violet's birth story part two

I waited in the the waiting room for what seemed like an eternity until I decided to take matters into my own hands.  I buzzed the nurses station and told them that I hadn't felt the baby move in awhile.  They sent someone out with some juice and closed the door.  Welp.   That didn't work as well as I was hoping...

I told Doug at one point that if I didn't get a room in the next ten minutes, we were leaving to go have the baby at the other local hospital.  Yep.  I was crazy.

I decided to try again.

I buzzed the nurses station for the third time that night and told them that I really thought that I was having the baby soon and could someone at least check my dilation.  The nurse literally rolled her eyes at me (I don't blame her for this.  They were obviously very, very busy and I'm sure that she was exausted) but took me into a triage room to check me out.  As is standard, she handed me a gown so that I could discretely undress while she stepped out of the room, but I pulled all my clothes off as fast as I could with her standing right there and was ready to be checked.  I was beyond modesty.  She checked me, and I was at 7 cm.  I breathed a sigh of relief that I wasn't going to have the baby in the waiting room quite yet, but apparently 7 cm is far enough along that the nurse got all flustered and kicked into high gear.  She immediately started hooking me up to monitors and told me that she hoped I didn't have to have the baby in triage.

"I want my epidural!" were the next words out of my mouth.  Well, apparently the anesthesiologist was in surgery.  A few minutes later (Doug says.  It felt like a year to me) I was moved into a delivery room and given an IV.  Man, labor is no joke.  It hurts.  I just kept telling Doug over and over, "I NEED DRUGS!"   I asked the nurse if she could give me some fentanyl through my IV to take off the edge until I got the epidural.  No luck.  Eventually the anesthesiologist was ready and I got my epidural at 8 cm.  Ahhhhhhhh, sweet, sweet relief.  It immediately made everything groovy, and I lay in bed texting my friends and family that baby Violet would be here soon.

Once I had my epidural, my contractions slowed down a lot.  My water hadn't broken yet, and the baby was still high, so Doug and I hung out and waited for something to happen.  This is when the story gets a little weird and graphic.  Feel free to skip to the end if you want.  I had a very large water bag and the contractions began to push it out of me.  It ended up partially coming out.  With every contraction, it blew up like a water balloon.  That was really, really weird.  And painful.  The nurse upped my epidural, but it still hurt.  I was beyond ready to have the baby.  The nurse informed me that I was at 10 cm and complete, but they were going to wait to deliver me because my doctor wasn't there yet, and my water hadn't broken.  A while later, Violet began to go into distress, so the nurse paged the on call doctor, and he had to scrub out of surgery to come deliver me immediately.  He broke my water, I pushed a few times, and she was here!  Even though I think I only pushed two or three times, I remember thinking at one point, "This sucks.  This is hard.  What would happen if I just stopped pushing."  But out she came with her umbilical cord wrapped around her neck!  She didn't cry right away, but the nurses had her screaming in no time.  Our sweet little Violet.  The Lord has blessed us with two girls and we are so thankful!

violet's birth story part one

Violet Elizabeth was born Saturday, October 19th at 9:08 am!  She is sweet, adorable, and looks nothing like her sister.  She is an eating machine, is nursing like a champ, and sleeping in 4-5 hour stretches at night.

I wanted to write down her birth story while it is still fresh in my mind.  It's pretty long, so...sorry?

On Friday evening, I went in for a non-stress test because of my high fluid levels.  Totally routine.  The Hulse family had big plans for the weekend including homemade nachos for dinner, the pumpkin patch, and, most importantly, maternity pictures on Sunday, so I was not thinking I would be having a baby.   Of course, as soon as the nurse hooked me up to the monitors, I began contracting 4 minutes apart.  I don't know if it's the position they put you in for the non-stress test or if it's a psychological response, but every time I get hooked up to that machine, I start having regular contractions.  I really thought nothing of it.  They weren't painful, and I told the nurse that I couldn't have the baby this weekend because we were having maternity pictures taken.

The nurse decided to at least check my dilation and monitor me for an extra hour.  I was at 4 cm, but I walked around at 4 cm with Kennedy for weeks before I finally got induced, and the contractions had slowed down, so she told me I could go home if I really wanted to have my pictures taken.  I was totally at peace with not having the baby yet.  I went home with a good attitude, not feeling at all that desperate, "I need this baby to come out of me feeling" that I had felt on other days leading up to my delivery.  We had our delicious homemade nachos and said goodnight to Kennedy.  After that, Doug and I lazed on the couch watching tv, and I don't think I had another contraction before we went to bed.

At 4 am on Saturday morning, I woke up to pee.  As I crawled back in bed, I decided to stay awake for a few minutes to see if I felt any contractions.  Not sure why I did that.  Obviously my body was telling my brain that I wouldn't be able to fall back asleep.  A few minutes later I had my first legit contraction.  I was stunned!  I never had any painful contractions with Kennedy, so I knew that this was something different.  It was very uncomfortable!  I waited a few minutes and felt another!  I woke Doug up and told him I was in labor and that I was getting in the shower.  He said, "Ok, let me know if you need anything," then rolled over and went back to sleep.  I timed my contractions as I showered and did my makeup.  They hurt!  I would have to stop what I was doing to concentrate when a contraction came.  They were 3-4 minutes apart, but I didn't have the thought that I could be having a very fast labor.

I called my mom and told her to head down, then I called my friend Renee to see if she was free to watch Kennedy until my mom got down.  Thank you Renee for answering my 5 am phone call!  I woke Doug up and told him that he could take a shower before we left if he wanted to.  We had decided to wake up Kennedy and drop her off at Renee's house on our way to the hospital so that we could say goodbye and tell her what was happening.  As I packed up our bags, the contractions started to be really intense.  By the time Doug was out of the shower, I was desperate to get to the hospital.  He had made a pot of coffee, and when he went to pour himself a cup, I think I almost killed him.  "You made coffee?!?" I yelled indignantly.  Haha, it was really time to leave.  We dropped of Kennedy at Renee's house where, miraculously, she went back to sleep,  then we made our way to the hospital.

At the hospital, I told Doug that he could park in the giant parking structure rather than the emergency parking.  The elevator was taking too long, so we took the stairs.  I obviously was not making this easy on myself.  We finally got to labor and delivery, and they buzzed us into the nurses station.  The nurse asked what was going on, and I giggled and said, "Um...I think I'm in labor?"  I was so shocked that I was actually in labor that it made me laugh.  The nurse must have taken this as "you're not that far into labor if you're still smiling." She informed me that it was a full moon and that there were no rooms available at the moment.  She sent me out to the family waiting area.  I wanted to strangle her.  In the family waiting area, there was another very pregnant lady sitting primly next to her husband obviously waiting to be admitted as well.  I was REALLY in labor by then.  Contractions were no more than two minutes apart.  I walked around the waiting room probably howling like a crazy person and rocking in all sorts of weird positions.  I whispered to Doug at one point, apparently not so quietly, "If those nurses let that other lady in before me, I'm going to murder them."  I waited for what seemed like an eternity until...

TO BE CONTINUED