December 2011 Tinsel Tots Birth Stories and Pictures!

Hi ladies,
Let's use this thread to post all our birth stories and pictures. Please no comments, just stories and pictures. Then we can sticky and enjoy!


I'll start with Mayleigh's:


Mayleigh?s Birth Story

Over the weekend, my blood pressure started to spiral. I was getting some high readings on Sunday night but the midwife on call told me to rest and see if it got better. By the next day I was getting better readings until that evening. I went to bed but when I woke up on Tuesday, November 15, I was consistently getting 155/95 or so on my wrist cuff. So I called the midwives office and they told me to go to the ACU to get checked.

When I got there a little after 10am, I was reading at 160/110! They wanted to monitor me for a few hours and check my blood platelets etc. My BP wasn?t going down, but luckily everything else seemed to be ok, with the exception of a slightly elevated kidney reading. I don?t know what all the scientific stuff is, but it was elevated I guess. Baby, luckily, was doing just fine.

They decided to check my cervix ?ripeness? to see how well I would respond to an induction. I was already having contrax, I think about 2-3 mins apart (I couldn?t feel them) and when she checked me I was 3cm and 75% effaced. So they decided it was time to send me to L&D and start the pitocin. I was 37 weeks and 1 day!

So off I went. I was by myself as my DH was at work and my parents had an hour drive to get to me and my sister a 4 hour drive. DH had to get home and meet my parents and get DS set up with my dad, who was going to stay with him.

I asked them if they could wait to start the pitocin until my DH got there. They waited and also warned me about the possible need for magnesium sulfate and that it was a really awful drug. Pain from the contrax could increase my BP, which may then require I get the mag sulfate. So that was when I asked to get the epidural as soon as possible after the pitocin. I didn?t want to be sick and throwing up while trying to give birth.

So DH and my mom arrived around 4:30 and they started the pitocin. It was taking some time to get regular contrax. My sister arrived later and by around 10:30 I wasn?t really progressing much. I was at 3cm still the last time they checked. I told my mom and sister they could go to my house, which is 30 mins away, to sleep for an hour or so. Of course, as soon as they left they checked me and I was 6 cm. I told my DH to call them back. In 15 mins, I went from 6cm to 10 cm and fully effaced! I was ready to push but my sister and mom weren?t there yet. I ended up waiting for them! I didn?t want them to miss it! So about 30 mins later, they walked in the door not expecting me to be ready to push and the midwife told them let?s go!!!!

So I pushed on the next contrax. One more contraction and she was out! It was really easy and she came out perfectly! No jaundice, no issues with lungs, and I didn?t have any tearing or any issues at all. It was overall a really great experience.

I had to spend the next 3 days in the hospital thanks to my high blood pressure. This SOB is lingering around and just yesterday I went in to get checked and I am still at 160/100, so they upped my BP meds. Hoping this will resolve itself soon. I have to pretty much be a blob and my DH is doing everything, but he and DS have been so wonderful.

My DS has taken to being a big brother wonderfully! It was literally liked he grew up overnight. He has been so sweet, listening better, being more independent, and showing lots of love and concern for his new baby sister. Just a day after being home he told me, ?I love my baby sister, Mom.? Awwwww. He is so amazing.

Mayleigh Emolene is a wonderful baby. Very calm, sweet and beautiful. I?m so much happier not being pregnant, even with the BP and the sleep deprivation.

She was born 6lbs 10.8 oz, 19.5 inches long on November the 16th at 12:14am. She would have been born on Nov. 15 if I didn't wait haha. Dark hair and the cutest little fingers and toes.

Here are a few of my fave pics.
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And Jenn, I think I dressed her in pink for the first time today! Haha. I have plenty of pink in hand me downs, but I didn't buy much myself, which I bought all the NB. I need more too! She is smaller than my DS was and I wasn't expecting that.

