Let me start by saying God is so gracious and merciful! For the most part things went really well. During our few hiccups I just remained focused and wasn't at all anxious or worried. I was totally at peace through every thing and give all the glory!
We were scheduled to be at the hospital at 4:30am on Thursday August 27th. At 3:35, they called us to move it back to 6:15. I was already up and my mom was on her way to my house when we told her so we chatted an hour before I let her go back to sleep and we left for the hospital. We put the car seat base in at about 5:45. Nothing quite like last minute.
We got to the hospital on time and in the first thirty minutes, I got my IV (without passing out), got all the baby/contraction monitors hooked up and Julia started kicking the monitors. I was dilated 2 cm when they started the Pitocin at 7:20. Doctor Wiegman showed up at 8, checked me and I was 3.5 cm and Julia's head at -2 station. He broke my water.
At about 9:45, I got an epidural and was so happy when it took affect. I could still feel the contractions on the top of my uterus, which I don't remember from Seth's delivery. Julia has been so much higher in my ribs the entire pregnancy so maybe that is the reason I felt the contractions so high up with her. At about 10:15 we started noticing a significant heart rate drop for Julia with each contraction down to 60 or 70 beats per minute and quickly recovering to 140 after the contraction was over. At 11 they gave me oxygen to try and help. Seth did the same thing and had the cord around his neck twice so we anticipated the same.
Doctor Wiegman showed up about noon and checked me to find I was complete and ready to push. Mom had just got there with Seth so I said a quick hi and bye before I started pushing. I was surprised he wasn't freaked out with me in a hospital bed, especially because I had oxygen on my face. He was all smiles and excited to meet Julia.
I pushed through three contractions and she was born at 12:10pm. Doctor Wiegman later said he was glad we got her here fast or he was going to have to do something because the cord was around her neck so tightly. She came out a little blue in the face with a bruise across her forehead and on her arm. Her hands and feet were white because of poor circulation during delivery. The nurse said she was glad I wasn't more worried because they were able to give direction without dealing with an emotional mom. As I prayed for, I was blissfully ignorant of how bad it really was or could have been and was able to enjoy her delivery and not worry. That was definitely a God thing!
She weighed 7 lb 5.8 oz and was 19.5 inches long. Bigger than Seth by almost 12 oz. Dr. Wiegman though she may be smaller than Seth due to the measurements of my uterus and weight gain at the end of the pregnancy, but he was wrong. The nurses asked me at some point how big I thought she was and I said bigger than Seth, over 7 pounds, and I was right.
They handed her to me for some skin to skin time and to try an get her to nurse. She didn't want to latch on, which the nurses attributed to her being tired from her tough delivery. The grandparents (minus my dad) were allowed back in about 12:30 and I was told they would take Julia to the nursery about 1:30 to clean her up and get her to cry a bit to help with circulation. Jill and the girls got there about 1 and got to meet Julia before she went back to be cleaned up.
After they took her back to the nursery, the nurse got me cleaned up and into my postpartum/recovery room. As soon as she left, I got out of bed, changed clothes and got settled on the couch. When the next few nurses came in to introduce themselves, they were shocked to find me out of bed and commented how I didn't look like I'd just had a baby. That was my goal from the beginning and I am glad things went well and I could speed up my recovery by being active without overdoing it.
That evening, we had some more visitors including Pastor and Sister Snyder, Kim Williams, my coworkers (Elaine, Shannon, Alex, and Jeff), and all the kids and my mom and dad. We were able to get a new family picture (which we failed to do when Seth was born and I've regretted).
When we left the hospital the day after she was born, Julia's weight was only down to 6lbs15oz, which is about 5% of birthweight. She also was not jaundice at all. Praise the Lord! She had already become a pretty good eater (much attributed to a mom who knew what she was doing) and we haven't had any weight issues with her.
We went to the pediatrician on Thursday (9/3) for her first well check and everything was perfect. Her weight was up to 7lb 1oz and she had already grown a quarter of an inch (although the way they measure length is definitely less than perfect) and all her percentages are about average. 25th percentile in weight, 46th percentile in height and 21st percentile in head circumference. They also told me we could do the 10 day blood test at the office when we go for her 2 week checkup instead of at the hospital. This was an answer to prayer as the hospital where we would normally go for this is not on my insurance, so I'd decided to figure out if there was another way to do this or if we could just avoid it all together. The doctor mentioned it without me even asking, so I know God was making this as easy as possible for me.
And life as a family of 7 has begun!
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