Audrey's Birth Story

I'll try to make this short so you don't feel like you're reading a novel.

Had to be at the hospital at 6:00 AM. Arrived and filled out the paperwork and was immediately placed in the L&D room. Nurse started my IV. The nurse was going to start the pitocin at 7:00 AM but I declined and said I wanted to speak with Dr. Lee about it first (Dr. Lee was not supposed to arrive until 8:30AM).

My mom came around 8:00AM and we all waited for Dr. Lee to arrive to come get everything started. Around 9:30AM, Dr. Lee finally arrived and checked me: a "good 4cm dilated, 80% effaced and 0 station."

So, Dr. Lee broke my water around 9:45 AM and we began the pitocin. She asked if I would eventually want an epidural and I said, "yes." She went ahead and called for the epidural since apparently Friday was a busy anesthesia day. The contractions began immediately (although I had been contracting every 8-10 minutes on my own) and I got to 6cm. That's when the anesthesiologist came in and gave me the epidural, around 11-11:20AM. Honestly, the contrax weren't too bad and I thought about declining it or waiting on it but they let me know that it was a busy day and if I wanted one later, it might mean waiting quite a while.

Getting the epidural was much more painful this time, compared to Jax. Perhaps it was because the contrax weren't very painful and I was a little "iffy" on getting it anyway. And, I had had no pain meds this time vs. with Jax, I had previously had Demerol and 2 Ambien meds so I think I was a little more "out of it" when I received the epi with Jax's birth. Anyway, the epi took about 20-30 minutes to get it all done, which seemed much longer than with Jax as well. The epi was great: it took really well in my abdominal and groin area but the anesthesia did not affect my legs (which is what I wanted -- some leg movement). Later on, my left leg became really anesthetized but otherwise, my epi was perfect. Could feel my contrax but not the pain. Heaven! (With Jax, my epi took too well on my left leg and it was extremely painful).

I stalled at 7cm for 2-3 hours. After getting to 6cm in an hour prior to the epidural, I was quite annoyed with sitting at 7cm for 2-3 hours. I was getting really frustrated bcause I knew it was probably the epi that slowed my progress. They turned the pitocin up and finally that threw me into "transitional labor." I was shaky, nauseous, lots of contrax, etc. Dr. Lee was next door delivering another baby and the nurse said, "As soon as she gets done next door, she's going to come check you and get this baby born." After stalling for 2-3 hours at 7cm, I wasn't thinking so positively. Dr. Lee came in and checked me. I was 8cm but she stretched me to a "good 8, almost 9cm." She said she would come back in 30 minutes and that we should be good to go then.

Dr. Lee was right -- 30 minutes later, the nurse checked me. She asked me to push a couple times to get a "lip" out of the way. It worked and Dr. Lee started getting suited up. I began pushing at 3:39PM. I pushed 4 sets of 3 and Audrey was born 12 minutes later at 3:51PM. Because she was so low to begin with, I didn't have to push very much. Good thing because I was EXTREMELY nauseous and didn't really have the energy to keep pushing. I don't know how I didn't vomit, honestly.

Dr. Lee was adamantly opposed to giving me an episiotomy (she's only given 3 episiotomies in the past year). She felt like I really wouldn't need one with Audrey being smaller. I didn't require an episiotomy but I did tear upwards toward my urethra. I suffered a "peri-urethral tear." It was really small but she stitched that up and thus far, not much pain. I can't believe it! Totally different than with Jax's birth!

That's about it! Not too interesting which was wonderful! It was so standard and routine = exactly what I was praying for. Audrey never had any heart decels and my uterus did beautifully. Other than having some horrible after-birth contrax, all is well. BTW, no-one fore-warned me about these horrible after-birth contrax with subsequent pregnancies! Holy moly! They are worse than regular contrax!

We were discharged around 9:15PM last night. I was a little annoyed about that but apparently the nurses got the wrong impression. Dan and I had inquired about the possibility of us going home Saturday, if all was well. They apparently thought we were adamant about getting home yesterday before the bad weather hit, despite me telling them that we could play it by ear and that it wasn't a big deal. The nurse told us that Audrey had to have a bowel movement and had to have a couple tests run at the 24-hour mark before we could go home. By 8:00PM, she still hadn't had a bowel movement so Dan went home and we prepped for me to stay the night at the hospital again. Lo & behold, the nurse comes in and says we can go home. I looked at her kind of funny and she said, "Well, this is what you wanted, right?" I shook my head but I just thought, "YES, but it's so late now, yikes! I was thinking 6-7PM at the latest." The weather was horrible and I thought about just asking to stay another night because it was so late at night but, the Lord wanted us to get home obviously and that was His plan. Audrey's homecoming was very anti-climatic because Dan and I were both so frazzled, the weather was horrible and we were both exhausted. So, we don't have any homecoming pics!

Today, we had my family over to see Audrey: my brother, Jerry and Haleigh, as well as my Mom & Dad. It was a nice visit and lots of babies. Dad was in high-heaven with all the grandbabies and it probably helped him mentally. He gets so tired of being couped up in his house. None of them could believe how tiny Audrey is and how much hair she has (kind of funny, because she doesn't have as much as Jackson did at birth).

Some pictures:
With Grammy:


In Grandaddy's arms:



Audrey coming home! This wasn't her original coming home outfit but I had to improvise since it was a blizzard outside when we were discharged:


Mark & Haleigh -- he spit her out:


Dad and Audrey, giving a half-hearted smile (he hates taking pictures):


Resting with Daddy:




This is Jax around the same age, resting with Daddy. Can you believe how much Audrey & Jax look alike?


Mr. Jax himself!