Baby Guen's Arrival

On Thursday, October 1st, Ryan took off of work to work on the sprinklers and ceiling fan in the baby's bedroom with Grandpa, aka, Pappy, Bill. That evening, after my parents left, Ryan was out working on the sprinklers that still were not working and I noticed that my stomach was hard at times. I just thought it was the baby moving, I mentioned it to Ryan, we went to bed and I slept great that night. The next day, Friday October 2nd, I had my ob/gyn appointment to do an ultrasound and then they decided, since I was over a week due, to do a fetal monitor test. They noticed I was contracting about every 5 minutes. I saw the midwife (covering for my ob/gyn) afterwards and said she would schedule an induction on Tuesday, October 6th, when my doc was back in town. That day I went home and rested and noticed that my stomach got tight still but I was still determined that it was the baby moving and not contractions.

When Ryan got home that evening from work, I had made homemade spaghetti and called it an early night, since Ryan had to work the next day. I went to bed and noticed the “tightening” of my stomach was a little harder. I did not want to wake Ryan since he had to work and still blew it off as the baby moving around in my belly. I kept expecting labor pains to feel like menstrual cramps but now I realize your belly gets tight is what labor pains truly feels like. I tried to time my contractions that evening but drifted in and out of sleep so I never got really a true timing in between contractions.

At midnight I got up to use the restroom when I returned to bed, I thought I was urinating on myself for a brief moment but realized I just urinated so it could not be pee but my water breaking. I woke up Ryan and told him to get me a towel when it really started to gush. I took a shower, fixed my hair, and put on makeup so I would look good for all the pictures. This is when I really noticed labor pains and swayed back and forth when one would come but they were very tolerable. We called my sister, Tootie and my parents who were staying with Tootie and called Ryan’s mom to let them know we were going to the hospital. We got there around 130am. I noticed when there were labor pains at the hospital and did not really talk through them much but again they were still tolerable.

The nurse, Robyn, was very nice and did all my admission paperwork while another nurse started my IV. She checked to see how much I was dilated and I was already 5cm when at the docs office that morning I was 3.5cm. The nurse said I could have an epidural anytime I wanted it, I said the sooner the better. About 20 minutes later, the anesthesiologist Dr Herrera came and placed my epidural. My parents, Tootie and Lovey, Ryan's mom, got to come in briefly and see me before the nurse politely asked them to leave so I could rest before having to push.

At 6am, Robyn came to check on me before she left for her shift and said “oh my we are going to have a baby”. She asked for me to push once for practice and told me to stop because the baby was coming with my one push. She went to call for the doctor. I did not feel anything--I love epidurals. Dr Castillo was on call for the weekend since my ob/gyn was out for the weekend. Because it was shift change when I was about to deliver the baby, Robyn stayed over and Jaime the day shift nurse came to help too. I pushed 6 more times and Guen came out. Again, I did not feel anything. Did I mention that epidurals are great!

They laid Guen (Guendaline Ann Fennell) on my belly and announced, "It's a girl." I was so sure that this baby was going to be a boy I said, “Are you sure?” Dr. Castillo spread her legs and said, “Look!” Guen was pink and crying immediately. They took her to the warmer and cleaned her up and did footprints. Ryan held Guen first and then handed her to me. She was a whale compared to the premies I am used to taking care of in the NICU! She was 8lb 12oz and 19 inches long.

After they cleaned me up, they immediately transferred me in the bed down to the postpartum unit. That is where everyone got to come in and see the baby and see me since giving birth to Guen. We had many visitors that day, and on Sunday (see video). We got discharged Monday afternoon at got home around 3pm. More to come with Week One and finishing up Week Two.