Cate Elisabeth's Birth Story

It all started Thursday night, July 15th. Matt and I took Bernie for his and our usual walk around 8 that evening. We walk about 6 blocks or so in our neighborhood totaling about 25-30 minutes, depending on what new interesting smells there are...=) We were on the home stretch, two blocks from our house, and it just started getting really hard to go any further. I was tired, not in any pain, cramping or anything, but it just felt like I couldn't go any more. Matt offered to go get the car and come pick me up, but since I could see our house already, I figured I could just push myself to keep going. We got home and I went to take a shower, still felt same as usual. Then I sat with Matt on the couch like we had been doing most evenings and the Braxton hicks started, again, that was normal for the past how many weeks now. Not long after those started, I noticed there was more pressure in my lower back and hip area with them. They were somewhat continuous, so I decided to watch the clock and see about how many I had in 30 minutes. Well, they seemed to be just one after another. I then decided it was time to bust out the handy iphone contraction counter app. They were timing to be lasting 35-50 seconds, and anywhere from 2-3 minutes apart. My Dr.’s office said to call in when contractions were 5-1-1, five contractions lasting one minute or longer, in one hour. So I was a little confused on this. By this time it was around midnight and they weren’t backing down, but I wasn’t in “knock you to the floor” pain either. I thought I might as well call the on call dr. since I couldn’t get comfortable anyways, and they hadn’t slowed down, to see what he said. He asked if they were intensifying, I said, well, a little bit, but they aren’t that severe. I told him I didn’t want to get down to the hospital and then get sent home in the middle of the night. He said that if I decided to come in, and I had progressed since my appointment the day before, they would more than likely admit me, and if I hadn’t, they would keep me overnight for observation. I told him I would wait one more hour and monitor the duration to see if that would change, and also see if they would intensify. Meanwhile, Matt thought it would be a good idea for him to take a nap during this hour just in case we were about to be on our way to labor. Sure enough, the contractions started getting a little bit longer, anywhere from 50 seconds to just over a minute and still about 2-3 minutes apart. After an hour, I called the Dr. back and told him we wanted to come get checked out. We packed up a few last minute things and left for the hospital at 2am Friday morning. When we arrived, we were checked in to a triage room where they asked us a BOATLOAD of questions, some I had to answer, (thank goodness I wasn’t in too much pain!) I changed into a gown, they hooked up the heart rate monitors, and waited for the dr. to come in and check me. Apparently a lot of women went into labor that night because the dr. was super busy and just before he was going come in to check me, he was called to go deliver a baby. So the nurse checked and said that I was at a 3. YAY!!! FINALLY some PROGRESS!!! She said she had to get the orders from the dr., but since I had progressed from my appointment the day before, and my contractions were SO regular, (and intensifying !!!) they would more than likely keep me. After waiting a little while, we got word we were going to be moved into an L&D room!!! This was it! We were going to have a baby!!!! Meanwhile, my contractions were getting stronger, but to me, they weren’t so much painful, as it was hard to breath. I thought they were pretty manageable if it were just easier to breathe thru them. The nurse asked me if I was going to have an epidural and when would I be ready for it, I asked her how long would it be before I got it and it to take effect, she said around 45 minutes and they would have to get me in the other room first. Without hesitation, I said “YES”! and “As soon as possible!” We were then moved into the L&D room, and they began prepping me for the epidural. Yes, the contractions were intensifying and I was really hoping that the epidural was on its way, very soon. By this time it was around 4-5am and we had called our parents to tell them that we were in the hospital, and they were on their way. The anesthesiologist came in, gave me the epidural, and all was good! REALLY GOOD! I heard the epidural was painful, so I wasn’t sure to what to expect. To me, it didn’t hurt bad at all, it was uncomfortable, yes, but a few years ago, I had a bout of food poisoning upon return from a lovely vacation from Cabo, was so bad I had to go the ER, they gave me a shot, that they said rated probably number 2 on the list of most painful shots, and that shot was WAY worse than the epi. Anyways, once the epi started flowing, I was ready to rest, relax and hopefully get a little nap in before this show really got on the road. Around 7 am or so, the nurse checked again to see how far I was and said my water had broken on its own and I was at a 6 or so. Our parents arrived shortly thereafter and we visited for a little while. I really wanted to take a nap, so around 8am our parents stepped out and I called the nurse to see if she could come in, help me switch sides I was laying on and I wanted to try to take a nap. She came in, we were just about to turn me over, and she gave me this look and said, “Let me go ahead and check you again before you get comfy since you have progressed so fast.” I said ok, really thinking and hoping I was maybe at the most a 7 or 8. She then checked to see if I had dilated any further, she looked up at me with an “Oh, wow” look on her face, and said “well, you’re at a 10, no nap for you honey, it’s time to start pushing!” I COULD NOT BELIEVE IT!!! She said she was going to let my dr. know, (who we found out while I was laboring was actually off that day, but he just so happened to be in making a few rounds, and would be able to deliver Cate! We were so happy!) and get a few more things prepped, and be back to go over instructions on how things were going to go with pushing. I started pushing around 9:15, and she was here at 9:52! The nurses couldn’t believe how fast the whole labor progressed, AND I only had to push for about 40 min, they said most women with their first baby push about 2-3 HOURS! REALLY?!?! I couldn’t imagine pushing for that long! They said I was just made to have babies=) Heh. So after a night of no sleep, and 10 short and fast hours after having the first initial contractions, Cate Elisabeth was finally here at 9:52am on Friday, July 16th, 2010, weighing in at a perfect 7lbs, 5oz, and 20in long. We couldn't be more blessed and are in total awe by this little miracle, and are ecstatic about our new life with her!










And here's a preview from our newborn shoot...more to come, I can't wait to see the rest!