Team Green turned Team Pink (@tamarnina)

tamarnina · November 2014

TL; DR: Ruth Rose was born 11/10/14 at 5:29, 8 lbs., 4 oz., 20.5 inches, and very healthy. We are home and doing well.

Actual birth story if you care to read:

I was set to be induced on 11/10/14 . We got to the hospital at 6am and I was already in the very early stages of labor. Apparently no one ever comes on time because they were surprised I showed up, so we sat around for almost an hour while they figured out what to do with me. I was moved to a room and then we discovered that I had been given the wrong instructions and should have eaten, so I got breakfast and asked to walk around for a bit to see if I could progress further before the induction. It helped, but did not move the needle much.

They started the pitocin induction about 10am or so, and it took about 3.5 hours to get to a point where my contractions were coming every 2 min and were painful. Unfortunately, they were all back labor and sucked. Around 1:45 I asked for the epidural. This was the one bad thing about the entire process. The resident had a lot of trouble placing it, to the point that my husband (a doctor, but not an OB) told her shed needed to get her attending to do it because she had been trying for quite a while and I was in a ton of pain. I don't think she realized he was a doctor, but the nurses knew and they found the attending quickly. The resident also had a very brusque bedside manner and was obviously frustrated. But they were able to place it and it worked fine. Once the epidural was in, I was able to relax and doze off. About 3 hours later, the baby started having changes in her heartbeat, so they came to check me and I was fully dilated. I could feel a bit of pressure, so they asked me to try to push and when I did the head was right there. They told me to stop, got set up, and asked me to push again. I pushed once and the head came out and once more for the body. Third kids really do just fly out. Then the doctor told me it was a girl and I was shocked because I had had a strong boy vibe in the last few weeks.

My husband and I had to spend about an hour discussing the name. We had had a boys' name picked out for months, but we really could not agree on a girls' name. We ultimately decided to keep to our plan of using family names, so we decided on Ruth Rose, for both of our maternal grandmothers. We got moved to a postpartum room and my inlaws brought my other two kids to meet Ruth. The kids are very excited, though my son really wanted a baby brother. I was discharged Wednesday morning and we've been hanging out at home since then. We did our first trip to the pediatrician yesterday, as well as going to Target and out for lunch. It actually went well, though we only had Ruth and our 3.5 year old. We'll see how it goes with three kids!