Two years ago...

Becca turns two years old today. Right about now, actually. It's so amazing to me that two years have gone by - so much has happened during that time, both good and bad. But having this little girl in my life has made everything worth it.

Here is her birth story.

This really starts a few days prior to her actual birth. On Wednesday, January 18^th, I started feeling not well during the afternoon at work. I was having a lot of pelvic pain that made it difficult to walk – I’d had similar pain off and on all along, but not nearly as bad or for as long of a stretch. I also just plain didn’t feel well in general, so I called my doctor. They decided I should be seen, so I made an appointment for that afternoon. Ron was all excited, thinking this might be it and they might send us to the hospital. We’d had a false alarm on January 9^th where I was having contractions so we went into the hospital but no cervical change, so were sent home. I’d been dilated 2-3 cm for the past 2 weeks. At the appointment, I was still dilated 2-3cm but my blood pressure when she first took it was higher than it had been, and there were a couple of other concerns, so the doctor sent me home and also put me off of work for the next day. But on Friday, January 20th, I went in to work since I was feeling somewhat better and had my regular OB appointment downtown that day anyway. At the appointment, I was now dilated 3-4, almost 4, so things were definitely starting to progress a bit. We were waiting for test results and she said she’d call that evening. I went back to work and worked until about 4pm on my final day.

We got the call that evening and the results from the 24-hour urine test showed elevated protein – as much as if I had preeclampsia even though the lab results ruled that out. If I were pre-term, they wouldn’t consider induction just for these results, but since I was at my due date pretty much, she didn’t want to take any chances. We were scheduled for induction the next day and to call the hospital at 6am to find out what time to go in. We were excited, nervous, anxious, all at once. It was nice to be able to schedule people to watch the girls though and I realized how unprepared I’d really been with packing for the hospital and such. We called several people to line up help and keep people apprised. I slept ok that night until about 4:45am when I woke up and couldn’t get back to sleep. At 6am I called the hospital and was told to come in at 8am. At about 6:30 we got up and started getting ready. My sister-in-law got here around 7am to watch Abby and Hannah and I called Kristi at 7:30 to let her know - she was going to be in the delivery room with us.

We got to the hospital at 8:15am on Saturday, January 21st, and were taken right to a labor and delivery room since we knew we’d be staying. It had snowed several inches the night before and the view from the room’s windows was absolutely beautiful with a fresh coat of white snow covering everything and the sun peeking through. Kristi got there at 9:15am and at 9:30 they started pitocin. I was still dilated 3-4cm at that point so no change from the day before.

The first few hours were pretty uneventful. I had regular contractions with the pitocin but they weren’t very uncomfortable. Ron did his suduko puzzle book and Kristi and I chatted. It was actually very nice to have a chance to talk to her with no distractions (kids) around and it kept my mind off the contractions pretty well too. Everyone kept wanting to know if I wanted an epidural. I’d wanted one with both girls, but wasn’t able to either time, so wasn’t sure if I wanted one this time or not.  I decided to wait since they hadn’t broken my water yet anyway and I still wasn’t too uncomfortable. They did come in at 12:45 and break my water. I was still dilated only to 4 at that point.  The contractions got more intense after that. Because the pain was definitely worse by this point. I was done conversing and closing my eyes during them helped. So did the beeping of the heartbeat on the monitor – I never realized how much something like that would help to focus through the pain.

I finally decided that I wanted the epidural around 1:45pm, but the woman next to me had asked for one about a minute before I did. Since we were dilated about the same, it came down to the fact that it was her first baby and my third. I ended up with priority, but the anesthesiologist was on another case, so they were calling in his backup. It took until almost 2:30 before he got there and the contractions were very intense and very painful. I sat up to lean over for the epidural and started to feel shaky. Once the epidural was in, I lay down on my side and waited for it to take effect. I was still feeling shaky and was holding on to the side rail with every contraction, squeezing it hard. They checked me and I was dilated to 8 cm. Only a few contractions later, I started feeling the overwhelming urge to push – they checked me again and I was complete. They began to rush around to get everything ready and get the doctor in the room.  I think I pushed through maybe one or two contractions before she was born. They pulled her out and put her on my chest. I’d had my eyes closed the whole time but opened them when they asked if Ron wanted to cut the cord, so I did get to see that. They gave the baby some oxygen for a few minutes – her apgars were 8 and 9.

I only tore a tiny bit – just one stitch. The epidural never had time to take effect to help with the actual birth, but it did help with the afterbirth and when he put the stitch in. My feet were tingly and numb-ish for the next few hours. They got the baby cleaned up and I nursed her a little bit before they took her to the nursery for tests and her first bath. They didn’t bring the baby back for quite a while – not until Ron brought the girls up to see her. They said that she’d been coughing up mucus so wanted to keep an eye on her. She was fine after that though. And beautiful.

Happy 2nd birthday, Becca. We love you very much!