June 14, A great day to be born

Here is the story of the day our sweet baby girl was born.  

Thursday, June 13 I started to feel kind of different and thought that it must mean that labor was going to come soon.  I had worked all week at vacation Bible School and was overall pretty tired from that but at 37 weeks pregnant, it doesn't take much to become tired.  You are pretty much in a state of constantly being tired by that point and with the heat and two boys to keep up with, it wasn't a big surprise to feel a little off.  

I called my mom around 8:30 pm and told her that I was feeling contractions but that I figured it was probably just Braxton Hicks. By 9:30 pm they were increasing in intensity so I started to time them on my phone.  After 2 hours of tracking them, I told Kent it was time to go to the hospital to find out if I was in fact in labor.  Kent called his dad to sit at our house while we headed off to Lakeside Women's hospital.  

Once there, they put us in a small room and hooked me up to a fetal monitor that kept tabs on baby girl's heart rate as well as my contractions.  They checked me and said I was dialated to a 2.  By this time I was really feeling strong contractions.  They told me to sit tight for an hour and then they would be back to check on me.  The contractions were strong and would take my breath away so laying there wasn't very fun.

After an hour, the nurse came in an checked me but I was still dialated to a 2 which meant I was still not in active labor but boy did it feel like it.  She told me she thought I was pretty close and to try to rest for another hour to see if anything changed.  At this point, it was probably 1 am so Kent went and tried to sleep in our van since we knew we might be up for most of the night.  

Another hour passed and still I wasn't in active labor but we decided to stay one more hour just in case.  After the third hour of contractions, the nurse came in to say I still wasn't in labor and that my contractions had slowed down. She also told us that baby's heart rate had dropped two times during the last hour of monitoring and that the DR on call wanted me to stay the rest of the night to be monitored to make sure that didn't happen again.  The nurse informed us that this happens and that it was probably the baby rolling over her cord.  They moved us into a real room and we tried to get some rest.  Around 7 AM, the nurse came in and said the DR had ordered an ultrasound so around 7:15 they wheeled the cart in to perform the ultrasound.   The technician said our baby girl weight approximately 6 pounds 14 ounces based on the measurements.  She said everything looked fine and then left.  Kent and I figured we would be headed home soon.  Around 7:45 am, my DR came in and told us that our baby had scored 8 out of 8 on the ultrasound...they were looking for fetal movement and breathing.... but that the ultrasound showed her cord around her neck and that it was time for her to be born.  We were surprised but thankful they had seen that on the scan and that she was close enough to her due date.

By 8:15 AM, I was hooked up to pitocin and shortly after that, the contractions started back up and labor started.  I got an epidural around 10 I think and that all went smooth.  After that I was able to rest a little while my body did the work.  I rested for  a few hours but then started to feel some intense pressure on my left side so I contacted the nurse and she had the anesthesiologist administer more medicine into my epidural.  At that time the anesthesiologist suggested the nurse check my progress so she came in around 1 pm and said I was a 10!  I was shocked since the previous time they checked me I was a 4!  From that point on everything got crazy and I knew it was time to have a baby!  

With my past two deliveries, it took 2.5 hours of pushing with Will and 1.5 hours of pushing with Josh so I figured we had a while but as soon as they got me ready to go, they said it was going to be quick and I still thought....we'll see :)  They wouldn't sit me up because of how low baby was and once they had me do some practice pushes they had me stop because the DR had gone upstairs to her office and they needed to wait for her to come back down. By this point the nurse was on the phone calling nursery to come and they rushed in along with the DR so I knew it was go time.  Baby girl was born after only 2.5 contractions worth of pushing!  I couldn't believe it!!!  I was so thankful and feel so blessed to have such a smooth and quick delivery especially knowing the cord was around her neck.  Her heart rate never wavered again and that was a big blessing as well. Dr. Stone showed Kent that the cord was around her neck twice but that it was loose and quickly slipped it off and then had Kent cut it.  

After some skin to skin time and bonding with baby, they weighed her and she was 7 pounds, 8 ounces and 20 inches long. I was surprised since she was 15 days early.  

My heart overflowed with thankfulness and joy that she was here!  

 The boys meeting baby sister.