Blake's Birth Story

This is Blake's birth story. While it isn't incredibly graphic, it is detailed, but I wanted to write it down and share because it is the greatest moment of my life.

Now this isn't your typical "I'm in labor!" birth story. Due to my thrombophelia I was scheduled to be induced May 31, which would be 38 weeks and 2 days along into my pregnancy. Leading up to my induction I was miserable. Back pain, constant mild contractions, the need to pee every 5 minutes, exhaustion doubled with the inability to sleep and irregular heartburn as well as no progress towards delivery made me a very unhappy person. All I wanted was for things to somewhat start on their own so the induction would be easy and quick and I could meet Blake as soon as possible.

Kelsey and my mom were in town so with their and Chris's help we tried many things to help me go into labor-- eating buckets of homemade pineapple sorbet, spicy food, eggplant parmesean (a special "labor" recipe from Scalini's in Atlanta), walking (a lot), and hours of bouncing on the birthing ball and yet nothing happened. Every night around 6 pm I would start to get contractions, they came every 3-4 minutes but they were never painful and after a final OB appointment on Wednesday were proven to be doing nothing. My cervix hadn't dilated at all and was only about 70% effaced, so I knew come Thursday night we had a long way to go, and with the less than optimistic OB I saw at that appointment I was a bit disheartened. But no matter what I would be meeting Blake in the next few days so I had plenty of reason to smile!

On Thursday, May 31 Chris went to work and my mom, Kels and I finished getting things together at the house. We cleaned the nursery, vacuumed every inch of the house, finished packing the bags and went on a LONG walk. After a relaxing dinner out (probably my last meal for awhile) Chris and I headed up to the hospital for our 9pm check in. Since I was delivering at the hospital where I work (Swedish Medical Center) I knew what to expect. We made it quickly through admitting and made our way upstairs to my room. We got settled into 5714, I had picked out my room in advance so that I had plenty of space and a good view, and looked over all the extra touches the amazing night nurses had left for us. Fuzzy slippers, a balloon, a cute card, stuffed animal and candy cigar for Chris. It was a crazy busy night up on L&D so my nurse Nicole got us situated quickly so that she could get back to more active patients, but I didn't mind! The sooner we got started the sooner I would get to meet our little girl.

Since I was a first time mom and had no cervical dilation I was scheduled for an overnight induction. For this I was given Cervidil to "ripen my cervix". Well it did the trick because the contractions started and sleep did not come. By 7am I was contracting every 3-4 minutes and had dilated to 1cm/70% effaced/-2 station. Chris and I then made our way in a contraction pain laden haze down to the cafeteria for a little breakfast, my last meal until Blake made her arrival. At 8am Dr. Granandillo broke my water and our nurse Katie started the pitocin. That combination very quickly made the experience real. Contractions were coming every 2 minutes and were getting more painful by the minute. Around 11am I was unable to breath through my contractions and I knew the more tense I was the less likely I would be to continue to dilate, so I asked Katie to check me and if I was over 2cm it was epidural time. After a check she called me 3cm/80%/-1 and a call was placed to anesthsia. Fortunately the anesthesia team knew me so I was first on their list and was able to get the relief I needed. The next few hours were a blur of half naps, talks about Blake and movie watching with Chris, Kels and my mom.

My delivery doctor, Dr. Lingle stopped by around noon, checked me, called me 3-4cm and let me know he would be back around 3pm and would stay available for my delivery until midnight. While I had 6-7cm to go I really hoped it would happen before he went off call. At 3pm Katie came in to adjust the monitor because if I was laying on my right side Blake wasn't staying on, which was unfortunate because my left leg was NUMB. After several attempts at adjusting the monitor and a few dips in her heartrate Katie decided she wouldn't wait for Dr. Lingle any longer but would go ahead and check me and insert internal monitors to keep track of my contractions and Blake's heartrate. Good news: 8cm/100%/0 station, bad news: Blake was having repetitive variable decelerations when I was on my right so I was stuck on my numb left side, but had high hopes of my baby coming soon.

Not 10 minutes after Katie left the room, did I call her back in because I knew I was complete and ready to push! True to my intuition I was right! 10cm/100%/+2. A quick call to Dr. Lingle for the go ahead and it was time to push. I started pushing around 3:45pm and soon realized it was hard work. Kelsey was a lifesaver with ice chips and a good playlist and Chris and my mom were perfect and oh so helpful leg holders.





After about 45 minutes of pushing Dr. Lingle came in and took over for Katie. At this point I could basically feel everything, except my left leg but didn't want to lose momentum by having my epidural redosed. At 5pm Blake was minutes away from making her arrival, I was working as hard as I could but with her heartrate in the 90's and minimal progress with subsequent pushes I agreed to let Dr. Lingle cut an episiotomy. With that and one more push Blake's little mohawked head entered the world at 5:05pm on June 1st, 2012.

Immediately after Blake was born I pulled her out of the doctors hands and onto my chest and cried. I cried from the deepest part of my body with pure joy and intense love. Chris and I had created a life and this amazing little being was mine.

She was beautiful and perfect. She had ten fingers and ten toes, she was tiny and she was long. She had  flat feet and big hands. She had a mop of dark brown hair and she looked just like me.

After taking her in I had the nurses come over to take a look at her as she sounded a little wet to me and was breathing a little too hard for my nursing taste. After a quick suction she was sounding better. She was weighed and measured and just as I guessed was 6 pounds and 20 inches long.

I then got her back so she could feed. She immediately latched on and for those who have nursed you know it is an incredible experience. This brand new baby, who was under an hour old, knew exactly what to do. The release I felt was amazing. All my worries went away because she was here and she was healthy and I had all she needed to live. She laid on my chest skin to skin, ate, looked around and took in life on the outside.

After her first meal everyone else took their turn welcoming Blake into the world.

Celebrating in Tallahassee

It was the most emotional moment of my life. I literally felt my heart fill and fell in love instantly with the most beautiful thing I have ever seen.

While a wave of exhaustion rolled over me, a sense of calm also took hold. It was done and she was here.

While it might have been painful and hard I would do it over a thousand times to have my baby in my life. She is truly the most amazing thing.