The Birth Story

As promised, below is the story of Miss Zoey’s birth.  It’s long.

Last weekend, Brian and I went to Alabama for the Montgomery Christmas (my Mom’s side of the family gathering) and Christmas with my family.  Since we had it all planned that Zoey would not be here before Christmas, but we knew I shouldn’t travel after last weekend, just in case.  Brian and I had our Christmas weekend all planned out and I was looking forward to having one Christmas just the 2 of us at home.  We had a great time, several of my aunts said that my cousin who is due 2 weeks after me would end up having hers before me due to she was carrying so low. 

I felt fine all weekend, just the normal of Zoey balling up in a ball at the top and staying there.  Sunday was the same.  We headed back home and decided to stop and eat dinner before getting home. I wanted sushi, don’t worry it was all cooked, so we went to Mist.  We got home and did our normal Sunday afternoon chores and and packed from the weekend.  I had been debating on whether or not to work from home Monday and Tuesday, then take sick days Wednesday and Thursday since she wasn’t here and I had sick days to burn.  Plus I had a LONG to-do list which needed to get done before Monday when I was admitted to have Zoey.  So I sent Jimmy an email stating all this and he was fine with it.

We finally got in bed around 9ish and decided to watch SNL with Jimmy Fallon hosting from Saturday night.  Brian always jokes that Jimmy Fallon is my TV boyfriend; I do love him.  We were laughing our butts off at the skits.  At some point I heard a “pop” (probably around 9:45).  I had to pee shortly after that; when I went I honestly couldn’t tell if I did in fact pee or not.  The fluid did not look like pee, but was more clear.  So I told Brian I thought something might have happened.  (I didn’t tell him I heard a “pop”.)  I mentioned that I didn’t know if my water broke or not.  So, what do we do, we googled “how to tell if your water broke”.  Didn’t find much at first.  While he was looking for info, I was going on how I was not going to go unless I was sure.  I did not want to be that girl that goes and just gets sent home.  Brian was telling me that we needed to go and I just did not want to be that girl.  Finally, he finds an article that mentions hearing a “pop” and he asked me if I did, and I say yes.  Of course he was like why didn’t you tell me that at first.  Since I was not planning on it to happen this way I did not have a bag packed; so I had to pack.  I had no clue what to pack.  But keep in mind, I still wasn’t convinced that I was in labor.  We were not in a hurry at all.  We finally headed to the hospital.  (Keep in mind, I still had not had ANY contractions at all.)  We arrived and got in the pre-delivery room around 10:45. 

They hooked me up to the monitors and said that I was having contractions.  I think after that, I started to feel them. Funny how the mind works that way; as long as you don’t know, you don’t feel the pain.  They did the litmus test to see if my water broke up couldn’t tell.  Next thing I know they are telling me I’m going to have to be checked out by a NP to see and it will be like getting a pap smear.  Um, NO THANK YOU! By this time, the contractions were getting more frequent and were hurting.  Unfortunately, they had some student NP do the checking; she barely got the clamps (or whatever those horrible things are) in and my water broke.  The student then checked me to see how fair I was dilated; she said, you are 8 cm.  I was like what.  Thankfully the other NP checked behind her and I was only at 3cm.  Oh, I forgot to mention that as soon as I got there my blood pressure was high, so no pain meds for me yet.  Since it was high they had to take a urine sample via catheter.  Man, I forgot how PAINFUL those were; plus add in the pain of contractions.  On top of that, they took blood to run test to see why my blood pressure was so high.  I kept telling them if they would just give me pain meds it would go down.  Needless to say they did not listen to me.  After all this, they sent me to a delivery room. 

