So I obviously suck at blogging since my last post was over
2 years ago haha! That being said, I blogged Asher’s birth story and I have
loved having it to look back on and putting it on my blog has been a good way
to always have access to it! So, here is the story of how our sweet Gemma
joined our family!
End of Pregnancy
I am not going to lie, the last 4 weeks of my pregnancy with
Gemma were TERRIBLE!! I was soo hormonal and grouchy and just beyond ready to
be done! I had an extremely hard time getting any sleep but my life was super
busy still with all of my projects and crazy little Ash man to chase around so
I felt exhausted and worn down on top of being huge pregnant! I was SO sick of
the “when is baby coming?” or even “How are you feeling?” every 2 seconds! I
know everyone was just being nice checking up on me but I just didn’t want to
talk about being pregnant because I was so over it haha! When I first found out
I was pregnant everyone told me “Don’t get your hopes up that you will have
this baby early too just because you had Asher 3 weeks early!” and I tried so
hard my whole pregnancy to remember that and plan on going the whole time! I
did really good until my 36 week appointment when I found out I was already 2
cm and 75% effaced and the doctors started telling me it was definitely looking
like I’d go early. I was having WAYYY more contractions and signs of labor than
I ever did with Asher so I was positive I’d go early. Every appointment I was
told my cervix was soft and ready and I could have a baby any time and then a
week would go by and I’d be at my next appointment still pregnant and a little
more discouraged…
Labor… Take 1…
Between my 38 and 39 week appointments I was MISERABLE! Dr.
Bierer had told me when I started having contractions that were 3-4 minutes
apart for 2 hours I should head to the hospital. That Friday night I got a
super sick stomach and started having strong contractions every 3 minutes. They
weren’t causing me a great deal of pain but they were super regular and
definitely getting stronger and kept coming even after taking a hot shower and
doing a few other things. Since they weren’t super painful I decided I would
probably be okay to wait longer even though it had already been about 2 ½ hours.
Eric had work the next morning and his job is very strict about attendance and
so I knew I didn’t want him to call-in unless I was positive we were having a
baby. Even though they weren’t incredibly painful, they were definitely
uncomfortable enough to keep me from getting any sleep. I laid on the couch and
tried to relax but I felt pretty terrible. The next day was rough… I was beyond
exhausted and still contracting every 3 minutes and by this point my back was
aching and the contractions were making my upper thigh muscles cramp. I was nauseous
and feeling super crappy. I went to Walmart with my mom to try and keep my mind
off of things and while being out, things kept getting worse and I kept feeling
like this could be it more and more. I went home and laid down for about an
hour before Eric got home from work. When I laid down and drank a bunch of
water things slowed down but I was still having contractions every 4-5 minutes
and my back aches and cramps were still super strong. Eric got home and we
debated back and forth for a while whether we should go in or not (Eric didn’t
get home from work until 8:30 and by the time he showered and we figured dinner
out it was 9 and we were both tired and didn’t know if we were up to driving
all the way to Ogden.) Finally we decided it was better to be safe than sorry…
We got to the hospital and they hooked me up to the monitors and sure enough,
contractions were every 3 minutes. They then checked me and I had made no
progress since my appointment… At that point I knew it wasn’t the real deal
because I had been having contractions for almost 24 hours… The on-call doctor
wanted me to stay for an hour and get checked again and this was even more
discouraging. I knew if the past day hadn’t done anything, the next hour wouldn’t
do anything either and it was already 11:30 and we still had an hour drive home
with both of us dead tired. We were finally discharged at 12:30 and got to
drive the hour home, still feeling as miserable as ever. Since they checked me
twice my cramps and aches went up about 10 notches and I was sooo miserable on
the way home which just made the whole situation that much worse! I was so
ornery and discouraged. (Poor Eric!)
