Tuesday, July 27, 2010

Zoe's birth story

Are you ready for a novel?

I'm going to do my best to let you know what all has happened in the past week.  There is so much to tell, so why don't you go and grab a bowl of popcorn and a Coke and come back..

My family made it in around midnight last Tuesday.  We all were so tired yet so excited to see each other!  I gave them a quick tour of the house ("quick" means a couple hours) and then we all headed to bed.  The first day they were in town we decided to just relax and make sure everyone was rested before the real fun began!

Tuesday morning my mom and Paul came with me to my doctor's appointment and the doctor went ahead and stripped all of my mucous membranes and she knew she would see me very soon.  We spent the rest of the day resting to make sure I was ready for labor.

Tuesday afternoon came and went..

Tuesday evening came and went..

Wednesday morning was upon us, and since we had a full day of rest with no labor pains, we decided it was time to walk.  Before walking I downed 4 oz. of castor oil and hoped that "cleaning myself out" would start some good contractions.  We walked through Walmart, the mall, the county fair.. nothing.  We came home, rested a few hours, and then we walked to the park- which involved two pretty decent hills to climb.  Perfect to break my water, right?!

Wrong.

During our walks I had some really good contractions, some good enough that I had to stop walking and concentrate on breathing.  As soon as we would go home the contractions would stop and I was left with twinges.

On Thursday we decided to do some more walking.  This time we were going to walk to the hospital which involved, of course, another very big hill.  We made it all the way to the top.. nothing was happening.. walked through hilly neighborhoods.. had good contractions that I stopped and squatted through.. nothing happened.

I had drank that awful castor oil, walked the town of Havre, and no water breaking.

On Friday morning I felt large and depressed.  Nothing was working and I was allowing myself to feel stressed.  3 weeks of bed rest and walking on pins and needles not knowing if my mother would make it, and here they'd been with me for 3 days and nothing was happening.

Then.. it happened!

No, my water didn't break.  The phone rang!

One of the nurses from the doctor's office called and asked if anything had changed.  I let her know what all we had done and how nothing was working, and then she said, "So.. if Dr. Lien would break your water today would you do it?"

My heart stopped!

I said of course I would!  We set up an appointment for the afternoon and went in.

Dr. Lien came in and was looking a little frazzled.  I guess she was having a run in with higher ups and they weren't going to let her break my water over the weekend.  Long story.  Don't ask.  I felt so bummed, but she made sure to tell me that she would fight for me and she usually gets her way.

She went to strip my membranes again, and what do you know?  Nothing was holding my sac up anymore.  It was literally hanging out and not breaking- that's how thick it was.  Go figure.  She told me to go to the hospital the next day and see if I was having consistent enough contractions to hopefully induce labor and win the fight!

Saturday afternoon came, I went to the hospital and they checked to see if I was having consistent contractions.  Surprise, surprise.. no consistent contractions.  I felt so stressed out!  Why doesn't anything work?!  They had me hooked up for 2 hours, and then out of nowhere Dr. Lien came and checked me.  She pretty much said forget it and had the nurse get the "hook" and she broke my water at 2:20 p.m.

Having your water broke is the weirdest feeling in the world!  I was literally wetting my pants and had no control!  It kept coming and coming and it was crazy..  I was so relieved when she did that.  Baby Zoe was finally coming!

Unfortunately I had tested positive for Group B Strep so I had to have an IV for antibiotics.  It took the nurse forever for find a vein, and when they did, it had to be right in my wrist.  That was probably the most traumatic part of the whole delivery.  I felt like I was going to pass out.  They asked me if I was going to take anything for the pain and I made sure to tell them no.  I was doing this natural, no matter how crazy it seemed to anyone.

After some of the gushing had calmed down I went to the bathroom, stocked up on pads, grabbed my IV pole and we started walking the OB.  We walked round and round for probably an hour and a half to two hours and then I had to make myself walk back to my room despite the contractions.  When I made it back to my room I started mini walks in between contractions and made myself squat during.  Oh. My. Word.

It didn't seem like it took long for the contractions to become miserable, especially in my back, and I knew we were down to business.

I had wonderful coaches helping me breathe, waving magazines fanning me since I felt way too hot, giving me cool cloths, pushing a cool pad against my back, etc.  I heard we had a pretty good system going.

One thing I remember is that when contractions came, I needed Paul to squeeze my hand.  For some reason feeling the pressure of him squeezing my hand helped me reflect more on that as well as breathing and not so much on the pain.  But, in my mind he was never squeezing enough and I was constantly demanding him to squeeze harder.  Mom told me eventually that my hand was turning purple and Paul couldn't squeeze anymore.  I told her I didn't care and had him start squeezing the back of the arm.

I don't remember a whole lot about what I said or did, but what I've been told has brought a lot of laughs for everyone!

1) For some reason I was very polite.. ??  Everyone said I said please and thank-you's, though they were demanding, I was still polite.  Ha!

2) I guess I snapped at Paul once when he was trying to coach me in my breathing.  I told him to SHH! and he did, and looked up at my mom and kinda chuckled.  I heard him and looked up at him..  Mom said if looks could kill..

3) My mom said that she was trying to help me breathe during one contraction and she told me not to tense my body, I guess it bothered me because I yelled at her saying I'm not tense!!!!! and Mom said, "Yes you are!"

After 12 hours of the worst pain in my life, I am now the mother of a 7 lb 1 oz baby girl who is 19 1/2 inches long.  It was totally worth it!  I will do my best to keep you all posted with pictures as well as what motherhood is like.

So far, I love it!!

9 comments:

  1. Awesome story!!! Congrats love! She's beautiful!

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  2. Grace you are so funny I wished i could of been there to see you have the baby, and by the way she is beatiful..

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  3. You guys have a beautiful baby girl!! Reading your labor story sounded so familiar to mine when I had Lillie (except she was 12 days late) the girl would not come out!!! Take care of yourself and enjoy that baby. Love ya!

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  4. I'm happy for you and Paul. Congratulations on a beautiful baby girl!

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  5. Congrats, You have one beautiful little girl!

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  6. Congrats BG and Paul...ya did good...polite and snippy...I didn't know those two adjectives were so closely related. ~hee hee~ Zoe is beautiful...but then there was never any doubt that she would be. Enjoy every moment.

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  7. Love hearing birth stories. Sounds like you have a good one Grace HA!!!!
    Pretty little girl you got. So glad your mom is still there with you.

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  8. Being able to be in the room with her when she was going thru all of that, To me was amazing! :) Except in the beginning when she was in so much pain I could't help but cry and pray. I felt so bad for my Sister. Even though I knew what was happening, I didn't like hearing My Big Sister in so much pain.


    But, When it was time to push I couldn't help but cry tears of joy thinking that aby second now MY sister was gonna be A MOM!!! And Me, An Aunt! It was an amazing thing for me to go thru! I'm glad I was there. Zoe is the most beautiful girl I've ever seen in my life!!!!! She's amazing. and I miss her so much. I hated leaving. and an hour down the road after leaving Grace and Paul's house Megan and I were still crying. :')

    I love my sister. Grace, You mean everything to me. I couldn't live without you. Even though we had the times where we didn't really get along! ;) I miss you so much and wish we lived closer. I miss seeing you. It's so..... Different not being able to walk across the hall and talk to you in your room! I miss those days!

    Give Zoe a kiss for me!

    Okay, I'll stop writting my book now!!

    With love, Your Sister! <3

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  9. You have such a unique story! Congratulations :)

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