Carissa Jane's Birth Story

Carissa is officially 2 weeks old as of this morning and I am finally getting around to posting her birthstory! It has been an utterly crazy two weeks and the best way I can think of documenting it is by making a timeline. Enjoy! :)

Tuesday January 11, 2011
I had my 39 week dr. appointment at which had my membranes stripped. I spent the next 30 minutes after hiking up and down the 3 flights of stairs just outside the office. I must have looked a little silly going up and down, but my goal was to have a vbac and I was determined to do everything in my power to "help" things along. Jon's mom had Hannah and offered to keep her for the day which was super helpful cause I was able to power clean trying to stir baby into coming. I even walked that day to pick Sam up from school. Well it seemed to work cause I woke up from sleeping at 11 that night with contractions every 8-10 minutes apart!!! Now this was super exciting because I had never gone into labor on my own, and this was what I was hoping for! I didn't sleep (silly me) but spent the night packing my hospital bag and getting the girls bag ready. All the activity brought the contractions coming every 5-8 minutes. In my naiveness I though surely the baby would be here by noon the next day.

Wednesday January 12, 2011
I woke Jon up at 4 and told him this was it! He had to run some things to work and then came back home to take the girls to school. As the morning progressed the contractions spaced out anywhere from 5 minutes to 15 minutes and I was getting discouraged. We arranged for the girls care and spent the day eating light meals, napping, and watching movies. At 7 that night I had enough! The contractions were still sporadic but they hurt, not in my tummy, but in my thighs and my back, so we went to the hospital. Sadly, after being hooked up to monitors my contractions slowed down to 20 min apart, and I was still only 1 1/2 cm dialated. I told them I wanted to go home, and home we went. I took some tylenol and benydryl that night to try and get some rest, which was hard to do cause the contractions were still every 5-15 minutes apart.

Thursday morning January 13, 2011
That morning I awoke tired, worried, and discouraged. I started to think maybe something wasn't right since I didn't have the "traditional" pains in my stomache area. I went in to my dr office to make sure I didn't have a uti and to hopefully get some answers as to why I was in so much pain with no progress. They said silly girl there is no uti, go home and REST. The triage nurse spoke to my dr for me and he told her to tell me that he is a firm believer in a small glass of wine!!!! HAHA I LOVE my ob! So for lunch I did what any respectable pregnant woman in labor would do, and had my sister order me a drink :) I ate a huge juicy cheeseburger and a TON of fries and had my "drink" and then went home to sulk. Jon kept wanting me to go for a walk which I did not want to do. I was tired, I hurt all over and was convinced I would be in pain every 5-15 minutes for the rest of my life!!! I was frustrated that I had asked Jon to take off work so early as he only had a week and I started to worry that I wouldn't have the baby and he would have to go back to work.

Thursday Evening Januray 13, 2011
I was in pain. I had stopped timing contractions at this point and I was starting to just be sore all over. I had taken at least 50 baths, 10 showers, laying in bed did not help, and getting up and moving did not help. My back hurt and my outer thighs hurt and I was at my wits end! My sister who had our girls called and said Sam had a fever, and at that point I almost had Jon just go pick her up and have her come home, cause again I was convinced nothing was going to happen. We agreed to go pick her up in the morning so that Stacey and Maddie would not get sick. At about 8pm Jon wanted to start baking. He peeled 6 apples made and rolled out dough and started making these crazy dough covered baked apples. At this point I lost it!!! The crib was still in pieces, and my "to-do list" for him was incomplete, I was in pain and had been now for 48 hours, and we had a sick kiddo, and he was BAKING!?!?! (Now hindsite I realize he was just at a loss as to what to do and was just trying to do anything to keep from going crazy, but at the time it was the worst possible thing in the world :) Well at about 10pm I lost it started bawling and told him we needed to go back to the hospital cause I couldn't sit around for another night with the kind of pain I was having. I was ready to be induced, or c-section or WHATEVER (obviously not quite in the right frame of mind) I included a pic of his creation :)

Thursday Late Night/Friday Morning
We got to the hospital at 11:30 at night and I began to realize that my pains in my back and legs were coming and going every 3-5 minutes! I was still convinced it was not helping though because I wasn't having the pains in the "right" areas. After getting checked to my surprise, I was 5 centimeters!!!!! I was sooooooo excited! I got into the labor room, and got hooked up to all the monitors and about an hour later my water broke! It was so nice to be able to labor sitting and standing and walking instead of confined to the bed! At 7 cm however everything just about stopped! After 2 1/2 hours and only 3 contractions the dr. wanted to start pitocin, and I was mortified! I did not want to end up with a c-section and I was doing to good at handling the pain, and I know how much pitocin makes things HURT! Thankfully, he was super supportive and encouraging and let me wait a little longer, and then said he would start at 1 and only move up 1 every half an hour, and would stop the pitocin at any point I asked. After having my cervix start to swell and a slight scare with babies heart beat and being confined to bed, I decided to let them start the pitocin. It was about 4am at this point.

Friday Morning January 14, 2011 Warning (This is where is gets slightly graphic)
Well I went from 7-9 1/2 centimeters in an hour and with only 2-3 (whatevers) of pitocin. The pain was not horrible but I was hungry and tired and it was all in my back and legs and it hurt. The dr. came and camped out in my room since he knew I wouldn't be able to stop pushing and since I was the only laboring woman with no drugs I got the special treatment :) He pulled out a "squat bar" and I basically stood or squatted on the bed and pushed baby out in one contraction!!! Again it hurt, but no where near the pain I had anticipated! I was so excited that I did it. She was born at 5:41am weighing 6 lbs 10 oz and 19 1/2 inches long. Now this is where the fun began. Jon told me this part cause I dont remember much. After about 15 minutes and no placenta they took the baby off my chest and over to be weighed and measured. The dr pulled slightly to help the placenta and the cord broke, he then said uhh, and grabbed the clamp thingy and tried to grab the cord inside and it broke in there too. At that point he had been "massaging" my uterus nonstop and it HURT! He asked if he could give me a little demerol at which point I was like HECK YES. I then had the privilage of having the placenta manually removed...by hand...in pieces because apparently I have a biconuate uterus (instead of an oval shape its more of a heart shape) and part of it was starting to close up before the placenta had a chance to deliver. After about 6-7 times of him sticking his arm you know where I needed some stitching, but the placenta was out and it was finished!!! I was immediately able to get up and go to the bathroom and ordered breakfast right away!!! :)

We were discharged the next day Saturday at about 2, which was awesome. I felt incredible that not only did I get to vbac, but was able to do it without the epidural!!! Little did I know a flu epidemic was beginning at our house from Sam's first fever on Thursday night to two weeks later we have been fighting fevers, throwup, congestion, achiness, and all around not feeling good. Thankfully as of today Crissy and I are the only ones left with any congestion and even that is starting to go away. At her dr. appointment she measured 7.2 lbs 21 1/2 inches long and 13 3/4 inches for head circumference. She gained all her weight back and then some even with being sick, which was very reassuring! Here are some pics from the hospital and the first time the sisters met.