Suzanna Rose is here!! She joined our family almost a month ago and we are SO happy to have her earthside. The last little while has been so happy and tiring. Zuzu has such a sweet temperament, its crazy how it somehow feels like she has been here way longer than a just a few weeks.
This time around I decided I wanted to understand the whole process of birth better and so I read books, listened to lots of birth stories, watched some documentaries and decided that I wanted to have a midwife and hopefully go unmedicated.
Logan and I took a really great class that helped us wrap our heads around everything a bit better and it was really informative and awesome! Lots of coping techniques and tips for your partner to help you in labor. I always left feeling really excited about not only the babies arrival, but excited about the birth experience as well.
So the actual birth story! Around 37.5 weeks I started having tons and tons of braxton hicks contractions leading up to actual labor. They were really throwing me off because they would be super consistent for like 4 hours and then they would stop. I kept thinking that I was in early labor and they would start getting more intense but sure enough they would stop. After like the 10th day off this I felt kind of defeated and texted my midwife and asked if there was anything we could do to induce labor naturally. Because I was dilated to a 3 over a week before this point she said the only thing we could do was schedule an induction and I agreed to do so. We talked Tuesday morning and scheduled the induction for early the next morning! Which was 2 days before my official due date.
All Tuesday I had contractions but didn’t think much of it because I figured they were just Braxton Hicks again. I got ready for bed and fell asleep for about 45 minutes and ended up being woken up by painful contractions, I was excited and could tell these were different because I had to breath through them. The contractions were painful but doable on my own so I let Logan sleep. I just listened to my birth playlist and got ready in between contractions. So after about 6 hours it was time to head to the hospital for the induction. I was hoping that I would be more dilated and wouldn’t have to get any pitocin by the time we arrived because this time I was positive I was in labor!
My parents had come over tuesday evening so we were good to go to the hospital early in the morning. After we got there and got to our room my midwife arrived and checked me. I was dilated to a 6 and 100% effaced. I was so happy that the contractions were doing their job!
The midwife broke my water and left us in our room to deal with contractions and for about 2 hours. I did lots of deep breathing, Logan did hip squeezes during contractions (I mean, what a champ) and the counter-pressure helped so much with the pain! The pain was manageable and I felt pretty confident about how things were going.
The nurse checked me after about 3 hours of labor and I was still at a 6. I was preparing myself for hours more of contractions. The nurse had been monitoring the babies heart beat every 20 minutes so that I was free to move throughout labor, but as the contractions progressed it was hard for them to get an accurate reading without having the monitor strapped on my belly. They suggested that I lay on the hospital bed so they could get a better reading and I agreed but because the contractions were progressing laying on the bed sounded pretty awful.
Really quickly after we started monitoring the baby the contractions got CRAZY painful and it felt like I had almost no break in between them. I started questioning if I could really continue without medication and I had tears running down my cheeks because this was feeling almost beyond what I could handle. Logan was super supportive and helpful. Things started getting foggy at this point. A bunch of nurses started coming in and my midwife arrived. Even though I wasn’t really aware the nurses recognized that I was in transition and that it was almost time to start pushing.
After the midwife came in I quickly told her I felt the urge to push. I felt scared and overwhelmed and was frustrated because I thought I would be so prepared for the pain but when it was so intense almost all my coping skills left my mind and all I could think about was getting away from the pain. I felt like if there was any way to get out of this situation I would have taken it! Buuuut too late. hah. Logan, the nurses and the midwife were super encouraging and I began pushing.
After about 10 minutes of pushing and lots of instruction for my midwife, I started getting a hang of what I needed to do to help the baby come out and shortly thereafter the midwife said she had arrived! The crazy pain was gone immediately and I reached down and grabbed Zuzu and put her on my chest. I felt so peaceful and happy and was pretty emotional. I remember saying I thought she looked just like Logan. She was here with us after what felt like forever waiting for her and I was beyond happy.
My entire pregnancy Zuzu felt like this light that brought me so much peace. I have had some hard things that I’ve been through the last few years and she gave me this renewed hope and I knew everything in life was worth the bad because the good overshadowed it 1000 times over.
I love my Logan, my Gemma and my Zuzu so so much! My family means everything.
Congrats to you if you read this whole post!
