Arianna's Birth Story Part 2

My Parents got in at 3 am. I was so excited to see them! We sat up awhile and talked and then we all went to bed. I got about 2 hours of sleep that night. The next morning my contractions were not coming close enough together so my Midwife suggested Pitocin. I agreed since she thought it was best. Since part of my birth plan was no IV unless necessary, I had to first get the IV in and then they started the Pitocin around noon. It did not take long for the contractions to start becoming more intense. Since I now had an IV pole walking the halls was out, I didn't want to drag that thing with me. So I bounced on the ball until that became too uncomfortable and then I sat in the jacuzzi tub in the bathroom.

  I remember the nurses telling me that I was smiling to much for being in labor. I took it as a good thing. My contractions started getting two minutes apart, one minute apart and more and more intense. They started lasting for about 45 seconds to one minute with only about 5 seconds down time in between. These were HARD CORE. This was the most intense pain I have ever felt in my life.  This went on for some time. I wasn't to interested in watching the clock so I am not quite sure how long it went on, But I will say dinner had come and gone, and the moon was starting to come out. I progressed enough that they said I could be in the birthing tub, so I switched tubs and begged them to stop the Pitocin. I was getting so exhausted from the contractions because there was no downtime between them to even catch my breath. That was one of the hardest things to endure and I had reached my limit. At this point I still had not taken any drugs! (Yay me!) That was also part of my birth plan. No drugs unless I begged for them,
 Like really begged for them. 

I finally got to 8cm and felt like I had to push. My Midwife said I could and so I pushed...and pushed and pushed. The more I pushed the more dizzy I got and eventually needed some oxygen because every time after I pushed my head would just spin around and around. On top of that I was getting overheated in the tub. I had to get out of the tub and onto the bed. 
Now I have reached my limit. I was exhausted......beyond exhausted. 
I was done.
 I couldn't take it anymore, I wanted this to all be over. I hurt beyond belief, since they stopped the pitocin my contractions were coming every minute. I couldn't lay down. Laying down was the worst thing. I had to be up, I had to move. But I didn't want to be up and moving I wanted to sleep. I physically couldn't push anymore. I cried as I begged my mom to make it stop. 

Up till this moment taking medicine to help the pain never crossed my mind, not once. But all of a sudden a light went off saying remember there is medicine!!! I asked/begged/cried for some IV pain medicine. 
I was told no. 
Why?
 I don't remember why they said no, all I remember was being told I couldn't have any. My nurse Nan, wonderful Nan, told me that I could have an epidural. Without hesitation I agreed. Having an epidural was a no go on my birth plan, but that was before all of this started. They told me I had to wait while they called the on call anesthesiologist, they told me he lived in town and it shouldn't be too long, IF he was at home. I found the only comfortable place to be, Sitting on the toilet gripping the metal railings on the wall next to it. I remember hardly being able to keep my eyes open I was so tired. I tried to rest but my contractions wouldn't let me do that. It felt like I closed my eyes and all of a sudden the anesthesiologist appeared, that was one of the best moments of the day!   

Sitting still for the epidural was extremely hard. Laying down during a contraction was the worst thing ever and sitting during a contraction was the second worse thing ever. It took him two tries to get it but once it was in I started to feel relief within a few minutes. Now that it was getting close to midnight we all needed a break. Me, my midwife, my parents and my husband. My midwife said I could sleep for a few hours to regain my strength so I could push. I fell asleep instantly. 
I felt like I slept for days, But really it was only 2 hours.

I was glad that I pushed some before I had the epidural because I would have been at a loss. I had no feeling whatsoever, I just had to remember how my muscle felt when I was pushing the correct way. 
Again I pushed and pushed and pushed. 
5 hours of pushing.
I was starting to get exhausted again, and a bit frustrated.
The baby's head wasn't getting past my pubic bone. I was pushing as hard as I could but I wasn't making any progress. I turned every which way my midwife wanted me to, nothing was helping. My Midwife said that she was going to have to call another doctor in to apply suction to help the baby out.
I agreed, anything to get this baby out. The new doctor came in and applied the suction.
The suction pulled off a few times and they had to re attach it, but 6 more pushes later, 
Arianna Kristine Erickson was born.

She weighed 7lbs 3oz and was born at 5:11 am on January 17th 2013. 
I remember seeing these little round eyes and these giant chubby cheeks. She just looked at me. She didn't cry she just looked. It felt so amazing to hold her. She was so perfect and wonderful. I was glad it was over. 42 hours of labor and with seven hours of pushing and she was worth it.

I snuggled her close and kissed her head. 
I was so amazed by her.
 I fell in love instantly. 
She was exactly what I had hoped for.

I must say I could not have gotten through this without my husband. He was the one thing that helped me through all of my contractions. I love him very much and even more so after going through this with him.

 

Proud Daddy.

Excited Grandma holding her first grand baby

Grandpa is in love.

Arianna's Birth Story Part 1

So I sit here typing as my baby girl is taking a nap.

I know I said before that she isn't a big napper... but I must have jinxed myself because she has been sleeping for two hours now. I am in shock. I'm loving it. So I thought I would write sit down and introduce her to all of you. 

Everyone Meet our baby girl: 

Arianna Erickson.

And this is her Birth Story:

This sweet darling bundle of joy was due January 31st 2013. 

She decided she didn't want to wait so long to meet her mommy and daddy.

