The Birth of Audrey Grace Zoutendam

Warning: this is long!!! But it's not gory :) 

This entire week has been a whirlwind of activity for us! It started with a spontaneous visit to the hospital, and then finding out we would meet our precious daughter a few days earlier than anticipated. Here's what happened:

On Sunday night I had to go to L&D for monitoring because my blood pressure (bp) went up to 150/104! Luckily, it started going down while we were in the hospital and I got sent home around 10:30 that night. On Monday morning, I had a follow-up scheduled with my OB and my blood pressure was looking better. However, she was a bit concerned to hear my BP had gone that high at any point, and was a bit agitated that the nurses and the on-call doctor (whom I had spoken with on Sunday night) didn't run any tests, draw blood for the lab, etc. She told me that getting an induction spot at Medical City was pretty hard, but she had gone ahead and put me on the list to be induced on Tuesday after my BP from last week had been high. Since it looked good at this appointment she said that it was totally my decision. I was on the fence because I had heard many people talk about how much harder and longer labor was when induced than if you just go into labor naturally, so I told her that I wanted her to check me first, see what kind of progress (if any) I had made, and then I could make a more informed decision. She checked me, and the amount of progress I had made was fairly minimal (except for the fact that the head had dropped even further), but the concerning thing was she said that my fluid was quite a bit lower than it had been the week before. She said she had been able to press on the baby's head and it would bounce, but today it was not bouncing. Dr. Oliveira said low fluid goes along with higher b.p. and for that reason alone, she would recommend we go ahead with the induction. That was all I needed to hear. Michel and I decided we would go ahead with the induction. 

We had to go in on Monday night for cervadil (it helps thin out the cervix). We were originally scheduled to go in at 5:00, but we were told to call at 4:00 to make sure they had a spot for us. I called at 4, and they were full, so they said to call back at 7:00! Michel's parents had decided to drive in from Longview on Monday night and got a hotel room near the hospital, so we went over to their hotel room and visited for a little while, and I called back at 7, and was told to call back at 9:00! We were a little frustrated. So we all went for dinner, came back to the hotel, I called at 9:00, and they said that we could come in at 11:00! I was already tired at this point (I hadn't slept well on Sunday night), so my in-laws were nice enough to let me sleep on one of the beds in their room. I got about a 2-hour nap in before we had to go to the hospital, which ended up being good, because once we got there, I don't think I slept at all - 15-20 minute increments a few times during the night at best. So we finally got checked in, put in a room, and I got the cervadil at 12:30 a.m.! 

While in the hospital, I ended up being glad that we didn't get checked in until late because I had to stay on a contraction monitor, and a baby heartrate monitor, and a blood pressure cuff the entire time. I could unplug everything to use the bathroom, but I would have hated being confined to the bed that entire time if we had gotten in at 5:00. During the night, nurses would come in to adjust the monitors (anytime I moved the heartrate monitor lost the baby's heartrate), so that disturbed our sleep, I wasn't comfortable, and I started having contractions around 3 in the morning, or so. 

Around 5 in the morning, contractions really started picking up. They were coming every 2-5 minutes and lasting a good minute or more. They weren't that awful, but they were really uncomfortable. Our L&D nurse told us that Dr. Oliveira did her rounds around 8 a.m., so I had decided to wait for the epidural until after she checked me because I didn't want the epidural slowing things down (it ended up being a bad idea on my part). She got to my room around 9, and the contractions were coming close and lasting long, but again just really uncomfortable - not unbearable. While she was examining me, she attached a baby heartrate monitor to the baby's head, and also put a contraction monitor inside of me, so that I could be unstrapped from the ones around my belly. She also broke my water. All of that was really painful, and caused more painful contractions, so I was asking for the epidural. Luckily, the nurse called the anesthesiologist and he was in my room within 5 minutes. My OB had already told me that he was her favorite anesthesiologist and I thought he was WONDERFUL!! Getting the epidural, leaning over, being still while having a contraction is not fun, but within 5 minutes my pain was dulled. He did such a great job! Since I hadn't gotten much sleep the night before I was able to sleep on and off until it was time to push. My parents and in-laws came in the room and visited for awhile, and after an hour or so I asked them to leave so I could sleep, and I slept for a couple hours, let them come back in, the nurse came and checked me and said I would probably be pushing within 2 hours or less, sent the family back out, and got some more sleep. I have nothing but good things to say about that epidural. :)

Anyways, at 3:50 we got the news we were waiting for...I was ready to push! Thirty short minutes later (yes, they went by very quickly), little Miss Audrey Grace Zoutendam made her way into the world! She came out crying immediately which was music to her mama's ears!! 

She was 19 3/4" long, weighed 7 lbs., 2 oz., had a great set of lungs, and a full head of dark brown hair (possibly the cause of my heartburn I've had since about 24 weeks of pregnancy??). 

The nurses cleaned Audrey up while the OB cleaned me up, and she and I got to meet. There were definite tears shed on my part. Meeting my sweet girl was such a special experience! I can't even describe the love I have for her! 

Once we had skin-to-skin time, I nursed her for about half an hour. Then family (who had been anxiously awaiting this moment all day) finally got to meet her! Sadly, I don't have that many pictures of this day. I had my hands full, and other things on my mind!

Michel and I love this little girl with all of our hearts, and I can't wait to continue to get to know my sweet girl!!