Elizabeth's Birth Story

Elizabeth Ann Salomon was born on her due date, March 26, 2011 at 3:24pm.  Here is her birth story, if you are squeamish you should probably just scroll though the pictures:

At 2:30 in the morning Jason started fussing so I got up to settle him and felt a small gush of water.  After that nothing happened so I went back to bed and waited until morning.  When I got up around 5am it happened again and Jeff made the executive decision that we needed to go get checked out at the hospital.  I was unsure because this was nothing like the definite water breaking that I had with Jason, but went along with Jeff's plan.  We arrived at the hospital around 7am.  The nurse, Heather, got me all set up in a room, ran a test to see if I was leaking amniotic fluid and asked all the usual questions.  She checked my cervix and I was 3 cm dilated and she said that she still felt a bag over the baby's head.  The Doctor headed in a little later and did a different test to see if I was leaking fluid, but said she did not feel the bag over the baby's head.  I was finally admitted by the Doctor at 10:30 and they started an IV and Pitocin to augment the small contractions I was having.

I could feel the contractions pick up and by 12:30 I was ready to talk about an epidural.  The nurse said that the anesthesiologist was just headed into surgery, but when he was out I would be first in line.  He finally was able to come in about 2pm, but had a lot of trouble getting the epidural in the right place.  He finally found the spot and I was feeling relief by 2:30.  Shortly after he left I realized I was still feeling pain low in my right side and then it spread more to my back.  In trying to find a more comfortable position I knocked the baby's heart rate monitor off so another nurse came in to help adjust it.  I told her about the pain and at this point my body was shaking and asked if this was normal.  She asked how long ago my cervix had been checked and I told her it had not since I was admitted.  She checked me and as she had guessed I was fully dilated, but she still felt the bag over the baby's head.


 Things started moving really fast at this point nurses rushed in to prepare the room and they called the Doctor.  The Doctor checked in and was telling me about what was going to happen and just checking in when I had to interrupt her to say that something was going on and I needed to be checked.  At about that time I gave birth to...a water balloon.  It seems that my water had sprung a high leak, but much of the bag was still intact so as my body was pushing it pushed out the bag of water and any remaining amniotic fluid.  The doctor called all the nurses over to take a look at this unusual sight and I was reminded to ask for a mirror so that I could watch the birth.  The bag was broken and in just one contraction with a push for her head and a push for her body, Elizabeth was born at 3:24pm.  It all happened so fast I almost didn't believe it was real.  She was 6 pounds 4 ounces and 19.25 inches long.  She had some fluid in her stomach (probably from being in the sac for so late into labor) but it was cleared out within an hour of her birth. 





 We are all in love with our beautiful baby girl!

Waiting game

Waiting for baby girl is kind of like waiting for Christmas, but worse.  You know it is coming, but unlike Christmas you don't know when.  At the last Doctor appointment on Monday she said she thought that we would be in labor and delivery this weekend.  The weekend is almost over and there is no sign of baby girl.  Then again before my water broke with Jason there was no sign of him either, so who knows.  Before Jason was born I felt like I was going to have to wait around for him, but he surprised us and came right on time.  This time I felt like baby girl was going to come early, but I may be wrong again.  Only God knows when baby girl will make her appearance, but I keep praying it will be sooner rather than later.

In the mean time we have been spending time with visiting family.  Jeff's parents and brother, Michael, came to visit us this week and we tried to keep them entertained in our small town.  We went to White Springs Missile Range and White Springs National park.  Another day we spent in Las Cruces going to the small railroad museum and La Mesilla, a small town where Billy the Kid was tried and sentenced.  Dad and Michael did go out to Silver City and the Gila River Cliff dwellings, but I was concerned that the drive was too bumpy and it would be too far to travel from the hospital so Mom and I stayed home.

Jason has really enjoyed having Uncle Michael around to play with.  He was slow to warm up to everyone, but now is happy to cuddle and give hugs to Grandma and Grandpa.  It doesn't hurt that they take him out to play and read books to him.  Dad and Michael had to return home early this morning, but we are keeping Mom around to watch Jason when Jeff and I have to go to the hospital.  I don't think she minds getting to see a newborn baby girl either.

In other news, we do have a contract in on a house in Tucson.  Of course things could go wrong, but we agreed with the bank on a price.  We are still working out the closing and when we would move, but are hoping we can move things along quickly!

Life update

Nope, no baby girl yet, but we are full term at this point so there should be no problem if she is born now.  I'm not feeling super anxious about her coming just yet, but wait two weeks and that might change.  I finally got Jeff to put together the nursery so baby girl has a place to be.  We set up her big toys so that Jason can get used to them being there and can play with them before she arrives.  I would really like her to wait until after Jeff's parents get here on Saturday so Jason can spend time with someone he knows pretty well.

Speaking of Jason, the poor guy has been going through a couple of sick days recently.  I won't go into all the yucky poopy details, but we keep hoping that our little guy is on the mend!  He is still trying to communicate telepathically, but we just won't catch on.  We are excited by each new sound he makes and I keep meaning to get a video of his babbling because I am sure we will miss it when he breaks out in full on sentences.  He has quite a mind of his own and will let you know when you aren't doing things the right way.


 

In other news we have looked at more and more houses in Tucson and keep coming back to that second choice one I talked about in the last post.  We might be finalizing a deal on it soon and then the hard work starts.  I'm a little nervous about packing the whole house up and moving it ourselves with a 2 year old and a newborn.  Good thing we have so many slaves, uh I mean family and friends coming to visit the baby.  Be forewarned, if you come and visit you might have to pack a few (or a ton of) boxes and/or do some heavy lifting before you hold baby girl.