♥ 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.

Welcome to the world baby Gretchen Suzanne! We love you so much and are so happy you are finally here, our beautiful surprise baby!

Gretchen Suzanne

September 11, 2012 at 1:45 am

8 lb. 2 oz.

20" long

Coming Soon!

When I have a second (no promises on when that will be but I'm hoping tonight or tomorrow) I have a lot of updating to do! :)

Gretchen Suzanne was born on Tuesday, September 11, 2012 at 1:45 am. She was 8 lbs 2 oz and 20" long. I was able to successfully VBAC (vaginal birth after cesarean) and we are thrilled. I want to write about my birth experience, Gretchen's stay in the NICU (don't worry, she's fine and home with the family where she belongs!), Dom and Annabelle's reactions, construction on the wall, our adjustments at home, her 1 week appointment, everything!

But for now, I have to go and clean to get the room ready for the wall (construction is starting whether I'm ready or not and I'd rather be ready!).

Here's a quick pic to hold you over until I can fully update.

♥ Annabelle's Birth Story ♥

Wow. What a whirl wind.

It all started on Tuesday, March 8th. I'd been having contractions all day long. I had a big test on Tuesday night so I was trying to fight the contractions, as if you can do that. I went as far as emailing my teacher telling him I might not make it to class. I couldn't focus on studying at all. But I really didn't want to miss the test. Not that I was ready, but I didn't want to do the make up test, which is an essay test and sounds way harder than the multiple choice test. So I went to class. I actually felt better too. I failed the test...but now I think I understand why. Ok I didn't FAIL, but close. It was hard. (I just looked it up...I got a 74%).

After class, I headed home. Class went a little later than normal and I hit the highway to go home around 9:05. I called Nick to talk to him for part of the drive. I just didn't feel good. I almost stopped to get food, but decided I'd rather just go to bed. I got home about 9:30 or so and basically just got ready for bed. Nick came up around 11 or so and we both fell asleep pretty easily. For awhile.

I woke up about 1:30 with a sharp stomach pain. Much different than anything I had ever felt before. It felt like severe gas pains or something. It passed and I decided to drink a little water and go back to bed. But I couldn't go back to bed. The stomach pains kept coming. I started timing them. They were coming ever 4 minutes. I tried going to the bathroom. I tried all the "false labor" tricks. You know, the things they tell you to do if you are in false labor. Drink water. Empty your bladder. Walk around. Change positions. Etc. Etc.

Things were not improving. If anything, the pains were getting worse. Now 3 minutes apart. At 2:40 I decided to call the exchange. At this point I was sitting in the nursery. I didn't want to wake Nick up if it was false labor. I called and the on call doc called me back immediately. I told him what as going on. I got a contraction during the call and couldn't talk. I was almost in tears. He told me to come in.

I got up and went back into our room. I asked Nick to call his mom and see if she could watch Dom. Then I went to get all my stuff together and make sure my hospital bag was ready. I put my contacts in and straightened my hair. (For the record, I had showered that night and went to bed with my hair wet and it was everywhere and my hair isn't long enough to put in a ponytail...that's why I straightened it. It only took like 5 minutes...).

Then we went to get Dom's stuff together. At this point, the contractions are hurting more than ever. I now know exactly what active labor feels like. We got Dom up and headed to Sue's house. In the car, I had quite a few contractions. Every time I would try my breathing and squeeze Nick's hand and I probably sounded awful. Dominick was up at this point and he kept asking, "You OK, Momma??". I would tell him that I was ok and then he would ask, "I kiss it??". I told him yes, he could kiss it and I would hand him my hand. He would kiss my hand and say, "All better?". He's such a sweet heart.

Of course, right after we dropped him off I realized we didn't have a camera, so we went back to Sue's and borrowed her camera. Then we were finally off to the hospital. My contractions were now about 2 minutes apart and very painful.

We got to the hospital at 3:30 am and went straight to Labor and Delivery. They checked me in and brought me back to a room. They hooked up the monitors and saw that my contractions were 2 minutes apart and measuring around 90. They checked to see if I was dilated at all, and I was at 2 cm. I was in pain. I was already asking for the epidural. They called the on call doc and we decided to do a c-section. I had the option of trying on my own, but I didn't want to at this point. I was exhausted already and we had no idea how big the baby was. Unfortunately, I was the fourth person to come in that night in labor...and the fourth repeat c-section. So we had to wait for the OR.

The anesthesiologist came in around 5 am for the epidural. Not gonna lie, it was still a little painful, and didn't take effect right away. But after about 30 minutes, I was ok. She left and came back at 6 am to get me ready for surgery. They thought the surgery would be about 6:15, but we didn't get into the OR until 6:50.

I remember being wheeled in and "Here I go again" by Whitesnake was playing on the radio. They said Annabelle was going to be a Rocker! They got me on the table and started prepping me. I could hear the nurses doing their counts of tools and what not.

