It was on this day last year (ok, technically it was Feb. 29th) that I went in to the hospital to have my labor induced. My little baby had been measuring small throughout my entire pregnancy, so we had been having weekly ultrasounds to make sure that she/he was still ok. (We had decided not to find out the sex of the baby). That day we discovered that the baby had not grown at all from the previous week, meaning that my placenta was no longer delivering to it the nutrients that it needed. I knew all along that there was a possibility of induction, but when it became clear that an induction was the only option and that it had to happen that very day, 3 weeks ahead of my due date, my heart broke just a little bit. This was my first pregnancy, I wanted to do it my way, all natural, with minimal hospital intervention.
In any case, after my 4pm appointment my midwife told me to be at the hospital by 8pm. I rushed home, calling my husband to update him on the situation. My dad's suprise 50th birthday party was the following day and I had volunteered to make all the food.....all the food that I hadn't started making yet! As soon as I got home, I rushed to get some of the food made, so that they could at least reheat it the next day. When my husband arrived home from work, he found me in the kitchen sweating over several enchilada casseroles. Never mind that the baby's room was unfinished, there were still a few things missing from my hospital bag, and I should seriously consider eating something and taking a shower before we left, I had to get that food ready!
We left for the hospital at 7:30pm with most of the food done, and my sisters planning to finish what I hadn't. When we got there, all of the rooms were full, but most of the women had already given birth, so within an hour we were escorted to our own room. When they checked me, they found that my body was in no way ready to have this baby. I wasn't dilated in the slightest, my cervix was not ripened at all, and the baby hadn't really even dropped! I told them from the very beginning that I did not want to have my water broken unless it was the last possible option. I didn't want to be forced into a C-Section situation. Let me skip most of that weekend and let you know that by Monday afternoon, after trying every possible induction method, my midwife told me gently that if I didn't want to stay another week in the hospital, I should probably have my waters broken. At this point I was 3cm dilated and my cervix was very high, so I decided to go with it.
At 2pm my water was broken. By 4pm I was seriously considering changing my stance on no pain medication, but I held out and just convinced myself after each contraction to just get through one more. I had planned to move around and try different positions to help with the pain and help get the baby into position, but at every contraction I just wanted to curl up into a little ball on the bed until it was over. By the time they checked me at 8pm I was only 6cm dilated and my arms and shoulders were sore from squeezing the bed rail during every contraction. At this point, Philip and I realized that I might be in labor for the rest of the night so he went down to the lobby to grab something to eat. Right after he left I got incredibly nauseous and threw up all over my sisters bag (she was with me while Philip was eating). After they finished cleaning it up I felt like I had to push. I told them and they said they would check me again even though they had just checked me. Philip came back into the room at this point and was there when they told me I was almost at 10cm and if I wanted to push to go right ahead. After about 30 minutes of pushing, our sweet little Michaela came into the world at 9:18pm. A whopping 5lb 1.4oz, Philip and I fell in love with this little angel and knew our lives would be forever changed. I love you, my little monkey!
I'd love to hear your birth story(ies)! If you've already written one, let me know if the comments! :)
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Another current favorite is pushing her stroller all around the house. She puts her baby doll in there sometimes, but more often than not I find her monkey or an easter egg or even a piece of paper. As her own special little twist on this game, she tries to run over the dogs with the stroller as often as possible. When I say "gentle" she runs up to the dogs and pats their back gently...and then runs back to the stroller to try to run them over again.
Here she is clearly making an appointment in my appointment book:
And getting ready to put on my hands free set for a very important call:
I just bought a very small baking sheet from the dollar store, along with several sets of chipboard magnets. The baking sheet was small enough for her to hold in her lap while in the car seat and she loved moving the magnets around and taking them on and off the sheet. I didn't, but if you are a very creative person, you could also tell stories with the magnets.
Michaela is putting her first ornament on her first Christmas tree.
