New baby girl

We are thrilled to welcome baby girl #3 to our family! She is beautiful and came into the world very easily (all things considered). I was able to have a VBAC which was my primary prayer before her birth. I already feel awesome and keep telling Lover how excited I am that it all went so well. We're grateful for all of our praying friends who helped us along!

For the record, she weighed 7 pounds 4 ounces and was 19" long. Head 13".

A little more detail for my memory that will lapse quickly (and because here I sit in my hospital room with little to do... sleeping babe, husband at home, no nurses checking blood pressure, etc. - am I on vacation?).

Here's the story:
Lover and I were planning to go together to my pre-op visit to the doctor's office on Fri morning at 8:20. I woke up at 12am with a few contractions and fell back asleep until 4 when I had a few more. I was in and out of sleep until 5:30 or 6. We both got up at 6 just b/c we were awake and needed to get things ready to get out of the house by 7:45 or so. I went on a walk at 6:30 trying to make some contractions come. They had subsided again (and I was so ready to have some consistent ones and go into labor!). By about 7:15, I was having a good # of inconsistent contractions. Lover started getting anxious -- he hates this part of the labor process b/c it's so unknown but it definitely puts him into "go" mode.

Thankfully we had childcare for the girls set up for the dr visit (thank you Wolthuises) for about 4 hrs. We dropped them off and called the doctor to see if we should go directly to hospital or into the office. They said office. The Lord was really going before us in all of this b/c the dr's office served as my triage and my quick entry into a hospital room. [Side note: the hospital was jam packed yesterday and birthed a record 20-something babies. One woman was trying to deliver in the Lobby and another delivered in triage. They didn't have enough beds to go around. ] I was 3cm and 80% effaced. Because the hospital was so full, the doctor said she might send me home and have me come back in the afternoon. I was aghast (inwardly) b/c I knew I would have a baby by then. I know my laboring self better than that. Anyway, they put me on a monitor and realized, "hey, she is having contractions at least every 5 minutes" -- let's send her to the hospital.

Arrive at DMC, wait with about 6 other laboring women in a lobby, get admitted to a room ahead of some others b/c I'm VBACing... they want to keep me monitored. Skipped triage and "relaxed" in our nicely appointed L&D room. Contractions getting stronger, IV in with some Finnegran -- knocked out but waking with some contractions. Where is my epidural???? Oh no, they lost a tube of blood so must get more blood before we can get the epidural. Ahhhh, why do people do this naturally? Pain is great and I'm in tears with every contraction. Finally, epidural about 1pm. Ahhh, hallelujah, I'm asleep again.

The contractions are coming on strong if I can feel the amount of pressure I'm feeling. I keep mentioning this to the nurse who really doesn't want to check me b/c they just put the penicillin bag up (group B strep) and it needs to be there for at least 4 hrs before you deliver (yeh, right!!). I persist until she checks me and says I'm at 9 cm now -- was at 6 just 30 minutes prior. She says things are still intact down there... i.e. just chill and keep laboring. This is nature's way of progressing your labor so you will feel pressure. Well, I've always heard women say "I just knew I needed to push" so thankfully the doctor walked in shortly thereafter and I told her I just REALLY felt the pressure and might could deal with it but kind of felt like I needed to push. She checked me immediately and said, "Yes, there's the head, you're ready." So here we go. Next contraction that the nurse and Lover were ready for, I pushed. It felt so good to be able to push and not squeeze the baby in with every contraction as I realized I'd been doing. ANyway, 2nd contraction, she came out. It was super fast and super amazing.

The most amazing thing is that there was never even a mention of a c-section. Heartrates were good and smooth the whole time. At some point (after epidural?), Lover asked the dr if we could assume we were having a vaginal birth... she said "absolutely."

Ok, that's enough for now. If you read this far, I'm impressed. This is more for my own memory than for blog readers, but I did edit somewhat in case you didn't want TMI!

I think I'll ready my book. Baby is in the nursery with pediatrician. I'm solo... weird!