Grace Carolyn Kent was born at 6:34pm on October 11, 2010 (Columbus Day), weighing 7lbs 6oz and measuring about 19.5 inches. She came, as Daddy predicted, 2 weeks early. Her place of birth is officially the Nation’s Capital, since our hospital (Sibley Memorial) is located in the District. Every moment with her has been a gift, one that no baby class, pregnancy book, or months spent planning and building a nursery could have prepared us for.
Sunday, October 10, Mike and I were enjoying a beautiful fall day in Maryland and decided to go pumpkin and apple picking. We drove out to Homestead Farm, just west of us, and brought home about 3 dozen apples and a couple of smart looking pumpkins. We drove home, relaxed for a bit, and then our friend Ryan came over and we had some tacos and left to see The Social Network (good, sad, movie, by the way, sort of a moment-in-time flick). Drove home went to bed, happy to both have the next day off...
So I wake up for my now per-usual bi-hourly potty break, do my business, come back to bed, and gush.... “Mike, Mike! Either I just wet the bed or my water just broke!” What I was actually thinking was, oh no! I’m officially incontinent! I cannot be trusted! I’m going to have to stop working early! I did not, repeat, not, think that my water broke. It wasn’t the volume I had expected; I fully intended to go my whole 40 weeks and then some; I hadn’t really felt what I thought a contraction would feel like; and I had always pictured us laboring at home those first 8 hours. But of course we got up, called the OB on call, who told me he didn’t think it was my water, as this happening before labor starts is rare in first time moms. He told me to walk around to see if more water would come, which I did, and it did. So, I showered, we gathered the pre-packed (thankfully) bags, a little bit of food, and started for the hospital around 5. When we arrived, an OB nurse checked me and told me that no, she didn’t need to look at anything under a microscope; my water had indeed broken, and I was going to have this baby today. The last part she had to repeat a few times, since I was still in denial!
So now we had moved into our rather nice birthing suite, and I was instructed to roam the halls for an hour and a half, and that then they would start me on pitocin. I did, and it was so weird! I still didn’t feel any contractions. We called the parents, and ambled along. Once they started me on pitocin, I was hooked up to a prenatal monitor that could follow the baby’s heartbeat and my contractions. I could still get up and out of bed, but I had to make sure I took the IV pole with me (I almost forgot once on the way to the restroom and was snapped back. I started feeling contractions around 9 or so, and unfortunately they came rather irregularly. Light, then manageable, at first, but they got increasingly more intense. Nurses continued to come in and ask me how my pain was, which was first a 2, then a 3-4, and steadily rising to a 5-6. Mike rubbed my arms and back, and I sat on the ball for a bit, but soon I was lying in the fetal position, eyes closed, holding onto the bedrails for dear life. My contractions were intense but irregular, with the pain not quite matching the monitor. At that point it was getting pretty difficult to manage the pain, since it was hard to know how long to hold out during each one before the rest came. Mike convinced me that the time for the epidural had come, that I was suffering, and I had reached a point where it was good to get one since the worse the pain was the harder it would be for me to sit still during the epidural.
In came anesthesiologist Dr. Miller, my angel! My epidural didn’t just remove pain; it added joy! Ah it was wonderful. I rested, Mike and I napped, chatted a little on the phone, watched a little TV, all the while as I numbed up and dilated. When they first checked on my post-epidural, I was 4cm; by a little after 5:00pm, I was 10cm. My favorite OB from the practice just so-happened to be on call that day, and although she was supposed to be off she stayed late and delivered Grace. We had a funny, light-hearted L & D nurse, and we listened to some of my favorite tunes as I pushed and rested, and listened to our doc tell funny stories. Mike was a champ of a birth coach; I just focused on him and he helped me push and breathe and relax. After about 40 minutes of pushing, little Grace made her way into the world.
We’ve been home about a week now, and we’re just settling in to our new routine of baby-makes-three. Grace is back to her birth weight, which is awesome! She’s a good sleeper; usually I have to wake her to feed her; we’ll see how long that lasts. :) Her little faces just crack me up; one second she stares off with a far off dreamy look in her eyes, and the next she’s all business and has her feed-face on. We’ve had the help of a post-partum doula, Joanna, which has really helped make the transition to parenthood a whole lot smoother. Hope this finds everyone doing well, enjoying fall leaves, football, and pre-Halloween candy.
Love,
E, M, & Miss G
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