shawn whitney berkley sovie: March 2011

Sovie Jane arrived at 11:58 am on Friday, February 25th weighing in at 8 lbs 1.6 oz and measuring 20 inches long. What a big girl! I mean, compared to her 6 lb brother. And let me tell you...she was definitely more difficult to get out because of it!

I went to bed that night around 10 and woke up at midnight with a contraction...I ignored it because I had been having painful contractions for about 4 weeks. Plus I like sleep...and I was tired so I contracted with my eyes closed for a while ignoring them and sleeping as best I could. At 1:30 after getting up to pee, I woke Shawn up and said "I've been having contractions, " naturally his response was "how many? how close together?" "I don't know, I've been sleeping." I only really woke him up because I had bloody discharge which I knew wasn't my mucus plug because at my Dr.'s appointment that week I had already been dilated to a 3 1/2. So, we decided to time them. They were very irregular none closer than 10 minutes apart but the next time I went to the bathroom there was more blood. I got a little nervous because it was definitely fresh blood so we decided to go in and get checked out just in case something was wrong. My mother stayed with Berkley because I didn't think it was labor and figured we'd be back home in a few hours.

When we arrived at the hospital and got checked out the nurse wasn't really sure if I was in labor either. I was 4 cm dilated but not having regular contractions. She told us to stick around for an hour...walk the halls, see if we could get some really good contractions going. Then after an hour she'd call my doctor and see if they thought I should be admitted. When the time came she checked me out...now not quite 5 cm dilated yet very irregular contractions. My doctor would be there soon anyway for rounds so she admitted me (the student girl tried 3 times for my IV!!!) and we waited for him. (They didn't really want to wait around for me too much because I was + for group B strep and needed to get the antibiotic going) By the time he checked me I was 5 cm dilated and it was about 6 am. Since I still was having irregular sometimes strong, sometimes hardly noticeable contractions he wanted to break my water. Holy river! So different from when it burst like a balloon on is own with Berkley. It just kept coming and coming.

After a while I was at a 7...all the while not really feeling like I was in labor...sure some of the contractions sucked but generally they were no big deal. My doctor said I should get my epidural if I was going to because we might run out of time. So I got it. It felt strange getting it to me because I didn't feel like I was in enough pain to warrant it but I didn't want the opportunity to pass me by!

And then we sat...and sat...and sat...and I was still at a 7. I never wanted to have pitocin but things were progressing so slowly and my contractions seemed to be slowing so in came the drip. And yet...my contractions really never regulated. The pitocin did its job however, giving me more contractions and dilating me more and more. I was feeling pressure so I called the nurse in, she checked me and I was not quite a 9...but I really felt pressure. As soon as she was done checking me I felt even more pressure! I told her I felt tons of pressure so she checked again and said within those 5 seconds Sovie's head dropped about 3 stations and she went to get the doctor knowing it wouldn't be long. By the time he walked in and checked me we were ready to go.

I felt it. I mean...maybe it would have been worse without the epidural but wow I sure felt what was going on down there. Sovie was turned to the side a bit which we think is the reason the labor progressed so strangely, the doctor helped out and turned her and I pushed the living daylights out of me. Once her head was out and I looked down I knew she looked just like her brother. The cord was around her neck...I'm 2 for 2 on that one. Berkley felt so easy and with her I just was giving it all I had. It felt like forever. When I told the nurse that after she said it had only been 16 minutes from first push to delivery. (And with the contractions still being irregular I had a good 5 minute break in there where we were all twiddling our thumbs looking at each other waiting for the next contraction so I could push. During that break I can't even tell you how it felt having her head down there so low, you can just feel yourself stretching its so weird and painful. It was kind of cool to feel though, honestly.)

She arrived! She laid on my belly for a few seconds before they started examining her. She had fluid in her lungs and they had to break it up with a hammer thing on her back and keep suctioning but after a little while we got to have her. We are so lucky, she's such a sweet girl and a good baby!