Alexia's Birth Story

I'm currently looking out the window of the top floor of the tallest building at the hospital. This is the first time I've stayed in the hospital for anything other than having a baby. And let me tell you, it's not nearly as exciting. It's kind of fun to see all the hustling and bustling outside though, as it's rush hour in Salt Lake City, and little cars and buses and TRAX trains are moving all over the place. And I'm here in a wretched hospital gown (I despise these things with the snappy shoulders that hang like a tent and expose everything) hooked up to an IV of vitamin fluids to help me get nutrition.

But that shall be another post and another story. I just wanted to give a preface as to where I am and what I'm doing at the moment, while my sweet new baby girl who is 2 weeks old today is at home with my mom and Cami. Ohhh how I want to kiss her newborn head full of velvety strawberry blonde hair right this minute! I love my little Alexia so much, and am SO grateful that she's part of our family now. Want to hear how she entered the world? Ok, I'll tell you. :)

Alexia was due on October 4th, but I really didn't mind if she decided to come a few weeks early, for mama's sake. This whole pregnancy kicked my butt, and it just seemed that issue after issue kept piling up on eachother, and my body was close to falling apart. I ended up losing weight in the pregnancy, and I was so afraid that baby girl wasn't getting the nutrition that she needed, because she was measuring small. So when my doctor checked me at 38 weeks on Monday, September 19 and said I was dilated to a 3, I was excited, but he said to try to hang in there for another week, just to give her more time to grow. He told me to take it easy. Fine by me, since I wasn't able to do much anyways!

So the week went by, and then on Tuesday, September 27th, after a surprisingly pretty normal night's sleep, I woke up at 6:30 am to a contraction. I just kind of laid there and said "wait, was that a real one?" I'd had Braxton Hicks faker contractions for like 6 months now, so I had to make sure it was different. But this one felt more like a bad cramp, so I was excited! Sure enough, 5 minutes later, another came. Then another one 5 minutes later. At 7, I finally whispered "Jake....I'm having contractions". He woke up and said "Reeeally?" With Cami I had had contractions from 9 pm till 11 am the night before, about 6 minutes apart, so he wasn't really convinced that we needed to rush off to the hospital any time soon. But we got up for the day, I showered and got all ready, went down and got Cam breakfast, made sure my hospital bag was packed and ready, and got some things together for Cam to go to her Aunt Cathi's.

 

I had an OBGYN appointment scheduled that morning for 9:50 anyways, so we just aimed to go to that on time. My contractions weren't painful, just uncomfortable, and they kind of went from 5 minutes to 7 minutes to 6 minutes apart. So we left around 8:45, ran an errand for Jake to pick up something for work, took Cami to Cathi's house near the hospital, and then made it right on time to my appointment. When the nurse took me back, I said I was having contractions and she said "ooh, today might be the day then!" When I told the doc, he was surprised and said "Well let's check you and see where things are at". Lo and behold, he checked me and said "Well you're dilated to a 6 or 7! Let's get you right downstairs and get your epidural going." Music to my ears! It couldn't have been going more perfectly.

As I went down the hall, nurses were saying "What? You're dilated to a 7 and still walking??" But I really hadn't felt much pain up to that point...just the kind where you have to hold on to something and breathe it out for a minute. So we went from the 4th floor to the 1st, got checked in, they took me to my room and got me set up right away. This was just after 10 am, and then the anesthesiologist came at about 11 and gave me the epidural (bless modern medicine...I'm just too wuss to ever try it naturally). After that, Jake and I just hung out and I basked in the sleepy numbness for a few hours. My doctor had guessed that the baby would be ready to come at about noon, but my dilation wasn't progressing past an 8. So they decided to give me petocin to help it along...and then finally at 4 pm I was at a 10 and ready to go. (Here's me with my little focal points...the same little lambie as last time, and I loved seeing Cami's sweet face!)

Pushing was the hardest part, obviously, cuz up till then it had been smooth sailing. But it just took about 40 minutes, and the reason it took even that long was because her little head appeared to be "stuck". It just wasn't coming out for awhile, and then finally I heard gasps and the doctor said "Well that's why- she's posterior!" Which means that her face was up, instead of down, so her little chin and nose had to squeeze past my pelvic bone, poor thing. It was such a relief when I heard her little cry, and then the rest of her little body came out and they laid her right on my chest and Jake got to cut the cord. She was a good sized little baby, 6 lbs 15 oz, which I was so thankful for! Even born exactly one week early! And she had strawberry blonde hair and cute little blue gray eyes. I could tell Jake adored her the minute he laid eyes on his second little girl.

I couldn't believe that it was all over, that she was finally here. She'd compensated for giving me a run for my money during pregnancy by coming a whole week early and making labor a breeze! What a sweetheart. She really is the sweetest little baby...sleeps a ton, rarely ever cries (except for the one night she had to spend on biliruben lights for jaundice), and is a healthy petite little peanut. Cami is loving her little sister, although it did take some warming up at first, and she loves to give Lexi pats and kisses and be a good helper. It's crazy to think that I have two daughters now, and I'm still learning to balance time and attention amidst my afflictions, but I'll get the hang of it. I feel so blessed and grateful for my sweet little family, and wish little Lexi a happy two week birthday today!