MY WISH CAME TRUE!!!

Our little girl arrived into the world in the most beautiful birth experience I could have hoped for. Here is her birth story:

Tuesday (Sept 28) 7 AM – Can’t lay down any longer through the contractions. Pretty sure this is the real thing. Holy cow – I’m in labor!! Rowdy asks “So, uh, am I going to work today?” No question. “Definitely not.” Cody wakes up and mom makes us an awesome eggy breakfast to give us energy for the adventure ahead. I am having to concentrate on the contractions now and really breathe through them. Trying to protect Cody from seeing me in pain, I keep getting up from the table every 5 minutes. I succeed in fooling Rowdy as well – “I thought you were in labor??”

Cody and I cuddle and I tell him that his baby sister is ready to be born. He puts his arms around me during a contraction and with a worried face, tells me I’m going to be OK. A tender moment with my first born baby I won’t ever forget. Things won’t ever be the same again.

As early labor continues, the sun inspires us to get outside to enjoy the beautiful September morning. Cody joined us initially, gave his baby sister one last hug & kiss through my belly, and then was off to preschool. Rowdy and I lingered outside in the gorgeous fall sun and had a fun and relaxed photo session together. Contractions still regular and 5 minutes apart. Think it’s time to finish packing the bags and get ready to go!

12:30 PM – Car is finally packed. Regular midwife appt at 1PM, so that makes the decision of when to go easy. Sitting is not easy and the ride to the hospital was plenty uncomfortable. Glad we left when we did!

1PM – Midwife Liz on call today. I love her! She meets us in the clinic and checks me. 2 cm dialated, and 90% effaced. Confirmation that I am actually truly in labor for real. I am elated. Midwife Chris comes and hugs me. She was always sure it would happen. Liz suggests to head over to Labor & Delivery to “settle in”.

1:45PM – Long walk from car to elevator. As the door opens on the L&D floor, I feel a trickle of fluid down my leg. My water is breaking! Rowdy runs ahead to get the nurses. I proceed to flood the hallway. Confirmation – our daughter was indeed swimming in an Olympic size pool inside of me.

2-5PM – Lots of activity. Buzzing nurses with countless questions and monitor checks, our doula Sadie arrives to help protect space, the labor tub rolls in and the nurses begin to fill it with what seems like a drinking fountain trickle. Contractions getting more intense. Rowdy is my rock to lean on – literally. Accidently chomp down on his nipple – ooops. Sorry honey! That had to hurt.

5-7:30PM – Finally in the tub together. Water feels good, but mostly I am so happy to have a bubble of space that is just for the two of us. We find our rhythm together and Rowdy vocalizes with me to help me stay focused. His low voice keeps me grounded through the waves of contractions that wash over me.

7:30ish – Liz comes in and suggests I get out of the tub so she can check how things are progressing. Moving anywhere sounds REALLY hard. I don’t wanna. Then I feel the urge to push. This seems to light a fire under everyone and I am shepherded out of the tub quite quickly. Liz checks me (for only the 2^nd time!) and I am fully dilated. I so want to kiss her. Now for the next act in this amazing birth drama – it’s time to push my daughter out into the world.

Hard to find the right position to push. End up on my side, with support from Liz and Sadie. This part is crazy hard and intense. Liz talks me through it. Teaches me how to use each contraction to help my baby to move down and out. Ever the over eager student, I keep asking her if that was a “good one”. Rowdy is in my face, helping me reach down and find my inner animal. Face the fire. Walk into the fire. Want to fly away from the pain. Must dive in head first. Hardest thing I’ve ever had to do. Please tell me it is working. I feel the top of my baby’s head – so soft and malleable. She’s so close!

8:30 - Fire. FIRE. I only have one more in me. This one MUST be it. Reach beyond anything I thought possible. ROAR ! My inner animal takes over. Her head is out. Thank god. Wow – her body is BIG too! Then it is over. She’s on my chest. WE DID IT!! OUR DAUGHTER IS BORN!!

LOVE. RELIEF. HAPPINESS. LOVE. ELATION. AMAZEMENT. LOVE.

Ella Madrone Webb

September 28^th 8:30 PM

9 lbs 21¼ inches

Welcome to the world, Ella.

We are so happy you are here!

