Here we are - on the eve of my baby girls 2 month birthday and I just don't even know where the time has gone. Seems like I was still pregnant just a few weeks ago, but in reality I have now been back at work for over 2 weeks!
I figured I better take a minute to write about Grace's birth before I forget all of the details! I'll start with the few weeks prior to her birth - I was due on April 20th and ended up taking leave from work about 3 weeks before my due date because I was just miserable. It turned out to be fantastic - we got to spend those few weeks at home as a whole family because Jess was still not working. The time we spent together before Grace came can never be replicated and I'm so glad we got it. Luckily, the week or so before I was due Jess got THE CALL - what turned out to be a fantastic job was waiting for him, all that needed to happen was for Grace to make her arrival and he would be starting back to work. The new company was wonderful and basically ended up giving him a week after she was born to stay home with us and then he started at his new job, which he LOVES.
I think it was the week of my due date that I started to really get anxious about her arrival - my body wasn't really progressing and I didn't want to go weeks past my due date, but was determined to wait until she was ready to come. All of that equated to LOTS AND LOTS of Mall walking, I was walking the mall for hours at a time, after eating huge meals, and nothing was happening. Two days after I was due, Jess' Mom came and got Jake to take him for what was supposed to be the weekend, this was on the Good Friday. Friday night we went to Chedders and I ate what I wanted, which happened to be a giant plate of cheese fries and then I forced Jess to come walk the mall with me.
We walked until the mall closed, ran into a friend picking out Easter clothes for her little girl, all the while I was having mild contractions, but they were getting to be kind of regular. I wasn't holding out too much hope at this point. Fast forward a few hours and I am sitting on the yoga ball watching TV (I'm telling you, I wanted this baby OUT!) and I decided maybe I should start timing them, which by the way - there's an app for that.
I sent Jess to bed anticipating I would have to wake him at some point to head to the hospital, but I still didn't want to get my hopes up. It was around 2 am and my contractions were about 5 mins apart, a minute long and had been that way for an hour - the magic numbers - so I called the nurse and was told to head on in. So I hollered at Jess to get up - I REALLY didn't want to climb the stairs. Eventually I hear the shower come on and I'm pretty sure my exact words at that moment were, "ARE YOU KIDDING ME?" Anyways, the shower was taking too long, so I feared he had fallen back asleep standing under the water, so between contractions I maneuvered up the stairs.
Oh I almost forgot the part of this where Jess had been REFUSING to pack his bag, which was really stressing me out! He did pack it (luckily) before he went to bed, so after the shower all he had to do was get clothes on and get into the car. Dads out there - when your wife has been nagging you for WEEKS to pack your bag, she is past her due date and starting to freak out - JUST PACK THE STUPID BAG! I don't care that it will only take you 2 minutes to do so when you need it, just do it in advance so that the hormonal woman who is about to push out a watermelon doesn't have one more thing to stress about.
Ok back to the story.
We head to the hospital - I'm hurting at this point, but trying to be brave. They check me and I haven't made any real progress - WHAT?! I could not believe it. If you'll remember from the Jake birth story, I was sent home from the hospital and I did NOT want that to happen again. So, they tell me to walk for an hour and they will check me again to see if I get to stay.
THAT SUCKED. I was terrified that they would send me home, I was in serious pain, the contractions were definitely ramping up, but after about 45 mins I let them check me again and I had dilated to a 6 and was getting to stay!!
I didn't really want an epidural because with Jake it had really slowed my labor down and I was worried that would happen again and my labor would take forever, so instead I got a shot of some kind - it was FANTASTIC - for about 45 mins, then I was in serious pain again. The nurses couldn't give me another shot, so I gave in and got the epidural. Unfortunately, they went in too far and gave me a spinal instead. Oh, interesting note - as soon as we were admitted and I got the first round of drugs Jess fell asleep and missed all of the next part.
So, they are sticking me in the back with a giant needle and all of a sudden the anesthesiologist asks the nurse to start regularly checking my blood pressure and the baby and then I realize I can't feel anything from the chest down. I'm starting to panic when the anesthesiologist tells me that she needs to do another epidural and I ask her what it all means and this is the response I get, "oh, let me get this in and we'll talk about that in a few minutes." HUH?! All I can think about at this point is the baby, so I just focus in on the monitor and watch Grace's heart beat and try really hard not to freak out. Finally, they lay me down - and I mean THEY did it because I couldn't move anything. but my head and arms, I couldn't feel my legs or torso. I have to say - that part was really really scary. The upside was that I couldn't feel ANY contractions. So, they check me - I am an 8 - holy crap batman, what will happen if I can't feel enough to push?! At this point they told me that it would wear off and I would be able to push. I am trying not to panic and I start facebooking and text messaging, just to stay busy. There was no sleep happening because I was just too scared.
After a couple of hours I did start getting feeling back - and it was VERY quickly. All of a sudden I could feel everything and it hurt, but they still needed to give me another dose of antibiotics and my water had not broken, so they basically told me to hang tight for another 30 or 45 minutes - no biggie, right? HA!
The nurse set me completely upright, like with my feet hanging down, kicked Jess to wake him up and
I sat there and watched the IV run. This is when I ask them to turn on the epidural and guess what?? It's too late. No more drugs for me. This part was not pretty - lots of crying out in pain and trying not to come apart, but finally the IV had run through and I needed to push. Small problem - no one was ready, Jess was out at the car getting the camera (being our 2nd time around we didn't take anything in but ourselves just in case), the doctor was not around, the bed wasn't set up correctly, it was a mad house. Luckily, I had a GREAT nurse who basically said to push when I needed to. There was no counting, or focused breathing - I pushed while they hurried and after a couple of minutes I hear someone say, "We better get over there to catch the baby!" Jess made it in plenty of time, the doctor walked in and barely got her gown on before Grace made her perfect and quick arrival! I think I might have pushed for 10 mins, if that. It was amazing.
Since it was the Saturday before Easter lots of our family was able to come on Saturday to meet Miss Melody Grace Kinnison.
Her stats were :
Born April 23, 2011 at 9:27 am
7 lbs 14 oz and 20.5"
Jake thinks she is fantastic - he loves her so much and always wants to hug and kiss her. It really is quite adorable.
Here she is at 2 months:
Birth:
Birth Announcement:
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