Welcome to our world!

I know that I mentioned in my last blog post that I thought our little girl may come before her due date, but I had no idea she'd decide to come 8 days early! No complaints here, though--we were more than ready to meet her. Here's her birth story, and my goal is to be as thorough as possible while I can still remember all the details, so I'll have this amazing day recorded for her (and me!)

Early this week, I started having more frequent Braxton Hicks and a little bit of cramping here and there with them. I definitely felt like this was at least a good sign that things were moving in the right direction and she'd be here in the next couple of weeks. I've been sleeping pretty poorly at night, since her head had been putting so much pressure on my bladder and I'd be up 5-7 times a night to use the bathroom, so I've been trying to rest/nap when Joshua goes down for his nap each day. On Thursday afternoon, after resting on the couch for a while, I must have fallen asleep for about 30 minutes, when I woke up all of a sudden feeling like I was going to be sick. I ran to the bathroom but nothing happened, aside from seeing a few "stars" and feeling light-headed. I rarely get naseous, so I thought again that this was just another good sign that we'd be meeing our little one soon...only, I had no idea HOW soon that would be!

After going to sleep on Thursday evening, I woke up around 12:30am to use the bathroom, and I felt a little crampy, but nothing too strong, because I was able to crawl back into bed and fall asleep again. I woke up again around 1:30am to some more cramping, and after another trip to the bathroom, I got back in bed and tried to go to sleep again. When I was still awake (and at this point, wide awake) around 2:15am, I decided to go downstairs and read for a little bit to try and get sleepy again. I had been feeling cramps every 10-15 minutes in bed, but since I was induced with Joshua and didn't really know what "going into labor" felt like, I wasn't sure if this was just another version of Braxton Hicks, or if these were the beginnings of the real thing.

As I was reading, the cramping started to become much more noticeable and started happening more frequently. Since the plan for the baby's birth included my parents coming up (my mom would be coming to the hospital and my dad would be staying with Joshua), I knew that I needed to get in touch with them so they could get on the road for the 2.5 hour drive to our place. By 3:00am, I was pretty convinced that I was in the beginnings of labor and it was time to call...not only did I feel terrible that I was calling them at 3:00 in the morning, but I was also calling them as Hurricane Earl was making a pass over their house! Thankfully, they got a lot less wind and rain than was expected, so it wasn't nearly as crazy as it could have been. They hit the road around 4:00am, with their 100 lb. dog in tow (turns out that dog kennels don't let you drop of your dog in the middle of the night--imagine that). David was still upstairs sleeping, since I figured he should get all the rest he could for what could be a long day ahead, but I realized that I should go ahead and get a shower, and it would probably be a good idea to have someone keep an eye on me at this point! So I woke up David, and he started packing things up while I showered, and then I finished the packing while he showered.

By about 5:00am, I was having contractions every 3 minutes for about 30-40 seconds. We called our friend Erin, who would be our doula, about 5:15am, and she said she'd go ahead and get showered and ready to meet us at our place. My parents got to our place around 6:30am, and once we got them settled with Joshua (who typically sleeps until around 7:00am, but for some reason was up at 6:00am this morning--I think he knew something big was happening!) and Erin got to our house, we hit the road around 7:00am for UNC--David and me in our car, followed by Erin in her van, and my mom in her car. At home, I had been standing and rocking a little during the contractions, which had helped a lot. Clearly this was not possible in the car! Add to that hitting a little bit of morning traffic on I-40, and it was not the most fun hour ever spent in the car, but it wasn't nearly as bad as I had imagined it might be. One funny moment was when David was trying to find a radio station for us to listen to, and he got to 101.5 and the words to the song that was playing made both of us laugh out loud: "Hurt so good, come on baby, make it hurt so good; sometimes love don't feel like it should, baby, hurt so good." How fitting :)

We got to UNC around 8:00am and after getting me checked in, they took me to triage to see how far along I was. Of course, I was preparing for the worst, ready to hear something like, "Ms. Isgett, you're only 2cm. You'll be here a while." But apparently, even though the contractions weren't super-long, having them close together for a few hours was doing its job--I was at 5cm! Now add to that the fact that my absolute favorite midwife from UNC was the one on staff today, and I was thrilled!

