She's Here!

She is here!  Our sweet baby girl arrived exactly 2 weeks early.

"Evy Lou" 

Evelyn Louise Call

Born Saturday, October 20, 2012 at 3:21 pm

7 lbs. 2 oz. and 20 inches long

We are so happy she joined us but were surprised at how it all worked out!  Fair Warning: If you don't like birth stories don't read any further!

I had been having a lot of contractions early in my pregnancy and was even put on "limited activity" for awhile to make sure this baby didn't come too early.  It seemed like when I was finally allowed to have contractions they slowed down a lot.  At my 36 week appointment I was only dilated to a 1 so obviously things weren't moving along very quickly.  For the next week I did a lot of scrubbing floors, climbing stairs, etc. to bring on the contractions.  At my 37 week appointment I was hoping to have progressed a significant amount - but I was a 1 1/2.  The Dr. decided to strip my membranes at 37 weeks to help things along since we were shooting for me to deliver via VBAC.  (I had a pretty scary emergency c-section the first time around so we were hoping to avoid that again.)  That appointment was Wednesday and I was pretty crampy for a few days.  Thursday I felt terrible but I decided to head to the pumpkin patch in the morning and to the beach in the afternoon with Shaef.  That night I was having some pretty crazy contractions and was getting excited but on Friday they completely stopped.  We had a pretty low key day and I wasn't contracting very much at all.  That night Anson and I were watching a movie and then we both decided to have a bowl of cereal at 11:00pm and talk politics - apparently that is the way to induce labor!  I stood up to put my bowl in the kitchen at about 11:45 and my water broke.  I was sure I had just wet my pants but it just kept coming.  I called the on call dr. and since I tested positive for Group B Strep I needed to come in ASAP.

So we ended up at the Hospital (after dropping off Shaef at a friends house)....  We arrived at the hospital about 12:15 in the middle of the night and the nurses got my IV and everything going. I started having some contractions and had major back pains but after awhile my contractions weren't getting any more frequent or any stronger so at about 2 or 3 am they decided to put in a internal monitor for my contractions to see how strong they actually were.  At this point they found out that even though my water had broken, there was a little bubble left in there that was right in between her head and my cervix.  This was why I wasn't able to dilate.  They decided to wait and see if it broke on its own for a few reasons: 1) I was on antibiotics for the strep and needed to be on them enough time before delivery and 2) I was a candidate for a VBAC so they didn't want to rush anything. So I suffered through some annoying back labor all night long and got about an hour or 2 of sleep.  At about 11 the next morning they broke the little sack, put in the monitor and started me on pitocin (really low amounts).  After that contractions really started going and were super uncomfortable.  I was being stubborn and didn't want to get the epidural too early but caved and got the epidural at 12:00.
This picture is me happy on the epidural.

  

 Soon after I realized that my left side was completely numb and my right side still had a lot of feeling and I could feel every contraction.  So after trying to have me move positions they checked me and I was dilated to a 5.  I still could feel contractions 15 minutes later... so before they called the anesthesiologist to come back they checked me again and I was at a 9 1/2 and they decided it was too late to fix that and I needed to get ready to push.  Lil' miss decided she didn't like what was happening and her heart rate started decelerating so they put me on oxygen and laid me on my side to help her out.

 They got the room all ready and it was time for her to come!!

 A not so short hour and 20 minutes of pushing later this little sweetheart finally joined our family!

 Oh ya - remember how I could feel on my right side...that made stitching me up quite uncomfortable.

 I love this sweet little bow hat they put on her!  There are no words to describe the feeling of holding your new sweet baby for the first time.  

 Meeting brother for the first time was such a fun and special time.  He was sooooo sweet with her and was so pround that he was her big brother.  

He even made sure to introduce himself to her when he met her.  

 Sister gave him a little gift and he was soooo excited about his new Captain America Jet.

 First family photo as a family of four!

 Shaef sneaking one more peak of his baby sister.  

So comparing my first experience of an emergency c-section to this VBAC adventure I would definitely choose the VBAC.  My birthplan was simple - deliver a healthy baby.  I preferred the VBAC route but I was willing to do anything to have a healthy baby.  I had a group of doctors that were rooting for a VBAC all along and were really supportive of my preference.   I understood that only 30% of VBAC's are successful and understood that it may not happen for me.  We all knew that it could go either way and trusting that the doctors would do what was best for the baby and me was key.  I was blessed because sister positioned herself head down early and didn't move back and my doctors did extra growth ultrasounds to make sure that we didn't have a repeat of my last scary experience.  I think that even though it took forever from the time we got to the hospital to the time the baby was born (15 hours) all of that contributed to me being able to VBAC.  It was slow, it wasn't forced, my water broke on it's own, my body had time to get ready to deliver her, and the doctors were patient and it helped me to be more patient and relax.  I was asked a few times in the hospital if I understood the risks behind a VBAC, but never once did a nurse or doctor say anything about a c-section or try to convince me that that was needed. I really feel so blessed that things worked out as perfectly as they did and that a successful VBAC was possible.    

Recovery is completely different - I am still sore and in pain and still want to avoid using the restroom.....but I can laugh, and sneeze, and bend over.  My body is more achy and my muscles in my back are more sore because of my marathon of pushing.  Sitting is uncomfortable.  I wasn't knocked out for the delivery so I actually feel like I was there.  I also remember what happened after delivery because I wasn't drowsy from the general anesthetic.  I  didn't have a baby in the NICU this time so I have been able to focus on healing and not stressing about having a sick baby.  

For my particular situation the 2nd delivery was a better experience but I would do the first one all over again if it meant having the healthy and crazy 3 1/2 year old I have now! 

   

      For now we are enjoying being a family of 4 and are loving playing super heroes and dressing up our little princess.