I had some fun planned with friends on the evening of March 7th. Since this little one was our fourth, I knew what the next few weeks would be like and just wanted some fun. The ladies had found a groupon about a sewing class and the first available was March 7th so I said yes, let's do this before I have a baby to keep up with. Friday arrived and I just felt tired and like I had been overdoing things that week. I will admit to being more than a little 'organized' and prepared this time. And by organized I'm not talking about baby stuff...I'm talking about cleaning house, clothes washed and put away, organized cabinets, fully grocery shopped with easy meals planned or prepped for the first week. With much help from Nathan we even vacuumed and cleaned out the van so that the weird smell is finally gone! The baby? Well, I did wash the carseat and the rocknplay. I reorganized all the closets in the house and made space in Jonathan's closet for the time being against one wall for a clear shoe hanging thing and put all the boys washed newborn clothes in there.
Around 4pm, I ran one last grocery run and I felt 3-4 strong Braxton Hicks but they tapered off. Then, I finished up making supper for the kids and ran off with some friends who were driving. We ate out and then headed to our class. I was noticing these Braxton Hicks were getting sharper but no closer together at the restaurant and in an hour I only had maybe 3-4. I made up my mind to ignore them and have a good night. :) And I did inspite of noticing these sharpening 'early labor' signs. Four hours later, I actually finished my apron and had learned how to set up my sewing machine. Pretty cool! On the way home, I will admit I was timing those contractions. I probably had 4-5 on the 30 min ride home so I was beginning to think it was going to be time. I walked in the door around 11 and said, "Hey Nate, how do you feel about having a baby in a few hours?" Nathan said, 'What?" and I was like, 'Yea, I think I've been in early labor all night'. He said I should have texted him so he would have gone to bed. I was thinking that had I texted him, he would have insisted I come home and that is no fun!! The one thing I wasn't sure about was why the contractions were close together but short length. Previous labors, they get to be a minute to a minute and a half but like 4-5 min apart. Well, each labor is unique eh?
I got my shower and laid down and started texting my sister in law and timing things just after midnight. My father in law was going to watch the kids part of the time we were at the hospital and he happened to be there with her. About a half hour into it, I was still having these short but closely spaced contractions. We decided to call cousin Braxton who was going to take the first shift with the kids. He had to take his dogs to his sister's house which was south of us and then come back so it took him an hour to get there so it was around 1:30 when he got to the house and Nate gave him the 411 on everything. Nathan was starting to get a little nervous and decided we should head to the hospital and hang out in the parking lot after loading up our stuff. I think it was around 3am.
We make it there though I felt every single turn! I ate two zone bars, drank a ton of water, and decided that yes, we should go in. I had my tea in an opaque bottle and no one noticed anything. ;) After walking to the nurse's station, we said, "Hi, we're in active labor. This is our fourth one going all naturel." That gave us a good bit of credit with the nurses who asked if we were pretty sure this was it and if we should skip triage. Um. Yes. So, they got me all settled in a room. They asked all about my birth plan which I had written up and put in my purse...and left at the house!!!!!! I don't think my birth plan has ever made it out for any of my labors. sigh. They let us do a baseline monitor and take the monitoring bands off. That was nice. They checked me and I was a 7. Woot woot. That's actually the least dialated I've been arriving at the hospital.
So, I think it was around 4am at this time and I went to the bathroom (really hard to do actually but I got some out). Then, some of the contractions were getting a sharp edge to them making me concentrate more and more. They decided to leave us and around then, the contractions were changing. I just felt like bearing down so we called them in and she said I could bear down if I felt like it and she checked me. I was only an 8!! Couldn't believe it. So, had to wait longer on the next one and we had a big discussion on positions to keep me from tearing. Then the next contrax hit and at the end I bore down (not a full push) and I could tell she was about to crown!! At that moment, I started to freak out cause I couldn't stop pushing and everyone started running around. Nathan tells me the midwife got three fingers in her glove and ran over. She got my attention and told me to focus and it would be okay and to very slowly push. I did and out came the head and then I pushed out the shoulders and was able to hold her from under her arms and pull her out! It was not as big an experience this time since I was still freaking out that she was being born. LOL. Then, I heard the midwife say 'her' and I looked down with Nathan and saw that we had A LITTLE GIRL! Over the next 2 minutes, Nathan kept checking cause he just couldn't believe we had a girl. He was so so so sure she had been a boy! Then...she pooped all over me.
