So as I begin to type this at 9:30pm 6/8/12, it has been exactly one week since I decided it was time to head to the hospital for (hopefully) the birth of our second baby girl. I say hopefully because although I *felt* like I was in labor, the way it was happening was way different than the first time and I was nervous I was going in too early and would be sent home. But at that point I didn't care. I was uncomfortable enough that even if it was too early and they sent me home, at least I'd probably get some pain meds and a sleeping pill to help me through the night. That in itself was worth going. Which of course probably meant that it really WAS time. ;-) Here is the rest of the story:
I worked Wednesday and Thursday nights, May 30th and 31st. Immediately after I got off work the morning of June 1st, I headed to my 8:30 appointment with Dr Adams. It started with my weekly BPP (ultrasound), which took the entire allotted 30 minutes because Peanut refused to move a muscle for us (she finally moved ONCE near the end, but was required to move twice in order to pass the test). This was kinda funny to me because just two hours prior she had been throwing a ridiculous party inside and a coworker and I had been laughing at her feet moving back and forth across my belly. I knew she was fine. She just didn't want mama to sleep that morning. ;-)
After the ultrasound, I saw Dr Adams for my 38 week checkup. She checked my cervix and I was 3-4cm and 60-70% effaced, but baby was still up pretty high. At my request, she went ahead and stripped my membranes too (if you're curious, look it up...). THAT was not comfortable, but I was hopeful it would jump start my labor. I had the same thing done 3 times with Avi and it didn't do anything, so while I was hopeful it would work, I wasn't confident. But it was certainly worth a try! We also scheduled an eviction date for June 8th @ 9pm if Peanut didn't arrive sooner (we planned to induce at 39 weeks because I was on heparin). Because Peanut failed her BPP, we finished with an NST which she passed with flying colors. :-)
Finally it was time to go home and sleep! I got home about 10am and was already randomly contracting, but nothing too different than the braxton hicks I'd already been having for weeks. They had gotten stronger (tighter?) in the last couple weeks, but never painful. Just tight and uncomfortable. These were iffy. I took a nice hot bath before heading to bed, and was finally in bed by 11am. I remember waking up to stronger than normal braxton hicks at 12:15. And 1:30. I tossed and turned through mild crampy contractions until 2:30 when I finally gave up on sleep and got up to shower. I told myself that if the contractions weren't real, the hot shower might help them go away (I truly didn't want them to go away...but wasn't ready to get my hopes up and believe they *were* real contractions, although still mild).
After my shower I played with Monkey, talked to Scott about the contractions and "possibly having a baby tonight??" and accomplished a few random things around the house, all while keeping a mental note of the gradually increasing contractions. I wasn't timing them yet, but do remember thinking "oh that wasn't too bad, I'm sure there won't be any more"...only to have another several minutes later (and again tell myself "I'm sure THAT'S the last one")...followed by another...and another. In the back of my mind I knew this was probably the beginning. But the beginning of how long of a labor? This was SO so new to me. I had never before had a contraction that actually hurt, before KNOWING a baby was on the way. You might think that's silly, being our 2nd baby and all, but with Avi my water broke at home when I was 2cm and the ONLY contractions I had prior to my water breaking were braxton hicks. Nothing painful, nothing like what everyone told me true labor would feel like. AFTER my water broke it didn't take long at all to get VERY painful, but before that I had no clue. So this time, water still intact and just having mild crampy contractions that sometimes made me frown, my uncertainty made sense. The only things that made me think this *might* be it was the fact I could feel them in the front AND in my back (braxton hicks were always just tightening in front), and the gradual increase in intensity and closeness. That I knew was a labor pattern. But it was so gradual that I second guessed myself a bajillion times.
(I must have believed something was up, because at about 4pm I sent a text to my friend and coworker, Micaela, who takes the
most AMAZING pictures--she did my maternity and newborn pics with Avi!--and asked if she'd be willing to bring her camera to work with her that night "just in case". She agreed.)
We had some friends over at about 5pm, our little girls played together and I made "Labor Cookies"--a VERY yummy cookie with lots of spice that reminds me of ginger snaps, only instead of crunchy they're soft and just melt-in-your-mouth. MMmmm! (I ended up only eating one cookie, though.) We had KFC for dinner at about 6pm. I should say THEY had KFC, cause all I felt like eating was a few french fries and a biscuit. Nothing really sounded great. I wasn't sick, just didn't feel like eating much (which is weird, cause my last "meal" was at about 1am that morning at work!). My friend Kim and I had pedicures scheduled for 7pm (planned ahead of time). For a few minutes there, I questioned whether or not I should actually go because I was getting a little more uncomfortable. But we did, and I was the dork who brought a towel to sit on in the car AND into the salon "just in case" my water broke. I figured if I had the towel, it wouldn't break. Murphy's law. And it didn't. :-) (This is only funny because with Avi my water broke exactly ONE HOUR after my pedicure. Thank goodness I was already home or I would have been mortified! Lol.) I did contract about every 5 minutes through the pedicure, but the massage chair actually helped and I had a good time! And pretty toes. :-D
Kim and I got back to the house about 8:15pm. In the 30 minutes after that, things went from "kinda uncomfortable" to "ouch, this really isn't fun". I'm sure if there had been a camera on my face all afternoon/evening that this is where I stopped laughing and smiling with everyone. I sent a text to Dr Adams to give her a head's up that this *might* be it and asking when she would want me to call her (on our way, or once I had been checked out in triage). I was also texting Courtney, my coworker and L&D nurse who was also my nurse at Avi's delivery. She and Dr Adams were sweet enough to be on-call and "special" me when this baby decided to arrive too, even if they weren't on shift at the time (and I was SO thankful to have both of them there with us again!!). Courtney was asking me if I could still talk through the contractions. Yes I could talk through them, but I sure didn't want to. Several times I caught myself holding my breath at the beginning of a contraction and had to remind myself to breath. They weren't "stop me in my tracks" yet, but getting stronger. And sitting was horrible. I had to be up moving. Of course when a contraction came I had to pause what I was doing and wait it out, but that was much better than sitting through it on the couch.
Our friends were all gone by 9pm, and by 9:15 Scott and I decided we'd better put the last minute things in our hospital bags so we'd be ready later that night. Well by the time we were done packing and moving everything to the front door (all of about 10 minutes, lol), I told him he'd better call his mom to come on over to be with Avi (who was in bed) because I wanted to go in NOW. I had been 3-4cm in the office that morning, and with how quickly the contractions were increasing at this point I wanted to know where I was at. I certainly didn't fear or expect an imminent delivery or anything, but I wanted to be checked. And as I said at the very beginning, I was also at the point where if this WASN'T labor (how could it not be??), then I wanted something to help me get through the night (lortab and ambien please? lol)...and that want was stronger than the possible embarrassment of being in false or too-early labor and being sent back home. And again in retrospect, that should have been my clue that this really was labor. :-P
Time is a little fuzzy after this, but I believe we got to the hospital right about 10pm. On the monitor I was contracting every two minutes, and by that time I literally couldn't talk through them and had to just close my eyes and breath. And again, sitting was horrible...so the car ride sucked and so did laying in the triage bed. I even told my triage nurse, Joan, that I just wanted to walk because walking was "so much better". After 15-20 minutes on the monitor, she checked my cervix. I was only 4cm. DANGIT! That was NOT the magic number I was looking for. Thankfully I was 80% effaced and baby had moved down to a -2 station, but I knew it still wasn't enough "change" from that morning to be admitted right then and there. I was going to have to walk the halls for an hour and, please God please?, be more than 4cm when Joan re-checked me.
10:50pm. That time I DO know. I told Scott to look at his phone because I wanted to know exactly when our hour was up. We went out into the lobby to walk because I was too miserable to walk the halls where all my coworkers would see me and get excited and want to talk. I did not feel like talking! Lol. So we walked the 3rd floor lobby/waiting room for one very.long.hour. Actually, 57 minutes. At 11:47 I said "close enough!" and headed back in. The contractions definitely increased in intensity during that hour. I went from "walking is much better than sitting" to "nevermind, NOTHING makes these any better, they all just SUCK!". I think I whispered the 's' word more times that hour than I have my entire life. Scott was very sweet and caring through every contraction, though, and gave me water whenever I wanted it.
