Julia's Birth.

Wow. I can't believe a full TWO weeks has gone by since our little bundle arrived and changed our lives forever.

I'll start with her birth story.

After nearly three weeks of being dilated to 3 cm and 85% effaced, I was still pregnant. I came home from work on Friday (September 14th) and felt super bummed. It was like the day I had been looking forward to for the last nine or so months had finally arrived, yet nothing happened. Alex and I went about normal life - realizing that it COULD be our last weekend as a duo. We went out for dinner at Hy-Vee (fancy, am I right?!) and then ran errands at Target. We came home, I went to bed and hoped that maybe my water would break in the middle of the night. It never did.

Saturday morning rolled in and I woke up feeling rejuvenated and fresh. If Julia wasn't quite ready to come out and joint the world, then I wasn't going to sit and stew about it. We met Alex's Grandma and Mom for brunch at Panera and then came home and enjoyed a lazy Saturday around the house with Theo. I'm not sure we did much of anything - we just enjoyed time together watching college football games and I took my fair share of  naps.

Sunday morning came around and I woke up feeling a little bit different, but not different enough to make a big deal of it. Alex and I had breakfast at home and organized the house a bit before deciding a to get out of the house for the day. We headed to Coralville and had lunch at the mall food court. Panda Express, to be exact. We dined and Alex headed to Barnes & Noble for some law school studying and I headed to target to buy things that we didn't need. I had had a few small moments of "WOAH! There is some pain in my back!" but lasting at only 5-6 seconds, I didn't make much of it. I started to feel winded walking around Target and decided to go find myself a seat next to my handsome husband at B&N. I got there, sat down, and didn't feel much better. Alex could see the discomfort on my face and offered that we head back home. It didn't take much thought, I knew we needed to leave. 

We came home and I decided to park it in the bedroom. I had my feet on the floor and was leaning over at my waist onto the bed. The back pain was a little more pronounced, but I had no idea how to time anything. The pain wasn't coming and going with out much notice - it just seemed CONSTANT.

I decided to call the Mercy Nurse and see what she thought. At 40 weeks and 2 days, I figured they wouldn't turn me away if I wanted to make my way down to the hospital. The OB physician on call took over an hour to return my phone call - so at 5:50 Alex and I headed to Mercy and parked it. As we were getting ready to walk into the hospital, the OB returned my phone call and pretty much wrote us off as "early labor" but offered us the opportunity to come, have my cervix checked, and monitor the baby for a bit. I took the offer and we made the walk across the parking lot to the entrance.

We checked in at registration - I was smiling, talking, and nervous rashing. Probably not what your average laboring woman looks like. They offered a wheel chair and an escort, but Alex and I were doing just fine. We hoped onto the elevator and made our way up to the Maternity Unit. We were quickly greeted by a nurse in purple scrubs named Robin. What a jewel. She had a sense of humor Alex could connect with and we enjoyed her lots. She ushered us into "Test Room C" where I realized my modesty was out the window. Within in seconds she had me laying in a bed with my clothes off and had me hooked up to monitors.

Little did I know that I was actually having contractions. They were coming every six minutes, but not once did I ever feel one. The OB came in and checked my cervix; 3 cm and 85% effaced. Not much different from where I was at on Wednesday the week before. My heart sunk a little bit as she told me this and I worried that we were going to be sent home. The physician recommended that we walk the unit for the next hour. At 7:30, she would check me again, and if I made any progress she would admit me and we'd start the labor process.

I got dressed and Alex and I walked the unit. For nearly an hour every time we reached the end of the unit I'd step into one of the extra rooms and do 10 toe touches. It sounds strange, but I swear this is what helped me. Each time I touched my toes my stomach/uterus would get SUPER hard and it would feel like I had a ball inside of me that was about to explode. Again, we did this for an hour. I would not be surprised if I did over 300 toe touches in that hour...

At 7:30, the OB came in and checked me again. Super nervous, I prayed that I had made just the tiniest amount of progress. When she said I had dilated to 4 cm and was 100% effaced tears of happiness just streamed down my face. We were admitted, and we weren't going to leave the hospital without a baby! I was the happiest girl and Alex had the biggest nervous smile across his face. Neither of us could believe that it was really happening and I think both of us had a few small moments of "what in the world have we gotten ourselves into!" There was no turning back.

It took awhile for the admission process to finish. By 8:15 I had been transferred to a labor room and they hooked me up to the monitors. Robin went through a list of questions and acquainted us with our surroundings. The OB came in and wanted to let me "labor on my own" for another hour or so to see if I would make any more progress. Alex and I walked hallways again and started to notify all of our family and friends that "We were at Mercy Hospital waiting for the stork to come." What a surreal moment. I had been looking forward to this day for 9 months. I couldn't believe it was all about to happen.

