Devyn's Birth Day

Almost 3 weeks post birth, I'm finally able to grab a second to blog Devyn's birth story. I've wanted to write about it since the minute it happened, I was so amazed with how different it was! By amazed I mean, that I'm still waiting to wake up from my perfect dream delivery and beautiful baby and be stuck back in the labor and delivery room with killer contractions and feeling EV-RY-THING like Cade's birth.

My fabulous mother-in-law, Lolli, came over early in the morning to watch Cade while Nick and I were at the hospital. Thankfully we were able to get a "before" picture....Can't lie, I felt like I was getting my first day of school pic made. I definitely had those butterflies and anxiety of knowing the next year is going to be so different, but so AWESOME! At least you hope so. You think you're ready for this, you've told all your friends that you've got this in the bag and you're going to rule the school this year. You smile for your mom, but you kind of want to run and cry just in case your day is scarier that you had thought.

Eventually we made our way to Plano Presby (I couldn't stop hugging and kissing Cade and Izzy and giving Lolli instructions, nervous wreck!) and we checked in with Gold Tooth and got registered. Luckily we ended up in Room #10. (Turns out had we ended up in Room #8, there was a highly likely chance there would be a VERY interesting and unusual birth story according to nurses & my OB).

The pitocin was started at 9:00am. After watching the Today show for an hour I decided laying on my back was too uncomfortable. One of the lessons I remembered my prenatal yoga teacher (before I became a prenatal yoga dropout) was to move around, your whole pregnancy you are discourage from laying flat on your back and the first thing "They" do when you go into labor is put you flat on your back. So I spoke up and asked to move into a more comfy position (something I didn't do in my naive pregnancy #1, thinking "Doctors and nurses are experts, I'll trust them".... dumb move: speak up and get even better service!)

Nice nurse #1 moved my bed and I was so thankful. I told her "I will do whatever you say to get this baby to come out faster and smoother"! She said "Lets try this then" and moved the bed into a super weird, but suprisingly comfy position. Nick called it "The catcher's squat", I called it "Happy Buddha". The idea was to give baby room to move down. I was so happy because all the pressure was instantly lifted off my back and sciatic nerve.

Zenned out prego. My nurse and OB thought I was too happy for someone who had been on Pitocin all afternoon. I dared them to up it, but they said to wait until they broke my water. I had a million billion assurances that this delivery would be easier. Something about my lady parts being a gravel road during Cade's delivery and now a paved superhighway this time.

Anyhoo, Zen prego only lasted so long. I was "allowed" to "eat" juice (I know, "eat juice"...grr) or jello or water once an hour. And I could only pick one! But ice chips were unlimited. F-you! I'm about to do a dang IronMan in here and I only get juice, water, or Jello? Where's my BURGER!?! Oh, and Vent #1: nobody comes in when your hour is up and asks you what you'd like to eat this hour. You have to remember that for yourself!! I'm sorry, but a little service in the food area would have been appreciated!

Lunch of champions below.

Disclaimer: Nick snuck me 4 renegade Reese's Pieces. I credit those little bad boys and the Jello with my unbelievably fast delivery.

So I had come up with a game plan with the anesthesiologist the day before. Problem during Cade's delivery was that I didn't feel my legs but I did feel Queen Victoria. I felt her open those gates let her army tear through the walls of the castle so to speak. Epidurals work differently for every woman every time, but I was assured that if you wait as long as you can at least the relief the medicine provides is measurable compared to the pain you were feeling drug-free. We agreed that once I couldn't breathe through my contractions I'd request the epidural.

At 2:30pm my contractions started to get tricky. It had felt like a doable workout, almost laughable all morning, how easy they were. "I can take more, give me more!" But by 2:30 I had to work through them. Previously I had been pacing around my room, did lunges, stretched my legs. Watched Devil Wears Prada and Sex and the City. Crunched ice. Now I was laying on my side and breathing through them. I told myself I had to go an hour longer than I did with Cade's labor before calling the anesthesiologist. That was supremely tough to even make it to 3:00! Oh, and somewhere in there, Nice Nurse #1 was replaced by Nurse #2 (who later earned her "Nice" title). I was so disappointed! Nurse #2 said Nurse #1 had to leave unexpectedly. Um, without saying "Bye!" ? What the f, Nurse #1?? I thought we had bonded! And there you go, leaving my high and dry, no baby and no goodbye. I felt used. Laid up there in my open booty hospital gown and not a goodbye. Luckily I had my faithful Pitocin painful contractions and "breathing through" to distract me.

So at 3:00 I had the nurse call in for the epidural. After AGAIN signing away that I understood the epidural could paralyze or kill me, 45 long minutes later, I got my magic juice. I was concerned howevs, that I could feel my right side. The anesthesiologist and nurse helped roll me to my right side to let gravity bring the juice to the right side. It worked and within 5 minutes my nurse suggested we try a practice push. "Now, if I say 'WHOA' that means STOP Pushing, got it? If I say, 'WHOA' that means Stop right away and we'll get your doctor here STAT". Um, okay, lets practice!!!

I pushed, which didn't even feel like a push that's how magic this juice was, and halfway through the push the nurse says "WHOA!!!" and she runs to the phone and instructs Nick and I not to talk, laugh, move, breathe. Um, cool. I'm good at being quiet. My boss is laughing hard right now if she's reading this. I'm the teacher who gets told to hush during staff meetings.

My doctor instantly appears and casually says "See, I told you it would be faster?! Lets go!" All of the sudden, the Showtime overhead lights are on and there are nurses prepping the baby warmer and everyone is suddenly covered in gloves and masks. My spa-like hotel room has now instantly transformed into a delivery room. So weird.

So my dr says to push and I push through one count to 10 and she says "Great! Look down, she's halfway here!" No shit?!! Liar!!! I look down and there's my baby! "Push again, this time nice and easy, very slow" I give a tiny little push really slowly and she's out!

It felt like several minutes before I heard her beautiful cry, but there she was, perfect and tiny and I didn't even FEEL A THING! For real. I would tell you Cade felt like the Ring of Fire. Devyn wasn't even a tiny little fart. She was so easy!! And cute!!

I was so happy my hair looked decent. I mean, so happy my baby got an Apgar of 9.9! I was so amazed at the whole experience. Tests on the placenta showed no signs of the CMV I was exposed to having been passed to the baby, Thank you God! Devyn looked just like Cade, so incredibly exciting!!! And she was and is as sweet as can be. Mommy's little honey cakes. Daddy's little princess. Cade's little "Baby Sister Girl" was here!! It was one of the best days ever.

And I even got the hospital's BLT AND my daddy bought me a big juicy Gazeebo burger and fries! It was a perfect day.