Grace's Birth Story

Ok, get ready. This is going to be long and probably boring to everyone except myself, but I want a written record of Grace's birthday because one day it won't be so fresh in my mind and I don't want to forget all of the details.

May 19, 2009

I could barely sleep a wink the night before. I awoke at 2am, 3am, and 4:30am and stared at the clock until 5:30 when I finally got out of bed and started getting ready to go to the hospital. Micah woke up around 6:00, we gathered our stuff, Terry prayed over us, and we headed out the door. On the way to the hospital, we stopped by Starbucks for Micah's morning coffee and bran muffin. I was starving, but couldn't eat a thing per the doctor's orders.

We arrived at the hospital and knew which building to go to, but had no clue which floor. We made our best guess, got out of the elevator and found some nurses in the hall who smiled at us, asked us if we were having a baby and kindly directed us to another floor. It was kinda humorous because I'm sure we looked so lost and naive.

We got all checked in at the correct floor, were taken to room 112 and started the whole process. Our nurse was Shelly, the charge nurse for the day. She was great at her job and nice. Another nurse came in to do my i.v. She was super friendly and talkative. I told her about my horrible experience with my i.v. last time and she reassured me that she was the best i.v. giver around....unfortunately she jinxed herself! No problem, because she had used a numbing shot beforehand that made the actual i.v. needle painless. We had to repeat the process on my other arm.

Dr. Williams came by at 8:15 to break my water. Our plan was to do that and see how things went before we decided if I needed any drugs to induce labor more. (Fortunately that didn't have to happen-same with Annalee.)

Micah and I hung out in the room and watched part of a Marky Mark movie about football...exciting, I know. We were in such great spirits, it was nice to have some time with just us before all of the real excitement started. After I was on the baby monitor for a while, they told me I could walk around or sit on the birthing ball (like an exercise ball that's nested in a small rolling chair). I was super excited about this because I wasn't able to get out of the bed with Annalee. I walked some and bounced some, but didn't quite know what to do with my freedom. :)

Around 9:15 Kandi arrived to hang out with us. At this point I was having regular contractions, but they were not very painful. It took things longer this time around to really kick into action. Kandi stayed a couple of hours, the nurse checked me and I was at 5 centimeters at about 11:30, and then Mom arrived to hang out too.

About an hour later my contractions were getting stronger, Summer and the Beck's arrived with Annalee and we did more hanging out. I was off and on the monitor still and was able to sit on my bouncy ball and give Annalee her 'big sister bag' full of toys from Grace. She was so excited and wanted to open them all right there.

Then the anaesthesiologist came in to tell me that he had a meeting to attend soon and if I wanted my epidural anytime soon I had better go ahead and get it. I really felt like I could last a little longer, but I certainly didn't want to miss my opportunity! At that point I sent everyone out of the room, I received a dose of some loopy medicine to help with the pain and anxiety of the epidural and then the doctor came to do it. In the meantime, Papa strolled Annalee around so that she could get a nap in before baby sister arrived.

By this time, I was really glad that I went ahead and told him to do the epidural because I was in quite a bit of pain. He did his thing and I was so relieved at the thought of the pain going away...only it didn't! Actually it went away in splotchy areas. It was really weird. I couldn't feel my feet, but I could feel the right side of my back and my stomach. After waiting for 15-20 minutes they called the doc back in to give me another dose of the medicine. After another 15-20 minutes of waiting for that to work and being in severe agony (my contractions were every minute!) they finally decided that the whole epidural needed redone. The doc ripped the tape off of my back, took out the old epidural and started all over from scratch. The first one had slipped out of my back slightly and this was causing it to only work in patches. About 15 minutes later I was a new woman! By this point I was 8 centimeters. During all of that drama, someone came to deliver the most beautiful flower arrangement from Kandi! I was in a weird state of pain and drowsiness from the loopy medicine. I really wanted to look at them, but my eyes wouldn't let me.

Everyone came back into the room for a little while. My old neighbor, Susi, even stopped by. Then my doctor came in to tell me that the lady next door needed a c-section because her baby wasn't coming out. She said that she wanted to check me one last time, and if I was ready then I could go first. Guess what? I won.

The nurse started running around getting the bed ready for Grace and things went pretty fast from that point. My contractions were still one minute apart, I had four of them in four minutes, and she was born at 4:43pm! It was, of course, pretty amazing to experience. It was a calm birth that went perfectly. God is truly amazing and blessed us beyond belief.

We spent time with Grace, I nursed her, and then Micah went to get Annalee. She was so adorable when she came in the room. She had the biggest smile on her face and she said "baby Grace came out of your tummy?" It was priceless. We spent time just the four of us and then Micah went out to get his parents, my mom and Summer. All in all, it was a great labor and delivery. I was only in misery the hour or so it took to get my epidural to work. I am so thankful that she is here, healthy, and happy.

By the way, it took about 4 hours for my epidural to wear off enough for me to be able to walk. I guess the triple dose of numbing medicine did the trick.

All dressed and ready to go home. The picture people never showed up, so we left without getting a hospital picture! Sorry Grace. :(

Heading home!