At 9:30 the OB came in and checked me, no progress. She then broke my water (this was probably the grossest part of labor) and HOLY CONTRACTIONS. They measured only between 40-50 on the "contraction richter scale" but I knew I wanted that epidural. At this point, my parents, who were coming from Des Moines arrived. While I wasn't yet in terrible pain, my mom agreed that it was a good idea to go ahead and pursue the epidural. The OB paged anesthesia and within minutes she was on the unit hooking me up with the good stuff. She was a saint. Best epidural experience EVER. Soon after, they started pitocin. Oh nasty pitocin, thank God I had that epidural. 

At this point, our nurse that had initially admitted us had been whisked away to the Nursery and we were introduced to Dee, another wonderful lady. Dee started my pitocin and said that every 30 minutes she would increase the pitocin by one mL. I started at one and she advanced me to two at 10:00. My contractions were measuring between 80-100 on the richter scale and the baby was responding well, so she made the decision to not advance me any more. The OB came in at this point to see how I was doing. Feeling 100% comfortable and totally relaxed, I was actually enjoying this experience. The OB and nurses informed us that it was probably "going to be a long night" and told my parents to go home, get some rest and come back at 5:00 AM. My parents headed out, we dimmed the lights and I watched the rest of Sunday night football.

My adrenaline was just too high and I was super itchy from the epidural (totally common, I guess). I was itching my toes, my nose, my boobs, my back. Anything and everything itched. I couldn't sleep! Alex was a total champ and was the ice chip king. Every 30 minutes or so he'd run down and get me fresh ice chips (I wasn't allowed to eat anything else). He eventually simmered down and relaxed in the recliner with his computer.

Around 2:00 the nurse came in to rotate me. At this time I told her that I was feeling a strange pressure-like sensation in my right butt cheek. I assumed it was because I had been laying on my left side for the last hour and needed to be rotated. Dee decided that she should check me to see the progress that I was making.

I.WAS.SHOCKED when she said I was feeling pressure because I was dilated to NINE centimeters. HOLY SMOKES. She quick paged the OB and told me that I better get my parents on the phone and have them come back to the hospital.

The OB came in, checked me, and said that if I wanted to start pushing we could begin or I could "labor down" for 30-45 minutes until my parents arrived. I wanted my mom there for the birth, so I opted to labor down. I wasn't in any pain, so I figured what's an extra 45 minutes if it means that my mom could be there.

At 2:30 my mom and dad arrived. My dad hung out in the closet of the room. He could hear everything, but see nothing. Perfect scenario : ) My sister, Emily, was desperately wanting to be there so he texted her the play-by-play of the labor process to help her feel like she was there. 

At 2:45 I started pushing. I wasn't feeling any pain, but I could definitely tell when I needed to push. The OB and nurses were totally impressed by this - and also totally impressed that I could move my hips and my legs on my own. I guess that's very unusual for women with epidurals...

For the next hour I would push every 2 minutes for 3-4 LONG pushes. When her little head started to show we were shocked when the OB told us she had dark, curly hair. How in the world did Alex and I end up with a baby who had DARK hair and lots of it?! 

At 3:45 I pushed one last push and little Julia entered the world. She came out "waving" one arm up next to her head. She was a super dusky; almost a grey/purple color. They placed her on my belly and for a few long seconds I couldn't get any words out. She was crying, and I knew that was a good sign, but she was SUPER dusky looking. I was worried about her oxygen status and wanted to know why she looked that way. Finally I was able to muster out the words "is she okay?" and the OB and nurses were quick to respond "Yes!" and within minutes little Julia had begun to pink up. 

Alex cut her cord, I patted and rubbed her back to try to calm her down & tried my hardest to take it all in. How was this little baby mine!? I just witnessed them pull her out of my own body, but it still hadn't sunk in that she was MINE. I think I was witnessing a bit of shock.

They took her to the baby warmer and gave her 9's on both her 1 minute APGAR and 5 minute APGAR scores. What a stud : ) My dad and Alex took pictures. They cleaned her up a bit and then they brought her to me; she nursed (with extreme difficulty) for about 45 minutes and then they took her to the nursery to bathe her, do a hearing screen, and do an overall assessment. They cleaned me up, Alex picked up the room, my parents headed home, and then they transferred us to the postpartum unit. Alex laid down on a pull-out sleeper and I was so excited I couldn't sleep. All I wanted was my baby.

I ordered breakfast and around 7:45 they brought Julia back to me. My OB checked in on me, Julia's pediatrician stopped by, and Alex's parents and Grandma arrived around 8:00 to meet our little addition.

My parents came back to the hospital around 10:00 and we all oogled and awwwwed over Jules.

What a wonderful experience, what a beautiful baby, and how incredibly blessed we are.