Fit Healthy Balanced Life as a Mama: A Whole New World

I decided I wanted to start a new blog to document my life as a mommy and trying to stay balanced and healthy. For me it has always been a struggle to not be extreme in my life. I tend to go too far in one direction or the other. As a new mom, I want to strive to be healthy, but not obsessive. To keep my priorities straight but also take care of myself.

The first post I wanted to do about Braelyn's birth. I want to document it so I don't forget a single bit of those special moments.

First we need to go back to 36 weeks along. At my Dr's appt, my OB said he thought she was already between 6 and 7 pounds. I was not yet dilated but he thought that she would be coming early. At the next appointment there was no change, and the next, and the next, and the next. So at my 39 week appt, I was 39 weeks and 3 days, he said that if she hadn't come by the following Wednesday, which would be 40 weeks 3 days, he thought I needed to be induced. He saw how uncomfortable and anxious I was and also was afraid that she would be too big if we waited. Besides this, Justin's boss was going to be going out of town the Sunday following her due date and if she came during that time he wouldn't be able to take any time off.

I tried everything, besides castrol oil. I walked and walked, I ate pineapple, I ate wings from Buffalo Wild Wings that were one of the hottest, we had sex, I drank coconut water, I did squats and lunges, but nope, she didn't come.

My mom came into town Tuesday evening so she would be able to be here during the birth. We were to be at the hospital at 10:00 pm on Tuesday night. I wasn't to eat or drink after 3 pm. We left the house about 8:30 pm. We arrived at the hospital about 9:15 and were all checked in by 9:45. The registration lady told us to go sit in the waiting room and that our nurse would come get us shortly. So we waited and waited, anxious, excited, tired (I had hardly slept the night before, and a nap that day? forget about it, I was too anxious). We waited some more. At 10:30 Justin went and asked how long it would be. The lady called over to L&D and was told it would be another 20-30 minutes. So we waited and waited some more, and let me tell you, those waiting room chairs are not very comfortable when you at 10 months pregnant.

