Tuesday, December 19, 2006

Introducing Vivian Mae

Vivian Mae
Born 12/14/06
8:12am
10lbs 14.4oz
21 in long


My due date was Dec 10. My friend and doula,Tiffany (who also tells the story on her blog, and I'm sure has details that I can't remember,) came in from CO on the 12th. I went to see my midwife, Margaret, the morning of the 13th and was 2-3 cm dialated and 80% effaced. So I came home that day and started on some "start labor" herbs. Nothing major happened. I went out to dinner that night with some friends and ate some spicy food. I started having contractions on the way home. At 10pm that night I took some more herbs and by 12am, the contractions were about every 10 minutes. I called Tiffany at 4am and she told me to get in the tub and call her in a little while. The contractions picked up once I got in the tub. So I called her back about 4:45am and also called my mother-in-law to come on over. Margaret was not on call but was coming in for me, so I called the hospital to let them know we were on our way. This was the first time I had not been induced, so I really wasn't sure how long labor would last, but it seemed like it was moving quickly.
We live about 40 minutes from the hospital, so we got there about 6:15am. Tiffany was already there. She was awesome. She really kept me focused on slowing my breathing and letting my body work. By this time I was hurting pretty badly. They wouldn't let me get into the tub until Margaret got there so I hung out on the birth ball and walked around the room hanging onto Tim. When Margaret got there, I got in the tub. That was about 7:30am. I was only in there about 20 min. and I was ready to get out. I got out and pushed for about 15 min. My bag of waters was still in tact so Margaret broke the water and there was merconium. So the NICU team came in as well as one of the OB's from the group that wanted me to have a c-section to begin with. Thankfully Margaret is AWESOME and the other dr's just hung back and let her handle it. She kind of hid the baby's head and did all the suctioning before she was all the way delivered. We didn't know the sex so when she was born Tim said, "SHE'S A SHE!!!!" I think we were both pretty surprised. We hung out with her for a long time before she and Tim went to the nursery for her bath.
We came home from the hospital after a little more than 24 hours. We were so anxious to get home to our other girls and let them share in our excitement. Vivian is nursing well and allowing mama to get some sleep. She is just perfect and a wonderful addition to our family. We are in love and thoroughly enjoying our “babymoon!!” Praise God for such a wonderful experience!

2 comments:

Becky said...

WOOHOO!!! Congratulations!!! Love you guys!

Anonymous said...

That is so exciting!! Congratulations!!!