zelda's birth story
So, hey, I had a baby. I realized the other day that I never even posted a photo of my pregnant belly on this blog prior to this post, which is rather funny to me. Honestly, just a really good representation of how rough my pregnancy was. I was so sick and tired all the time, I just tended to let a lot of things go to the wayside, so I guess documentation of my pregnancy was one of those things. ANYWAY, like I said, I had a baby, and she is dang cute! Let's dive right into the birth story, shall we?
For the first time, I saw a midwife throughout my pregnancy. I had never considered one in the past because I wanted everything to be covered under my insurance and sometimes getting midwives covered can be tricky. I lucked out with my OBGYN practice having a nurse practitioner/midwife on staff because everything was covered financially. Nice! I really loved her and she really met my needs. I decided to schedule an induction because like with my other babies, I had been in slow labor for a couple weeks and with how far away Ted's commute was, I was worried I would go into active labor fast and he wouldn't be able to make it to me on time. Living in a place without family help made things a lot trickier. I ended up being induced the day after my parents arrived in town, so they were able to stay with Zoey and Des and take them on lots of adventures.
We arrived at the hospital on April 10 at 7:00AM and I, along with my midwife, believed I would have a baby by lunchtime. In fact, we had told the kids we would see them that night around dinner time and had even requested they bring me some Chick-Fil-A. Zoey had been a 12 hour labor and Desmond had been a 3.5 hour labor, I was already dilated to a 3.5 upon arriving and things just looked like they would go pretty fast. Pro tip: don't have expectations, haha.
The nurse went through the endless amount of questions as they do, and I sat there answering them wanting to get the show on the road while simultaneously wondering what the point of sending in early registration was when I had already answered all of these questions. At one point she asked what my weight was and I said, "I don't know." And she said, "What do you mean? What was it at your last appointment?" And I told her I would step on the scale backwards and requested they didn't tell me my weight. She looked at me like I was crazy and said, "Well, what did you weigh before your pregnancy?" And I told her I had no clue because I stopped weighing myself a year prior. She really got into a tizzy at this point and told us that I wouldn't be able to get an epidural and that the hospital required the weight. I just basically shrugged and said, "Don't know what to tell ya." Shortly after the exchange with the nurse my midwife came in and the nurse jumped on her about the weight. My midwife was like, "She is in incredible health, the weight isn't needed, and the epidural goes off height." Anyway, I thought the whole thing was silly and quite an accurate look at how our healthcare treats weight. Moving on!
They hooked me up to all of the cords, tubes and crap and my midwife instructed them to "aggressively give pitocin". Good times. So, they did, and the contractions started big time. I labored for a few hours, past lunchtime (blah!) and they checked me. I hadn't progressed at all. At this point I requested an epidural, hoping that it would cause my body to relax and things would start moving.
The anesthesiologist came in and she started asking about previous experiences with epidurals. I told her that with Desmond the doctor didn't administer it well and half my body was burning up and the other was freezing cold and my blood pressure dropped. And that the most infuriating thing was that he took a personal call during all of it and then left me and never came back to check. She went on and on about how she would never be that way, but something about her attitude didn't sit well with Ted and me, but whatever, just give me the meds. After the epidural was in, within a few minutes I started feeling terrible. My body felt hot and they had to get cold compresses on me and my blood pressure dropped and I had to have oxygen. I started shaking uncontrollably and I began to cry. The anesthesiologist didn't seem too concerned and told us she'd be back to check on us in a bit.
After about a half hour she came back and things hadn't gotten any better. I could still feel major pain from the contractions, but also had all of the side effects from the meds. I told her I wasn't in transition but I couldn't deal with this shaking because it made me sick. She snapped at me and said, "You are going to have to get over the shaking! Shaking happens and won't stop until the baby is born!" To say I was stunned would be an understatement. I know shaking is normal, when getting close to transition, but I wasn't. I was trying to advocate for myself and tell her that something wasn't right. I kept telling them I'd rather be in extreme pain than feel that strange. During all of this, the anesthesiologist took....A PERSONAL CALL. She sat there and talked to her son for 5 minutes about their weekend plans, while all of us sat there staring at her, waiting to hear what her plan for me was. I am pretty sure I was giving her my classic death glare, no biggy. She hung up and goes, "He never calls! I had to chat." Whatever, lady.
I think she was sick of me because she ended up asking another anesthesiologist to come in and thank goodness because she was awesome. She suggested we try using lidocaine through my line. It was super weird to feel it go through my line because it was ice cold. It didn't cause as severe of side effects but I still had mild ones. My body just really doesn't handle pain meds that well. On top of all of this, I still was feeling a lot of pain, so we determined that maybe it wasn't placed in my spine correctly.
Anyway, having not eaten since 6AM that morning, by 6PM I was feeling awful. I had them check me, and sure enough...I was at a 4. I had only progressed by half a centimeter throughout the day. And my midwife kept commenting about how high the baby was. I then remembered that with Desmond my OBGYN had commented that my cervix was oddly angled and that she had never seen anything like it before. However, after they broke my water everything started happening. I suggested that they break my water by my midwife and nurses disagreed, saying the baby was too high.
