Happy Birthday Noelle

Happy Birthday Noelle: May 16, 2013

This entire pregnancy, I've stayed pretty small and gained less weight than I did with any of the others.  I've felt that Noelle had to be smaller than W simply because I gained less weight and she was a girl.  I was very active throughout N's pregnancy, way more than with W.  I just knew that I'd go early and was getting prepared at school and home for this baby girl.  Each day I completed without a new baby, I was happy and proud, and surprised.  My weekly check-ups were not as I though, seeing as I didn't start to dilate until 37 weeks.  I knew that each day longer she stayed in, was better all around.  When I made it to my check-up on May 8th, I was very excited because I was only 1 week away from my due date.  I saw Dr. Jacokes and she scheduled an induction for Monday May 13th because she wanted to induce to make sure I didn't have a 10 lb baby.  It wasn't what we were expecting so I was a little deflated after that appointment, but I didn't want to have a c-section either.  So as the weekend came and went, I was mentally and emotionally preparing for an induction Monday night.  I said my goodbyes at school and left at 1 pm.

Monday night came and went and no call.  B and I were wondering what in the world, so B called Rex Hospital to ask.  The nurse told him they were full and didn't have room for an induction that wasn't a medical emergency.  She said they would call me Tuesday if there was room.  I received a call Tuesday afternoon from Dr. Moody to let me know that it didn't look good for Tuesday either because they hospital was still full.  Wednesday was the same.  No call & no baby.  I had taken off of work, and hadn't had a baby.  I considered returning to work Thursday, but it's a good think I did not.

Thursday started out completely normal.  B made beignets for us for breakfast and we were scheduled to meet Kristen at a park at 9:45.  During breakfast, I got a call from Rex saying they could take me at noon.  I hardly believed my ears because I was just figuring it would be another no call no baby day.  I didn't want to get my hopes up, so we went to the park like planned and came home at 11:00.  I didn't get a call to cancel the induction so B and I packed up and headed to Rex.  We got there at noon but by the time we got to our room, filled out paper work, and answered questions, it was 2:30 before I was hooked up to the IV and began pitocin.  At 2:30 when that started, Dr. Gizzie checked me and I was still 3 cm and 50% effaced. Dr. Gizzie didn't want to break my water because Noelle was still very high.  The pitocin started low and my nurse was going to turn it up every 30 minutes.  Between 2:30 and 7:30, I felt no difference in contractions.  I was able to talk through them and sometimes I didn't even notice if I was having one.  B and I watched a good movie on BET (Glory Road) and several cooking shows while waiting the 5 hours.  There was a shift change at 5 pm from Dr. Gizzie to Dr. Jacokes.  When Dr. J came into the room, she explained to me that she had an emergency c-section and didn't want to break my water unless I was going to get an epidural. I hadn't planned to get one, so we decided to wait until after she finished her c-section.  I'm not sure how high the pitocin was turned up, but my contractions up this point had been every 6-8 minutes and not intense yet.  Around 8 pm, Dr. J came back from her c-section and checked me.  She said I was 5 cm and 75% effaced and -1 station.  Since Noelle had descended some, she said it was fine to break my water.  My water was broken around 8:15 and Dr. J said she'd be back in an hour to check on me.  Since we had been doing this for almost 6 hours, I mentally gave myself a deadline of 30 minutes before deciding if I wanted some pain help.  8:45 was my deadline for asking for help.  Immediately after Dr. J broke my water, the contractions were different: much  more intense.  B helped me breath through a few and I began to feel pressure lower than before.  I had to use the restroom so B helped me out of bed for that and I had one real intense one during that transition.  Once 8:45 hit, I started the conversation of wanting something like maybe an epidural.  I hadn't fully made up my mind and wanted B to talk/pray through it with me before I made a rash decision. My thought process was that it took over 5 hours for me to go from 3 cm to 5 cm with pitocin the entire time.  I was not in any shape to labor through for another 5 hours and push a baby out.  B was extremely supportive and said he would do whatever  I wanted.  Around this time the nurse, Tricia, came in to check on me.  She saw a change in my and asked if I was okay.  I told her that they were much more intense and she asked if I wanted her to check me.  I was asking about the different pain options and how long each thing would take and the side effects.  Tricia watched me breathe through a contraction and then said she wanted to check me.  She found that I was 8-9 cm and 100% effaced and there was definitely no time for an epidural.  In about 45 minutes, I was almost ready to push.  I was expecting 5 hours, and was very happy with 45 minutes.  I felt like I needed to push, so Tricia and Bryce got my legs up into the stirrups so I could get relief by small pushes.  That helped for a few minutes and then Dr. J was called in.  It took me 3 pushes and Noelle was here.  B said there was minor shoulder distortia but nothing like with Wes.  She came out crying and a little white, but overall very pretty.  I had a 2nd degree tear that Dr. J stitched up for me, but nothing super big.  Noelle weighed 8 lbs even and was 21 inches long.  Her apgar score was 8.9 and she was beautiful!

N was born at 9:18 pm.  We started making calls and texts around 9:30 and finished up around midnight.  Once I was cleaned up, the nurses moved me to our overnight room.  We were in POD C on the third floor.  We ordered from the after hours menu so I could eat since I hadn't had anything since breakfast.  N was in the nursery for her bath and some testing/monitoring.  She returned to us around 11:30 for feeding and some parent time.  We did send her to the nursery though so B and I could get some sleep.  She was precious though!

Friday our visitors included our kids and Gran, Linda George, Jenny Lecorchick, and the Gillams.  We were released Saturday and got home around 5 pm.  The kids were really excited about Baby Ell coming home from the hospital, as were we.  We are excited to start life as a family of 6!