Birth

Here we are, Lucy is already over two weeks old and I haven't even shared the story of how she got here! First let's take a look at the cute little booger:

Yep, she really is that cute. Cuter, really; the pictures just don't do her justice. She is a fantastic baby, so mellow and sweet. She only gets upset when she's hungry, and then she'll just fuss a little bit - real yowling only came once, during her first at-home bath (my skills are definitely rusty in the sink-tubbie department). Sam couldn't love her more, he spends half of his time sporting a ridiculous falsetto voice saying "Hi, baby! Hi, Lucy! Hi!" and kissing her on the cheek. So cute.

My favorite sibling moment so far was when Lucy was a couple of days old. Lucy started fussing for some food and Sam said "what happened, mama?" "Oh, she's just hungry, sweetie. She needs to eat." While I was organizing myself, not paying attention to him, he ran to the table where he'd been enjoying an applesauce snack and came back with a spoonful. "Here, mama, here! Applesauce for woosey!" (heart warm here) "Aw, Sammy, that's so nice! But Lucy only eats mama's milk, honey." He nodded eagerly and went to put the applesauce back, and I resumed my distracted, self-organizing nursing prep. Five seconds later Sam comes scampering out of the kitchen, lugging a 3/4 full gallon of milk. "Here, mama, here! I get da milk for woosey!"

Could he be any sweeter/cuter/more awesome? Nope.

Anyway...on to the birth story. Fair warning: gynecological references will be made. Not for the faint of heart.

It actually started Saturday night, the 12th. I spent the evening sewing with Sarah (oh, I have some cute things for Lucy to share later!) and started having uncomfortable contractions right about when she left, at midnight. They were coming regularly, so just in case, I jumped in the shower and shaved my legs, brushed my teeth, etc. Because this

is what I looked like the last time I had a baby. Awww for the adorable baby boy, but me...yikes. It's a miracle the kid loves me after that. It's a long story, but due to a long, scary is-something-wrong-with-baby hospital visit I hadn't had a shower in a couple of days.

So you'll understand why I immediately jumped into the shower and started grooming.

At 8 minutes apart I called the hospital. "Don't come in until they're 5 minutes apart." And yes, I did disclose that the contractions weren't painful, just very uncomfortable. Okie dokie! At 6-8 minutes apart I called Paul home from work, and by the time he got home we were at 3-6 minutes apart for over an hour. Time to go! After one final touch...

Ya. He painted my toenails because I couldn't reach. He's that awesome.

I woke poor Chris (bro-in-law) up to take Sam (happy day for Chris - Sam was bright-eyed and bushy-tailed from 4:30-6am) and we headed to the hospital. Almost immediately after we dropped Sam off my contractions began coming a little slower. Dang. I reasoned, though, that I'd been having solid, increasingly closer-together contractions for 4.5 hours at that point, so they weren't going anywhere. I was confident I was having a baby - even took the "last picture of me pregnant" picture:

They checked me in. They hooked me up to monitors and checked my cervix - a 3! and 70% effaced! Then they left me alone for about an hour and came back. I'd only had a handful of contractions since checking in and hadn't progressed at all.

They sent me home.

DANG.

I was really embarrassed - ya, I'm that lady, who comes in to the labor & delivery dept and bugs you all in the middle of the night, has you wake up my poor OB-GYN on a Sunday morning, all for nothing. Ya. They hated me.

Then came 3 days of uncomfortable Braxton-Hicks contractions and pelvic pressure. Not too bad, just enough to be kind of a pain. Or not pain. Whatever. Wednesday my belly was really hard all. day. long. I knew my body was gearing up for labor, so we went for a long family walk to try and move things along. No contractions, but I did manage to pull a ligament in the front of my belly. Awesome. :)

Thursday the 17th, at the top 'o the mornin' (5:10am), I woke up to a really intense contraction. I was aware that I'd already had two that sort of dragged me to the edge of consciousness, but I hadn't fully woken up for either of them. I pulled out my handy dandy iphone, opened my contractions timing app and started recording. Right off they were 2 minutes apart! Whoa! No grooming this time - time to go now! I woke Paul up, brushed my teeth, helped him pack my bag and called Chris again, to tell him we'd be dropping Sam off. Hung up, had another contraction, called back - scratch that, come and pick him up. FAST. Sarah showed up 5 minutes later with no shoes on and we were off - at 80mph, most of the time, to the hospital. Code 3 (lights & sirens)! I called on our way over to let them know my status - they were pretty much unimpressed and said to make sure we stopped by registration on our way up, haha.

Registration could not have taken longer, though the lady was doing her darnedest to hurry it up. Who CARES what my job title is right now at this moment?! Really!

We made it upstairs to labor & delivery and they put me in a recovery room. Wait. What? "Isn't this a recovery room?" I asked the nurse. She, slightly annoyed, answered, "yes, but we're totally booked up on the labor side - it's been a really busy night." I almost, almost said "well, this is gonna be going a lot quicker than you're thinking," but I remembered my false alarm from the other day (and one with Sam) and didn't say anything.

Should've said something.

The CNA hooked me up to the monitors, took my vitals and left, saying, "the nurse will be in to check you in just a minute."

