The Baby Story

I never wrote down the story of Maddie's birth although I do still remember it rather clearly after 5 years so I figured I really should this time around. Especially since Zoey's baby book looks practically brand new compared to Maddie's. Oops!

Due to gestational diabetes (again, gah!) I was scheduled for an induction at 39 weeks which was June 24th. I had an induction planned for Maddie too but she was on her own schedule and came at 38 weeks on her own. That was very nice of her. I was HOPING all last week that Zoey would make the same decision and come on her own too but no luck there. I am blaming it on the fact that our house is just way too noisy for a baby to voluntarily come early to us!

Friday morning I called L&D at 7am to find out they had no room for us yet and that they would call me back when it was time to come in. Well great. I was already a nervous wreck and just wanted to get this show on the road! Thankfully L&D called around 9am and we headed out.

Prior to the horrible contractions I was able to Tweet. Yeah I did that.

I had no clue what to expect with an induction so I was definitely nervous this time. After getting settled into my laboring room Brandon brought Maddie to a friend's house to wait out the arrival of her baby sister. While Brandon was out the doctor came in and went over the plan. I was only 2cm dilated at the time and my cervix was still super high so I got to enjoy a lovely Foley bulb and a Pitocin drip to start with. The bulb err insertion was so awkward and I was SOOO happy hubby wasn't there for that lovely show!

By 11:00am I was laying in bed crunching on ice chips with all sorts of things sticking out of all sorts of places, I was a sight to be seen by the time Brandon got back to the hospital. Next was the waiting game. Oh the waiting and waiting. I wasn't sure how long it would take for the Foley bulb to do it's thing but was pleasantly surprised to see it really wasn't more than an hour or so. Basically it fell out just in time for me to use the bathroom. Hurray!

The nurse continued to up my Pitocin drip throughout the day but at the time it didn't really appear to be doing much. Then the back labor began. Oh the horrible back labor. I had the same thing with Maddie and I forgot how crappy it was! It took me about an hour or so of wriggling around in the bed to realize that standing around the room made my contractions practically undetectable. What a relief.

Per Maddie's request an ewwy picture of Zoey. Weird kid I know!

The Foley bulb made me dilate to 4cm but the Pitocin wasn't doing much for getting me past that point. Grrr. It seemed like I spent hours standing around doing nothing. Eventually my drip was up to 16 (they don't go higher than 20 without special orders) so the doctor finally decided it was time to break my water and get the show on the road. Around 10:30pm the doctor came and brought on that lovely gush. EWWW. Can I just say the face my husband made was priceless when he heard the gush. Oh yeah that poor man was definitely surprised! lol

Friday night TV during the summer is pretty much crap so we ended up flipping the TV to America's Funniest Home Videos. Of course my laughing led to plenty of mini gushes. It wasn't cool. During the water breaking process Zoey spinned so my back labor disappeared and I was now having regular contractions. I skipped having an epidural right away in hopes that I could deal with the contractions the same way I was with the back labor. Nope. Not so much.

I baked that baby!

When they broke my water the nurse said to just let her know if and when I wanted the epidural because the floor was pretty quiet and I could get it at any time. Awesome. 11pm rolled around and I was officially in agony. Regular contractions and the Pitocin up to 18 was killing me. We called the nurse in to find the the good ole' giant needle doctor only to find out she was caught up in a twin delivery and would be awhile. Uh huh. A while is being nice. Two hours later when I was still without the epidural a nurse hooked me up with some meds that pretty much knocked me out cold. It didn't help the contractions BUT it did make me sleep (sort of) between them. I felt ridiculously drugged and that was A-okay with me!

It ended up taking 4 hours between the time I asked for the epidural and the time I got it. Not cool. The nurses were telling me I was such a champ and a perfect patient but really I think she was just trying to keep me from flipping out! haha Eventually the giant needle lady showed up but getting the epidural was a lot worse this time around because I was having such a hard time keeping in the position she wanted while my contractions were coming on strong and frequently.

Absolutely in love at first sight. Zoey looks just like Maddie did as a newborn.

With the epidural in place I was a much happier lady. Obviously. I was shocked at how quickly I went from 6cm right before the epidural to 9cm within an hour. HURRAY! FINALLY! Transition began and I was shaking uncontrollably but it was finally time to do a few practice pushes and get this baby out.

At 4:30am on Saturday the 25th the doctors began setting up everything and getting ready. The doctors and nurses were making bets on how quickly I could do this and I was feeling rather err lackluster at the time. Exhausted, sore, hungry, thirsty and ready to just be done it was time to push. The doctors were betting on me meeting my little girl by 5am and I am thrilled to say it happened. Pushing through 3 contractions and Zoey Belle joined us. Thank goodness!!!

Daddy has ANOTHER baby girl!

She was a screamer which was the best thing to hear at the time. Tears in my eyes I was thrilled to finally be done. Zoey was absolutely perfect with 10 fingers and 10 toes. The post delivery went much smoother with Zoey than it did with Maddie which I was very thankful for. No tearing was my only other goal besides a healthy baby and boy was I happy to hear I was successful on that one!

Sweet baby Zoey Belle born on Saturday June 25th at 4:54am.

Now at 4 days post delivery I am feeling pretty great. My only pains are in my back which the ibuprofen is doing an awesome job with. Zoey is nursing and sleeping very well. My milk is just starting to come in and thankfully not too painful yet. Now I am just enjoying my new life at home as a mommy of two beautiful girls!

Big sister love!