Trystan Magnus' Birth Story, Birth Day November 22, 2011:

Hey girls! Forgive me for being absent these past few days! I normally am on via my work computer... my home computer is shot and I've been dreading typing all of this out on my phone but I have no other choice! So as you know I had my Dr appt Tuesday morning. I went in praying that I would be dilated more so that she would just send me straight over to the hospital. I was in so much pain, just walking from my car to her office was excruciating. So she checks my cervix and Im 6 cm dilated! She asks me to get dressed and meet her outside. By this time my heart is pounding and even DH looks nervous. I get dressed, go out into the hall, and she tells me to go straight over to L&D to be admitted. Thankfully we had dropped DD off at my moms earlier and the boys were in school! We walked out and I immediately called my mom to let her know that she was going to get a grandson as an Anniversary present... as that day was my parent's 31st Anniversary! She was so excited she started squealing... and let me know she could pick up my boys from school. So down the street to the hospital we went. Thankfully, I had packed my hospital bag and put it in the car before we left the house, just in case.

We arrive at the hospital, head up to the third floor, and get checked in around noon. They hook me up to all of the fun monitors, and torture me with the IV... trying in my left hand to no avail before switching to my right. I told them I didn't want pit since I was already dilated to 6cm and asked if they could just break my water to move things along. They said they would have to check with my OB... and of course a few minutes later they come back and tell me that they have to give me pit. Well, I knew that pretty much sunk any hopes I had of a natural delivery, as I've had two babies with pit and the contractions were unbearable. So I tell them that I'll want an epi and to please give me whatever fluids I'll need ASAP. The nurses (who are sweet as can be by the way) get that all going.

The contractions start coming on right away, but nothing I can't handle. Finally a resident doctor comes Dr comes in to break my water around 1:30, and that's when the contractions really kick in. Pretty much right away they become unbearable and I let the nurses know. By 2:00 the anesthesiologist arrives and places my epi within five minutes. It takes about thirty minutes to kick in, but when it does sweet relief arrives! I did become extremely sleepy, and pretty much laid there and rested. They checked me right after the epi and I was dilated to 8cm, so they just left me to get to 10cm in peace lol. By 4:30 I was dilated to 10 and they wanted me to do a test push before calling the Dr. I laughed and said that when they wanted me to do that with my last baby, I pushed once and they yelled at me to stop... which is exactly what happened with this baby too! My Dr showed up, suited up, and sat down. She was waiting for me to have a contractions (as I couldn't feel anything) and when she said "ok push," that's exactly what I did! I grabbed the back of my legs, chin to chest, and pushed... and with that one push his head was out and she told me to stop pushing. I couldn't believe it, as she was suctioning his mouth and nose out, she said, "are you having a girl?" I told her no its a boy and why was she asking (and yes, this conversation was taking place as he was hanging half way out if me lol!) and she said it was because his face was so beautiful that she automatically assumed she was delivering a girl! Even the nurses were commenting on his huge chubby cheeks and how gorgeous he was! So I gave one final half push and at 4:53pm he was out!

They put him immediately onto my chest and I got to look onto his beautiful face for the first time... it was incredible. He wasn't crying, just whining a little bit... and he truly was amazing to behold! After a few minutes they took him to be cleaned up and weighed. He was 9 lbs, 1 oz, 19 inches long, apgars were 8 and 9. Because he was over the average weight of a baby, they had to check his blood sugar every hour for four hours, but thankfully everything was ok in that department. The placenta was delivered about ten minutes after birth, and that was perfect as well. No tears or anything... which Im so thankful for, as I have had zero pains down there... even from day one. The only issues I've had is the cramping from breastfeeding, but luckily that's controlled with motrin. He's an absolutely incredible baby who loves to eat and I can't get enough of! My milk came in on Friday morning, and he's loving life lol! Im so thankful that I've been able to share this journey with you girls and I look forward to reading all of your future birth stories, and watching our babies grow together! If you've made it this far I appreciate it, and I hope you enjoyed Trystan Magnus' birth story!

On Thursday December 1 I was at work and felt a small gush of liquid. I went to the bathroom and found lots of clear mucus streaked with a little blood. I had a doctors appointment the next morning, explained the situation, and the doctor checked me. I was almost 100% effaced and 1 cm dilated. The doc was not concerned about the gush and said it could be the mucus plug. Mucus gushes with blood continued over the weekend, and Monday I actually woke up with slightly wet pants and mild contractions. I worked all day Monday and then went to my doctors to get this checked out, even though I was sure it was just mucus discharge and not amniotic fluid. She used a little paper test strip and sure enough it turned purple. She told me my water had broken and I had to go straight to the hospital since there had been gushing since Thursday (4 days) and there was concern about infection. I couldn?t believe it and was starting to panic ? I had not brought anything with me and my computer was still open with work files at home.

