The Arrival of Baby 3: A Birth Story

I need to get the story of lil' munchkin's birth down before I forget. Sure... It's been only about 15 days later, just 2 weeks since we were released! I'm sure some of my memory has gone.

I love birth stories.

Just like her brother and sister, our lil' munchkin was evicted... Induced... At 41 weeks we decided to get her out. We could have left her in longer, she probably would have benefited from staying in longer. But, that would have meant Non Stress Tests and those are expensive. Having a baby is costly enough. I don't like saying this because it's like we had no place to be bringing another child into the world, but we really couldn't afford to have NSTs every other day. We couldn't really afford to have one. So we decided to induce at the last day.

As seems to be the way with scheduled inductions, it is super early in the morning. Our appointment was at 5:30am. You arrive, get the paper work in and then sit around and wait for an hour.

I was feeling sick to my stomach with nerves. Why?!? I had done this, not just once, but twice before! But still. The night before I had difficulty eating dinner, that morning for breakfast I had nothing. I couldn't stomach the food. I had food poisoning or something a few weeks before and had difficulty eating since. I even lost several pounds from that to delivery.

We hoped that breaking the water would start labor. At 7:45am they broke it (I was 5 cm, 90% effaced and she was at a -1 station). Contractions were there, just not consistent or with enough intensity. They decided to give about 2 hours and then we would start pitocin. 

Around 9:25am we started the pitocin. It seemed like it took a while for anything to start happening. I love how time gets sucked after this! It's like being in a time vortex once things started moving along. At one point they checked and I was about 7cm but no change in anything else.

Then, contractions started kicking in. We had been back and forth with my Mom-In-Law, giving updates about how things were going and give a heads up on when to bring the kids to see their baby sister. I had been standing and rocking, but it was like I couldn't get comfortable. I remember telling Husband to send his mom a message to let her know that they were getting more intense and she should probably head over. Of course, he responded with "are you sure?"... Which irritated me a bit. I didn't know for sure. Now when I look back on it, I feel a little silly. I settled on a yes. Sure, why not? I couldn't keep my eyes open during the contractions. My hips were starting to feel cramped. She was coming and was going to come fast...

It seemed like no time at all and the incredible urge to push came. I remember telling Husband that, but it felt too soon! Ha! I should know better! He ran and got the nurse. She did a quick check and sure enough, it was time! 

The resident doctor and my doctor came in, set up. Husband at one leg, the nurse on the other. The urge to push came and goodness me I gave it what I could! The nurse told me I could stop, I'm sure someone else repeated it. But there was no stopping. Lil' munchkin was there in one push at 11:57am. A whirlwind of a labor, Done and over before we knew it! Mom-in-law arrived shortly after little girl did. My mom got off work and was there too, but I honestly couldn't tell you when she got there!

Precious baby munchkin was 6lbs 11oz, 19 inches (though she might have been longer at the doctor 4 days later she was 19.75 inches). Her APGAR was 8/9. When it was time to go, her bilirubin level was 0.0!

And I can't get over her dark hair. So much hair!

And, I did it all with no epidural or pain meds! Third one with no epidural or pain meds!
This was labor 3 without an epidural or pain meds! I was mostly blown away/impressed/kind of confused, that our hospital no longer takes the baby to the nursery for 2 hours after birth. I guess the change happened not that long ago, and I kind of wish it were that way with the other two. It was so nice! Baby's first bath wasn't until after 12 hours. The food delivery was much more than it was before! Though the night nurse was still a stickler about nursing every 2/3 hours (all we wanted to do was sleep! all of us) and the day nurse was super awesome! They even put a tracker/alarm thing on her ankle!

I am feeling so proud of this little one already! I know Husband is too, and the kids are infatuated with her.

It's been a fun 2 weeks since coming home.

Oh, We got a little crocheted beanie too! for Heart Disease Awareness! #littlehatsbighearts

I'm so in love with this little one too... It's amazing how much love a heart can hold. It's endless!

Until next time,

The Arrival of Samara - part 2

I am actually taking the time to go through pictures! Now that it is super late and I should really be sleeping... But then when else am I going to do this? Hopefully this is ok since my new momma sleep deprived brain is still a little out of whack! I put coffee grounds into the basket and completely spaced the filter the other day, and didn't realize until 2 scoops in...

