The total days it took from our wedding date/day 1 until our miracle baby arrived.
Since the last post at 34 weeks, I had 3 more doctors appointments to check in including one last ultrasound. At my 34-week appointment the doctor had mentioned the option to have a scheduled induction - which was totally up to me. After discussing with my IVF doctor as well, there was no harm in scheduling it and no risk to mom to or baby.
Thanksgiving was the same week as my 34-week appointment. This was the last drive to Michigan for my husband and I before baby came. While we didn't anticipate her coming early or making a surprise appearance in Michigan, we didn't want to risk it. It was a sad that this would be the first year that we/I would miss a Longo family Christmas celebration that was being held in 2 weeks but we had to do what was best for baby this year. The following weekend we had one last trip to Maryland for a wedding that Cheyenne was in. It was entertaining to see the looks on peoples faces to see that I was due in 3 weeks and traveling for a wedding.
At my 36-week appointment, we got to see her one last time to measure baby and make sure she was still in the right position. Of course she was stubborn and covering her face the whole time. The mystery of what she will look like remains. We also officially scheduled the induction for January 1. I would go in that night, so long as a bed was open for me, and they would prep me for the delivery. Just missing that 2019 tax deduction by 24 hours... dang haha!
Typically we go to New York to celebrate Christmas and the days surrounding with his family but we were not traveling anywhere. Thankfully we were lucky enough to have both his family and my parents come to our house (as well as one of our new couple friends in Louisville) for a catered Christmas Dinner. It was delicious! It is tradition at a Longo family Christmas to play a game. So, I had to keep that going and we had a Ray family game. Taken from Good Mythical Morning (YouTube channel), we did a taste test of multiple foods. They had to try 3-4 variations of the same type of food and they had to tell us which was the name brand. The second half was telling us which brand each was - we ended with dirty diapers. Sniffing the melted chocolate in diapers to tell us which candy it was. This was quite entertaining to say the least. My parents were driving down to Florida to get their trailer up and ready for their 3 month snow bird stay but then were turning back around to come back for baby's birth. Can't believe it was just a week away!
The whole pregnancy was super easy and I was extremely thankful for that. Now we get to the whole birth process:
Jan. 1
39 weeks today!! Let's have a baby!
7 p.m. - We arrive at the hospital and get all checked in and fingerprinted. The hospital gets any parents or visitors fingerprinted so they know who is in the hospital on the floors where the babies are - just to make sure someone doesn't come in without permission and take babes.
9 p.m. - After getting all hooked up to the bed and monitors the nurse came in and put in Cervidil. This is a strip that contains medicine to help soften the cervix and prepare it for labor. It had to stay in for almost 12 hours. Once that was in, it was just try to get as much sleep as you could. Only thing is, baby was pushing on my bladder so I felt like I was unhooking myself from the machines (with my moms help - she stayed with me the first night so Cheyenne could get some sleep before the nights to come) every 30 minutes only to produce drops of pee... Ugh. The nurse also checked my cervix to see how dilated i was...unfortunately only about a 1 cm. The medicine should help that some.
Jan. 2
7 a.m. - The next nurse we had on shift came in and took the Cervidil strip out and rechecked my cervix. MAYBE a 1.5... not much progress. But the next medicine would help trigger contractions and dilation. We had to wait 2 hours after that came out before we started the Pitocin drip medicine. This was my chance to get up and walk around one last time before I was going to be stuck to the bed and not eat anything else until she arrived. Mom and I were doing lunges down the hall way - Come on Baby Girl!
9 a.m. - The nurse and doctor came in and went over the next process. We started a Pitocin drip that would help trigger contractions to open my cervix.
11 a.m. - The nurse kept coming back every few hours to check out my progress and at this point I was only at about 2 cm. She said "Do you feel the contractions you are having?" Nope - didn't realize thats what those were because they started out so small- i was having cramps but just mimicked period cramps. I asked her when would be too early to get the epidural and she said it was 100% up to me. I didn't know how quickly the medicine would take effect and didn't want to miss the window to get it. At this point it was just mom and me at the hospital. We told my dad and Cheyenne not to come back until around noon since it would be pretty uneventful up til this point.