Since I was attempting a VBAC and wanted the greatest opportunity for success, my goal was to labor naturally. Having an epidural would increase the chances of another C-section, and that was the last thing we wanted. They had mobile fetal monitoring as an option, so that I could move around as much as I wanted while still allowing them to have information on how the baby was doing. Having Erin there as a doula was extremely helpful, since she could suggest different positions to labor in, remind me to breathe slowly and deeply, and suggest ways that David could help me during contractions. David said later that it was really interesting to him that earlier in labor, I could talk and laugh and participate in conversation with everyone in between contractions, but that as labor continued, I became more introverted and quiet during the small rests. Speaking of the rests between contractions, I am amazed at how labor is designed to push you to what seem to be your limits, but that there are small periods of respite that allow you to rest and recharge in preparation for the next contraction.

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I tried a number of different things during labor, and it was interesting to see what was helpful for me and what wasn't. Some things I thought that I would really depend on, like laboring in the tub or sitting on a birthing ball, were extremely uncomfortable for me. Other things that I hadn't really thought much about turned out to be very helpful in my progression, like leaning over the bed during some contractions, and during others, having David support my weight as I hung my arms around his neck and rested my head on him. He was so incredibly supportive and was probably worn out by all that I needed from him, but never complained once. As I got to the point where I didn't think I could make it much longer, I started to feel the urge to push. I wanted the midwife to check and make sure I was ready, and sure enough, I was at 10cm and ready to start pushing.

After pushing on my knees, and then on my left side, the midwife said that the baby was starting to crown, but that she thought I may be more comfortable pushing on the bed on my back, which she knew was a very "non-midwife" thing to suggest, but wondered if I'd be willing to try it to see if it helped. At that point I was willing to try anything! As her head crowned again, the midwife suggested I reach down and feel her head to inspire me to keep going. As soon as I did, I knew I would do anything to get her here. Sure enough, after a total of 1.5 hours of pushing (from my first push to her delivery), we had an 8lb and 20 inch (holy cow!) baby girl at 1:56pm! It took a little bit for her to cry, but when she finally did, I burst into tears (as did my mom). I can remember feeling like I was on such a high, and I kept telling my midwife, the nurses, Erin, David, and my mom how much I loved all of them and how great they all were and how I couldn't have done it without them--I'm sure I sounded a little loony, and they all laughed. To be able to hold her immediately after birth right on my chest was such a reward for all that hard work (with Joshua, I didn't get to hold him until almost 3 hours after he was born by C-section).

Another wonderful benefit of having a VBAC was getting out of the hospital (and back to Joshua and our own home!) the next day. With Joshua, we checked in on a Tuesday night, he was born that Wednesday morning, and we weren't released until Saturday afternoon! We loved all the nurses and staff that helped us at UNC--every single one of them was so kind and helpful, and a number of them were so excited that we had been able to labor naturally and have a successful VBAC. In fact, a few of them had met David in the halls at some point, and when they came to the room, they talked about how happy they were to meet the wife of the proudest husband they'd seen in a long time, as he'd been bragging about me to them--I just laughed, because I could totally see David just chatting it up with these complete strangers :)

While she wasn't interested in nursing much the first night (she had some bruising on her head from her trip into the world, and the nurses said she'd probably just be really sleepy until the next day, but that her hydration and glucose levels were both excellent, so there was no need to worry), she's been a good little nurser since then, even though she'd rather just sleep all day than be bothered to eat. So every few hours, we have to come up with all sorts of tricks to wake her up enough to nurse :)

Here are a few pictures of our precious little one, Leah Caroline Isgett, who my mom swears is the spitting image of me as a newborn...so I guess we now have one mini-David and one mini-Erin:

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These are the gorgeous flowers that David's coworkers sent :)