February 17th, 2009 - Savannah's Birthday

So I decided to write about my "labor day." I decided to contain it to my blog so people can read it as they chose as opposed to putting it on facebook or something....not that I mind when others do that but it's pretty personal so I like to give people more of a choice in the matter of reading all the gruesome details of my labor.

Anyway, some of you may know that she was born 5 days late which seemed like and eternity. At the time, I was so jealous of some of my friends who had gone into labor early and never even assumed or imagined that Savannah would be making a late debut. Well, Monday, the 16th I had a Dr.'s appointment and asked if she would "strip my membranes." What it this procedure you say? Well, it's not for the faint of heart so read no further if you get grossed out easily. It's where the Dr. does almost like a cervix examination and pulls the amniotic sac from the cervix. No, it's not breaking the water, but it apparently releases the same hormones that get labor going. I was scheduled for an induction that Wednesday (the 18th) and I really did not want to be induced....my thought was to stay at home at long as possible and not have an epidural (more on that in another blog entry). I knew being induced would make that difficult, if not impossible.

Well, let me just say that "stripping of the membranes" probably the 2nd most painful thing I've been through in my like, next to actual labor. Luckily, my mom was off for President's day and was able to hold my hand at the Dr. I told her to please forgive me if I cursed! However, that really got things going. I started having regular contractions almost immediately after I left the Dr. They really picked up around 4 pm and lasted till about midnight. I was exhausted and was somehow able to fall asleep around 3:30. I was really discouraged when I woke up and realized the contractions were irregular again. Tim decided to stay home from work that Tuesday (and thank goodness he did!) to make sure I was alright. Thankfully, contractions picked up again around 11 am and this time they were even more intense but I wasn't getting my hopes up because this had happened so many times before, but I thought this time did seem different. Laura came by about 11:30 or so and brought us some ravioli for lunch. She was hanging out and making me laugh as usual when I started noticing that it was actually a big effort to laugh. I think this really freaked Laura out. She told me later she had to bite her tougue when Tim encouraged me to breathe...that we were not ready to go to the hospital yet. She left about 1:00. They continued to build up steam and Tim was wonderful as he held my hand and talked me through each contraction. I hadn't showered that day, and by God, I was going to look clean if today was the day, so I hopped in the shower. The hot water felt really good, but it was getting difficult to stand, and at this point I started panicing and screamed a couple of times. I was determined to put on makeup too, and that was sight for sore eyes. At 2:30 I knew we had to go...I just couldn't take it anymore.

We arrived at Baptist Womens a few minutes later. The lady at the check in desk asked how could she help us and I said while huffing and puffing, "I need to have a baby please!" They admitted me immediately and I was already at about 5 cm dialated. They monitored the baby and me while asking me all these questions and having me sign all this paperwork. That was hard. My signature was unrecognizable. I asked for the epidural soon after I was taken to the room (again, more on this wonderful thing later!) and it was given to me at 4:30. The Dr. checked me at 5 pm and said we'd probably have a baby around bedtime. Well, Savannah had other plans....she may have been late, but she was READY! At 6:30 I started feeling pain and pressure and the Dr. said it was time to push. After 25 minutes of pushing, our little girl arrived. She weighed 7 lbs 12 oz and was 20 in long. She has been an easy going baby so far, but is so much work. All the cliches about babies are so true so I wont even try to come up with something else to describe it, but I really didn't understand what it was like to love something so much. I just look at her sometimes and want to cry I love her so. Other times (like when bathing or changing her diaper!) she tries my patience, but it is all so worth it. She is and will always be our angel.