Sarah Elizabeth - birth story

For anyone interested, I am posting Sarah's birth story... if you aren't interested, feel free to scroll down and look at the pictures! ♥

Danior and I checked into the hospital at 6:00 am on Friday, July 20, 2012 for a scheduled induction. 

I wavered back and forth over how I felt about an induction. I knew that this baby was going to be a big one, and though I was only 3 days past my due date, I wasn't really showing many signs of imminent labor either. I had been having painful braxton hicks contractions that would come and go all day long for weeks... but they always went away. I was so uncomfortable because baby was so low, that I opted to just go ahead and be induced. 

After filling out paperwork, and being pricked at least 5 times with needles pitocin was started at 7:30am. Apparently I have really deep veins, so I ended up coming out of this looking like a pin cushion. The poor nurses kept trying and trying with each vein they could find. They even got me in a nerve in my hand one time... no fun!! 

By 9:00 am the pitocin was turned up to a 6 (on a scale of 1-10) and I was having contractions about every 5 minutes. Nothing really painful though -- I attribute that to the fact I had been having so many painful braxton hicks contractions that these felt like a piece of cake! 

My Dr. stopped by around 10:00am. I was 3-4 cm dialted (having gone into the hospital at 2 cm) and 50% effaced. She broke my water. Then the nurse turned the pitocin up to 8. 

At 10:45am I noted (on my iphone -- which I was using to keep track of everything since Danior was napping and working)

"Contractions are not too bad. Must mean I'm not close. :(" 

The top was the baby and the bottom was the contractions I had been having. At this point they were closer than 5 minutes apart, but still hadn't really started getting painful yet. In fact, I was watching the news coverage of the shooting at the theater in Colorado and working on crossword puzzles.

At 11:45 am my pitocin was turned up to 10. Contractions were 2-3 minutes apart and I was starting to feel them!! 

By 12:45 (1 hour later) I had had enough and asked for the epidural. The anesthesiologist was pretty quick about getting up to my room. He prepped everything as I breathed through my contractions. It took a while for him to get everything in the right place though and the medicine was fully turned on shortly after 1:00pm. 

I was still feeling pain and pressure when I told the nurse that I was hurting. She put in the catheter... yay... and said that must have been why I was hurting... because I hadn't been to the bathroom in a while. 

Nope! I asked her if she would check to see my progress -- since she said she would once the epi and catheter were in place. She did. She didn't say a word to me. Walked over to the door, the calmly told the nurses to call the dr. because I was ready. 

The pain and pressure I was feeling was the baby! My epidural hadn't really had much effect. I was still feeling contractions and the pressure was almost unbearable. As the nurses prepped the room for delivery, I couldn't help but start pushing. Anyone who has had a natural birth knows that once things start in motion... there really isn't any stopping it. Danior held my hand as I "tried" not to push (ha!). 

By now about 10 minutes had passed since they made the call for the dr. (who was coming from her office about 10 minutes away). Then 15 minutes. At this point I was thinking that the baby was coming without her! The nurses reassured me that they had delivered babies before and could do it if the dr. didn't make it... good thing! 

About 20 minutes had gone by when the dr. finally showed up. She poked her head in the room and asked, "No baby yet!?" Umm... no, but she better not dilly dally!! 

The baby's head was crowning before the dr. even sat down. It took my literally 3 good pushes in about 2 minutes to get her out. She was born at 1:42pm. She had the cord wrapped around her neck once, but she was fine. 

A whopping 8 lbs. 11 oz and 21 inches long. 

I consider this just about a natural childbirth. I was definitely NOT numb. As I was being stitched back together I felt it all... the dr. was totally shocked as she saw the epidural equipment .. but the nurse explained how short I had been medicated and promptly gave me some local anesthetic. 

By far I think this was the easiest labor and delivery yet. I was in labor for a total of just over 5 hours. And only about 1 1/2 hours of that was hard labor. 

Even the nurse told me I was a superstar and really didn't even need the epidural. She told me that I wasn't kidding when I told her how fast my labor goes once I hit about 4 cm. I had warned her ahead of time so that they weren't caught off guard. 

The nurse who gave her a bath put a cute pink bow on her. Luckily we didn't have to worry about getting her mixed up with any other babies... we were the only ones there! 

After getting moved and settled into the recovery room, Danior went home to pick up the kids and his mom (who had so graciously watched the other kiddos for us while in the hospital -- thanks GINA!) and brought them back to meet the new baby. Just before picking them up we decided on her name: Sarah Elizabeth. 

Recovery has been really easy. It was uncomfortable and painful of course, but within a week I was up and moving around doing dishes and laundry (a mother's work is never done!). It has now been a month and I keep getting surprised looks from people when out and about that I am only 1 month post pardom and looking so good. (I know it's only the fact that I'm up and moving around because I am still holding on to some of that baby weight!)

I'll share new pictures as I can find the time between laundry, dishes, cleaning, feeding kids, changing diapers, potty training, homework helping, and everything else I do. 

Just for kicks!! 

Rebekah

Jonah

 Sarah

I think she is a good mix of Rebekah and Jonah... but you can definitely tell they are all related! haha!