GRACE IS BORN!

Grace Pennington Rutherford is here! And what an experience it was!...here goes! (note: It was such an amazing experience that I love to give the details. I hope they don't bother you!)

On Tuesday, Oct. 25 at about 4:15pm, I woke up from my nap and stood up to leave the house to run a few errands and felt something. It was a warm, wet feeling...not a lot, just enough to soak my panties. Not sure what it was, because let's face it pregnancy does strange things to your body, I called my Mom. Who else are you supposed to call?...lol. I told her what happened and she said that my water may have broken and to call my hubby, Paul, and my OBGyn. I called Paul and told him that I thought my water may have just broken, so he needed to come home soon (thankfully we live in the same neighborhood where he works.) Then, I called the OBGyn. (Side note, I am doing all of this from the toilet because by this point, and 3 pairs of panties later, every time I stand up, I "leak") Of course, it was after 4:30pm by this time, so the answering service answered and informed me that Dr. Bass would have to call me back. A few minutes later, he called. I explained to him what had and was happening and he said he would meet me at the hospital. I was still having no contractions at the point in time, but since my Strep B test had come back positive a few weeks before, I had to go on it to be sure that my water had in fact broken. If so, I'd stay...if not, I'd go home. Paul got home to find me standing on a towel in our bedroom, trying to finish getting things packed up to go. (We had already had the car seat installed in the Pilot and our "labor bag" - the essentials for going to the hospital: pillows, robe, socks, fan, laptop for music, baby book, etc. - thanks to our birthing classes, which our last one was just the week before.) Paul hurried around to get a few things for me, his stuff, and Grace's stuff packed up (her little outfits and swaddlers I had already picked out and had sitting in her room, ready to go.) I will never forget, in mid packing he stops, looks at me and says, "OK, take a deep breath," we do and he follows it by saying, "That was mainly for me." LOL. Anyways, we got in the Pilot and headed to the hospital. By this time, it was 5:15. I was thinking, great, it is going to take us forever to get there...but it didn't! We called my mom and Paul's mom to let them know that it was time! And we called our friend Joe to go by and pick up Jasper to watch him until we got back. We arrived at the hospital and parked (still no contractions) and walked in to patient registration. I told them my name that they my water has broken and that we were there for Dr. Bass. They brought a wheelchair over and wheeled me back to the triage room as Paul followed with all of our "stuff." We ot back to triage and they had me undress down to a hospital gown and get into bed. They came and took vitals and ALL of medical history, all the way to my grandparents (again...I've already done it at the OBGyn, so why they need it again, I don't know.) Then, they checked my cervix (NOT fun) and took a swab to see if it was in fact amniotic fluid. It was! My water had broken. We were in it for the duration, we came in as a family of 2, and were leaving as a family of 3! They wheeled me back to a very nice labor and delivery room where we spent the next hours awaiting Grace's arrival. By this time, it was about 7:00pm, and I was hungry. I told the nurse. She responded that I should have stopped on my way in because I couldn't have anything to eat until after Grace was born. WHAT!?! The last time I had eaten was when I had lunch with Paul at 12:30. I knew that it was not going to be fun. Paul ran down to the cafeteria to grab some dinner, while they hooked me up to the fetal and contraction monitors, and started my Penicillin iv (for the Strep B). Still no contractions. Paul gets back in time for Dr. Bass to come by. Still no contractions. Dr. Bass suggested that maybe we should go ahead and start some Pitocin. I wanted to try to do everything "naturally" so we told him that we wanted to wait a little while longer. We started walking around the hall, trying to start something. Still no contractions. By 10:00pm, nothing, so we had the nurse tell Dr. Bass that we were ready to start the Pitocin. At midnight, they came in and started the iv. The only negative thing is that I now have to stay in bed because I have the Pitocin, the Penicillin, and fluids flowing in my iv. Thankfully, Paul and I were finally able to get a little sleep until about 2:00am when I woke up to some contractions. I spent the next 4 hours changing positions, from the bed to the birthing ball to the chair to the bathtub and back to the bed. At about 6:00am, I was done. The back labor was killing me (I really feel if it weren't for the back labor that I could have made it...but who knows). I finally asked for the epidural. They had to check my progress first, I was 6 centimeters. The Anesthesiologist said that he was impressed that I had made it to 6cm with my first baby without any medicine. About 2mins later 4 nurses, the Anesthesiologist and Dr. Harden (shift change) are all in the room. They put oxygen on me and told me to roll over and get on my hands and knees, which is really hard to do when I am numb from the waist down and have an iv in my left arm, monitors on my belly, a blood pressure cuff on my right arm and an epidural in my back. Apparently my blood pressure dropped, which caused Grace's heart rate to drop. They gave me a shot of Epinephrine and everything seemed to get better. I was able to roll back over and they took the oxygen off. I feel asleep shortly after and woke back up about 9:00am with the urge to push. The nurse came in and checked my cervix, I was 9 1/2cm! I told her I wanted to push. She called for the doctor, who happened to have just gone into a C-section surgery, which takes about an hour. She asked if I could wait until he was done. I said NO!...I don't care WHO delivers this baby, but I need to push. She checked my cervix again and I was the full 10cm! So, we decided to start pushing. Paul was a GREAT birthing partner. I only told him once to "stop talking." In my defense, I was trying to focus on the doctor to get her out of me! About 30mins later Dr. Harden arrived and at 10:41am Grace Pennington Rutherford was born! She was 7lbs, 12oz, and 20in...and absolutely beautiful! Paul cut the chord and she was placed on my bare chest and I started nursing, after I finished crying and kissing her and Paul. About 30mins later they moved us to our recovery room, in the newly renovated wing. We were the first to stay there (Paul thinks we should have a plaque there.) Once we got into the room, they came in and cleaned Grace and took her measurements and vitals. And I finally got to eat...lunch...it had only been 24 hours! And I finally got to shower! That evening, Joe came by to visit and Linda came by and brought flowers and Meg and Craig came by and brought us Panera Bread for dinner. That night, Paul slept pretty well on the single bed (well, sleeper sofa fold out thingy), I did not. Between the nurses coming in every hour or so to check on me and/or Grace, nursing, and every little peep she made. The next day, Paul and I enjoyed spending the day together with Grace. That evening, Campbell and Krista came by and brought sweet tea! While they were there, a nurse came in to take Grace's blood for her bilirubin test. They pricked her heals, and HATED it. She screamed bloody murder! Paul couldn't handle it. He had to leave. The next morning, Dr. Fletcher came by and checked Grace and released her and Dr. Rush came by and checked me out and released me. After lunch, the photographer came by and took Grace's pictures. Finally, the car seat technician came by and took us down to our car to check our seat and how the base was put in. Finally, we were on our way home as a family of 3!