Mommy's Perspective

Just a fair warning, I have pretty much included as many details as I can remember so that I could preserve this entry for my own records so it's a big long. I do have one piece of what I consider golden advice for any girl delivering in the next while and I have sectioned it off so you can scan down and easily read it if you are interested.

Well...as you can imagine it has been a bit busy around here but Jon is burping little Lucy right now so I am going to use this time to write my perspective on the life changing event of having the cutest baby in the WHOLE world!

On Monday afternoon I went to my Dr. appt. and I had him check me to see if I was effaced at all. Dr. Baumgart told me that I wasn't "ripe". He actually went as far as to check my previous ultra sounds to see if my due date was correct. It ended up being correct but he went ahead and scheduled an inducement day on March 10th because he didn't know if I would go on my own.

Ok so Wednesday during the day (Wednesday was her due date) I was feeling good, but not much was happening. So I went about my business as usual. For two days last week I was really into my new hobby of couponing! Trying to figure out what coupons stacked and how to get some fantastic deals. (I did end up with 3 free tubes of toothpaste, free shampoo for jon, free allergy medicine and 2 boxes of free eye drops, and few other lucky finds like pantene pro-v shampoo for me for $1/bottle) Ok so I was pretty excited about it.

BUT ANYWAY that night as Jon and I were sitting around talking politics with his mom I felt my first real contraction. I looked at the clock. It was 6:40pm. It was the first time I felt a contraction rise in intensity and the fall. It was pretty cool. I looked at the clock. 15 minutes later I felt the same thing. I asked for a watch and started counting them out. I had 40-50 second contractions every 15 minutes until I went to bed that evening. I woke up at 1:40pm to use the bathroom and discovered that my water had broken! Well at least I had thought so. I went back to our room and woke Jon up telling him that my water could possibly be broken. After lying down for a minute and then feeling the need to go to the bathroom again, I was pretty dang sure that my water was broken. (I just didn't expect that to actually happen because I was told it was a lot more common to have the dr. break the water in the hospital.) So I go back to our room and I tell Jon that I am almost positive my water has broken and he shoots to a sitting up position in bed. He seem startled but then calmed down and said "well come back to bed, there is nothing we can do about it now, your contractions are still far apart, the hospital won't take us right now..."

...I disagreed. I said "Jon, I am pretty sure that with my water broke we need to go to the hospital now." I called my mom and Jon called the hospital. They both told us to go to the hospital immediately.

My mom was scheduled to come out March 6th because we all thought I would go late becuase I wasn't "ripe" yet. But I called her the evening of March 4th to let her know that I was having contractions every 15 minutes. She wasn't around so I left a message with my dad. By 11 pm I hadn't heard back from her so I texted her. Apparently my dad forgot to pass along the message that I was having contractions every 15 minutes until later that night. She called me as soon as she found out and told me to call her in the night if anything happened and she would hop on the first flight of the morning so she could try to make it in time to help me during labor.

Ok so back to Jon and I. We are told to go to the hospital we start gathering up our stuff and we are both suprisingly calm. I started doing my hair and then halfway through I decided I didn't care what I looked like. After gathering up everything that we needed to, Jon gave me a blessing and the off we went!

On the way to the hospital I started my first somewhat painful contractions. (Honestly it felt like gas cramps). I started timing them out and they were about every 40-50 seconds at 4-5 minutes apart. They increased in intensity over the 25 minute drive to the hospital but I was still ok. Jon and I parked the car and went inside the ER. They got a wheelchair for me and took me to my room.

Now, let me just tell you about our hospital room. It was AMAZING! Of course I took a tour of the maternity unit the previous week so I knew what to expect but they were such incredible rooms. First off they were nice and big. This hospital is only 1 1/2 years old. They were private rooms with a way comfortable bed that I would stay in from labor through delivery. A squishy chair that converts into a bed for your support person. A rocking chair a flat screen t.v. with internet access, movies on demand, cable t.v., warm wooded flooring, mini kitchenette with fridge and a HUGE bathroom! And the food! Oh it was good! They had 7am-7pm room service with a huge menu that I could order anything/everything I wanted! The sandwiches tasted like Panera Bread and the everything was just amazing. They also had a snack room available on the floor with free food for the patients and support people with ice cream, sherbet, milk, juice, fruit, sandwiches etc.

With that being said...BACK to the labor and delivery. The nurse checked me when I got there and I was between 1-2cm dialated and 80% effaced. She said that the baby was right up on my cervix. We watched Enchanted, Ratatouie, Wall-e and then Enchanted again... as she asked me questions and got my IV set etc. My contractions steadily increased. Time seemed to fly by though. But somewhere between 5:30-7am I started to get progressively more quiet and drawn in. I started feeling very weak. I had the cold sweats and I was starting to throw up routinely. At about 6:15am I asked for my epidural (because I was told to ask for it about 30 minutes before I thought I would really need it). The nurse said the anthesiologist would be there at 7am. At 7:08am I told Jon to go find the nurse and tell her I need the epidural. By 7:15am I was receiving my epidural. My anthesiolgoist was AMAZING! He gave me the perfect epidural! I could still feel my legs and feet (which I was nervous about because I hate the pins and needles numb feeeling) but my pain was soon diminished to the feeling of having to go to the bathroom. That was the pressure that I felt for the rest of the time until I delivered. It increased in intensity as time passed but the best way I can describe the feeling was it was like being in the car for 4 hours having the need to urinate. But it was completely endurable and it was actually good because it was just the right amount of pressure to motivate me to push when the time came to push her out.

I kept progressing nicely throughout the morning. My mother in law went to the airport to pick my mom and bring her to the hospital to help me. When they arrived I was at 10cm dialated and I had just started pushing. I pushed for a total of 1 1/3 hours. It was great to have everyone there to support me. Jon held one leg, my mom held the other, Vickie (my mother in law) handed me water after each push and she took pictures for us. My nurse was amazing and she was just cheering me on at that point. My mom kind of directed the show as I was pushing, telling how to breathe.

THIS is my piece of golden advice for those girls who will be delivering soon...

I would push while holding my breath for 10 seconds, and then let the air out, but still hold my muscles like I was holding my breath in a contracted position, and repeat pushing while holding my breath for 10 seconds etc. I would do that 2 or 3 times in a row and then rest in between contractions. Holding the contracted position is what kept me from having the baby slide backwards and having to re-push her to the position. They said I saved myself 50 pushes my holding the contracted position. So instead of moving 2 steps forward and 1 step back, she kept moving forward.

Anyway at 2:04pm on March 5, 2009 out she came! She was precious! I couldn't believe it! Her APGAR was 9 at 1 minute and 10 at 5 minutes. She was perfect. I held to me and I snuggled with her for an hour before they took her to bathe her and give her a shot but she stayed in the room. She is MY baby! It's amazing. I can't believe how much I love her! I feel so lucky!