Zoe's Birth Story Part 2...

Time just flies by, doesn't it? Sorry for the delay!

Onto part two...

So, after the nurse announced that she was a reader of my blog (awkward!) we headed on down to one of the delivery rooms so I could get checked. I changed into the oh-so-fashionable hospital gown and chatted to Rob as we waited for the nurse to come back.

When she did she said to me, "You're to happy to be far enough along in labor to be admitted." She must have been joking. I'm sure tons of people get to L&D and aren't screaming in pain like you see in the movies (and like you would have seen my first go round with Luce). 

Wrong! She checked and I was at 6 almost 7 cm. So admitted I was. The contractions were completely manageable for about an hour, until I was checked again. At that time the on-call Doctor (mine was on vacation, again!) recommended that we break my water to get things moving along and asked if I wanted the epidural. Although still totally comfortable with my contractions, I knew what the water breaking meant after watching my contractions on the monitor with Luce skyrocket after they broke my water. So I accepted. The anesthesiologist came shortly after that and I chatted to him as he administered the epidural. In the middle of it I had my first really painful contraction, so I was pretty happy with our timing there!

They broke my water at about 8:30 pm and short after that my best friend Lindsay arrived. I love her. She is an incredibly busy businesswoman and she has made the time to come to the hospital for both of my labors. This time bringing my flip flops, since I forgot them for the shower. She even came when she was flying out for a business trip early the next morning. Love that girl! She stayed with me and kept me company while Rob snoozed on the chair until she had to leave to pack for her trip.

At about 11:00 pm I was checked again and told by the nurse, "Well, you're ready to go!" Do you want this baby to have a March 3rd birthday or March 4th? 

I looked at Rob and he said, "Let's go for 3!" So the nurse bustled away to get the doctor and get ready.  At 11:15 the doctor came in and three pushes later (just note I am a pushing MACHINE) Ms. Zoe Josephine arrived at 11:26 pm March 3rd, 2011! She was beautiful and perfect in every way. As soon as she was born my fears about becoming a family of four disappeared. 

It was just the easiest birth and recovery. In all honestly, I probably could have done without the epi, but it allowed me to relax and and be comfortable, so I don't regret it. Next time (oh yes, there will be a next time) I'm THINIKING of going au natural...don't hold me to it though! 

"You must have chaos within you to give birth to a dancing star." 

- Friedrich Nietzsche

Zoe's Birth Story - Part 1

I know this is a year late but you know what? Even with everything that has happened in the last year I remember it as if it was yesterday.

At my old work maternity leave started 2 weeks prior to your due date, so I went off work on Feb 18^th. It was a relief, as for the last year my workload had just exploded and even with an easy pregnancy it still isn’t easy to work 12+ hours per day when pregnant (or not pregnant for that matter)! So, that Friday I left work breathing a sigh of relief.

I was thrilled when a week passed and Zoe will still safe and snug and with no apparent desire to arrive yet. It gave my time to clean, organize and, most importantly, spend time with Lucy. I was so excited for Zoe but a part of my heart was breaking knowing that things would never be the same again. It would never be three of us with our little world revolving around miss Lucy and I'd be lying if I told you the loss of that little version of our world was a little sad to me. So we spent every minute of those final weeks of pregnancy together and loved every minute of it.

On the night of Wednesday, March 2^nd, I work up in the middle of the night with contractions. Nothing too out of the ordinary but enough to wake me up. I remember lying there, with Lucy on one side of me in the bed and Rob on the other thinking,"hmmmm, this may be it." I ignored the contractions and cuddled up to Luce knowing, deep down, that everything was going to change very soon.

Very soon wasn’t very long after that. Ever 7 minutes the contractions came. An hour later, at about 4 am, I poked Rob and said, “hey, so…um…they’re like every 5 minutes now.” He, being the deep sleeper that he is, grunted something and rolled over.

So I got up and got in the shower.

Still every 5 minutes, though not unbearable. So I came in and poked him again.

“Hey you, I think we should call my mom to come over.”

That got him up! My mom arrived at 5:30 am, just in time for my contractions to….end. Sorry mom! She fell asleep on our couch and we went back to bed.

When we all woke up that morning there were no sign of contractions. So we went about our business as usual. We had a doctor’s appointment that afternoon so I mentioned to Rob that we should probably pack the hospital bag, just in case.

So, we dropped off Luce at my mom’s house, with the promise that we would be back soon and went off to our 3:30 pm check up.

Of course, as usual when I’m due with a baby, my lovely doctor is on vacation. So I get checked by another doctor in her practice.

