baby's birth story

okay, i wrote this about a month ago and have tweaked it ever since and i'm still not happy with it but i'm gonna give up and say i guess this is just as good as it's gonna get.  ENJOY!

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well, i was due friday, july 9th... which came and went without a baby.  i was okay with that though, because i liked being pregnant.  and i had planned on going at least a week over.  i figured it was just a normal first time thing y'know?  sadly, chris and mom were not at all okay with going late!

we knew it was getting closer though because i could totally feel my body changing and getting ready for labor.  it was weird because it just felt so obvious. 

well we all kept really busy (and active!).  we hiked the dish (very hilly 3.5 mile loop) a few times, toured filoli house and gardens, and shopped like crazy.  late afternoon on wednesday, mom and i were planting flowers on the patio (well, i was actually sitting in a chair directing mom how i wanted the flowers to look while she dug in the dirt on her hands and knees... my mother is a saint, more on that later) when i felt a couple of stronger than normal contractions.

mother was instantly on guard and wanted me to start timing them but i told her to calm her horses and not get her hopes up.  well, after a couple more of those, and after we finished planting flowers, we decided maybe it would be a good idea to go inside (around 6:00) and start timing them.  i started writing them down on a piece of paper and was surprised to see that they were all less than five minutes apart, like 2-4 minutes mostly.  i was still timing them when chris got home from work (fyi i was super disappointed he hadn't texted me to ask if i was having labor pains... since he had done that a million times before) at 6:30 or 7 or so and since dinner was already in the oven, we decided to eat and then head to the hospital. 

when chris got home he looked skeptical since i was still laughing and talking and really calm and doing fine.  i tried to tell him it builds up gradually but he still wasn't believing me.  well, dinner wasn't really that great.  i lost my appetite and contractions were definitely getting more uncomfortable.  i went upstairs to get dressed (i was lounging in pajamas all day... i deserved it since i'd been on my feet 24/7 since mom arrived) and grab my last minute items to bring to the hospital with me.  contractions hurt enough that i had to pause while they were going on and then continue what i was doing when they passed.  it made things take a while.  (this must be a boring paragraph... i couldn't even find anything to bold.  oh, there we go.)

we left for the hospital around 8:00 and got there around 8:30.  while we were checking in i started feeling pretty nauseous and asked the receptionist for a trash can.  she politely handed me hers and i proceeded to put my dinner in it in between confirming my address and phone number, signing papers, etc.  so much for my dinner giving me energy for labor!  i'm terrified of being without food, so the idea of spending 24 hours (i'm a realist sometimes) in labor with no food was pretty scary. 

as we left for the hospital

anyways, they sent us to an observation room (not too happy about this because when you're not even admitted yet, you can't ask for an epidural!) and had me change into a hospital gown.  they hooked me up to a bunch of monitors and checked me.  i was pleased to hear i was at a 4 and 90% and that i was definitely in labor (but at least i already knew that part)!

definitely only smiling for the camera.  i was in PAIN.

chris is so good at labor.  he was loving life.

charts of my relentless contractions

she told me my contractions were coming one right after another (and lasting about a minute i think).  i told her i figured as much because i wasn't getting a break from the pain anymore.  i had about four people ask me to rate my pain on a one to ten scale.  well, i haven't felt a lot of pain in my life and i have a low threshold for it so i said an eight or nine or something.  they asked me to rate (still on a ten point scale) how much pain was okay with me.  ummm what?  NO PAIN.  i thought that was an incredibly stupid question.  i'm not okay with a three or a two (which is what i started to say until i realized how stupid the question was).  i want a ZERO.  even better, i would like negative pain.  I LIKE TO FEEL GOOD.  so after telling them for the tenth time "I DON'T LIKE TO FEEL ANY PAIN.  NO PAIN IS OKAY.  YES, I WOULD PLEASE LIKE AN EPIDURAL AS SOON AS THAT BECOMES AVAILABLE TO ME." they started moving things along a bit faster.  i guess all of that in the observation room was maybe only 30 minutes or so but with constant contractions and two doctors and about six nurses asking you if pain is okay, it just felt longer.

the labor and delivery room was real nice.  i kept telling chris to take pictures of it all but he thought that was kind of silly.  maybe but whatever.  i thought the room was big and well lit and even pretty.  all of the nurses in there were super super nice.  they gave me some pain stuff to take the edge off things since the epidural guy was taking so long.  the nurse kept telling me over and over that it would feel like i'd had a few margaritas.  i found that humorous since i have no idea what that would feel like.  so i was glad that she said it would make me feel a little lightheaded and sleepy.  oh okay, that description is much more helpful.  it did make me feel a little drowsy.  now i know what tipsy feels like!  the epidural guy came in and tried to brace me for the pain of getting the epidural needle or something.  i think i felt a poke but honestly it felt just fabulous compared to those contractions that were so completely painless just three hours before.  the epidural worked immediately on my left half (which is right when i semi felt my water break... i had to ask a nurse to confirm it, which she did with a worried face and got a another nurse to check it out.  i asked what was wrong and if there was meconium (that's baby-in-the-womb poop) in it.  she said just a little.  whew.) and not at all on my right half and was pretty spotty on my stomach.  SCARY.  i wanted that thing to be working all over and right away.  it was about that time that my back labor was getting worse so instead of concentrating on the contractions in my lower stomach, i had to shift my focus to my back.  (not like it even mattered because i hadn't bothered learning anything about pain management because my plan was to have NO PAIN.  we give that an F minus minus.)  they kept getting ice to check where the epidural was working.  i'd tell them if i felt nothing, slight pressure, or very cold ice (that was my answer to my entire right half... not good).  it didn't feel like long, but that is practically all i remember that was going on until they checked me again at midnight.

