Aubrey's Birthday!

Friday, July 29th was Aubrey's birthday and it was an interesting day to say the least!  That morning, we were supposed to call on our way to the hospital/doctor's office to see if they could work us in for an ultrasound.  Dr. Tran wanted to estimate Aubrey's weight.  If they projected her to be 8 1/2 pounds or larger then she was going to recommend a c-section at 39 weeks (since I had issues with Caleb's delivery at 7 lbs 11 oz).  When we called, we were told that they could not work us in that morning because they were only working in emergency situations.  We skipped going to the hospital and went straight to the doctor's office instead.

Luckily, we were seen pretty much right away and did not wait long (always a plus when you're at the doctor's office!).  I had still been having contractions all week at varying intervals.  Dr. Tran checked and I was a "good 4cm" according to her (also 90% effaced and Aubrey was at a -1 station...meaning she was "low").  She said that if I was having a regular contraction pattern of at least 7-10 minute intervals, then she would send me to the hospital.  However, at that point in time I was not having many contractions (that I knew of).  She recommended that we hang out closeby and time my contractions to get a better idea of what to do.  If I timed them at 7-10 minutes then I was supposed to call back and she'd send me to labor and delivery. 

We decided we'd go hang out at Barnes & Nobles to time my contractions.  But first we went to Target.  :-)  We then went to B&N and settled in at the Starbucks.  For the next hour, I timed contractions and I really wasn't getting a good read on them.  They seemed to be anywhere from 5 minutes apart (maybe one or two) to 15 minutes.  The intervals were not regular at all, though.  We debated back and forth about calling or just going home.  We decided to go eat lunch nearby and continue to time them.  It was the same during lunch.  We continued to debate about calling or going home.  I think we talked ourselves in circles and kept changing our minds as to whether we would call or not.  Finally, we decided to just go home and continue to time.  For some reason, I feel like I get a better read on my contractions when I am relaxing at home and concentrating on timing them.  SO, we went home!

We got home around 1pm and I sat down and started timing again.  My sister, Courtney, was here watching Caleb for us and she left to go to my aunt's house in League City to spend the night.  I called my mom and told her what was going on and put them on alert.  As I timed contractions, I noticed that now they were about 5-7 minutes apart and were regular.  Keep in mind, these contractions were never painful....they really weren't even that bothersome....just annoying more than anything.  I timed them for an hour and they continued to be 5-7 minutes apart.  So, at this point we knew we were going to the hospital so I called my mom and asked them to go ahead and come.  Rhett originally wanted to wait until my parents could get there before we went to the hospital, but I wanted to go as soon as possible.  It would take them at least 2 hours to get here, so I called my friend Haylee and asked if we could drop Caleb off at her house until my parents could come get him.

By the time we got ready and out the door, it was about 3pm.  We got to Haylee's a little before 4pm and dropped Caleb off.  We knew they wouldn't let me eat once we got to L&D, so we decided to grab Chick-fil-a on the way to the hospital.  There was no telling how long it'd be until I could eat again so I knew I'd better eat something!  We finally got to the hospital at about 4:30pm and into a room around 4:45pm.  I was still having contractions but nothing painful.  Just before 5pm, the on-call doctor came to check me.  She said "you're 6cm"....quickly followed by "oops."  She had broken my water! (unintentionally)  It didn't really matter that she had because they would have broken my water anyway.  My first reaction was "are you serious?"  I couldn't believe that I was already at 6 cm (from 4cm at 9am with no painful contractions).  Honestly, I guess I didn't think it was possible to get to 6cm without any pain...but apparently for me it is!

Since they'd broken my water and I was already at 6cm, things started to get a little hurried at this point.  They had not gone over any paperwork with me and they had not started an IV.  I really had only had time to put on my hospital gown and get in bed.  My nurse got started with the paperwork and IV.  Unfortunately, she failed at her first IV attempt (which hurt...worse than any contraction I'd had up until that point!) and had to try a 2nd time.  Thanfully, she got the 2nd one in.  Not long after this, I started to feel some pain with my contractions (thanks to having my water broken).  I started to get nervous that they would not get the epidural going soon enough so I asked about that.  We gave them my medical records that describe my back surgery and waited for the anesthesiologist to come.

