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| The hospital had blankets covered in dinosaurs. While there were some purple and pink ones, we had to add a bow to girly it |
We are totally in love with our precious daughter and are praising God for this gift! Lucy is a good mix of both of us and we never realized how many photos one could take of the same child sleeping or making faces!! While we are still adjusting and navigating this awesome life change, we are also looking forward to and praying all that God has planned for her life. Her mere existence tells us that He is BIG and powerful; the perfection of her creation (tiny hands, sweet toes, adorable nose, big blue eyes, cute grins...) tells us that He took great care in forming her! No guarantees on how often I'll be able to carve out blog time but I'll do my best. If you are interested in her birth story, keep reading. If not, that's ok, too. :-)
I woke up Tuesday June 5, 2012 sobbing because I still was not in labor. Instead I had been up about a dozen times throughout the night to go to the bathroom. Each time I rolled out of bed I was annoyed that nothing was contracting and my water had not broken. In the wee hours of the morning, I got back in bed and just grinned. I remember thinking, "Lord, are we having this baby today?" When the sun was coming up and alarms were going off to summon us to work again, I just lost it. "Paul, why won't she come out?! I need her to be out of here!" In my dramatic brain, the fact that I had not gone into labor overnight clearly meant that we were destined for the induction on the 11th.
We both went to work like normal. At work, I continued my extra-frequent trips to the bathroom and just in case my early morning thought panned out, I made sure to toss my phone in my pocket each time. I sat down to eat my lunch and after one bite quickly texted Paul to toss it and grab Chick-fil-a instead. It seemed that the pasta salad had not lasted as long as I had anticipated and was past the point of consumption. So I decided that it was a Chick-fil-a day for me as well and headed that direction.
Still being annoyed with my lack of labor, I decided that I had earned fries and a Coke Zero. Back at work, I commented to a coworker "Maybe the caffeine will make her hyper and she'll break my water?!" That was 1:45pm. At 2:15pm I was taking another trip to the bathroom. I stopped to chat briefly with a coworker and then took one step and felt very strange. In my head, I thought "I've never peed in my pants before, this is strange." When I got to the bathroom, I realized that maybe it was my water that broke but having never done this before, and having already resigned to the fact that we were going to be induced, I wasn't sure. And of course, this was the one bathroom trip of the day where my phone was still on my desk. I walked quickly back to my desk, grabbed my phone and headed for the break room. I called Paul and told him to leave because I thought my water had just broken. Then I called the doctor's office and explained what happened. The nurse said to head directly to labor and delivery. I grabbed my things and told my coworker that my water broke but I wasn't feeling any pain so I was going to drive myself to the hospital (yes, many have already told me how unwise this decision was....noted for the next time).
The triage nurse noticed my wet jeans and decided we could skip the initial evaluation so we headed for a delivery room. I still wasn't feeling anything. Paul got to the hospital about 15 minutes after I got checked in and changed and we contacted our families to let them know this baby was on her way! When the nurse checked me, I was at 3cm (I had been at 2cm since 36 weeks and 80% effaced since 37 weeks). Family and friends started to arrive and we spent a few hours visiting as they watched the contractions on the screen--contractions I still was not feeling at all. Occasionally I would feel some tightness but nothing painful. About 8pm, everyone headed out to get some dinner. This was my chance to take another bathroom break in my rather breezy hospital gown. Going to the bathroom and standing helped to make my contractions more regular and I started to feel them. My doctor stopped by about 8:20pm to check on me and let me know that I could have an epidural whenever I wanted one. Since I was progressing, he didn't see any need to augment my labor with pitocin at this time (he wasn't on call so one of his partners would actually be delivering Lucy).
I continued to breathe through the contractions until just before 9pm. One contraction was bearable and the next one was more than I could take. I was chatting with Paul one moment and the next, "Ok, Lucy, mommy is all done. You have to do the rest on your own." By the time the anesthesiologist arrived (about 9:20pm) my knees were giving out and I was sobbing through each contraction. 9:30pm brought the sweetest relief I can describe. The nurse said she'd check me at 11:30pm to evaluate my progress. She also suggested trying to get some sleep because "you never know if you'll push for 5 minutes or 3 hours." I got in a couple of cat naps and at 11:30pm she said I was at 8.5cm, 9cm with a contraction.
Our family returned to the room to visit some more since I couldn't sleep. About 12:15am I started getting fidgety and was feeling twinges of pain on my left side. Everyone headed back to the waiting room and Paul got the nurse. I had been laying on my right side since I got the epidural because laying on my left was very uncomfortable. Epidurals work with gravity so more of the meds were on my right side. The nurse said that I was probably complete so before checking me she wanted to set up the delivery table. She got that set up, called the doctor and told him my progress. "Sure. We'll do some practice pushes and I'll call you back when we are ready." That was a little after 12:30am. She then told me were going to do some practice pushes. Umm, I'm sorry, what?!? Practice pushes?!?! I was shocked we were already pushing! Less than 10 minutes after calling the doctor the first time, she called him back and said "We're ready for delivery. Yes, really." We were all shocked at how quickly this was progressing since it was my first baby. (Apparently my Coke Zero really did the trick.)
The doctor arrived and told me to push through the next contraction. Since I couldn't feel anything from the waist down, the nurse told me when to start and Paul helped push on my back. At one point, after pushing with all my might and not feeling anything at all, I yelled "Is this doing ANYthing?!" The doctor and nurse looked at me like I was insane. He said, "One more push and she's out." WHAT?!?! How is this possible? Didn't we just start this process!?! I pushed for less than 15 minutes, through 6 contractions and then I heard the best noise on the planet. I will never forget that first cry and then seeing that perfect, crying baby laying on my chest. Paul got to cut the umbilical and I cried as I heard her cry and realized that our daughter had arrived! Yes, at 1:01am on 6/6/12 Lucy Kate had indeed arrived....all 7lbs 4oz, 20 3/4 inches of her! We could not be happier!!
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| This was not her favorite part, apparently. |
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| She was ready to snuggle, I think. |
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| She got to cry, so I thought I'd take a turn too! |
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| First family photo! You can't see it here, but Lucy and I had a shirt made for Paul that said "Lucy's daddy" on the back and had tiny little pink footprints on the front. |
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| Lucy meeting her people for the first time! |
