Vivian's Birth Story

I wanted to have a record of her arrival--so if birth stories aren't of interest to you...check back later! :)
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Thursday December 15th:
My last offical appointment. One day shy of my offical due date. No real progress. About 2 centimeters, about 50-60% effacement....Dr. suggested stripping my membranes and I agreed...not the most comfortable, but if it enabled me to go into labor by myself, I wanted to try it. Our next move was scheduling an appoint for Monday Dec. 19th to strip them again if neccesary. Last ditch effort would be scheduling an induction for Thurs. Dec. 22nd. Which was the LAST thing I was hoping for. I really really wanted to go into labor on my own!!!
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Sunday December 18th:
I had contractions (contrx) all night. Enough to wake me up and make me notice, but not enough to make me start timing them. It was finally a pain different from the braxton hicks...which is what everyone said: you will KNOW real contrx pains!!! Hubs and I woke up and did some cardio in schwetty's. I only did about 20 min. walking on the treadmill. I was continually losing my "plug" and felt like I had to pee ALL the time. Got a lot done that day--did laundry, walked the dogs, and took a 2 hour nap on the couch since I didn't sleep well...I had a feeling we were gonna meet this baby girl in a day or two!!! I didn't feel like making dinner, so my in-laws graciously provided dinner for us--as they were hosting a 94th bday party for my M-I-L's mother! (she's in the picture below) WOW! Hubs came home with chicken, potatoes & birthday cake (if that wasn't a sign!) :)
Around 7:30pm I took a shower and felt more moderate contrx. After that I decided to time them while were were winding down for the night. I was pretty tired and ready to rest...again I knew she'd be here in a day or two...
8pm: Called labor and delivery. My contrx were pretty close together, but I also noticed I was 'leaking.' Oh boy! She said since I was a first time mom she would have recommended I wait, but the mention of leaking fluid made her insist we come in and get checked. We had our bags packed and ready to go...and my friend nicole was on puppy duty when we needed her, so if necc. she'd come get the dogs in the morning and take them to the pup sitter...
830pm: Test indicates it indeed is amniotic fluid---time to admit us!!!!!!!!! CUE PANIC MODE! (kidding-we were actually very calm!)
10pm: Got the Epidural. Enough Said....:)
11pm: So bizaree to see the contrx on the monitor and not feel them at all. I felt great-my legs felt tingly like they were asleep, but not too bad. The only downside was the periodic SHAKES! Oh my those sucked.
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MONDAY DECEMBER 19th 2011
1:30am: it's Officially Vivian's BIRTHday! DECEMBER 19th 2011. Was checked and was 4cm and 80% effaced. So far no intervention (pitocin or cervidel) which I was so thrilled about! I tried resting but as you can imagine it was so hard!
2:45am: 5cm and Vivi had decended considerably!
3:30am: 6cm and 0 Station!
4:45am: 8cm
5:50am: COMPLETE! Ready to push, just waiting on doctor. Go figure, since it was technically still the weekend, we had the on-call doc, who was NOT my doctor. (BUT!! he ended up being AMAZING, and we were thrilled with him!)

7:15am: SHE'S HERE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 1 hour of pushing! 7lbs 14ounces 19 inches long. She's got a head of hair, light eyes, she's Beautiful! Vivi was placed on my chest and I was just in AWE of what just happened! Hubs was amazing. He was holding my right leg and coaching me the WHOLE time-and he cut the cord! Also, sounds crazy, but they had a mirror, so I saw everything! It really helped with the pushing, to actually SEE progress! Everything went so amazingly well, I couldn't believe it! I was utterly exhausted! Pushing was so. freaking. HARD!! Granted, I didn't "FEEL" it, but the action of pushing I cannot compare to anything...It took so much out of me. Amazing what the female body is capable of!
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I can't believe my baby is 3 weeks old tomorrow. We are doing so well. (Thanks for the wonderful comments, by the way!)
My body is feeling good too. I'm still sore after long walks and don't plan on doing much more than that anytime soon. My midback is crazy sore from nursing, so yoga stretching really helps with that. Here's my tummy 3 weeks post pregnancy. I did end up with a couple stretch marks on the lower part of my belly, which hopefully will fade away...if not, honestly who care!!! :) Until next time.....