Friday, May 25, 2012- What a wonderful day! I had a hair cut and afterwards I met my sister for a mani/pedi. I even had Hawaiian flowers painted on my french manicure and pedicure! The baby’s room was about as ready and cute as it could be. I had just finished decorating the walls, clothes were clean and in drawers, and diapers and wipes were ready. We even had the carseat all cleaned up and installed. I felt prepared and ready!
Saturday, May 26, 2012 at 2:40am. My water broke!!! It was the last thing I was expecting. I was sure that I would go into labor and then my water would break, in another week or so. I woke up Chris, confirmed that it had indeed ruptured, then called the Kaiser Ask-a-Nurse line. Reluctantly she said we could go to the hospital in six or so hours since they wouldn't do anything until then anyway. Chris went back to sleep, but I was too excited! About an hour after my water broke I started having some minor contractions. They were anywhere from about five to nine minutes apart and lasting almost a minute. They were slightly uncomfortable, enough to make it difficult to sleep, especially since I was already too excited!
At round 6:30am Chris finally woke up and we decided I better start getting ready. I took a very nice, leisurely shower, had breakfast, and grabbed a few last minute items to pack us up. By about 10:00am Chris wanted to get going but I was in no hurry whatsoever. My sister and brother weren't able to watch Keira, so we took her over to my good friend from church, Jessica Averett's house to play with their two kids. I felt so guilty, she was due five days before me and they were still waiting for his arrival. Her mom was in town and she didn't feel like she was going to go into labor anytime soon, so she offered to watch Keira for us. SUPER SWEET!!!! I was so grateful for them.
11:00am. When we got to the hospital the nurse practitioner at the OB triage checked me and said I was only 1cm dilated and 100% effaced. I figured it was going to be a loooooong day! She said we could walk around for a couple of hours on hospital grounds but had to be back by 1:45pm. So we headed outside. It was a PERFECT day! The contractions were starting to get a little stronger, but not uncomfortable.
2:00pm. After getting a snack, we were taken upstairs to a beautiful birthing room! The super nice resident doctor working with us didn’t feel she needed to check me again and it would be a while. We got settled in, then got bored, and decided to walk some more, but now we had to stay in the unit. We walked for about 45 minutes and around 3pm, my contractions continued getting stronger where I was having to stop walking and bend over on a table or something. I felt nauseous a couple of times and dry heaved. Chris was ABSOLUTELY MAGNIFICENT! He was sooo supportive and sweet! He would rub my lower back and push on it while I was having the stronger contractions. I was leaning on him while we were walking arm in arm stopping every few minutes for a strong contraction.
3:20pm. I started feeling a little nauseous and more lightheaded at times, and even a little weak. We went back to our room as my contractions were starting to become more painful. I thought now might be a good time to take a warm bath but Chris couldn't get it to work. At this point my contractions were starting to get pretty strong. I certainly couldn't sit through them anymore and they were causing me to groan. After about three of these strong contractions Chris hit the call button and told them that my contractions were getting much stronger and they said they’d send the doctor in. She checked me and about half an inch in she could feel the head! Then they were hurriedly trying to set things up for imminent delivery. They weren’t quite prepared for it to go this fast!
3:40pm. The doctor went over the "pushing" phase with me. She said that during the contractions she would count to 10 while I was pushing the whole time and we would try to do this three times during the contraction. I could almost not even feel the contractions and the worst pain was what was probably the stretching so she could fit through. My contractions seemed to last only a few seconds but the doctor wanted me to keep pushing. Everyone was so encouraging, especially Chris. He would say things like "She's almost here! You can do it! Just a little more!" He could see her moving her head around. I was soooo excited to meet her!
3:59pm. During the last contraction her entire head popped out! We were all so excited! With one more push out she came!!! Chris clamped and cut the cord and they immediately put her on my chest. My eyes welded up with happy tears! Sierra June Long was absolutely perfect! She weighed 6 pounds, 9 ounces and was 18.5 inches long, head circumference was 14 cm. I was mesmerized by my beautiful new daughter!
Around 8:00pm Jessica and Andrew brought Keira over. Keira was a little shy at first but loved her new baby sister. I was as happy as could be with our beautiful family of four! Everything was absolutely perfect! I couldn't have asked for or imagined a more perfect delivery. I was SOOOO happy to have had a VBAC and did it naturally.
We are so blessed to have Sierra in our family. She’s the perfect addition to our wonderful family!
