Monday, January 4, 2010

A Charmed Life, for sure...

Introducing Miss Scarlett Marie! Born on Monday, November 23rd, 2009 at 8:45 in the evening, weighing 7 lbs 9 oz of pure sweetness.


Of course, being 6 weeks old today, she is no longer my sleepy little newborn babe, she is now my full of personality, charmingly adorable, smiley baby!

After predictions of a 8.5+lb baby, at 40 weeks, 1 day, I went in to be induced at 2am on Monday morning. Sam and I settled into our tiny pre-labor room at Cedars and after being hooked up to a bunch of IV's, and starting what would be multiple rounds of evil pitocin, we tried to get a little rest. Which of course was a joke! But we were so excited to meet our baby girl, who at that point still had no name, but I will save that story for another post.

Our doctor came by in the morning to check my progress, which was nil. Long story short, I continued to make no progress all.day.long. All while we stayed in that ity bity room, waiting for me to progress so we could move to one of the larger labor rooms. I was like Rachel Green in Friends, the episode where everyone goes into labor before her, yeah, that was me. We almost got into one, and then some girl made it to 7cm before I could blink, and that of course beat out my measly 1-2 (and that was a generous estimate).

At about 7pm-ish, I can't remember the exact timeline, my doctor came by again to check in on us. I think he was a little surprised at our lack of progress too. I was getting the maximum amount of pitocin, basically having contractions one on top of the next, yet nothing was happening, and this little girl would not drop below the -3 station. So he decided to do an internal monitor to check how the baby was doing. At that time I told him my fears and premonitions, which were that she would never come out the natural way. See, I had a feeling all throughout my pregnancy that I would not have a normal labor. I had contractions all throughout the pregnancy, since about 20 weeks, and while I know that can be normal, it always felt a little "off" to me. So I told him I was really worried about her, and he assured me not to worry, and that she would be just fine. I believed him, he is such a good doctor, and I knew we were in good hands. He said he was going to get some dinner, then come back, check her charts again and see how we were doing. About 30 minutes or so later, (again, fuzzy timeline) he came back in and announced that Scarlett would be born via c-section, and the sooner the better. He actually said that telling him my weird feelings prompted him to stick around and wait to see the results of her charts, thank goodness! See, I told you he was a great doctor.

Literally less than 30 minutes later we were in the operating room. It was scary and surreal, but I knew I had to be strong for our baby. Before I knew it, she was out! The cord was around her neck 2 times, so she was rushed over the the pediatricians table, which was terrifying because I couldn't hear anything after I heard the doctor say the cord was around her neck. It was like time was standing still. And I couldn't really see anything either. FINALLY I heard a piercing cry, which was the most soothing sound in the entire world at that moment. Sam and I looked at each other with tears in our eyes. It was the single most incredible moment of my life.

So, here's to 2010, what a ride it will be this year! I am so excited for all of the milestones and memories with have ahead of us!

xoxo

3 comments:

Nanette said...

Congrats, mama! She's GORGEOUS! Loved hearing your birth story. So glad Scarlet arrived safely and healthy! Curious to know who your doc was - wondering if he was part of Cedars' OB group. (Those were my docs, too.)

Sarah said...

She is so ADORABLE. Glad you came back to post. We're having a baby this June :) and I have strong feelings I'll have a c-section birth too. Mainly because that's what happened with me.

I'm glad it all went well. Truly, she's beautiful.

dapotato said...

congratulations!