Two contractions later, I turned to Paul and said "I need you to go tell them that I'm feeling the urge to push!" His eyes went wide and he ran to tell someone. I heard them scrambling at the nurses station - "what?? How long has she been contracting? Amy, she says she feels the urge to push! 262B. That's right, that's what I said!" Amy (I learned her name after the birth - no time for pleasantries at this point) came in and checked my cervix. In an overly chipper voice she said, "Oh! Well, you're an eight - I'd say we need to get you into a labor room, like, now." My eyes flew open, I grabbed her arm and pleaded, "Please, please, please call the anesthesiologist!! I need to have an epidural! Please, please, please!!" She looked at me with genuine sympathy and said, "oh, honey, I don't think there's going to be any time for that."

Let's pause for a moment and look at this cute baby to remind us that this story has a happy ending.

Because let me tell you, all jokes aside, that was one of the most terrifying moments of my life! I am not a fan of pain. I am not of the natural-birth mindset. I've never had a desire to do it like the pioneer women. I was remembering with perfect clarity at that moment how much it hurts to have a baby, and that was with the epidural. I began panicking. I felt another contraction coming on, and I started crying and slightly hyperventilating. I. can. not. do. this.

Then that next contraction hit, and it was killing me. I felt the bile rising, I wasn't focused and I was still breathing all crazy. It was the worst one by far. Halfway through it I got a grip on myself. "This is going to happen regardless of how you feel about it," I told myself, "so get a grip, accept it, and move on. No time to panic and mess up the process, just roll with it." And I did. It was amazing how as soon as I accepted mentally that I was going in drug-free, the physical part became much, much easier. I focused. I breathed.

I was aware of the semi-chaos going on with the nurses while I was accepting and rolling with things -

"we need to get a room!"

"There aren't any!"

"None??"

"Well, one just got cleaned but there's only a bed - no computer, no warming bed (for baby), nothing."

"Well, that's better than what we've got in here, let's go and everyone borrow equipment from other rooms, this one's coming quick!"

"I called Dr. Navi, he's on his way up."

By the time Amy had wheeled me into the room and hooked me up to the monitors, I was at a nine and I had to push. They were wheeling my bed to the side to put the other equipment in while I was pushing through a contraction. Paul put his hands on my head and gave me a blessing, which made me feel peaceful and bolstered up - love that he thought to bless me at that chaotic moment. As he was wrapping up I pushed again...and my water broke. "My water just broke!" I shouted. Thank you, Captain Obvious!

Amy told the other nurse, "no time for Dr. Navi - grab Dr. Nguyen (pronounced "Winn") from the other room!" The doc came in (incidentally, the same doc who delivered my sister's baby in May) and started his introduction, "Hi, I'm Dr. Nguyen, I'm going to just check you out and help you until Dr. Navi gets here..." I didn't even open my eyes. Don't care, don't care, push, push push! haha. Paul said the nurses looked at the doc and shook their heads at this point and said "no time, glove up quick!"

Two pushes later, Lucy made her debut into the world. It's truly a magical experience, hearing and seeing your child for the first time. The intensity of the love you immediately have for them is astounding; something that you just can't quite explain to anyone who hasn't experienced it for themselves, because there's nothing else like it. I was instantly smitten with her, and it didn't matter that she wouldn't make up her mind to come on out for so long and then when she did she had to come NOW and forget mama's epidural. Not one bit.

We spent a precious half hour or so doing skin-to-skin bonding while they wrapped everything up on mommy. I was reminded of how amazing the mother-fetus connection is; while Lucy was lying on my chest, every time I tensed up because something painful was going on she would immediately start to cry. She would only stop when I relaxed a little and talked to her. When they finally took her away to clean her up and measure her, she started crying with gusto. Paul went over to the warming bed, and every time he began talking to her she would turn his way and stop crying. It was such a cool thing to watch and know that she already knew us.

With Nurse Amy, after everything was over and we'd introduced ourselves :)

With Dr. Nguyen

Later, with an apologetic Dr. Navi :)

The three of us spent all day bonding and snuggling, having a grand old time. That evening, Sam (and his aunt, uncle & cousins) finally came to meet his little sister. I have an awesome video of it, but blogger says it's too big to post! Grr. He was a little bewildered by the 2 cameras and everyone's attention pointed at him, but he immediately liked his little sister and wanted to hold her. Then he spotted the candy on my table and that became the more exciting matter for a few minutes before he came back around to his sister. :)

The Eddy's brought Chipotle, and we all had a great dinner and passed baby Lucy around for everyone to meet

These 2 little munchkins kept me entertained by peeking up over the foot of the bed

And Sam made me feel good by having missed his mommy all day :)

Sam may have taken a minute to appreciate his new sister over candy, but now she's right at the center of his little heart and he stops playing many times a day to "take her" (hold her), give her kisses and tell her how cute she is. He even shares his hero toys with her - I've opened her blanket and had Spiderman or Captain America fall out several times.

I must admit to being pretty proud of this birth story - I literally did not believe that I was one of those people who could ever handle natural childbirth. I must have told everyone I came in contact with for days afterward how amazing I was that I did it without drugs. My nurses must have done some serious eye-rolling on their way out of my room, haha. I have to say, the recovery this time was so much easier than with the epidural - I wasn't sleepy at all, I was totally energized and felt great by the end of the day. This does not mean that I'll be planning on no drugs next time...just that I may entertain the thought a little more. :)

We love little Lucy so much, she is such a joy to have around and all three of us just can't get enough of her. Totally worth the crazy entrance into our lives. :)

love, mary