Around this time, my parents arrived.  They came in for just a little bit and then the anesthesiologist showed up at around 6pm to start the epidural, so they went ahead and left to go pick up Caleb.  The epidural has to be placed lower in my back than normal b/c of my surgery and where my rods are.  Surprisingly, I felt like it worked a lot better than it had with Caleb and I felt great (didn't feel any pain) for about 45 minutes.  Unfortunately, I then started to feel my contractions again and I was rather disappointed that it had worn off so quickly (especially since I felt like it was working so well).  With Caleb, I don't remember it wearing off that soon , although it did wear off and I had to get more meds.  I told my nurse that I was feeling the contractions again and she checked me at around 7:15pm.  Much to our surprise, she found that I was already at 10cm!  (keep in mind, we'd showed up at 5pm and I was 6cm...now 10cm at 7:15pm).  She said it was time to push!

I pushed through a few contractions with just the nurse and Rhett and then the doctor came in.  Unfortunately, Dr. Tran did not get to deliver Aubrey either but I guess it doesn't much matter anyway because all they do is stand there and catch the baby, ha!  The doctor who was on call at the time was Dr. Tarrant.  By the time I was pushing, I was in so much pain from the contractions that I was just miserable.  However, just like with my epidural with Caleb, it was thankfully sufficiently numb "where it counts", I could just feel all the contractions across my belly.  Dr. Tarrant kept asking me if I wanted the anesthesiologist to come back to help with the epidural.  I didn't want whatever they would have to do slow down the process so I just said let's get this over with and get Aubrey out!  I think they did end up coming in and adjusting something but it didn't matter much because I only ended up pushing for about 20 minutes and then Aubrey was born at 7:42pm!  She was covered with much more "gunk" than Caleb was, but they said it was because she was born earlier (37 wks vs. 39 wks like Caleb).  At first, she did not cry much and they said she had a lot of fluid so they had to take her out to a special nursery area to suction her more.  She was fine, though and only stayed there long enough to be suctioned and then they brought her back in.  She weighed 7 lbs 1 oz and was 19 inches long.  (By the way, Aubrey was born before my parents even had time to get Caleb and get to our house...it was that quick!  Rhett texted my mom after she was born and she replied that they were not even home yet!)

Our hospital stay was uneventful.  The first night after she was born, I nursed her and then she went to the transitional nursery for a few hours while we got set up in our post-partum room.  We were both starving so Rhett went to get us dinner at like 10pm.  That night, we sent her to the nursery between feedings so we could try to get some sleep.  Saturday, my parents brought Caleb up to meet Aubrey and my sister, Courtney, also visited.  Caleb didn't seem too interested in his baby sister, but I wasn't really expecting him to be.  In the evening, our friends the Bercaws and the Pearces both visited.  My sister, Stephanie, was at church camp with her oldest for the weekend and my BIL is away at some Army training so they were not able to visit.  Rhett's parents were moving his sister from Baton Rouge to here so they did not get to come on Saturday.  They did drop by for a little bit on Sunday before we checked out, though.  Although we appreciate and enjoy having visitors, it was actually kinda nice to not have many because you're just so tired in the hospital.  Saturday night, we kept her in the room with us and she wanted to eat every 1 1/2 to 2 hours so that was exhausting!  We were definitely ready to go home on Sunday and we got checked out around noon and home to begin our life as a family of four!  

Honestly, I am still in shock at how fast everything went and how different Aubrey's birth was from Caleb's!  It was the completely opposite experience!  I am so thankful that everything happened the way it did and even though I ended up feeling those contractions near the end, it really could not have gone much better than it did.  With Caleb, I did not progress nearly as fast and I pushed for over 2 hours and still ended up with a forceps delivery.  Not to mention the other issues I had afterwards.  I had minimal tearing this time and I have felt much better physically since being home than I did after Caleb.  All-in-all, it was a much better experience this time, praise the Lord!  AND, Aubrey is perfect and healthy and we couldn't be happier to finally have her in our family!  It's crazy to think that we went from not wanting her to be born at 34 or 35 weeks to playing the waiting game until 37 weeks and 3 days and then everything happening so smoothly and quickly with her birth!  God was truly watching out for both of us and we feel so blessed!