she's here...she's been here!

HADLEY GRAY

4.29.11

as most people know, sweet cheeks (ok lets just go by names now since i just announced her sisters name to the world...) caroline was born via c-section due to decreased heart rate during labor. i got to 10cm with her, pushed 20 minutes, and then the call was made to just take her out. it was the safest thing for her. sadly though, i absolutely hated the c-section. it was a scary experience and only made my anxiety that much worse not being able to feel my body or feel when i was breathing during the procedure itself. the recovery was quite difficult. i didn't even hold caroline until she was 12 hours old. in the end, though it got sweet cheeks to me safe and sound, it was a horrible experience. one i really hoped to avoid the second time around. i had made a vbac my goal for baby #2 and luckily i had a doctor that was willing to work with me on it.

that being said, a repeat c-section date was still set for when i was 40 wks 1 day, which was friday, april 29th, at 10:15am. i was going to do everything i could to avoid this day.

her birthday story...

37 weeks-monday

i was dilated 3cm and 60% effaced. i really thought she would arrive either this week or surely by my 38th week

38 weeks-monday
i was dilated between 3-4 cm and 75% effaced. so i had the doctor strip my membranes. i was definitely having contractions so i thought the stripping would move things along a bit faster. i had always heard the stripping of the membranes only works if you are actually in true labor, which i thought for sure i was.

39 weeks-monday

i was only dilated to 4cm and still 75% effaced. it was as if my labor had stopped for some reason, which scared me. so once again i had the doctor strip my membranes. then i walked... and walked... and walked. and still nothing.


40 weeks- thursday - 1 day before c-section

i decided to go back to see my doctor to have him check me just once more with the hopes that some progress had been made. i was still 4cm. i can't tell you how disappointed i was. i was now beginning to feel the reality that was to be my repeat c-section. the only good thing about it was that my favorite doctor would be the one performing it, not just any doctor at the practice. this did put my mind at ease. i had the doctor strip my membranes one final time with hopes of labor coming on. then went home and walked... and walked... and walked! i went to bed at 9:30pm that night feeling only slightly crampy, as i had felt after all the other times of membrane stripping, and knowing what the morning would bring.

bring on 10:30pm that same night. i was in bed watching tv with the husband asleep and snoring next to me. i started to feel a bit more crampy but not what i would call contractions. just in case though, i started timing them. they were irregular and about 8 -10 minutes apart. i didn't get excited. by midnight, i was up and pacing the floor feeling what i still though might just be cramps caused by the stripping of the membranes. at 1am, i woke the husband up and told him we needed to go to the hospital as we were going to have our baby one way or another. holy cow! i can't believe i was able to say that. it was like a movie scene!

the long, bumpy ride to the hospital was the most surreal thing in the world. and by now, my contractions (whadaya know.. .not cramps after all!) were regular, only a few minutes apart, and they HURT.

once at the hospital, i was feeling 100% every bit of the active labor that i was in. during a contraction, i just had to stand up and rock myself back and forth. this really helped me just focus through the pain as best i could.

once checked in to our room, the nurse checked me and i was now 5cm along at 2am. that excited me. good to know the contractions were actually doing something. i endured the contractions for another 1.5 hours and then welcomed the epidural. i was 6cm when i finally got it at 3:30am.

my sister arrived right after i got the epidural. then literally 5 minutes later we heard a pop and i felt the gush of my water breaking all on its own. things were really moving along quite smoothly.

by 5am when my doctor arrived, i was 9.5cm dilated. she told me just to enjoy the epidural and take a rest before the long road of pushing that was a head of us.

by 7am, i started pushing.

the funny thing is all the while we, meaning myself, my sister, the nurse, and the doctor, were all watching THE WEDDING, prince william and kate middleton's. it made for some entertainment and memories in between those contractions.

in the end, we watched the entire wedding as i had to push for 3 hours. i was thankful i was able to push that long as most doctors only allow vbac patients to push for 1 hour. everything with the baby's heart rate was fine so my doctor wasn't worried.

finally after 3 hours of pushing and one vacuum later, hadley gray was born at 9:53am weighing in at 7lbs 9 ounces and was 20 in long. i was so happy to hold her immediately. she was a tiny miracle in my arms.

hadley gray was born 22 minutes before her scheduled c-section delivery.


she was and is beautiful and perfect!