“Oh, wow… you’re like 4.5 cm, almost 5…”

Wait, WHAT?

In my last pregnancy,as you may remember, I went in to the hospital with RAGING BACK LABOR at like 2.5 cm… horrendous. And now this time I’m 5 cm without feeling a thing?  The doctor said, by the looks of it, you’re probably going to have a baby soon. I wouldn’t bother going home, maybe walk around for a but.

Shocked and excited Rob and I walked back to the car. Where I subsequently started crying because we TOLD Lucy that we were going to come home. Oh the GUILT. Honestly, I felt terrible. We called me mom and she assured us that Luce was fine so, we set about our new task at hand…walking.

We walked the hospital floor and the outside grounds (in the rain, and yes, I totally jumped over puddles…while in active labor, wheee!) for about an hour and a half. The contractions started coming regularly then. Again, absolutely nothing like the last time around. These were totally manageable. The excitement was beginning to set in. I think part of my anticipation of labor, aside from my sadness about Lucy not being an only child anymore, was my fear over my last experience with labor. Back labor is no joke, but this time, this was easy.

Once they were coming at regular intervals, at about 6 pm, we headed up to L&D. I went to check in with the nurse who promptly said to me:

“Ooooooooh! I know you! I read your blog!”

Which was both flattering, as in “Wow, people do read the stuff I write” and awkward because girlfriend is about to become up close and personal with my business.

And in we went….

Stay tuned for the really exciting part, Zoe's arrival! 

"Of the rights of women, the greatest is to be a mother."

-Lin Yutang

Last Year at This Exact Moment...

We were right about here...still waiting:


...and hours away from this amazing miracle:

Happy Birthday Lucy!!

More to come later today!

"Where did you come from, baby dear?
Out of the Everywhere and into here."
-George MacDonald, At the Back of the North Wind

Labor Story Sharing...

The husband asked a funny question the other night while his cousin and her husband (and their 3 month old baby) were over for dinner. Without us even discussing labor he pipes up:

"Why do women always want to share their labor stories? I mean, what is it with that?"

It was a really random question but it got me thinking, why do I want to share my labor story? I mean hell, I shared mine with millions of people over the Internet, and still to this day if someone mentions pregnancy or labor I can't WAIT to jump in and tell my story."Did you say birth? When I was in the hospital having Lucy..." Is it the empowerment that we feel? I mean, hello, I basically cooked myself up a new, fresh person for nine months and then expelled said person from my body completely by the force of...well, you know the drill.

I mean really, the husband can take credit for helping start the dough, but I baked the bread and toiled over the hot oven... ok, I can't think of an analogy with baking bread for labor, but you know what I mean, I did it. I did it for 9 months and then even at the end when I was exhausted, swollen, stretched and completely breathless with either a. seriously diminished lung capacity from the size of my pregnant belly or b. anticipation, I did it. I labored for almost 30 hours and I'm proud of it, I want to relive it in my mind because I'm still amazed at it. I want to do it again because I can't believe that I did it the first time (clearly mom-nesia has set in, no?).

I love telling my labor story to anyone who actually asks to hear it. I'm delighted when someone asks because then it gives me the chance to share something that before I had Lucy I always assumed I would consider extremely private and personal. I want to point at her and shout, "Hey, do you see this amazingly gorgeous child? I had her. Me! I did it!" and then I'll nod my head towards Rob and say, "This guy, yeah, he helped. But, hey it was mostly me and let me tell you it was a cold January day...".

What about you?

"Birth is the sudden opening of a window, through which you look upon a stupendous prospect. For what has happened? A miracle. You have exchanged nothing for the possibility of everything."
-William MacNeile

Finale...Finally!

Apologies for the delay! I've got no excuse other than all my time is taken up by Lucy...blame the baby! We're leaving on vacation to Florida for Rob's cousin's wedding tomorrow, so I figured I needed to finish up this birth story before we left.

So, where were we. Ah yes, the breaking of the water. Since I still had my epi going strong I didn't feel anything after they broke my water, but according to the monitor I was having some huge contractions. Boy was I glad I wasn't feeling those suckers. At this point it was about 12:00 in the afternoon and they doctor and nurses assured me that I would be pushing before I knew it. 1:00...2:00...3:00, all passed by, I can't even tell you how many baby's cries I heard. Every time I heard on I kept thinking, "Come ON, when is it our turn?!" But Miss. Lucy was going to take her darn time and ever time the nurse checked me she would tell me that I would definitely begin pushing in half an hour or so, but it never happened!

