Caroline's Birth Story

So here I am to share Caroline's birth story! She is a month old today and I just cannot believe it!!

Here is a picture I took of her & daddy this afternoon (on his new chair!)



Okay... so on to the details of Caroline's birthday. Tuesday night (Jan 5th) we went to a fabulous Japanese steakhouse here in town called Oishi. It was our last outing as a childless couple!! I slept about an hour and a half that night... just so much to think about! Here is my last belly picture that Dan took before we left for the hospital Wednesday morning.


Here we are pulling out of the drive way (running late as usual!) We were at the hospital Wednesday by 5:30 am to be induced. by 7 am I had had an enema (it was my first... boy was that fun) and was started on a pitocin drip. My doctor said we should meet baby by sun down. Caroline had other plans! (A princess already... making us wait so long!)

If anyone can tell me how to make the blog show the whole video and not cut off my head, that would be great...


At 7:45 my doctor broke my water and I was dilated to 1 (I had been half a centimeter for weeks). I was shocked at how hot the water was and how much of it there was! It's not just one gush like I thought!
Disclaimer: Please excuse my crazy husband's comments in this video... but I wanted to post this one because its the only one with him in it!



By 9 am I was having about 4 contractions every 10 minutes... the contractions were lasting about 45 seconds and were painful but bearable because they would peak and go away. I would just breathe through them and watch the clock and squeeze two of Dan's fingers. My tail bone killing was me- those hospital beds are NOT comfortable!



It was soon after this point that the contractions got a little worse and I thought, "What could a little Stadol hurt??"... and so I decided to take it and it made me kinda crazy! No really... we have proof:



...and it only got worse from there... (I didn't know he was taping me here)

Seriously... the stadol really didn't do much good except for making me talk crazy! PS... a little advice to those who have to go through this in the future... get your IVs on the hand that is on the SAME SIDE as the IV pole... it was SOOO annoying to be draped across me the whole time because it kept pulling. As you can see in the videos, I'm crunching ice because I had TERRIBLE acid reflux (or up chuck as I call it in one video) ha!

By 12pm I was dilated to 3cm and got epidural at about 12:30. That REALLY slowed things down! I can't believe people get so nervous about the epidural! The IV's in my hand definitely hurt worse than the epidural.

I don't remember if I started throwing up before or after the epidural but that continued pretty much all day. It was so unexpected but the doctor said some people just respond to labor by throwing up.
Around 2:30 I was 4cm and by 6:30 I was dilated to 5... The nurses were starting to mention c section if the baby didn't come down anymore. I was pretty determined to wait it out- after all, I wasn't in any real "pain" because the epidural was working wonderfully!

Here is my niece Kate waiting with the rest of our family on Wednesday night!


I'd never heard that you forget the details of your labor soon afterwards, but you really do! Our families decided to go back to our house to get some sleep around 11 (I think?). Around midnight I started feeling real pressure down south and I was dilated to 9! Whoo!!!

I started pushing at around 1am and I was exhausted from push number 1. They turn all the lights in the room off except for these two big spot lights on the ceiling. I could not believe how hard pushing was! Right away I was like "uh... I don't think I can do this..." We had a great nurse who just kept encouraging me and stayed positive the whole time. I guess they're just used to women saying they can't do it! I didn't feel like I was doing effective pushing... I was holding my breath and turning red in the face- it's like I was pushing up top and not down low like you're supposed to. She kept saying "push down low like you're having a bowel movement" but I just couldn't figure out how for some reason. They give you a big mirror if you want to see everything (which I did). I originally thought this would encourage me and help me see the progress I was making, but I was so wrong! The nurse kept saying "look it's the baby's head!" I couldn't believe how positive she sounded... all I could see was a portion of the baby's head about the size of a quarter. It was extremely discouraging! But I kept the mirror and only looked every now and then. Thankfully, throughout all the pushing I didn't scream like a crazy lady or say anything like "am I dying??" but I was definitely a wimp! Poor Dan... I know he must have been very worried!

In the last hour of pushing I started having some sharp pains and they said that was because she was turned the wrong way. The doctor tried to turn her with his hands, but I don't remember how well that worked. I can't put into words how tired I was... not sleepy, but exhausted. I've never been so close to insanity in my life. I cried a little, but never for very long. At one point I wanted to take a break but as soon as they took my legs out of the stirrups I was like "Oh there is NO way I can rest like this! Back to pushing!" Another odd thing, the nurse and Dan were the only ones with me while I was pushing. The doctor didn't come in until the last 15 or 20 minutes. They said it was normal for the doctor to only be present once the baby is crowning. When he finally did come in it was obvious he had been sleeping because he was telling me what was about to happen but he kept yawning over and over again in the middle of his sentence. This made me LIVID! Here I am.... basically on my death bed (: and you're YAWNING at me?!?? Sheesh! I really wanted to give up and have them do a C section and I kept thinking "WHY did I WANT a vaginal delivery!??!" The doctor said "Ten more minutes and you'll have baby!" and my response was "I don't believe you!" Dan said everyone smiled and giggled when I said that, but I was too out of it to notice. I was right though! It was at least thirty minutes longer. At the very end my doctor said "I think you're going to need some help" and I said "YES! PLEASE!!" (hadn't I been telling them that for hours?) so I ended up with a 2nd degree episiotomy. When they put her on my chest I couldn't believe how beautiful and perfect she was! I don't remember if she was crying right away and I don't remember Dan cutting the cord. So strange! Once they took her and put her under the warming lamp to measure her and clean her off she was definitely crying. I remember just looking at Dan looking at her. So sweet! :)



I immediately started apologizing to the nurse and doctor for my craziness, but they said I wasn't too bad. My doctor said one time a woman in labor got upset because she wanted a C section and she was like 8 cm dilated and she got up naked and went down the hall like she was going to leave! He said his nurse said "what do we do?" and he said "she'll be back... trust me!" Crazy story!

Here is Dan handing her to me after she was all cleaned up. I can't believe I'm posting a picture of myself looking like this!


The recovery wasn't too bad... I finally feel like I'm back to "normal" now and I only have about 5 pounds of baby weight to lose before I'm at my pre-pregnancy weight! (I'd like to lose about 15 though!) The first few days after she was born my arms were SO sore from pushing/pulling on the bars they give you. It was so crazy! I felt like I had been in a car wreck! I never could figure out why those workout videos for pregnant women have you work your arms... now I know! All in all, I didn't expect labor to be so much work (that is a crazy statement) but Caroline was SO worth it!

Well if I have any readers left I'm amazed! Sorry for the lengthy post, but I want to be able to remember these things 10 years from now.