I tore just a little and it was a first degree (only two Novocain shots and that's new for me!) so I was fixed up and tried to get her to nurse as my uterus wasn't 'behaving' as the midwife said but she wasn't interested yet so I went ahead and let them clean her up. She did not stop screaming for the whole time. Even the nurse and midwife were surprised she was so loud and persistent! So, I asked to run to the bathroom and clean up. I decided just to hop in the shower a minute and rinse everything off. This apparently surprised the midwife too as I had just had a baby but it wasn't much harder to step in there as to just wipe myself off right? No more poo for me!
Then, I came back and she nursed and nursed for a good 30 minutes. She didn't get much amniotic fluid out so we spent the next 24 hr dealing with that keeping her belly full. When she finally got it all out, she became very interested in nursing. After she started nursing, my uterus behaved then. The midwife let us see and explained the placenta to us which I found really interesting. I've never gotten to see the placenta before. They just whisk it away. Well, I will tell you it just looks like I big piece of liver but one side is very smooth and one side is all meaty looking. The smooth side has the umbilical cord coming out from it and was enclosed within the placenta. The rough side was against the uterus. Cool eh? Just after her birth, a momma came in with a twin C-section so we got held up in the delivery room for about 2 hours until after a shift change.
She was my very earliest birth and I was tired from not getting enough sleep that night but I never can actually fall asleep after birth. It is too exciting with too many hormones afterwards! So, I watched Nathan snooze without waking at all while I texted and just hung out all happy.
Then, I got to walk to my new room. Little did I know that this would not be my favorite place. As it turns out, the mattress was SO uncomfortable. My back started aching the first night and it just got worse from there. I ended up taking motrin because of my back pain from the bed and nothing to do with any healing I was doing. At one point, I got up at 4am and got ready for the day while the baby was in the nursery sleeping cause I just couldn't do any sleeping. We had a little worry at first cause they said she had a fever but it disappeared right after that point and no one was concerned. Later they also worried about possible jaundice but after a second measurement decided that was fine.
Because I was GBS positive (and didn't get my antibiotics 4 hrs before delivery), the hospital policy was to keep the baby there for 48 hr. I almost had the pediatrician talked into clearing us early anyways but he decided not to since it was a Sunday and his office wouldn't be open. Had it been less than 48 hr, the midwife could have cleared us but since it was over 48 hr, the OB had to release me. So, she was born 4:47am Saturday. It took the pediatrician and the OB so long to get around to signing us out that it was 4:30pm Monday before we left. Ridiculous. The ride home was traffic filled and we managed to see a big semi blow out a tire in front of us. We were ALL glad to be home.
I got my shower and laid down and started texting my sister in law and timing things just after midnight. My father in law was going to watch the kids part of the time we were at the hospital and he happened to be there with her. About a half hour into it, I was still having these short but closely spaced contractions. We decided to call cousin Braxton who was going to take the first shift with the kids. He had to take his dogs to his sister's house which was south of us and then come back so it took him an hour to get there so it was around 1:30 when he got to the house and Nate gave him the 411 on everything. Nathan was starting to get a little nervous and decided we should head to the hospital and hang out in the parking lot after loading up our stuff. I think it was around 3am.
We make it there though I felt every single turn! I ate two zone bars, drank a ton of water, and decided that yes, we should go in. I had my tea in an opaque bottle and no one noticed anything. ;) After walking to the nurse's station, we said, "Hi, we're in active labor. This is our fourth one going all naturel." That gave us a good bit of credit with the nurses who asked if we were pretty sure this was it and if we should skip triage. Um. Yes. So, they got me all settled in a room. They asked all about my birth plan which I had written up and put in my purse...and left at the house!!!!!! I don't think my birth plan has ever made it out for any of my labors. sigh. They let us do a baseline monitor and take the monitoring bands off. That was nice. They checked me and I was a 7. Woot woot. That's actually the least dialated I've been arriving at the hospital.
They have like a thousand questions they ask which Nathan answered while I was contracting and in my own world. The nurses seemed happy I was one of these quieter laborers. I decided to chat nicely between contractions because why not distract myself. All in all very nice. They got my antibiotics in and called the midwife on call. She was sooo nice. I really liked her. She said the baby's head was really low and that's why I was feeling so much pressure.
