Birth Story

In addition to taking belly shots during active labor, I also painted my nails. Yes, I know I am insane. So here goes... I was due June 5th with little Macey Lynn and was able to work from home the week before my due date. I was so relieved to have that time at home and not worry about going into labor at work. Riley continued to go to daycare and I stayed home to well, work. It was nice because I was able to do some loads of laundry here and there, ran some errands during my lunch breaks and just in general slow down a little. Thursday morning I received a text from my best friend Angie who was also pregnant and due almost 2 weeks after my due date. Well she went into labor early and had her daughter Melina June 2nd bright and early that morning. I really wanted to visit her but I didn't feel comfortable driving out to New Britain by myself in my condition so I stayed home. Funny thing is that when I had Riley I had gone to visit my other best friend Julie's daughter at NBGH and that night I went into labor so I think I thought if I went to visit Angie, the same would happen again. Well I didn't go to NBGH but I went into labor myself the next day!

So the morning of June 3rd I had noticed some spotting when I had went to the bathroom. I "googled" it and some comments were bad and some were 'not to worry' ones. So I figured I would call my OBGYN and let them know what was going on just to be safe. I had some mild cramping as well. I continued with my day dropping my daughter off at daycare and getting to work. At this point, still early in the day, my cramping was a little stronger but still not consistent though I just had a feeling that something might be happening. So what is a girl to do in this kind of situation? Take a nice hot shower, do her hair and put on some make-up! I emailed my team I was working on a project with and titled the email "Finishing CHDI (a client of ours) or looking fabulous during labor". My co-worker was even surprised that I was talking to him via instant messenger regarding work related stuff, being that I was in labor. I explained to him that I was only in pain when the contractions came. I know, I am crazy. It was also still early on.

Well the contractions came and came and came... closer and stronger. I was jotting them all down on a sheet of paper to monitor them. My husband had stopped in from a little break he had in between the 2 schools he taught at that day and wanted to check in on me. My contractions were pretty close and I was in a lot of pain but I had told him he should finish the school day and we can go up to the hospital later in the day. He decided to take the rest of the day off, smart man. So in the meantime I had painted my nails (in between contractions of course) and conducted a mini photo shoot of myself on the couch of my big ole belly (photo above).

So now the contractions were getting stronger, a whole lot stronger and more often. I pulled the kitchen wall clock off the wall and used it to time the length of the contractions in seconds. I also called my doctor. She told me I should come in. I told her I wanted to wait until my daughter came home from daycare so I could see her and give her a BIG kiss and see her before I was off to the hospital but she said I should come in and not wait. And so that is what we did. We grabbed our bags and anything else we needed, packed the car and were off!

We waited in the emergency room for maybe 5 painful minutes and then I was taken in a wheelchair to the maternity floor. In the hospital room, they had me use the bathroom and then I was hooked up to the monitors! The one thing I wanted the most was an epidural! That was my birth plan. That was it. Before the epidural I was given another drug for pain which made me very dopey but I must say I didn't mind it. Made me very relaxed. Whenever I had a contraction my husband put pressure on my feet and legs and it really helped the pain not feel so bad. He was also the ice chip man. Waiting for the doctor I was really nervous about being too dilated to get an epidural so the nurse checked me and I was at 5cm. Perfect, far enough in the process but not too far to not get an epidural which was my worst fear. The epidural part was not bad at all. I remembered the same for when I had Riley too. The anesthesiologist had me lie on my side which was a weird position and then he told me I had a boney back! Not sure if that was a compliment or not. Then all of a sudden, ahhhhhhhhhhh, the pain had started to dwindle away. Though there was still quite a bit of work to do on my end, like pushing. Lots of pushing. The midwife had came in and wanted to break my water so she did that and it wasn't long before I was 10cm dialated. The midwife, nurses and doctor were all in the room and I had the urge to push so they said go for it! I probably pushed for about 15-20 minutes max. This is where all you woman reading this are going to hate me now. It's ok, I will understand. But it was hard, really hard, even if it was for only 20 minutes! Dr. Miller had said I can have a ton

more babies if all my labors would be like this but I don't know about that!

Before we knew it, Macey Lynn was welcomed into the world at 7:04pm weighing 7lbs 7.4oz! She came out sunny side up which meant she was facing up, not down. They gave her to me to hold for a minute, slimy and all, and I got to meet my little ray of sunshine! What a blessing it is to be given such a beautiful and healthy little person. After they took her from me, I had Steve running around taking pictures and videos of Macey being cleaned off and weighed and then he got to hold her while they finished taking care of me. By then it was late in the evening so we waited to have Riley meet her little sister the next morning. I missed her so much and didn't even get to say good night to her! My dad was the only one who came by that night because we had him get us McDonalds for us. I was starving! He didn't stay long because he had a cold. The next 2 days is when we had all the visitors come by. With Riley I was in and out of the hospital in like a day and a half but this time I stayed for 3 days and 2 nights. We left the hospital late Sunday morning. Before we went home we actually stopped at McDonald's for fries and a chocolate milkshake for the big sister Riley!!!