I called DH and told him to go get some stuff and meet me at the hospital. When I arrived they hooked my up to the monitors which showed mild contractions about every 10 minutes apart. They did several more tests but could not determine if my water had broken for sure. They wanted to keep me till the next day and do an ultrasound to check amniotic fluid levels. I had contractions all night and they kept me up but didn?t hurt much. They came about every 7-8 minutes and felt exactly like AF cramps.

Next day at noon I got my ultrasound and sure enough amniotic fluid was at 6 cm and the doc wanted to see minimum of 7 cm. By 4 pm the OB came by and recommended induction. I was terrified but he convinced us it was best for baby and we agreed. Within 30 minutes I was hooked up to the oxytocin and IV antibiotics in case of infection. When they first put the heart rate monitor on Ryan?s pulse was really low. I am still not sure if they just caught my pulse or what. The nurse hit a red button on the wall and within seconds 10 people were in the room... very terrifying! They told me I would have to be very closely monitored and stay in bed the whole time. I was so scared that the baby was in distress but his heart rate stabilized.

My contractions remained just slightly uncomfortable until about 8 PM when I started to have to breathe through them slowly. I was even still working on a knitted baby blanket for Ryan ? LOL. That changed fast and within half an hour, the contractions became relatively painful. Since I had no idea how dilated I was and how long this would carry on (all my friends hat 20hr + labours) I decided to ask for the epidural.

They had to first call my doctor in who was at home to check how dilated I was. It took about 20 minutes for her to get there, and once she checked me she said I was already 6 cm. Yay! I still wanted the epidural since contractions had become quite painful but not unbearable. That was around 9 PM. Since I had had low platelets during pregnancy, they had to rerun my blood to check before administering the epi. Unfortunately the lab took FOREVER (1 hr) to get the results back and by that time I was in quite a bit of pain. I was most comfortable sitting in bed semi-reclined, and was breathing through each contraction. They came about every 2-3 minutes and lasted about a minute each at that time. DH and our doula were doing great coaching me through.

When the results came back ok I was told that both anesthesiologists were busy because of an accident and that they would not likely make it in time ? NOT what I wanted to hear!!! I was quite upset but decided to go for IV pain relief (fentanyl), even though I had not wanted to do that. There was just so much pressure on my pelvic floor it felt like it was going to burst. The IV drugs didn?t work all that well but made me pretty sleepy, overall pretty useless. Suddenly the anesthesiologist walked in ? I couldn?t have been happier to see anyone else. They asked me if I felt the urge to push yet and even though I did I said no just so I?d get the epi. Sitting on the side of the bed to get it placed, I felt such pressure on my bottom I thought it would pop.

Once the epi was in it was almost complete relief within 2 contractions. Whew! They checked me and I was 10 cm (I had suspected it). Ironically, they had to break my water because the amniotic sac was still intact! Unfortunately Ryan?s heart rate dropped in response to the epi and we were back to 10 people in the room, panicking on what to do. They gave me the oxygen mask and were turning me side to side to get the heart rate back up. I was crying so hard and trying to relax as much as possible at the same time. Not good. Then I got the shakes on top of that. Ryan?s heart rate came back up but kept dropping during contractions, and they said I had to push him out immediately as he was in distress. I could already see the OB put on his surgical gear in case a C-Section was needed.

Up the legs went and I started to push ? after 1 push the OB pulled out the vacuum and the forceps. I almost had a heart attack but at that stage I was so worried about the baby that I didn?t care anymore! I just wanted him out healthy. After 1 push with the vacuum the OB gave me an episiotomy and Ryan came out on the next push at 11:06 PM. My husband said:?It?s a boy? (we were team green) and everything else faded away. Now I was crying with happiness and relief! I caught a quick glimpse before they whisked him away to a corner for the ped to do his assessment. The OB was stitching me up and thanks to the fabulous epi I couldn?t feel a thing. After what seemed like an eternity they brought him over and he looked at me with these beautiful big quiet eyes and I just fell in love! I only got to hold him for a few minutes as they were doing more tests because of his distress, but after the epi wore off they wheeled me to the NICU and I finally got to cuddle my baby boy. SO in love :D.

