Emily's Birth Day

So many of my friends are expecting or have just given birth.  Don't forget to take some time to write it all down before it's long forgotten.  I love looking back on my birth stories.  I wrote them all down during my first week home with my newborn.  Cherish the memories.  Here is my very first birth story that somehow never made it to the blog.  Would you believe we got this one on video too?  You wouldn't expect anything less, I know.  And no, you won't find it on my YouTube channel.  Emily turns six years old this Sunday.  Where has the time gone?

IT’S A GIRL!!!

December 5th, 2005 by babystow

The Birth of Emily Anne Stow
11/27/05 5:11 a.m.
8 lbs. 9 oz., 21 inches

Mommy's Girl

I had the most beautiful delivery ever. Chris says I was like a machine……I didn’t have much pain at all and during the delivery of the placenta I was saying, “that was a piece of cake….I’ll definitely be doing that again” and the doctor said that was the first time she had ever heard that said in labor and delivery…..

Well, she was a week late. Here’s a lengthy play by play of what went on.

11/26/11...Waters have broken!

We went out to Chinese food with Chris’s parents. YUM. Got home around 7:30ish and skipped out on my 10 year H.S. reunion because I just didn’t want to tire myself out or have anything happen while I was there. Good thing! At 8:45, we were sitting on the couch watching TV and I felt a tiny trickle when I sat back. Said to myself, “hmmmm.” Then I got up and went to the bathroom and felt OK. Sat on the couch, felt another trickle. So I said to Chris and his parents…..I think I might be peeing my pants or else something is going on….So I made Chris come to the bathroom with me. When I stood up from peeing, sure enough…..some went down the leg. I couldn’t believe it was happening to me…..only happens in like 20% of pregnancies or something. So I called the doctor and told them I think my water broke. We drove in around 10:15 without any pain - so weird because I thought I’d be in lots of pain on the way to the hospital. Water was gushing more and more when we reached the Emergency Room and everyone was watching me and smiling, saying good luck and everything. Super cool! We went up to the 5th floor to L&D and arrived at the evaluation room at 11pm. I put my johnny on and they had me go to the bathroom to test my fluid to make sure it was amniotic and sure enough! Then they hooked me up to the fetal heart beat and contraction monitors. The nurse said I was in fact contracting, but I didn’t feel a thing! So cool. I was sooooo excited. Then they told me Dr. Simmons was on call and she came in to see us. She checked me and I was still only 3 cm. Since I tested positive for strep B at one of my recent doctors visits, they had to put me on a penicillin drip. Then Dr. Simmons said that she would suggest pitocin as well to bring things on since my water was broken. So I said, “bring it on!” The only problem was that they hooked up the IV on my left hand and it was really, really painful. After all my drugs were hooked up the IV stand, they sent us over to L&D and I was in room 4. A beautiful, big room with all the necessities…..very comfortable and relaxing. My hand was killing me though, so I got the nurse to redo the line and put it in my left arm and after that I felt so much better! I swear, that IV was the worst part of the whole experience!

Laughing through contractions?  

I was the only patient on the labor and delivery floor! So quiet and peaceful with lots of very nice nurses coming in to check on me. Chris and I took one short walk up and down the hallway, but it wasn’t so fun because of the water still gushing. It was all so surreal! We came back to the room and I sat in the chair for a while waiting for the pains to come on. Nurse Jodi kept kicking up the pitocin every 15 mins. She said, “you just let me know when you want your epidural…..we can do it anytime.” I was so unsure of when to ask for it since I was feeling ok. Then all of a sudden at 2 am (ish) I started to feel some heavy cramping. I was so concerned about being able to go to the bathroom and was nervous about all that, so I went one last time (very difficult with gushing waters and so many contraptions strapped on to me.) Nurse Jodi told me that she would put a catheter in and I’d be all set. Ok, ok. Dr. Simmons came in to see us and we just chatted with her for awhile. We talked about her 2 year old baby and her residency and things….felt like we were just hanging out! She is soooo nice. When she left she said I think we’ll have a baby by noon time tomorrow! So I thought to myself, jeeze….better get in that bed then! So they brought in a cot for Chris and got that set up. Then at 2:20 I said the word for my EPIDURAL!!! Dr. Dave came in and explained everything he was going to do, step by step. He was very nice and calming. He put the epidural in between contractions and I could feel it working pretty much immediately. Piece of cake getting that….painless. After Dr. Dave left, Jodi monitored things for me and put in the catheter. I did tell her that I could still feel stuff on my left side. She said, “it’s probably just pressure of the baby moving.” But I didn’t think so. Felt like a window where the epidural didn’t really work so well. But it wasn’t THAT bad. I was worried though that the pain would get worse and I would feel worse and worse on my left. By 3am I was just resting comfortably while Chris was in his cot. Nurse Jodi kept pumping up the pitocin and she told me that the pitocin makes the contractions very strong and closer together, but doesn’t necessarily make my cervix dilate. Well, boy did I have news for her! At 4:00 a.m. I started getting pretty severe contractions that didn’t seem to have a break between them. I told Chris I was in a lot of pain. I tried to breathe through them, but was thinking my epidural is obviously NOT WORKING……how will I last hours and hours like this?? The pains were so bad that they brought tears to my eyes and I was grabbing the bed rail. I only felt these for about 15 minutes though. At 4:10 a.m. I told Chris to go get Jodi because I couldn’t stand the pain any longer and I was ready to get my epidural moved or something. Something wasn’t right. So Jodi came in and I told her how I was feeling. She said, “let me check you.” This was only the 2nd time I had been checked since walking in the place. She said, “you know why you feel some pain? You are going to have a baby!! You are 10 cm.!!” The tears just started flowing like a river….I was SO EXCITED!!! I couldn’t believe how quickly things had progressed. It was really unbelievable. I was ready to push!! We were going to meet our little baby!!!!!!

