I have yet to write about all the details of our little girl's birth and since this blog is about as close to a journal as I keep I should probably write it down... feel free to just skip over it but I thought My Maggie girl may just want to know someday so here it is...
I went into the Dr. on Friday morning and discovered I was dilated to a 5+ and just over 70% effaced. Dr. Ott said as soon as I started having regualr contractions to come in to the hospital and if I haven't gone into labor by Monday to come in so that I wouldn't end up having this baby at home seeing as she was my third child he was worried labor would happen quickly.
By Friday night I was having regular but not strong contractions... well some were strong and others were not so much but they were about 3-4 minutes apart. Just to be safe Russ and I packed up the kids around 8:00 pm and took them to Peg's and then headed to the hospital. When we arrived they set me up to be monitored and after an hour or so my Dr. decided he wanted to keep me but to give me a little pit to keep my contractions regular and strong. We were the only people in Labor and Delivery having a baby that night, it was so quiet! We had all the nurses and techs there checking on us and taking such good care of our every need. By the end of our whole ordeal they were like family and I was so happy to have had them there! Luckily my pit level was low since I was hoping for a natural birth and I knew pitocin can make contractions much, much harder. Russ and I were just getting settled and he was considering taking a nap when my contractions got really strong and hard and he got to come over and coach me through... relaxing your body when it is in that kind of pain was by far the hardest thing I have EVER done! Thanks to Russ' calm voice I was able to keep pretty good control (except when Russ told me to 'relax my jaw' which was biting down on ice that he had given me so I wouldn't choke on it and I not so nicely let him know that I couldn't... I may have snapped at him a bit) and things were going great but then I started getting the urge to push... I was only at a 7! My water hadn't broken yet. I was scared! and trying to relax when your body wants to push is impossible! I told Russ I didn't think I could do it, I was certain I still had hours of labor left and I was really wearing down not to mention it was late... around 12:30 and I hadn't slept since the night before... I asked for my epidural. My incredible team of nurses and techs came in and reminded me that I was almost there and that I had a goal to have a natural birth they said I was so close and I just needed to wait for Dr. Ott to arrive and things would move really fast. So we waited... and this incredible team of women and my sweet husband helped me get through the last little bit until Dr. Ott arrived. Once he arrived things did move fast, really fast! He broke my water and I started to push... in one contraction I went from a 7 to a 10! Less than 20 minutes later I was holding my Maggie in my arms! All nine pounds two ounces of her and she was beautiful! Russ cut the cord and they handed me my big baby girl to cuddle. The adrenaline rush had gotten me through and I wasn't hurting too badly until it was time to deliver the placenta... ouch! With my epidurals I have never given the delivery of my placenta much thought... I was in this happy euphoric holding my baby kind of state and pretty unaware of what was happening but without the drugs I have to say the end hurt worse than the entire birth experience... it was horrible! but so very worth it! I was up and walking around shortly after giving birth I was pacing the halls of the hospital while my baby was under her billi-lights because I just felt too good to lay around! I have over done it a few times since then and my body has nicely reminded me that I did just give birth and maybe should slow it down a bit but overall I am doing really well. Maggie is healthy as can be except for a little jaundice (which all of my kiddos have had) and so we had to stay and extra day so she could chill out in her tanning bed and then we have spent this week running over to the hospital for her daily blood test but she is now in the clear. One week old she has already grown out of her newborn diapers and some of her newborn clothes! She snores when she sleeps and her skin is peeling off like a snake shedding its skin (everyone keeps telling me she was 'overbaked' which is just another reminder about how grateful I am she didn't wait another 4 or 5 days until her due date... ) We love you Maggie!
1 comment:
congratulations! I was late in finding out because I had some company in town up until Saturday morning, and am finally getting around to blogs. Wow - natural birth ... my dear, you are oh so brave. I'm glad everything went smoothly and all is well. Congrats again!
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