Once in the delivery room, my L&D nurse was AWESOME!  Even though I was only at 3 cm she had already called the anesthesiologist to come put in my epidural.  I was begging for something for the pain.  Sadly Dr. Hudson was out of town (oh, here is the funny part.  He was in Decatur while I was in Hartselle.  For those of you who do not know, Decatur is 10 minutes from Hartselle.  How crazy is that!) and had not gotten back in town yet.  (One of the many things I love about him, regardless if he is on call, he will come in for certain patients.) Dr. Turner was the doctor on call, thankfully I knew her and was ok with her being the one.  She came in and said as soon as the blood work was back, they would give me something for the pain.  I didn’t’ care what it was, I just needed something. Finally a few minutes later I was given something.  It didn’t really take the pain away, just made me loopy and drowsy.  Not that I could go asleep yet.  The anesthesiologist shows up to give my epidural; woo hoo!  Getting an epidural is NOTHING compared to getting an IV.  I would rather have an epidural given to me over an IV.  I thought I was golden once I had it.  WRONG!  Sadly the first one did not take.  My nurse checked me again and I was at 4 cm now and Zoey still had not dropped.   Here is where I say, Susan, you are a stronger woman than me!!!  I do not know how you did your whole labor and delivery with NOTHING.  By this time, my contractions were VERY STRONG and were almost one after the other.  I could not stand it; I was in so much pain and was in tears from it. I was begging for the anesthesiologist to hurry up and come back to redo it.  Once he arrived and gave me the second epidural, I was GOLDEN.  My nurse checked me again once the meds kicked in and I was at 5 cm now; still not dropped.  She said that if I did fall asleep, she would not wake me to check me unless it had been more than 2 hours since she last checked me.  I believe now, the time was just after 3ish or right before it.  We decided it was time to call the grandparents that we were at the hospital.  We didn’t want to call them earlier due to we didn’t know how long it would be and wanted them to get a little more sleep.  Oh, the whole time, my blood pressure still was elevated; man those cuffs in the hospital get TIGHT.  Having it check about every 2-5 minutes was not pleasant.  Thankfully, I feel asleep and slept off and own for a good 3 hours.  Around 5 or after I woke up and Brian’s parents had arrived.  My nurse came in around 5:30 or 5:45 to check me again; this time I was at 10 cm and Zoey had finally dropped.  She told me it was time to push and once she crowned they would call the doctor in to finish.  Um, not at all I was expecting to hear!  This is when I start to freak out and said no I was not going to.  I was worried my epidural was wearing off; my legs were not as tingly and I did not NOT want to feel ANYTHING.  The nurse and Brian were telling it was going to be ok and that I had to push; and I was adamant about not.  I did not want to do this nor think I could.  They finally convinced me to push.  Thankfully it wasn’t bad at all.  I barely felt any pressure. After about 3 pushes, she was crowning.  Dr. Turner came in and I pushed I think 2 or 3 more times and Zoey was here!  I do wish Dr. Hudson had made it, but he came in about an hour or so after she born.  He was upset he missed it, but everything turned out great.  Total time of labor (from the time we arrived at the hospital to the time she was born) was just over 7 hours.  It wasn’t near as bad as I thought or feared.  My parents got there just shortly after she was born, they took a wrong turn getting to the Women’s Hospital but that was ok.  It’s not like I had anyone else in the room with us; just me and Brian.  Zoey weighed 6 lbs 13 oz, 18.5 inches long born at 6:19AM on December 19.  The perfect size!  She is a small little one though.

Here are a few pictures from the first couple of hours after she was born.

Look at all that hair! 

Eyes wide open.

Proud Daddy holding Zoey for the first time!

First family photo!

Overall, things went great.  My blood pressure was evaluated most of the time while I was in the hospital.  Not sure why since I did not have any issues during pregnancy.  Dr. Hudson didn’t seem too worried about it and said that it’s normal for people to have to go home with meds for a couple of weeks.  I had hardly any pain afterwards.  Thankfully, it went down Tuesday night and stayed down Wednesday morning so I was able to go home. I do have to go back sooner; a week later; to have more blood work done to check on things and a follow up appointment.  

I’ll admit I’m glad I went in on my own instead of being induced and that’s it all over.  Brian says that I would be sitting here today (Dec. 26th) worried and thinking about it all day if I didn’t.  I don’t think so, but he seems to know me better than I know myself. 

Here are a few more pictures from the hospital.

Aunt DeAnne loving on Zoey.  She hated that she had to work on Monday and couldn’t get here until late Monday night.  She stayed with me that night in the hospital so Brian could go home and get a good night sleep.  Not that she minded at all since she got to love on Zoey the whole time.

Aunt Krista and Zoey.

Dr. Hudson getting to finally hold Zoey. 

Daddy already learning to mult-task. 

Wide awake!

“Going home” dress Granny made which swallows her whole.  She was not a fan of being put in a dress.  I was only able to get about 2 pictures of her in it. 

It’s been surreal this past week.  I’m very thankful she is here and it’s all over.  She has been a GREAT baby.  She typically sleeps 4 hours at a time at night and goes back to sleep after nursing.  The second night at home, she sleep for 6 hours before waking up!  Too bad, that won’t happen ever night.

We did have a scare starting Thursday night.  Brian woke up around 1:30ish throwing up.  He thought he has food poisoning, but I had a feeling it was the stomach bug.  I immediately got up and went to sleep on the couch.  I was not about to chance it.  He ended up getting sick through out the night.  In the morning, I had him check his temp and it was a low grade fever.  I called to make him an appointment to see if it was for sure the stomach bug.  Sure enough it was.  He was all upset and worried that he had given it to Zoey due to holding her and loving on her the night before.  I told him she was fine and I was more worried about me getting it than her.  I felt so bad for him, he was so sad and upset about it all.  Not only did we have a newborn at home, he was upset that he had “ruined” Christmas.  I tried to comfort him the best I could.  I told him I would call the pediatrician to check on if they thought Zoey would be in danger.  They didn’t seem to think so; which was how I felt.  I told him I was more scared about me getting it and not being able to care for her or nurse.  Thankfully, we made it through and I dogged the bullet.  Friday night his fever broke so I knew it was going to be ok.  Thankfully it was only a 24 hour stomach bug.  We had a great Christmas and was still able to do everything we planned to (before and after Zoey arrived). 

I hope you all stuck with me and read the whole post, I know it was long, but I wanted to make sure I got it all down before I forgot!