Little Sister's Birth Story

This story begins a few days before Little Sister arrived.  Being the planner that I am, I had planned for several things to get done about a week and a half before little sister was due (her due date was June 19).  Monday our dog got groomed.  Tuesday she had a teeth cleaning and house cleaners were supposed to come to clean the house.  Well, the house cleaners never showed, and after talking to their office, they were rescheduled to come the next day.  So Wednesday the house cleaners came.  I decided that Little Sister could come any time now, because I had everything done that I wanted completed before she arrived.  We were all ready for her, my parents were here, and Daddy was ready for the time off work.

Little Guy and I went to the zoo a week before Little Sister arrived.

Here I am at 37 weeks pregnant, 1 week before Little Sister was born. 

About 1:00am on Thursday morning I got up to pee.  As soon as I lay back down in bed, my water broke!  I woke Daddy up, who had only come to bed shortly before.  I wasn’t feeling any contractions, so I wasn’t sure if we needed to head to the hospital yet.  Daddy stripped the sheets off the bed (wish we had a waterproof cover!), and I called the maternity center at the hospital.  When I told them my water had broken, they said I needed to come right in.  I called Grandpa and Grandma B. first, as they were closest to us, and we needed someone to come stay with Little Guy.  Then I called Grandma and Granddaddy.  They said they would head over, too. 

My hospital bag was packed and so I got dressed.  Since we had to wait for someone to get to our house, Daddy took a quick shower.  Once Grandpa and Grandma B. arrived, Daddy and I left for the hospital, arriving there at about 2:00am. We were shown to a room, and I changed into the cute hospital gown Grandma had bought me.  Once they confirmed that my water had indeed broken, I was officially admitted to the hospital.  After hooking me up to the various machines, Daddy and I actually had time to rest.  My contractions were not very strong yet, so we napped off and on.  Around 7:00am my contractions started getting stronger.  We called the grandparents and told them to come to the hospital soon, as Baby Sister might be on her way. 

My contractions were now pretty intense and I was dilated to about 8 cm, so we decided to try sitting in the big tub to relax.  I made it through 1 or 2 contractions, but then decided it was time for an epidural.  Unfortunately, that meant that I had to stay in bed from then on.  The other bummer was that it slowed down my contractions.  My doctor had come to the hospital to check on me, and had called a few times to get updates.

About 11:00am I was ready to begin pushing.  My doctor had arrived, ready for the delivery.  Baby Sister’s heartbeat was remaining strong.  The epidural had worn off slightly (earlier I could not feel my legs at all), so I had some sensation and could feel what I was doing.  My contractions were about 10 minutes apart, so I was given Pictocin to help bring the contractions closer together.  After a little more than an hour of pushing, Little Sister was born at 12:17pm! 

They placed her right on my chest and I got to hold her, with Daddy right next to me.  It was love at first sight!  She was beautiful!  When we were ready, the nurse took her and cleaned her up, weighed her (7 pounds 1 ounce), and measured her length (19 inches, but Daddy says that was being generous).  Then Daddy went to get the rest of the family.

Little Guy waiting to meet his sister (I love this picture!)

The first meeting!

Little Guy and the grandparents came into the room.  Little Guy was so excited to meet his sister.  He came and sat on the bed with me and looked at her, already anxious to hold her. Snuggles were had all around, as everyone had a chance to hold the beautiful new addition to our family.