12 p.m. - I decided to get the epidural around noon just to take away some of the pain and I was having. It actually didn't hurt at all getting it and it instantly started kicking in. Also - CATHETERS ARE AWESOME DURING LABOR. Taking away the thought of oh crap I have to get up to pee every 2 seconds was amazing. My legs became heavy and all the pain stopped. Still sitting at about 2 cm so we just wait to see if my water breaks by itself. The doctor was coming back in the afternoon and if it hadn't broke on its own, she would break it for me. Husband also came and switched with my mom on babysitting duties.
4:45 p.m. - My doctor arrives and comes in to check on me. My blood pressure the entire pregnancy was awesome and no concern but since arriving at the hospital it was slightly elevated. The doctor said it was a good thing we scheduled the induction because my BP was high. After checking my cervix, I was still about at 2 cm dilated. Time to manually break my water. She takes what looks like a crochet hook and pops the sac. She said she barely had to touch it and it broke - meaning it might have broken on it's on really soon. Now that my water broke, baby has 24 hours to come out to minimize infection. Count down is on.
Between 5-11 p.m. we had the every few hour checks from the nurse to see how I was progressing but I was sitting at 2 for the whole time. They had me put a peanut ball in between my legs and lay on my side to help open my hips more and push her down. Now it gets interesting...
Around 11:40 p.m I started feeling the contractions more and more. I didn't know if this was what I should be feeling for "active labor"so I just let it go. They had me sitting straight up and my legs in a butterfly position at a slightly lower level then my butt - so not super comfortable. Cheyenne was asleep and I didn't want to wake him because I knew this would be some of the last uninterrupted sleep he would be getting. But then I started hearing a beeping. My epidural medicine machine was beeping saying the medicine was running low. The contractions were getting stronger and stronger and about 2 minutes apart, lasting for about 1 minute each... pain more intense each time.
Jan. 3
12 a.m. - Midnight hits and I am in tears. I look back at the epidural machine and it says "Medicine Out." THAT'S WHY THIS HURTS SO MUCH. I try finding the call butt on for the nurse but its trapped in my bed somewhere. Finally Cheyenne wakes enough for me to get him to find it for me and I call the nurse station. They said they would send in my nurse but 10 minutes passed and she didn't show. I am in so much pain at this point that my blood pressure was sky rocketing. My nurse finally came in but not because they told her, but because my BP was causing my monitors to go nuts. She called the anesthesiologist on call to get me more medicine. It was supposedly stronger than the first one - and around 12:30 a.m. they came in to administer it. By 12:45 a.m. I was numb again and relaxing. The nurse checked me again and said "What do you think you are at now?" I said "Probably like 3?" She goes, "Nope, 6!" Making progress people!
3 a.m. - Checked again - I am around 8 cm!! The nurse called the doctor to let her know. Back to the peanut ball we go. She said I needed to let her know when I started feeling pressure even after the contractions started. Thats when it was go time. As soon as the doctor arrived we would probably be ready to start pushing! Cheyenne texted my parents at this time and said COME BACK its almost game time!
3:30 a.m. - Nurse! I feel it all... check again - 10cm! It's go time... or so we thought. The doctor was here but the girl in the room next to me was in labor (and I wasn't?!) and pushing the baby out. So the doctor had to attend to her first. I laid on my side with the peanut ball to help push her down even more so when it was time for me to actually push, she would be lower. Trying to NOT push was the hardest thing. My mom and dad arrived - mom came back to the room but dad didn't want anything to do with the labor part - so he waited in the lobby.
4:45 a.m. - The nurse came back to check on me and said "you about ready to push?!" my response was so quick "OMG YES PLEASE!!!" They brought in all of the equipment, got me on my back and in position.