So, here are some pictures. :)

41 Weeks 2 Days
Getting Ready to go to the Hospital

Welcome to the World,
Samara

The Arrival of Samara

Well, needless to say I have been fairly busy these last 6 days! But for good reason. We are all so excited that Friday, July 19th, went so incredibly well and that baby girl is finally here! 

It went so fast! I cannot believe how quickly it went! The doctor decided it was considered more an augmentation of labor rather than an induction of labor because my natural hormones kicked in, and that makes me feel so excited too! But of course there are other reasons too! I wanted it to be as natural as possible, just like when Nikolai was born. You can read the story of his birth here. I don't think this story will be as long because the labor was not as long... But then again, sometimes I can become long winded. ;)

So here I go...

We were, once again, supposed to go into the hospital at 5am.  We were actually on time with her. I had awoken at 2 am and could not fall back asleep. When the alarm went off around 3/3:30 (we hit the snooze a few times), I was pretty much awake but tired. 

We got to the hospital around 4:50 and started the paperwork.

I think we got into the room around 6-ish. They did not check to see if there was any further progression of labor, just established baseline of my blood pressure and heart rate, and Samara's heart rate. Pitocin started around 7 am.

By 8:30 am my doctor arrived with the UofA med students. They checked to see what the progression of labor was (by this time I was getting 8 mu/min of pitocin. So much less than with Nikolai! I was 6 cm (up from 4 at the dr appointment) and still 80% effaced. They broke my water. Eww... Much less of a gush than Nikolai and more of a trickle that continued until transition at least. Well, that was as long as I noticed it for.

The doctor said he was expecting it to be around 1-3 hours when Samara was going to arrive. I figured that sounded a bit right since Nikolai was 3 hours from them breaking my water.

I ended up laboring for a bit sitting on the edge of the bed until I felt the need to use the bathroom. Once I get to the bathroom, I felt horrible. Not incredible excruciating pain or anything, but I would have a contraction, need to use the toilet, get up to clean up, only to have to sit back down because of another contraction. I was so uncomfortable I just wanted to lie down in bed! Poor Brandon was standing right there beside me holding my hands when I needed him to, helping me up only to have to go through the whole process all over again.

I finally made it back to the bed to lie down, have the nurse hook me back up to the monitor and remind me to call if I felt the need to push while she was away only to have the urge to poop come after she left. I ignored the feeling debating if I should go to the bathroom (I had already done that by this point, but I figured I needed to again). Well, a few contractions later and I needed to push!

Brandon asked me if he should call the nurse. My response was an "I don't know, it's too soon!" Well, silly me, I should have known better. After a few more contractions with the uncontrollable urge to push (I felt like I was writhing on the bed to NOT push) and Brandon pushed for the nurse. I can only imagine what I looked like to Brandon at that time or what he was thinking.

The nurse checked me and sure enough, I was fully effaced, fully dilated and you could see Samara's head! But, isn't it my luck that the dr was not at the hospital? Luckily one was coming out of surgery at that time and came into the room to gown up. He sat waiting to catch, but I was not actively pushing, just pushing through the need to make me more comfortable. He was just there if he needed to catch.

Shortly after, my doctor came in and gowned up. I got ready to really push and then... nothing... I was glad for the chance to breath and relax. Sometime during the first dr and my dr they had turned off the pitocin. Maybe that was what gave me the opportunity to breath! Then a contraction. So I pushed once. I know people where telling me things, but in all honesty I did not hear any of it. The dr tried to do a perineum message. Well, that hurt and I was not prepared for that. If he had told me I would have suffered through, but he stopped instead. We can all guess what resulted from that... Ouch... Oh well... 

I pushed a second time and out popped her little head. A third push and she was out! So happy! I heard her cry immediately. The nurse put her in my arms, Brandon came up and talked to her and she looked for him. It was so cute! There are no words to describe the feeling of holding your baby for the first time. I didn't want to let her go, but then I couldn't wait for her big brother to see her!

She was born 10:22am, a little less that 2 hours after they broke my water, 7 pounds 14 ounces and 19.25 inches long with an apgar score of 9/9.

No epidural, they didn't even ask except in the beginning what my pain management goal was. There was really, no time for it, and that is fine with me. I didn't even think about it!

Don't Worry... I will post more pictures later...

I am so proud of my baby girl, and so proud of me!

:)

Scheduled Eviction

Just to update...

I went to the doctor today to see what is going on. No change with dilation (hey, still half way there!) or effacement. He is not willing to go past the end of the week.

I had to go to the hospital to monitor Samara's movements, heart rate and amniotic fluid... All are fine!