She's Here!

Macy Suzette Nelson was born Thursday, April 23rd at 12:12 pm. She was 8.0 pounds and 19.5 inches. More details to come... (warning: might be more info than anyone wants, so read on with caution!)

Jake and I had both planned to take the day off of work Thursday, so we had a relaxing morning getting Kennedy ready for school. I felt my first "real" contraction around 8:30 am, but nothing that seemed to say I'm in labor! We dropped Kennedy off at school and told her teachers that Grandma Sue and Grandpa Brent would likely pick her up at the end of the day for her follow-up appointment after the ear tube surgery. I was feeling like this might finally be the day, or if not I knew we were close. We then went to Maternal Fetal Medicine at the hospital for our 9:30 non-stress test and ultrasound appointment. Everything looked great, and not at all like we'd be having a baby in less than three hours. The contractions were still strong, but not regular. Only two registered on the monitor in the 30 minutes of the test. The doctor estimated Macy's weight would be 8 pounds 8 ounces, and she suggested that we talk induction if we made it to the weekend. At this point, there wasn't a benefit for Macy to stay in any longer.   

We walked over to our midwife Kat's office on the other side of the hospital, slowing down or stopping a few times for contractions, and taking a few wrong turns with the construction going on at St. Mark's. We made it there by about 10:50 and were back meeting with Kat by 11:00. She checked me and I was dilated to 4 cm by this point (I was 3 at my appointment on Tuesday) so Kat suggested that we go get some lunch, but stay in the neighborhood of the hospital. She even joked that maybe we should try some other means of getting labor started - sex or a shot of whisky. Kat also put us on the induction list for Saturday, just in case we needed it. We left her office about 11:15 with plans to walk back to the car and go get lunch. 

It was a beautiful sunny day, so we walked outside. It took about 20 minutes for us to get back over to the women's pavilion. On the way the contractions were getting really strong and I had to stop with each one and lean on Jake or the fence. A man washing windows offered to let me sit down in his truck. A person driving a golf cart offered us a ride. We were offered two wheelchairs. We turned them all down, thinking that the walking was a good thing and was helping to move things along. As we were getting close to the front doors we finally made the decision that it was probably a good idea to just go right in. I remember saying to Jake that I wanted to make sure that I had time for an epidural. 

We walked up to the desk at 11:45, and they took one look at me and gave Jake the admit form to start on. We were taken to a room immediately, bypassing all the registration process. They gave me a gown to put on, and while I was in the bathroom my water broke. Jake and the nurse came running in and helped me get the gown on and into the bed. She did a check and I was 7 cm by this point. Kat was called to come as quickly as she could. They started to prep me for the epidural, but there was obviously no time. They gave me an iv with a pain med at 12:06 pm. Kat came in and I pushed for maybe 5 minutes. Macy was born at 12:12. It all happened so fast! This was so different from Kennedy's birth where it felt like I was in labor for two full days. Macy had to be monitored closely for a few minutes because of the iv medication, but her Apgar scores were 8 and 9. Getting to hold her for the first time was so amazing. Jake made a few announcement calls and all four grandparents were there to meet our new baby within an hour. I think they were all very surprised to hear that she'd been born - they were just waiting for news from our morning tests.    

In recovery I found out that they call this kind of birth a "stop and drop." Everything went so well for both of us the rest of the day and overnight. We got some rest and some food. Macy was looking healthy after her blood sugars stabilized. My parents brought Kennedy over to meet her new sister. She seemed excited, but just as interested in seeing mama. She brought us some beautiful tulips - one for each member of our family. Since there was no epidural I had the option to leave after 24 hours - we decided this sounded like the best idea for our family. It's so much more comfortable being at home without someone coming in to check on us every 2 hours. So we left the hospital Friday just before noon. It was an amazing experience and we are so glad that Macy is here!