let's try to recap maya's birth story before it completely slips my mind.
i was originally scheduled to be induced on june 28th. i was suppose to go into the hospital at 11am, get settled in a room, they'd check my cervix, start pitocin and depending on how much i was dialted, my doctor said they were going to put some balloon up against my cervix to help open it up more.
but when i woke up at a quarter after 6 on tuesday morning (june 28th) baby girl #2 had plans of her own. i had slept on the couch because i usually lay in bed tossing and turning keeping my husband up. i figured i'd give him a good night's sleep because the next day could be very long. i laid there for a minute, checked a few text messages on my phone saying good luck on today's events then got up to go to the bathroom. i realized my panties were really wet but i felt like i really had to pee so maybe i'd peed a little? i went to the bathroom, changed my panties and pajamas and began getting ready for my day. we were taking my oldest, mischa (2 years) to daycare so no one really had to worry about her during the day and then we had a few people lined up to get her in the evening when needed. we were kind of playing it by ear. i knew she'd be in good hands with all the people we'd chosen to care for her during the time i was in the hospital. i went down to the basement to get my clothes from the dryer and felt a small gush of fluid and my panties and pajama pants were soaked again.
i definately knew that feeling. that was my water breaking. the same thing happened with my first. and actually, my water broke with her the day i was suppose to get induced as well. my babies must really not want to be put under the stress of being induced so they do it on their own.
i got a little excited because i was not looking forward to the possible slow process of getting induced. my first labor had been so fast on it's own, i knew this one would be too if it happened on it's own.
i got dressed, put on a little make up (hey, i wanted to look pretty for this!), brushed my hair and woke up the husband. this would be the second time i've had to wake up my husband with the phrase "honey, my water broke." luckily, this time, it wasn't in the middle of the night and he was already waking up. oh, and i used the phrase "uh, so i'm fairly certain my water just broke so we should go to the hospital a little earlier than eleven." mischa got out of bed on her own shortly after. we got everything to go, i called the on-call nurse to let them know i was on my way, called grandma to ask her to meet us at the hospital to pick up mischa, and we were off.
grandma met us in the parking lot and we handed mischa off. she took her home to get breakfast and let us get settled then would be up later on. i got put in the triage room and hooked up to monitors. i wasn't having any regular contractions but i kept having huge gushes of fluid. they called my doctor and she told them to get me admitted to a room and get an IV hooked up and she'd be there soon. they did just that and by 8:30am, my doctor was checking me and i was 4cm dialated. my blood pressures were a little on the high side. i'd been dealing with high blood pressure for the past 8-9 weeks and i knew a lot of it today was because i was getting excited and stressed. my blood pressure tends to show what emotion i'm currently feeling as well as sometimes just being high for no reason. my doctor started talking about giving me some mercury or something to help keep the blood pressure low so we didn't harm the baby. i was in such a daze, i don't really remember much about that conversation. i do remember getting my first dose of antibiotics for having a positive GBS test.
over the next couple of hours, my contractions started getting a little harder, but not very consistant. i was told i could get an epidural at any time. my doctor promoted it because it would take away the pain and keep my blood pressure lower. around 11, i opted for the epidural.
it was more glorious than i remembered. at this point, i was 6cm dialated.
we called grandma to see if she could bring mischa down because i wanted to see her. but by the time they got there, i felt really terrible. my blood pressure went down but my pulse went way up and it was making me feel really anxious. it was determined i was dehydrated and they upped the fluids in my IV and had me breath in the oxygen. after about 45 minutes, i was feeling better. i was able to sort of enjoy labor for a little while. by that point, our room was empty of visitors but i was kind of freaking out about just having my husband being a coach. he's a little squeemish of.... anything medically. so we called grandma yet again and asked her to come down alone to be in the room when i delivered.
my contractions slowed down and became really inconsistent. they gave me a little pitocin and by the time grandma got there, they were coming consistently and hurt really bad. i could feel them through the epidural.
things get a little hazey at this point. i remember calling my nurse because she said to when it felt like i needed to push. it didn't feel like i needed to push but it felt like something needed to happen because i was having 90 second contractions about 30 seconds apart and i was ready to be done being pregnant.
she came in, checked and i was 10cm dialated and ready to go. she called my doctor and around 1:55pm, i started pushing.
at 2:09pm, maya pearl joanne was born. they placed her on my chest and i was just in awe that she was finally here. i couldn't even comprehend what was happening.
she was measured and checked. she was 7 pounds, 5 ounces and somewhere between 19 and 20 inches long (she was 20 inches at her 4 day exam at the pediatrician, they double checked. at the hospital, they said she was 19 inches, but there is no way she could have grown one inch in such a short amount of time.) we spent a day in the hospital after i begged them to let us go home.
as for her name, maya is something that we both agreed on and thought it went well with mischa. pearl keeps with the gemstone theme we have going in our family (mischa jade, i'm crystal, the dog is amber. plus my sister's name, megan, means little pearl.) and joanne is after jarratt's grandma. she's has such a huge part in helping us raise our kids, we wanted to honor her.
this was when i was actually feeling the contractions through the epidural. i said "oh, we don't have any before pictures, quick, take one before i have another contraction and it looks like i'm crying."
i'll spare you the really gross just after birth newborn pictures.
getting weighed.
miss sassy pants.
daddy and maya.
mommy and maya.
i love this.
and now can i have a cheeseburger?
big sister meets her little sister.
and now we're a family of four. i like even numbers.
mischa demands "hold the baby!"
me and my girls.