Mallory’s Birth Story (Part 2)

You can read Part 1 of Mallory’s birth story here.

As my husband and I drove to the hospital, we called my parents to tell them that baby was on her way! It was bittersweet because we knew they most likely would not be able to come to town for the birth, since my grandmother was not doing well and was also in the hospital in Florida.

We chatted with them and wondered about when she would be born. I knew from what I had read that after the water breaks, it is best to deliver the baby within twenty-four hours.

We finally arrived at the hospital and made our way up to Labor and Delivery. They showed us to our room, and swabbed me to make sure I was actually leaking amniotic fluid, and that test confirmed what I already knew – that my water had, in fact, broken.

The nurse checked me, and I was barely dilated at all…like half a centimeter. They hooked me up to the baby heart rate monitor and got me comfortable. Since I was scheduled for induction the next day, they went ahead and kept me at the hospital.

By then it was about 8pm, and we still had not had dinner. So my husband ran out to grab us a quick bite to eat. When he got back, we watched Rocky together. We joked during the training montage that the Rocky theme song should get me all motivated for labor. 🙂

Mark got me a chocolate shake with dinner, and the nurses joked about how the baby really perked up after I had that milkshake!

The monitor they hooked me up to showed that I was having some slight contractions, although they were not yet painful. I went to sleep for the night. I woke up at about 3am with a few painful-ish contractions. I could tell things were starting to amp up, and I was glad. I was able to go back to sleep.

Monday January 4

The next morning the doctor went ahead and started pitocin to get things moving along. And boy did it! That was the hardest part of labor for me – the couple of hours leading up to my epidural. Those contraction HURT. BAD! I forgot how intense those were.

There were lots of tears, and my mind really started to mess with me at that point. There were a couple of points where I didn’t know if I could take it anymore. What kept me going was knowing that each contraction was getting me closer to holding our daughter.

Finally I was able to get my epidural, and I felt SO much better. I was able to take a little nap before pushing, which was nice. Finally it was time to push, and I was so excited! I pushed for about twenty minutes before they paged my doctor to come in.

After about six or seven more pushes, our baby girl was born! It was a surreal moment. I heard her cry before I saw her. If you have ever had a baby, you know that is the best feeling when you hear your baby cry for the first time.

They placed her on my chest, and I just took it all in. She was beautiful!

Eight pounds, eight ounces, 21.5 inches long, and I am so in love!

Big brother and Daddy are pretty smitten too!

Going Home…and Back to the Hospital

It was such a great feeling bringing our baby girl home.

We have had a few challenges after we got home, though. We did have a three day stay at Children’s hospital because our pediatrician saw some potential signs of infection at her first checkup.

It was really scary because they sent us to the ER, where they did a full workup…including a blood draw, cultures, catheter and spinal tap. Thankfully it turned out that she did not have an infection, but we did not know that until we had been at the hospital for three days. You cannot be too careful with a newborn. Since they have zero immune system, infections can pose some serious threats.

It was difficult, both emotionally and physically. Not knowing if your child is okay is the worst feeling! And staying overnight when I was only four days past giving birth was very difficult physically. But my thankfulness for a healthy child outweighed any inconvenience we had from our hospital stay.

When we left, I thought about all of the parents and kids that we were leaving behind at the hospital. My heart goes out to all of the parents who did not get good news like we did. There is not much harder than having a sick child.

Since we have been home, we have just enjoying our sweet baby girl and getting to know her!

I appreciate all of the comments and messages.Thank you for celebrating with us!