Sorry don't know how to resize the photo.

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Nicholas Andrew
December 15 2011
9lbs 3oz, 21 inches
40w3d

I went to my midwife appointment on Thursday afternoon. She checked me and I was 5cm and 90% effaced. She said "well, if I sweep your membranes you will be back here in labor tonight or tomorrow... or we can go upstairs and I can break your water and we can have this baby in a couple hours..." I paused for a second. I was 40w +3, had an extremely favorable cervix... and then was just overcome with excitement. YES YES YES LETS DO IT!!! I called my hubby and we all regrouped and went up to L+D.

They were all so accommodating with my wishes. I didn't get hooked up to any IV's. I was free to roam! Cherri broke my water at 5pm. It only took about 30 minutes for fast and furious contractions. Oh my how quickly I remembered what labor feels like! I labored on the ball for a bit, but really didn't like the pressure of sitting. I was really surprised how comfy the toilet was, as awkward as it seemed to be sitting there with DH! They were getting stronger and stronger and closer together. I started to feel that little wave of panic that says "I can't do this... this hurts... they're coming too fast... I want an epidural...."

Thankfully the nurse came in just at that moment and suggested we get in the shower. That helped tremendously. I did hands and knees and squatting in the shower for a while. Then I started throwing up. I was trembling and shivering all over from exertion. DH and the nurse helped me to stand, then BOOM another contraction. I had a few more kneeling on the bathroom floor waiting to get enough of a break between them to make it back to the bed. I was just starting to get "pushy" feelings. She checked me and said I was a 9 with just a tiny bit of cervix on the right side. She suggested I lay on the right side to get me fully to a 10. At this point I started vomiting like crazy and was soooooo grateful that I hadn't eaten anything in quite some time. I have no idea how much time had passed but I was really feeling time to push.

The nurse called the midwife into the room. They told me he was so low and ready to go he should be out in 3 pushes. No one had any idea how big he was! After about 30 minutes of pushing he was so stuck and wedged trying to get through my pelvis. He was decelerating with every push. My midwife knew we had to try something else. I had been pushing on my side. We changed to me kneeling and squatting which hurt so much less and felt more effective, but wow it was sooo much more tiring!! I got in some really good pushes before they got worried about me falling, I was so tired! I got back onto my side and again had big trouble progressing, he was decelerating, and the biggest part of his head was trying to get through my pelvis. The midwife started talking about pitocin. My pushing was peetering out, she was hoping if she could make my contractions stronger it would compensate for what I was losing in strength. I think once I heard the word "pitocin" I regained some mental effort from somewhere. She said pitocin was our best bet if I couldn't push harder because she didn't want to have to physically intervene. I was definitely afraid of needing a physical intervention, like an episiotomy or vacuum. She sent for the pitocin and I started pushing like crazy. about 6 more pushes and he crowned and his head popped out. WOW that was crazy and so shockingly painful! Then a moment of relief at his neck, then one shoulder and the next, and he was out! All before the pitocin arrived! My labor only took 4 hours. I pushed for an hour and a half.

We were all so shocked I had a 9+ lb baby in there! Me most of all! After the delivery was tough for me. I was shaking so hard and shivering and so cold. I had this panicky anxious feeling I just couldn't shake. I was so overwhelmed. It was so different from the calm relaxing epidural birth of Luke. Nick came out and somehow I just felt so frightened and shocky over what had just happened. I felt really guilty over how shaken I was... I was barely oohing and ahhing over my baby. It took me a good 4 hours to calm down. I'm not sure what that happened. Luke was born and I was all bubbles and tears and so excited and in love. Now that we are home I'm feeling so much better. I feel a lot more settled. Laying in our bed with him nursing, him all snuggled against me, is wonderful! THIS is how it should feel.

