Welcome to the world, Sadie Belle

First- lets address the elephant in the room. Our daughter HAS a name! It is Sadie Belle Miles. Sadie is Hebrew for Princess so technically Sophie did name her baby sister since she has wanted to name her sister Princess Belle from the beginning.

Now for the details. This would be a good place to stop reading if you are squeamish or don't care to know the intimate details of my birth story. I am writing it so I don't forget it.

On Saturday, Dec 17th, is the date I am due with Sadie Girl. This post is written Wednesday- 4 days prior to that. As I have already mentioned, I have (or had now) gestational diabetes with this pregnancy. Because of this, my midwife wanted to induce me at 39 weeks. At my request and because Sadie and myself looked good, she let me go a little past that. On my Friday appt, the day before the start of my 39th week she did warning me that I would have to induce if she didn't come soon on her own.

On Tuesday, Dec 13th, I went in for my appointment. I knew since I hadn't given birth yet Nancy would be stripping my membranes to get things started and probably make me schedule an induction date. My guess is it would have been Thursday. While she was stripping my membranes (a rather uncomfortable and dare I say painful process) my water broke. Looks like I was having a baby on Tuesday. Since I was at my appt by my self, Nancy helped me wrap up, get dressed and load up. I then drove myself to the women's center to get checked in. I called Jeff and my parents on the way.

Of COURSE, Jeff was out on a run and his cell went to voicemail. I ended up calling station 1 and getting another firefighter. When I told him who I was and who I needed to speak to he said "Are you having a baby?" and I said YEP! Luckily, Jeff was just coming back from a run so the firefighter ran out to get Jeff. He told him "Hey your wifes on the phone, your having a baby." Jeff replied "Shut up man, thats not funny". It wasn't til he looked at his phone and saw my missed call that he figured out the guy wasn't just pulling his leg.

He meets me at the hospital and we get started. Hooked up to a bunch of monitors, lots of vital checks, etc. Eventually, they unhook me and let me walk the halls. I am sure I was a sight. After a few laps, my parents got there and we met them back in the room. The nurse re-strapped me to check baby's vitals and mine and let me know Nancy was coming to check on me. When my water broke, there was some meconium  (baby poop) in my water. Means the baby was in stress at some point and they didn't want me up walking around so the baby didn't experience any more stress and didn't poop in the water again.

TV time out: for those who might not know- baby pooping in the water is bad because they can potentially then inhale said poopy water when they take their first breathes, it can go into their lungs and infection can set up.

Back to the story. Being hooked up to these machines and being strapped to the bed wasn't part of my plan. I planned on laboring naturally, walking around and most importantly no pitocion, most because I didn't want an epidural either. Not because I wanted to feel it all natural or anything like that but because I didn't like my experience with Sophie and the epidural. Long story short- I got too much and couldn't feel how hard I was pushing. This resulted in me pushing for 3.5 hours and Sophie still needed to be vacuumed out. I didn't not want a repeat of this.

Luckily I have an excellent midwife, who not only listened to all my concerns, did not make me feel stupid for any of them but because she put the control in my hands. Since my water broke but I wasn't having contractions, the next step would have been to start pit right away. She gave the instructions that it was up to me if I wanted and if I wanted to labor on my own- drug free- I could.

Of course, this change in plan couldn't have been predicted and even the best laid plans need to be changed. Again can I sing the praises of my midwife. She was excellent in explaining to me my options and let ME make the decision. She assured me if I went the pit route with no epi and the pain got too bad she would stop it and see if I continued on my own or stop it until I got my epi. She promised me if I did get an epi she would make sure it was too high and that I would be able to feel what was going on and that I could even turn the epi off once I got the pushing stage if I wanted.

In the end, I decided to got with a light epidural first then the start of pit. I do not have ANY regrets. Overall I labored for about 8 hours. My water broke at around 2pm and I had Sadie Belle at 9:42pm. As promised, the epi only took the edge off. I could feel all the big contraction and my legs (woot woot). At around 9:20, I would guess, I mentioned to Jeff that a lot of my contractions left me with the sensation like I was about to poop. I then got scolded by him because apparently Nancy had left me with directions that if I should get contractions that made me feel like I needed to poop I should tell her. I didn't hear that part. So Jeff calls the nurses station to tell them and Nancy comes in to check me. She quickly (and I mean QUICKLY) ushers everyone out of the room and starts to suit up. I guess its time to push.

I told her I wasn't ready. That if I wasn't having a contraction I didn't feel any need to push. She said that during the next contraction she was going to have me do a practice push and she would see if it was really time. During that practice push, I moved baby Sadie down enough that Nancy could see her head. Crazy. So I guess it really was time. I was still really nervous about pushing prematurely and having to push for a long long time again.

This time, I also requested a mirror to see what was going on. I didn't do this with Sophie and now wish I would have. It was by far the coolest thing I have ever seen and it gave me added motivation to push. To be able to see the entire birth is something I hope to never forget.

I started pushing and no joke, 3 contractions in about 15 minutes total and Sadie was born. I really couldn't believe how, dare I say it, easy it was! It was over. I didn't tear. I didn't need any stitches and what few hemorrhoids that did pop out have already gone away. It still amazes me.

Sadie came into this world at 9:42pm on Dec 13th 2011 weighing 8 lbs 7 oz and measuring 21 inches. A full pound more than her big sister and 3/4 of a inch longer! She is absolutely perfect. I was also perfect. I felt so good, even immediately after birth. I was able to sit all the way up, stand up on my own, go to the bathroom on my own. I swear, if it weren't for the swelling down there I wouldn't even know I had a baby last night.

This morning Sophie got to meet her baby sister and it brought tears to my eyes how amazing she is with her. She already loves her so much. All she wanted to do as be next to who ever has her, she wants to hold her, kiss her, hug her. It is the sweetest thing I have ever seen.

So in the end, my "birth plan" didn't go as planned but I wouldn't change a thing. My family feel so right, right now. I love it.

I am sure I will add more to this post as I remember it but for now I sign off.