So much to do, so little time...: ♥ Gretchen's Birth Story ♥

What an experience!! Gretchen's birth story is so different from the other kids and it was amazing. (After delivery was a little rough but the delivery of Gretchen was perfect).

I worked over the weekend and was still contracting on and off and wasn't sure how I'd feel on Monday, my first day off in a few days. But I actually felt great on Monday. I was getting so much work done! I was cleaning and organizing and doing laundry and basically just nesting all day long. I felt fantastic. As I was working, I remember thinking 'I should probably slow down so I don't go into labor', and then I remembered that the next day was my 37 week appointment where my doctor was going to strip my membranes to try and put me into labor so I decided to keep going if I felt up to it.

When Nick got home, we loaded up the truck and the Durango with stuff we were giving to my parents and getting out of our house. I went and got Annabelle from Stella's and Nick went and got Dom from school and we got on our way to my Mom and Dad's for Monday night dinners. Annabelle and I were cruising and doing fine until about the Grand Ave exit on highway 70. I remember exactly where I was because I got a contraction. And it HURT. It wasn't like the other contractions that were tight and 'kind of' hurt but it hurt. Out of nowhere. I looked at the clock and it said 5:12. It passed and we kept driving and then I felt fine.

Then I got another one. Again, it HURT. I had to breathe through it already. I looked at the clock and it said 5:16. I was curious but thinking, this could just be random. So again, I just kept driving. This happened two more times, exactly 4 minutes apart. So I decided to call Nick. Just to give him the heads up.

I called him and told him, "Just FYI. I might be going into labor right now. I'm having contractions every 4 minutes and they are painful. Just warning you." He kind of laughed at me and said, "Whatever". Then I called my parents. I gave my mom the same warning and told her we were on our way but if we had to go to the hospital, could she watch the kids. She said that was fine.

When we got to my parents I was still contracting every 3-4 minutes and they were painful. I tried to do all the things they say to distinguish true from false labor. I went to the bathroom. I drank a lot of water. I walked around. They weren't going away. They were getting more painful. I decided to give myself two hours. I let Nick eat dinner and then I realized we had to get going. The contractions were now every 2-3 minutes and still extremely painful. At 7:15 we headed for the car.

We gave the kids kisses and got in the car. We got to Mercy hospital around 7:30. They checked us in and one of the nurses decided to check if I was dilated. We went into a small room and I got into a gown and she said I was 1 cm and 90% effaced. At the hospital the previous weekend I was 1 cm and 50% effaced. She said they would put me in the women's evaluation unit for one hour and check me again. If I didn't make any change, they would try and stop the contractions and send me home.

So Nick and I settled in for the next hour. There was a football game on so we got comfortable (or as comfortable as I could get) and we waited. I was hooked to the monitors and we could see I was contracting every 2 minutes still. At 9 pm, the same nurse that checked me originally came in and checked me. I was now 3 cm and 90% effaced. So I got admitted.

They started an IV and had me sign papers. I sent Nick home to get my labor bag that had my clothes, glasses and most importantly, our camera. While I was signing papers, the nurse said, "So you are a repeat c-section, right?" and I told her, "No. My doctor and I have talked about it and he has agreed to let me try to VBAC". She seemed ok with it and she left to call Labor and Delivery and get me a new room. A few minutes later, she came in and told me the on call doctor was on the phone and wanted to talk to me. My doctor is Dr. W. I love him and we have a good relationship. He listens and talks to me like an adult and we get along well. The on call doctor was Dr. M. I don't like Dr. M. She talks down to people as if they are stupid and she's not respectful. She's the doctor that delivered Dominick. She called me Angela the whole time. She annoyed me from the beginning. I say this because Dr. M was the one on the phone. She was not happy with me.

I got on the phone and she immediately started digging into me. She did NOT want me to attempt a VBAC. She started going on and on about statistics about how I could rupture and hemorrhage and die and the baby would die and since I've never delivered vaginally the odds of me being able to do it were so low and on and on and on. I understand that there is a risk and she needs me to sign papers saying that I understand that so there's nothing on her if something did happen, but the manner in which she did it was completely inappropriate. After telling me I couldn't do it and I was going to kill my baby, I flat out said to her, "Dr. M, I realize that I had this birth plan with Dr. W. and not you and you are the on call doctor. If you are really uncomfortable with me trying to VBAC then let's talk about what you want me to do and go from there". She replied, "I honestly don't care what you do. We'll just see what happens." and then she hung up.

I was so upset. I'm contracting PAINFULLY every 2 minutes, Nick isn't here, I'm alone in a room, and a doctor is telling me that I'm going to kill my baby. I started to cry. When my nurse came in the room to move me to Labor and Delivery, I asked if there was any way to call my doctor so I could talk to him. She said she would send in the charge nurse and we could talk.

