Mae's Birth Story

What happened? We thought she was coming Monday!

So Mae must not have wanted to wait until her scheduled appearance set for Monday morning at 10 am. Kris and I finally took advantage of baby sitting from Grandma Patty Lou and headed out to the Chophouse for a much needed date night. I had a contraction upon pulling up to the parking lot but figured it was one of those fake Braxton Hicks things and we went inside. Well, they continued. I told Kris to start counting after we got our appetizers. They were 5-6 minutes apart. We got to enjoy our appetizers and salads but had our lobster and steak packaged to go. I kinda wish we had finished dinner first but the doc had said to come in at that point since I had been planning on a C-section. I didn't know then that I wouldn't get to even have water again until the next afternoon. We ran home, helped get Izzy ready for bed and packed a bag (we were going to do that Sunday. Really!) Kris let Izzy know that we were going to the doctor to get the baby out of Mommy's belly. Izzy's response: "Like a monster?!"

We got there and was told jokingly by the nurses that there was no room and I didn't look like I was in enough pain. Actually that was kinda the theme for the night. Kris and I read books while riding out contractions. Those beds are SO uncomfortable! But I couldn't really walk around with the monitors and they kept losing contact. The doctor didn't expect me to progress from the 3 cm upon coming in to the 4 cm 90 minutes later since I didn't seem to be having contractions. Um, yes, I was they were weak but productive. We got bumped for surgery by moms in more emergent situations so we decided to wait and see if we'd go for VBAC or another C-section. I stalled out until morning and then we were at 5 cm and then 6 cm. They broke my water at 10:30am to move things along. We were then committed to the more conventional route. I entered "transition" sometime around noon even though the monitors still weren't picking up my contractions. Trust me, I was having them. Really I don't like to cry but couldn't help it. So I got an epidural shortly thereafter. The anesthesiologist was awesome and there's a whole other short story centered around that.

The nurse briefed us on what would happen when pushing began and mentioned to the doctor that I probably had about 2 to 3 hours to go. That was at about 2pm and I remember thinking what the heck did I get myself into?! But I thought I'm strong and this is NOT going to take 3 HOURS! Mae was born a little more than an hour later. The nurse called NICU and Dr. Deldon just 7 minutes before Mae was born. They barely had time to get on their Hazmat suits! The epidural only hides so much but Kris was awesome and at times noticeably awestruck. I'm so happy I couldn't see anything. I did see Mae out and getting her cord cut. One nurse asked if I wanted her on my chest but the docs looked at me and then down and said maybe not right now, clean her up first. Kris and I were both struck by how big she was compared to Izzy. And STRONG! Kid was screaming before she was all the way out and continued to do so until I got her in my arms.

So far, Mae's proven to be fairly easy going and alert. We're home and trying to get into a routine. Time has not stopped like the first time since we have Izzy's schedule to keep up with. I'm being better about "taking it easy" this time around and again I'm happy we had moved downstairs where the bathroom is :)