Back in triage, I was on the monitor for another 15-20 minutes and Joan checked me again. The words "you're 5 centimeters" couldn't have sounded sweeter! I do believe "THANK GOD" escaped my mouth. :-P So I called Courtney to tell her the good news and she headed on in. Lab came. Courtney arrived quickly and started my IV. My labor room was cleaned and ready. (I think I literally got the last labor bed...triage was empty when I initially arrived, but full when we came back from our one hour walk. By the end of the night I was told there were 3 patients laboring in triage waiting for a room! Eeek!) I decided, rather quickly, that I wanted my epidural. Originally I had thought that I *might* go natural this time, maybe try a hot shower or the labor tub. And if I had been 7+ cm when I got to the hospital perhaps I would have tried. I don't know. But at this point, I just wanted the drugs again like last time! :-P
Thankfully, the epidural happened rather quickly once I got to my room. I think it was admitted around 12:15am and had my epidural by about 1am? And it was a fabulous epidural! My contractions spaced out a little after that, so at about 2:30am Dr Adams came in to break my water. I was 6-7cm/90% at that time, and Courtney repositioned me on my side and placed the "peanut ball" between my legs (literally a big ball shaped like a peanut that keeps the tlegs/hips open so baby can descend more easily into the birth canal). At about 3:30am Courtney checked me again because I'd been feeling some pressure. I was the same as before and, although a little closer, my contractions were still somewhat spaced out, so she started low-dose pitocin. Sleep was impossible (too much anticipation!), but I was trying to rest. Scott tossed and turned on the pull-out bed attempting the same. I couldn't believe this was it! For a couple weeks now Scott and I had joked about how I was going to have my membranes stripped that morning, go for a pedicure and then have a baby. Like it would really happen. Between the two of us, we "knew" it would be June 2nd. I have the text messages to prove our "guess" from a couple weeks prior. And it was really happening!! Since when do babies actually come according to plan?!? Too funny.
I was checked again at 5:45 and "ready to go!". Really?? Scott was now up and by my side. Dr Adams was called back to the room, Kerry from nursery came, Micaela came with her camera, and up in stirrups I went. Once everything was all set up, I was told to push with the next contraction. Five pushes, two contractions...and Brielle was born at 6:08 am! I couldn't believe how fast it was! She came out crying (unlike Big Sis who was stunned at first), and went right on my chest. She looked smaller than Avi. Her fingers were long and skinny (literally my FIRST thought upon seeing Aveline had been "omgoodness, her hands are so chubby!"), she just felt more petite. She had dark hair like Sister, and the same exact lips. And she couldn't have been more beautiful all covered in gunk! :-P
Turns out she really wasn't much smaller, she weighed 8# 11oz, only 3 oz less than Aveline. But at 21 inches, she was a whole inch longer than Avi so that's probably what makes her look leaner even though they weighed almost the same. Also, Brielle was born at 38w1d, whereas Aveline was born at 39w4d. If she had stayed inside another week she surely would have been over 9 pounds! My ultrasound 9 days prior on May 24th (at 36w6d) had estimated her at 8# 1oz, which must have been pretty accurate because based on other ultrasound measurements she'd been gaining about an ounce a day for the past several weeks.
Those first couple hours are kinda a blur. I got stitched up...Elle got cleaned up...Daddy held her...I held her skin to skin on my chest...she nursed for the first time at only 30 minutes old (seriously, I couldn't have asked for a better nurser)...Micaela took lots of pictures for us. Really I don't remember much else those first couple hours! It was amazing, I couldn't believe she was here, and I KNOW the me from 3 years ago would NEVER have believed that we'd be holding our 2nd little girl right then at that moment. If you've followed our journey to parenthood, you know what I mean. Brielle means "God is my strength", and He certainly has been. We are just so incredibly thankful to have each other and our two precious girls. I couldn't imagine anything better. <3
And since it has taken me over 3 hours to write this out, it is now almost 1am so I can officially say "Happy one week birthday" to my sweet Elle! I will have to write about our first week in another post, but it has been a wonderful, exhausting, and incredibly fast week. Why does it go so fast?? I want her to stay tiny and new as long as possible!! I didn't realize how much I missed the newborn stage until I had another newborn. And yes, I love the newborn stage, exhaustion and all. Don't remind me of that later today, though, when I regret staying up until 1am writing all this out. ;-P
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