When I went to the doctor on Wednesday there weren't a whole lot of exciting updates. I was slightly more dilated, and my blood pressure was a little high. The doctor talked with us quite a bit about my blood pressure and made it clear that she didn't like it, and talked through the future possibilities, should it not go down. She was aware of our efforts to have a natural birth and our desire to avoid interventions, if at all possible, so she worked with us, but let us know she was taking it very seriously. She asked us to come back on Friday for a blood pressure check, and we agreed. I checked my blood pressure from home several times on Thursday and it was a little high on one reading, but was pretty normal on all the others. Because of that, Matt and I headed to Tyler Friday morning just expecting a quick visit, a good blood pressure reading, and a trip to Starbucks and the bank before heading back to Canton.
This is where everything we had planned on and expected to have happen took a turn! We got to the doctor's office and my blood pressure was even higher than before. They sent me to a room to rest for a few minutes before checking it again, but the second check wasn't much better. As Matt and I sat in the room waiting for the second check, we both started to realize that the doctor was likely going to encourage us to head to the hospital. The doctor came in after the second check and did just that. She checked everything out and really believed I only needed a slight push to start up labor, in the form of breaking my water, and really thought it was best to go ahead and have the baby since we were having to work so hard to get my blood pressure under control. We have really liked our doctor through the pregnancy and trusted her concerns, and decided to follow her advice and head to the hospital. We left the doctor's office with a mixture of excitement and nervousness.
We went to Wal-Mart for a few things, stopped at Braum's for an early lunch, called our parents and made arrangements for Penny, and headed to the hospital. We got to the hospital around 11:30am. We knew we were likely in for a long day, and advised our parents not to hurry over to Tyler, as it would surely be several hours before anything exciting happened, but you know how those grandparents are... I better not hear any complaining from them about the long wait - we tried to warn them! ;)
Right after we got to the hospital - just hanging out waiting for things to get moving!
At 2:00pm the on-call doctor came in to see us. Unfortunately, since it was the weekend, we didn't get our doctor, but this was a doctor in the same practice that we had seen once before. She actually would not have been the doctor we would've chosen to have next, but she was fantastic, and we really appreciated having her there through it all. She came in and broke my water, when I was dilated to a 4. That started things very quickly. Within just a couple of minutes I was having contractions every 6 minutes, then 5 minutes, then 4 minutes. Even so, I was told that typically once labor starts, most people dilate about a centimeter an hour. I knew labor would be tough, but my goodness. I felt bad for our nurse once the painful contractions started. They had a monitor attached to my belly to watch the baby's heart rate, but she was so active (to the last minute!) that they had trouble keeping track of her heart rate. During contractions, I felt better when I was up and moving around, but that never failed to cause the monitor to lose the heart rate. So every few minutes the nurse would come in and have to find it again. I apologized to her, but also let her know I was going to keep moving during contractions!
Matt actually has a few pictures of me during a contraction, but those will not be shared on this blog... or anywhere.... ever. :) The ones above appear to be the "resting in between" pictures!
I managed the contractions pretty well for a while, but eventually I called the nurse in to ask some questions about an epidural. When I got to the point where every contraction made me shake uncontrollably, nearly pass out, and sent my blood pressure sky high - when I felt like I had absolutely NO control over my body - I called for the epidural. That was around 4:40pm, and I was dilated to a 6 at that point. The nurse explained several things to me, and I remember her saying that the epidural could actually be fairly painful. The anesthesiologist put the needle in during one of my contractions, and I don't even remember feeling it. I guess compared to the pain of the contractions, it was nothing! That kicked in right away and I was immediately more comfortable. At that point I expressed a wide range of emotions to Matt in the room. At first a lot of, "I'm sorry I couldn't stick to the plan," followed by, "but my goodness this is so much better," then the excited, "this is really happening! We're having a baby today!"
After the epidural... my attitude had changed just a bit!
The nurse came back in around 5:40pm and was surprised to find that I was ready to have a baby! She explained that we could start pushing then, but recommended that we wait until my body was ready to start doing it on its own, which Matt and I were in favor of. At 7:50pm the doctor and nurses came in and we got down to business!
The nurses called Matt over to help, so he was right there with me helping out. We laughed later that they didn't really give him much of an option - they just put him to work! He was excited to be involved, though, and was so helpful. When things got close, the doctor and nurses kicked it into high gear. They started pulling pieces off of the bed, flipping things around, attaching new parts, flipped on special lights, the doctor put on her gear, and within a few seconds the whole room was transformed. The doctor stepped back and said, "Ok, we're having a baby this time!"
At 8:37pm, Joanna Frances Porter made her arrival!
She is brand new in this picture (clearly!). She was wide awake and alert!
Everything went smoothly, and we were all healthy. There were signs of meconium in the amniotic fluid, so there was someone there should Joanna have trouble breathing, but she let out a healthy cry right away and was just fine. I came out of it without any major damage, too. And Matt watched the whole thing and didn't pass out! :)
The hospital has a policy where they immediately put the baby on mom's chest and she stays there for at least two hours. I held her while they cleaned up, fixed me up, and while Matt cut the cord. They didn't even weigh or measure her for a couple of hours. During that time we ooed and awed over her, worked on breast feeding, laughed when she peed all over me, and just spent time falling in love with our sweet baby! She was wide awake and alert nearly the entire time. After a few hours, the nurse came in to weigh her and check a few other things, then Matt got to hold her and love on her while I took a shower.
We stayed just like this for a little over two hours after she was born. I'm pretty sure my eyes didn't come off of her for long during that time!
Matt got some lovin' time, too.
Once we had some time together with Matt holding her, we invited our parents in to meet her. They hung around for a couple of hours then left sometime after midnight. Joanna was great that first night, and hardly cried. I only slept 2 hours, but it was because I just wanted to hold her all night - so I did!
Matt took on diaper duty in the hospital. He also studied under the nurses to become a swaddle master. I've figured it out now, but I still prefer that he do it, because his stay wrapped up a lot longer than mine!
We left the hospital on Sunday and I'll confess I was a nervous wreck on the drive home. Not only was it a little scary leaving behind our friendly nurses who were so kind to help with every little thing, but it is 45 minutes to an hour to get from the hospital to our house. I think we were more aware than ever of all of the idiot drivers on the road, and we were sure to let them know that we didn't appreciate their negligent driving... after all, there was a newborn baby in the car with us! They should know that and be more careful! Joanna only cried for a minute or two on the drive home, and we all made it home safely.
She looked so tiny in her big car seat!
We made it home safely!
Joanna's arrival story certainly isn't what we had anticipated, but thankfully we went into all of it with reasonable attitudes. I had a few brief moments of being disappointed that things didn't go according to plan, but in the end, everything went really smoothly, and all of our preparation still served us well. We are happy to be at home and to have three healthy Porters!
Welcome to the world, Joanna!
Joanna Frances Porter
May 29, 2015
8:37pm
7lb 10oz
19 inches long
