I am pleased to introduce the newest member of our family, baby Violet! She was born on July 6th at 4:11 a.m. and weighted 8 pounds 3 ounces and was 21 inches long.
Here is the story of her entrance into the world:
Around 26 weeks I started having contractions and my doctor ordered me to take it easy and rest in hopes that the contractions would stop on their own. My contractions did stop after a few days of resting, however at 35/36 weeks I started having contractions again. During this episode of contractions (which was right before Father's Day weekend) I started to dilate and efface (I was a 1 and 70% effaced) so I was given some medication to stop the contractions. Over the weekend I *thought* I had lost my mucus plug (however it turned out that I had only lost part of my mucus plug...I'll explain in a bit...). Bed rest didn't stop the contractions during my second episode of contractions, so my doctor ordered me to stop working and just stay at home because it looked like I would go into pre-term labor (I had dilated to a 2 and I was 80% effaced since the previous week).
I stayed at home and washed and cleaned the baby's stuff, at this point I was still having irregular contractions and my doctor told me that he wouldn't stop me from going into labor if things progressed (since I was in my last month of pregnancy). My son was a big baby so my doctor said if I made it to 38 weeks I would be sent to have an ultrasound so we would know if I would be having another large baby. If the ultrasound revealed another large baby, my doctor would induce me at 39 weeks. As it turned out, I did make it to 38 weeks and my ultrasound estimated that the baby was 8lb 11oz so my doctor scheduled my induction for the morning of July 10th. I left his office excited that the end was in sight, I couldn't wait to finally meet the baby!
On Wednesday, the day after my doctor's appointment, I started to have extremely painful contractions at bed time (they hurt so much that I didn't want to move). These contractions were every 2-3 minutes and they were about a minute long, so I called my doctor and he told me to wait and see if things got better or worse and to try and get some sleep if possible. To help ease my pain my husband made me a warm bath to soak in. The warm bath helped with the pain and I was able to fall asleep.
Thursday and Friday my son and I spent with my husband while he was doing work related business, so by the time Friday night came we were all pretty tired. Nik went to bed early on Friday and I took a nap because I started having abdominal pain late in the afternoon. I woke up around 10 p.m. with painful contractions and I started to time them. Around 10:30 p.m. my husband finished working in the garage and I tried taking another warm bath to help the pain, however this time the pain did not ease up (since my pain was constant while I was taking the bath, I had called my family members and asked them to be on stand by in case I was in labor). I tried to eat something and lay in bed but the pain only got worse and the contractions were 5 minutes apart and lasted 1 minute and 30 seconds...which meant that it was time to go to the hospital! I quickly threw on a nightgown, my husband grabbed Nik and my hospital bag and I called my grandma and asked her to meet us at the hospital to pick up Nik. While I was on the phone with my grandma I put the wet laundry in the dryer and then I suddenly felt something wet on my leg! Gross, right? Well, as it turned out I didn't lose all of my mucus plug like I had thought. After I said a few things I dare not repeat here on the blog, my grandma and I quickly ended our phone conversation and I locked up the house and went to the car.
On the drive to the hospital (which is located about 2 miles from our house) I used my breathing techniques to make it through the increasingly painful contractions and my husband tried to engage me in conversation. He was focused on thinking of things to talk about so he didn't notice that Nik was imitating my breathing...I would have laughed had I not been in pain. Once we arrived at the hospital (close to midnight) my husband had a nurse from the E.R. wheel me into the labor and delivery department, while he went back home to leave Nik with my grandma.
When I got to the delivery room I was dilated to a 5 and the contractions were more painful. I immediately asked for pain medication and the nurse said they would have to do some lab work before they could give me anything so I asked her to hurry. Roughly 30-40 minutes later my husband came back to the hospital and my water broke. Shortly afterwards we were joined by my mom, stepdad and brother. At this point I was still waiting for them to give me an epidural and my husband wasn't too happy to see me in pain so he "talked to the nurse" about fetching the anesthesiologist. The anesthesiologist had the nurse check me to see how far along I was and by this point I had dilated to a 9. They told me they thought it was too late to give me the epidural because I was so far along. I begged them to try anyway because they did say there was a small window and that it may or may not take affect and provide me pain relief.
The anesthesiologist hurried and gave me the epidural and it took affect just in time. I never knew real pain until that night...the pain from these contractions made contractions from my son's labor seem like a joke. My doctor arrived shortly after they gave me the epidural and he wanted to wait until it took affect (I'm assuming it was because he thought I might need an episodomy) and to see if the baby would drop a little more before I started pushing. We waited two hours and the baby hadn't moved as much as we hoped, so the nurse told me that I would have to start pushing to help the baby move down. My stepdad and brother had left the room but my husband and mom stayed. I pushed for 15-20 minutes and I used all my strength to push the baby. The doctor came in and with two or three more pushes the baby was out! I almost laughed when the last of my water came out because my mom was startled by the gush. It was a great feeling knowing my baby was finally here and that I had a smooth labor, I couldn't have asked for more!
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| Baby Violet 1 Month Old (Mermaid outfit bought here) |
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