I've been meaning to blog for awhile now, but it turns out that having two girls under 15 months is crazy. Stella is now a week and a half years old. I feel like she has been here for a lot longer. Maybe that is because I was so so pregnant for so so long! There were many people who told me that because Stella was my second that I would probably go early. Keep in mind that I only went two days over my due date with Ruby. Stella was worth the wait I tell you! Here is how her birth went....
On Monday the 25th of April I started having some mild contractions that were very spread out. Like hours apart. Towards the evening they started getting a little more intense though and a little closer together. About 20 minutes apart. My mom has quilting class on Monday nights from 6:00-9:00 PM. She was our go to for watching Ruby while I was in labor/in the hospital. So, I called her and told her she better come out just to be on the safe side. Well, all night (while Ben was peacefully sleeping) I was next to him having contractions at times every 6 minutes apart. They weren't as painful as the contractions I had with Ruby though. I told Ben at about 2 in the morning that he better put in for a sub. This go around, Ben had sub plans made ever single day ready to go in case I went into labor. If you remember with Ruby, we had to go to the high school so he could put out his sub plans while I was in active labor. This time he was prepared! Anyway, I woke up on Monday morning and the contractions went to about every 45 minutes. I was feeling bad for making my mom come out for nothing and for making Ben take off work. Let's rewind real fast, my OB ran in the Boston Marathon so I had to meet with a different Doctor for my 40 week appointment. Well, it turned out that my OB was running in another marathon in California the next week. So, I had an appointment scheduled with him again for my 41 week appointment. It was scheduled at 4:00 PM. Well, I moved my appointment up to 10:30 just in case I had made any progress. So, I showered and enjoyed the morning with my mom, Ben, and Ruby. Ben and I took off to the clinic and brought our bags just in case. The doc checked my cervix and turned out that the night of having contractions paid off. I was dilated to a 3, which is a huge improvement from the "finger tip" I was the week before. He asked me if he wanted him to strip my membranes and then head upstairs to have a baby. He was that confident that it would just send me into labor. I looked at Ben and said heck yes! So, he stripped my membranes and he called upstairs and told them to expect me. It was way different checking into the hospital this time around. I was able to talk and sign the papers that I needed to sign. I think it must be a rule or law that I get escorted by a security guard in a wheel chair. I felt so silly being in a wheel chair when I could have walked. Oh well. So, we got all checked into my labor and delivery room and met our nurse. She was in training. Lovely. ha, she was actually really great. Contractions had now started to come more frequently and a little more intense. I was telling the nurse that I wanted an epidural before it was too late. Basically, my plan was to labor as naturally as long as possible and I didn't want to feel the end. I will spare those details. Anyway, they were great and just kept telling me you tell us when. With Ruby my labor was super fast and so I figured the same would happen with Stella. So, I just figured what the heck, lets just get it and then for sure I will be covered in the end. Well, that didn't exactly happen. It almost slowed things down. At one point Stella's heart beat took a big dip and all of a sudden I had an oxygen mask on and wasn't really told what was going on. Ben looked a little panicked and they had paged the doctor. I still don't exactly know what happened, or why it happened, but it turned out ok. Stella came back around and all was well. I was so worried that I was going to end up having an emergency c-section. Phew! I started feeling contractions again AKA my epidural was definitely waring off. I told the nurses and I don't think they believed me. One of the nurses told me she was going for her lunch and that if I ever felt the need to push to page her. Well, she leaves and I'm not kidding about 1 minute later I felt this great pressure and urge to push. I looked at Ben in this panic because I had never felt this with Ruby. I told him to page the nurse. He asked why and I think I screamed just do it! Sorry Ben! So, she comes rushing in and checks and says ok yep, it's time to have your baby. The head is right there. She paged the doctor and it was go time. I feel like he took forever when in reality it was probably only about 5-10 minutes. The nurse in the meantime told me to do some practice pushes. Inside my head I was thinking absolutely not. I'm not going to practice push and have you deliver the baby. So, I kind of pretended. I think she saw right through me. The doctor got there and at this point I was feeling everything. It was not fun, but I'm thankful to have gone through it. After about 20 minutes of pushing, Stella Louise Harvey graced us with her presence at 5:55 PM on Tuesday, April 26, 2016. She had a head FULL of black hair. She had the cord wrapped around her neck once, but was immediately placed on my chest. Of course there were tears and relief. I loved that the doctor really let us have that moment and didn't cut the cord right away. We spent the next two nights in the hospital and came home on Thursday. In my next blog post I will post all about how Ruby is adjusting. Let's just say there have been high high's and low low's. :)
Thanks to all who were praying for us! We appreciate all of you!
Getting checked into my labor room. I was feeling great!
The best feeling is when they put this baby on your chest!
Proud Daddy!
No comments:
Post a Comment