Penny's Birth Story

We've made it two weeks as a family of 4, which means I finally have a few seconds to write about how Penelope Katherine made her entrance into the world. (Translation: It's 9:00, I just finished dinner, both girls are currently sleeping, and so I'm going to do a blog entry.) :)

So, at 40 weeks and 5 days, I went to the doctor for my weekly visit. It was the visit we were all not-so-secretly hoping that I wouldn't make it to. We talked about my options because like I've mentioned previously, I was trying for a VBAC and so we didn't want little Penny to become BIG Penny, making that reality even harder. We ended up deciding that I would go in the next day to be induced and hopefully encourage Penny to make an appearance. So, it was scheduled that I would go to the hospital at 6:00 am on Tuesday, January 6th.

Ellie spent the night with Pa Pa and GiGi and we arrived much more prepared than we had been the first time around. We even brought some candy for nurses and visitors. Our philosophy? We want our nurses happy to see us! Chocolate will do that. Haha In fact, we had a fantastic nurse. Her name is Jenny Morris and she was amazing. She was so attentive to my needs, easy going and just overall great at her job. That really does make a HUGE difference.

Dr. Myers came and broke my water around 8:30 am. That led to the first of a few things that made me "special" that day ... Apparently I had an abundance of amniotic fluid - they guessed about 2 liters. Most women have somewhere around 1 liter of fluid. So I asked, "If my water had broken on its own, would it have been like something out of the movies?" And Jenny and Dr. Myers both confirmed that it definitely would have. Yikes! It wasn't quite polyhydramnios, but they said it was pretty close. In general, I was told it could lead to serious issues, but mine didn't, so I didn't need to worry. One issue it can cause, though, is for the baby to be wrapped in the umbilical cord because of the fluid draining. Is that what happened with Ellie? I feel pretty sure it is. Anyway, fluid drained for what seemed like an eternity, but labor progressed quite quickly after that. Jenny said that I was already having mild contractions when I came in, despite only being 3 cm dilated. They kept my pitocin at 6 mg to encourage my body to do most of the work. It definitely did! I progressed to 10 cm within about 6 hours, even with an epidural. (Fun fact: Rollin slept through my epidural. Neither of us had slept well the night before, and since this was "old hat" for us, I didn't mind. I needed him at his best later!)

Around 3:00, we decided it was time for me to start pushing! Everyone was really confident it would go quickly since my body had moved things along. I was feeling great about my chances of achieving a VBAC ............. fast forward 2 1/2 hours later ........ it didn't go as quickly as planned. Penny progressed very nicely, but it turns out that my "lopsided uterus" posed a bit of a problem. I found out about that with Ellie. When Dr. Cottam did my c-section, she had mentioned it was lopsided, but said that wasn't a bad thing, it just ... was. Well, it made pushing kind of difficult. I compared it to someone trying to parallel park that was doing a terrible job. She just kept coming in at a weird angle, and after every set of pushing, I'd get a nice kick in the ribs for my efforts. (Thanks again for that, Penny.) I do have to give a shout out to Rollin for being the perfect labor partner for me. He gave the right amount of support and didn't stress me out at all, but kept me confident I could do this. I get stressed quite easily when I'm trying to do something new, so this is a big accomplishment! At the 2 hour mark, Dr. Myers was in a meeting, so Dr. O'Kelley came to deliver Penny. He knew I was wanting a VBAC so he laid out several options, one of which being the use of the vacuum. I saw it as one more opportunity to make Penny's delivery like I wanted it to be, so Rollin and I decided to try it. Three rounds of contractions later and there she was! All 8 lbs and 7 oz! She was so close to coming on her own, but I was so weak from pushing so long, she just needed a little extra help to make that final turn. :)

"Look at those cheeks!" was the first thing I heard someone say. I was so overwhelmed that I just kept thinking, "I did it. I actually did it." There were ZERO complications due to my having a c-section. ZERO. I had been so worried about if I was making the right decision that this affirmation was wonderful. I got to be the first to hold Penny. I got to watch Rollin melt over another of his girls. I experienced it all. For those who have had a c-section, you know that part of this experience is taken because of the surgery. If a c-section was the route I was going to end up taking, I would have been okay with that, as it has provided me with a wonderful, healthy girl. But this was pretty nice. I did end up with a 2nd degree tear, but honestly, that has paled in comparison to recovery from my c-section. I have been amazed at all I can do this time around, from sitting, standing, walking, showering, and yes, even to using the restroom, it has all been so much easier. TMI? Sorry. I'm just pretty excited about the difference! :)

My parents came in to see Penny a little later that night and I did have a weird dizzy spell where my heart rate bottomed out and I passed out for a few seconds. That's the next "special" thing about me that happened that day. It baffled everyone, and we still aren't totally sure why it happened. I just all of a sudden felt like I was going to throw up and then passed out. It was weird because I thought I was asleep, so when I opened my eyes and saw Jenny and Rollin and they were asking me where I was, I was so confused. "Stephanie, do you know where you are??" "Yes. The hospital." Yeah, it scared everyone pretty good, but I was fine after that. Penny and I both had a little bit of a fever and a high heart rate, but we both ended up just fine. In fact, my fever broke after passing out. Luckily, that was the last weird thing that happened to me.

Ellie came to visit the next day, and she is such an adorable big sister. She was so proud to hold Penny and just beams anytime she talks about her. One funny thing that happened was when she got to the hospital, I was nursing Penny. We didn't even really think about "prepping" her for seeing that. She made the most hilarious face and just slowly crept around the hospital bed to see what was happening. Penny cried a little at one point and Ellie said, "She thinks your boobie is gross, Mommy. Here, I'll give her some fruit snacks." :) We laughed pretty hard at that one.

We left the hospital the next morning (which was another nice difference!) and despite it being crazy cold, we made it home warm and safe. It was slightly questionable, though, because our car had a flat tire. The valet workers were fabulous, though, and helped us find a pump to fix it. Another example of why we love Parkwest Hospital.

Penny has woken up, so I guess that is it for our story for now. :) Thank you to all the friends and family who have taken care of Ellie, visited us, brought us meals and gifts and prayed for us throughout this journey. We have felt very loved and appreciate you all so much!