Finally at 11:15 pm our nurse came in and got us and took us through several doors and down a few hallways to our room. I undressed and put on my hospital gown and got all situated while Justin went and got our stuff from the car. They hooked me up the the monitors, one to measure contractions, and one to measure babies heartbeat. Braelyn moved so much that night. She started moving about 8 pm and kept on moving til about 2 am; we could hardly even hear her heartbeat since she was moving so much. The nurse couldn't believe what an active little girl we had. She then hooked me up to my IV and checked my cervix. I was 1 cm dilated. Better than not at all I guess. She then inserted the vaginal tab which was to help dilate and soften my cervix. I was then told to try to get some sleep and she would come back and check me in 4 hours. I tried to sleep but it was definitely not easy. I'm guessing I got 2 - 3 hours. Around 3 o'clock I started to have some sporadic contractions, a few here and there, not too close together and not too intense, but my back began to just ache. When she came back to check me I wasn't dilated any more but my cervix had softened some more. She then hooked up the pitocin. Before too long the contractions began to get more intense, I was definitely having to breathe through them and felt them all over my tummy but especially in my lower back. But I said to myself, I got this. I had gone through this pregnancy wanting to do a natural birth, no epidural, I knew the pitocin would make that a lot harder, but I was willing to try. At 8:00 am the dr came to check on my. I was dilated to 3 and 80% effaced, he then broke my water. All I felt was a sudden flood of warm water. My nurse had said quite a few hours earlier, "Just let me know when you want the epidural." Apparently these days it's just expected that every woman will get an epidural. After my water was broke the contractions definitely got more intense. They were very painful, but I held out, I was stubborn. Soon whenever a contraction came I was hugging the bed rail, holding on for dear life. Before to long they got so intense that my body was shaking through them they were so painful. Everyone with me told me that if I needed to get the epidural I should just get it. I held off longer, but knew that if I was only dilated to 3, not to mention that they were about a minute apart, and it was this painful, that there was no way I could make it to 10 and then still have the strength to push. So at 10:00 I finally gave in. At that point I was not even worried about the needle. People say the epidural is so painful to get, but besides a slight burning sensation, it was nothing, and when you compared it to the contractions it was a piece of cake. Gradually the contractions felt less and less intense. Oh sweet relief. I could finally relax. I tried to nap a little and probably cat napped for about 10-15 minutes. But then my blood pressure dropped, and along with it baby's heartbeat. That was so scary. I watched it drop from 150 all the way down to 100 down to the 60's. They quickly gave me ~~oxygen~~ and turned the pitocin off. All eyes were glued to the monitor. Justin was so nervous, he was pacing, ended up throwing up his breakfast and had to actually leave the room cuz he just could not even stay in the room. Thankfully her heart rate soon went back up but I couldn't help be on edge, my eyes were glued to to screen pretty much from then on. I seemed to dilate pretty steadily, the nurse even thought she would be here between 3 and 4. So we waited and waited. at about 3 they decided to put an internal monitor in in order to better track my contractions and they weren't getting a good read from the external monitor. I was dilated to 8 at this point. She was low though, even though I couldn't feel the contractions I could feel the pressure of her head down there. By 6 o'clock I was fully dilated, but they decided they wanted me to sit up and see if gravity could help bring her down. They tried to have me push, but I didn't seem to be making any progress. at 6:30 they called my dr and he said he would be there by 7pm. Well it got to be 7, then 7:15 then finally her appeared at 7:15. They had me push, but she didn't seem to be coming out any further, despite her sitting so low. After checking, the doctor discovered that she was OP, in other words, instead of facing down where the narrowest part of her head was coming out first, she was facing up. This was probably why I hadn't dilated ahead of time and also why my labor didn't progress faster. He had me push and tried to use his hands to turn her but was unable to. At this point my epidural had been beeping at me for over an hour saying that is was getting low. My dr had me push a little longer but said that if no progress was made he would need to use forceps. This made me very nervous as I have heard horror stories about forceps, even one that had reported that the Dr. using them had cracked the babies skull causing instant death. But I decided to trust my Dr. I could feel him insert the Forceps and when he slid the one inside me on my right side I felt it hit a nerve and shooting pain shot down my right leg. I kept on pushing as contractions came, and let me tell you, pushing three times through contractions is not easy, by the third push there is pretty much no way to catch your breath and I was running out of air halfway through the third push. After a little bit they finally told me that the Dr. had been able to turn her. What a relief. The nurses told me afterward that my Dr. was one of the few Dr's that delivers there that still uses forceps and that if he hadn't been able to turn her it would have likely turned into a C section, thank God that didn't happen. Through those last few pushes my emotions started welling up, I had to push them back down because I was about to start crying. Anyway, I pushed hard, with all my might, which I feel my working out definitely gave me an advantage to this, and after getting her turned around it was not long. She was right there through a few pushes, and finally with a big push her head was out and the Dr. actually gave a little tug and the rest of her little body slid right out. Those next moments were a whirlwind. Her glorious cry, which by the way NICU wasn't needed cuz she let out a cry as soon as she hit the air, she was set on my chest for a second, and while we were planning on doing delayed cord clamping, her cord was thin, so Justin cut the cord. I was bawling, Justin was bawling. This little miracle that had grown inside of me for 10 months, all the anticipation that we had build up to this day, she was finally here. They whisked her away to clean her off and measure her and Justin and I just hugged and kissed and cried. They declared her healthy and swaddled her up and laid her on my chest. I looked at her with such wonder and amazement, her eyes were wide open, her tongue sticking out at us, her arms waving in the air, so alert. I could not believe she was mine. It felt like a dream. We were told we had to stay in the hospital 48 hours after delivery, but were able to leave around 2:30 pm Friday. We are so blessed to have this little miracle home. She is perfectly healthy. She even was up above her birth-weight by her one week appointment. I'm feeling great as well. I've gone on several walks and feel my energy level isn't bad considering being up with her several times for nighttime feedings. But it's all worth it. Right now I'm trying to take it day by day. Trying to make good healthy choices with my eating, after all, what I eat goes right to her. I will plan on exercising once I hit the 6 week mark, but for now I'm trying to take it easy and enjoy my little bundle of joy.

Here are some pics of our special moments: