NoraGrace's Grand Appearance

To start it off, let me give all you expectant mothers out there a good tip: Never assume you'll deliver your baby by your due date because it may not happen. Unfortunately, noone gave me this little tip, and I was miserable for the last couple of weeks. I assumed I'd deliver by or near my due date. NOPE, did not happen! I had to be induced, which I was totally against the entire time I was pregnant. But by the time you get to the 40 week mark, it gets pretty miserable. Not only are you swollen and tired, but you're so anxious to see the baby. Waiting to see Gracee was the worst part. I wondered whose eyes she would have, if she'd have hair, or if she'd be bald like I was. So at that point I decided to go ahead and be induced, which turned out to be a good idea because my cervix would not dialate. Even at 40 weeks I was not dialated at all. The baby had come down, but for some reason I wouldn't dialate-which caused for some very painful checkups. I really got aggravated with a few people that kept telling me not to be induced because the baby just wasn't ready. Well that wasn't the case with me. She moved down into position, but my body wouldn't cooperate. So there you go--Not everyone knows everything about every delivery.

So Tuesday, November 8th, at my 40 week check, my midwife decided to induce me because she figured my cervix wouldn't dialate on its own. Wednesday we loaded our packed bags into the car and headed to the hospital. I was admitted and taken back to a labor and delivery room at around 5 that afternoon. The plan was to use Cervadil for the entire night to soften and dialate my cervix. Once it was inserted, I started feeling crampy, but it wasn't a big deal. I slept off and on all night, thanks to the help of a sleeping pill. Punkin was there of course, but so were my parents. My Mama and Daddy couldn't stand the thought of something happening and them not being there, so they stayed the entire night.

Thursday morning at 4 o'clock the Cervadil was removed. I had dialated a whopping centimeter. WhooHoo.... Not. Cervadil was supposed to help soften my cervix and get the ball rolling, but it didn't really help. It definitely had a mind of its own. My midwife came in and broke my water to help speed the process along, and, oh my goodness, did that hurt. About 8 I started becoming uncomfortable from the Pitocin that was started at 4 that morning. I wasn't hurting yet, but was just really uncomfortable. My midwife thought I should relax because I still wasn't dialated. They gave me a shot of Demerol, which really did nothing but make me feel loopy. My sister still picks on me because out of the blue that morning I interrupted their conversatio with , "I LOVE DEMEROL," Apparently I was in love with Demerol, and had I been in a cartoon, little floating hearts would have appeared over my head. At about 11, it was decided that I should go ahead and have an epidural to relax me compeletly because I was only about a 2. I got the epidural, which was bliss and so not what everyone told me it would be. Yeah, it made my nerves stand on end knowing I had a huge needle in my back, but I didn't mind because I was started to feel strong contractions. That epidural worked for a few hours and allowed me to rest, but I still progress really slowly. At about 5 I started feeling everything, and by everything I mean pure natural hell. Contractions are no joke! I didn't have any back labor; it was all up front. Oh I thought I would die. My epidural was working on my left leg, but no where else. It looked okay when they checked it, so they decided to give me another shot of something else (I was too much in pain to remember the name), and it did absolutely no good. By this point, I moved up to about a 7 and was hurting so bad, but I didn't want to redo the epidural because I didn't want it to slow the process down.  My doctor ended up telling me to go for the second epidural because I was in so much pain. I did, and it was so much worse because I was feeling pressure and it hurt to bend over. It worked a little but not very much. I still felt all the pressure down below. Noone thought I was ready to push because I had been dialating so slowly, but my body was telling me to push. They checked me and I was 9 with a little rim. About 5 minutes later I called the nurse back and made them check me again. I was a complete 10! Guess where my doctor was...about 10 miles away at home. Holy crap. I couldn't not push because it felt so good to. I had to wait at least an hour with my body telling me to push, but not being able to. That was the absolute worst part of labor. When my doctor finally walked in the door to tell me she was there, I was crowning. She barely had time to put her gloves and jacket on before I was delivering at 8:18 pm. I was in labor from 5 that morning to 8:18 that afternoon. Talking about a fun day! Boo.

