She's Here!

Well, as most of you already know, Sophia is here!!!! I'm only about 3 weeks late in posting this, but that whole having a newborn thing has really taken up a lot of my time lately.

I've been wanting to share a little bit about Sophia's birth. It was extremely fast and caught me somewhat off-guard in the beginning, but the result was a beautiful, healthy baby girl. So here we go...

I went to the doctor for my regular weekly appointment the Thursday before Sophia was due on Wednesday. While I was there, they discovered that my blood pressure was extremely high. It hadn't been elevated at all during my pregnancy, so they were a bit concerned. After taking my BP several times with little to no change, the doctor told Herschel and I to wait for a little bit while they contacted the on-call doctor to see if he wanted to order any additional tests. During this time they also took my BP again...no change. So, the doctor finally calls us into her office and says, "So, how would you like to have a baby this weekend?" I would've loved to have had a camera to catch the expression on both of our faces, because I'm pretty sure stunned doesn't quite cut it. Babbling idiots, dumbfounded, shocked...perhaps.

The doctor explained that since I was so close to my due date they didn't want to mess around with preeclampsia, and they wanted to induce. So we walked out of the doctor's office with our ticket to enter the hospital the next evening at 5 p.m. Of course, I had planned on cleaning the house really good one last time that weekend, so I wanted to get home and clean, not to mention get all of the boxes out of the guest room that my mom would be staying in. But that sort of work isn't really advised when you have sky-high blood pressure, so Herschel and I did the best we could on short notice. Oh, yeah, and I hadn't packed my hospital bag. Oops.

So after an harried evening to throwing things here and there and trying to make arrangements for my mom, who (thank goodness!) was able to change her flight from Monday to Friday, I woke up Friday morning and headed to the vet to drop off Oscar for his impromptu weekend of boarding and then to the church office to finish up some work there. Then we were off to West Palm to pick up my mom at the airport, before heading out for one last meal and over to the hospital.

As the doctor had explained it to us, I would be given something to get me ready for labor on Friday night, and then I would be started on Pitocin on Saturday morning and probably not have Sophia until Saturday afternoon or evening. So, I was ready for an evening of rest at the hospital. Hey, they had said sleeping pill, and after the couple of hours of sleep I had had the night before that was sounding reeeeaaally good.

So, I got my meds and was feeling pretty good. They explained that I might feel "crampy" Friday night, but the sleeping pill would help me sleep right through it and help me feel rested for the big day on Saturday. Well, let's just say all that sounded great in theory, but my body apparently had other plans.

Around midnight or so, I started having a lot of pain. I was past "crampy" and moving right into uncomfortable. The nurse came in and told me I needed to relax. Yep, this is when I knew that I had a horrible nurse and this would be one of the longest nights of my life.

The sleeping pill had absolutely no effect on me. So after about another hour of not sleeping and only increasing pain, Herschel called the nurse in again. At this point the nurse told me I was not handling the pain well and I just needed to relax...yeah, I thought bad thoughts about her. She finally told me that she would give me a half dose of pain medicine, which helped a great deal. Unfortunately the miracle drugs only lasted about an hour at which point I woke up with excruciating pain wrapping around my sides and running down my back.

Because the nurse had been so mean to me every time she had come into the room, and because I felt like a huge wuss because I thought that I was only supposed to be crampy, I refused to let Herschel call the nurse. All I kept telling Herschel was that if I couldn't handle this, how was I ever going to make it through labor?

Well, funny I should ask that, because as luck would have it, I was, in fact, in labor. After some time of me being in a ton of pain (which turned out to be intense back labor) Herschel went and got the nurse without me knowing. She came in and turned on the monitor that she had turned off because she thought I was watching it and thinking my contractions were worse than they actually were. (By the way, I was paying no attention to the monitor, but maybe she should've been.) Anyway, she turned it on and decided that now would be a good time to check my progress.

Imagine her surprise as she said, "You're like 9 centimeters! But, I think I need to have someone else come in here and check you to make sure, because that just seems fast." Well, a much nicer and from what I could tell more experienced nurse came in and checked me and quickly said, "You're ready."

At that point I was flooded with a range of emotions, perhaps most prominent though was one of vindication. That nurse had me thinking that I was weak, crazy and whiny when really I was in labor! And I had dilated from 1 cm to "ready" in approximately three hours. I thought many more bad thoughts about her at that point. And again when she said, "Oh, well maybe that's why your body was shaking. Maybe it was because you were going so fast." Ya think?

Both nurses came over and asked if I wanted an epidural to which I immediately cried, "YES!" Well, within about 30 seconds they realized that wouldn't be possible and told me that there was no time. (Meanest. Joke. Ever.) They began pulling in tables and gowns and all sorts of things. And then I realized that I had to push. The mean nurse didn't really acknowledge my statement, so the nice nurse and Herschel held my legs as I pushed and my water broke. At that point I think the mean nurse realized that Sophia and I meant business. So, trying to comfort me (I guess?) she said, "Don't worry the doctor will be here soon. He lives really close to the hospital." Seriously!?! I am in labor - pushing nonetheless - and you tell me that the doctor is not even in the building?? I could've gone without knowing that.

But I had no time to dwell on that statement because I had to push again. After pushing a couple of times the mean nurse opened her mouth again and said, "Oh, you're a really good pusher. But don't worry the doctor should be here soon." I wish I had had some duct tape to shut her up at that point. With another push they could see the head. Still no doctor. Mean nurse says, "It's okay, just do some small pushes." To this I replied through clenched teeth, "I can't do small pushes!" The nice nurse patted my arm and told me it was okay and just to do what I needed to do. Finally, someone with some sense! Mean nurse was at it again saying, "Well, we aren't going to deliver this baby. I'm not going to get yelled out. We'll just have to wait until the doctor gets here." If she had been in arms reach at the point, I'm fairly sure I would've caused her bodily harm.

But about that time, the door to the room opened and in walked the doctor. He walked up the bed, took a look at me, looked at Herschel, and said matter of factly, "We're going to have a baby." And sure enough we did - about 5 minutes after he arrived.

All 8 lbs. 19 1/2 in. of Sophia Grace Acosta arrived at 4:49 a.m. on September 25. How lucky and blessed we are!

It's definitely been a learning process, and I'm sure it will continue to be everyday for the rest of our lives, but it's a joyous one. We are so thankful that our little family of two has finally become a family of three. We love her beyond words. I can't wait to see where life takes us from here - and I'm so glad that Sophia is a part of that life now.