happy to be admitted

nurse getting stuff ready

hooked up to a bunch of stuff and feeling tipsy

they said that throughout my labor, they would be checking me every two hours to see how dilated and effaced i was.  i told them i was a 4 and 90% at 9:00 and hadn't been checked since then.  "three hours?  oh, we'll go ahead and check you right now."  great, i was excited to see if there was any progress but kinda scared there wouldn't be.  i think i was hoping to be at least at a 6.  well, one nurse, then two, both got that surprised look on their faces and told me i was at a 10 and 100% effaced and ready to go!  wow!  that sure was fast!  i had planned for a really really long labor.  seriously, i was anticipating 24 hours of it at least.  my hospital bagS (there were two for me, and one for chris) had my journal, crocheting, scriptures, a book, skipbo, and a bunch of other things to keep me occupied if i didn't feel like sleeping or hanging out while i was in labor.  but there was just no time for any of that.  i swear, we didn't need a single thing in our hospital bags until it was time to go home.  didn't even open them.  anyways...

last time picture of our family of two

after they told me i was all ready to push, they told me i couldn't yet because i had to wait for them to go get the doctor.  well, the doctor came like a half hour later.  in that time, the epidural guy FINALLY came back to see why i still had feeling on my right side.  the nurses basically told him to go away because he was too late and we didn't need him and i was about to push.  i don't know why, but i thought it was comical.  it was then that i finally realized that the epidural was actually working all over and i hadn't even really noticed it amid all of the excitement!  when the doctor came, she checked me out i think, probably just for kicks and i think it was while she and the nurses were all gathered around that they had me do a practice push or two.  the next two things the nurses told me were loud and clear.  "you are an amazing pusher!" and "do NOT push anymore until the doctor finishes getting ready!!!"  i was relieved to hear them say i was a good pusher because i was afraid i wouldn't be able to push very well since i couldn't feel anything even remotely close to where i was supposed to be pushing.

so at 12:40, the doctor came back and told me i could start pushing for real.  the next half hour was so so so much fun!  we were joking and laughing with the nurses and having a grand old time pushing a baby out.  they told me i was doing great and that i made labor look easy and that i was so lucky to have such a good labor with my first kid and on and on.  as i said before, I LOVED THOSE NURSES!!!  now THAT is what you want to hear during labor.  but honestly, it WAS so easy... because I COULD NOT FEEL A DARN THING!  and i loved it.  i will say though, that watching our kid come out provided a lot of pushing motivation.  i really didn't think i would want to see anything but decided at the very last moment (and sent a nurse running out the door to find a mirror) that it would be too cool to miss.  after almost a half hour of super fun pushing (seriously, i was on a high) a purple head came out and everyone real excitedly started yelling " PUSH PUSH PUSH, KEEP PUSHING, DON'T STOP!".  well that scared the crap out of me!!!  i know i'm a little paranoid, but i honestly thought something was wrong.  first, because a purple head is sticking out making no noise (not sure if they're supposed to make noise yet) and second that they're frantically telling me to push without waiting for the next contraction.  well, just one more push and the body came out!  YEAY!!!  she was born at 1:08am!  but then i was still freaking out because of the deep purple color and that i heard no crying. 

right away they layed her on my belly (i gave them really specific orders ahead of time to give her straight to me).

 that assured me that nothing was wrong since they weren't whisking my kid away to do tests or anything.  i was still wondering why she wasn't crying but no one else seemed worried so i just went with it.

 she was very grabby and kept a strong grip on my fingers.

i know i've said it a million times, but i couldn't believe how purple she was!  literally purple.

see how purple?!?!

 while i was holding my kid, i was vaguely aware of being stitched up (small tear).  i held her for over an hour (seemed so short) and nursed her before i forked her over to the nurse to bathe her and weigh her and measure her, etc.

THAT was when i heard her cry for the first time.  she doesn't have a strong set of lungs.  it was that sweet, typical waah, pause, waah, pause newborn cry that you hear in the movies but you could tell she sure wasn't happy!  she was 8 lbs, 5.5 oz and 20.5 inches long. 

i was definitely surprised she was so big!  i was totally expecting something in the 6.5 to 7 pound range.  call me superficial but i like skinny babies... not those chunky ones with rolls.  well, i was glad to hear i had a hearty baby because i had seen her and there were no rolls.  she was just all muscle.  real lean.  that was when chris and i started calling her gladiator and sparta girl. she was perfect.

our first family picture

to be continued...