The McDonalds: Retta's Birth Story

Monday, November 13, 2017 - I prayed that I would not have this baby on this day!

1. It was Ryan's birthday and let's face it, if you know me, you know I did NOT want to have a November baby, let alone a baby who shares a cousins birthday!

2. I had an appointment that night to get my lashes filled in - I know, I know...#firstworldproblems - but really, I didn't care about a mani/pedi, just that my lashes looked good!

So after my appointment with Katie to get my lashes perfect again, I got home.

I told Andy that I wanted to start using the Clary Calm essential oil blend to get things going.

I, for sure thought this would take a while and I'd have to apply the oil every day until Friday when they were going to induce me.

Little did I know that this would induce labor that night!

*cue me hitting my head...*

The part of labor with Hazel that scared me the most was the unmedicated labor..to the point where for this pregnancy I had major PTSD. So why in the world would I think it'd be a good idea to start labor before I get to be induced?! That's okay though because this time around was 1000x different and I'm so thankful that I got to have this perfect baby 4 days early.

Around 2am - 4am, I would wake up with contractions. They weren't horrible and not close enough together that I felt I needed to time them.

Around 4am is when they started coming on stronger.

I got my phone out and began to time them, having them be around 8-10 minutes apart.

Again, not having anything other than Hazel's labor to compare this all to, I thought, "oh great..they have to get worse before I can even go to the hospital..".

Lucky for me I had an appointment at 9:00 Tuesday morning (my last appointment before baby!).

So through contractions, we got Hazel loaded up to go to Grandma's - because at this point I was planning to beg my doctor to just induce me that day!

At my appointment, I gave them a urine sample like normal, then got my vitals taken between contractions.

The contractions were coming on at about 6-8 minutes now.

The nurse put us in the room where I got ready knowing she'd check me today.

Dr. Grover took forever to come in and see me and once she came in, I was so close to tears because these contractions were SO painful and almost too much to handle.

She decided to skip the fetal heartbeat and just check me because she could tell I was in a lot of pain.

"You're at a 3, and 90% effaced - you're in labor."

WHAT?!

I was completely shocked.

With Hazel I was contracting 2-3 minutes apart and was at barely a 1, so I was not expecting much!

Dr. Grover and I decided that I was in labor and that we were going to have this baby today!

November 14, 2017 at 9:45am.

We got in the car and drove over to the hospital to get checked in and get my pain under control.

We got all checked in and the nurse started putting in my IV.

It was awful!

She looked for a vein on my right arm with no luck.

So she looked and tried to put it in on my left arm.

She numbed it, then drew some blood when my vein collapsed...

So she had to remove it and put it in my hand.

At this point I was so annoyed because it hurt so bad.

She said she could move it to another spot if I wanted but I didn't want to go through that pain again, so I dealt with the pain of the IV.

With Hazel's birth, I regretted getting the epidural so soon.

I had been given morphine with her so I really didn't need the epidural when I got it.

It's tough mentally and physically to sit in the bed for that long without being able to move.

So for this birth, I wanted to wait if I could.

So in my IV they gave me something to help with the pain.

Instantly, I felt the room start to move and I felt weird!

The pain wasn't as bad but it was definitely still there.

I was so thankful to my mom, Lucy and Andy for being in the room as my support people.

They all three would help me through each contraction making them not as bad.

I decided that it was time for me to get the epidural, so they called the anesthesiologist in.

Around 1:00pm, Dr. Murdock came in to give me the epidural.

I remember telling him, I don't want to know details of what you are doing and can you please wait between contractions?!

Soon after my epidural, my dad came to the hospital on his lunch break.

I was so thankful for his timing because I was in need of a blessing from him and Andy.

My epidural was working, but I could still partially move my right leg and that was freaking me out because I did not want to feel the actual labor.

I asked for our families to pray that my epidural would even out and that I wouldn't feel the pain.

Side note:

During the night between contractions, Andy woke up and rolled over and we had this conversation -

Andy - "It's all about the high.."

Bailey - "What high?!"

Andy - "The saying "hi" to you babe..."

At that point I realized he was sleep talking!

It made me laugh so hard, so in the picture below I was telling them this story.

When I laughed, I felt a gush of something down below.

I thought I had peed my pants because they had given me the epidural but hadn't done my catheter yet.

So when Dr. Grover came in to break my water at 1:30pm and she said that my water was already broken, I realized what that gush was when I had laughed.

I also had some heart burn that was bothering me pretty bad.

I wanted to sleep so bad but couldn't because of my heartburn.

They gave me a tums as well as something in my IV to help ease the heartburn.

Dilated to a 3.5, Dr. Grover said she would let me hang tight for about an hour to see if I progress before they start me on the pitocin.

Around 3:00pm, they checked me and I had progressed to a 4.5 dilation.

At this point, my heartburn was starting to feel a little better, so I decided to rest my eyes.

About 45 minutes later, I woke up feeling refreshed but still exhausted.

I asked Andy to start spraying me with my Relaxing Spray.

Shortly after the nap, the nurse came in to check me.

"You're at a TEN!!"

Again, WHAT?!

I was shocked! I was at a 4.5 only about an hour earlier.

November 14, 2017 at 4:10pm.

We cleared the room and had everyone go out to the waiting room.

Lizzy wasn't back yet though, so I had Lucy text her telling her to get here NOW!

My mom stayed in the room as well as Andy of course.

It was "go time" but I asked if we could wait for Lizzy to get there.

I really had no desire to push which was SO weird to me, so we waited for Lizzy.

After Lizzy came running into the room, we waited for a contraction to come then I began to push!

The monitors weren't picking up my contractions so I told everyone when I thought I was having one, and the nurse would feel my tummy and agree, then it was pushing time again.

Again, opposite of Hazel...

Prior to this birth, there had been many different events that transpired that helped me to prepare mentally for this birth.

I prepared essential oil blends, sprays, and I made positive affirmations to read before birth and during it.

I gathered positive affirmations that I felt would help me, as well as found some from my patriarchal blessing that meant more to me than the others.

"Angels have been called to surround you"

was the one that I held onto and read over and over between pushing.

Between pushing, Andy and Lizzy would spray my Energy Spray.

November 14, 2017 at 4:46pm

After a short 36 minutes (and yes, even to me it was fast), she was born.

When her head came out, Dr. Grover calmly stated that the cord was wrapped around her neck, but nothing concerning and carried on.

My goals this time around were no different than with Hazel.

1. Skin to skin right away

2. Delay cord cutting

3. Andy cut the cord

With this baby, I was able to do all 3 things, and not a single one disappointed.

She was here, and she was chunky!

I couldn't wait to find out her weight, but also didn't want them to take her from me.

Plus all the hair! She had tons of hair!!

A whole pound bigger than Hazel, and it's all in her cheeks!

After feeding her, we had my mom go out to the waiting room

while Andy gave Retta her first blessing.

We confirmed her name and then came up with a plan of how

we would introduce Hazel to her new sissy.

We decided that we'd have everyone come into meet Retta, then Hazel would come in after with Andy, so that neither me or Andy would be holding the baby.