The Birth Story

Welcome to the world Audrey "Piper" Zack!


Born Tuesday July 13th at 3:10pm
Weighing 7lbs 4oz and 20 3/4inches long.

When I posted on Monday the pictures of me on Monday I had a feeling that I would be delivering soon and that the pictures I took might be my last ones while preggers. I had started having contractions on and off and they were starting to become more serious and closer together.

Monday night EZ and I watched a movie and during the movie the contractions got stronger and somewhat regular. I didn't tell EZ this...just that I was having some. We went to "bed" at 11pm. I knew when we went to bed that the contractions were regular but thought I could maybe sleep a bit. I laid in bed for 30 min or so waiting for EZ to fall asleep so he could rest. I then got up and went downstairs and took a bath. This helped some and I listened to one of my relaxation cd's which helped too.

After that I laid down on our guest bed for awhile and listened to some more relaxing scripts. At about 2-3am the contractions were anywhere from 3-6 min apart and lasting anywhere from 45sec to over a min. I decided to make some cookies (not homemade or anything but had a package of premade cookie dough) for the nurses since I had read that would be a nice thing to do. I called my doctor at 3:15am and they said I should probably head to the hospital. I waited until 4am when I thought the contractions where getting even closer and I went and woke up EZ.

Our conversation went something like this...

Me: Eric, wake up.
EZ: OK
Me: It is time to go to the hospital.
EZ: OK.

5-10 min later we were in the car heading to the hospital.

By the time I was admitted to the nurses prestation it was probably about 4:45-5am. They checked me and I was 5-6cm dilated. The nurse there kept coming in and telling me that I would be admitted soon but they ended up taking other patients back bfeore me, because as the nurse said "I seemed to be handling everything very well...better than the other patients." By the time they brought me to an actual labor and delivery room it was close to 7am.

I remember walking to the room, getting in and getting settled, laying on the birthing ball and getting hooked up to the monitors. Then the doctor came in and wanted to check my progress so I had to get on the bed and I was almost 8cm. He told me that he needed to break my water since I was so far along yet it hadn't broken yet. I remember asking after if it would go faster from here on out and they said yes, that the contractions would be more painful too.

From then on, I basically couldn't move. I laid on my side practically in constant pain. I asked about pain options and was told about an epidural or a medicine through an IV that would help that would last about an hour. I opted for the pain med since I thought maybe I would be getting close to delivery then. I probably got that around 8am. I still wasn't able to function really through the contractions and basically laid on my side curled up in a ball for most of that time. I was thinking in my head about how this is the opposite of what I needed to do...I was basically tightened up and I needed to relax but I couldn't. My contractions were so close together that I never had time to move or relax or anything. As that medicine wore off I told EZ I needed the epidural...there was no way I would have enough energy to push her out. They gave me the epi a little after 9am...then checked me and I was almost 9cm.

After that kicked in, I was like a new person. I felt no pain anywhere. It was quite interesting and remarkable at the same time. I sat up in bed and secretly ate a Luna bar (shush...I know I wasn't suppose to eat but really that isn't necessary, right!) I then called my sister and told her that baby zack was going to arrive today. She asked me how I knew and I said that I was sitting in the hospital bed and just got an epidural. :)

They checked me at 11am and I was fully dilated but the nurse told me that they wanted to wait longer and let baby zack come down more on her own. I was fine with that. We rested a bit and at 1pm the nurse told me that it was probably time to start pushing. I still was feeling practically nothing, occasionally pressure but that was it. So I "pushed" when she told me to and felt nothing through all of that too. It was quite surreal actually and pretty disappointing at the same time. That is all I can do to describe everything. They turned off the epidural and all that did was make my back really hurt through everything. So they turned it back on.

The doctor kept checking in on me and the nurse kept saying that it was going slow. When the doctor came in around 3 and started getting everything ready, I still thought that I was a long way from delivering. They had a mirror up so I could watch and her head was barely showing. Next thing I knew her head shoulder and everything came out. So in that aspect everything happened so fast and we had our beautiful baby girl!

Here is a picture of me after I got the epidural...before meeting our new daughter:



And here are a couple pictures right after she was born:








More to come soon about our few days in the hospital and our first few days at home!