Well the rest of the week was pretty much just as sucky! I
had contractions every single day and only had 1 night that I was actually able
to get decent rest. By the time my 39 week appointment rolled around I was
completely spent and worn down. I was sure I’d get there and be super dilated
and find out we’d have a baby soon! (I was really hoping he’d send me to the
hospital that day saying I was in labor haha!) Well he checked me and I hadn’t
even dilated a full cm since the week before… I was glad I had at least
progressed a little but still super discouraged. The only thing that perked me
up a little was that Dr. Bierer actually gave me a timeline estimate of when
she’d come rather than just saying “she could come any day now!” He told me he’d
be surprised if I made it to my appointment the next week and he would say baby
in the next few days! This was great news, not only because I was so sick of
being pregnant, but because Eric had just been switched to a different team at
work which changed his schedule that had been arranged perfectly for a baby.
Dr. Bierer had agreed to setting up an induction if I made it to my due date so
Eric’s old schedule would have been perfect. He had 1 day he could take off and
it just so happened that the Saturday-Tuesday following my due date was Eric’s
4 day weekend for the month… Eric had taken his 1 scheduled day off on my due
date so he would have had 5 days in a row off which would have given us a little
more time together with baby. When they switched him to the other schedule it
made his long weekend the week before my due date and also made it so he had to
work the day of Baylee’s wedding, making it so his 1 scheduled day off had to
be moved to the wedding. This meant I had 4 days after my 39 week appointment
to have a baby while Eric was off if I wanted to have a husband around right
after having her…
Labor Begins… Again?
Well Eric’s long weekend flew by of course and no baby…
Tuesday was his last day off and we decided we would go to Park City to pass
some time and get just a little bit of couple time in before baby came. We got
to Park City and my contractions started right up but I refused to get my hopes
up. We walked around and they kept getting closer and stronger together and
painful! Since my other contractions hadn’t had a lot of pain associated with
them I started to get excited… By the time we finished shopping they had been
going for about 2 ½ hours and were 2 ½-3 minutes apart. I wanted to sit down
and eat and drink something and make sure that they didn’t go away. We stopped
at Subway and they kept coming so we decided we would head to the hospital from
Park City rather than go home and wait a little longer since my mom had Asher
already and we wouldn’t have to worry about getting him picked up in a hurry.
The whole drive they kept getting worse and I felt more and more nauseous and
achy. I was sure this had to be it! We got to the hospital and at this point
they were super close together and way stronger than I’d ever had before! They hooked
me up to the monitors and contractions were super strong and every 1 ½-2
minutes apart! The nurse acted so excited for me and I felt so relieved… then
she checked me and I hadn’t dilated AT ALL from my last appointment! I felt
like someone punched me in the face! My contractions were so strong and regular
so they said they wanted me to go walk for 45 minutes and then come back and
check again since it really appeared to be labor… After walking, contractions
were every 1 ½ minutes consistently and I was soo uncomfortable but still no
change. They discharged us AGAIN and I bawled the whole way home. I was so
miserable but nothing good was happening! The nurse was so sure I was in labor
she suggested we stay in Ogden and hang out for a while but Eric had to go back
to work the next day so we headed home. Well I got NO sleep and my contractions
got worse and worse and worse to the point I just laid on the couch and cried.
I was sooo exhausted but couldn’t sleep at all. I went and soaked in the tub
for 45 minutes, tried eating some food, tried drinking lots of water, and
nothing made me feel better. At this point I had no clue what to think. I didn’t
understand how it was possible I wasn’t in labor (or at least the point of
labor where I was progressing.) Around 3 AM my contractions slowed down a
little and I got SO sick! I was sweating and having heat flashes, felt like I
was going to pass out, wanted to throw up, and felt so weak and light headed.
The contractions were still about every 5 minutes apart but more than anything
I couldn’t take how sick I was! Eric woke up to go to work around 5:30 and I
was a bawling mess in the living room. He gave me a blessing before leaving for
work and told me to go back in to the hospital if I didn’t get feeling better soon.
