Meet Maelee Paige Felter...

The birth story,

On Sunday May 8, 2011 Jesse and I went to the doctor's office to have a foley catheter placed to help with dilation because I was only dilated to about a 1-1 1/2, then we scheduled our appoint to be induced for the following morning. The visit took about 10 min and was only a little uncomfortable. After the catheter was placed I felt weird but felt fine, Jesse was laughing so hard at me because I could not walk normal, we went to Wal-Mart after for a few things and I'm sure I got a few funny looks because I looked absolutely ridiculous. The doctor told me that there may be some "cramping" a couple hours after it was placed but that it shouldn't put me in to labor. Well, a few hours passed and I was in so much pain. I felt so helpless, all I could do was lay in my bed and cry. Every few minutes I would get excruciating pain in my lower back and abdomen, it was awful, tylenol did nothing to help the pain and neither did taking a warm bath. If I didn't know what a contraction felt like before, I definitely knew then. The night wasn't as long as I thought it was going to be, I got about 3-4 hours of sleep. I decided to wake up at 5am because I really wanted to look cute when I had my baby! :) So I got up and had all this energy and was super excited! Finally we were off to the hospital and in for ONE LONG DAY.

Just getting in bed, haven't been poked by anything yet. Feeling great!

We checked in to the hospital about 7:50am and I was in my room about an hour later all ready to go. They placed an IV in my arm which didn't really hurt at all, just a quick poke and it was in! Jesse would laugh at me because I felt like my arm was paralyzed and didn't want to use it because I was hooked up and afraid to move it. They put a few monitors on my belly so they could monitor me and the baby we could hear the baby's heart beat the whole time. The doctor came in to break my water which was so so so so painful. In my opinion, it was worse then having an epidural or anything, it was awful and really gross! After that contractions were coming about every 2 minutes and were getting very strong so I decided to have my epidural at about 9:30am. The epidural was also not bad, just a quick poke and some pressure, it felt like someone hit a funny bone in my back, after that I worked for a while they put in my catheter and I was all set, once I had my epidural and catheter I was so happy because from now on labor and delivery was going to be a breeze. NOT. Contractions kept coming and I kept feeling them in my lower left back and a little in my abdomen. The anesthesiologist decided that it would be best if we pulled the epidural out a little to reposition to see if that would help, so that's what we did, but it did not help. So I just tried to stay calm and breathe through my contractions but it was so painful. As they kept giving me more pitocin the contractions kept getting stronger and there was nothing I could do about it. They would reposition my body in weird ways hoping that would help for me to get numb but they told me that some women get "hot spots" where the epidural just doesn't work in certain areas. Hours and hours passed and I was getting no where. As time passed they would check me, I was progressing, but progressing really really slow. They had told me that I had would most likely have my baby some time Monday evening. When Monday evening rolled around I was very discouraged and very tired and very hungry. The nurses were optimistic but I could tell they were also getting a little discouraged. So I was finally dilated to a 5 and they said that from here on out it should start to faster and get easier. It did not. They had turned the pitocin up as far as it could go and decided that if we were going to get things going then we needed to go to a high dose of pitocin but in order to do that we would have to put a different monitor on the baby that was more accurate so we could see exactly what my contractions were doing. So they inserted a different type of monitor that went between the uterus and the baby so that every time my uterus would contract they could tell exactly how much. After they inserted that they upped the pitocin and we waited a few hours BUT still nothing. This whole time I could feel my contractions because the hot spots. I was exhausted and felt so sick. They kept giving me medicine through my epidural so I felt extremely numb, like uncomfortably numb everywhere except for those few spots. At this point, I had so much medicine in me and was sick and scared. They kept checking me and saying you are staying exactly the same and your cervix is so firm and not stretchy at all, I stayed dilated to a 5 and never made it past that. To top it all of everything was making me sick, I kept throwing up, which was horrible because I could move my body to get in a good position to throw up so I always ended up just throwing up all over myself. My nurse kept coming in and saying things about having a c-section but I was bound and determined I was not doing that. After hours and hours of dealing with the same old situation, the nurse came in and told me I needed to make a decision, it was about 10:00pm at this time, she said that she had spoken with the doctor and that he said it may be time to do a c-section but that if I wanted to keep trying to dilate for a few more hours then I could. I was devastated. I had not prepared myself for this, I am terrified of needles, and now they were telling me I had to be cut open? I have never been so scared in my life. For about an hour, I laid in my bed and cried, because I knew that it was time to do a c-section but I didn't want to and was so scared. Remember, through all of this I can feel my contractions about every two minutes. I decided I had had enough and that it was time to do the c-section. After I let them know things progressed quickly.  They had Jesse change, and came in and gave me an antibiotic and some more pain medicine (which did nothing).

