Zoe's birth story

Hello All!!

After making it 39 wks 6 days our baby girl Zoe Margaret is here!!! Here is her story:

On Monday, October 4th 2010 I started having contractions that were 25 mins apart.  The hubby and  I do a long walk, ate eggplant parm, drank the raspberry leaf tea to see if anything would make the process speed up... It didn't! haha... My mom and stepdad came into town for the birth that night, driving all the way from Maine to NC.  Once Gramms found out that I was contracting she immediately got excited.  The next day (Tues October 5th) my mom, stepdad and I put up a privacy fence on one side of the house.  I was sent to weed the walkway, my mom said that threw her into labor... Why not give it a try Well manual labor seemed to have helped cause my contractions dropped to 20 mins then 15 mins apart... My friend Lauren comes over and we go to the German Bakery to pick up some sweet treats for the family workers Mmmm German Bakery... So we get back and hang out for a little bit, during this time my contractions are coming 10 then 8 minutes apart... I don't really think much of it cause the contractions just are not that painful, and after everything I have read and heard, contractions are super painful... I take a shower and notice that the contrax are coming now every 3-5 mins... I tell my husband and parents and we thought it would be best to eat and see if that does anything before heading to the hospital.. So we have some Goulash for dinner and decide it is time to tell my husband we need to go to the hospital, it is now 8:30pm.. He said that knew we were going the moment I opened my mouth... We grab the bag, backpacks and pillows and start the 25-30 minute drive to hospital... When we get there we are stoked to see we get to park in the labor parking spot right in front of the entrance! Score! Up to labor and delivery (floor 4), get checked in and go to triage... The contractions get closer and closer but still only mildly painful, coming every 2-3 minutes then about a 1/2 hour later they are 1-2 minutes apart but I am only 1 cm dilated.... The triage nurse Tonja calls my doctor and she suggests that the hubby and I walk the halls of labor and delivery for 1 hour to see if that dilates me anymore so I can be admitted... So off we go walking the hall from 10pm-11pm... The contractions started to ease up to 3-5 minutes apart, and by 11:15pm I was being discharged... Major BOO, but it was fun to try and bribe her to admit us and crack jokes! The hubby and I get home at 11:45pm and let the parents know what is going on and we get to bed around midnight... There was no problem to fall asleep at this point... At 2am I am woken up in horrible pain... Since I did not want to wake everyone up with another false alarm I decided to see if I could work through what was going on... I tossed and turned in bed, curled up into a little ball when the pain hit, and squeezed a pillow as tight as I could... That was not helping so I thought what helps when you have period cramps; a shower! I hopped into the shower and was getting a little relief from the pain with the water running on my back.. Then I got the bright idea to sit in the tub and have the water hit my back and belly... This was fantastic for about 3 mins, boy then the pain got worse!!! I layed all the way back trying to breathe through the pain since I could hardly move at this point to get my husband... Now I just feel like a beached whale when I am trying to get out of the water, haha... I go into the bedroom and try to do some yoga poses and pace back and forth, rocking from side to side and that doesn't help either.. Finally I wake my husband up at about 4:45am, couldn't handle another second by myself... Half asleep he gets up and gets excited mean while I am sitting on the bed or on the floor almost in tears... I ask him to go wake up the parents to let them know that we are going to the hospital and I called my doctor to let her know that I am in crippling pain and am heading back to L&D... We get in the car and I am in so much pain that the words coming out of my mouth where hilarious... Getting re-signed in was not pleasant, I am guessing I got the new guy that had never been around a pregnant woman in labor cause damn if he wasnt asking the questions as slow as molasses... And when he started to take me back to triage I had a contraction and he had the nerve to actually tap his foot when I had to stop for the pain to pass, the nerve I tell ya... I see the same triage nurse and she told me that she thought I would be back before her shift was over... I promptly tell her that this is not fun and I will probably cry... Sure enough I am in tears while changing into the gown... When I lay in the bed I tell her that I had changed my mind and I wanted the drugs, this pain had to go!! I got IV demerol and it did nothing, I definitely wanted the epidural... Tonja checks me and tells me that I have dilated to 2cms and can now be admitted, phew at least I am not going home again... I get to my room and am put on monitors and checked by my labor nurse Lex (she is awesome)... I am now 4cms in 30-45 mins of being checked in triage... I order the epidural and before the nurses can turn to leave I tell them either I just peed myself pretty badly or my water broke... They take a look tell me to cough and sure enough my water has broken, we are the way to having a baby!!! The epidural man finally comes and it was not what I thought it was going to be... It was in and it was fantastic... I was finally able to relax and fall asleep! my mom and stepdad show up a little later with hot tea, oh sweet mother of pearl that stuff is delish!! My mom watched the contraction monitor almost the entire time, she would let me know when there was one that I should see, unless I was passed out... There was one super strong on  that lasted a little over 2 minutes! Thank goodness I wasnt feeling that one... So by 11:30 I am 7cms and feeling good... At 1:30ish my mom notices that my contractions have almost flat lined with only little contractions here and there... We call the nurse in and she says that the contractions are still there but we are gonna check now anyways... "10 is the magic number" Lex says... "Oh I know!" is my response... Sure enough I am 10 cms and it seems the baby is starting to make her way on down; now we are waiting for the doctor... At about 2:20pm the doctor shows up and I get checked again and prepped for pushing... 2:25pm I start pushing and after 4 contractions and 20 mins of pushing Zoe Margaret Rovnan is born!!! I am really happy the nurse moved the mirror over so I could see the birth of my daughter...She weighed 8 lbs 1oz and was 21" long with a full head of hair! The most beautiful angel in the entire world... I will take the 2nd degree tear and stitches since in return I got her... we planned on a natural birth but it is ok how everything  went...