I'm starting to process the birth and I have realized what a GOOD thing it was I didn't get an epidural even though I wanted it sooo badly! I don't know how he would have gotten out had I been stuck on my back. Squatting is the only thing that got him out. I am so grateful in retrospect!!! I probably would have ended up with a forcep delivery, he was just so big!! I gained 22 pounds... and had a 9+ pound baby, I'm still SHOCKED. I have no idea how I grew such a big boy.

Here is his royal cuteness...

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Andrew's Birth story

12/6/11
The day started like the previous 3-4 days with contrax every 15-30 minutes. Pain scale about a 3-4. Around 1 pm I put Eli down for a nap then gave the older boys and my husband a haircut. I wasn't happy about doing it but it needed to be done. While waiting for my husband to help clean up the hairy mess I got in the shower at about 230. All the hair on me was bothering me. As I stood on the shower my contrax seemed to get closer together and one or two of them were pretty strong. I stayed in the shower until 315. My oldest,Jesse, had just got home from school and i told my husband we should go in. I hadn't timed the contrax but they were coming faster. Perhaps 3-5 minutes apart. I called the docs office to inform them I was heading in. Of course the nurse had loads of questions for me and finally decided it was a good idea that I head in to L&D. I'm thinking "I wasn't asking if I should. Im just going in!"

So we leave the house at 345 and get to the hospital at 400. They were ready for me and got checked within a few minutes. The same MW who delivered Eli was on and she was excited to see me. As i was being checked i told her i wanted the epidural and she says,"you just missed out. A woman with twins came in water broken so she was in emergency csection and anesthesiology wasn't going to be available for a while." I was 8cm and bulging bag of water. Baby's head was sort of off center so technically he was still floating in there. I was rushed off to an LDR room to get settled.*

The bed they had in the room wasn't working right and after 4-5 minutes tinkering with it they decided to switch it out. In the meantime I emptied my bladder and stood around. The nurse commented that I wasn't going to deliver on the floor. "I'm not so sure" I thought to myself. Must have been the look on my face.*

I get all hooked up with an IV, monitors, etc. contrax are about a 6-7 at this point. Probably still 3-5 minutes apart. My DH was writhing watching me in pain *he asked me at one point "are you sure don't want something for pain?" nope *its an epi for me or nothing. i cant stand to feel "drunk" and birth a baby. *I think I must have had 6-7 contrax in the 45 minutes we were there before telling my nurse that i cant do this and* I got the one that I knew baby was coming. That was scary! I tell the nurse "baby's coming!" and she yells for the MW for delivery then tells me not to push. "haha, what?!? I'm still going to push," I thought to myself. Apparently, I have a lot of inner dialog. :lol: I felt like I had to push to get some sort of sense of control. I kept pushing, water breaks, kept pushing until that sensation passed. I got about a minute to rest and then I got the next contrax which wasn't as bad, in an out of control *sort of way. I pushed for as long as I could. It was harder to push this baby out than Eli was so I briefly thought this one is bigger. I pushed the remainder of the contrax. Hello, Ring of fire!!! Then a pop(baby's head is out) they keep telling me to push (baby's heartbeat wasn't being picked up at all during the delivery, i think they were nervous) and oh lord the shoulders come out. Owie! Rest of baby slides out. Its now 5:05pm. Then instant relief. Baby is on my belly all warm and slimy the best feeling in the world. I look down to see what we got, its a boy!

As they take him to get cleaned up and evaluated the MW was delivering placenta or rather waiting to and she tells the other nurses that the baby was born in the caul. She had to remove it from his face. He had one loose nuchal cord. APGARS 8/9. No tears or skid marks. Nothing! I was sure I was going to tear during the crowning.*

He nursed within about 30 minutes of birth. He's doing great with it. His first night he slept great with a four hr stretch at one point. Night #2 was rougher but he got a really long nursing session in and finally slept from 3-7am*

