Zoe's birth story

Everyone's birth story is different and I actually thought Zoe's was a little boring, but I thought I still needed to write it down so that she knows that SHE is not the reason for her boring birth story.

So the day started out pretty normal. I had posted the day before on Facebook that I was getting a pedicure, making bread and wishing for this baby to make her appearance. Everyone assured me that I needed to be a little more patient, but I think I had a bit of a clue that she was coming earlier rather than later. I had my regular weekly OB visit at about 9:30 where they took my blood pressure. I think it was about 185/110 at that point and the nurse very calmly told me to lay on my left side and then said "I think you're going to the hospital." The doctor came in and checked my cervix (still not dilated very much) and confirmed that I needed to go to the hospital. He told me that they would do some lab work, make a diagnosis and then we would make a decision on whether the baby would come today or possibly tomorrow. He added that he would probably be seeing me sometime soon. I had an ultrasound the week before that confirmed that the baby was right on track, and he didn't like the looks of my spikey blood pressure.

My doctor's office is right next to the hospital so I should have just walked over, but I drove over to the entrance where there wasn't a speck of parking left (it was almost 11:00 by this point). So I parked in a parking deck and walked about three blocks to the entrance to the hospital and checked myself into the Labor and Delivery Triage. I called John at work and told him I was at the hospital and we agreed that it was going to take a few hours for them to get the labs back and to determine what was actually going to happen, so he stayed at work until his shift ended.

After three tries, they finally got an IV placed in my left hand. Then another nurse looked at the IV in my hand and said "I bet that hurts!" And it did. She offered to move the IV to my arm and I took her up on the offer. It was a much more comfortable site and I was glad, after four tries, that I didn't have to  be poked anymore. And then they had to take some more labs - so they poked me again.

They monitored my blood pressure for a couple of hours and it wasn't going down even after I was laying on my left side for an eternity. The good news was that all my labs came back great - I wasn't pre-eclamptic at all! While this was good news, they still didn't like that my blood pressure was in the "What if she has a seizure?" zone and they didn't want to send me home. After a short discussion with my doctor, the nurses came in and told me that we were having a baby today!

That was about the time that John got off work, made it back to our house to get my pre-packed bags, and made it to the hospital at about 3:00 p.m. While we were a little worried that she wouldn't be fully cooked, we were remarkably calm through the whole thing. We called our parents and told them that I was being prepped for surgery. My doctor just needed to make his appearance at the hospital and we were going to get this party started. He was doing some robotic surgery at another hospital and he needed to finish it up before he got to my c-section, but we were assured we were on schedule for about a 6:00 pm delivery.

Then we waited. And waited. And waited some more.

Turns out that I wasn't an "emergency" c-section and I got bumped by a lady who was. We were still good, just waiting some more.

I was finally set to walk to the operating room where they gave me my spinal and did the final preparations before they sat John next to my head. I told my OB that I wanted to see her as soon as she came out (I didn't get to see Annie until  they cleaned her up and wrapped her in a blanket). I was fully numb and they started the c-section. It didn't take very long before they were pushing her out (a nurse was literally pressing my abdomen to get her to come out) and we heard her screaming. I felt everything, but there was no pain. The doctor then lifted my Zoe over the drape and let me look at my dripping, screaming baby. She was pretty mad - but oh so cute. 

The nurses guessed at her weight and said she might be 6 pounds. I knew she was smaller than Annie, but I didn't know how much smaller until I was able to hold her (about a half hour after I delivered her). The nurses in the operating room were very kind and called down to the nursery to find out that she was 5 pounds 8 ounces and doing very, very well. Daddy was with her the whole time I was being sewed back together and both Daddy and Zoe met me in the recovery room where I was finally able to love on my little monkey-bird.

See - not as exciting as some birth stories - although at least with Zoe there was a little of the element of surprise. It gets much more exciting each day she's here - we're figuring everything out and getting her situated in our family rather nicely.