Welcome Nicole!

Our baby girl Nicole was born May 7, 2014 at 1:04 pm.  She was 7 pounds, 13 ounces and 20 inches long.  Here is what happened.

At my 38 week prenatal appointment, I met with the midwife Sue.  I had seen her the most out of all of them and she was the most aware of how sick I was since I met with her for the first two appointments.  She checked me and I was 4 cm dilated (not a huge surprise).  We were talking about things and asked me if I wanted to be induced early again with this pregnancy.  I hadn't really thought about it since I was planning on going into labor naturally this time (and I kept thinking it was right around the corner since I was 2 cm dilated by 36 weeks), so I said I didn't know.  She asked if I could make it another week, and I said yes.  She said to make an appointment for next week just in case, although she thought I would probably deliver before then.

Well, another week passes and I was still pregnant (and slightly annoyed that I hadn't gone into labor yet).  I kept thinking about Sue's suggestion about being induced and it kept seeming more and more appealing, especially since I had very few contractions during that week.  At 39 weeks I met with Jennifer and I didn't even have to ask to be induced, she asked me.  By this point I was 4.5 cm dilated.  She was on call the next day so she scheduled me to come it at 8am on May 7th.  We decided to just try breaking my water to see if that would put me into labor instead of starting Pitocin right away.  She said it would be more likely to work if I was having some contractions, so she also stripped my membranes to try and get some good contractions going over night.  That night I came down with a terrible cold and/or sinus infection or something (that I am still battling).  I barely slept at all because I couldn't breathe.  I considered re-scheduling, but I knew that once I delivered I could have ibuprofen and that would ease some of my face pain.

We woke up the next morning to Jared peeing the bed (he had peed the bed the evening before as well despite not wetting the bed in weeks).  We got to the hospital where we met Nate's sister who took Jared.  Once we got all checked in and everything, Jennifer broke my water about 9:40.  I walked around for a while, but the monitors kept slipping and the remote monitor wasn't working so I ended up hanging out in my room.  This didn't help get things going so they started Pitocin around 11:30.  I started getting contractions around noon and they upped the Pitocin.  That wasn't fun.  I was starting to feel pretty uncomfortable so the midwife (Jennifer) came back and decided to stay since I was 5 cm and with Jared I went from a 6 to a 10 in 30 minutes.  I was so tired from being sick the night before that I asked for and epidural, and Jennifer didn't think they would have time, but since he was just down the hall went ahead and called him.  It seemed like forever for him to get there, and by the time he got there I was in a pretty good groove getting through the contractions, but just decided to get it anyway.  It ended up being kinda pointless though because I was fully dilated before they got it in.  I was going through "transition" when they put the needle in and I had to be perfectly still, and a contraction came on just as he was starting.  Yeah, that was not easy.  Before he was done, Jennifer looked up at me and could tell I was ready to push.  I went from 7 cm to 10 cm in 5 contractions, maybe less.  I really didn't know what was going on, but I could tell that something had changed.  Apparently I was pushing even though I wasn't trying to.  As soon as the epidural was done I started pushing.  It was 12:45 at this point.  With Jared I didn't think that pushing was that hard, but I guess because I was so sick it seemed a lot harder this time.  I pushed for about 20 minutes total and she was born at 1:04 pm.  The epidural kicked in about 5 minutes before she was born.  It ended up being ok though because since things went to fast (and I have bigger babies), down there hadn't fully prepared and was not stretching enough.  I could tell as I was pushing that it was going to hurt like crazy, but I ended up not feeling most of the pain!  I also had to get an episiotomy because I was going to tear so bad they would have to call an OB to stitch me up.

Overall, it was a crazy experience.  I really didn't think it would be that fast, otherwise I would have said forget the epidural, we don't have time.  I never planned on going through labor on Pitocin without an epidural, and I guess technically I didn't, but it was close enough.  However, the epidural at Orem Community is much better than the ones at Utah Valley because it is dosed much lower so you don't feel paralyzed.  It may have just never fully kicked in, but after I delivered I pinched the skin on my hip and still felt pain from it.

After Nicole was born, she had to have her stomach pumped out a few times and had to be taken to the nursery to be put on an oxygen monitor because her breathing was a little raspy so I didn't really get to hold her for a while.  She ended up being just fine, she just swallowed too much fluid.  It took a while for her lungs to clean out because she wouldn't cry.  I finally got to hold her while she had the oxygen monitor on she was doing really well, but she still didn't sound great, so she went back to the nursery and they decided that she just needed to cry it out so they gave her a bath, but she wouldn't cry!  Since the moment she was born, she has been a very calm and content baby (unlike Jared was).  After a couple hours the fluid cleared out of her lungs and stomach (she pooped 7 times in the first 24 hours).  We stayed in the hospital that night, but left just after dinner on the second day, so I ended up only being there 30 hours after I delivered.

Recovery has been easy.  Within 3 days, I had no cramps or any other labor-related pain.  I still have the nasty sinus problem (probably an infection), but that is the only pain I have.  I am back to my pre-pregnancy weight and I am comfortably wearing my pre-pregnancy clothes and so happy to have my little girl!

After we got checked in before anything else happened.

First bath

Me and my babies.

Nate and the kids.

Right before we went home.