Monday, October 31, 2011

3...part deux

Our sweet Mia Gabrielle

Born on September 19th, 2011

9 lbs 11 oz ~ 20 inches




And now there are 3 beautiful little girls in our house, in our lives, and in our hearts. And I could not be happier!

She's 6 weeks today so clearly her birth didn't bring with it any kind of miraculous time management skills that would allow me to sit down and actually write on this blog within any kind of reasonable time period ;). Oh wellz...

Our newest little sweetpea, like her sisters, was created with her own share of stubborness and ended up needing a bit of a nudge out of the warm and comfy home she had known for 9 months and into the warm and comfy arms of Mommy and Daddy.

So at 40 weeks and 6 days I was induced. Throughout this entire pregnancy I had committed myself to having the natural birth I had wanted with each of my pregnancies. I was ready. I got informed. I was going to do it. And truth be told, the doctor would've allowed me to wait it out another 4 days. But that was it. And this sweet baby refused to drop. At 40 weeks she wasn't even low enough to have my membranes stripped in the hopes of progressing things. I was 2-3 cm dilated for weeks but this little one refused to scoot down which was keeping my cervix from thinning out. So given the option to be induced just 4 days before the "deadline" and my out of control desire to meet the little caboose that would complete our family, I gave in - with conditions.

Monday morning, September 19th the Mr. and I checked into the hospital. I was like a little girl on Christmas morning. So completely excited. Not nervous at all and 100% ready to meet this sweet baby. BUT I was still holding on to my dream of a natural birth. And so I requested that the doctor break my water in hopes of that getting things moving along. So he agreed - and said he would give me 2 hours. If nothing happened they would start Pitocin (argh!). When he went to break my water I was 3-4 cm and she was still so high that, for a moment, he almost couldn't reach my bag of waters! Sweetpea STILL hadn't dropped! But he did reach it. And so we waited. I could feel my contractions getting a bit more intense but they were completely manageable. When my (awesome) nurse came in to check on me I asked how my contractions looked and she said they were the same as when I had come in. No change! What the?? So at 10:30 on the dot in she came with the bag of pain..err, I mean Pitocin. I asked that she start it very slow so she infused it at only 2 drops an hour. Within minutes the contractions HIT. I won't lie - it was awful. They were on top of each other, leaving me little room to rest between them. They were strong, they were painful, and the were long. I hated it. There was nothing that felt natural about them. They were forced. They felt forced. They took away from what I had wanted to experience and feel. The next two hours went like this...

10:30 - Pitocin started.
11:15 - 5 to 6 cm. Anesthesiologist called.
11:40 - Epidural given.
11:55 - 8 to 9 cm. Dr. Josupait called.
12:25 - The tell me to push half way through a contraction (??? no idea I was about to start pushing. Anthony wasn't even standing next to me!)
12:31 pm - we have a beautiful baby GIRL!

2 hours of active labor. 1.5 really tough hours, the rest not so bad (meds!). Was it what I wanted? Not at all. Do I regret any of it? Not even a moment. At the end of it all we got the only thing that really mattered - a beautiful, healthy baby girl that only God could've created put safely in our arms. At the end of the day I didn't care how she got here. All that mattered was that she was here and we were complete. And so in love.

The last 6 weeks have been unreal. She's so beautiful and sweet and she smells so good! My life has been soooo good for so long time that I honestly had no clue that it could even get this much better. Her sisters are in love with her, her daddy is the most patient I've ever seen him, and I'm pretty sure it was a solid 4 weeks before I put her down, for what that's worth :).

This life with 3 is amazing. And so completely how it was always meant to be.


No comments: