eva's birth story

i tried to just write everything i could remember because i don't know what i'll be trying to remember in 25 years when i'm talking to a pregnant eva about when she was born. maybe thats dumb but i thought about that a lot when i was typing. its not well written. its just a narrative of what i thought of though.

I get so big and pregnant. This pregnancy was no different--lots of people asking if I was having twins or closer than I really was to delivering. Back in maybe october or november I was in a class at the gym and these ladies were so amazed that i was there exercising and I was so strong. After a couple of weeks of them being really impressed they asked me when I was due, when i told them march you could see the look on their face of shock and surprise. I was suddenly not so cool.

With this pregnancy I feel like I got every sickness that went through knoxville. I threw up more from different stomach flus than with pregnancy nausea. One of these bugs at the beginning of the third trimester brought on really strong contractions that really scared me. Another time I had to run to the bathroom in food city only to barely make it to the bathroom (and not the toilet.) I was so embarrassed I cried as I told the worker what I had done. When I got to the car and was going to call brent to tell him my traumatic experience he called me to tell me he had nearly passed out at work and his office had called an ambulance.

At the end of this pregnancy I was in lots of pain with my hips and lower back. I know its normal but when its happening...its the worst thing in the world. I might have been a bit dramatic about it. brent never complained but maybe thats because i never stopped.

I really like the idea of going in to labor on my own. Its just been so fun in the past. This time though I just didn't want to be pregnant anymore. I didn't want to have to wake the kids and deal with them in the middle of the night. I thought I just got lucky with sam--going into labor early in the morning, having my epidural all day, and having a baby by 3:00. These are the reasons I decided to be induced on 3/15 (Thursday) the day before my due date 3/16.

My mom came up on 3/13. We went out to dinner and were going to spend Wednesday cleaning and I'd go to the hospital early Thursday morning. Instead I got my first contraction wednesday morning at 1:30am. Now at the end of this pregnancy I was having lots of contractions. Because that didn't happen with the boys, every time I thought "this is it!" only to be disappointed that they didn't become regular. I just assumed it was the same thing. I felt dumb constantly thinking I was in labor and it not being the case. Brent woke up to some noisy dogs in the neighborhood a little after 2. I told him I was having painful contractions and he said "NO!" and then went back to sleep. I went downstairs where it was cooler and tried to sleep. By this point I started timing them and they were 15 minutes apart. They were really painful but Dr. Schroeder had told me to go in to the hospital when they were 5 minutes apart. When I went upstairs a couple hours later my mom was awake (actually she was indexing at like 4 in the morning!!). The two of us timed my contractions for anther few hours but they weren't getting closer together. I was really frustrated because they were so painful. I really wanted to get an epidural but was confused as to what I should do. At around 7 or so I told brent to get ready and I wanted to go. I wasn't really persistent with him though because I didn't want to get to the hospital and be turned away because I wasn't far enough along.

We finally got to the hospital at 8:30. I remember walking in with a contraction. I remember people looking at me giving me their supportive wow-she's-in-labor looks but i was so embarrassed. I was still afraid that it was nothing and that I just had a low tolerance for pain. That's why I was thrilled when they checked me in triage and i was 6cm!! I wasn't crazy! I could have come in earlier. I immediately wished I had. I asked several times as politely as I could when i could get my epidural. Things seemed so much slower to happen than when I went in with Sam. They poked me 3 times trying to get an iv. then the machine was turned on slow. My nurse told me once the iv was in it would be 30 minutes before i could get my iv. It turned into over an hour though because the anesthesiologist was busy. I told brent I wanted to be ignored during contractions but towards the end when they were getting worse i wanted him to hold my hand. the dr. came in around 10:30 to start my epidural and i was finally relaxed and feeling good about 11:15. When Dr. Schroeder checked me I was 8cm and he told me we'd push in 30 minutes.

Eva came at 12:05 after about 3 pushes. They put her in my arms really quickly and it was perfect. i could tell she was bigger than the boys who were both 8 lbs 12 oz. She was 9 lbs 3 oz. Nursing in the hospital was a breeze. The 2nd night there was rough though because they asked us to change rooms and then gave us these two bumbling nurses. One walked in at 1:00 to do my vitals and turned on the lights and was talking loudly, spilling my drink. We were more than ticked at that point. Now though, it seems so long ago and less of a big deal.

The boys loved her from the start. Jackson cried when he first saw me because I was shaking so much and still hooked up to ivs. i felt bad that i didn't even have the strength to comfort him. Sam always says "i wanna hold it." jackson tells me he'll watch her whenever i walk out of the room.