Baby Gracie Details...

Okay, now that I have a little more time I can blog about the birth of Gracie. Gavin went to the Hideout (the Hirschi Family's cabin/summer home at Bear Lake) w/Grandma & Grandpa Hirschi, so it's just me and the babe today. I miss my little guy but it's been nice to have some time to get things done!

Long Post Warning! If you don't want to hear about the labor & delivery, don't read this. I want to write it down to have for the future because I know I will forget things!

For a while before I had Gracie I was thinking I wanted to go natural. I have a few friends that have and hearing about their experiences made me want to try it. Also my labor & delivery with Gavin wasn't so great and I had an epidural, so I wanted to try it without and see how it went. I really wanted to look into the "hypno birthing" and I was planning to after the holidays, but life got crazy and once I finally looked into it I hadn't given myself enough time to take the classes or order the stuff and prepare at home. I was pretty sad because that seemed like a good way to go. If I have any more kids I want to try that for sure!

Anyway, I started looking into other ways of going natural. My sister mentioned that her friend used a "birthing ball" (basically an exercise ball) when she delivered her two kids and loved it. So I read up on that and it sounded good so I planned to try that.

Okay, going back a few weeks. When my doctor checked me the 1st time I was already dilated to a 3 and 80% effaced. I was having a few issues so he sent me up to labor & delivery to be evaluated because he was worried I was in the beginning stages of pre-clampsia. As I was lying in the hospital bed in the lovely gown & hooked up to an IV, I thought for sure I was going to have her that night! Luckily after some tests they figured out I was fine and I got to go home. At this point I think I was 37 weeks & they didn't think I would make it much longer. Well 1 week later I went to my 38 week appointment and I was dilated to a 4. My doctor said he gave me an over 50% chance that I would go into labor on my own sometime that week, but if I didn't and I made it to 39 weeks he would induce labor.

So at 39 weeks I got to wake up at 6 am to call labor & delivery and try to get in for an induction. They said they had 4 people come in that morning so they were full and I would have to call back around 10:30 or 11. So now it was the waiting game! This same thing happened when we had Gavin but I didn't get started until 9 pm and labored all through the night. That wasn't too fun so I didn't want that to happen again! Brent said, "maybe they are telling other people to call back at that time too, so you should call at 10:15" I did and he was right! They said, "you are the first one to call this time so we will call you back, but plan on coming in around 11:30 or 12." So, I cheated a little bit ;) Brent had some errands he wanted to get done so I decided to go with him because I didn't want to be just hanging out waiting for them to call. We went to Subway to get some lunch and they called and said I could come in at 12. Then about 15 minutes later they called back & said never mind: a girl that wasn't very far along in her pregnancy was on her way to the hospital and needed to get her gal bladder taken out. Poor thing! It was so up and down; what a roller coaster! So we just drove around running some errands and waiting for them to call and let us know when to come in. We were picking out carpet for our new house when they called again and said, "come now!" It was 12:30 at that point, so luckily it didn't take too long.

So we got to the hospital, got all changed and hooked up to everything and when they started me on the pitocin it was 2:00. My doctor came in to break my water and said I was already dilated to a 5. The contractions weren't too bad and I was still planning to go natural so I asked my nurse about using the "birthing ball". She said it was available and to let her know when I wanted it. Well I started progressing very fast! By 3:00 I was dilated to an 8! The contractions were getting pretty painful at this point. Brent was really good at helping me focus & do deep breathing through them. He had his I-phone there and was playing some relaxing music for me. It was pretty funny because we had the TV on and he turned it to TLC & "A Baby Story" was on and it was right when some lady was having her baby in a bath tub and she was SCREAMING! She was making the worst noises EVER and I told Brent to change the channel because I did NOT want to be watching that right then!!! At least I can laugh about it now :)

Anyway, this post is really long! Continuing on... My nurse decided to check me and said I was almost to a 10, but I still had a little farther to go. She said to let her know when I felt the urge to push. Well it only seemed like a few minutes later that I felt that urge! And it was STRONG! She said, "don't push!" because my doctor wasn't there yet. She called my doctor up so he was on his way, but I was in a lot of pain and felt a lot of pressure so I wanted to push. She called to some other nurses and said she needed help. Two other nurses came in and one helped me focus on breathing through the contractions & not pushing. My doctor made it back in and it seemed like he was flying trying to get all of his gear on in time! He was quick! He commented that he figured I would go fast, but he didn't think it would be that fast. It's funny too because as I was in labor but not too far along yet my nurse decided to get all of the stuff out & ready for when the baby came. She said, "we won't need this stuff yet, but I'll just get it ready for when we do". She must have been inspired and it's a good thing she did that because it was so quick!

Well at 3:35 pm Gracie Lin was born. Brent got to cut the cord and it was an awesome moment (especially for me because then she was out and I wasn't in so much pain! Ha ha, just joking). She weighed 8 lbs 4 oz & was 20 inches long. She has lots of beautiful dark hair and looks a lot like Gavin did when he was born.

I took her to the doctor yesterday for her 2 week check-up & here are her stats:

8 lbs 12 oz - 75th percentile

21 1/2 inches - 85th percentile

Now we are adjusting to having "kids". It is so crazy to say "the kids" now! And Gavin is being a wonderful big brother. He has his moments when he wants to poke her in the eye or be really loud & wake her up, but overall he is adjusting well. We are very blessed!

P.S. If there is a next time I would definitely do it natural again, but try the "hypno birthing" method. My labor with Gavin was 11 hours & I pushed for 2 1/2. I don't know if it has anything to do with the epidural or not, or maybe it's just because she was my second child, but with Gracie my labor was 1 1/2 hours and I pushed for 3 or 4 contractions. And I had all sorts of adrenaline after having Gracie! It was crazy. That night we were sitting in the hospital room and Brent was falling asleep in the chair and I wasn't even tired. I joked w/him and said, "you're so tired from all that hard work you did today!" Ha ha. Anyway, I've healed up a lot quicker and I feel a lot better after having her compared to having Gavin. But that could also be attributed to her being my second baby. Who knows!?!