I got to Labor and Delivery and the charge nurse and chief resident came in. They told me that they understood I was upset but I only had two options. Let Dr. M deliver the baby or "fire" her and the entire practice and be treated as a walk in and not get to see my doctor after delivery or any part of my stay. I didn't want to fire the whole practice so I elected to let Dr. M deliver the baby. They told me that my doctor was on call the next morning and would be in at 7 am so if I delivered after 7, I would get my doctor. I told her I would try and wait until 7!

At that point, I was in a lot of pain. The nurse asked if I wanted my epidural. I said, YES PLEASE! The nurse anesthetist came in and started my epidural. It was painful to be completely honest. She had to give me numbing medicine three times because I could feel it so bad. I had tears running down my face. I was questioning if I could VBAC because just the epidural hurt so bad! But after the third dose of numbing medicine, the epidural was in and I had access to that magic button. Then I felt great.

The nurse checked me again at 10ish and I was 6 cm. I was moving right along. The nurse (who was amazing) had me laying on my side with my opposite leg up on a "peanut ball". It was a peanut shaped ball to help my pelvis open and help my cervix dilate (at least that's what the nurse told me). It was apparently working! Dr. M doesn't believe in foley catheters so she wanted them to do a straight cath every once in awhile to empty my bladder. Around 11:30, I felt a huge gush of something. I called the nurse and asked her to see if my water broke or if I peed on myself because I felt a gush but couldn't feel my legs. This is when things got a little scary for me. If you have a weak stomach, skip ahead a bit. :)

The nurse checked me and said my water was still intact and called another nurse in to double check. The second nurse that checked me told me that I was 6-7 cm but 100% effaced and had a bulging bag. She then asked me to cough to see if fluid escaped when coughing. I coughed and blood shot out. My water hadn't broken, I was passing big blood clots. I started freaking out. They told me it was normal. My cervix was dilating so fast and it was normal to bleed a lot. But they wanted to keep a close eye on me.

At midnight, a new resident came in to check on me. He told me I was 8 cm and at +1 station. I was getting close! He left and told me he'd be back in an hour. At 12:30 I hit my call light and told my nurse I felt another gush and a lot of pressure. She looked and I had a lot more blood coming. She reassured me this was normal with how fast I was dilating and told me that I'd feel pressure as I got closer but the doctor just checked me and I had some time left and to try and relax. I tried to relax, but I felt pressure. I asked her to call the doctor back in. He came in at 12:45 and checked me. He was shocked but told me that I was fully dilated, fully effaced and now at +2 station. He went to go call Dr. M and told them to do practice pushing with me.

We started my practice pushing and I was doing ok. They called the NICU team (which is standard if you are delivering before 37 weeks and I was 36 weeks and 5 days at this point). They told me to try and wait for the doctor before pushing again. Well I didn't realize it but it hurts to try and wait to push! I kept telling her, I really need to push, I'm in pain. I was hitting my epidural button a lot at this point!

When the doc finally got there I was ready to have this baby! I only had to push through 2 contractions and Gretchen was here at 1:45 am on Tuesday, September 11, 2012. The resident was telling me how great I did when Nick leaned over and just said "It's a girl...". His face was priceless. He was SO shocked. I know he was "sure" that this was a baby boy and the fact that it was a baby girl was startling to him.

It was amazing. The experience is SO much different from a c-section. I felt so empowered. So proud. Everyone told me I couldn't do it but I did. And it went perfectly. Smoothly. Beautifully. And Gretchen is perfect. So perfect.

She was screaming immediately. The NICU team joked around that her lungs were fine with all that screaming and they didn't need to be there. They checked her out completely (her APGAR's were 9 and 9) and cleaned her up. They weighed her (8 lbs 2 oz) and then gave her to Nick.

I got fixed up (which took forever I thought) and I finally was able to hold my baby girl. We didn't have a name at this point yet. I was still thinking Emmeline and Nick was thinking Gretchen. We kind of debated back and forth. Then Nick pointed out that while Emmeline was unique, Emmy, Emma, Emily, Em and all those nicknames were pretty popular. I wanted our baby girl's name to be her own and I've never liked really popular names. Nothing against them, but they weren't my taste. I like names that are known, but not super trendy. Nick was right. Gretchen was our baby girl's name.

There's more to this story that comes later, but this is enough for her birth story. Everything worked exactly the way I wanted it to. I was able to VBAC (VBA2C actually!) and up until she was out I still had NO real idea if she was a he or a she. Everything was great. And Gretchen is healthy and happy and I'm so in love. I can't believe that we have a family of FIVE now.