On Tuesday morning I was only dialated 1/2 a centimeter. We were very worried that I wasn't going to dialate properly or that it was going to take forever. Dr. Tagechian began me on pitocin at 7am. At 10am I was dialated just 1 centimeter. At 2pm I was dialated 2.5 centimeters. At this point, Dustin and I thought we'd be at the hospital all day and maybe the next day. I was already having pretty strong contractions. Dustin was massaging my back, we tried using the birthing ball, but I had to be constantly monitored and couldn't move around too much. I asked for my epidural, knowing it was pretty early in the process. It was honestly already the worst pain I had ever experienced (at least I though so). The epidural worked wonders (for a short time). Luckily, at my next check at 5pm, I was 5 centimeters. We were so excited. Dr. Tag said we'd have a baby by 11pm that night. I started feeling really strong contractions again and they called for a redose of my epidural. It didn't help too much. I was still really feeling the pain of each contraction. At about 6:30 I told Dustin to go down to the cafeteria to get some dinner "just incase things started happening quickly". Dustin and our friend Jonate went to get some dinner. Tessa was holding my hand and letting me sqeeze with every contraction. Candi was checking out the contractions on the computer screen and telling me when they started to decrease. The pain was getting pretty severe, and all of the sudden I felt like I had to push. I thought that there was no way I was ready, but I called a nurse to check me anyway. At 6:45 the nurse came in, checked me, and said I was already fully dialated, the babies head was right there, and I was ready to push. I couldn't believe that I had gone from 5 to 10 centimeters in such a short period of time, but, it did explain the sudden increase in pain. Candi quickly called Dustin and told him to rush back to the room. Tessa called my parents to tell them that I was going to start pushing. Dr. Tag even came in with complete surprise that I had dialated so soon. Dustin quickly got back to the room and we started the pushing process. Dustin was an amazing coach. He held my right leg back, counted at every contraction, and was very encouraging at each push. He watched the whole process (which he wasn't sure if he'd be able to). An hour and 10 minutes later, Ansley Elsa came into the world. She was such a precious little angel immediately. Dustin and I were thrilled. I cried my eyes out and was so proud of her for making it to us quickly. The rest is history...
Lots of Love,
I can't believe I'm a mommy Erin