Zoe Marie

Zoe Marie is 10 days old now, and she has been the easiest, cuddliest, most loving baby I've ever had. She's had no issues at all with breastfeeding, which for us is HUGE. No problems sleeping at all, it's been wonderful.

Her birth was exactly what I had hoped for, I don't think even through telling it I will be able to convey the peace, love, joy and amazement I felt in that room that day, and continue to feel every time I hear her little mewing. 

We had been scheduled for an induction on Monday, but on Friday we found out there was another woman who needed to be induced that day so we were rescheduled for Tuesday. It was a long day! On Monday evening, at 5:30PM the office called and said they were "so sorry" but they needed to reschedule me again for Thursday. I was seriously... discouraged. My mom was already over, we had already talked to the kids about what the plans were for the next day. My mom decided to stay with us that night anyway. Around 3PM on Tuesday, they called and told me there was a spot open on Wednesday morning after all, I would need to be there at 5AM. 

On Wednesday morning we got to the hospital right at 5, checked in and got all ready to have my water broken. At my last appointment in the office, I had been dilated to 3 or 4 and at +1 station. We were sure that once my water was broken, I would go really quick. 

Things were stalled for a bit because I had forgotten to pre-register at the hospital. We had to call admissions and do all that over the phone, then wait for the nurses to come back in, etc. Our nurse explained that we needed 30 minutes of the baby's heart beat to be recorded before they were able to start a pitocin drip. I explained that we were going for a more "natural" induction and just breaking my water. They said, Hmmm... we hadn't heard that. Since I have a history of hemorrhaging, we had a ton of blood work to do, then they realized they had put the wrong stickers on the vials and were over in the corner correcting that when my OB came in. He checked me and said I was dilated to 4 and with no warning he broke my water. The nurses had their back to him and were completely unaware that he was going to do that. They hadn't prepared at all for it at all, no towel, no whatever they put down usually. Well, it was quite shocking to us all, when my water gushed and gushed and gushed. I've never had extra amniotic fluid, just like, normal people amount usually. 

My doctor's pants got all wet, all the blankets, all over the floor. My response, "Oh no! My feet are getting wet!" and he says, "Mine are too!" We all were laughing pretty hard. At my appointment the week before I had only been measuring at 35 weeks, so basically, I was already small. We decided this baby was probably going to be a tiny lady!!

He ran off to change and the nurses tsk tsk'd about it. "We would have prepped if we knew what was going on!" They said in good humor. It took awhile to get settled back in after having to change everything while remaining in a reclined position to make sure the baby's head was engaged and the cord wouldn't come out first. 

Because of the amount of water, they decided they wanted Zoe to be monitored directly so they put an internal monitor on her head. They explained that since she had so much room to swim around there was a chance she would have been tangled in the cord. 

At 9:15 my Dr. came back in and said he was going to have to go over to Deaconess (about 20 minutes away) for a surgery, so would I be ok with a very low pit drip. I said yes and we got all hooked up. After that started I decided I wanted to have an epidural since pitocin can give you some nasty contractions. My nurse asked if I was feeling any contractions, I said no, she says, Are you sure? You're having some pretty good ones?" I said nope, not feeling anything. I wasn't feeling any cramps, no back pain, literally nothing. 

I had the epidural in at 10:00AM and immediately I felt exhausted. At this point we were having contractions about a minute and a half apart. 

I fell asleep on and off for about an hour and a half, I had been having such bad contractions and back pain, and pelvic pain for weeks, the epidural was SUCH a relief! It was very restful sleep. 

At 12:30 I was dilated to 8. I still hadn't felt any contractions, they turned down my epidural and I could move my legs a bit. The room became pretty busy, bringing in the baby bed and setting up the tray and all that. The nurses kept telling me it was amazing that I wasn't feeling any contractions at all, not even one. They stood in front of me talking to me and watching my face and looking over at the screen in disbelief. 

"Call us the second you feel like you need to push!" they said.

This is pretty much exactly what happened with Sam, which is one reason I'm always game for induction. I had and have no desire to ever deliver my own baby on my bathroom floor! ;)

12:43 I was dilated to 9. Jerry and I just sat there looking at each other and nervously giggling, in a little bit of disbelief. I barely believed we were there at the hospital let alone minutes away from having our 7th baby... ack! SEVEN KIDS? lol. On the next contraction I felt it, just a tiny bit, that almost need to push. I looked at Jerry and said, well... I might call the nurse... then another contraction and I definitely felt it stronger. "okay, I'm calling the nurse." 

I rang the nurses button and they bustled in, my doctor had left just a few minutes before to head to the other Hospital, so his partner ran in. 

When my next contraction wave came a minute later, I took a deep breath and pushed. "I can see her head!" they said. We waited for the next contraction pushed again and her head was out. I pushed a second time and she was out. She was here. 12:47PM. It was so quick! They put her on my chest and she looked at me with disbelief too.