The Birth Story

Here are the nitty gritty details for those who are interested. If you aren't...stop reading now...don't say I didn't warn you! It wasn't horrible and traumatic or anything but I tend to just lay it all out there so be forewarned :)

So. I had been having contractions that were stronger than the braxton hicks I had with Griff for about a month and false labor off and on for a couple of weeks. I was a week past my due date and just ready to meet this little princess. I'm pretty sure I was getting crankier by the day just because the pain/frustration/sleeplessness/hormones were getting out of hand.

Mom and I had tried EVERYTHING to get this labor started but I'm pretty sure all of those methods are crapola. Actually now, in lieu of everything I see that God had 4/5 planned a looooong time ago but I'll get to that later.

The week before I had my membranes swept twice which just increased my contractions but didn't do anything else but make me feel crappy. After they did it on Friday I lost my mucous plug which I thought meant labor was gonna happen over the weekend, alas, it did not. So when I went for my 41 week appointment I figured I'd let them do it again anyway because there was a chance it could work. We discussed inducing on Monday the 11th because they like to wait until 42 weeks and I like the date 4/11/11.



Right after that the midwife said she was 2 for 2 on membrane sweepages and said she had lucky fingers. I said then go for it, lady! When she was done...and I have to say it was pretty painful...she left the room and I noticed that my water broke. Cheers of joy! I opened the door and told a nurse and my other favorite midwife came in to tell me what to do. She said to go home and wait until the contractions got to the point that I felt like I needed to come in and if they didn't by midnight then they would start a little pitocin.

Funny story here: Right when my water broke, I grabbed my phone to call Andrew and noticed that he had just texted me the following, "Just got a flat tire." I texted back, "Cool, my water just broke." I finished getting dressed and called my mom who had my car (I had been dropped off) and she said that my dad had my car at an urgent care hospital because he was sick and they were keeping him to get a CAT scan because they thought he might have diverticulitis (luckily he didn't!). So, meanwhile I just chill in the lobby hoping that I'm not leaking all over the place while I wait for Andrew to change his tire and come get me. Pretty funny that we had all been just sitting around for 2 weeks waiting for baby and at the ultimate most inconvenient time she said, "Aaaaaand NOW!" Funny little girl. I was too excited to feel any stress though.

The contractions started getting more painful pretty much as soon as my water broke at 3:20PM but not bad enough to stay at the hospital. When Andrew picked me up we went home to feed Griffin and get him to the neighbors. Another thing is that Shelly has been ready to take care of Griff when I had Elliot the entire pregnancy. I thought she was leaving April 9th for TN but she called on the 4th to tell me she was on her way to the airport. I got the dates wrong and she left the day before she was born :( sad. But luckily we have AWESOME neighbors that we could call and Griff has stayed with them before so he had a slumber party with their 4 year old twins.

After he left I tried to eat some dinner and just watch TV for a while and finish packing, etc. The contractions started getting longer and more painful though and I was worried that it would happen fast and did NOT want to have her at home. That is so not my thing. So we called the midwife and headed to the hospital around 7 ish. By the time we were in the car they were hurting pretty bad and luckily they got me into a room fairly quickly.

It was a really laid back experience (except for my screaming and thrashing around) compared to Griff's birth. The midwife didn't want me to get an IV so they just monitored my contractions and her heartbeat for 20 or 30 minutes when I got into the room then took the monitors off. When I got to the room they were less than 2 minutes apart. After they were done with that I decided to get into the jacuzzi tub in the bathroom which felt a lot more relaxing. It didn't take too long for the contractions to get even stronger and closer together. I had my trusty Ipod and gripped the bar in the tub for a while but was feeling a lot more pressure so she checked me and I was 7. I labored in the tub for a while longer and realized at one point that the pressure was getting a lot stronger so they decided to get me in the bed. The contraction between the tub and the bed has to be my least favorite by a long shot but I'm glad I got to be in there for a little bit.

Once I got to the bed I was a 9 and just wanted it to be over so bad. The midwife said it looked like I liked to grab on to stuff so she lowered both bed rails and I grabbed those suckers and am pretty sure I scared anybody within earshot but totallly didn't care at the time. At some point I thought I may just lose it if I didn't push that girl out so I said I needed to push. I think I was waiting for someone to tell me to push like they did with Griffin but the midwife was apparently waiting for me because she said to just do what I felt. So, I started pushing. No concept of time here but I know it didn't take too long.

I was a lot more alert at this point than I was with Griff. I was in labor longer and on Pitocin with him so I was totally loopy by the time I pushed him out and honestly don't remember the pain of that very much at all. I just remember thinking I was too tired to get him out. With Elliot it felt like someone took a machete to my vajayjay (sorry if you haven't had a baby yet and this is scaring you, just trying to be honest). I just wanted to have her in my arms and not in my whoha. So with a lot of grunting and yelling and saying that I just didn't think this was going to work out...she came out! They put her on my chest and was forgotten...until the stitches started but that's another story :)

She was born at 9:23PM on 4/5/2011 weighing in at 9 pounds 1 ounce and 21 inches. BEAUTIFUL dark hair and yummy rolls. I'm totally in love and Andrew is wrapped around her miniature finger. We are so thankful.

Seriously though I have never been so happy to meet someone in my life except when Griff was born. You know they are there and you feel them moving and see the ultrasounds but to see them in the flesh is just too amazing. We are so incredibly blessed, I just can't believe it.

She has been nursing good (a little scare about dehydration the first couple of days because apparently she was ready for real milk before I could provide it but we're doing good now), she sleeps a gazillion times better than Griff  did during his first year and a half. I'm in awe at how easy she is. I'm so lucky and she is only 3 days old so I know that could change but I just don't care. If she doesn't sleep for 18 years I won't care but it is a nice surprise that she actually will sleep in her crib. I couldn't get Griff to do that for 4 months. They are so different but I couldn't love 2 little people so much if I tried.

The part about this that is just such a God thing (not that it all isn't because of God) is that I had a dream on Monday night that we got our approval from Rwanda, so I woke up Tuesday and checked my email and it wasn't there but then I ended up having Elliot so I figured that was what my dream was about. This morning I was nursing her at 5AM and it took me a while to get her awake enough to nurse (crazy because every 2 hours like clockwork Griff screamed bloody murder until I gave him a booby). I had her on a boob and opened my email and saw that we got our approval from Rwanda! We have been waiting a year and a half to see that email. Our dossier has been there right under a year. I had to read it several times to be sure that I wasn't dreaming. The date on the scanned letter was 4/5/2011...Elliot's birthday. I picked up my nursing baby and went back to the bedroom and woke up Andrew and told him. Must have been quite the sight seeing his frazzled wife with a little girl attached to one boob and the other one hanging out because I forgot to close my tank top shaking him awake telling him that not only does he have a 3 day old but he has one to two more coming in 3-5 months. Deer in headlights. Not really, we have both been praying and waiting and hoping for all of these kids long enough to not care if it happens all at once. I'll be honest, there is a tad bit of stress with all we have to do in the next couple of months in between 2 hour feedings BUT I'm so on it. Bring it on and let me see that baby/those babies!

Next step-apply for Elliot's passport as soon as we get her birth certificate in the mail!

Wow. LONGEST BLOG POST OF ALL TIME! I'll reinstate the whole cookie thing if you survived reading this.