September 7, 2012

As I sit here just over 5 weeks after giving birth to our beautiful Gabrielle Elyse, I realize that I: 1. haven't written a blog in over 6 months and 2) have yet to type out her birth story. What a failure!

With a move on the horizon we were on a time crunch for baby to get here. (little did we know we had more time than we had planned on! Thanks Army!) We went to my 40 week appointment and my midwife checked me and saw that I was progressing. I wanted to have enough time with Gabby before the move to establish breastfeeding, etc and was getting anxious to meet her. The midwife checked me and found that i was 2cm and 50% effaced so my body WAS working just not as quickly as we thought we needed. We scheduled an induction for that Friday, Sept 7.

We were told to call that morning and see what time they could get us in. I called at 6am and they said to call back at 11 because they were doing shift change and were short staffed and weren't sure what time they'd be able to get us in. No big deal, i went back to bed. I slept in a bit since i knew it'd likely be the last time I could before the baby came and I wanted to be rested for labor and didn't sleep well the night before.

When I called at 11 they asked what time I could get there and I told them an hour as I wasn't sure how long it'd take to get there and Mike wanted to grab some lunch. We stopped at Jack in the Box and got me a smoothie, I wanted something light.

When we arrived we were taken to our room and told about the induction process which we already knew about from Rosalie. This time however we were told that if they didn't see change in my cervix or start labor, we'd be going home to try again another day. I was given the first dose of medication and monitored for an hour. I was having a few contractions but nothing unpleasant. After the monitoring we were told to go walk around and come back in a couple hours. I had a few more intense but still not bothersome contractions on our walk. We got some snacks and headed back up to our room in L&D.

I was hooked up to the monitors again and the nurse noted some contractions and wanted to make sure they weren't too close together before giving the next dose of meds. They weren't so I got the dose and stayed on monitors for awhile and ate some lunch before being told to go walk around again. Lunch was a gross grilled cheese and fries but the cheese cake was yummy! This is where things got fun!

Mike and I were walking around and he wanted something to eat so while he was getting food I started to get nauseated so decided to leave the area and go walk and do some squatting through the contractions. They were really starting to hurt! We walked some more and Mike must have noticed a change of some sort because he forced me to go back upstairs before we were supposed to. We got back to our room and I couldn't lay down through contractions and had to be on all fours in the bed. I started feeling some pressure so I asked the nurse to check me. I was 6cm and 100% effaced! All that in just a few hours! The nurse asked if I still wanted a water birth and I said yes so she brought a nurse over from the delivery area to help me get to my new room.

When we got to the delivery room they had just started setting up and I remember hearing one of the nurses say that they needed to get the warmer turned on, the large tub running and the birthing supplies out because I was going FAST! They asked if i wanted in the small tub while the large one was getting ready and i said of course! I was on the birthing ball waiting for them to get the tubs going and that was pure agony but boy did it work to get her to drop down. I remember standing up and looking at my belly and thinking "holy cow she dropped" and mike commented that my belly looked funny.

I got into the small tub and almost immediately started feeling INTENSE pressure and the feeling like I needed to push. The nurse checked me again and said I was 10cm and just had a tiny lip of cervix left! This was all within about 60-70min of being checked the last time! Moving out of the water was agonizing. I had a contraction out of the tub as I was about to get in and apparently my midwife was standing behind me ready to catch! Haha too funny! I got in and she told me to push when i was ready and to use any position I wanted but I couldn't move from where I was, which was just laying/floating there. I started pushing and she came out in just three pushes! Less than 10 min of pushing! That's what happens when you let your body labor down, I guess! She was born in the caul (still in the amniotic sac, apparently my water never broke like we thought it had). Evidently that means good luck. She still had a ton of vernix so the midwife/nurses were thinking my dates were off, which is certainly possible (oh that awesome spinny wheel of due dates!)




Gabrielle Elyse was born at 7:57pm and weighed 8lb 1oz and was 18 3/4in. She weighed the same as I did as a baby which is pretty neat. She nurses like a champ (constantly!) and is getting more and more alert as the days go by.

Horrible Medical Minds

Mike is a proponent of medicine and using the technology we've discovered. It came as quite a shock to me when we were discussing someone in my birth group getting results of her sweet baby having downs and being sick. He was asking how they knew for sure and all that. When I explained how he understood and soon the topic was brought to inductions, c sections, etc.

It's been common knowledge that I think ok many c sections and inductions are unnecessary. He was amazed to learn that the US has one of the highest rates of infant mortality He said he believes that's because of too much medical intervention and women not being allowed to birth "late" as well as those women who want to be induced for comfort, timing, dr schedule, etc. He fully understands (as do I) that things happen, interventions can be necessary and all that jazz. Hes amazing and truly gets that a woman's body was made todo this! We were built for giving birth! It's not necessarily a fun time, pregnancy, but our bodies can do it! Woman have been birthing for thousands of years without the "help" of inductions and the myriad of interventions we have today. He doesn't he why women have to be put on a time limit for birthing and pregnancy, neither do I. Yay for spinny wheels of due dates?

I'm dumb...

Mike is awesome and got me a root beer float. It also set us back about 20 miles from his parents. So worth it!

We came over the crest of a hill and mike says "oh hello mountains". To which my dumb ass says oh you mean those hills. Nope the mountains are in the distance. Wowzers. Seriously that was dumb.

We made it!

We made it to eastern Washington last night and are currently about 3 hours or so from Seattle. So far Washington has has sun, rain, snow and a wintery mix. Reminds me of home in that respect. Otherwise it's cold now and yucky. I think that's typical northwest though.

We are going to look at a few houses tonight and tomorrow though I think we're still hoping to live on post. We're staying with amber and Michael until we find a place. They're gracious enough to open their home to us and we really can't be more thankful for that. I see lots of killer bunnies and quelf in our future.

Winona

Winona is where we stopped for the night. It's a super cute little town. Don't think we'll be moving there. I love the accent up here! So cute!

Headed to the mall of America today. About 1.5hr I believe from Winona. Er follow the river the whole way which freaks me out. For those that don't know I have a huge fear of being trapped in a car underwater. Not a good fear to have, like any are, when you're driving along water.

I sneezed and got sneeze gunk all over mikes car. Win.

I think this place doesn't have...

Meat. I thought it was going to be the end of the world for our meat loving family, especially the males. *ahem* dad. He chose the place. Which made it really funny that it was vegan/vegetarian.

If you're ever in wisconsin stop at exit 92 on i90 and head toward the BP gas station. On your right you'll see a bed and breakfast style building which proclaims that they make home made food. Tey have an excellent grilled cheese sandwhich as well as many other options. The grilled cheese is one of Rachel Ray's top 4 in the country!

Our first gas stop

Stopped for gas and because this momma has a tiny bladder.

Also got some super weird chips that mike says are more sour than hazardously sour candies. Weird

Also, huge windmill farm.