A Birth Story.

My last post was the Sunday before little miss Penelope decided to make her first appearance. Penelope Dot finally came into the world on Thursday November 13, 2014 at 2:06pm, after her mama was in labor for about 14-15 hours. She was 6 lbs and 15 ounces and 19.75 inches of pure perfection. In the midst of all the chaos, hoots, and cheering in the delivery room (and it was chaos- like a Kardashian episode with everyone and their mother in the delivery room) my little sweet miracle was placed right onto my chest and all I could do was cry (yep, so emotional) before they took her to run some tests. It was the most surreal, exhausting, yet important and satisfying moment in my entire life. I can’t even explain the feeling, except that out of all of the tears and exhaustion that led up to that moment, when I saw her little face, it seemed as though the world just stopped for sheer seconds and everything just fell into place.

So onward to the events leading up to that perfect moment. Side note: I figured I would write in detail about Penelope’s birth for myself to cherish and remember and for her one day to read. I’m apologizing in advance for all the detail.  I started writing this blog because I wanted somewhere to document our life, to remember every important moment, every crazy fashion idea I had, and somewhere to cater to my need for an outlet to express my feelings (or to just plain write when I felt the urge). It is certainly an added bonus if people enjoy reading it as much as I enjoy writing on here! So here we go….

Wednesday November 12, 2014

I woke up after a seemingly content night of sleep (which didn’t happen often those last couple months), took a shower, and dressed for my 39 week doctor appointment. All the while I was hoping the doctor would tell us I was somewhat dilated and she was coming soon. The doctor explained to us that I was about 1 to 1.5 centimeters dilated but baby was not coming yet and if she didn’t come by my 40^th week, she would induce. I could see David felt way too anxious and wanted that baby NOW but for some reason I was a little more at peace, knowing she’d come when she was ready (hopefully sooner rather than later). Doc recommended walking as much as possible to help bring the baby down and get her ready to come on out. I took her advice to the extreme and left the doctor’s office and decided I would walk her out and so began the rest of the day.

I was on maternity leave already to give myself a week or so before she arrived to relax from a crazy couple months at work. After my doctor’s appointment I went to Costco (one of my fav places to walk around), got myself a fountain drink, and walked around and around, buying things I didn’t need. Afterwards, I bundled up because it was a rare cold day in Texas and went to the outdoor mall here to walk around as well. I walked around for about 2 hours, buying hats and scarves to satisfy my shopping addiction, using the excuse that it was finally cold and I needed warmer clothing here ; ) The rest of the day I spent walking Romeo around the development, ironing all of David’s work clothes (don’t ask why!), and doing some DIY projects for Penelope’s nursery. I kept myself SUPER busy and on my feet as much as I could.

David came home around 7pm from work that night, we ate dinner…a pretty unhealthy dinner but oh well! I took a shower and did my hair that night, just in case this baby wanted to come the next day, her mama would look somewhat decent! Around 11pm I decided I was finally tired and climbed into bed. As I was trying to find a comfortable sleep position, I felt a cramp coming on but didn’t think much of it, as these would come every now and then and go away. About 8 minutes later another one came on and I just insisted it was nothing and continued to try and fall asleep. This lasted for about an hour until they were about 4 minutes apart and I decided to tell David. He shot out of bed and got dressed immediately, saying we needed to get to the hospital. Despite my freak out nature, for some reason I was extremely calm and explained to him that I wanted to wait a little while. So, being my crazy self, I went into the bathroom and did my makeup (as any insane pregnant woman would? Probably not, but I never said I was normal). David sat there staring at me as if I was a complete lunatic and had lost my mind. The contractions kept coming until finally I said, “OK let’s go.”

We arrived at the hospital around 1 am, only to find out that I was still about 1.5cm dilated (ugh) but the contractions were coming on about 3-4 minutes apart. The nurses suggested I walk around the floor for a couple hours to make the baby drop and hopefully make her want to come a little sooner. David and I walked and walked around that hospital floor until about 4am, stopping every 2-3 minutes while I gripped the wall in somewhat manageable pain, sipping ice water, and going round again. By 6 am, I was about 3-4 cm dilated and the doctor decided to break my water and see where we would go from there. The nurses kept suggesting an epidural but my original crazy plan was to not have a plan (doesn’t make sense but to me it did.) I didn’t want to go in thinking I would have an epidural or I wouldn’t. I went into this experience knowing that I wanted to feel the contractions and decide from there how I would proceed. I kept putting the epidural off, even after a nightmarish episode of having contractions 2 minutes apart while 5 nurses tried to give me an IV to no success at all. My arms were bruised, poked and prodded, and then I got extremely sick for a good 10 minutes before I was given something for the nausea. Labor was starting off on a great foot (not so much!).

Early in the morning Kelli (my BFF) and her mama (who had been visiting that week) came to give us some company, keep David awake, and provide some moral support.

A half hour after my water had been broken (the craziest feeling in the world), I went from about 3-4 centimeters dilated to about 6-7 and then came some of the most intense pain I have ever felt in my life. The contractions came on even closer together and so intense that I just clutched David, making some of the craziest noises I have ever heard to get through them. Breathing techniques went out the window and low moaning was all I could do to get through them (and a little more nausea). Kelli would occasionally feed me ice chips while assuring me that the baby was soon coming and this would be over! I was determined to get through the pain but finally by about 7 centimeters dilated and intense contractions coming every 1.5 minutes, I shed a few tears and told David to get the nurse because I needed the epidural pronto.

After I was given the epidural, the pain almost immediately subsided and I was able to relax despite my blood pressure dropping a bit which made me somewhat dizzy and sick. I was finally able to shut my eyes and rest a little before baby girl decided she wanted to meet us. I rested for about 2 hours with the nurse sporadically checking to see if Miss P was ready to come, even laughed a little bit with everyone in the room. Finally at around 1:30pm, we were ready to start pushing!

I pushed and pushed for about 35ish minutes (not too bad, I must say) and gave it my all, until finally my mom came in the delivery room (having finally made it from the airport). I pushed 2 more times with every last bit of energy I could muster, hoping that she would come because I didn’t know how much I had left in me and …. there she was. My little piece of perfection decided to show up at 2:06pm (she waited for her yiayia to make it to the hospital to make her first appearance. I held her until the nurses took her to check on her. She had swallowed a little bit of fluid when coming out and was struggling a bit to breathe but after 10 minutes was perfectly fine (and after I had about 7 heart attacks in those 10 minutes). They swaddled her up and she soon met everyone in the delivery room that had been anxiously awaiting her arrival all day.

That day and half will be etched in my memory forever. The strength it took, the exhaustion, the tears (few but there) that were shed, and the ultimate gift we received after it all, will be the most rewarding, best moment in my entire life. Having David walk with me, pause with me, stand there while I squeezed and clutched him,  got sick as he held the bag, cried as he cheered and pushed me along and fed me ice chips, telling me I could do it, was something I will never forget. Having Kelli reassure me that it would soon be over, my blood pressure was coming back to normal (so I wouldn’t feel sick anymore), feeding me ice chips, and even holding a dead weight leg while pushing (I so owe her), again is something that I will always remember.

This little being that David and I created made her way into the world and completely changed ours forever in that brief second we first laid eyes on her. I can’t put into words how much we love and adore her, stare at her all day, and marvel over the fact that she’s ours and we’re hers, forever.