friday the 13th

Well, I've been waiting for a more than 10 minute span of time in which to write this blog post, but I've decided that may never happen so I better just start typing ;-) So much has happened this past week, so here's a post devoted to labor and delivery.

12 June

• We had our prenatal visit with the pediatrician (same doctor I saw growing up) and I had my 37 week appointment. My doctor said everything was looking good, but there was no mention of labor happening soon ... soon being in the next 12 hours. Went to work, came home, ran a few errands for the nursery (Target for bookshelf and Pottery Barn), went to small group to play Wii ... I had a list of things I was going to do over the weekend including pack the hospital bag (my mom had been on me about this for weeks), work on setting up the nursery, etc. I went to bed around 10:30 and Dominic joined me around 11:30. If he'd have only known what was going to happen, he'd have been in bed sooner!

13 June

• 12:45am - My water broke - no contractions, just major water breakage. I was delirious trying to remember exactly what we were supposed to do if labor happened this way. I was pretty sure reporting to the hospital was the thing to do, but checked my pregnancy book and called the doctor just to verify. The doctor on call said, "You don't need to go to the hospital immediately, but I'd get there soon." Not sure what that really means, but I took it to mean we needed to pack our bag and head out.
• 12:55am - I went in to wake up Dominic, telling him "I think the baby is ready to be born today." We frantically packed our bags - mostly me being frantic. I had no idea how long we had ...
  
• 1:15am - Arrival to the hospital. Get checked in, set up in a L&D room. They hook you up to a monitor and check you to verify that you're actually in labor before they officially admit you. I still wasn't feeling contractions, but the nurse informed me that I was having them and would be feeling them soon enough. It was around this time that one of the nurses mentioned that we would be having a Friday the 13th baby ... from 4th of July to Friday the 13th!
  
• 1:45am - Around the time I was admitted, had IV started with pitocin to move things along, and was feeling contractions. Let the fun begin!
• 3:00am - Labor was fun and all, but I'd had enough. Bring on the epidural!
  
• 3:30am - Dominic called my family to let them know. We'd been holding off, but knew we'd be in trouble if we waited too long. That's the thing with labor, you just don't know how long it's going to be! Both our mom's had short labors, so we were thinking maybe we'd be blessed with a similar experience. Mom and dad showed up not too long after that. We decided to let them back in the room with us - after all, nothing was happening and it gave Dominic someone to watch the contraction and heart rate monitor with ;-)
  
• 3:30am - 3:00pm I'm not really sure exact times during this rather long stretch, but I'll summarize. Things moved along very slowly. We hung out, took turns dozing, listened to the radio. The rooms are big, but by no means comfortable for visitors. Dominic and my mom monitored the nurses slowly increasing my pitocin. As time went on, and my progress was slow, I felt bad for everyone else who was having to endure the wait without any pain medication ;-) Our doctor stopped by around 7am. He walked in the room and said "What the h*%# is this?" to which I responded "I was hoping you could tell me!" Needless to say, he wasn't expecting to see us, but we were glad to see him and glad he'd be delivering 2 other babies that day so we knew he'd be around. Diane and Debra stopped by for a little bit. I talked to Danielle on the phone. She was in Alabama on vacation with David's family until Saturday morning, so was a bit bummed she was missing all the fun. She was out of town and Diane was leaving town early Saturday morning for a week long mission trip. Neither were super pleased with the timing.
• 3:00 pm - Finally ready to start pushing. This process was long, exhausting, a for a while we seemed to be making no progress. I'm not sure at what time the lack of progress turned into progress, but thankfully somewhere during the 1 hr 45 minute pushing process, we started making headway (no pun intended). They kept commenting on all the hair - a comment that really only makes sense now ;-)
• 4:45pm - Our baby girl finally makes her way into the world. I was exhausted, relieved, and elated all at the same time. We both just stared at her totally amazed. God is so awesome. Such a perfect gift. A gift a year ago, we weren't sure we'd ever experience. We enjoyed some time just the three of us, let family come back briefly, and then had some more time just to enjoy our baby girl. Jenny had worked on Friday, was supposed to get off at 3, but had stayed late waiting for delivery. She told the nurse not to tell her whether the baby was a boy or a girl, so got to experience the surprise when she walked in the room. All of our nurses were great, but it was really special to have a friend there.

So, that's the story. A day full of surprises, waiting, and ultimately the most amazing joy we've ever experienced. She's here!

Juliet Lee Schulte
Born 13 June 2008 at 4:45 pm
7lbs 2 oz
18.5 in

I've added more pictures to the hospital pictures album

Hospital Pictures