Once they were out of the room I started crying. I told Ted I was so hungry and that I couldn't do this marathon without food, but there was nothing we could do about that. I expressed how pissed off and frustrated I was that no one was listening to me about my cervix and that I wanted my water broken. I started crying harder when I remembered that I had told my kids that I would see them that night. AND that they would bring me Chick-Fil-A, haha. Basically, I was majorly emo, hungry, in pain, and nauseated.
Around 8PM my midwife said the baby was turned and that was probably why she wasn't coming down further. They put some sort of tight wrap on me, over the monitors. I think it was a wrap they put on recovering c-section moms. It was so uncomfortable, but they thought the pressure would annoy the baby and make it descend. Also, they had me get on my hands and knees, WITH MY NAKED BUTT IN THE AIR!!! and they rocked me back and forth. Can I tell you that was horrible and I hated it and it sucked and all other sorts of adjectives? Spoiler alert, it didn't work. Just humiliated me. You know, butt in the air and stuff.
Around 10PM, they checked me again and there was...no progress. I silently cried while my midwife told me that they were going to stop my pitocin and try me on some cervical ripening crap and then try again tomorrow. I felt defeated and like we were taking a huge step backwards. Also, I was still starving and I begged for food, and they said no. It was truly maddening. The only good thing that came from this new plan was that we got some (sort of okay) sleep.
At 6AM on April 11 my midwife came in to tell me that she was leaving and that she wouldn't be delivering my baby after all. I was thinking, "Thanks for nothing, better not go eat Chick-Fil-A or I will be sending you some bad juju". I was in a very good mood as you can tell :) Anyway, I was sad because the doctor on call was one I hadn't seen even once at my practice, so I didn't know what to expect. Well, what I didn't expect was how awesome he ended up being!
He came in around 7AM and took my hand and said, "I cannot believe you have been in labor for this long and that they took you off pitocin. You must be starving and exhausted I am SO sorry. We are going to get your baby out before lunch." Well, I had heard that before, but I was optimistic. I liked this guy and so did Ted. I was already feeling in much better spirits.
After the doctor left a new nurse came in. At this point I had been through 3 changes shifts. All of the nurses were nice, but I was kind of sick of having to get to know a new one, haha. But oh my word, this nurse was so wonderful. She told me that she had no other patients and that she wouldn't leave my side. And guys, she NEVER left. She rubbed my back, and said encouraging words to me and was all around amazing. She was my mom's age, so it felt like having a motherly presence in the room. She also had a good rapport with the doctor, so things went awesome.
The doctor came in about a half hour later, checked me and said, "Out of the 13,000 births I have done, I have NEVER seen a cervix angled the way your's is." Hearing that gave me relief for some reason. He said because of the angle it was making it hard for the baby to progress because my bladder was in the way. He asked if he could break my water and then went to work. The angle was so crazy that they had me put my fists under my lower back to lift me up, they had Ted and the nurse have their fists under my butt to lift me, and he worked at it for like 5 minutes. It was the worst pain I had ever felt as he SHIFTED my bladder out of the way and broke my water. Did I mention my epidural still wasn't right so I felt everything? Good times.
Before the water was broken I was still dilated to a 4. They sent in the anesthesiologist again to redo my epidural. At this point I was in transition. I was shaking, and breathing through the contractions as I was bent over and she was asking me where the center of my back was while poking it. Yeah, that was...something. They laid me back down and told me to take a little nap while I progressed some more. My nurse said she was going to go have lunch and would be right back. Ted laid down on the couch, and I closed my eyes too. However, I kept having insane pressure and the urge to push. I put it out of my mind but about 5 minutes later I couldn't ignore it. I woke up Ted and said, "I think I have to push." He looked at me and was like, "Are you sure?" Because it had only been about 30 minutes since the initial check (a 4), and the new epidural, but nope, I was sure. We called the nurse in and the doctor, and YEP, there was the head.
Everything moved so fast, and all the while Ted and I were so excited to meet our baby (we didn't know if it were a boy or a girl!) and for me to be done. It had been 33 hours at this point and I was beyond exhausted.
As they were setting up, the doctor told me that he had called a few of his friends earlier and asked them to pray for me and he hoped that was okay. He said I was strong and that he was impressed with how amazing I was being. He really was an awesome doctor. And then, it was time to push. After ONE good push, the baby was out. I saw her first and said, "SHE'S A GIRL!" and then there went the water gates for both Ted and me.
She looked so much like Zoey, it was so crazy. Big cheeks, sweetest little mouth and blonde hair. And the first thing she did upon exiting the womb was poop all over the nurse, haha. Amazing.
Before she was born, Ted guessed it would be a girl and that she would be 7lbs 1oz. And that's exactly what she was. Should have had him guess the lotto numbers that day. After I got cleaned up, the doctor had them bring me a burger immediately even though they usually want you to wait until your recovery room. I'm telling you, that doctor is an angel.
Later that night, my parents brought the kids and Des wanted to keep his distance but Zoey wanted to hold Zelda immediately. It's always weird adding a new kid because they feel like they belong right away and like you've known them forever. 