My recovery was going great until I had the tubal. *I couldnt eat or drink after midnight *i guess b/c they have to squeeze me into their surgery schedule I didnt go in for the tubal until 1pm. I was so hungry. I chose to have a spinal for the surgery but maybe thinking i should have chose general b/c i had to wait in recovery until I could move my legs/toes. *That took 2 hrs. Its been alot more painful than i expected and I'm sure my pain is fairly normal but I broke down and cried it hurt so bad last night. Mostly from gas I think but it is really sore the whole belly and especially around the incision. Vicodin is working pretty well so I can care for the baby. I feel for all the csection Mama's. I hope everyone of you have a speedy recovery.*

We are heading home today and we finally have a name.*

Andrew James*

Who would have thought naming another boy would be so hard. I don't know how the Duggars do it.*

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Coming home from hospital.
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http://i75.photobucket.com/albums/i2...n/bda290ba.mp4
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Just the other day.
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I had been having some contractions in the days leading up to my c-section date. They got worse at night, and they definitely made me nervous, but I knew that if it was true labor, they would be coming closer together and getting more intense, which they were not. And during the day, they were very random. DH and I had pretty much decided on a name a couple of days earlier. Everyone kept asking us, but we told no one. Not even Austin (especially Austin) because we knew he would tell everyone. :) DH chose the spelling of her first name.

We were supposed to be at the hospital at 5:30 a.m. on Thursday, December 1. I slept maybe 2 hours total the night before- I kept waking up. Finally around 4:00 I just got up, finished packing my bags, and took a shower. DH and I took some last belly pics of me beside the Christmas tree, and we were on our way in the early morning darkness. Austin had spent the night with DH's mom & step-dad at their hotel, and my parents and sister were at our house, still asleep.

On the way to the hospital, I was thinking about how unbelievable it was that we actually made it to the c-section date. We finally knew for sure when our daughter's birthday would be. We got to the hospital, and they wheeled me up to L&D in a wheelchair, even though I could walk just fine (hospital policy). I had to sign a bunch of paperwork and then they put me in a room. I changed into a gown and got in bed. The nurse Kathryn was so nice. She and another nurse Linda, got me all hooked up to the IV and took blood, etc. DH's mom & step-dad arrived with Austin about 6:30 or so. My parents and sister got there about 7:00. They all got to be in the room with me, and we were all just chatting. Austin was watching Nick Jr on the television in the room.

The anesthesiologist came in and introduced herself and turned up my IV to get more fluids in me. My surgery was actually scheduled for 7:30 a.m. but that time came and went, as my doctor had not arrived yet. The nurses kept coming in and doing stuff, saying that the dr. still wasn't here. Finally, around 8:15, the nurse came in and said, "he's here!" I gave Austin a kiss and the nurses walked me down the short hall to the OR. DH stayed behind for a minute to put on his scrubs while they gave me my spinal. I was so nervous, I was trying not to shake. The spinal went in fine, they layed me down on the bed, and I felt my legs get warm and numb. I could still wiggle my toes at first, but then that feeling went away and I couldn?t move them at all. I panicked a little and I remembered that feeling from my last c-section. I had to just force my mind away from thinking about it. The anesthesiologist kept checking me, rubbing a cold alcohol swab on my chin and then on my chest, asking me if it felt different or the same- she was checking to make sure the spinal had taken effect in the right places. The dr. came in, said hi, flipped on the CD player (Dixie Chicks "Wide Open Spaces" began to play) and everyone got into place. I think there were 4 nurses and 2 anesthesiologists in the room, besides my doctor.