At 3:00 I was 10 cm, but the nurse told me that the doctor was with a second time mom right now, so if I wouldn't mind hanging out and waiting just a little bit longer... At this point I had been the the hospital for when felt like a million hours, my left leg was completely dead from the epidural, I was now farting uncontrollably (another lovely side effect of the epi I'm assuming) and was dying to meet my Lucy, but SURE I'll just hang out here a little longer!

Half an hour later the nurse bustled in, shooed out my best friend Lindsay and my mother and told Rob and I that I was going to do some "practice pushing". Let me tell you, I was sooooo ready to be done with this labor thing at that point. When I say I pushed, I PUUUUSHED. Rob was so great coaching me and the nurse was telling me I was doing such a good job. I assumed she said that to everyone, and thought I would be pushing for quite awhile since the nurse told me that I would most likely push for 1 1/2 to 3 hours. 15 minutes and 4 practice pushes later the nurse said, "Ok well, you're almost there, her head is RIGHT THERE. You are so awesome! Hold it right there, don't push anymore and I'm going to go get the doctor."

Wait a second, hold it? After all of that I need to just HANG OUT HERE with my poor baby's head squished in the birth canal? I wasn't so crazy about that idea, luckily the doctor came in quite quickly, then proceeded to take her dear, sweet time putting on her outfit, which bore a striking resemblance to a Hazmat suit, sat down and 2 pushes later Lucy had arrived! I pushed for 1/2 an hour (counting the practice pushed with the nurse) and out she came at 4:05 pm. Apparently I am quite the talented pusher. And yes, TMI but I did poop on the table. As the nurse said, if you don't poop you're probably not doing it right, and damn it I was going to do it right. Poop or no poop!

Lucy cried right off the bat and the NICU nurses quickly looked her over and left since she thankfully hadn't swallowed any menconium. She was perfect. While the doctor stitched me up, Rob held her, and I somehow, in the middle of delivering the placenta and getting stitched, grabbed Rob's camera out of the back pocket of his jeans and took pictures of him and Lucy. She was so perfect, I just had to document that moment.

Apparently I had only a small tear, weirdly enough it was a sideways tear not a front to back one, and very small. I think I probably only had one or two stitches.

We were moved to our little recovery room very quickly, and even though the first night was rough. I was on 800 mg ibuprofen but was still in a lot of pain and along with my lovely Lucy had also given birth to the hugest hemorrhoid ever, (hey, I told you this was not going to be labor story light, you asked for it!), that was almost worse than anything, it really hurt!

The nurses were wonderful but we were so glad to leave 48 hours later. Any now here we are, a month and a half later, a deliriously happy little family. She's been so wonderful, even with her bouts of fussieness like clockwork at 9:00 pm. We still love her so much I can't even describe it!

I'll be in Florida for the next week but am planning a "Items I Can/Cannot Live Without" post for when I get back. Wish me luck on our 7 hour plan ride tomorrow!!

Pictures to follow!

"It was the tiniest thing I ever decided to put my whole life into."

-Terri Guillemets

STTN...

So this isn't the final installment of my labor story yet, HOWEVER, I just had to announce (drumroll please) ....Miss Lucy SLEPT.THROUGH.THE.NIGHT last night! First time EVER. Usually she wakes up at 2 or 3 am and again at 5 or 6 am, but last nigh I got 7 , YES SEVEN, hours of fabulous, glorious, uninterrupted sleep. I had forgotten how amazing that felt! The Tiny Pig (our nickname for her, which will cause her no embarrassment whatsoever later in life) had her last feeding at 11:30 and woke up just after 7:00 am. It was incredible!

Just had to brag.

Labor story finale to come soon, but right now we're off to Babies'R'Us for a bunch of stuff we probably don't need and to a local Portland baby boutique for some cloth diapers (more to come on our late start to cloth diapering later)!

"Having a child is surely the most beautifully irrational act that two people in love can commit."

-Bill Cosby

Labor Story: Part 2...

Ok, I'm back! My excuse for being such a bad blogger is Lucy, plain and simple. That and the fact that my laptop computer is total junk and turns off if I move it an inch!

Anyways, where was I? Ah yes, to the hospital. We arrived at the hospital at about 9:00 and at that point my contractions were definitely stronger and 5 minutes apart, if not closer, but I was still in the "ohmygoshI'mgoingtohaveababy" mindset so they didn't bother me too much. We got settled into our room, which I now wish I had a picture to share with you all because it was such a nice room. You could fit at least 15 people in it!

