Birth Story Part 4 - The Hard Part is Over

Part One
Part Two
Part Three

Our first family photo - May 7, 2012

After a little over an hour of skin to skin, where I breastfed our sweet girl as soon as I could, we went and got everyone out of the waiting room.  Nick’s Mom and Dad, my Dad, and my BFF Michaela were all waiting.  My Mom had tried to keep them updated on how things were progressing.  When she went out and told them that I was at 7cms, the Dad’s thought that would be a good time to go get dinner.  They thought that had plenty of time!  Needless to say, Michaela called them to tell them that the baby had arrived when they were in the car on the way back!  But, once everyone was in the room, they weighed and measured her.  She was 7lbs 6oz and 22 inches long.  Everyone was shocked when they first saw her at how small she was.  They were all expecting a bigger baby!  No one but Dad held her at this point, as we were told that we shouldn’t pass her around for at least 3 hours or so.  Since it was about 11 at this point, everyone left pretty quickly to let us try to get some sleep.  I wish that were the case!

We were getting ready to move in the post-partum room, and I decided that I needed to pee (plus I think they needed me to before we moved, but it’s a bit hazy now).  They got me up out of bed, and were telling me about how to use the bathroom now (the peri bottle, pat dry and getting me set up with all the different pads and ice packs). Finally, after what seemed like an hour long lecture, I went pee.  When I went to get up, I passed out.  Luckily the nurse was right there, so I didn’t hit the floor or anything.  I remember her pulling the emergency cord, and a bunch of people filing in.  I know that she asked for ammonia at some point and I remember really not wanting them to need that.  They put me in a wheel chair and I started to come to again.  Luckily, they just wheeled me to the post partum room.  What this meant for me is that I wasn’t allowed to stand up on my own.  If I felt I needed to get up to use the bathroom, I had to page a nurse.  The next time I went, I also got very faint.  Enough that the third time I had to go, they just brought a commode to the side of the bed for me.  That was a pain, but from what I understand, pretty normal. The nurse explained it like “Your body just went through this whole thing.  It knows that once you have emptied your bladder, that’s the last thing you need to do and then you can rest.  You body just knows to shut down at that point”.  I thought that was interesting.

About to head home!  Newborn sized clothes were too big!

All in all, my labor was painful, but much better than I expected.  I always said that I would rather have a quick and intense labor as opposed to one that was slow and long.  I went into active labor sometime between 3 and 4, and she was born before 9. It was wonderful.  Nick and my Mom both said how I was not the person in labor that you see in movies and TV (or that my Mom was, even!).  I didn’t yell, I didn’t swear, I never once said that I couldn’t do this.  Instead of yelling at people in the room, I was apologizing to my midwife and husband and nurses.  I think I just went into a zone and went for it.  I was so lucky that my induction went the way it did.  I was thrilled that I could still go through labor without pain meds like I had wanted to from the beginning.  My midwife said that first babies very rarely progress as quickly as my labor progressed; I consider myself lucky.  After going through all of that, I can’t imagine doing it any other way.  Nick was just in awe of what I had done, and I loved him more for being so supportive.  Our sweet girl was so worth it!

Penelope - my sweet girl.