Over a month? Has it really been that long since my last post? Well, let me begin by saying that if words like "dilate" and "crowning" make you uncomfortable, please do not read further. But, perhaps you'll forgive me once I start posting really cute baby pictures!
That's correct - our baby girl is here! Sweet little Molly Jane decided to surprise us all by arriving early. We weren't expecting her until November 8 or later, but she made her grand entrance at 6:29 am on Wednesday, October 21. Molly weighed 6 lbs 7 oz, and was 18 inches long. We think she's pretty awesome. :) Thankfully, Owen does too! He has been incredibly sweet with her, and loves to kiss her and hold her.
Here's the story...
My water broke at 3 am on Tuesday morning (the 20th). I tried to go back to bed and get some rest, but that was futile. Surely, I was going to have a baby any minute! Right? My water broke first with Owen, and he was born just over 6 hours later! Hm, maybe not this time.
My friend Lyndsay came to pick up Owen later in the morning, and then Matt and I scrambled to tie up loose ends with work. Then we were off on a long walk to try to get labor to pick up. When contractions were still weak and irregular at lunch time, we decided to go ahead and call the doctor.
While I was being examined in triage at the hospital at about 3:00 pm, I was still having a hard time believing I was going to have the baby that day. I was dilated 3 cm, but was not in any pain. Just "mild" contractions. When I checked into the hospital during labor with Owen, I was also 3 cm, but I was nearly losing it with each contraction at that point! How was everything so different this time!?
Yes, Internet, this is me IN LABOR. Is that not the most bizarre thing you've ever seen? Oh and PS - I have not had an epidural! I am walking around - and walking, and walking, and walking - and I am IN LABOR, and I am feeling fantastic. Getting tired after so much walking, but other than that, I'm feeling GOOD. My friend Betty came to the hospital to keep us company at about 5 pm - she thought she'd be sitting in the waiting room praying for me, but instead, she was in the delivery room in awe with me as I continued to feel great through each passing contraction.
Then things got a bit frustrating...
Ever seen Groundhog Day? I felt like I was in the Childbirth version of that movie. First of all, the clock in the delivery room died. Here is the photo from Betty to prove it. It was 8:41 for about 10 hours. On top of that, I think it was 3 times in a row that they checked me (spaced about 2 hours apart each time) that the nurse said, "4 cm dilated, 75% effaced, -2 station." Ahhh!! If I had to hear those words again, I was going to freak out.
But really, what was alarming me was that I knew the doctor was going to come back and say it was time to start Pitocin to get contractions to pick up. She had already been incredibly gracious to let me continue to labor without any medication, as I wished, but since my water had already been broken for 18 hours at this point, we needed to move things along. I have heard horror stories of being given Pitocin without having had an epidural, and I was terrified.
They started the Pitocin drip, and I geared up to be hit by a mack truck.
Contractions started coming more regularly, but they were bearable. I practiced what I knew to do to deal with each contraction, and labor continued. I remember closing my eyes and relaxing through a contraction, then opening my eyes and saying, "Okay, that one's over," and then Betty looking at me like I'm a freak of nature. (She's been on Pitocin without an epidural - she knows what it should've felt like.) But I said to her - "It's not that the contraction is so horrible and I'm so strong. I have to concentrate, but I promise that it really is okay."
And then we remembered.
I had prayed a crazy prayer a couple of months ago. I prayed that God would allow me to have a pain-free childbirth. I acknowledged that surely the labor and delivery would be hard work, but I asked that He would allow it to not be painful - and that He would give me the endurance to do the hard work of giving birth to my daughter.
It became clear that God had decided to answer that prayer. I still can hardly believe it even as I type this, and I don't know why He would answer such a seemingly insane prayer, but it is undeniably true.
I continued to labor for 7 or 8 more hours - eventually they were upping the dose of Pitocin every 30 minutes. Things definitely progressed well into the "hard work" category... as you can see in that lovely picture of me - deep in relaxed concentration, sitting on the birthing ball.
Around 5:30 am, things got really hard, and I remember thinking, "I don't know how much longer I can do this... I'm just so tired." But it was like God calmed me and said, "Just take it one at a time. Just one at a time." At about 6-6:15, Matt asked if I thought it would be okay for him to go get a cup of coffee - for all he knew, it could be another 12 hours at this point. But I remember saying, "Just wait through one more contraction. That last one felt different. I really think you should just wait through one more."
Praise the Lord that he waited, because I very suddenly was compelled to push and she was almost immediately crowning! I started yelling at Matt that she was coming out, and then Matt was hitting the call button to the nurses' station and yelling that we needed help - with me screaming in the background. Seriously, it was like a scene in a movie. Nurses started flying into the room and throwing chairs out of the way and repositioning the bed. Thankfully the doctor made it into the room a minute later, just before the nurse got to deliver my baby!
The serenity in this picture is comical to me now, having just re-lived the final crazy moments of Molly's birth in the last paragraph. It really was like a switch flipped for about 15 minutes - a long, exhausting yet peaceful 27-hour buildup to a completely insane few pushes, and then she was here and everything was calm and I just remember looking at her when they placed her on my chest and saying over and over, "You're here... I can't believe you're here... You're really here..."
Matt, Mollly, & me... sadly, Owen couldn't be there! Because of flu restrictions, there were no visitors under 18 allowed anywhere in the hospital.
Getting all prettied up for her big ride home.
Owen & Molly meeting for the first time.
Molly Jane
Most common phrase from Owen lately: "I hold Baby Mollly!"
Phew! I finally got this all typed out! If anyone actually read the whole thing, I'm impressed. I really wanted to get all of that down because I just don't want to forget what an amazing experience it all was. And that it really did happen like that! Craziness.
We are so immeasurably and undeservedly blessed! The blessings have continued as we are all adjusting really well - sleep-deprived and a bit rough around the edges, but well nonetheless!
Funny stories still abound, even the 2nd time around with a newborn, so I will try to keep posting at least kind of regularly! (Yes, she has peed on me. Yes, she can poop halfway across the room - and has proven it. Yes, she has already been minorly injured by her well-intentioned brother.)
Stay tuned!