I got changed into the super hot gown and the nurse checked me (um, OW)... I was so sure I was at LEAST 5 cm...NOPE! 2 1/2. WHAT? 2 1/2??? Panic definitely started to set in since if this was 2 1/2 cm pain WHAT did I have in store for me? The nurse told me that she was going to have me walk around and labor in the room for 2 hours and then they would come back and check me at 11:00 pm to see if I had progressed. If I had they would admit me, if not they would send me home. SEND ME HOME? No way, no how!

So the next two hours were probably the worst part of my entire labor. The pain started to get REALLY severe about 1/2 an hour into my 2 hours. I started freaking out a little then, ok I lied, A LOT I freaked out A LOT. Rob was so amazing, he would walk wherever I walked, sway with me, hold me hands during my contractions, get me on the birthing ball, talk me down calmly when I started saying things like "I don't think I can do this" and "I want to go home, like now!" My mom, who was all in favor of a natural birth my entire pregnancy, sat there any didn't say a word. She looked terrified every time I had a contraction because I was in so much pain. I even started crying during my contractions towards the end of my two hours because the contractions were almost bringing me to my knees.

So after two hours of the most excruciating pain of my life, the nurse came in at 11:00 pm to check me. When she did she announced I was now 3 1/2. I almost lost it since I thought they might send me home. At this point, I was laying on the bed and whenever I had a contraction my entire body would shake so violently that I would almost shake myself off the bed. The nurse, thankfully, decided that they were going to admit me at that point because my pain was this severe and since I was having major back labor since Lucy was face up. I almost killed her when her next question was "So we're going to do this naturally then?" She's lucky I was having a particularly strong contraction at that moment or I might have jumped up off the bed and strangled her. Rob quickly explained that no, I would like the epidural...preferably sooner rather than later.

The nurse gave me a shot of something to take the edge off the contractions, which worked almost immediately and then before I knew it the anesthesiologist was in the room. Hallelujah! I didn't even care how big the needle was, bring on the epi! It was instant relief. I even told the anesthesiologist that she was my new best friend. I totally admire anyone who has their baby naturally, you women are amazing, but me, I was so happy to have that epi I can't even tell you. For those three hours before the epi I felt like my back was being hacked at with a machete. I'm not even kidding. On a scale of 1 to 10 my pain was a 15.

The rest of the night I rested, sleeping on and off. I would have gotten more sleep except for the fact that the epi didn't take on my left lower back. It wasn't excruciating, but I could definitely feel it quite a bit. I asked the nurse about it and she told me I could push the button to give myself some more epi, but only if I REALLY had to. I pushed it once, and could still feel it, but was afraid to push it anymore because I was terrified of it "running out".

In the morning we had a change of nurses, this nurse asked if I was feeling any pain and I told her about my back. She asked if I had pushed the button. Once, I told her. Her response, "Honey, PUSH THAT BUTTON, if you need it to rest." I told her about my fear of the epi running out and she laughed and said "We're a hospital, we have more of it." God, I loved that nurse.

My best friend Lindsay arrived at 5:00 am in the morning. I had called her the night before and I know she was up all night wanting to come to the hospital. Crazy girl! I was so glad she came since she definitely helped keep my mom company and me as well while I sat and waited to dilated!

I was still only 7cm in the afternoon, so the doctor decided to break my water (unfortunately it wasn't my doctor, who I love, since she was on vacation). When they did the doctor saw that there was meconium so they decided to "flush me out". This involved yet another tube running out of my body, flushing my uterus out with liquids to get rid of the meconium. By now I had an IV, the epi, a catheter and now a tube up into my uterus. Lovely! When it came time for delivery they would request the presence of the Neonatal Intensive Care nurses just in case Lucy swallowed any meconium. This freaked me out a little, but the flushing out seemed to work right away which made me feel better.

Up next for Part 3..the big finale! Sorry for the incredibly long story... what can I say, I'm long winded.

Quick update, Lucy is doing wonderfully, although she's had a couple fussy weeks lately. We don't mind though, she's lovely even when she's fussy. Updated pictures to come when I get onto my own computer!

"A new baby is like the beginning of all things - wonder, hope, a dream of possibilities."

-Eda J LeShan

Better Late Than Never...

Has it really been almost three weeks since we had Lucy? I'm just about the worst blogger EVER, but in my defense I've spent the time in between my last post and now just staring at my Lucy. Ok, maybe there's been a little bit more than that, but the staring part is taking up quite a bit of my time. I just can't believe that she's here, I also can't believe how time flies during the day and before I know it we've spent the entire day doing... well, I don't quite know. I know there is a lot of feeding, and changing, and feeding and sleeping, and feeding and changing...again, but I think the rest of Rob and my time is spent cuddling and oooh-ing and ahh-ing over Miss. Lucy. She's just so incredible and we are still completely is awe that she is here and that she is actually OURS.

