it's baby boo!

introducing penelope elizabeth

november 23, 2011 

3:46 pm

8 lbs 6 oz

21 inches

poppy is here! 

we're still in a whirlwind, so i have really let the blog go when it comes to the big news. sorry.

but are you ready for a story?
here's all about how our new little life started (caution: the mommy kind of "graphic details" follow).
(also, all times are approximate but as close to the truth as i can figure.)

wednesday, 9:15 am:

at 40 weeks, 4 days, we headed in for our appointment with the doctor. they wanted to check boo on the monitors, so we got hooked up and waited. she's not very active in the morning, but the doctor was more concerned about her lack of reaction to the three lollipops i ate... although i did tell her that three lollipops hardly even shines a candle to my normal sugar intake. but then, when the doctor reached in and tickled her head (yes, yuck!), she still didn't really move much. we peeked at her on the ultrasound, too, but not much was happening. her heartbeat was steady, but it should have been fluctuating more. her little fluid bed was starting to decline as well. it wasn't necessarily dangerous, but we decided it was time to call it quits.

i was dilated to a 5, her head was at +2 and my mucous plug had been gone for several days... but the contraction monitor had showed almost nothing going on in there. to sum it up, my body was ready for labor but it just wasn't coming. i thought they would give us a time and date to show up at the hospital next week. instead, the doctor went to make a phone call, came back and told us to head to the hospital. they would be expecting us. i was nervous, mostly because it seemed that they wanted to get boo out as soon as possible to make sure everything was still okay. i didn't want to expect the worst.

11:30 am:

after running home, grabbing our things, changing one last terribly sore bum and kissing our bean farewell, we signed in at the hospital. we mostly just waited for a while - they got a room ready, put a "just-in-case" i.v. in my arm and we settled in for what we thought was going to be a long, rough night. the plan was to break my water with the hopes that we could avoid the use of pitocin (and the eventual epidural to deal with the hell that is pitocin making contractions happen).

1:45 pm:

the doctor came in to check me and to break my water. i wasn't expecting her to come and break it so quickly, but there she was to work her magic. and the water gushed. wow. gross. i slipped into the mobile monitors so that i could pace around for what i thought would be a slow, uncomfortable afternoon.

2:00 pm:

the contractions started. and hurt. like crazy.

2:30 pm:

i got progressively more and more miserable and decided to try and get in the shower to relax.

2:40 pm:

in extreme pain, i started to hyperventilate and quickly got out of the shower.

2:50 pm:

i started whining like a baby, because the pain wasn't really letting up between contractions. i was not expecting it to go from zero to one hundred in one hour. with ellie, i had over 12 hours of time to get used to the building contractions, but this pain hit me like a bus. the monitor wasn't working, so the nurses couldn't see exactly what was happening. that is when i started telling them i couldn't do it, i didn't want to do it and to help me. help me!

2:55 pm:

they put an oxygen mask on me. i begged for and they refused to give me the i.v. pain medication because they couldn't get a good read on the baby's heartbeat. there wasn't really time for medicine anyway.

3:15 pm:

nononononononononono!

3:25 pm:

i couldn't keep from pushing anymore. they had called the doctor at some point, and she came in and checked me and told me to go ahead and push.

3:35 pm:

they kept telling me i was close, which i thought was just their way of trying to keep me from giving up entirely or passing out. i asked why they couldn't just reach in and get her out for me. the husband had been continually telling me that i was doing a great job (which i knew was a lie), reminding me to breathe and trying to get me to squeeze his hand... but i couldn't feel my hands. they said they could see her head, but i still didn't feel like that meant anything at all.

3:46 pm:

she was out! she didn't make any noise, though, and she looked so purple to me. she also looked exactly like ellie did when she came out. she had pooped on the way out and i think they were worried that she had swallowed something. they hurried to get her under the lights and cleaned up. finally i heard her cry but it was still a minute before i got to cuddle up with her. they said she was just quiet because she was shocked. "it's like she just got off of a rollercoaster and then fell off a cliff," the nurse told me.

i couldn't believe it was only two hours later. i couldn't even believe it was still that same day. i couldn't stop shaking uncontrollably for a good hour afterward. i can still hardly believe it even happened! it was a totally unmedicated birth, even more so than i had expected it to be. she is just perfect and there was no need to worry about her, she is just a sleepy girl and very calm. i'm glad she's here, though, and we're all healthy and happy. the timing couldn't have been better.

so that is that. she came wednesday, we got home thursday and spent friday having a little bit of a make-up thanksgiving with family. it has been pretty quiet but not exactly relaxing - ellie bean makes sure of that. she's a wonderful (but wild!) big sister. daddy is home for a little while and has really stepped up his game. even judge is being mostly well-behaved... but that doesn't mean anybody is getting any sleep around here. 

stay tuned to the new adventures of the fowler family.

and there will be better (not-from-the-phone) pictures eventually.