Birth Story

So let's start with the weekend before Jodi and Matt stayed over at our house on Saturday night so on Sunday we woke up and Devin, Me, and Abbie went to church came home and Jodi had made a delicious lunch for us so we ate and I started having contractions (which I was pretty used to by this point) except for these seemed to be pretty close together so we started timing them, they were between 7-10 minutes apart or so. I was feeling really crampy and not very good so I took a shower and sat and timed them some more when they got down to about 5 minutes apart for a good hour I told Devin we needed to go into the hospital, he was skeptical because we had already gone into L&D once and we didn't want to have extra bills if it wasn't the real deal so we went over to my mom's and dropped off Abbie and my mom just looked at me and told me I needed to go in. So we went hoping that this was the real deal this time. We got checked in a little after 6 pm on Sunday night they monitored me for an hour and I was having regular contractions about 4-5 minutes apart, they checked me and I was to a 3 1/2 and 80% so not much change from my previous doctor appointment the week before. They unhooked me and told me to walk the halls and that they would check me again in another hour and decide than if they will keep me or not. So we walked, it was actually quite fun to walk around with Devin and just talk and be together.

Well they checked me again and I was to a 4 and 80% the nurse said "you won't be going anywhere, well without a baby at least." We were super stoked. We called the parents to let them all know that we were going to be having a baby. My mom and dad come over and then Cathy (Devin's step mom), Kaylynn (Devin's step sister), Dee (Devin's mom), and Andrew (Devin's brother) all showed up pretty fast and had to wait out in the waiting room since the new regulations only allow extra people besides the dad in the room at a time. We were admitted and I was given an epidural and had my water broke around 11pm, I was dilated to a 5 at that point and 80% still. Than we waited. We took turns having visitors come in and visit with us and it was nice to just talk and relax. I felt tired but was too anxious and getting a little nervous to sleep. Than around 1:30 the nurse checked me and I was to a 7 and thinning out (I don't remember the exact number at that point) about 15 minutes later I was telling my mom that I felt like I needed to push, which was such a weird sensation. I hadn't had that feeling/desire with Abbie. We called the nurse in and sure enough I was to a 10 and ready to go. Devin went running out of the room and grabbed his mom since we wanted the 2 grandparents to be in the room. The doctor came in and it seemed like in no time they were telling me to push, and oh man once I started to push the pain came all at once. It was pretty intense and I started to cry. I didn't expect to feel pain and was having a hard time concentrating because of it. While I was catching my breath to push again I told myself the harder I push the sooner she would be here and the less pain I would be in. So I pushed with all my might and there she was crying. It was amazing and such a relief. She came out brow, which is forehead first, the doctor said that it was compareable to giving birth to a 10 pound baby. I tore in 3 places since I pushed so hard and fast so the doctor had to stitch me up which was very painful since I could feel all of it. Devin was over with Grace and loving every minute of it while they weighed & checked her out.

She weighed 6 pounds 4 ounces 19.5 inches and was born at 1:58 am on Monday March 1st, 2010

She was a good color but having a hard time breathing (they called it grunting) she sounded just like a little pig. They then decided she needed some more help so the whisked her off to the NICU Devin went with her and his mom went out to tell everyone that she was here my mom stayed with me. They told me I had to stay in the labor room for an hour and then I could go be with her. As they went to take out the epidural the nurse says "oh, Your epidural is completely out already, no wonder you could feel everything." So that was great to know, I guess I had pulled it out while switching positions earlier. So than I had to wait, that was seriously the longest hour of my life, just sitting and waiting, the nurses didn't have any updates on her, and I was worried and scared. Well we finally got to go see her and as we were going up to the NICU they were bringing her out they said she was doing well enough that she could be up on the floors nursery to be monitored. I got to hold her up to our room and our visitors got to come up and see her and then they had to take her again to the nursery. Devin went with her again and stayed by her side pretty much all night coming and giving me updates every so often. She was still grunting and breathing really heavily, everyone left around 4 and they told me I could get up and go see her once I had gone to the bathroom twice and let me tell you I forced myself to go as fast as I could. Devin came and got me and I finally got to go in and see her around 5:30. It was so sad to see her hooked up to these monitors and having such a hard time breathing. We couldn't hold her at first but after a while they let us.

We went back to our room around 7 and tried to get some sleep, which didn't really happen since the doctors started doing their rounds and breakfast came etc. Grace's pediatrician decided to do blood sugar tests on her every hour to check that she had high enough levels but didn't want her to eat until the grunting had stopped some, she said that if the levels got too low that they would have to send her down to NICU again for an IV. We went back to sleep than and around noon they brought her in to try to eat since her levels were getting low, we gave her formula through the S&S syringe. It was a little tube that we'd put in her mouth once she latched on that had the formula in it and would get sucked down when she would feed. It was pretty interesting device and it was amazing how good she latched on since Abbie never wanted to. After she ate we sent her back to the nursery thinking things were going better since she was allowed to eat and we rested again. The nurse came in around 1 saying that she had thrown up a bunch of fluid and that they figure she must have swallowed the amniotic fluid when she took her first breath and then the fact that her lungs weren't fully developed made her have such a hard time breathing. After she had gotten all the fluid out of her system she turned around 100% and started doing tons better. They still did blood sugar tests on her about every 3 hours now and her poor heals were so bruised up from it. :( We had lots of visitors and it was nice to share this special moment with so many good family and friends.

My mom

My dad

Cathy

Dee

Great Grandma Baker

This was after her first feeding

My parents were so kind to take Abbie while we were in the hospital and they brought her each day so that she could meet her sister and see us. She was so excited to see us the first day and didn't even notice the baby at first and was just talking to me and than when she did notice her it was so funny cause her whole face lit up as she said "Oh Baby!"

Our cute family of 4

Devin got to give Grace her first bath while Abbie and my parents were visiting and it was pretty funny to see how Abbie reacted she was very protective and worried about what was going on. She kept saying "baby button" referring to the baby's belly button, and than when we said "Baby Grace is okay" she went around the room saying "Grace Okay, Grace Okay" over and over. After the bath they nurses took her for another blood sugar test and Abbie screamed "NO! My baby!" We had to reassure her that she would be right back. lol

We were both able to come home on schedule on Wednesday the 3rd and its been a little bit of an adjustment getting used to having two kids but life is great. I'm just a little sleep deprived but I've learned to just take little naps throughout the day to get myself rested enough. Abbie is doing really good adjusting to having Grace home and loves to give her kisses and loves, although she refuses to hold her.

We took Grace to get retested for Jaundice on Thursday 3/4 since she was in the Intermediate level when we were discharged and her stats were as followed

Weight 5 pounds 12 ounces (5% centile)

Height 19.5 inches (35% centile)

Head circumference 13.0 inches (9% centile)

(I'm thankful for my girls little heads easier deliveries!)

Her jaundice levels were down so we didn't have to worry about anything with that and we've loved having this sweet baby home with us and in our lives.