Almost here.... 40 weeks

This could be it. I've waited so long to feel what labor feels like, and now I think I might just get my chance!
Last night, Rowdy and I went on a 'last hurrah date' while Mom and Lori took Cody to his special water fountain and out for mac-n-cheese at Marco's. We had a lovely dinner sitting outside at Wildwood. While we were there, my contractions started getting more noticeable and frequent. Still in the mildly uncomfortable arena, but definitely all-over contractions, including down low - which I took as a good sign.
After dinner, we walked up to Papa Haydn's to splurge on decadent dessert. The walk was longer than I remembered (10-12 blocks maybe?) and the stronger contractions made it pretty challenging to concentrate on our conversation while walking. Dessert was HEAVENLY - Rowdy had the cheesecake and I had a chocolate truffle cake. Blissful.
Because I haven't been sleeping much lately, I was determined to get real rest. Sadie suggested I take a homeopathic remedy for sleep, so I did and fell into a lovely slumber. The contractions have been strong enough to wake me up throughout the night at times, but afterward I could get back to sleep. Everytime I've gone to the bathroom since bedtime, I've noticed something that could be from my mucus plug. All good signs.
Now I'm up in the moonlight at 4:30 AM ('my' time in recent weeks) because I was thirsty and couldn't stop thinking about labor. It feels eminent, which is a new feeling for me. I welcome the contractions. They are comforting to me, even in their increasing discomfort. I can feel our little girl moving down and squirming against the pressure of the contractions. She usually does a little stretching when each one is over. They are every 6 minutes right now and VERY noticeable (i.e. my breathing changes and I feel the need to move my hips during each one). I will try to get some more rest and then hope for real labor to begin tomorrow.
I can't describe how excited I am to birth our little girl into this world. I have very high hopes that we will hold her in our arms very soon. And while I will be happy however she is born as long as she is healthy and strong, I wish very much to be able to birth her naturally the way my body was designed to do. I can feel how strong my body is and I want to give it the chance to do what it clearly knows how to do. I want to experience the miracle of childbirth - that is my wish.

De Ja Vu again - 39 weeks

Well, here we are again. Tomorrow is my due date. I have a good sized baby in my belly (just shy of 8 lbs by last estimate), with very little sign that she is preparing to come out. My favorite midwife Chris checked my again on Tuesday and said I hadn't changed since last week. Still barely a fingertip dialated and baby is floating up high. Lots of contractions, but they aren't doing a heck of a lot. Sound oh so familiar??

Chris thinks they will have to help me out in some way before my body can go into labor for real. She is willing to try the balloon method of helping my cervix to dialate (a little fluid filled balloon puts pressure on my cervix - usually gets it to 3 cm), and then try to put a leak in my bag of waters. We decided to wait until late next week before going to such measures.

Last day of work is tomorrow. I wasn't able to complete everything that I wanted to do of course, but I feel like I will be able to leave it behind for awhile and concentrate on this next adventure. Today was a really positive day, as I was getting lots of calls from our field crews to help them troublshoot problems, which made me feel really useful. Bill even said that he was really going to miss having me around to help him bounce ideas off of. I like feeling that they will miss me and be happy to have me back in January. I'll definitely miss the funnest parts of my job - helping to fix the problems in the field. Someday I want to get back out there!

Mom and Lori get here tomorrow. I'm worried that the extra pressure to have a baby sooner rather than later will be stressful. Fingers crossed that all will be well and our baby girl will come of her own accord soon.

Finding my baby zen - 39 weeks

I think I have finally found a happy place amongst the frequent testing and analysis. It has definitely taken a lot of positive thought and trust in my body, but I now feel confident that my little girl is just fine and while they may say my fluid level is "abnormal", it might just be what normal looks like for me. It helps that my AFI hasn't changed much in the last couple of weeks (26-27 pretty steady), so the docs are much calmer about things. It also helps that Sadie, our doula, is very helpful in sifting throught the numbers and giving us the reality check (which is that their estimates are crude guesses at best, so don't give them more weight than they are due!)

Cody and I had a fun adventure after the ultrasound test today. It might be our last hurrah just the two of us for a long while. We spent the day at OMSI together playing and then went to watch an IMAX movie together about the Hubble telescope. It was Cody's first "real" movie! He was a bit scared by how tall the theatre was and by the loudness of the audio track, especially during the launch sequences. But, I think he was in awe of all the cool space shuttle scenes and astronauts fixing the telescope in space. Definitely a day to remember!

Navigating the medical jungle - 37 weeks

Two more tests this week and an overload of information about increased risks and what could be wrong. Combine that with a good bout of insomnia and that equals me being a total wreck! I am so thankful for my supportive friends, family, and doula. Without their kind words, I would be a lost cause.

So, the good news that I keep repeating over and over to myself is that our daughter is doing great and seems totally healthy and happy inside my belly. That is sooo very comforting.

The part that I am trying to process is that I continue to measure large for fluid. This last test went up significantly. I don't really know how accurate the measurements are, especially those done by different technicians. But, the number seemed to worry the OB at the ultrasound clinic and she launched into a whole laundry list of risks and possible problems that could be causing this condition. Because Cody was there (with Cynthia and Greta too), I held it together throughout her interpretation of the results.

As soon as we were out of the room, I called the midwife on call and totally lost it on the phone. I ended up in their office crying like a fountain. Thankfully, the midwives are so wonderful and comforting. She suggested that we just take this day by day. Today, they learned that my baby is just fine and so there is no risk to staying pregnant for a few more days. I'll go in for more testing on Tuesday and we'll go from there.

It's all very scary. I want to have this baby naturally, but I don't want to put her at increased risk by going that route. I hope to get a better handle on the risk levels of a VBAC with my "condition" at my next appt. Rowdy is starting to worry that I am too focused on a natural birth. I am completely confused. Trying to concentrate on my current job which is too get adequate sleep, clear my head and hopefully shed some of this anxiety so I can think clearer about the best way forward. I just wish everything was normal.......