Putmans: 2010

Well here is the whole story of how Alana joined our family on November 18th.
Just as I was deciding to get up and have my first breakfast of the day my water broke. This was at 4:44am Chris had just gotten out of the shower, I rushed in and told him and he says "now what?" I say "we go to the hospital." I took a quick shower and we were ready to go. We had my bag, a bag for Ryker and the car seat installed in the Highlander for the last few days.
I call my wonderful cousin Megan who graciously offered to watch Ryker in case we needed help and we dropped Ryker off at her home. I realize I didn't get my wallet so I didn't have any ID so we went back and got it.
We get to the hospital and check in and they check me out and see how I am coming along. I was dilated to a 6 and not really in any discomfort. They asked if I wanted to walk around to help get things going. "Sure!" We make the loop around the McKay-Dee hospital labor and delivery area for 45 minutes. We were told the faster you go the faster it happens so we were going pretty fast for being 39 weeks and 5 days pregnant.
We were then checked into our room and hooked up to monitors to see how the vitals were doing. The nurse said the variance was not quite wavy enough so I had to have an IV of saline to help stay hydrated. I also ate a root beer popsicle. While we waited Chris went and had some breakfast to keep his strength up. Just before he got back they said I was good to walk around again I was dilated to a 7-8 so around we went again for close to 45 minutes. We were told that 17 times around makes a mile- we guestimate that we went a little over 3 miles for the day.
I should preface this by saying I wanted to go natural with this birth. Ryker was started a week early and he did not want to come out plus when I got the epidural the anesthesiologist scraped my vertebra which was not pleasant.
When I got back to my room I was at a good 8 so they said I needed to stay there. This was 10:30am and they said that if I decided to have an epidural I would need to get it now because the anesthesiologist was going to be in doing a C-section and would not be available for 1 ½ hours. I said ok I think I will be ok. My nurse kept telling me that when I was having a contraction try to stay relaxed like a wet noodle, so I keep saying "wet noodle, wet noodle". She had had a baby naturally and had faith that I could do it.
I needed to go to the bathroom and they said if you just have to urinate that is fine but if I felt like I needed to poop that I couldn't go because they didn't want the baby to fall into the toilet- I am glad they are looking out for us! So I went and no one fell in the toilet.
The head nurse for the Labor and delivery area came in and offered to bring in some essential oils to have a massage with - this was Chris' job :o).
I had 2 different distractions from the contractions. Chris massaged my feet and it felt so good and really helped distract me - I was also working on a baby blanket that I have been knitting forever - who knew it would take so long to complete, I really wanted it to be finished when the baby arrived but I was not sure if that was going to work out. I had put some of the essential oil behind my ears and since it got on my hand it was making my knitting stick and it was getting frustrating so I was even more focused on getting my stitches right.
Dr. Deschamps came in and checked me and I was still at an 8. There was some talk about having Pitocin if things didn’t get moving so I asked to sit on a birthing ball – to see if some bouncing would help get thing moving down plus my butt was really hurting from stilling in bed.
I bounced around a bit and the contractions were lasting longer and getting bigger. Chris came and rubbed my back to help distract me. I decided to get back in bed and the nurse had to come and readjust the monitors since they moved when I was getting back in bed and said they were going to come check me at 12:45pm.
The nurse checked me and I was at a 9 yeah! They said in about a ½ hour I should be ready to push and they would come back around then to check me again. They left the room and I had this overwhelming urge to push so I did and urinated everywhere it was glamorous! Chris pushed the call button and as soon as they came on I said “I need to push!” ok it might have been closer to a yell. Everything went fast from there on the doctor was about to go into another room and they said you need to come in here first. They got everything taken care of for the baby to come 2 pushes and her head was out and one more push and out came the rest of her. The official time of birth was at 1:03pm. She was 7lbs 6oz and 20 inches.
Then came all the after stuff which was not great- my IV came out of my hand so they had to move it to my other arm and it left a huge bruise and I had to get sewn up and I could feel everything even if I wasn’t being touched it felt like it. Yowzerz!
Chris really was great through the whole process and I am grateful for his encouragement. He told me as long as we had the baby after Wednesday and by the week end we were good. She decided to come Thursday November 18th.
Chris and I talked a lot about what to name our baby girl and finally decided on Alana.
Pronounced like Atlanta without the “t”.
We would like to thank all of those at McKay-Dee Hospital for all their help and they have delicious food.