I asked Jodi about how bad the pain would be during delivery if I was having pain now. She said that the pushing actually counteracts the pain and she was SO RIGHT! I started pushing with Jodi right away and I knew when I was contracting so I crunched and pushed while holding my own legs. I had no idea if I was doing things correctly, but I ended up doing 3 big pushes with each contraction and resting in between. The resting was awesome. I felt so good. Pushing was awesome too because I was SO EXCITED. I took control of the pushing, no one needed to tell me when to push or what to do. Within the first few pushes Chris and Jodi could see the top of the head and lots of hair because the baby was crowning. Jodi told me that we want to get to a point where that head doesn’t go back in and it sits there. I said, “ok, how do I do that?” She said just keep doing what you are doing….doing great. I would say I pushed for about 10 more contractions before Jodi had Chris call for Dr. Simmons to come in. I couldn’t believe it. SO FAST, SO PAINLESS, SO READY TO MEET MY BABY! Chris kept telling me how great I was doing and how much head was there and they asked me if I would like to see and I said ok. So, they wheeled in a big mirror and I got to see all that was down there. I said, “OH MY GOD!!!! NOW THAT’S MOTIVATION TO PUSH!!!” I could not believe my eyes. The head was sitting right there! I wasn’t feeling an awful ring of fire, or scary pain…..just pressure. Dr. Simmons and Jodi got all set up and it was just amazing…they removed the lower part of the bed, got all the equipment ready, started talking baby ID #s and warming up the baby station. I asked if I could push and they told me to wait……I thought, “oh, ok….”

I pushed only a few times with Dr. Simmons there. The best moment was when she said, “Ok, Anne……we’re having a baby on the next push. You have the most momentum on your first push of the contraction and he/she’ll slip out on this next one. Once the head is out, the shoulders are easy.” TEARS, TEARS, TEARS. We were so happy and so excited to find out boy or girl. I was still saying BOY. Just like the nurses and Dr. Simmons…..They asked me if I wanted the baby up on my chest or if I wanted her cleaned up. I told her, “put him right up on me!!!!” (l had always referred to the baby as a “he”.)

Emily Anne Stow

I pushed hard and sure enough……..a big gush of slippery, wet baby head and a big body to follow. Chris yelled it out first….”IT’S A GIRL!!!” It was the most unbelievable moment of my life. I was crying while they brought her right up to me and she was so beautiful and I told her I loved her so much and kept saying things like, “Oh my God, A GIRL!!, How are you a girl? Everyone is going to be in shock…I can’t wait to tell everybody!” She was sooooo good to me. Such an easy time of it. She was so warm to hold and she peed on me almost instantly! She was just perfect. Her head was perfect, her face…….her everything….a perfect little bundle. I held her while I delivered the placenta and then Dr. Simmons removed my skin tag down below too. YAY! I was talking about how easy the whole delivery was and how it was SO MUCH EASIER than I ever imagined. I even said, “I’ll be doing this again!” Dr. Simmons said, “wow, that’s the first time I ever heard those words spoken during the delivery of the placenta.” She thought Chris and I were very cute and she said Chris was the smoothest dad she had ever seen. He managed to cut the cord with his left hand while videotaping with his right and taking pictures all over the place. He was so interested in everything going on and we even had Dr. Simmons talk to us about the placenta and show and explain it to us. Super cool. As she started to sew me back up. I said, “how bad was the tear?” And she answered with “It’s about what you’d expect”. So I said, “Not bad.” She said it’s a 3rd degree in the shape of a W.” I was like, “out of how many?” And she said 4. OUCH. She was down there for a long time sewing me up. I’d say about 45 minutes. My legs were so sore from being spread eagle for so long.

The birthday girl

They took Emily from me and weighed her. 8 lbs., 9 oz.! A big girl! I was able to breastfeed on each side within the first hour too! I did that while I made the calls. I first called mom and dad and mom answered with speaker phone so dad could hear. Just the sound of her hello brought tears. I was soooooo excited to tell them!! I said, “It’s a girl!!!!!” Mom and dad were SOOOO HAPPY!!! I gave them a quick play by play and told them to come see her!!! Such a great moment. Then we did the same and called Chris’s parents. Then Kath! I’m SO HAPPY that we waited until her birth to find out what we were having. Definitely the best surprise anyone could ever ask for.
That pretty much sums up the birthing experience, but know there are absolutely NO WORDS to actually explain the moment I pushed her out and they put HER in my arms. Best day of my life for sure. I’ll never forget it as long as I live and I can’t wait to do it again. I think I’d have 12 kids if I could. It was absolutely wonderful. Thank you Emily for choosing us to be your parents. We love you to pieces. Thank you for the most enjoyable pregnancy and the quickest, painless delivery a mommy could ask for.

For the record, Emily is 5 days old and Mommy only needs to lose 10 more pounds to get back to her pre-pregnancy weight. Total weight gained was 23 pounds. WOO HOO!!!

Sleeping Beauty