Then they started. It was so much better than with Dom. With Dom I was throwing up and in pain and he was stuck after pushing for so long and it was plain awful. This time I was alert and it didn't hurt. I honestly just felt the pressure. After what seemed like hardly any time at all, I heard the vacuum. She was stuck (although I'm not sure where!?). But then I heard them say, "Here she comes!" and then it was over. She was born at 7:06 am. They pulled her back and she was COVERED in the white goo since she was so early. She was crying and it was beautiful. They brought her over to the scale to clean her and do her APGAR scores and I just watched her. At first I was scared because she wasn't breathing as well as they'd like. Since I didn't push, the fluid wasn't pushed out of her lungs. But then they got a good amount out with the bulb syringe and she let out a yell! Her apgar scores were 7 and then 9. So very good.

Nick went over to cut the cord and they weighed her...8 lbs and 11 ounces. Thank God I didn't try a VBAC. I couldn't get Dom out who was 8 lbs 9 ounces so I'm sure I would've had the same result with AJ.

It didn't take long to get me put me back together. I think I was in recovery by 7:20. They brought her back to me almost immediately and I was able to try and nurse her. She latched immediately. It was such a different experience from Dominick's birth.

I recovered a little slower this time around and I'm not sure if it's because it was my second c-section or what it was. But I'm feeling much better now. And how much better it was has been worth every second of pain.

I still can't believe we have TWO kids. Dominick has been fantastic. He loves his "baby sissy". He likes to hold her and when she cries, he brings me her binky. He's already a great big brother.

I also want to mention how great our families have been. Nick's mom, Sue, basically kept Dom for Tuesday through Friday. Nick watched him Friday night and then my parents took him Saturday morning and kept him until we were ready to go home on Sunday. They even brought him up to the hospital since I wanted a picture of the whole family at the hospital and forgot to take one before then.

We are so lucky to have such great family and friends and I'm so in love with my husband, my son, and now my daughter.

I'll update more later with more pictures but this is a good start...for me. With two kiddos, I haven't been on the computer at all. Hopefully I'll get to update more again soon.

But there's her story.

Annabelle Jean

March 9, 2011 at 7:06 am

8 lb. 11 oz.

21" long

♥ Dominick's Birth Story ♥

Since I'm starting to feel better and I have a few minutes, I thought I'd write about our birth story. It's a long and slightly scary one but with a beautiful outcome.

It started off as I went to the doctor on Thursday. It was just a regular OB visit. My last one since I was due to be induced the following Thursday. I got up a little late that morning so I had breakfast around 9:30 a.m. and then I got to nesting. I had Dominick's room almost complete. I only had a few things left to do. I also put a load of laundry in the wash and got our room picked up. I ate a snack around 11:15 or so. I left for the doctor at 12:30 and decided I shouldn't eat before my doc appointment. I was going to stop and get lunch on the way home. That was a silly decision.

When I got to the doctor I got in right away. My doctor was gone on a c-section but they got me in and checked my vitals quickly. They took his heart rate and noted it was a little low, but not bad. Then the nurse protictioner (that has to be spelled wrong and I'm so sorry!) came in to see me. She told me that Dr. Webb was busy and she would check my cervix. After she checked me she said I still wasn't dilated and asked me about movement. I told her that he wasn't moving as much and that concerned me. She told me to go home and do my fetal kick counts and if he still wasn't moving a lot then to come in or call in that night. I said ok but that I still wanted to see Dr. Webb. When he came in we talked a lot. I told him about the NST and BPP that happened at the last appointment. He hadn't even been told about that and he was upset about that.

Then he told me the most shocking thing of all. He said, I think we should admit you and induce you today. I thought he was kidding! After I asked a few times if he was serious and he assured me he was, we got talking serious. He told me that with the diabetes and the lack of fetal movement he thought it would be safer for Dominick to come out rather than be in. I said ok, and they wheeled me to Labor and Delivery and hooked me up to the monitors. This was around 2:45. I called Nick and told him to go home and take a shower and get ready for a long long night. My mom also came up to keep me company until Nick could come up.

They inserted a pill in my cervix to make me start contracting and hopefully start dilating around 4:20. I don't remember when I started contracting but it didn't take long. Momma left around 6, with us assuring her that we'd call as soon as something happened. I was having contractions every 2-3 minutes for awhile but they weren't too painful. Mike, our good friend, brought Nick dinner around 8:00 and shortly after that the contractions got bad. I made Mike go home because I didn't want other people to see me like that. The contractions were horrible! Dominick didn't like them so well either. His heart rate was dropping with each contraction so they put the internal monitor on Dominick and put me on a catheter.

I had contractions every 1 1/2 to 2 minutes for the next hour and a half or so. I was crying to Nick for pain medicine. The contractions are measured on a scale of 0-100+. They consider a productive contraction to be over 60. My contractions were all in the 80's or 90's and I was in pain. At 10:30 p.m. (after being in labor for 6 hours) Dr. Webb came in and saw how much pain I was in. He broke my water then and ordered an epidural. After 6 hours I was still only 2 cm dilated...after all those contractions. I was devastated.

