The Birth of Sophie

Once again, our child’s birthday was set.  No waiting until she came on her own.  Being two hours from the hospital and never having an extremely long labor, our doctor has always suggested inducing at 39 weeks.  Being somewhat of a planner, this has always been great with me.  I know I miss out on starting labor naturally, and I've never known what it feels like to be more than 1 day past the 39-week mark.  However, it works for us, and we were definitely ready to meet our little girl!

So, the night before, we went to Amarillo and stayed with Jeremy’s parents.  In the past, we’ve gone out for dinner and a movie while the kids stay with Mimi and Pops.  This year, I think we were just a little too tired.  We had a fun dinner with everyone and then watched a movie at home (Non-Stop with Liam Neeson…wouldn't recommend).  We slept as well as we could (aka no sleep) and were at the hospital ready to go at 7 am. 

Having pre-registered, there wasn't a ton of paperwork left to fill out, so the nurses got started right away.  Five minutes in they hit a roadblock.  My veins were not cooperating for the IV (story of my life), so forty-five minutes, two different nurses and about five sticks later, they finally got it in and set for the day.  That was probably the worst of it all – honestly it makes me a bit queasy to think of my veins just “rolling around in there,” so the worst part was out of the way.

I began the process at almost 3 cm and about 60% effaced.  Around 8:30, the doctor arrived and broke my water.  Then things started rolling.  Pitocin kicked in as did the contractions.  Then after about 1.5 hours, they just tapered off to almost nothing.  That had never happened before.  So, I called the nurse to see what was wrong and she said I just needed to change positions.  I didn't know that bed could be made to look like a chair, but obviously it can, and boy did that speed things along.  After about two hours, I couldn't take it anymore and asked for the epidural.  There were a few people in line ahead of me, I was told, so thank goodness I asked when I did, because when the anesthesiologist finally arrived, I was more than ready.  You know how I said the IV process makes me queasy?  Well, imagine how much more fun it is to listen to your anesthesiologist explain the entire process of the epidural step-by-step for a good half hour.  Not fun.

For some reason part of the epidural didn't take.  For the most part, I was in Heaven.  But there was one tiny problem area, and it wasn't exactly the best spot to have a problem area when getting ready to give birth.  After a bit, I wasn't progressing like I had hoped…between 4-5 cm right before the epidural.  However, I knew when I hit a 6 (if anything like all of the other births), it would just be about 30 minutes until I was holding my baby.  Well, they put me in a new position to further speed things along.  It was called the fire house?  I think?  Something with “fire” in it, and as my nurse left, I reminded her that once I was a 6, it wouldn't be long. 

She came in after an hour, moved me back to my back and said I was a little over 5 cm and she’d be back in an hour and a half.  I thought that was too long for her to wait, and I didn't think that I’d be able to feel when I needed to push.  That spot that didn't really get numb suddenly became very painful.  So painful after 20 minutes that I felt I didn't even have an epidural (minus my legs feelings about two tons apiece).  So, I pushed the nurse button one more time.  I asked her to check me.  She quickly laid me down and said to not do anything, and that the doctor would be right over.  Needless to say, Sophie was ready to come.  As soon as the doctor got there, I pushed twice, and our little baby girl was out and screaming at 3:03 pm…for 45 minutes.  She weighed 8 lbs, 7 oz and was 20.5 inches long!  Bigger than each of her brothers by a couple of ounces, with a head as full of hair as any of ours have, been, she captured our hearts instantly. 

And, just like that, we fell in love all over again.  

Within the hour, the boys came to meet her.  She wasn't cleaned up very well.  Towards the end of the video, notice Carter's response when he sees her.  To his credit, she was pretty messy and according to him "smelly."  However, he's regretted saying what he did ever since (he's a worrier).

And, recently home, here's John Paul and a tiny snippet of his every day.

We love, love, love being new parents again!  Welcome to the world Miss Sophie Therese!