Ivy's Birth Story

I wanted to get this written down for my records before I forget any details.  So if you aren't into "birth details"....consider yourself warned.

Saturday the 16th we took our kids to the zoo in Idaho Falls.  I had been having totally random, painless contractions for the past few days and thought that walking around might help get things going. No such luck.  That night the contractions we more frequent, but still painless, and they kept me up all night long. I kept hoping they were going to get painful, but again, no such luck.

I had been up all night so we stayed home from church.  We took the kids for a drive to the falls in Idaho Falls and walked the greenbelt.  No contractions at all. Not one. I was so depressed, I thought for sure I was going to have a baby by Sunday.  I was scheduled for an induction on Tuesday and wanted her to come on her own before then.

Sunday night we headed over to Vince's brother Trevor's house for a little party and still no contractions.  I assured everyone at the party that I would still be pregnant for my induction on Tuesday. We went home, got the kids in bed and I went to bed about 10pm. No contractions, no pains.

At 11pm I woke up feeling funny.  I felt sick.  I figured it was the awful acid reflux I had been having the past few weeks.  I got up and walked around for about 30 minutes and I had a mildly painful contraction.  I was so excited that this one hurt.  I walked around the house for another 20 minutes and had another one.  20 minutes apart was a little discouraging.  The next one came about 12 minutes later and I thought "Great!  She is coming tonight!" I started to get a few things together and didn't have another one for 20 minutes.  Grrrr.

At about 12:30am I almost collapsed in the kitchen with the most painful contraction yet.  I didn't even care how far apart they were, THIS ONE HURT!  I went in and woke up Vince.  I told him we would wait 15 minutes before calling his mom to come over and stay with the kids, just in case I didn't have another one.  Sure enough, about 4 minutes later I had another one, more painful than the last.  They came every 4 minutes almost on the dot. 

Vince called his mother, and I told him to hurry and get his stuff together, at this point I was worried that things were progressing quickly.  Jane got here about 1:20 and Vince was still walking around the house packing things up. I was standing at the door, clawing at the walls with each contraction.  Finally his mother says, "Vince, get this woman to the hospital!"

I could hardly get in the car.  We timed the contractions all the way to the hospital and they were now exactly 3 minutes apart.  And they HURT! I could hardly breathe.  We were one block from the hospital and Vince stopped at a red light.  There were no cars in sight, and I couldn't believe he stopped.  I yelled "Run it!"  He looked at me like I was crazy, but I literally thought I was going to have a baby in the car.

We got the hospital around 1:40am, and another pregnant lady arrived at the same time.  We got out of our cars and she beat us in. Probably because I couldn't even walk.  The guy at the front desk got me a wheel chair and took us up to Labor and Delivery.  They put us in a room and said our nurse would be in after she checked in that other lady.

We were in that room for what seemed like an eternity waiting for a nurse to come in.  I was still dressed and having contractions every 2 minutes. I was clinging to Vince and crying.  All I kept thinking was, "Please don't let me be only 3cm still", which is what I had been at my appointment earlier that week.

The nurse finally came in and saw that I was crying.  She asked if I was in a lot of pain, and I couldn't even respond.  She told me to hurry and get in a gown.  This is where everything gets blurry.

She checks me, and I said to her jokingly, "Please tell me I am not a 1".  She says, "Oh, honey, you are an 8-9!"   I was in shock. Then she said the worst part, "Were you planning on a natural childbirth?  Because there is no way you are going to be getting an epidural."  Start the waterworks.  I started freaking out. She said even if they called the epi guy, I would have a baby before he even got here.

She got on the phone and asked the other nurses to get in here and help and to get a Dr. on the way.  I was still panicking on the bed and she assured me that if she could have a baby without medication, so could I. She was great.  She was trying to talk me down of my ledge.  Nurses started piling in, running around like crazy, getting things out. The nurse checks me again and I am complete.

About that moment a Doctor, not my doctor, comes flying in. My water still hadn't broken but Ivy was just about out.  He broke my water and told me to push.  I am still in shock at this point. I was shaking uncontrollably and Vince wasn't handling me in all this pain very well, so I told him he better go sit down because he would be no help to me on the floor.

My nurse held my hand the entire time.  As I was literally trying to push Ivy out, they were tyring to put an IV in my arm just in case there was some kind of emergency. My contractions lasted about 1 1/2 minutes, and then they would break for about 3-4 minutes.  So uncomfortable.  They wanted to me to keep pushing through the entire contraction because she was almost out, but it was too long for me.  I kept saying, "I can't push that long, she will never come out! She will never come out! She will never come out!"  Between each contraction I just laid there waiting. The room was pretty much silent.  It wasn't painful in between, but I could definitely tell she was just about to come out. On the 3rd pushing contraction, the nurse grabs my face and says, "This baby is only coming out one way, you can do it!"  That was enough for me!  I pushed as hard as I could, I swear I didn't take a breath for 1 whole minute, and then she was here!

I thought that I would have instant relief.  But I couldn't stop shaking, and I couldn't breathe.  I kept saying that I was going to pass out (I think I repeated it like 8 times)  I hadn't even looked at Ivy yet who was on my chest.  I was shaking so badly I couldn't even hold her, so Vince came over, cut the cord and they took her off me.  They took her over to the incubator thing and I told Vince to go over there and be with her. They put oxygen on me and I was still really struggling.  I hear Vince with the nurse and he asks her "Is that a birth mark?"  I remember laying there thinking "PLEASE TELL ME IT ISN'T ON HER FACE!" 

Then they brought her over to me, and it was love at first sight!  Forget all the pain, forget that I still couldn't breathe, and forget the birthmark, which at this point I still had no idea where it was :) She was here, safe and precious as can be!

Natural childbirth wasn't as bad I thought it was going to be.

You have to know that papercuts make me cry. That is how well I handle pain.

It hurt, and I would NEVER opt to do that again, but I survived it. If I can, anyone can, trust me.

I don't know how women handle those painful of contractions for hours on end though, I only had them for about 2 hours and that was more than I could handle. Hats off to all you women who CHOOSE natural childbirth, however, I think you are crazy :)

Here are some pictures from Ivy's first week

 They love her!

 Jack always tells me how cute she is, and Brooke likes to "pet" her.

 First Bath at home

Nothing like sitting on the potty, watching your sister get a bath.

3 days old

4 Days old, first trip to the Doctor