Violet's Birth Story

    Violet’s birth can pretty much be summed up in the question I got asked multiple times at the hospital after her delivery. Nurses would come into our room after she was born to take vitals and say, “Are you the mom who had her baby before the Dr. could get there?” Yes, I am that mom.

   I would have never thought that I would have such a quick birth. Mostly, because I was only 37.5 weeks pregnant and assumed it wouldn’t go as quickly as my birth with Theo because I wasn’t over 40 weeks yet. Boy was I wrong!!

   I actually found out that we were going to the hospital the day of. My blood levels tested high in bile salts and evidently, pregnancy hormones block the gallbladder from effectively filtering causing cholestasis. Not being pregnant anymore is the cure so a nurse from my doctor’s office called me and said, “you need to be up to Lakeside hospital by 9 tonight. We will administer Cytotec when you arrive and then start you on Pitocin in the morning.” I was kinda in shock. “Can we wait a few days?” I asked. (I selfishly had been really looking forward to a 2 day break that I was going to have Thursday and Friday when Paul was planning to take Theo to Adventureland with his family.) I also knew this meant we would be moving next Thursday with a 7 day old newborn. “No, we need to start labor as soon as possible,” she said.

   So I did the most reasonable thing I could think to do: my mom and I headed straight to the nail place and got mani/pedis. Not until we had stopped at Starbucks of course and I got a Carmel Frappechino since I knew there were only a few remaining hours of being a gestational diabetic.

   I also rocked my 18 month old son before his nap and bawled like a baby knowing this was the last time I’d put him to sleep as an only child.

   By the time we got to the hospital I was pretty excited to not be pregnant anymore and to see my daughter. We originally planned to have my mom stay the night up with me so Paul could have a good night sleep and be more help to me during delivery the following day. The only problem was, my water broke on it’s own around midnight (only 1 hour after Cytotec). The amazing thing was, Paul called me literally within 40 seconds of my water breaking to tell me he was coming to stay the night. His phone wasn’t charging and he didn’t want to risk missing anything. I don’t even want to think about what might have happened had he not decided to come stay with me overnight…

   My mom went home, Paul fell asleep on the couch and within 1 hour I was having contractions 1.5 mins apart and they were NOT PLEASANT. No Pitocin needed! I decided to order and epidural and woke up Paul to tell him I was in a lot of pain and getting the blessed epidural… the strange thing was, I had to say his name like 4 times before he even moved and when I told him the news his response was “are you so excited?!” and then he literally flipped back over and was unconscious in 2 seconds. I thought it was a strange response and odd that he wasn’t more present, but was in too much pain to give it much thought.

   I dozed off for about 30 minutes once the epidural kicked in and then suddenly the nurse was waking me up because I was fully dilated and ready to push. “Wait! I can’t have this baby… I told my parents they could be here,” I informed her (like she had any control over when my baby would come). I quickly called my parents who luckily live 5 minutes from the hospital and re woke up Paul whose first question to the nurse was “is there any coffee on this floor?” Moral of the story: do NOT take Tylenol PM the night of your child’s birth. He didn’t tell me until after Violet was born that before going to bed at home he had taken two Tylenol PM and so I was just confused why he was so groggy. Ha! We love to joke about this now.

   My parents arrived shortly after, but the Doctor still hadn’t appeared. The nurses got me all ready to push and even let me take one practice push so they knew how fast baby would come. They actually realized how serious little Violet was about making her entrance because after one push they were trying desperately the keep her from coming. It became pretty clear this baby was coming whether anyone wanted her to wait or not and so with one push she was here!

   I cried and cried tears of joy. We all did! She was so tiny and perfect and best of all had DARK HAIR (jk!). The nurse gave her a 10 on the Apgar scale. And we all couldn’t believe how easy and quickly the birth happened. It was like a dream. My little 5 lb 11 oz baby doll!- Theo was almost 9 lbs at birth so I was ecstatic to have a petite baby.

   I will be honest and say that I would not recommend moving with a toddler and newborn. House projects have kept us from being able to move right when we closed so we are in a time of limbo. I’m actually relieved to still be staying at my parents with a newborn because they have been SO MUCH help. I honestly don’t think I could have functioned without them. Paul’s parents have been AMAZING as well. They have taken Theo so I could pack and Paul’s dad knows how to do almost everything on houses (which is literally saving us right now- we are the least handy people ever).

   You are so worth it all sweet little Violet! I cannot believe how much my heart has grown to make room to love another child. You are the perfect addition to our family and we can already not imagine life without you! You are so loved!