DH came in and sat down beside my head and held my hand the entire time. I was just really nervous and scared something was going to go wrong- I kept looking at the monitors to see my blood pressure, etc. I smelled the burning smell as the dr. was cutting my skin, I guess. I was reassured by the small-talk chatter by the dr. and nurse as my surgery was going on. I kept listening for that, because I knew that everything was going okay if they were talking small-talk. The anesthesiologist kept putting her hand on my head and that reassured me as well. She was all around the room, checking on things constantly. She said I was doing fine, and apparently my pulse-ox was really good, and she said I had "good lungs". She said "I bet no one has ever told you that before, huh?" Kinda funny. Finally, she said, "they're almost to your baby, you're going to get to meet her very soon!" It seemed very surreal, the fact that she was almost here in the world, after all this time. Finally, finally, they said, "here she is!" and I saw her above the curtain, being lifted, all covered in white goop, on her way to the warmer/scale. It was 8:40 a.m. Her little red face was all scrunched up, and she started crying! A little squawking cry. I had been waiting 9 months for that sound. My eyes welled up with tears and I couldn't even talk when they showed her to me. They put her on this space-age warmer thing a few feet away, and started cleaning her up and suctioning out her lungs. DH was over there with them. I could only see a little bit of what they were doing, but I could see her hands - her fingers were so long! I saw a cup about half full of fluid and assumed that came out of her lungs. Apparently she had sucked a lot of it into her lungs. After a few minutes, they weighed her and everyone exclaimed, "7lb 7oz!" Someone said, "That will be easy to remember!" Then they wrapped her up, DH held her by my head and a nurse snapped a few pictures of DH, the baby, and my head. Haha! Then DH took off with her to the nursery. I was left to be put back together and sewn up. I felt a ton of pressure in my chest area - it felt really weird - and I commented on it to the anesthesiologist. She said it was because they had my uterus out and when they put it back, the pressure would go away. It was really weird to think about all my innards just flopped out on the table. I realized after a few moments that my wrists were strapped down. I'm not sure when that happened, or maybe they had been that way the whole time, but I don't think so. Toward the end, the anesthesiologist put something in my IV to help me relax - she called it a "mommy cocktail". I started feeling very sleepy and kind of woozy. The dr. finished up and left, and the nurses hefted me to another bed and wheeled me back into the room I came out of. It was empty- all the family had gone to the nursery to see the baby. The nurse commented that everyone had deserted me. :) I said that was okay with me.

After a few minutes, DH came back in and brought the baby with him (or the nurse brought her back, I can't remember which - everything was a little fuzzy at this time). Then the family came back and Austin was the first one in the room. I was holding the baby and I said to Austin, "come see your baby sister, this is Allyson Joy." Everyone oohed and ahhed over her and her name and began snapping pics of Austin and the baby, the baby with grandparents, the baby with our minister (who had arrived with his wife), the baby with my sister, etc. Finally we got a few family pics of all 4 of us- something I really wanted to get. Of course I was sort of drugged up and looking a little haggard in my lovely hospital gown, but the pics turned out pretty good. Austin seemed very happy with his new little sis.

I stayed in that room - recovery - for another couple of hours. I nursed Allyson (after everyone cleared the room) - she latched on really well, and had a really strong suck! And then they moved me to my private room, where I would be for the next 2 days.

Phineas arrived early, on December 15th (despite his Jan 10th due date). Mom's midwife noticed an elevated blood pressure at her 36 week appointment on Dec 14 and ordered some blood labs, as well as have her do a 24hr urine collection for protein. When the blood results came back on Dec 15, her liver enzymes were very elevated, so we were admitted to the hospital that very day due to danger of preeclampsia and HELLP syndrome, throwing our whole birth center birth plan out the window. They wanted to induce immediately, and both mom and dad were in a bit of shock and denial until they checked mom's cervix, and it turned out she was already 4cm dilated, 100% effaced, at 0 station, and mom was already having contractions without really feeling them (other than some slight tightness in her abdomen). Obviously Phineas wanted to come out. A quick urine sample test showed protein in the urine. They started mom on a magnesium-sulfate IV drip to reduce the chance of seizures (which can occur with HELLP syndrome) and antibiotics as the GBS test had only been done the day prior and results were not back yet. The doctor broke mom's water, but otherwise we didn't have to do any inducement. The nurse allowed mom to get out of bed at one point and labor while sitting on the toilet which may have helped advance her dilation from 4cm to 8cm by the next cervical check. They offered to let her labor in the tub however at that point mom was feeling pretty hot and woozy from the magnesium drip and she elected not to as she would have to come out of the tub for the actual delivery. Mom labored great, without pain killers or Pitocin. She tried lying on her side for a while to help with back labor. Finally, Phineas came out screaming about 5 hours later from when we were admitted. Phineas was placed directly on mom's chest and did not need any interventions from the NICU team who were able to leave the room shortly after his arrival. Placenta took a little longer to be delivered than anticipated (about 40 minutes) so Pitocin was started to help bring it out intact as we did have a secondary lobe that they did not want to lose. Mom had only minor tearing (not even 1st degree per doctor) and just had two stitches placed. He was 36 weeks and 2 days, but came out 6 lbs 11 oz., though a little short at 19.3 inches. Mom and baby had to stay at the hospital 2 days because of frequent jaundice checks for Phineas, preliminary results showing positive GBS so they wanted to make sure that Phineas did not develop an infection, also to work on his feeding as he was losing some weight, and mom needed to be monitored for her blood pressure, liver enzymes and blood counts. After being discharged, Phineas was put on a supplemental feeding routine to help gain back lost weight but is now doing full-time breastfeeding without need for syringe or bottle feedings. Mom's blood pressure is now back to normal and she has been able to taper down her blood pressure meds to nothing and her recent labs show that everything else is normalizing.

