mace & bri: Shay's Birth Story.

Shay was due December 7th (Brian's birthday.) Which was kind of cool, but I didn't really want her to come that day--i'd rather celebrate them on separate days for the rest of their lives. :) Of course I wanted her to come before that, but I knew after going a week over with Navy that she might come late too. And as much as I wanted to go into labor on my own, I also wanted her to come closer to the beginning of December than to Christmas. My doctor was going out of town the 2nd-the 7th (of course) SO, I decided to set an induction date for December 8th.

For some reason I didn't think I would go clear till my due date-I just had this feeling she as going to come early. Maybe it was because she was SO much lower than Navy, and so I felt like she was ready to come out at like week 36 haha. I was dilated to a 2 and effaced 80% at my 36 week appointment--so I was hoping I would keep progressing. My Dr also thought I would go early, he kept telling me there was no way I was going to make it to 39 weeks. (but then again, they told me that with Navy too)

Fast forward to week 39 and I was still very pregnant--dilated to a 3 and 90% effaced. I had an appointment that morning and my Doc told me "you're for sure going to go into labor sometime in the next couple of days--your body is ready." Well, that sort of bummed me out because he was leaving to go out of town that week & I really wanted him to be the one to deliver my babe. I said something about that and he said--"well then, why don't we just induce you tomorrow?!" Initially I thought "no way." But after thinking about it for a while I thought...'actually....why the heck not?' I called Bri and asked him what his thoughts were. He was currently in the midst of the busiest weeks of school--trying to finish his last semester of grad school. And i knew that the weeks ahead were just going to get crazier, so I thought maybe it would be better for him to have our baby this week rather than the next. He agreed with me, and we both felt really good about it-so I told my doc we were in.

It was kind of crazy going home and knowing my baby would be there the next day. I was sad that I cut my last days of it just being me and Navy short, but I tried not to think about that (for fear of just breaking down and sobbing.) Thankfully I was basically100% ready and didn't have much else to do (I'd done most of the last minute stuff the week before, before we left for thanksgiving just in case she came.) I ran to the grocery store to stock up on a few necessities and packed up all of our bags, and then spent the rest of the day letting navy have/do whatever she wanted. :)

We woke up around 5:00 so that we would have time to run Nave to grandma Peterson's house & drive to the hospital to make our 7:00 induction (it's about 20 minutes away.) Brian ran Nave over and then came back to pick me up--I had him give me a blessing to settle my nerves a bit & then we were out the door. They took us straight to our room when we got there & I got dressed and on an IV in by 7:30. She also checked my cervix & told me I was dilated to a 3 almost 4. I spent the first hour or so getting some sugar water in me to make sure I was all hydrated and ready for pitocin & she started the pitocin at 8:05. (also, my nurses name was Raiden--which i'll probably never forget beause I don't think i've ever heard that name before.)

Exactly an hour later at 9:05 I started feeling contractions--and they got pretty intense pretty quick. After enduring them for about an hour I decided an epidural should happen soon...ish. That's when my Dr came in and told me he wanted to break my water, but that he'd do it after I got my epidural. So the anesthesiologist came in and I got my epidural put in right at 10:00 & my doc came back in and broke my water soon after that.

I was feeling GOOD after the epidural, of course--so we decided this would probably be our last chance to relax/maybe get some sleep-so we tried doing that for an hour or so. My nurse came in and checked me at 11:45 and I was still at a 3.5 and about 90% effaced. That's when I had the thought that this could take a loooot longer than I was planning on, since I still hadn't really progressed at all. And I had to change my expectations of having a baby in a couple of hours. But my nurse kept staying "when you start progressing, you're going to go really fast." I didn't know if it was because we told her how fast I dilated with Navy, but I kept thinking 'how does she know that?" Mostly I didn't want to get my hopes up if this was going to be a longer labor than I was expecting.

At around 12:30 I started to feel my contractions on my right side--and it hurt pretty good. So they had me turn and lay on my side and I started feeling better about a half hour later.

My mom got to the hospital sometime around this time. She came with lunch for Brian. :) (hooray!)

My doc came in and checked me around 1:30 and I was dilated to a 4. He said the same thing my nurse did "This baby is going to be here soon." and I was still thinking 'whaaaat? I'M ONLY A FOUR PEOPLE!'

At 2:00 I started to feel my contractions on my right side again--& even though I kept pushing the re-dose button, it wasn't helping--so the anesthesiologist came back in and switched some things up. Which helped a little bit with the pain, but I could still feel the contractions.

Right after the anesthesiologist left my nurse checked me and I was dilated to an 8 and 100% thinned. WHAT?! She said she was going to call Dr Young so we could start pushing. It happened so fast I wasn't sure I was ready...

Everyone was running around getting everything all ready--in walked the respiratory guy and a few other nurses for back up. I was dilated all the way by 2:40 ish and we were just waiting for the Dr. He finally walked in around 3:00 and I started pushing. I pushed 3 times through the first contraction. While we were waiting for my next contraction I saw him get the scissors and snip me--and Brian said "episiotomy!" (haha it was so funny--because he had just learned what that was like the week before.) I was totally fine with that since I tore pretty bad with Navy. The second contraction came & after one push he yelled "OKAY--just do a softer push..." I wasn't really sure what that was, so I tried--and he said "No, a soft push." ha okay doc. I tried again and next thing I knew my baby was out. She came at 3:09 pm & she was the cutest little purple thing. :) Brian cut the cord and they went to clean her off/get her breathing a little better, she had some fluid in her lungs. While the doc stitched me up.

When I finally got to hold her it was love at first sight. I remember being really emotional when I held Navy for the first time, but this time I was just SO HAPPY. She looked just like Navy to me, but at the same time completely different. (i know that makes no sense--but that's just how i felt.)

We chose her name pretty quick afterward. I looked at Brian and said "Her name is Shay right?" That had been HIS favorite name our whole pregnancy and I had started really loving it too. By the end of my pregnancy I feel like we both knew that's what it was going to be, but we didn't want to choose a name before she was here.

We love our little Shay.