Let's get down to business though, shall we? The birth story, before I forget what actually happened and get a raging case of momnesia. I'm actually going to do this in parts, so this will be Birth Story Part I (yes, it is THAT long, and I just cannot go that long without a Lucy snuggle, hence the need to break it up into parts, and I like to keep you all coming back for more. I promise it won't be three weeks until Part II).

PART I: Early Labor

Although Lucy was so worth it and I would honestly do it again and again just to have her, labor was kind of a rough ride for awhile. Also, anyone who knows me personally, and possibly professionally, please be warned I'm not going to write the Disney version of Lucy's birth story so there may be some details that are very, er, personal...just know, you've been warned. If you don't want to know about vaginal tearing and hemorrhoids, I'd just stop right here and wait until the Birth Story posts are done in their entirety.

From beginning to end I'd say my labor (including early labor that I spent at home) clocked in at just over 30 hours. Yes, that's right, THIRTY HOURS. I can be one of those people that when Lucy is a bratty 14 year old (which I sooooo hope doesn't happen) I can say "Look here little girl, I was in labor with you for over THIRTY HOURS".

I had a bad stomachache when I woke up on the Thursday morning, which initially I wrote off as a side effect of all the junk food and entirely too many glasses of sparkling apply cider from New Years Eve the night before. Then, when I got into the shower the pain would go away, and then come back, and go away, and then come back. Hmmm... that isn't like any stomachache that I've ever had before. Also, it was in my lower back as well as my stomach, which was weird.

Rob and I had plans to go to my mom's house for New Year's Day lunch with my family that day and on our way over to the house I told him that I definitely thought that these were contractions. We decided that we wouldn't say anything to the family, especially my mother who would probably insist that we rush to the hospital immediately as soon as she heard the word "Contraction". So all throughout lunch I was very quiet as I would have contractions ever ten minutes or so, and they were pretty uncomfortable, though not unbearable. By the time my aunt and uncle left my mom's house at 4:00 we decided we better tell my mom, who immediately asked if we needed to leave, like right then. No, we told her, we were going to go get a movie and wait it out at home until they were 5 minutes apart, like out birthing class teacher had told us.

We left my (insanely excited) mother, and headed to Blockbuster to rent a movie. I had a pretty strong contraction in the car, but nothing I couldn't breath through. We rented Eagle Eye and settled down at home to enjoy our last night of just the two of us. Unfortunately, Lucy had other ideas for us. As soon as we put the movie on my contractions started getting stronger and more regular. They were ever 5-7 minutes and every time I would have one I would have to get up and pace the floor, trying to breathe like we were taught in birthing class. Rob was so amazing, he was really calm and could time the contractions on his cell phone (which strangely enough has a timer on it) and would walk with me and help me breathe through the strong ones. So, needless to say, I really didn't pay much attention to the movie! Two hours later it was about 8:00 and the contractions were now 5 minutes apart so we decided it was time to head out. We drove back over to my mother's house to pick her up. Of course, when we got there I realized I had forgotten my purse, so once we picked up my mom we had to drive back to our house to get it because I was sure I needed my insurance card (I didn't). So after returning to the house and getting my purse, we were off to the hospital. Let's go have this baby!!!

Part II to come soon, along with more pictures of our Lucy!

"Before you were born I carried you under my heart. From the moment you arrived in this world until the moment I leave it, I will always carry you in my heart."

-Mandy Harrison

LUCY HAS ARRIVED!

Sorry for not posting but I've been kinda busy...you know birthing an actual BABY and all! I went into labor on New Years Day (Thursday) in the morning and we finally went to the hospital at 9:00 pm that night. Little Lucy Elizabeth decided not to make her arrival until 4:03 PM on Friday (yes, it took her that long, she took her time), she weighed 7 lbs 3 ounces and was 19 1/4 inches long. I'll post all the details of my birth story tomorrow along with pictures of our perfect, lovely Lucy who is doing so amazing and has completely and utterly stolen our hearts already. Thank you for all the well-wishes! She is so amazing!!!! I just cannot believe she is finally here! I'll update as soon as I can but right now I need to get off of my sore behind for now!

"You’re the lucky one so I’ve been told

Free as the wind blowin down the road

Loved by many, hated by none

I’d say you were lucky cause I know what you’ve done

Not a care in the world not a worry in sight

Everything’s going to be all right

Cause you’re the lucky one"

-Allison Krauss