Just realized I never moved this to the sticky. Can't believe its been almost a year already!

Claire's Birth Story

I woke up at about 4am on Friday, December 16th 2011 to use the restroom. After I laid back in bed I started to feel a rolling tightening feeling in my pelvic and abdominal region. Since this is my first baby it took me a few minutes to realize what I was feeling might be contractions.

At 4:30 am I decided to wake up DH and have him time a few to see how far apart they were. They were very irregular intervals so I told DH to go back to sleep. At 6:30 they were still at irregular intervals but my back was starting to ache so I decided to take a bath and listen to my hypnobirthing relaxation cd. DH had an important meeting at work so at 7 am he headed into work.

At 9 am my DH called to check on me and asked if he could stay at work for another couple hours and I reluctantly agreed because my contractions were still around 10 minutes apart but I changed my mind about 30 minutes later because being home alone was making me anxious and interfering with my self-hypnosis and breathing techniques.

DH got home at about 10:30 am and helped me get back into my hypnobirthing techniques and then went to get us lunch and finally helped me get showered and dressed.

At 3 pm DH started timing my contractions again to see if we needed to head to hospital. The OB clinic says to head in when contractions are 4 to 5 minutes apart for 1 to 2 hours. My contractions went from a little over 5 minutes apart lasting 30 seconds to just under 4 minutes lasting 50 seconds in the 25 minutes that we were timing so we decided to head into the hospital.

On our way to the hospital, the contractions continued to increase in intensity and frequency. By the time we got to the hospital I had 3 contractions just trying to walk into the building.

We were settled in our labor room by about 4:15 and checked for the first time. I was already 100% effaced and 8 cm dilated. After that the nurses suddenly began moving quick and getting things set up and my favorite of the midwives stopped by to let me know that I had gotten lucky and she was the one on call that night and would be the one delivering Claire. By 5 pm, they had my IV in and the penicillin started. (I was GBS positive.)

At about 5:30 pm I started feeling like pushing and asked that the nurse check me again. She said baby's head was right there and she could see the bulging bag of waters but I wasn?t quite 10 cm. She called the MW in though and the MW checked me and said I just had a little shelf left and that she couldn't let me push until I was a full 10 cm. The next 20 minutes were some of my worst contractions because all my body wanted to do was push and I couldn't.

At 6 pm the MW said I was finally fully dilated and could start pushing. As soon as I started pushing I felt this very strong need to sit up. The MW moved my bed and it basically turned into a big chair with handles right next to my butt and then a long foot part on the bottom which my MW sat on to wait for the baby. They also suggested DH sit on the bed behind me to give me something to support my back during the contractions. At some point during the pushing I actually slid down into a full squat position with my arms supporting almost all of my weight. My water finally broke about 20 minutes into pushing.

At 6:46 pm Claire was born and immediately placed on my chest but my arms and legs were so tired that I collapsed back on DH's legs and he had to help me hold her on my chest. Claire started breast feeding just minutes after she was born and was on my chest for over a hour while they cleaned me up, put in my stitches, and delivered the placenta. Even her first bath was done in our room with DH helping.

The only negative thing I can really say about her entire birth was that the antibiotic was only in for an hour so we had to stay 2 & 1/2 days so they could monitor her for signs of infection.

She was 6 lbs 14 ounces, 21 inches long and perfect.