The contractions were just getting worse and I still wasn't dilating so they gave me a shot to slow the contractions down. Hopefully just enough to give me pitocin to get them started again and hopefully more productive. I got the epidural around 11:15-11:30. I'm not going to lie...It hurt. It was painful to get the numbing medicine put in my back before they could even do the epidural. Plus I had to sit up and I was getting contractions every minute or so. I was in tears. Nick was such a great "support person". He kept telling me how great I was doing and that it would all be worth it. I just held on to him until they were done.

And oh, what a difference! I am all about the epidural now. It was pure heaven to me. I couldn't feel my legs too well and it was great. I couldn't tell when I was having contractions anymore and I could finally get some rest. Unfortunately, it made me feel better but didn't help Dominick. His heart rate kept dropping (it's supposed to be between 120-160 or something like that and his heart rate was in the 80's almost every contraction). They made me stay on my side and keep an oxygen mask on.

At 9:30 a.m. on Friday, I was up to 9 cm. Thank goodness! I had been in labor for awhile at that point and I was just ready to get somewhere. They told me they'd check again in an hour and we'd see about pushing. By 10:30 I was getting very strong urges to push. Everything in my body was telling me I had to push so we called the nurse and they came in and checked me and I was right. I was dilated to 10 cm and fully effaced and I was ready to meet my baby boy.

They had two "students" in the room with me, Nick and the nurse. They were calling the on-call doc since my doctor, Dr. Webb, was off call at 7 a.m. The on call doc was Dr. Moore and she was great. I was so self conscious pushing with all the people in the room but Nick basically told me to get over that and push our baby out. He was right. I didn't need to worry about anyone else, I just needed to get our baby out.

I started pushing at 10:30 and it was rough. It was hard for me and hard on Dominick as well. His heart rate was dropping dangerously every time I pushed. They put me on my side and loaded me with oxygen again. I had to push while on my left side, which is really hard! They continued to motivate me to push and support me but he just wasn't making any progress.

Finally at 12:00, Dr. Moore told me that she didn't like what Dominick's heart rate was doing and she wanted to do a c-section. After being in labor for 19 1/2 hours, that sounded good to me. They brought me down to the OR and got me ready. They increased my epidural meds and they didn't do well with my body! I had the shakes soo bad with the meds. I couldn't keep my hands straight. They were shaking so horribly. They put the curtain up and Nick assumed his position next to me (he didn't want to see any of the surgery) and they got started.

At first it was just strange. I could feel them doing things, like pressure, but it didn't hurt. It was strange. We asked how long the surgery would take and they said 5-8 minutes to get the baby out and another 20-30 to clean me up. Well that didn't sound too bad to me. But that wasn't going to work for us. Of course not! ;-) We weren't so lucky yet.

It took them close to 20 minutes to get Dom out. He was completely stuck in the birth canal and they actually had to call in help to get him out. Nick was really freaked out because he could see that the doctors were basically kneeling on my chest trying to pull him out and he wouldn't come. That's when the "pressure" and pulling started to hurt. I was crying because they were pulling so hard and he wasn't out yet. It took three people to get him out.

Finally, at 12:36 p.m. Dominick finally got out. I kept hearing the doctors say how big he was. I was kind of nervous. I was thinking (in my heavily drugged up state) of a toddler sized child! Then they weighed him. He is big, but not as big as I was picturing! He was 8 lbs. and 9 ounces and 21.25" long.

The worst part of the surgery is that I was so drugged up and feeling so shaky and sick and just plain awful that I didn't even want to see Dominick. I was so scared that I was getting post partum depression because I didn't care. Nick went to be with him while they cleaned me up and Nick cut the cord. I just wanted to get to recovery and try to sleep or something. 45 minutes after getting Dominick out they wheeled me to recovery.

Nick went upstairs to the nursery along with my mom and dad and his mom and I stayed in recovery for about 2 hours. When they finally wheeled me up to a room, I finally felt better. They brought me past the nursery and I saw my baby boy. He was (and of course still is) so beautiful. They got me situated in my room and brought him in for me to try and feed.

That's where I'll leave this story off. I know it's already too long, but I wanted to share what I went through before I forgot.

Dominick is perfect. He's beautiful and I can't even believe how much I love him already. Nick has always said, "I'm not going to be like that with my kids" or "my kids won't be that spoiled" or whatever about whatever situation it is. Nick's sister, Kate, always told him, "wait until it's your own". She's right. Nick is already spoiling that little boy so much and he admits it. He can't believe how much he loves him either. It's so amazing.

Nick's been absolutely amazing. I just want to say that before I log off tonight. He's been changing all the diapers since my recovery has been somewhat slow, and he brings me whatever I need. He keeps telling me how much he loves me and how great I'm doing. He told me how happy he is and he can't imagine being any happier than he is with me and Dominick. He's been great and I know he's going to be (and already is) an amazing dad.

Thanks for all the well wishes and visitors we've had. It makes the day go by quicker! We love you all!!

Dominick Robert

January 23, 2009 at 12:36 pm

8 lb. 9 oz.

21 1/4" long