It's A Girl

After my ultrasound and check-up on Friday morning, I wasn't too confident our baby would be arriving any time soon.  Later that same evening, after a little Soric family dance party, I started to feel a bit strange.  Not wanting to get my hopes up, I did my best to focus on anything other than lower back pain and mild contractions.  I attempted to go to sleep, but that was definitely not going to happen.  For the next couple of hours, I timed contractions and debated whether or not to call my doctor.  I didn't want to have a false alarm, especially since that would mean pulling the girls out of bed in the middle of the night for no reason.  Finally, around 12:30 a.m., I decided I should at least call and get my doctor's opinion.  She seemed a bit skeptical that I was actually in labor, but said to go to the hospital.  I woke Mate up and we began getting ready.  It was a much calmer experience than the last time around.  Within an hour, we were pulling the girls from their beds and walking out of the house as a family of four for the last time.  I was a bit emotional about leaving the girls, but the contractions helped distract me from worrying too much.

We arrived at the hospital at 2:00 a.m. and headed up to triage.   Good news: I had, in fact, progressed since my appointment earlier in the day.  Since my due date was still a few weeks away, a phone call to my doctor was made to see how best to proceed. When the doctors on-duty returned, they said I was going to be admitted, but my doctor didn't want anything done to help my labor progress.  Little did I know, that meant we were in for a long night/day.

We moved from triage to a labor and delivery room, which happened to be the same room we were in when the girls were born.  I spent the next 9 hours enduring contractions that were just minutes apart.  During that time, I met the doctor who would be delivering the baby.  At first, I was a little bummed it was a male, but I got over it quickly because he was AMAZING!  He explained that with a VBAC it's really important not to induce labor, so I was going to have to be patient and hope that I progressed on my own.  At noon, I was checked for the first time since our arrival and had dilated to the magic number of 5 cm.  There was no turning back, now.  I was considered in active labor, given an epidural in case the VBAC didn't work (although, I may have asked for one, regardless), and had my water broken.  The next few hours went by quickly and pain-free.  When I was checked at 3:00 p.m., the doctor was shocked that I was fully dilated and ready to start pushing. 
For the next two and a half hours, I used every ounce of my strength to successfully deliver our baby.  I couldn't have asked for anything more from the doctor, nurses or Mate.  Despite all the hard work going on, we managed to laugh a lot through the process.  As the minutes passed, they continued to be encouraging even though I began to silently doubt whether or not the VBAC would work.  Luckily, it did and at 5:16 we heard the doctor say, "It's a girl!"  Mate got to cut the cord before she was whisked off to be checked-out. Within 15 minutes, I held our daughter for the first time.  We are beyond thankful for such an amazing experience. 

We did it!

Meeting her daddy

Posts to come:
This is still our struggle
Leaving the hospital
The Name Game part 2