 Monday night, January 14th, I slept horrible. I was up and down all night long. I wasn't in any pain. I wasn't having braxton hicks contractions. I just kept waking up and feeling uncomfortable. Tuesday, January 15th, I get up and go to Tapestry (aka MOPS..and for those that don't know what that is..its a mom's bible study get together). Tapestry goes from 9am-11am. I considered going grocery shopping afterwards but thought I should probably wait till I have my coupons. So I drove on home. When I got home I let the dogs (Alby and Rogan) out in the backyard to play a little bit, they ran around and got their energy out and I stood and watched. When I took them inside Rogan had snatched up one of my gloves. I demanded it back from him and reached for it and my water broke. I was stunned. I thought maybe I accidentally peed myself but when I tried to stop it, I couldn't. I ran to the bathroom and called my mom. I was pretty positive it was my water but i checked with my mom. My mom works during the day and I just happened to catch my mom when she was out and about for work. I told her that my water broke and that she needed to get on the next plane to Minnesota. (My parents live in Michigan and were planning on coming out to Minnesota for her birth which was suppose to be two weeks from now.) I called my husband to let him know that I was pretty sure my water broke and that I was going to call the hospital next. I called the hospital and they wanted me to come in to make sure it was my water. I was pretty calm. 

I was still not having any pains.

I locked the dogs up and as a second thought I figured I should probably bring my hospital bag in the case that I had to stay at the hospital. I am a pack your bag weeks ahead of the actual trip kind of person, so everything was ready to go. I jumped in the car and drove myself to the hospital, a 40 minute drive. I called several family members along the way just to let them know what was going on. My husband works down the road from our hospital so he met me there. I was starting to get excited, our baby is going to be here soon. My husband met me in the parking lot and we walked into the ER and told them that my water broke and that I needed to go up to the OB floor. Little did I know that she wasn't going to make her entrance as soon as I thought.

 We got checked in to our room. They hooked me up to the monitors. I was having contractions according to the monitor but still wasn't feeling a thing. I was told that I was going to have to stay because my water did in fact break and also that my Midwife had gone home early today because she had a sick kid. I was not very happy to hear that, That was not in my plan. They assigned me another OB doctor, But I wasn't very excited about it. My plan was to have an all natural water birth in which my Midwife would deliver my baby girl. This other doctor wanted me to take Pitocin by midnight if my contractions didn't start being more regular. I was not in a hurry to have my baby without my parents there and without my midwife, So midnight rolled around and I refused the Pitocin. I didn't do much sleeping. I was just too excited, My parents were on their way and I hadn't seen them since August and it was only for a few days. So I sat up most of the night on my ipad and texting my parents to see where they were at. 

My parents got in at 3 am. 

And this is where I'm going to end part 1

Come back for more

New start

It has been sooo long since I have written. Many factors have contributed to it...lack of computer... Mine decided to die after thanksgiving for some reason...busy holidays....a new baby that decided to come just a little bit early....and lack of time to actually come up with ideas..well really lack of time to actually do any projects...I have a ton that I have in my head and pinterest that I want to do.

Things are starting to settle down now and although my baby isn't a huge napper and stays up till around 9pm or so I plan on getting back into crafting. I have also decided to make some more healthier changes around our house by opting to make more of my own healthy products...lotions, food, using essential oils ect. So this is my new start on my blog. I will do a quick re-wind of time and blog a little bit about my baby and the story of her birth story. Yep. It's a girl! Last time I blogged I was going to reveal our baby's gender....well she did not cooperate at the first ultrasound so we had to have a quick second one a few weeks later.

So here is to a new start for Simply Cadence!!

Baby Countdown Day 13

So yes today is technically the 14th......but oh well...

I was a bit busy yesterday and when I thought about this post it was well late into the night and my computer was already turned off...sorry.

But The feature for day 13 was going to be Baby Erickson....and it still is...there is only one small change in the schedule of things.

This countdown was to countdown the days till we found out Baby Ericksons gender...well Baby Erickson did not want to cooperate during the ultrasound and we were left with STILL not knowing if Baby Erickson is a Boy or Girl......I have no idea where this child gets its stubborn uncooperative behavior from....It could not possibly be its mother...nope not at all.

My midwife said that they typically dont do another ultrasound until around 32 weeks.

Thats 12 weeks away people....there was no way I could wait that long...I mean if I waited that long why not wait a few more and just find out when the babys born.....so I kindly asked/ demanded / begged my Midwife for another ultrasound, because I really cant wait that long.....so my midwife said that at my next visit in 4 weeks she could have an OB doctor come in and do a quick ultrasound to find out the babys gender!!!  That made me happy. I was still bummed that we didnt find out that day....I had to call a bunch of people and let them know that we still didn't know. My mother thought I was playing a joke on her and didn't believe me at first when I called her.

It was amazing to see our baby for the first time. Since we are seeing a midwife and not an OB we didn't have a 1st trimester ultasound like most people get so this was our first look at Baby Erickson. I found it amazing to look at all the details of the baby on the monitor....its probably the nurse is me....but I loved seeing Baby Ericksons little stomach and kidneys and diaphram and bones. I really loved watching the babys heart work. It is amazing to see something like that.

Baby Erickson was not to happy about all the poking and prodding that the ulrasound tec was doing and was protesting the whole time by punching me.  It was also fun to see Baby Erickson sucking on its hand for a moment....just to watch its little jaw working made me smile.

With out further ramblings here is Baby Erickson.

and our 3D picture with its hands up by its face

What do you think Baby Erickson is???

A Boy? or a Girl??

Guess we will find out in 4 weeks......fingers crossed.