Zoe's Birth Story

So here's the first official documentation of Zoe's life! On January 10th, we went to the doctor one last time to see if we had any progress, and surprise, no go- doc said I was "maybe 1 cm" so needless to say, I was a little nervous and frustrated about the induction. But we went home, got the car all packed up, and basically twiddled our thumbs until it was 5 pm and time to go to the hospital.

So we show up at Baylor All Saints, and I walk up to the front desk and am like "Hi, I'm here to have a baby" and they set me up in a delivery room. By 7 pm, the cervidil was hooked up and the induction had officially started. Evidently the drug worked perfectly because an hour later, the nurse asked if I could feel those contractions and I was like "no, not yet!" and Taylor and I just kept on watching tv. After we watched The Bachelor (we couldn't watch the national championship game b/c the hospital didn't get ESPN!), Taylor went home to get some shuteye because we both thought it was going to be a long while. The doctor had repeatedly told us that cervidil takes a long time on most people, and only 5% actually got into labor the night of. So she gave me an Ambien and told me to try and get some rest. Well, guess what, I was part of the 5% anomaly who jumpstarts into labor because little did I know that by midnight, those "little" contractions were full blown, 2 1/2 minutes apart, kill me now I want my epidural contractions. So they give me this pain pill to help with the pain before I could get the epidural and it made me pretty loopy. By 4 am, I called Taylor in almost tears and told him to get up here. I think I was pretty drugged out because when he got there 20 minutes later, I could barely talk to him and had to just focus on the contractions that were now 1-2 minutes apart. They started the Pitocin and before I knew it the nurse came to check on me and I was already at 4 cm so I said bring on the epidural- this was at 6 am. Couldn't tell you if that needle looked scary or what, all I cared about was making the pain stop, and let me tell you, that thing was miraculous. Within minutes basically all the pain had stopped and I suddenly sobered up and could carry on a conversation again and felt like my old self. Taylor said it was like night and day how I changed.

Well by 8 am, the nurse came and checked on me I was 9 cm. We got all excited thinking that we had it easy and I mistakenly thought I was going to be one of those lucky ones that had an "easy labor." Dr. Hardt came in at 11 am and told us to get the family up here because this baby was a rockstar and was coming soon. We were pumped!!! We started looking at the clock....11:11 am came and went, and then 2 hours later it was close to 1:11 pm and we were still pushing. Well 2.5 hours later at 1:38 pm, Zoe finally came out. I remember the doctor asking me if it was ok to do an episiotomy and I was like ok, whatever, just get her out (sorry if this is TMI!) I remember when they put her on my chest she was completely blue and it was kinda freaky, but she sooned gained her color and was just perfect! It was quite the experience...Taylor and I were both crying through the whole thing....I think the nurses thought I was in a lot of pain when really I was just frustrated and tired from all the pushing. (the pain came later when I could actually feel what happened down there if you know what I mean!)

So Zoe was 8 pounds, 6 oz, 20 inches long born at 1:38 PM on Tuesday, January 11, 2011....we had lots of visitors at the hospital and then were able to go home on Thursday. It was an experience we will never forget...so amazing what the body can do. She is truly a blessing!