I refused to get sent home for a third time so I told him I probably wouldn’t
go in. I was such a mess that I must have worried Eric enough to call me 3
times while at work to check on me… This is a big deal because he doesn’t get
service at work so he had to use the office phone during his breaks to do this
haha! Around noon my contractions picked back up to 3 minutes apart and were
just as painful and achy as the night so I got up and tried to clean my house
to keep busy… I quickly found out I was in too much pain for that so I decided
to work on some crafts instead since I could sit down and do that. My
contractions were so strong I had to stop walking and moving around when I had
one because of the pain.
Eric called me for the last time at 6 PM and I just cried to
him about how much pain I was in. I told him I thought I wanted to go back to
the hospital because I was just to the point I needed rest more than anything
else. I was to the point that if the contractions weren’t doing anything I just
wanted a morphine shot and a sleeping pill so I could at least have a few hours
to relax. Eric agreed I should go in so I drove to Grantsville to pick up my
mom (who had kept Asher overnight and all day for me since I felt so terrible)
and we headed back to Tooele to drop Asher off at my Grandmas before we drove
in. Eric gets off work at 7:30 but then has an hour long drive so our plan was
for my mom and I to drive in and then call Eric if he needed to come in. That
way I could at least get some relief but Eric could still be home and in bed at
a decent time so he wouldn’t have to miss work the next day. I refused to
believe they would keep me and was just planning on getting the shot instead.
We got to the hospital at 8 PM and they hooked me up to the monitors to tell me
(once again) I was having strong and regular contractions. They then checked me
and I had dilated to a 5 (about a cm and a half more from the day before) and I
about cried tears of joy knowing I had at least made some progress! The nurse
left to get ahold of Dr. Bierer and find out what he wanted me to do. It took
them FOREVER to get back to me because Dr. Bierer wanted them to monitor my
contractions for a decent amount of time to see how regular they were before he
made a decision. After about 45 minutes they came in and said Dr. Bierer said I
could stay!! FINALLY!!! I called Eric and told him to come in and got moved
into a delivery room and officially admitted at 9 PM.
The Real Deal!
My mom needed to run a few errands so she had left just
before they admitted me so I hung out in the delivery room, got my IV, and took
care of all the paperwork and such while I waited for Eric to get there and my
mom to get back from her errands. Just before Eric got to the hospital they
decided to check me again (around 10:20 PM) and I was only at 5 + (so basically
between a 5 and 6) so I started preparing for a long, slow night. Eric got
there about 5 minutes later and we started talking about my progress. I told
him I hadn’t even progressed a cm in the 2 hours so we probably had a long time
and he asked why they weren’t breaking my water to try to speed me up. I told
him 2 hours in labor is like nothing and some people labor for 30+ hours so
they probably wouldn’t try to speed me up until the morning at the earliest. I
then told him you didn’t want your water to break because it acts like a cushion
to the contractions so the longer they let me go without breaking it the
better! We finished that conversation and Eric was texting his parents the
progress when I started having a contraction and, no joke, my water broke
mid-contraction! (around 10:35) Talk about crazy timing! I was telling Eric it
broke and he was asking if we tell my nurse or what I need to do and while I
was deciding if I should page my nurse or just wait for her to come in I got
another contraction ( about 1 minute after the first) and the intensity of it
was CRAZY!! At that point there was no doubt I should let my nurse know… I
called and let her know. She came in about 10 minutes later ( 10:50ish) and
checked me and I was at a 6. The contractions were coming every 1 minute and
were SOOOO strong and painful! I couldn’t believe how fast it got that bad! I
felt like such a wimp but at 11 I asked for an epidural because they were not
slowing down and getting more and more painful every contraction. I was
squeezing poor Eric’s hand off and moaning and groaning like crazy through
every contraction and I was thinking of going through what I was feeling for a
few hours and knew I’d die haha! The nurse told me I had good timing because
the Anesthesiologist was just about to go into a c-section so she’d go grab him
and have him stop by my room first… She came back about 5 minutes later with a
look on her face that I knew wasn’t good… She hadn’t been able to catch him
before he went in for the c-section and now he wouldn’t be able to leave until
they were completely done but he knew to come straight to my room when he was
done… I asked how long I had to wait and she told me only 30-40 minutes… HAA! (Eric
