I had been having random contractions since early Saturday morning but nothing that was regular enough for me to be able to say I was actually in labor. We spent the morning running some errands, and I ran out that afternoon and got some plants for my vegetable garden that Nathan and my MIL had so graciously weeded, tilled and planted for me. When I woke up from my nap around 4:30 I was pretty sure I was in real labor, but the contractions were still far apart. I gave Nathan the heads up so he could finish things in the yard. Grandpa came over, we ate dinner, got the kids bathed and ready for bed.
Around 9:30 I was ready to go the hospital. I was breathing through most of the contractions, but still not able to acheive the total relaxtion that I hoped was possible. The contractions were about 5-7 minutes apart and lasted for almost a minute and were fairly intense. I was sure that at this point I was far enough along to be happy with my progression once we got there. (The pain and everything with labor just seems to be more intense when I get there, so I wanted to wait as long as I felt it was okay. My water never breaks on it's own, so I was pretty confident that as long as that didn't happen, we wouldn't be having a baby at home or on the way.)
We got there and they checked us in. I was about 6 cm dialated, but still having problems relaxing through my contractions. Even Nathan was beginning to feel a bit stressed. And I'm sure that my yelling at him "FINGERS!!!" every 3 minutes wasn't helpful. (He would put up several fingers to show me how many breaths to take and this helped to take my mind off some of the pain as I had to concentrate on the counting and not the contraction.) I really didn't want an epidural, but I figured that I had done "natural" with Jonathan and I made my point then, I didn't need to make it again. So I got one. And I was really happy with it. It was a very light epidrual. I could still feel the pressure, but not even my toes were numb by the time Olivia was born. And in the end it was a good thing.
I was "complete" around 11:30, but my water hadn't broken yet. The on call doctor was in another delivery, and we really wanted to wait and have her born on June 5 since it is Nathan's birthday. I wouldn't have been able to wait until after 12 if I had chosen a non-medicated birth. It was a little after 12 when the doc came in and broke my water. 2 contractions later she was born.
She had a hard time breathing at first. She grunted and bubbled, and flared her nostrils for quite a bit. So, they hauled her up to NICU, but I guess the trip up there scared her enough to start breathing normally, so they brought her right back.
Her brothers just love and adore her. And we are partial ourselves. We think we'll keep her. :)
7 comments:
Congrats!!! She's a cutie!
Jen, she is so darling! Glad that it was a easy delivery. Sophie did the same thing with her breathing and flaring her nostrails..When they told us that about her nose,I had never heard that before. But by the night time she was doing much better with it and was just fine! :) Congrats again, girls are so fun and I hope she starts sleeping better for you.
She is absolutely adorable and beautiful!!! If you ever decide not to keep her Brett and I will take her off your hands! ;0)
She is absolutely gorgeous! You always do such good work with those babies! If you ever decide that you don't want to keep her Brett and I will gladly take her! ;0)
love it! she is so adorable. i need to come over and hold her.
How exciting for the little sister to finally be here! She's beautiful!
She is very adorable and I'm glad everything went well for you. I was very happy to meet her, and hope all is going okay for your family!
Post a Comment