Going to the operating room

Getting prepped for surgery

It was time, they started wheeling me into the OR and I was hysterical, I could not keep it together, I bawled uncontrollably the whole time, they kept asking me what was wrong? Well, what do you thing is wrong? I am tired, emotional, sick, things didn't go according to plan, and to top it all of, I am about to be cut open and I am not numb!! We got into the OR and they were preparing me for surgery, finally the anesthesiologist grabbed my head and said "Amanda it's time for you to pull it together " and I did. I put my game face on. The doctor came in and it was time. I never opened my eyes once the whole time. At first everything was fine, I felt a lot of pressure and tugging but no pain. Then I started to feel a little pain, the baby was born, I heard Jesse say "look she's so beautiful Amanda" I opened my eyes for half a second to look at her and shut them. I couldn't hear her crying so I said "why isn't she crying" no one answered me. Jesse left with the baby and that's when I started to feel PAIN. I could feel them putting me back together, I started crying again and was telling them, that hurts I can feel that, but they did nothing, just kept on going, I was bawling telling them I can feel that!! I can feel that! After minutes of feeling excruciating pain it was finally over. I don't really remember anything after that. I was so out of it. My eyes didn't even work. I could hardly speak. All I did was sleep. When I woke up I could see that it was about 3am, Jesse could see I was awake, he had been holding the baby and he put her in my arms. I just cried because I couldn't see her, me eyes didn't work and my arms felt so weak that I couldn't hold her. He took her back and I just went back to sleep.

Maelee Paige  Felter 7 lbs 3 oz 20 in

When they woke me up the next morning, they told me that wanted me to try to walk and try to get up to go the bathroom, so a few nurses came in to help me up, but that was not happening, I couldn't even stand up. They left my catheter in and put me back to bed. After a while they came in and asked if I would like to go to one of their c-section rooms. Of course I did, since I was going to be staying for a while I was all for it, I had remembered seeing the c-section rooms when Jesse and I went on a tour, they are super nice and I was excited! So I was wheeled over in my wheel chair to my new suite where we would live for the next week. Slowly I was "unplugged" from all of my wonderful things, like my catheter, and my IV and was finally able to take my pain meds orally, I was so happy to get all of those tubes out of me. I felt free! Things got better every day, I was able to get up and walk later that first day, the nurses said that I was doing so well. Throughout the week we had lots of different nurses and lots of visitors. Everyone was so excited to see our angel, I think it was love at first sight with everyone that met her. Our days were spent feeding, getting our vitals checked, feeding, eating, visiting with our awesome visitors, feeding, sleeping and more feeding. We would get up and take Maelee for a walk about 3 times a day around the floor so I could get the circulation going and so that my swelling would go down. I was extremely swollen from all the fluids and meds that I received. One of my favorite things about laying in my bed was the "socks" that I got to wear that basically massaged my ankles and calves so that I would not get any blood clots, they were amazing.

Taking my daily walks around the floor 

Daddy's Girl

I can't have chocolate but I can have my diet coke!

Ryan teaching Jesse how to swaddle

We LOVE our pediatrician, teaching Jesse how to change a diaper

WE LOVE ALL OF OUR VISITORS, THANK YOU EVERYONE FOR ALL OF YOUR LOVE AND SUPPORT YOU HAVE GIVEN US. WE LOVE YOU!

Getting ready to go home!

After they removed my staples from my incision and all of the discharge paper were signed, we were finally released to go home on Friday afternoon on May 13. The ride home was so scary, we wish we could have had a bubble around our car to protect us from everything. What an amazing experience, I have never had so many emotions in my entire life. It was the scariest thing that has ever happened to me in my life but at the same time I got a little miracle that I can now hold in my arms. Words cannot express the joy that we are feeling in our home. We are completely smitten, we cannot stop staring at her, she is so perfect in every single way. We love to snuggle and kiss her and we miss her so much when she is just in the other room. We feel so lucky to have a happy, healthy baby. I also have to say how blessed I am to have Jesse, he never left my side through the entire week, he is such an amazing daddy and husband, I really do feel like the luckiest girl in the entire world. He loves that girl with all of his heart and it makes me melt. Time is already passing way too quickly, I wish she could stay this little for forever. We love our little girl.

First bath at home