5:13 a.m. - TIME TO PUSH! Mom on my right, Cheyenne on my left, and a mirror at my feet. I wanted to see this! On every contraction 3 big inhales and pushes with Cheyenne counting to 10 on each one. After about 2 contractions, I could see the top of her head! SHE HAD A FULL HEAD OF HAIR. But for real girl, with the amount of heart burn you gave me, you BETTER have hair.
Cheyenne said "Think like you are on the leg press pushing!" Such a bodybuilder thing to say for motivation :) but it worked!
After 4 contractions her head was almost out, the doctor said "Do you want me to cut you? You will rip anyway, this just makes it easier for you." Sure go for it. Then 2 contractions later, the pressure was release and out slid baby girl!
5:33 a.m. - 20 minutes later, Sophia Lynn Ray came into the world at 6 lb 9 oz, 18 in long. with 9/10 Apgar score (they don't give 10s). She was PERFECT.
Now the fun happened.
After they cleaned her, the doctor pushed on my stomach a few times to get the placenta out, but after she got that, I had two BIG gushes of blood come out too. The release of pressure after those felt so good! They sat me up and they asked me if I wanted to try to breast feed her. I said "I do, but I am about to pass out, I feel so dizzy" Cheyenne took the baby right away and they had me laying down in the bed so quick. My blood pressure plummeted and I began to shake so bad. I believe my BP dropped to something like 70/40... They had me wrapped in so many blankets and warm towels to try and warm me up. All of a sudden the room was swarming with nurses, my mom at my side and Cheyenne in the corner just being awesome holding our little girl.
They tried to find a vein (which I usually have awesome ones, but after losing all that blood, they were hard to find and rolling) just incase they needed to take blood to test my levels for a possible blood transfusion. The nurses fed me Ice chips because my throat hurt so much and then juice to try and get my sugar back up. I have no idea how long I was in that position and when it started to feel better - that was all a blur.
9 a.m. (i think?) - I would say was when we started to pack the room up and get ready to move to our room where we would be post delivery. Cheyenne gathered up all of our stuff and they put Sophia in my arms, and off we went.
Between 10 a.m. on Jan 3 and 10 a.m. Jan. 5, there were lots of check ups, blood draws for both her and I (she rocked every one of them!!), attempts to start breastfeeding, stashing away the diapers and goodies in our bag each time they filled them up, and short bursts of sleep for the new mom and dad. The stitches hurt a lot and made moving for me pretty tough. Cheyenne was a rockstar with getting up and helping during these days!
Jan. 5
10 a.m. - The nurses came to check her Bilirubin levels one last time since she was pretty close to not passing the last few times. BOO she had a slight amount of jaundice so she had to sit on the blue light until 3 p.m. They would then recheck and if she passed, we would be good to go home! (Finally!) She left the hospital at 6 lbs 2 oz - our little peanut.
3 p.m. - SHE PASSED! Our little glow worm is coming home.
6 p.m. - Our new family of 3 (humans) were home :)
Feb. 13
Sophia is now almost 6 weeks old and is a great baby. She had lots of visitors in her first month of life and can't wait to meet everyone else! For the most part she is a very happy baby, only cries when she is starting to get hungry, has a wet diaper, or is naked while getting changed into a new diaper. Like come on girl, you are getting clean! Relax.
At her 2 week appointment she hadn't gained back enough to be at her birth weight so we needed to go back in a week later to recheck. Well, the increase in food helped and she gained a whole lb. At her 3 week appointment she was 7 lb 6 oz. From our at home scale today, she is weighing in around 9! Chunker!
She is all registered for day care (TEAR!!) for when I go back to work mid-March. Can't believe it's going so fast - thats a month away! Thank you to everyone that followed our journey to become parents. Sophia is just perfect and we fall more in love with her each day. She has already become the FBOTG (First Baby of the Gym) with mom and dad!! For now, we are going to enjoy our time with her. Pictures to come on social media of course!
Until next time... JR and Sophia!
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