Bonus Post: Introducing...

Gretchen Bernice Barhorst

Wednesday, April 24, 2013

3:29 am

8 pounds, 0.2 ounces

21 inches

Sunday, April 21, I reached my due date.  With still no baby in sight and beautiful weather outside, Bryan, Olivia, and I went walking.  It worked with Olivia.  :)  Still nothing, though.  Jillian informed me that I was to do no more walking until Tuesday, and then I was to walk six miles (the library and back, plus a little) so that the baby would follow in Olivia's footsteps and be born the following day.  Someone must have picked Wednesday as the due date.

Monday I had an appointment and the doctor was getting antsy.  After all, according to his charts, I was now at 41 weeks and they like to induce between 41 and 42.  I talked him into waiting until the next Monday to induce, and he agreed after discovering that I was already 4 cm dilated and 90% effaced.  That's good, for those of you that don't know.  :)  He seemed sure that this baby was pretty much going to fall out.  Nevertheless, I did have to schedule an ultrasound for Wednesday, a non-stress test for Friday, and an induction for Monday morning.

Tuesday came, and Olivia and I walked to the library for storytime.  Jillian was pleased, although I'm sure she wanted me to get another mile in, just to be safe.  Mom told me that Jillian would be less pleased if said walking didn't produce a baby within 36 hours.  Tuesday afternoon I discovered water in the basement.  Our drain was backing up, so we called a plumber.  That night I called my mother to inform her that we'd followed her advice and were having our drain issues cleared up as we spoke.  Both Jillian and Dad were excited by the phone call, and Mom kept saying, "It's just about a plumber."  I assured everyone that, similar to last time, Bryan would send a text when we were at the hospital and the expected phone call would come some hours later.  When the plumber left, I went to bed.  Bryan stayed up to play a computer game and crawled into bed around 1:30, waking me up enough to send me to the bathroom before I went back to sleep.

I didn't go back to sleep.  I blame Bryan for this, as he was saying prayers and specifically mentioned the desire that our coughs clear up (we've been afflicted with persistent coughs as of late), especially his wife's, as "she will be going into labor soon, we hope."  Not ten minutes later, at 1:40, I had a contraction.  As I'd had several days of mild contractions that were few and far between, I didn't think much of it.  At 1:45, there was another one.  Two in a row isn't really enough to call a babysitter, though, so I rolled over and waited.  1:50 and along came the next one.  I got up to walk around for a bit.  Bryan was asleep, and I figured I'd get through the first hour or so alone before waking him up.  I went to the kitchen, thinking I'd make a batch of bread or something.  That bread never did get made.

By about 2:05, I'd decided contractions were strong enough and consistent enough to call a babysitter for Olivia.  So much for waiting an hour.  I woke up Bryan and told him I was going to call his mother after the next contraction.  Of course, the next one took longer to come since I'd made my decision.  :-P  At 2:12, I called Murry and told her I'd been having contractions for about half an hour.  She said she'd take the dogs out, grab her stuff, and be on her way.  I assured her that we could wait the hour it takes to arrive from Sidney.  At 2:27, she texted to let us know she was on her way.

2:40 rolled around, and the contractions were strong enough that Bryan and I decided maybe he should call someone in Springfield to come stay with Olivia until his mom arrived.  I let him make that phone call and tossed a few remaining things in my bag.  I had a few more increasingly stronger contractions on the couch while waiting for a lady from church to dash across town.  She arrived just before 3, and then things started getting interesting.  A side note: I went to bed wearing purple striped fuzzy socks.  I apparently found it very important that I not wear said socks to the hospital.  Bryan found me a pair of plain black sweat socks to wear instead.

Pretty much as soon as Beka walked in the door, I had another contraction, only with this one, I felt like I needed to push.  I said as much, and Bryan said, "no you don't, no you don't!"  Beka told me to breathe through it, they got my shoes on, and we were out the door.

At 3:07, we got to the hospital.  In the middle of the night, you go to the emergency room entrance, so we walked in and told the nurses there that I was in labor (Bryan said he's not going to know what to do if we ever go to the hospital during the day).  Bryan mentioned my urge to push, and they offered me a wheelchair, but I told them I was happier walking.  They summoned another nurse and she allowed me to walk to the birthing center, though not without much trepidation.  She was very concerned that I might have the baby on the floor in the hallway.  She delivered us to the labor and delivery desk with a sigh of relief.

The nurses at the L&D desk were much less concerned.  They had me fill out a sheet listing vital information.  Bryan says he tried to fill it out for me and I waved him off.  I have no recollection of this, although in hindsight, it was a wise move on my part because he didn't know many of the answers anyway.  We moved down the hall to triage so the nurse could check my progress.  She gave me a hospital gown and left the room to get something.  I remember having a contraction and complaining to Bryan, "Why won't anyone listen to me, I have to push!"

The nurse came back, checked me, and said, "Yep, you're complete."  She stuck her head out the door, grabbed another nurse, and went to find the doctor and an empty delivery room.  They covered me with a sheet and wheeled me down the hallway to the last empty room.  Apparently it was a big night for babies.  The doctor joined us, jogging next to the bed and pulling on gloves.  I felt like I was in a scene from a movie.

They weren't sure they'd be able to get me onto the delivery bed in time, but they managed between contractions.  No time for an IV, though, let alone an epidural.  Just time for a couple of pushes and then Gretchen was born.  3:29 am.  Talk about cutting it close.  They plopped her on my chest, let Bryan determine the gender and cut the cord, and proceeded to do all sorts of after-the-birth stuff.

After Gretchen was cleaned and weighed (8 pounds, 0.2 ounces), I was issued my patient bracelet.  The nurse noted as she put it on that Gretchen was an official patient of the hospital about 15 minutes before I was.  :)  I apologized for making their last 45 minutes so frantic, they joked that next baby we should just live in the parking lot for a few days, and then they left to let us get some sleep.  We called parents and Bryan sent out a mass text letting people know that Gretchen was born.  So much for my earlier assurances that a text would come first.  :)

A few hours later as she wheeled us to the recovery room, the nurse said she needed to fill out some paperwork.  Even if it was too late for some of the questions.  Was I strep B positive?  Didn't matter, the baby was born.  Did I want an epidural?  Irrelevant, for the same reason.  I spent the next couple of days with various people coming into the room to tell me that for some reason they didn't have this or that form.  When I mentioned that it was probably because we didn't have time to fill any out, they'd double check my name on the sheet and say, "oh, you're THAT patient."  Bryan asked one nurse what the fastest labor she'd experienced was, and she replied, "you mean besides this one?"  I'm a legend.

Excitement aside, Gretchen and I (and Bryan and Olivia) are doing well.  We checked her crib card when she was brought back, and she's 21 inches long.  She scored well on all the tests they did and she's just as beautiful and perfect as Olivia was, albeit with slightly less hair.  :)