Tuesday, November 10, 2009

Oh Baby!

Wow.... Well, the last time I sat at my computer it was about 4am and I was trying to decide when to go to the hospital. Who knew that I was only hours - less than 3 hours - away from meeting this amazing little blessing!!!!!
Let's just say that little Nicole will have a great story for her baby book! Talk about fast.... seriously, my first contractions were at midnight. By 3:30 I knew I was in labor, by 4:30 Tom was getting everything ready to go and by 5:30, Natalie was here to stay with Megan. We got to the hospital and I knew I was "in trouble". Seriously at 4am my contractions were 5 minutes apart and starting to intensify. By 5 I was ready to go get my epidural. On the way to the hospital my contractions went from 3-5 minutes apart to 1-2 minutes apart. Tom and I always joked about having a Hwy 400 baby... let's just say, Thank Goodness it was very early on Saturday morning and we didn't get stopped by traffic. When I crawled into my hospital bed at 6:15 I knew I was in trouble because my contractions were every minute but they told me my epidural was on the way and that the baby still had to drop before I could deliver her.....

Well, a minute later my water broke and let's say she rode the wave and at that point all I know is that everyone in the room was repeating - don't push, your midwife is on the way. Don't push, she's almost here. Don't push, she's in the hospital.... As for me.... I was just huffing and puffing like those crazy labor video's trying to get through each contraction without pushing. At one point I thought... oh my gosh, Tom is going to miss this, I hope he finds a parking space. The happiest moment was when my Midwife walked in, threw her purse on the couch, donned a gown and delivered Nicole - in about 2 minutes. No joke! Talk about crazy.

So why did I wait so long to go to the hospital..... well - I think my foot has a stress fracture. I'm blaming it on the foot!! I was afraid I'd go and be in the early stages of labor and they'd make me walk the hospital for hours --- that's what happened with Megan when my water broke. And I just couldn't walk on my foot. I just waited a little too long. :^)

But if you are going for a natural birth... that was the way to go - 6 hours and 50 minutes from start to finish! And I will say my recovery at the hospital was a lot easier and quicker than with the epidural. And to be honest - I didn't know she was 9 lbs 2 oz till later. Holy Cow - I needed to get it in writing when they kept telling me she wasn't as big as I was afraid she was!

Now that the story is out there... here are a few pictures of our family of 4!

Megan LOVES being a big sister!




6 comments:

Tony said...

Nicole is absolutely adorable. We can't wait to meet her. Megan looks so happy to be a big sister. Very sweet. We are very happy for you guys and can't wait to meet Nicole. Take care.

Love,
Tony & Dawn

Whitlamy said...

Amazing story! She's a doll!!!

I will say that I had 2 epidurals and my recovery with my 2nd was 1000 times easier than my first. I felt almost normal within a couple of days. I think it's second, third, etc. babies...the first borns with long/hard/drawn out deliveries just pave the way for their brothers and sisters! Whatever it is, labor is DEFINITELY easier the second time around. I'm just thankful natural labor went so well for you. I think I'd be a ball of hysteria if they told me I couldn't get an epidural! You're a champ!

Sandy P said...

I think our 2nds might prove they can not tell you the size! They expected Macie to be 9 pounds and she was not 8.

Mitzi said...

She's beautiful! Many congratulations!!

Dawn said...

Miss Nicole is absolutely perfect! I must say I cringe every time I look at that big, beautiful head of hers. Val, I've alwasys known you were amazing...but you deserve a medal!!! And Miss Megan is probably the sweetest big sister EVER! Love them both up for us, and we can't wait to meet Nicole and see you all!! Minnesota is feeling like an aweful long ways an aweful long ways away right now. Can't wait until we can come to visit. We love and miss you!!!

gg said...

congratulations and way to go. you're an amazing woman! :) can't wait to meet her.