Zoie's Birth Story

I was glad Zoie came after we finished her room, but I wasn't expecting her to come just hours after my previous blog post. I was actually scheduled to be induced on Tuesday Jan 31st because my babies come so fast and I didn't want to deliver in the car or in the middle of the night and not be able to get in touch with a friend to watch our kids.

I was dilated to 3.5 cm on the Saturday before she came and I was mega uncomfortable, but still just expecting to be induced on Tuesday. Then on Monday morning (1/30) I woke up at 8:10am and noticed low back pain. So we called a friend over and got to the hospital by 9am. When the nurse checked me I was dilated to 9cm. The contractions were very close together, so I'm glad Chris was there. Something that helps me cope with the contractions is "Counter Pressure." When a contraction starts I ask Chris to jam a hand held massage claw into my lower back and I totally relax my body and it relieves the pain.

When I finally dilated to 10cm the contractions slowed down. In the past I have had an uncontrollable urge to push, but not this time. So I kept waiting and I never felt that urge. Because I'm impatient I asked the nurse if I could "get this show on the road" and just start pushing, she said that would be fine. Because I deliver my babies without epidurals I was in charge of when I pushed, which was nice to have some control. The first three pushes weren't very effective, but once I figured out "where" to push, the baby dropped and with three more pushes Zoie arrived! (From the time I realized I was in labor to when she was born was 3.5 hours.)

They rounded her weight to 8 pounds.

My recovery is going a lot better than my first deliveries and nursing started out a lot smoother than it has in the past. Zoie is such a delight and I am really enjoying getting to know her. She is 10 days old in the photo above and looks a lot like baby Grant.