Gabrielle Sophia's Birth Story

Our baby girl, Gabrielle Sophia Taylor, is finally here! She arrived three days past her due date, though if it was up to her it would have been later. Since I was past due, they scheduled me for an ultrasound to check the placenta, umbilical cord function, and the amount of amniotic fluid around the baby. I thought, oh another routine test that will be normal and I will be pregnant for another two weeks. Well, the tech did the ultrasound and the umbilical cord looked great as did the placenta. The amount of fluid around the baby, however, was low. Between my past due status, the low fluid, and the bleeding that I was having my doctor "asked" if I felt like having a baby today. Whoa!! She sent me right over to the hospital to be induced (well, she let me go home to get my bag and collect my husband). I called Nick and told him today was the day and to meet me at home.

We both got home, scrambled to clean up and do some last minute packing. As we were about to leave Nick realized that he doesn't have is wallet. We search the bedroom, his car, everywhere we could think that he might have set in the 10 minutes that he was home...no luck. He calls work and has them look around for it (his suggestions to them were in the bathroom and next to the Cheeto machine.....eww). No luck there either. So really, we need to get going so we just leave with the wallet still MIA. We walk into the hospital and all I could think is that I couldn't believe I was going to be induced. I had such a normal, healthy pregnancy I figured I would go into labor on my due date and have the baby. I couldn't believe I had to be induced.

We go to OB triage and check in.  Even though I preregistered they still asked me millions of questions and it took forever.  One of the things they asked was my current weight.  Yikes!  I stated 149lbs *gulp* and Nick quickly followed with a reasurring "don't worry babe, you'll lose it all".  Thanks....haha.  They walk us down to my labor and delivery room and it is nice I guess; they already have the little bassinet warmer and blankets in the room which I can't even comprehend yet. Nick is less than impressed with his vinyl recliner chair that he will get to spend the night in. I am quick to remind him that if he would like to go though labor and give birth to this baby, I'll be glad to sleep in his uncomfortable recliner chair for him. Hehe.

So the next few hours consist of a lot of waiting. They checked me and I had progressed far enough on my own already that they could start the pitocin right away. They started an IV, I ate some dinner and then had to wait an hour after I finished to start the pitocin. The resident joked that aspirating a cheeseburger isn't on their priority list. I had a yogurt and a turkey sandwich (ironic, I know...after they tell you your whole pregnancy that you can't eat deli meat!). During this time Nick ran home to look for his wallet again and to get the dogs taken care of. He finally found his wallet in the bottom of a laundry basket in the corner of our room. He had come home in such a panic that he tore off his work pants and his wallet flew out across the room. Oh well - crisis averted. Nick got back to the hospital and they started the dreaded pitocin at 8:30pm. I wasn't the most fond of our nurse when we arrived at the hospital so luckily there was a shift change at 7:00pm and I got my angel nurse Toni who would help me through my whole labor before she left at 7:30am the next morning.

I was already contracting consistently on my own about every three minutes, but they just weren't strong enough to really get labor going. I started feeling the effects of the pitocin and the contractions intensify almost instantly after they started the drip in my IV. Those got pretty uncomfortable and quickly moved to painful. They felt like stomach cramps as well as lower back cramps at the same time. Although painful, it felt like a familiar pain unlike the later pains of labor and delivery which are like nothing I've ever experienced.

My parents got to the hospital around 9:00pm to visit for a little bit before things got too intense. I forget how long they were actually there before I kicked them out and called the anesthesiologist in. I received my epidural-the only part of my "birth plan" that I ever really thought about :) That also was not what I expected. The "bee sting" numbing medication that they inject first that is supposed to hurt so bad really didn't hurt. It was after that that if felt like someone was taking a hammer to my vertebrae. Oh well - it was over pretty quick and I thought that from here on out it would be a breeze. Oh how wrong I was.

The loading dose that they put in the epidural made my right leg totally numb and took away those crampy contractions. A little weird, but fine. After that loading dose wore off my right leg was slightly numb and that was about it. For the rest of labor it felt like the epidural maybe was "taking the edge off" my pain...nothing more. I had to lay on my left side for the whole labor to try and get any of the epidural that was actually working to flow to more than my right leg. They kept telling me to get some sleep throughout the night - easy for them to say. I still felt my labor pains/back labor, my blood pressure was taken every 15 minutes, my progress was checked at least every 45 minutes, and the baby had a probe attached to her head and a pressure catheter next to her to be sure she was tolerating everything well also. It was a long night.

My nurse was so wonderful - I can't imagine going through that without her help. She left at about 7:30am when I was 10 centimeters and I got a new nurse, Penny. She was a tough cookie but exactly what I needed to get through pushing. My parents stopped in in the morning right before I started pushing. I don't remember much about that visit. I was a exhausted, in lots of pain, and pretty much just a scary basketcase at that point so I think they fled to the waiting room pretty quickly. I started pushing at 8:00am and from that point on there were no more tears - for what reason, I'm not sure. Baby was facing upwards, not down like they are supposed to, so that made pushing much harder than necessary.  Instead of a "two steps forward, one step back" approach, it was more like a "two steps forward, 1 3/4 steps back".  Pretty quick after I started pushing the nurse came up to me and sternly said "this is going to be a very good sized baby for you so you have a long road ahead" and I just sobbed and told her "I'm not good at this sort of stuff!!"  I told you she was a tough cookie.  She did, however, tell me when I was pushing that the baby had lots of dark hair and that just made me SO happy!  I was so excited to hear that! 

Nick was absolutely wonderful the whole time. He was the biggest help and very attentive. He definitely wasn't just standing in the corner by my head like I thought he might be; he knew what was going on and helped the whole time. I guess there were an abudance of women delivery babies that Thursday morning, because doctors and nurses were in short supply.  Our nurse would leave Nick, me, and a student nurse alone in the room pushing for 10 or 15 minutes at a time.  That was not encouraging.  Oh, the poor student nurse....this was her first clinical and she came to my room when I was 10 centimeters and ready to push.  I think I scared her.  She had one leg and Nick had the other.  At one point during pushing she (very emotionaly) exclaimed "this is nothing like the video they showed us yesterday!!".  O. M. G.  Not something I want to hear. 

I pushed for 2 1/2 hours and wasn't quite getting there. They asked if I wanted to be medicated and rest for an hour or so and then start up again. After 14 hours I just wanted this done! I said no way and kept at it. Then they asked if they could use the vacuum to assist. At that point I was exhausted and in absolutely no frame of mind to make any sort of decision. I laid there silent with my eyes closed and ignored everyone until Nick made the decision and told them to do it (thank goodness for him!). Two pushes later our beautiful baby girl was here at 10:38 am! There was meconium when they broke my water at the beginning of labor (meaning baby had already taken her first poo while still inside) so the NICU was there to suction her and take care of her if there were any problems. They plopped her on my belly for a few moments while they cut the cord, then the NICU doctors took care of her. She did fabulous and there were no complications. They brought her back to us within a minute or so and that's when I asked Nick what we should name her since we were still throwing a few ideas back and forth. He said, how about Gabrielle Sophia and that was it!

Our not so little peanut weighed in at 7lbs 4oz and 19.5 inches long. She was (and is!) so beautiful and perfect! I can't imagine being without her! Giving birth to my baby was honestly the hardest thing I ever did but it was a wonderful experience I will never forget.