Baby Grace is now 2 weeks old and posting till now has been hard to do! When we have a free moment it is spent playing with William or maybe taking a nap ;) I try to type a little in my iPhone during feedings and so I will do my best from here on out to keep posts more timely! Here is my typing from delivery day...
It was Friday, August 30 around 6:30p in the evening. I felt uncomfortable standing up and so I told Matt I was going upstairs to lay down - and watch reality TV. Duck Dynasty, Real Housewives of Miami and a few waves of cramps. I really wasn't sold I was feeling anything "real" because the contractions I felt in the hospital with William were more all stomach consuming. These were low and sporadic and not that painful. Matt thought we should go to the hospital and I had no desire to go and be told they were fake contractions. At 8p I told Matt I was going to try to sleep through it. If I couldn't sleep through it then we could go. Suddenly the waves started to hit harder and much closer together and so probably 5 minutes later I told Matt, ok, let's go but first I need to do my makeup. Thankfully I showered and did my hair that afternoon otherwise there would have been no time! Matt had dropped William off at his parents at around 7:30p because we thought worse case scenario if something happens in the middle of the night at least he will be comfortable in bed and we won't have to relocate him. Good thing! By this time I could barely finish my makeup. It hurt pretty good.
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39 weeks and here we are at Winter Park Memorial! |
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AHH! Haha! |
We arrived at the hospital around 9p and I couldn't even stand at the front desk at this point. The contractions hit me like a ton of bricks! So much for waiting and contractions coming closer together in a more timely manner. It was nothing then everything! Matt had to do the talking. I went into an antepartum room and sure enough I was 5 cm, effaced, and my water was ready to break. I was 2 cm and 50% effaced just a few days earlier. The story gets better.
I ask who is on call from my practice and of all the possible doctors it's the doctor that "delivered" William. Long story short, she barely made it in time for Williams delivery and she was warned four times by phone. My usual doctor had given me her cell phone number and told me if I was unhappy with the doctor on call to text her, and so Matt texted her and she arrived 10 minutes later to save the day! Next hurdle was the epidural.
At this point I'm reeeally feeling the contractions and feeling panicked. Will I even have time to get an epidural assuming my platelets are above 100 and before this baby is born?? I was calculating in my head how long it might take me to make my argument for an epidural while dealing with contractions if my platelets were below 100.... And hallelujah! The platelets were 114!!! A miracle. The first time since very early in my pregnancy. Rodney the nurse anesthetist came in immediately, placed the epidural and I felt relief very quickly. Much quicker than I did with William.

So at 9:30p I was 5 cm and two hours later at 11:30p I was 10cm. Dr Moore had me give a trial push but decided she hadn't descended as much as she'd like so no reason to waste energy. We decided to raise my back a little and wait 30 minutes for Grace to descend more so. 12p arrived, 3 pushes and Grace was born at 12:26a on Saturday, August 31. She was 8 lb 12 oz! Shocking to all of us. Even my doctor had guessed she would be around the same size as William who was 7 lb 6 oz. Grace was also longer than William at 21" (William was 20.5" long). She hollered and looked perfect! We got to hold her immediately and we just rested in the delivery room until our postpartum room was ready. We couldn't have had a better scenario and were so thankful to Dr. Moore for coming in to make the experience much more pleasant!
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8 lbs 12 oz of sweetness! Perfect little Grace! |
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Holding Grace after she had been cleaned up by the nurses |
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Mama and daughter |
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Alert little Grace |
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Dr. Moore delivered Grace |
Our stay at Winter Park Memorial was easy and comfortable. Grace checked out perfectly and so we had no worries with her. I was doing very well too. We started our check out on Sunday, September 1 even though we could technically stay another day. We were ready to get home to William and be in our own comfortable bed!
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William meets Grace for the first time! |
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Snug as a bug! |
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Checking out and heading home! |
William met Grace briefly in the hospital and wasn't too interested. He seemed a little shy actually. Then he wanted to run the hallways, play with the phone and press the buttons on the bed. As expected! He's a boy on the go, go, go! When we got home he was a little upset by Matt holding Grace in her car seat, but he calmed down and since then he's had his moments - but for the most part he's totally fine with her. He isn't hovering over her at all, which I really appreciate. I hear a lot of moms worry about their toddler smothering the baby and haven't to be constantly worried. So for the time being I am quite happy with him keeping his "distance" and just calling her "baby" from afar. He has no problem with me feeding her and we go into the playroom for his to play during that time. So far, so great!
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Uh oh some water works, but he got more comfortable :) |
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An attempt at a kiss - but we will take heads touching! So sweet, William! |