So, I think it was around 4am at this time and I went to the bathroom (really hard to do actually but I got some out). Then, some of the contractions were getting a sharp edge to them making me concentrate more and more. They decided to leave us and around then, the contractions were changing. I just felt like bearing down so we called them in and she said I could bear down if I felt like it and she checked me. I was only an 8!! Couldn't believe it. So, had to wait longer on the next one and we had a big discussion on positions to keep me from tearing. Then the next contrax hit and at the end I bore down (not a full push) and I could tell she was about to crown!! At that moment, I started to freak out cause I couldn't stop pushing and everyone started running around. Nathan tells me the midwife got three fingers in her glove and ran over. She got my attention and told me to focus and it would be okay and to very slowly push. I did and out came the head and then I pushed out the shoulders and was able to hold her from under her arms and pull her out! It was not as big an experience this time since I was still freaking out that she was being born. LOL. Then, I heard the midwife say 'her' and I looked down with Nathan and saw that we had A LITTLE GIRL! Over the next 2 minutes, Nathan kept checking cause he just couldn't believe we had a girl. He was so so so sure she had been a boy! Then...she pooped all over me.
I tore just a little and it was a first degree (only two Novocain shots and that's new for me!) so I was fixed up and tried to get her to nurse as my uterus wasn't 'behaving' as the midwife said but she wasn't interested yet so I went ahead and let them clean her up. She did not stop screaming for the whole time. Even the nurse and midwife were surprised she was so loud and persistent! So, I asked to run to the bathroom and clean up. I decided just to hop in the shower a minute and rinse everything off. This apparently surprised the midwife too as I had just had a baby but it wasn't much harder to step in there as to just wipe myself off right? No more poo for me!
Then, I came back and she nursed and nursed for a good 30 minutes. She didn't get much amniotic fluid out so we spent the next 24 hr dealing with that keeping her belly full. When she finally got it all out, she became very interested in nursing. After she started nursing, my uterus behaved then. The midwife let us see and explained the placenta to us which I found really interesting. I've never gotten to see the placenta before. They just whisk it away. Well, I will tell you it just looks like I big piece of liver but one side is very smooth and one side is all meaty looking. The smooth side has the umbilical cord coming out from it and was enclosed within the placenta. The rough side was against the uterus. Cool eh? Just after her birth, a momma came in with a twin C-section so we got held up in the delivery room for about 2 hours until after a shift change.
She was my very earliest birth and I was tired from not getting enough sleep that night but I never can actually fall asleep after birth. It is too exciting with too many hormones afterwards! So, I watched Nathan snooze without waking at all while I texted and just hung out all happy.
Then, I got to walk to my new room. Little did I know that this would not be my favorite place. As it turns out, the mattress was SO uncomfortable. My back started aching the first night and it just got worse from there. I ended up taking motrin because of my back pain from the bed and nothing to do with any healing I was doing. At one point, I got up at 4am and got ready for the day while the baby was in the nursery sleeping cause I just couldn't do any sleeping. We had a little worry at first cause they said she had a fever but it disappeared right after that point and no one was concerned. Later they also worried about possible jaundice but after a second measurement decided that was fine.
Because I was GBS positive (and didn't get my antibiotics 4 hrs before delivery), the hospital policy was to keep the baby there for 48 hr. I almost had the pediatrician talked into clearing us early anyways but he decided not to since it was a Sunday and his office wouldn't be open. Had it been less than 48 hr, the midwife could have cleared us but since it was over 48 hr, the OB had to release me. So, she was born 4:47am Saturday. It took the pediatrician and the OB so long to get around to signing us out that it was 4:30pm Monday before we left. Ridiculous. The ride home was traffic filled and we managed to see a big semi blow out a tire in front of us. We were ALL glad to be home.
I will post more pictures of our little Rosalind Grace soon. She's been hard to take pictures of because the pictures don't look like her after you take them. It is hard to explain. She is the exact same spacing from Jonathan as Samuel and Benjamin are. Birthdays are Mar 8 2014 and May 9 2012 and then Mar 21 2009 and May 22 2007. Anyways, she was born at 4:47 on March 8, 20 in long, and 6lb 14oz. She is named for both her grandmothers: Linda and Sharon Rose.
At her 6 day weight check she was up to 7 lbs! Yay! Good sign we won't have weight gain issues. I've been pumping some of the excess so hopefully that helps my supply too.
At her 6 day weight check she was up to 7 lbs! Yay! Good sign we won't have weight gain issues. I've been pumping some of the excess so hopefully that helps my supply too.