said “that isn’t too long! You can do it!” and I just said “that’s 30
contractions!!” hahaha!) She told me I was getting a new nurse since her shift
was ending but she wanted to check me again because of how fast my pain had
intensified (at this point I was crying and chanting “ow, ow, ow, ow, ow”
during every contraction hahaha!) and how close together my contractions were
(less than a minute apart!!) even though she had just checked me 15 minutes
earlier. (Natalie had got back from her errands sometime around this point… My
eyes were closed pretty much the whole time at this point and I was kind of in
my own little world.) She checked me and I was at an 8!!! (11:10) They
introduced my new nurse (Carrie. She was AMAZING!!!) and started getting a
little panicked to get Dr. Bierer there since I had just dilated 2 cm in 15
minutes! Every contraction got worse and worse and I was dying!! My nurse was
amazing and grabbed my hands, had someone change the TV to relaxation music (I
hadn’t even noticed the background noise was overstimulating me until she did
that!) and made me open my eyes and look at her through every contraction. She
breathed through them with me since I was breathing way too fast through them,
causing them to last even longer. She really knew what she was doing and how to
help me! Eric was so awesome too and rubbed my lower back and thigh through
every contraction and kept telling me how good I was doing and that I could do
it! Neither, Eric or my nurse, acknowledged the fact that I was hollering and
being one of those crazy ladies you see on TV which made me feel way better
haha! At one point I made a comment about how I was trying to not yell and be
that crazy lady and they both assured me I was fine and doing great! (Probably
not true but it made me feel a lot better haha!) At this point they were
checking me every other contraction and it was taking me 2 contractions to dilate
a cm. By 11:20 I was fully dilated but not at the right station. By 11:30 Dr.
Bierer was there and I was in the right station and ready to deliver… The only
problem was that the edge of my cervix was still pulled up over her head on one
side so they had to wait for the contractions to move her head very slowly down
so I didn’t tear my cervix and cause all sorts of problems for myself… The only
problem was that because my body was ready to go I had the STRONGEST urge to
push. I wanted to push so bad and through every contraction I kept saying I
want to push, I want to push and they kept saying “Don’t push!! Don’t push!!”
and then I started saying “I have to!!” haha! It was the worst sensation to
fight that urge! They kept telling me she was right there and my contractions
were so strong that if I pushed she would for sure come and if I tore my cervix
I would have major issues! My nurse was her amazing self and every time I tried
to get them to let me push she would tell me I needed to breath through the
contraction instead and she would help me! She was so good and she even caught
me every time I tried to cheat and breath out longer than I should since it
helped fulfill that pushing urge so she would make me breath in instead hahaha!
At 11:40 Dr. Bierer checked me and said my cervix had finally cooperated and
moved and I was ready to push and right then Dr. Silver (the anesthesiologist)
walked through the door. I asked if I could get the epidural still (I think Dr.
Bierer was mad they let me know the c-section was done because when he got
there at 11:30 he had clearly just woke up and was super tired and he just
wanted me to push so he could go home haha!) Dr. Bierer, my nurse, my mom, and
Eric all told me I was ready to push and they all thought I should just finish
because they could tell she was coming fast… I didn’t want that advice and
asked Dr. Silver if I could get one and he was completely honest with me and
said “Well sure! You can do it now, all women can do it without an epidural if
they want to, but if you want the epidural I’ll do it!” so I asked if it would
work in time and he said “I don’t know! I guess we’ll find out!” and everyone
laughed (except me of course haha!) He had the epidural in just after 11:45 and
at 11:50 I had a contraction that I could feel but was MUCH better! I started pushing
and I could feel through the first 2 contractions just not as strong and that
kind of made me wish I would have just waited because not fighting the urge to
push made everything a million times better! That and the fact that I literally
pushed through 4 contractions and had a baby haha! I am happy I did end up
getting it though, even if I did only have it for 10 minutes and it only worked
for 2 contractions just for the fact that the second I got it I was able to
mentally calm myself down. It made me feel much more calm and like I had a much
better grasp on what was going on so I was able to be better prepared to meet
my sweet princess! After pushing through
4 contractions and less than 10 minutes, they placed a beautiful, healthy baby
girl on my chest!
