Genevieve: A Birth Story

Genevieve's birth story isn't terribly exciting, but I wanted it written down.

Wednesday, January 7th:
My due date came and went with no contractions or signs of labor what so ever...

{Due date selfie}

Thursday, January 8th, mid morning:
I had a 40 weeks 1 day check up.  My doctor did his usual check up routine: everything looked great, baby was head down, however there were still no signs of labor and I was dilated to 1.5 cm (same as a week previous).  I scheduled a non-stress test for the next morning and an induction for the following Wednesday morning.

Friday, January 9th, mid morning:
I had to drive to a different office to have my non stress test done.  They wanted to make sure everything looked good and it was safe for me to continue with my pregnancy.  Everything looked great except the ultrasound showed that baby had (in the last 24 hours) flipped over and was now breech!  The nurse tried to contact my Dr, and I was sent home with the instructions: Try not to go into labor, but if my contractions became "consistent and painful" to go to the labor and delivery, and I was to follow up with my Dr. at my appointment on Monday.  I was pretty convinced that I wouldn't go into labor on my own anyways, so I didn't feel too stressed.

Saturday, January 10th, DAY:
Brandon had an all day seminar.  The boys and I went to the park, Target, and had dinner with friends.  Signs of labor: NONE.

Saturday, January 10th, NIGHT:

8 pm:  I started having semi-regular contractions, but they were very much not painful.  I assumed they were just semi-regular braxton hicks.  I started timing them anyways, because I was bored.

9 pm: Had root beer floats with Brandon and continued binge watching FRIENDS on Nexflix.

10:30 pm:  At this point my contractions were a little bit painful, but still all over the place; from 5 to 18 minutes apart.  I was sure that they were just going to go away at any point.  So I thought maybe if I took a shower and went to bed they would go away.  I texted Julie, who was going to come over and watch our kids if we had to go to the hospital something like, "Keep your phone on, but it's probably nothing."

I took a shower, got on my PJs, and got into bed.  The contractions, still 8-12 minutes apart, were pretty painful at this point and for some reason I still thought they were going to go away.

Sunday, January 11th:

Midnight: I lay in bed and for 3 contractions in a row (which I had stopped timing because they were going to go away) I said after another contraction I would go to the hospital.  After the third one while trying to sleep, I told Brandon we better go.  I was convinced that I wasn't in labor that we didn't even bring all of our stuff.  Camera, nope, diaper bag, nope, car seat base in the car, nope.  Julie came to sleep on our couch.

12:30: They checked me into the hospital hooked me up to all the monitors and did an ultrasound to confirm that baby was still head up.  After monitoring me for sometime, they did a cervix check... 4.5 centimeters and "bulging sack of water."  A nurse said, "They can't turn the baby when you're already in labor," and that was the point I realized, I was in labor!

Then we sat and waited... I continued to have contractions, they prepped me for c-section, called my doctor and I could tell he was sleepy because the nurse had to repeat everything loudly.  "Yes, Barnette.  No, the baby is breech.  4.5 centimeters.  No, breech."  My water broke during a contraction.  My doctor showed up with bed head and it was time to go to the O.R.

It was 2 something when we tried to call my parents.  We tried each line, but didn't want to keep calling.

The OR was cold and I was terrified.  Honestly, the worst part of the c-section was how scared I was.  It wasn't scary or painful, but I had a lot of anxiety about being cut open while awake.  Everyone was great, except there was a nurse that I couldn't see that seemed to bother the other nurses and doctors.  I was happy to have the spinal as my contractions were close together and pretty painful at this point.  They also gave me some, "make you calm down drugs."  Something they gave me made me want to puke, and they gave me something for the nausea.  They strapped my arms down and put up a big blue sheet in front of my face,

2:54 am:  Genevieve was born.  I just laid there, shaking, waiting to hear her cry.  Those first cries were overwhelming emotionally.  It was like the emotions of 2 years of waiting, 3 lost babies, and 9 months of worrying all boiled over and I couldn't stop crying.  They held her little, red face up over the curtain for just a second and then she was gone again.  They wrapped her up and Brandon held her close to my face for a bit.  Then a NICU doctor came really close to my face and explained that they had to take her to the NICU for a while to monitor her breathing.  It's common for breech babies to have a little bit of fluid in their lungs.  She said, "She's fine we just want to watch her.  She's fine, if she wasn't fine she would be gone already."

After they took Genevieve away things got really fuzzy.  I was TIRED.  I kept almost falling asleep while my doctor stitched me up.  The anesthesiologist reassured me that I could fall asleep, but I was convinced that if I fell asleep I would die.  Drugs, sleep deprivation?  I don't know, I was delusional, but I stayed awake, kinda.  Brandon tells me it took at least an hour to stitch me up.  They moved me back to a recovery room, Genevieve got a bath, I guess I fed her??  It had to be at least 5:30 am when everyone was gone and we all fell asleep.

{Can you see the tired in our eyes?}

We made phone calls that morning at a more reasonable time, which I kind of remember.  Mike (remember Julie had been with our boys) some how braved church with our boys and their two kids.  Mom drove out.  We had a slew of visitors.  And some how the last three weeks passed.

Stats:

8 lbs 2 oz

20"

Sunday, January 11, 2015, 2:54 am