Overall the experience was wonderful. Knowing my body was capable of creating a little tiny human is amazing. It also made me feel bulletproof and powerful. I mean everyone says giving birth is as close to dying as you can come without actually dying, well I must be a badbutt woman because I made it through it.
I know most women go through it, but it really makes you realize just how strong of a woman you are when you have a child.

Gracee weighed 7lbs 3 ounces and was 19 1/2 inches long. She was a little cone-headed because she was in the birth canal while I waited for the doctor to get there, but it's went away now. She was perfect. I know everyone says its an undescribable moment, but it really is. Nothing can describe the way I felt about that little girl as soon as she was laid on my stomach. Well here she is world:

Welcome Miss NoraGrace "Gracee" Ann Daniel

Hunting Season Blues

Just to let everyone know (if in case for some strange reason someone doesn't know), I love to hunt. I didn't realize I'd like hunting so much until my husband, who is one of many proud country boys, started letting me tag along with him. Little did he know that those tag alongs would turn a light switch on inside of me and cause me to be so passionate about hunting. I do everything that my husband does involving hunting, minus shooting muzzleloaders. But that's only because I haven't tried it yet.

    Before I met my husband, I didn't know what "running dogs" meant, much less how it all worked. But now, I run dogs every single day of hunting season, and this past year I was able to bag my first deer (spike). I'm not one of those wives who sit in the truck all day and whine about how hot/cold it is. Instead, I'm usually the one running down the dirt road, shotgun in hand, praying the deer decides to come out near me. Needless to say, I love running dogs. There's nothing like hearing my 15 head of beagle babies in hot pursuit and the excitement that it brings. What, you say, does this have to do with my pregnancy? It just so turns out that my due date is about 2 weeks into hunting season! What in the world am I going to do? I'm going to try to tough it out until I have Gracee, and I know after she's born I won't be that interested in hunting. But you never know, I'll probably still have the fever. Maybe we'll be able to work it out.

On another note, I probably will be able to bow hunt, which opens up in a few weekends.  My husband bought me my bow for my birthday in April, and I've been practicing off and on every since. But in a little over two weeks, there's a tournament at a local church. I hope I shoot well. (I stopped writing with intentions to come back and finish, but unfortunately I never did. So I'll fill y'all in on my hunting season)

Added about 7 weeks after delivery:
  I did do really well in the bow tournament. I actually placed 2nd and ended up shooting with my husband, which must to have made him nervous because he only shot 3 points higher than me. He would have been devastated to have his pregnant wife whoop his tail, so I took it easy on him---or so I say anyways.

  Being pregnant never hindered my hunting season. I ran up and down dirt roads with my 12-gauge in hand, and hunted blood trails for endless hours. The spike I killed took about 8 hours to find (even with the help of the beagle babies--I shot his leg off, which I completely blame on the scope being off). I walked across bedded clearcuts and through knee-deep Cypress ponds. Everyone told me to take it easy because I was pregnant, but I decided against it. I knew I'd never be the type to pile up on the couch and eat an entire bucket of icecream. Instead I decided to be proactive and keep going, which is what I think made it easier during labor.

  Hunting season hasn't actually been so bad. I was able to kill another spike this year with my bow (at about 36 weeks) and a spike with my trusty .243 (At nearly 40 weeks). Even though my belly poked out about 12 inches, I was still able to climb in my two seater ladder stand all the way up to delivery. I had Gracee on Thursday and was climbing that Tuesday-not that I saw anything.

  Never ever listen to anyone say a woman can't do what a man can, because I'm here to say that a man can't do what a woman does! Also, never listen to anyone who tells you that being pregnant causes your life to change. It does when the baby comes, but being pregnant doesn't. Pregnant women can do all that a non-pregnant woman can. All I had to be careful with was falling. For some reason my equilibrium was off-balanced and caused me to fall often. I fell out the door of my house a couple of times and off the steps quite a few times. Mostly I just stumbled, but a couple of times I fell all the way down. I never hurt myself though.

Since the baby has been born, I've went and ran dogs a couple of times for a short while. Punkin hasn't had much time to hunt either. And since the season is nearly over, we're pretty much done with hunting for this year. Not that we don't miss it, because we both do; it's just that we have more important things to worry about--Gracee! I'll give all the details of the birthing process and all that's went on since then in a different blog. I'll get that to work on that soon!