The Whole World In Our Hands...: Baby Girl Makes Her Debut! (Birth Story)

It's crazy with the 2nd baby how much sooner your body starts getting ready for birth. I started having contractions at about 35 weeks. Maybe sooner. But I only had about 5 a day, max and didn't even have them everyday.  Around 38 weeks they became more frequent and I was also starting to get cramps in my upper thighs just as I had had when I went into labor with Aaden.  On Wednesday 10/10/12, I started with early labor. I was having more frequent contractions, some of them painful but none of them were really "timeable". I was also having a ton of pressure to where I thought my water would break at any moment. I went to sleep that night thinking I'd wake up in labor.  Except I woke up in the morning feeling fine. Same thing happened the next night.  Friday morning I cried because I was still pregnant and obviously not in labor. So off to work I went. Again. I was so over work. I hadn't taken a single day off since April and I was tired. That day I was trying to wrap up training Angie since we were pretty sure I would have the baby sometime soon. I was having quite a few painful contractions so at lunch I went to Big 5 and bought a yoga ball to sit and bounce on during contractions. At about 3pm, my contractions started to become a little more discernable and I started timing them. They were about 6 minutes apart and lasting 30-50 seconds each. That went on until 5 when it was time to go home. I called Aaron and told him to call his mom and let her know that we would probably need her to stay in town to stay with Aaden in case we went to the hospital that night.

When I got home the contractions fizzled out for a bit and then picked back up. At around 630 they were about 3 minutes apart and feeling more intense. My mom met us at our house and we left for the hospital at 830pm. I said goodbye to Aaden and had to choke back the tears.

We got the the hospital and got checked in and weighed (12lb total weight gain, yay!). My nurse was Marilyn who was one of my nurses last time. She checked me and I was only dilated to 2cm and was 60% effaced. I felt deflated and worried that they would send me home. The last thing I wanted was to labor at home again like I did with Aaden. They let me labor for a while and then checked me again in an hour. At that point I was not dilated any further but I was more effaced. They decided to admit me since I had made progress and they could tell that I was having intense and regular contractions. Yay! I got a shot of fentanyl at that point and the doctor on call said I could get my epidural at any time. Music.to.my.ears.

I got the epidural around 1130pm. Sweet relief! Aaron, my mom and I hung out and watched the news and dozed here and there. Around 2am I started itching everywhere. Especially on my stomach and arms and a little in my toes even though they were totally numb. It was so annoying. Marilyn came in and I told her I was itching so she said that I could get some Benadryl. Apparently itchiness can be common with an epidural. She gave my IV Benadryl and holy moly, that knocked me out and took the itchiness away. I slept pretty soundly from about 230-530. They continued to check me and I was slowly progressing. But I was progressing on my own without Pitocin this time! I was proud of my body :) At 6am I was around a 5 or 6. At 7am, Dr Armstrong came in and checked me and broke my water. I was dilated to 7cm at that point.  The baby's heartrate kept dropping with contractions but they weren't overly concerned since they weren't late decelerations. My nurse, Rachel, just kept changing my postition. By 9am I was pretty much fully dilated and Rachel had me take a few practice pushes. It felt really weird to push because I was sooo numb from my epidural. Rachel decided to let me labor down on my own for a while longer so hopefully I wouldn't have to push as long as I did with Aaden. I was still feeling drowsy from the Benadryl so I took another nap. I slept from 930 to 1030 - and apparently I was sleeping pretty hard, my mom and Aaron said I was snoring!

When I woke up Rachel came in and saw that the baby was still having some issues with her heartrate so she put some oxygen on me.  At around 1045 she had me take some practice pushes. Despite the concerns with the baby's heartrate, it was so calm and peaceful in my room. I was rested and felt pretty good. So much different than my delivery with Aaden where I was beyond exhausted from not sleeping and extremly hot and everything just felt really hectic in comparison to the experience I was having this time. Maybe having her during the day versus night made a difference too? Plus, I still had my epidural this time where with Aaden it had been turned off 2 hours before I started pushing. After a couple of pushes, Rachel decided to call Dr Armstrong to come in because the baby was getting close. I had no idea though since I was so numb.

Dr Armstrong came in at 11am and I started pushing again. They had to tell me when the contractions came because I couldn't even feel the pressure from them. I pushed through a few contractions and then heard Dr Armstrong tell Carol (the baby nurse) to get the vacuum ready. That freaked me out. The baby's HR was continuing to drop. I wanted to get the baby out without the vacuum. With the next contraction I pushed with all my might - although I had no idea if I was actually pushing or if I was pushing efficiently but apparently I was because with that contraction, her head was out.   Dr Armstrong discovered her cord was wrapped around her neck - not once but twice! No wonder her HR kept dropping! With the next push, at 11:12 am on Saturday, October 13th, Baby A was here! No vacuum needed. I couldn't believe that I only pushed for 12 minutes!

She had a little weak cry when she came out, they laid her on me and she started turning dusky almost immediately. Carol took her to the baby warmer and suctioned her and put a little oxygen on her and she turned pink right away. Baby Girl weighed in at 7lbs8oz and was 19" long. I was so happy that she was here and was thrilled with how great I felt.  We still didn't have a name for our sweet girl but that was alright, she was the perfect no-name baby. ;)

Yep, pretty purple

Better

Getting weighed

Daddy and Daughter

Little butt-chin like Daddy

Dr. Armstrong - best OB ever!

Our Baby Girl

Happy Pappy

Emmy and her granddaughter

Meeting Aunt Krissie

Mommy, Daddy and Baby #2!

Proud Papa

Meeting Big Brother!!

He was a little unsure of her at first but he warmed up pretty quickly. Soon he was pointing out her hands, eyes, nose, hat, etc. He even gave her his Lovie to hold a few times.