Summing It Up
Long story short, I was in early labor for a little over 24
hours, active labor for probably around 8 hours but I’m really only counting
the true active labor as the last 3 hours! I am so glad that Dr. Silver was in
a c-section so I couldn’t get the epidural right when I asked for it because it
really proved to me that I could do it! This labor was pretty much the complete
opposite of my labor with Asher and I came in completely unprepared for it to
go so fast and intense. If I could go back I wouldn’t change a thing, however!
Now for our next I’ll know to go into it more prepared and with a better idea
of what to expect!
Gemma Geneal was born at midnight exactly (she kept our
streak of all our birthdays, and our anniversary, being on even dates haha!)
She was born and I got to do skin to skin immediately! She got quite ticked off
when they were getting all the fluid and stuff out of her mouth and nose but
the minute I got to do skin to skin with her she calmed right down and just
snuggled me! Eric got to cut the cord which was new since I had a c-section
with Asher. This whole birth experience was so different from Asher’s and so
amazing! They let me hold her skin to
skin as long as I wanted before they took her and wiped her down really well
and weighed her and did the tests they needed to!
We hung out in the delivery room for about an hour and a
half, I had a first degree tear so they stitched me up and then they moved me
to recovery.
Gemma has been the best little baby I could ask for! She has
nursed great (she had a little trouble latching last night but my nurse and
lactation consultant promised that was normal!) and is such a SNUGGLE BUG!!
Seriously! She loves being held and just
curls right into me!
I have been feeling soo great (tired, but I guess that is to
be expected when you spend one night up sick as can be and the next night up
giving birth haha!) but the recovery is night and day from Asher’s, and I thought
I felt good after Asher!
I had tested positive for Group B Strep and since I went so
fast I only had the antibiotic for 3 hours instead of the required 4 so Gemma
is required to stay in the hospital for at least 48 hours for monitoring and
testing so instead of being discharged today, we will be sent home in the
morning!
I’m a little nervous to have 2 babies at home, especially
once I have them both on Tuesday and Eric is gone to work but I’m sure we will
be fine! The bonding time for Gemma and I in the hospital has been amazing and
I am so thankful to have such a healthy little baby!
We had lots of visitors the 18th but today has
been a lot more low key! My mom, dad, Baylee, Weston, Wyatt, Kenya, and Eric’s
parents (and Mercedes but she wasn’t allowed to come back since she isn’t 14)
came right after she was born at midnight. Grandma G-G, Aunt Sharon, Jennie, and
Holli, Great- Grandma Cheryl, my mom, Wyatt, and Asher all came back during the
day too! Eric had to go back to work today so Gemma and I spent the night by
ourselves and all day today as well! My parents and Asher came to visit around
4 PM on the 19th and Eric is coming straight from work so we are expecting him
to get here around 9 PM and he’ll sleep here and be ready for us to be
discharged tomorrow morning!
It has been super interesting the different emotions I’ve
felt compared to when I had Asher. I was in the hospital for 5 days with Asher
and Eric had to go back to work and school as well and it was during the school
year so most of our family couldn’t spend much time other than evenings
visiting. I remember feeling so lonely and bummed having to spend so much time
alone so I had been a little nervous for spending the day alone today but it
has been great! It has given me the chance to nap and just relax and have some
me time! Not to mention I’ve got to snuggle my baby girl all to myself the
whole day!
I am SOOO glad I’m not pregnant anymore and beyond blessed
to have such a perfect and healthy little daughter! Everything about these past
few days has been a dream and so worth every ounce of pain and struggle the last
few weeks of pregnancy! I have a beautiful, perfect baby girl, feel great, and
have a pretty awesome story and memories to share!
Our Gemma Geneal
Born June 18th, 2015
12:00 AM
7 lbs 13 oz
20 inches long
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