A Baby Story

A Baby Story...

A warning... This is the longest post in the world.

I decided to share the story of how Tuesday went down,
Partly for you
I always like to hear details
and partly because I know this is the only way I'll record it.



Monday night, I went to sleep VERY excited and woke up TERRIFIED!
It finally set in that in order to have a baby, I needed to go through
the delivery part first.
And I have never heard anyone say how "fun" delivering a baby is.

Casey walked out of the bathroom and I just started cracking up...
He was in his church clothes!
He said he wanted to make a good first impression for Ginger.
He ended up changing in to jeans and a button up
but Im pretty sure Ginger was impressed with her daddy nonetheless.
We arrived a half hour late (of course).
I had an apple and a poppyseed muffin for breakfast.
I later regretted that this was all I had
since the rest of the day my diet would be ice chips.
My mom was waiting outside the hospital with a camera.
When we pulled up, Casey and I just laughed-
because this is a very typical "Sheila" thing to do.



Speaking of typical Sheila... this picture pretty much sums up
my pregnancy experience with my mom.
I hated when she kissed my stomach!!


I walked in and saw a dear friend from high school Alexis Shmidt Sorensen
I was ELATED!
She was my labor and delivery nurse... how lucky!
I cant tell you how much comfort this provided throughout the whole process.
There was also another nurse that tag teamed with Alexis.

We got settled in our room.
Started at a 3.
Got the IV. Ugh.
Got the Petocin.
Felt a round of mild contractions.
Pain rating (1 to 10)... a 1.
Got the epidural.
I was freaked out, but all in all,
getting the epidural was not bad at all.
Better than the IV.

The next few hours I progressed nicely.
My mom works at the hospital I delivered out so she checked in hourly.
Casey was there and my mother in law Peggy.
Later my sisters and their boyfriends came and popped in and out.
It was a super mellow day.
I kept thinking...
really? this is it? this labor thing is a walk in the park.



See how fun this labor thing is!

After a few crosswords and episodes of Oprah, The View and lots of court shows...
I started to change my mind about the "walk in the park" thing.
About 5 pm I started to regain feeling in my legs.
The thing about the epidural is that it numbs you from waist down
so you cant even lift your legs.
Anyway the feeling in my legs had returned to about 80%.
A nurse came in (not Alexis) and I told her I was starting to feel my contractions
She told me this was normal.
But I wasn't convinced.
I should have pushed it but I didnt.
about five minutes later a machine started beeping.
Casey looked and it said something to the effect of...
"bag is empty."
I looked up and my epidural bag was EMPTY!!

We called the nurse and about 5 minutes later...
HELL.
I started to feel very strong contractions.
The pain was about a 7.

The nurse came in and checked me...
I was dilated to a 9!!
A 9 and I run out of my epidural-
what the freak kind of luck is that?!
She called the anesthesiologist to come and give me more
but I knew that I was definitely in for some pain.
It took him 30 minutes to get there and then it takes 15
minutes for it to actually kick in.
So for about 45 minutes I felt contractions about every couple minutes
while dilated to a nine and progressing to a 10.
Pain rating 1-10... a 10.
This will forever be my litmus test...
my scale is now 1-10; 1 being no pain and 10 being
"having a contraction while fully dilated with no medication."



Worst. Pain. Ever.
The first two contractions without any pain medicine
were ridiculous.
The problem was I never prepared myself to handle pain at the fullest extent.
So I wasnt breathing properly, I was freaking out inside.
Pain paired with psychological craziness does NOT work.

Finally I told myself, this is not going away any time soon so GET IT TOGETHER.
With every contraction after that
I squeezed the crap out of Casey and my mom's hands
and BREATHED and FOCUSED.
And I only said one swear word.
Which Peggy quickly admonished me for.
From then on it was just, "Oh my gosh! Oh my gosh! Oh my gosh!"


Here's Peggy cheering me on.

Finally the epidural kicked in again.
Dr. Lewis arrived about 15 minutes later.
It seemed like the longest fifteen minutes of my life.
the pressure is so strong.
I could totally feel her SO LOW.
I thought for sure she'd just popped out.

Anyway, Dr. Lewis came and I have to say she is an amazing doctor.
She came in cheering!

Alexis prepped me before.
She told me how to push and had me practice.
I knew that the better I pushed the sooner I'd see Ginger
and at that point I was SOOOOOO ready for her.

It took 3 rounds of pushes and she was out.
I pushed with EVERYTHING I had.
During the pushes everyone was cheering me on.
It was great motivation.



All of a sudden she was in my arms and they were cleaning her off.
And this is what I'll never forget...
The first time we made eye contact!
What a magical, indescribable moment.
She also stretched her arm out towards me and it looked like she was reaching for me.
I was bawling.
It was so overwhelming.
It seems silly to attempt to describe this.
There aren't words for it.









In retrospect, the fact that I went an hour without the epidural
turned out to be a cool experience.
An experience I never want to repeat but cool nonetheless.
The mind is very powerful and I have always had trouble because I allow
myself to be overwhelmed and lose control.
But I conquered that weakness.
It's nice to know what were capable of.

Whew...that was a tangent...
Anyway our families came to the hospital to visit
and it meant so much to have them all there.
I never visit mothers in the hospital because I always felt like it was an irritation...
but I was SO wrong.
It so cool to know that there are others eager to meet Ginger.
I know how much we love our nieces and nephews and
it feels great knowing she has lots of aunts and uncles that will love her like that.

It's been the best week of my life.
I've never known happiness like this.
Ginger is such a sweet baby.
I am very grateful that she is SO GOOD.

I feel such a sense of purpose now.
Like Casey says, its a blessing to be in the presence of such a perfect being...
straight from heaven.